"Basic Game Design"

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Article “BASIC GAME DESIGN”

Intro
Imagine you are playing a first person shooter. You walk around and you have a nice collection of big guns where you can choose from, when you shoot with one of the guns a cute bullet flies out of the weapon and when it hits the enemy it creates a flashy explosion and the enemy is death… Its fun and you play it the whole day.

But why is this game fun? Is it just because of the big guns? the more blood, violence and flashy explosions the more fun the game is?
No, defenatly not, there is alot more going on when you play a game and have fun.
So how do we make games fun? That - is game design.

“So how do we make games fun?”
That question takes alot of time to answer… Game Design is a very complex thing and
it takes alot of time to become good at it, there are only a few people who really master it. But you should learn it if you want to develop a good game, a game that people are actually going to play.

Now, I’ll try to answer that question in this article. Note that I said “I’ll try”, I still have very very much to learn so I am not an expert game designer yet. I will just try to teach you the basics in this article… I guess thats why I called it “Basic Game Design”.

Interactivity, Conflict, Safety.
Interactivity, Conflict, Safety… Those are 3 things every game should have.
I’ll describe each in turn.

Interactivity

A game is not a static picture or a movie. But a world in which the player can interact with the things in it.
Interactivity is an extremely important element of a game, if there is no interactivity in the game, then it is not a game.

Conflict

Another important element in a game is conflict.
The player has to archieve a certain goal, like collecting all the keys to open a certain door.
When the player can collect all the diamonds without a single problem (like just walking to the diamond), then the game will probably be quite boring.
You have to let the player work for the diamonds, for example: the player has to defeat a strong enemy and when thats done, he’ll recieve a diamond.

Safety

A fun thing about games is that you can fight in an epic battle, be a commander of a mighty army and so on without shedding a drop of blood.
A game is a save way to experience reality or something that is kinda dangerous.
Therefore I think that it is important to give the player the ability to save the game state in a hard/long game, if your game works with save points (a certain place in the game world where you can save your game for example) then it is not a bad idea that you place a lot of those save points. Otherwise the chance on frustrated players is higher becuase they are afraid from losing and then have to replay a big part of the game again. And a frustrated player is never a good thing.

These things are fun to know, but they do not explain how to make a game fun.

Goals

A game needs a goal, like defeating the end boss, winning the match, reaching the end of the story etc.
For simple games a single goal may be enough. For long games there should also be some sub-goals. Like defeating that guy to continue to the end boss or something like that.
There should also be a reward when the player has reached a goal, like gaining a certain weapon. Otherwise there is no reason to reach that goal, it really makes the game more fun when there is a reward…

It may be a good idea to add some optional sub-goals to a game, like entering a dangerous dungeon to find a chest that contains an item that helps the player killing the end-bos. The player doesn’t have to reach that sub-goal, but the end-boss will be more easy to defeat, the decision is up to the player.

Note that some games have more then one end-goal, or the end-goal is not clear. This is true for many MMORPG’s and Open-Ended RPG’s.

Decisions

To reach this goal, the player has to take decisions. An extremely simple example of this is when the player has to find a treasure chest in a dungeon. But the way splits so he has to decide… will he go to the right, to the place where the treasure chest is (the player does not know this ofcourse) or will he go to the left, where a very ugly slimey monster is who will grab the player with his green arm-looking-thing and then put him in his giant, stinking mouth to eat him on a very unpleasant way (same here, the player doesn’t know that there is such a monster on the left way ofcourse heheh).

Like I already said, this is a very simple example, and it would be kinda boring when that is the only decision the player has to make. But other decisions can be things like choosing what weapon the player will use in a shooter game, that is a decision that he has to take multiple times trough the game.

These things are important and they make a game more interesting.

You should also think about why people play games, what things in a game makes them play it. One of those things is Fantasy, fantasy can suck the player into a world that is very diffrent from the real world. Its like an escape from the (sometimes hard) world people see everyday.
Another thing is Image, sometimes people play games to prove themselves, this is especially true for multiplayer games.

Try to find more of these sort of things yourself, play a few games you like and ask yourself the question “why do I play this game, whats so interesting about it?”, and maybe that thing fits in the design for the game you’re making too…

A note on graphics and Sound
Graphics

Some people seem to think that graphics make a game fun, this is a wrong thought ofcourse. Graphics are there to support the gameplay, when there is no good gameplay, graphics are totally useless. But when the game does have a good gameplay, then graphics can be quite interesting. They can be used to make that scary level more believable, the player can immerse himself better into the game, and that way the level becomes more scary.

