10 replies to this topic

[izelude]

if you want to be smart game designer you should think games that even could not think about it
most of the games now do not care about giving new ideas they just take ideas of some games and add more to it this will not work forever so
i think if you want to be a smart game designer you should think in different way than the most of the game designers

[Desert Dog]

Not quite that simple.

There's a difference between doing a new design, and doing a new design well.

Take for instance, Pac-man. What? Oldest game in the book? Yup, so that's going to be our example.

The design is very simple. There are many clones of it, but few are as fun, or as good as the original.

Just nostaligia? I think not. It's about implementing the design. The little bop sound when pacman collects a dot, that makes the game more playable, and enjoyable. The little blinky eyes of the ghosts after you eat 'em, then the animation of them zooming back to their cave. the gradual, and balanced increase in speed/difficulty, excellent controls/playability, etc.

It's a simple 'game design', but there are many little factors that contribute towards making it a fun game, and a bland, boring game.

So you see, they are almost separate design skills. You can come up with a great design idea, but if you lack the sense of design on a small scale(often called polishing), your game will never end up how you wanted.

This is often why you see hobbyists make clone games, or similar designs. There is a ton of games/materials, they can use to research&try use to improve the design aspects of their game, to make it more enjoyable. Learning from the designs of some of the best game dev's in the world, it's a great platform to leap off from when you have your own, great unique game design idea... this time with the skillz&knowledge you need.

[chance]

if you want to be a smart game designer you should think in different way than the most of the game designers

You're saying we should be original? And create something different than other game designers? Why didn't we think of that? (Although DD is right about the difference between new ideas, and new ideas done well. +1)

izelude's "advice" reminds me of a recent discussion about "how to create good games". One particularly bright member said "you gotta make it fun!"

Better yet, I remember a discussion in the Distributing Games forum about how to make money selling games. One innovative member said "you gotta make games people want to buy"

Who knew game design and marketing were that easy? Gotta love the GMC.

[izelude]

if you want to be a smart game designer you should think in different way than the most of the game designers

You're saying we should be original?  And create something different than other game designers?  Why didn't we think of that?    (Although DD is right about the difference between new ideas, and new ideas done well.  +1)

izelude's "advice" reminds me of a recent discussion about "how to create good games".   One particularly bright member said "you gotta make it fun!"

Better yet, I remember a discussion in the Distributing Games forum about how to make money selling games.  One innovative member said "you gotta make games people want to buy"

Who knew game design and marketing were that easy?  Gotta love the GMC.

game is not something for money or entertain poeple game is far more than that
you can make games that give poeple a different view in life or teach them something new or --------
i think the biggest problem in nowadays games is they are made for money games should more than that

[NicroGames]

if you want to be a smart game designer you should think in different way than the most of the game designers

You're saying we should be original? And create something different than other game designers? Why didn't we think of that? (Although DD is right about the difference between new ideas, and new ideas done well. +1)

izelude's "advice" reminds me of a recent discussion about "how to create good games". One particularly bright member said "you gotta make it fun!"

Better yet, I remember a discussion in the Distributing Games forum about how to make money selling games. One innovative member said "you gotta make games people want to buy"

Who knew game design and marketing were that easy? Gotta love the GMC.

game is not something for money or entertain poeple game is far more than that
you can make games that give poeple a different view in life or teach them something new or --------
i think the biggest problem in nowadays games is they are made for money games should more than that

Yes, but you got to understand that it's not that easy. I myself haven't even released a single game in these years, because I just haven't had the right idea and motivation yet. I have had decent ideas, but my motivation still lacked in the end. Actually, my biggest motivation is that I may be able to live by selling my games sometime, but then it easily becomes a quest for money, unfortunately.

Edited by NicroGames, 28 March 2012 - 04:28 PM.

[icymx]

I find it ironic that this topic's title is "smart game desginer". If you don't know how to spell "designer" you have no chance desgining games and being a game desginer means that you have to use your game desgin skills to desgin games which you have no hope of doing if you can't spell design correctly.

