AI. NPC’s. Enemies. The majority of games do not put players into a truly solitary environment, rather favoring interaction between the player’s character and characters, and this usually involves interpersonal conflict. It’s important for designers to figure out ways to engage the player when working against these foes, because otherwise a main source of conflict would be moot. The creation of a solid antagonist really requires three main considerations; narrative, mechanics, and presentation. Continue reading “Game Design: Creating Immersive Antagonists”
Tag: Game Design
Thursday Review: Dungeon Siege 2 (Part 1)
I’m doing something a little unusual this week because I don’t really have time, but I’m going to go back and review a game that’s pretty old that I just finally discovered, and actually do a case study on it as much as write a review of it. Normally I’d make this a game design thing, but that’s not going to happen right now.
Continue reading “Thursday Review: Dungeon Siege 2 (Part 1)”
Game Design: Challenging Multiple Players
One of the core parts of being a game designer is presenting challenges to players within the environment of a game; few games are designed without any challenging elements, because they are what adds a lot of the feeling of interactivity to games, allowing players the chance to change the story in which their character will fail into one in which they succeed. However, special concerns must be made in order to facilitate a challenging experience in multiplayer games. Continue reading “Game Design: Challenging Multiple Players”
Game Design: Creating Discoverable Experiences
Nonlinear and emergent gameplay is a goal that generally benefits game design, should the developers have the necessary resources. Making an open, vivacious world presents players with a lot of options and opportunities to find ways to enjoy the game, as well as letting them experience the joy of discovery without needing constant guidance. Continue reading “Game Design: Creating Discoverable Experiences”
Game Design: Utilizing Randomness
One of the largest issues I’ve seen with games is when they come down to a formula. Sometimes, this is important, like in competitive play, but other times this is actually detrimental to the experience; a single-player game, for instance, in which every foe is exactly the same whenever the player walks a “dangerous” road between two major areas. This is the sort of thing that can be changed easily to make a more engaging experience through adding randomness. Continue reading “Game Design: Utilizing Randomness”
Game Design: Avoiding Frustration
One of the biggest issues that I see with games’ inherent designs is that many of them are unintentionally annoying, and it really ruins the value of the game. Sometimes these games are trying for a Dark Souls type approach and just fail to pull off the work to make the consequences part of engaging gameplay, but sometimes there’s just poor design to blame. Continue reading “Game Design: Avoiding Frustration”
Project Update: Scaleability
Orchestra as a game is designed to create an environment in which no character will become unbeatable. One of the core goals is to create scaleability; the idea that you can use multiple characters of the same archetype. For instance, if you had multiple people specializing in Dominance they could still cooperate normally and not rival each other, even were they to use the same exact skills and abilities, and two hackers can still team up to wreak havoc on their opponents’ attempts to boot them out of sensitive computer systems. Continue reading “Project Update: Scaleability”
Game Design: 7 Core Tenets (Market)
I saved this part of game design for last, because the truth is that choosing a market is not something that every game must do; and some games are made entirely without a care to marketability or sales. However, there are some things that must be considered when making a game on the designer’s side in order to ensure that the game is constructed in such a way that it is capable of being sold. Continue reading “Game Design: 7 Core Tenets (Market)”
Thursday (Kinda) Review: Tunnels and Trolls
This week I haven’t really had that much time, because of a lot of crazy stuff, but I did do a little looking over of a game that I’d always sort of overlooked: Tunnels and Trolls. In particular, it’s somewhat interesting because of the fact that it’s an older game; and, of additional interest, one that has a relatively low profile among most of the gamers that I know, despite the fact that its age and legacy speak for themselves. Continue reading “Thursday (Kinda) Review: Tunnels and Trolls”
Game Design: 7 Core Tenets (Player Role)
When designing a game, it is important to come up with the player’s control and agency; there are three main factors to this: flexibility, characterization, and impact. By building upon the role of the player, a clever designer can cater to players by providing experiences that are designed to appeal to them in ways that certain roles will not; careful consideration can turn the player into a conqueror or epic hero, while just as many games fail to provide any real satisfaction for players. Continue reading “Game Design: 7 Core Tenets (Player Role)”