Sound & Music

Sound is a very powerfull something. In level design it can be used to create an interesting atmosphere, like the sound of screaming kids in a dungeon can make that place very scary, while the sound of singing birds in a forest make the player calm. It can also improve the gameplay, when the player hears the footsteps of a monster that he didn’t noticed yet for example.

Music is powerfull too, music can make the player happy or sad, agressive or calm.
A funny song can turn that very scary cave into a funny, non-scary place.

Conclusion

Ok, so that was an introduction to game design… It was quite hard to write this short article, because when you design a game you have a sort of “feeling” which tells you when a certain feature of your game is good and interesting. It is hard to write down this “feeling”, but as you have more expierience in game design, you will develop this feeling too.
I hope this article was helpfull and that you learned something from it.

- Bob “Fenryal” Mees

I would recommend you to read this book if you want to learn more about game design:
http://www.erasmatazz.com/free/AoCGD.pdf

It is free, but really a very good book.

Other links of interest are:
www.erasmatazz.com
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=23
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/forum.asp?forum_id=17http://www.gamasutra.com/

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I know that the line between “Tutorial” and “Advice” can seem hazy at times, however it is there, and I think if you examine your “Tutorial” cearfully, you’ll actually find it to be general “Advice”.

Nothing new is introduced here, and there is really no actual method used to work through any specific process.

You just said: “For your game to be fun, you should give the player: Goals, Decision making (Interactivity and “Conflict” as you describe it falls under those two as it is), and the player should be able to save game. Sound&music is good too, and graphics help, but they don’t do it all”

See what I mean?

Personally, I think you picked the wrong topic here. Even though you put “Basic” infront of it, “Game Design” is still a very expanded topic, and frankly, one that a writer of your caliber is not well suited to write about.

Even when writing instructional documentation you need to start small. So, try writing a few tutorials about something straightforward, with blender itself. Like a tutorial on how to do something specific with blender, something you can actually describe well and write instructions for.

Then, when you become good enough to do so, you can give this thing a decent try.

Anyway, that’s my opinion on it.

-Social

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I agree partially with Social. It is not really a tutorial, and it is poorly organized.
Regardless, it still points out some of the important aspects of game design which anyone who plans to make a game should be aware of.

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Thanks for your reply and advice Social,

I’m indeed not a good writer, and like I said at the end of my “advice”, it was a very hard thing to explain because game design isn’t a simple thing to write about (like you said).

I wrote about it because I haven’t seen any articles about game design here on Blenderartists.org or on Blendenzo.com, game design was also something I was really inspired about.

I should have known that I wasn’t a good enough writer :slight_smile:

Are you sure this is just not new for you? Because the article was aimed at people who are new to game development, and you aren’t new to it or am I wrong?..

Oh, could you please give me some (more) advice on how I can make this tutorial/advice a little bit better? I hope it is still usefull for some people…

Thanks for your reply too Crunchy, I will try to organize it a little bit better.

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Well, my first impression was a little like Social’s, probably because English is not your first language, so you write in a way he and I are not used to reading. However, I decided to re-read the article and consider what you were saying instead of how you were saying it.

While it is true that one article cannot encompass the whole idea of game design, you have certainly brought out the most important point - What makes games fun? So often I see game projects started when the question of end-user fun hasn’t even been addressed. Usually the author makes something that he is interested in, but the game designer has more enjoyment in the game he makes than the player does. While the game designer plays his own game, he thinks to himself “I remember how hard it was to program that feature” or “I really like how that texture turned out” or “That armature action is so fluid. I did a great job.” He finds his fulfillment and sense of accomplishment in the process of making the game. The player really doesn’t care about those things, though, if the gameplay itself is not fun. His enjoyment comes from accomplishing goals and making decisions within the game. Each designer must come to realize that his game is not quite as fun to the player as it is to him. Only then will he be successful in making a “fun” product.

I agree that this is more like an advice article than it is exactly a tutorial. Perhaps you should remove the “Tutorial” part from the title so that people will stop complaining :wink:

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Not that I ever made or took part in any major game development but that all seems geared around what makes a game fun not how to make or design a game. Is there a development plan in there someplace. for instance when designing a movie you might start out with a idea, write a script, then make create a storyboard from that, then go on to make scene’s, do some shooting and start editing on down the line until you have a finished movie. Telling someone what makes a good movie is a far cry from designing one.

