Creative and Effective Game Design

As part of a learning process of developing games, it is important to view games from two perspectives: a player and a designer. When playing a game it is easy to become immersed in the gameplay. While this is the intended purpose of most games, this test session I focused on trying to determine the "behind the scenes" strategies and techniques of design, along with new interesting mechanics and features.

Example Game 1: This Is The Only Level

Figure 1: The first (and only) level

A platforming game such as This Is The Only Level usually comes with many rooms. Dungeon crawlers have checkpoints, boss battles, or simply different layouts. However, TITOL has only one level, and it is shown above. It may seem that a simple game like this is dull and has a really short playtime, but I assure you this is not the case. By using a simple design, the developers were able to skip the long and tedious process of animation and visual splendor, and focus on the gameplay. The trick is that each proceeding level has a small trick to it, such as reversing the controls, or turning off gravity. By minimizing the visuals, the designers created an interesting game with potentially infinite expansion.

Example Game 2: WizardWizard

Figure 2: Obstacles and an enemy!

WizardWizard is a more traditional platformer, where the player needs to collect a key and go through the door. When it comes to WizardWizard, we were very lucky to be presented with the source code, so we could see exactly every aspect the developers used to make this game. This is invaluable to a developer, because it can teach you techniques it may have taken years to develop alone. It also goes to show exactly how much work needs to be put into a game before it can be considered done. This will be extremely helpful as a resource to design games with different rooms, with physics, and with enemies.

Example Game 3: Prismic Shift

Figure 3: Prismic Shift

Prismic shift is a game designed by a student at SJSU for play in an arcade cabinet. The main mechanic I observed with this game was the control scheme. The joystick feel makes this game amazing. The feeling of maneuvering a ship through tight formations of enemies with a joystick can never be compared to that with a keyboard or controller. Another fantastic aspect of this game was how the designer dealt with an ammo system. In some games, ammo isn't even needed, and in others, it is required but very poorly included. This game however takes a simple approach: if you run out, you need to blow yourself up. This mechanic makes the players have to be more conscious about their resources, and strategically detonate in order to score the most points. Its also an extremely interesting aspect for co-op modes, where teammates can blow each other up if they are not careful!