Game Design
Commandments
- Always Show the Goal
- Problems not Puzzles
- No Forced Failure
- It’s About Varied Character Interaction
- Players Do; NPC’s Watch
- Reward Players Regularly
- Players Get Smarter and the Game Will Get More Challenging
- Think 3D - Geometry will contribute to gameplay
- Routes Will Be Interconnected - Locations will be reachable in several ways
- Problems Will Have Multiple Solutions
- Players Will Surprise Themselves AND Us
IMMERSE PLAYERS IN THE GAME WORLD
This one’s simple – don’t throw too much game-iness at players... Build UI and metagame elements into the gameworld itself. Don’t insert a bunch of cutscenes.
Never remind players they’re just playing a game. You want them thinking it’s THEM in the world you’ve created, responding to things – causing things – that make sense to them in the context of your world.
There’s a reason I work in a genre called IMMERSIVE simulation.
and yet...
- D&D is immersive theater of the mind. Everything sensory is game-y.
- wandering around Odyssey is fun, at least for me
Resources
References
Backlinks