Hello everyone, KrimsonStorm here. As I said earlier, this week was a lull in game creation. Even though there were all the other class projects and papers being worked on, I spent some time talking to the development team about level and vehicle iteration. Developing some thumbnail sketches for the vehicles was mostly what I did by myself, however; concepts which did point us in the right direction, but didn’t really nail anything we truly wanted. It’s a good thing to make sure that whatever it is, that it fits in this world.
This ties into a topic that has crept up a lot recently in many discussions, and that is what you truly need to make a game. I’ve heard many, many reasons people want to get into this field; to be the next big game designer… though, when I ask them what they want to make, they respond with some deep discussion about the story, or how everything will look. Only every once in a while do I hear anything about the game itself. Story, and theming, are important aspects to consider when making a game, but these should not be the first things you discuss when creating a game.
What makes a good game? Game-play! The ability to interact with the audience, and engage the person in something that they will enjoy doing (if successful, on a regular basis). This isn’t supposed to sound like a broad statement; it’s supposed to be a reminder of what a game is at its core. A game has interactivity, but a game has to have something special to it.
Now, I’m sure you’re reading this and saying: “Isn’t that redundant question; isn’t this something that all games are? Aren’t all games, by simply being intractable, a game full of game-play?”
No.
I worked creating a game around 8 months ago; I was only told it was a game that was artistically based off a famous painting, the garden of earthly delights. I signed up to get my foot in the production door, and to be honest was rather excited when it all started. However, after a couple of weeks of development, I realized that something didn’t sit right with me. During a meeting later down the line, the art team was trying to figure out where all the art was going; helping the art team know what the player will interact with and how is important to designing the art that you will have in game down the line. The information we got back was vague, at best. We didn’t understand what the game was, and how it was played.
About a month later, we got to sit down and talk with the lead designer of the game during a large meeting. When we asked for basic information on the game, we heard a decently interesting story for how the art ties together. Then we pushed for how do players interact with the game, and we didn’t get a satisfying answer. The lead designer’s response was “narrative, and quests” as a response to “What are the game mechanics to the game?”, and that simply isn’t good enough.
Why am I sharing this with you, my fellow readers? I’m sharing this because so many people think of game design like they would think of how to make a movie; with story on the forefront and the behind the scenes technical on the backburner. In this regard, game design is the opposite of movie creation. This is a real example of something that a large number of people who enter the game design field do, and it’s not going to go well for them if they stick to that.
When making games, game-play MUST be the driving force of your game. I am not saying that a game cannot have a deep story; most of the games I plan on producing have a very interesting and deep story, but this comes after I already have a solid understanding of how the games will play. It’s like making a cake; the icing is a great accent, but if the cake is made of stones and dirt, icing isn’t going to make the cake good when you taste it.
Successful game companies know this. Blizzard even has this as their first rule when developing games! Gameplay first. When developing a game, or a mechanic in a game, a level, or even a part of a level for a game, you need to ask yourself the most critical of game development questions: “Is this fun?”, and “Why is this here?”.
Refer back to the core of your game with this. It’s not just good enough to say it’s a FPS, or a platformer, but what exactly is your game and why is it that your game mechanics make it a great game; a very fun game. These terms are synonymous. People keep playing games because they are fun, plain and simple. Some find extremely challenging games fun, some people find team games fun, and others find games with many possibilities fun. It’s extremely subjective, yes, but you need to understand that question as it pertains to both the specific example and the game as a whole… because they are also linked.
“Why is this here?” You need to justify why that building is in that location, and why it’s laid out like it is. You need to explain why that tank behaves the way it behaves the way it does. Realism is not an answer for this question; realism can be part of the answer, but simply by being realistic it does not justify its behavior. Now, if you answered the first question well enough for yourself, then you can answer this second question. It might make you have to put on the good ‘ol thinking cap, but you’ll be rewarded for it with a better, more solid game because of it.
Some of you may know, but I am a huge Real Time Strategy fan. One of my favorite RTS games would have to be Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. It had a lot going for it, though there were some things they could have done to go even further. A lot of units were redundant, and rarely used because they didn’t have a use compared to other units. Most of the maps weren’t really planned to take advantage of everything the game had to offer. These are examples of resources wasted, that could have been spent making things that better align itself with the core of the game. If they asked themselves those two critical questions, it would have been just that much better of a game, and would have really gotten many, many more sales. There is so much more to talk about in terms of RTS game development that I’ll save that for its own discussion.
This isn’t something exclusive to big companies. Riot was a small company when they nailed every gameplay design question on the head when they made League of Legends. Minecraft was made by one man with a vision and deep understanding of what his game was going to be. Who knows, if you ask yourself and your team the right questions, you will certainly have a leg up on the competition from those who don’t. (Double true for indie companies, but again, that’s a conversation for another time) Play your cards right, and your game will have a solid chance to be right up there with the very best of them!
In the coming week, you’ll see me back on the production pipeline, with some nice results for you next Sunday. Until next time folks, KrimsonStorm signing off!