The basics of game design
I’ve been blogging about designing games for a couple of months now and up until now I have assumed that my readers have at least a basic understanding of how to design games. Even moreso, I’ve assumed that I have a basic understanding of how to design games. But this morning a question suddenly popped up into my head: what are the basics of game design? Let’s say you have to teach a beginners’ course on game design, what topics would you discuss?
The following list is not meant to be complete or authorative. These are just the things that I thought of until now. Feel free to argue and discuss.
- Rewards. Maybe the most fundamental aspect of any game. Rewards are what makes a game enjoyable and as a designer you have to carefully plan when to give your player which reward. Chris Bateman has written an excellent article on designing rewards in games.
- Target audience. Despite the subtitle of this blog, you can’t design a game that everyone will enjoy. You should think about the type of gamer you are designing for and make choices accordingly. Obviously, this blog deals with designing games aimed at the casual gamer and I’ve written several articles on designing for your target audience already.
- Learning curve. Every game has a learning curve, the only question is: how steep is the learning curve? In general, I’d say: the flatter, the better. You can’t always flatten the learning curve, however, but you can design your game in such a way that the curve is easier to climb. And a tutorial is not always the best option. I have no link, but I do have an idea for another article.
- Chance. This one is a recent discovery for me and I now consider it basic knowledge. The element of chance can be a very powerful tool in designing a game. I’ll let Chris Bateman tell you what you can do with chance, because he does it so well.
Of course, there is a lot more to game design than just the above aspects, but I think a topic like positive feedback shouldn’t be in a beginners’ course.
(5 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)
Loading ...8 Comments
GBGames' Blog said,
Trackback • December 22, 2005 @ 7:44
Basics of Game Design
William Willing came up with a list of some of the basics of game design. He provided a few links to other articles on the various entries and game design in general, and I can’t wait to read what he has to say about learning curves.
…
William Willing said,
Comment • December 22, 2005 @ 14:05
It’s been a long time since I read I Have No Words and I Must Design, but I do remember that it is an excellent read indeed. Time for a re-read.
eddies said,
Comment • September 30, 2007 @ 5:06
really very informative blogpost but i want to conclude that games should be design in a manner that one should at once get attracted mean to have love at first sight because this will encourage him to play the whole game designing is just like presenting anything how much you gameplay is strong but if you haven’t done you homework with the designing you will not succeed because people really play with eyes
kind regards
eddies
www.naturalgames.com
mOOk said,
Comment • February 11, 2008 @ 6:57
What about balancing? I’d say the single biggest issue with most flash games on the web is that no thought has been put into balancing the difficulty.
Great blog, by the way. I’ve been looking for something like this!
mOOk
www.flashbynight.com
harry said,
Comment • November 2, 2009 @ 8:25
Hey im an average 12 year old kid I read an article in the newspaper about a 10 year old that made a game. so i thort i can do that to, your website has been very useful but one problem can you get a section about how to actually program it and get the game running
Tekkon76 said,
Comment • June 8, 2010 @ 23:46
I’d have to agree that most casual gamers do appreciate a fairly easy learning curve but then again it wouldn’t hurt to put some complexity into it…It’s easily understandable why games like Bayonetta and Dante’s Inferno did so well…A very simple control layout with a simple button combo system…And even though the actions and overall flow of the game can seem repetitive it doesn’t diminish the quality of the game…While simplicity is more then welcomed there are examples of games with simple layouts but the button executions are more difficult but are still very much fun to play…Examples of these are Virtua Fight 5 and the Mass Effect series…While the layout for Virtua Fighter is simple but the combo execution can be difficult to perform with the required timing and can be tedious…But upon correct execution of said combos it is often very rewarding and satisfying…While Mass Effect isn’t necessarily complex as far as button execution is concerned it does require analyzing effects, ammo upgrades, armor settings, weapon upgrades and to a certain degree squad tactics…And while simplicity is more or less ideal in a learning curve for gaming it certainly wouldn’t hurt to up the difficulty for a more challenging and rewarding gameplay experience…At any rate a very good article and sorry if i was a little verbose in my reply…
Dolores Adler said,
Comment • August 26, 2010 @ 23:56
Can anyone say, in your experience, what percentage of chance is optimal for maximizing interest in a game? My experience tells me that about 10-15 percent is best. Anything less, and the game can get boring, anything more, and the game seems childish. This is a crucial element to game design, IMHO.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
RoboX said,
Comment • December 21, 2005 @ 20:21
Don’t forget the lessons in Greg Costikyan’s I Have No Words and I Must Design: http://www.costik.com/nowords.html
This essay contains a very accurate look at the fundamental structure of games, and is a really good starting point for beginners.