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Re: A guide to the 25 conventions of game design.

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teslobo is not online. teslobo
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Total Posts: 18828
29 Apr 2014 03:26 PM
All professional games have a formula to them. No, I'm not talking about the CoD formula where you shove a previous game back out the door with different textures because the original did well (The percentage increase in sales for CoD have actually been decreasing since Black Ops, so it isn't a sustainable method, anyway). No, I'm talking about the little details in layout that play on human psychology and tempt them into playing and replaying a game. I am going to outline these conventions in this thread in order to try inspire a better quality of games because, let's face it, the front page of games is not exactly grade A stuff. So here's 25 tips to improving the quality of a game.

1. Unique Selling Point: The unique selling point (UPS) is the first thing you're going to want to think about before anything else. I'm sure you've seen a magazine or newspaper cover that says something along the lines of "free CD inside" or "Half Price". These are the UPS of the product, the thing that says "here is something we have that no other thing on the market has, so you should pick us".
So how do you identify your UPS? You find something that you wish games did, but don't. People used to constantly say how they wish in mech games that you could leave your mech and fight on foot. Titanfall then comes along and fills this UPS.
It also tends to be a problem that AI in games all act in a similar way and it ruins immersion. The UPS of upcoming games Watchdogs and Shadow Of Mordor both give AI individual personalities so nobody reacts in the same way.

A UPS I'd been thinking about was to drift from the run and gun feel of regular intense action games in favour of something more creative: a sort of puzzle based combat. Specifically, being able to use magnetism to attract and repel metal objects. Maybe drawing a crate towards you for cover when it can't be reached on foot or just straight up hurling the crate at foes. Do with this idea what you will.

2. Achievements: A little psychology lesson: people love being rewarded. They love to show it off even more. That's why there's such big hubbub over a guy in some MMO when he equips some really rare item. The guy feels triumph in displaying his achievement to others and this is why a lot of MMORPGs succeed. It's also why they can fail. Achievements should be difficult to reach as it will hook players (especially completionists) for an extended period of time, probably making them play multiple times for the sake of this achievement. But games often make achievements impossible to get, such as a limited time offer. Now, when they see that player walking around with the Christmas 2011 elf pet, they will be frustrated that it can never be achieved.
I'm not saying not to include these kinds of achievements in games, but definitely use them sparingly or you'll lose newcomers fast.

Pokemon is a good example of achievements that work. It gives out rare event pokemon (I believe there's about 15 in all) as a sort of "thank you" for dedication to the franchise. But it also isn't a "I hate you" to the people that missed the event, because these events come around again sooner or later.

3. Analysis: The #1 way to lose fans of your game is to make updates they simply don't want and may negatively impact their experience.
It's a good idea to keep tabs on player activity or straight up use polls in order to find out what they want. If I had, say, an FPS and nearly everyone was using this one gun, it's going to be making gameplay a lot less exciting when you know exactly what the person around the corner is going to shoot you with. Maybe ask players why it's being used so much. If they say it's OP then you know to nerf it. Maybe it's because every other gun is broken in some way? Fix them!

Another way in which analysis can be used is to find out where people tend to drop out of the game and never return. You could have badges for every level you complete so you can look at the level that has considerably less badge earnings than the level before it. Did that level bore them? Was it too hard? Time to investigate and fix it!

4. Anticipation: Every played a game when your parents tell you to go to bed, but you hang on for a few more minutes because you're soooo close to leveling up?
This is anticipation. It's a great psychological motivator, allowing players to endure for longer to reach that carrot being dangled from a stick. A few methods of anticipation are showing bars tracking progress of things like achievements and leveling up. When you're on a long journey, you may be able to see your destination strategically placed off in the distance.

Borderlands 2 builds anticipation in both ways, showing bars for levels and accomplishments and later objectives can often be seen off in the distance. For example, when you're going get allies to raid a bunker, the bunker can be seen on the other side of a chasm, but is inaccessible until you complete another objective elsewhere. Borderlands is also famous for it's vast array of different guns at just over 2 million possible weapons, so when you find a chest containing guns, the anticipation of finding an ultra-powerful gun builds.