[Yal]

Speaking of Pac-Man, the entire maze business was a side-effect of the game designers' desire to make a game you could pick up and play without knowing how to play it.

Initially, they wanted to make a game about eating ("paku paku" is Japanese for "munch munch") and started by putting some food all over the screen. The players didn't know what to do, though (remember, the "food" was obscure circles). The solution to this was to make a maze and fill it with food, and the players would start to navigate the maze (they could see it was a maze) and as a size-effect they'd notice it was possible to collect the dots, since it was impossible not to pick one of them up in the narrow corridors. As dots are collected, you start to notice the blank, dotless streaks in the level... they are so different from the dotfilled corridors. You start to wonder "what happens if I get them all?" - which is the ultimate goal of each level.

Pac-Man is a game that teaches you how to play it, and it does so without any instructions whatsoever. Now that's smart game design.

[DreamDweller667]

if you want to be a smart game designer you should think in different way than the most of the game designers

You're saying we should be original? And create something different than other game designers? Why didn't we think of that? (Although DD is right about the difference between new ideas, and new ideas done well. +1)

izelude's "advice" reminds me of a recent discussion about "how to create good games". One particularly bright member said "you gotta make it fun!"

Better yet, I remember a discussion in the Distributing Games forum about how to make money selling games. One innovative member said "you gotta make games people want to buy"



Who knew game design and marketing were that easy? Gotta love the GMC.

game is not something for money or entertain poeple game is far more than that
you can make games that give poeple a different view in life or teach them something new or --------
i think the biggest problem in nowadays games is they are made for money games should more than that

Yes, but you got to understand that it's not that easy. I myself haven't even released a single game in these years, because I just haven't had the right idea and motivation yet. I have had decent ideas, but my motivation still lacked in the end. Actually, my biggest motivation is that I may be able to live by selling my games sometime, but then it easily becomes a quest for money, unfortunately.

Well I don't want to be smart ass but in our reality almost everything is about money today. The problem is people focused to make money and other important things(that necessary to focused on if you want to make money... Ex: Creativity, deep thinking blah blah blah...) is being thrown away. The video games is one of the "purest" thing we have and if developers (every developer not only big companies...) focus on money, it would destroy it's beauty. I think we all know that...

[DreamDweller667]

I think solution treat your video games as genua pig. What I'm saying is examine every game classic game, if you find some documantory( like vision statement...) read it and focus on your concept....

[Desert Dog]

Speaking of Pac-Man, the entire maze business was a side-effect of the game designers' desire to make a game you could pick up and play without knowing how to play it.

Initially, they wanted to make a game about eating ("paku paku" is Japanese for "munch munch") and started by putting some food all over the screen. The players didn't know what to do, though (remember, the "food" was obscure circles). The solution to this was to make a maze and fill it with food, and the players would start to navigate the maze (they could see it was a maze) and as a size-effect they'd notice it was possible to collect the dots, since it was impossible not to pick one of them up in the narrow corridors. As dots are collected, you start to notice the blank, dotless streaks in the level... they are so different from the dotfilled corridors. You start to wonder "what happens if I get them all?" - which is the ultimate goal of each level.

Pac-Man is a game that teaches you how to play it, and it does so without any instructions whatsoever. Now that's smart game design.

I never thought of that before, that's brilliant.

[chance]

Speaking of Pac-Man, the entire maze business was a side-effect of the game designers' desire to make a game you could pick up and play without knowing how to play it.

Initially, they wanted to make a game about eating ("paku paku" is Japanese for "munch munch") and started by putting some food all over the screen.
<snip>
Pac-Man is a game that teaches you how to play it, and it does so without any instructions whatsoever. Now that's smart game design.

I never thought of that before, that's brilliant.

Thanks Yal +1. That's an interesting bit of video-game history. It prompted me to do a bit of research/browsing about pac-man's origins and its author, Toru Iwatani. Here's an article where he displays his note book from the original design: Control Online article June 2010


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