I guess what I am trying to say is there is no process involved to develop a game in your post. Its more about what makes a game fun.
Making a game fun is part of a development process but it would seem to me that is just the start comparable with the idea phase of making movie.
How do you coordinate 10 spells, 30 animations, lay out the logic in a simple maze or board game and how would you go about organizing things if more than one person was working on it.

Overall I enjoyed the reading actually and felt it had lots of good points to consider when designing a game but felt the title was misleading.

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Thanks for the reply Blendenzo, that was a really helpfull post for me, thank you.

Niftdalean,

That is not really what game design is about,
but there are other tutorials (real tutorials then) about what you mean, blendenzo’s site has a few (http://www.blendenzo.com/indexTuts.html “Pre-development Planning” “A Proper Pre-Production”) one is written by Social the other by me, but Social is a better writer like you will see, so he’s better at explaining those things. The 2 tutorials have both another technique, which are a little bit diffrent from eachother.

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Interesting read about design in general.

I just feal game design covers a lot more than whats covered in your post but it is definatly worth consideration with any serious game design.

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Anyone who plays videogames is pretty much aware of everything you mentioned, even if they don’t know a thing about game development.

This is because the player determines “what’s fun”, not the developer, and that’s how someone with no game dev experience can find your advice to be “nothing new” or more appropriately: “common knowledge”. - Blendenzo also touched on some of that.

Oh, could you please give me some (more) advice on how I can make this tutorial/advice a little bit better? I hope it is still usefull for some people…
The advice you give is “ok” as it stands.

I would agree with Mr. Crunchy when he notes the problems with your organizational methods. Give some more thought to where you split and space text, make it look more structured, consistent, “neat” if you will. That should make things easier to read.

Also, the language issue: I understand that English is not your native language. However, English is the worlds “Lingua Franca”, and if you plan on writing instructional documentation (tutorials), English is something that you will need to master to a certain degree. Not necessarily for the kind of “blender specific” tutorials I recommended you write in my previous post, but definitelly for the kind of tutorials that require you to explain yourself in “deep detail”.

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Looks like a lot of work ahead of you.

you have a nice plan…

the only thing I might add, is that you are going to have to invent some things for your game.

before you take maxims from a forum, you may want to look at the people who have actually made a full game.

the forums here might help…

Take a close look before you follow any tutorial or maxim…
it seems to me that there is a lot of people there who have never completed a game, yet, they make tutorials on “how to create a game” and “how to plan a game”… they are all full of sh!t unless they actually have made a game.

if you want to make a game, don’t follow the people who just troll forums, and make bullsh!t tutorials… follow only the advice of people who have actually made a game.

I think the best advice I can give you is to start small , and work your way up.

only after you have tested all your ideas,should you attempt a full game.

the best advice I can give, is to realize your dream, and follow it, one small step at a time…

good luck! sounds like you have lots of things already set :slight_smile:

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The experience of the individual writing the tutorial should definitelly be taken into account. However game dev experience is something that depends on more than just if someone “completed a game”.

For example: Some kid completes a break out clone, or something equally simple. (I completed a break out clone myself) Now that’s a worthy acomplishment, and that kid is definitelly entitled to write his own tutorial on how he went through with things, but due to the fact that the games he made lack any greater complexity, his techniques on how to menage resources, and “controll complexity”…well they may be lacking. :wink:

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Well as far as i was concerned, I think that i did’nt plan much before starting my game.
I just wanted to make a game. I found blender suitable. I learned things as i want them. Made up things when i don’t know. Did a great deal of trials and errors. Solved problems as they occured.
Before i didn’t care much about the story or levels. As the game progressed the story and levels seem to come in. I work more by intuition. I don’t have anyone near me to tell whether this or that texture looks nice. I would do and redo things and till i think that it is the best i could do for now. I think that’s how indie’s and part time’ work - in untraditional manner.
I think the advice by fenryal will be suitable for some professional to work in a professional way.

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Hello p00f,

Thank you for your advice, but don’t worry. I have created a small game (more then one…) if that makes you feel better. I know how to manage resources and I know how to organize a game development team.
Also thank you for those link to gamedev.net, but I am already a member there for more then a year named “Fenryl” :), and indeed, I learned alot there (note that I’ve also wrote down a few links to that website at the end of my article).

You see, I am just not a very good writer yet like Social said and I underestimated it a bit, but that is something diffrent then having no expierience in game development :).

- Fenryal