5. Balance: In order to hold the longevity of the game, an equilibrium must remain between the player and it's enemies. Obviously, pitting a new player against a level 99 uberdragon isn't fair, in fact players will leave the game indefinitely. Also, if they stay long enough to reach level 99 themselves, they still need a sufficient reason to keep playing and swatting things aside with the strongest items in the game won't keep them entertained.

Call of Duty is actually a pretty good example of balance. A level 1 can still go toe to toe with a maxed out player and someone maxed out can reset their level for the game to maintain longevity as well as earn a "prestige" which fits along side the idea of achievement.

6. Challenge: Of course, a challenge is fundamental to your gameplay. If it was just a sandbox where demolishing everything has no consequences, how long do you think that would engage players? But, of course, the challenge must remain balanced. What the challenge depends on is also important. Is it completely a skill game where the best wins? Well, that's going to limit your players to 'pro' players. Maybe luck? Well, no, and a game called monster hunter perfectly outlines why I say no. There are no levels in this game. Your power is based purely on your equipment. To craft equipment, you need monster parts. The problem is that, later in the game, equipment always needs this one item with a 1% or lower drop rate so you never get the equipment and therefore don't stand a chance later in the game.

So, what am I saying? Make a careful balance between skill and luck. Let that sniper pop heads off all match but always leave the chance that someone spawns behind him to deter him from having such an unfair advantage in the first place.

7. Chance: I know how I just scorned Monster Hunter about chances but, like the chests in BL2, that anticipation of "This time I'm getting that brachydios gem for sure" always hooks me into another futile trek to the volcano. Chance ties into many of the things I previously mentioned: the anticipation of something rare occurring, the feeling of achievement when something rare does actually occur and the element of luck that widens your audience.

Just don't make something mandatory when the chance of it happening is minuscule.

8. Character: Games that have character are the games that people remember. The games people remember are the games people play again. Character can be built in several different directions. Humour can be established so that the audience will keep playing, anticipating the next giggling fit. Likewise it can take a more mysterious guise which will tug at player's curiousity. These can all be conveyed in several ways. The narrative of story based games can form character from NPC interaction and maybe the objective of the game itself forms character, like a quest to reclaim the sword you need to survive and then ironically collecting an arsenal of weapons along the way. Easter eggs are another way of developing character. When a player sees a reference they understand, it's like the player and the creator just shared a moment together.

What game creates character? What else but Portal. Solving puzzles while being taunted by a homicidal robot kind of sums up the entire game if you haven't played it already.

9. Exploiting: Exploiting can ruin the experience for themselves and those around them. No, I don't mean the 'hacking' kind of exploiting. When people say the Amazon rainforest is being exploited it doesn't mean someone's shoved a USB Cable into a tree and started uploading a virus. By exploit, I mean "take advantage of". Maybe there's this repeatable action that's easy to accomplish and gives a fair reward. As an example, I'm going to reference a roblox game: a pirate's life. There are chests scattered around the map that give a lot of money as it is. The problem is that the loot respawns around every 15 seconds so people can camp the chest for a while and walk away rich.
If these rewarding actions are repeatable and must stay that way, at least put some kind of cap on how many times it can be done per day or something.

10. Choices: Choices make players feel that they have shaped their own destiny in the game, whether it's what perks they picked or whether they killed that chicken in riverwood. Making players feel like they have an impact on the world consequently makes them feel that it is their world and they will most likely return again to take care of/enslave their world. An example of a bad choice is in bioshock infinite, where you must choose whether your companion buys one of two accessories. This has absolutely no impact on anything whatsoever and builds false anticipation waiting to see what their choice will do to their experience.

11. Competition: "Competition is the basis for most of humanity's progress and evolution". Competition against other players can certainly cause motivation to continue playing. Maybe it's a race for a rare item. This builds up anticipation of the end of the competition and the achievement that is the prize. Unfortunately, a lot of games just feature casual multiplayer matches that often give you a fair reward even if you lose. Team fortress 2 for example, will sometimes give you items UPON DEATH. This sounds to me like an incentive to not bother competing at all. At the same time, balance is required so that victory doesn't go to the MLG pro that's played 1068 hours of the game.

12. Control: Why is GTA so loved compared to a corridor shooter like Duke Nukem? No, it's not the awful humour that failed at giving duke nukem any character (yeah, it kinda is, but that's besides the point), it's the freedom and control GTA gives you. People are naturally curious, so providing an open world for people to explore will get you in the good books. Be careful how big you make it though, because once it has been explored, people are going to want something to do and there's not much to do in the big empty expanse of nothing that is Assassin's Creed III.

13. Cooperation: It's games like dayZ that make me fear for the future of the human race. Offer someone a can of beans and they'll shoot you for the exact can of beans they just offered you. And they'll probably take your jeans too to add to their trouser collection. Cooperation can exist in dayZ and gameplay is much better when that does happen but everyone's so paranoid that there's no incentive to do it anymore. Encouraging cooperation can give players the push they need to find their zombie hunting chums. HAWKEN is designed so that you WILL die if you split up from the rest of your team, although I don't appreciate the voiceover continuously telling me to get back to my friends when I'm the sniper class that's meant to stay behind.

14. Data: People. Love. Numbers. Money, experience, you name it. If there are numbers to a person's name, they feel happy. So make as much of said data visible as you can. At the same time, make said data useful. Points in Mario have no use and therefore are not as appealing as money that can be invested in a number of different outlets.

15. Economy: Speaking of numbers, they need balancing. If you pickup $20,000 and then all the guns cost about $200 each, those numbers are going to lose their value fast. Make those gold coins feel like their weight in gold by constantly having players empty their pockets for what they want. Saints row does this nicely with weapon and character upgrades that always seem to drain my bank account.

16. Goals: FarCry 3 is fun for the first 8 hours. Why isn't it fun from there? Because you've liberated every pirate outpost so no more enemies spawn, yet you can still roam the island doing...well...nothing. The most fun I had after that was torturing civilians with a welding torch but then the game said "killing civilians is wrong, now stop having fun and go play another game"
No matter what, your game should have an objective in place. This is why sandbox games always lose their appeal: too much to see, too little to do.

17. Grinding: Remember all those RPGs where you're too weak to kill that boss so you go around for an hour killing trivial enemies until you're good enough? Yeah, it's not fun. Ever. You always must make sure there is a valid gap between one difficulty increase and the next in order to ensure that a player has spent enough time to get used to the warm water before they go swimming in lava.
Pokemon usually leaves enough trainers and grass patches between trainers to be adequate (apart from Gen 3, where everything suddenly goes up 10 levels near the end).

18. Mini Games: A good way to fill a game and increase it's longevity (Assassin's Creed, bowls and board games don't count. Stop it. Seriously.)
Achievements can be tied to the minigames and maybe leaderboards can be included to encourage competition.

19. Transactions: Never once on Roblox have I seen this used effectively. It has so much potential. Right now you can buy some little game upgrades, whoopdie doo. Why are you not making extra content which is unlocked via purchase in a DLC-like fashion? Or maybe lots of tiny little things can be locked which will eventually cause some intrigue in the player and it can all be unlocked with a one time membership payment. Why are you not doing this? I'm mainly looking at you, pirate's life. There's a big chasm that you sail through only to be eaten by a shark. Produce more content, sell content, sail through casm to reach content.

20. Punishment: What is the correct punishment? How much should a player value their life? A lot of multiplayer FPS games have no punishment but a 5 second time out, which results in them running around without a care in the world. What if there was a more severe punishment? Dark souls level severe. I bet that would cause a more realistic approach to combat, as if players lives are on the line.
The downsides to harsh punishment are people ragequitting. So, again, try balance that severity.

21. Quests: No fetch quests. Ever. This is law. This is people's main reason to hate MMOs. If you incorporate quests, make every objective unique and possibly memorable, adding character to your game.

22. Rules: Every game needs rules or it wouldn't be a game. Make sure your rules don't over-restrict players and make sure rules are fully understood so people don't try and do something they can't, especially if you're going to punish them for doing that thing. Jak and Daxter was remembered for seeming completely free. There were no invisible walls and nobody told you that you couldn't swim out to see...well, at least not until it was too late. You get eaten by a fish, if you were wondering.

23. Self-Expression: Just like choices, players should be able to express themselves in order to feel like they have some impact. It may be the colour of their clothes or their class but in a warzone where chatting is usually limited, people want to express themselves visually and should be able to do so.

24. Virality: Virality is how fast word spreads from one to another about your game, consequently 'infecting' people with a liking for your game so they may pass the virus on. An incentive to invite people to play like an in-game clan can drastically increase virality.

25. Fun: I put UPS first because it is most important and Fun last because it should go without saying but since games like Duke Nukem and Ride to Hell Retribution need reminding of this, I'll explain it. Fun is what a game is created to be. You can use as many of the 24 above as you want but if your game just doesn't give players a willingness to play on, then the game simply shouldn't exist. There are so many game's I've played that were not fun, but I played through because of the promise of greatness by the end. That isn't fun, that is work. There must be no point in a game where a player thinks "ugh, if I have to". If that happens, you have failed. Completely. You are a complete failure for not delivering the core aspect of a game. Understand? Good. Now go make that front page of games sparkle.
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Robosparks is not online. Robosparks
Joined: 06 Feb 2014
Total Posts: 310
29 Apr 2014 03:32 PM
I'm bookmarking this for further reference. Amazing guide, nice work!
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GK07 is not online. GK07
Joined: 27 Apr 2014
Total Posts: 1
29 Apr 2014 03:48 PM
Great guide :) I am tracking this for sure!
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Aesthetical is online. Aesthetical
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
Total Posts: 2141
29 Apr 2014 04:53 PM
A very long read, but worth it nonetheless.
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Stefan631 is not online. Stefan631
Joined: 23 Dec 2010
Total Posts: 1350
29 Apr 2014 07:27 PM
Best. Guide. Ever.
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moryo7 is not online. moryo7
Joined: 19 Jul 2010
Total Posts: 5028
30 Apr 2014 06:16 AM
Tracking. Will use this.
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Unknowncrow is not online. Unknowncrow
Joined: 19 Apr 2014
Total Posts: 188
01 May 2014 08:25 AM
Tracking...
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Variix is not online. Variix
Joined: 02 May 2014
Total Posts: 6
03 May 2014 04:28 PM
Thanks, this helps a lot!

Variix
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powertool is not online. powertool
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Total Posts: 3771
03 May 2014 05:07 PM
Tagging to save. Great guide!
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PRESTIGIOUSaLEGEND is not online. PRESTIGIOUSaLEGEND
Joined: 16 Apr 2011
Total Posts: 1765
03 May 2014 06:47 PM
I agree with all of the 25 except there's one thing...
--
The "gamer" does not want game-play innovation.
--
The reason Call of Duty is so successful is because of its standard, overused game idea of run around - shoot to kill. Its easy, Its fun and any newbie can do it.

We as gamer's long for the game that brings an innovative idea like as you said - "drawing a crate towards you for cover". As awesome as the idea is, its not going to keep players interested because what we don't realize is that we THINK we want innovative games but we don't.
--

I see a lot of games on ROBLOX that are far better built, scripted and innovative but they don't make it past 50 players online at a time, why is this?

Because we as players HATE innovation.
--
If you're thinking of making a game and you want it to become popular - Stick to the formula. Use your standard Fps shoot to kill or your obstacle course.

-- The Gamer Hates Innovation
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teslobo is not online. teslobo
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Total Posts: 18828
05 May 2014 03:13 PM
I watch game theory, too. And while that may partially apply to the mainstream industry, roblox is a completely different market with a different audience.

Furthermore, CoD doesn't succeed BECAUSE of lack of innovation. It succeeds because the first few games made a name for it and word spreads of this amazing thing, causing more people to purchase it.
But, as I said, sale increase is declining, meaning that more people are accepting it for the copy & paste game it is faster than word is getting around.
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ScrewDeath is not online. ScrewDeath
Joined: 03 Jun 2012
Total Posts: 2700
05 May 2014 11:59 PM
Nice guide c:
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