Gameplay - The Missing Ingredient In Most Games

[dlevere]

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 25, 5:33 A.M.

Game designer Tadhg Kelly has an article discussing the direction the games industry has taken over the past several years. Gaming has become more of a business, and in doing so, become more of a science as well.

When maximizing revenue is a primary concern, development studios try to reduce successful game designs to individual elements, then naively seek to add those elements to whatever game they're working on, like throwing spices into a stew. Kelly points out that indie developers who are willing to experiment often succeed because they understand something more fundamental about games: fun.

Quoting: 'The guy who invented Minecraft (Markus "Notch" Persson) didn't just create a giant virtual world in which you could make stuff, he made it challenging. When Will Wright created the Sims, he didn't just make a game about living in a virtual house. He made it difficult to live successfully. That's why both of those franchises have sold millions of copies.

The fun factor is about more than making a game is amusing or full of pretty rewards. If your game is a dynamic system to be mastered and won, then you can go nuts. If you can give the player real fun, then you can afford to break some of those format rules, and that's how you get to lead rather than follow the market. If not, then be prepared to pay through the nose to acquire and retain players.'

[bungholio]

They miss more than that, and some are hopelessly screwed thanks to time and money being an issue forcing them to release too early. We've all seen games that are incomplete I'd assume. I remember Neopet's The Darkest Faerie or whatever. That game is far from complete. Big Rigs is legendarily horrible it's so far from complete: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrSuZfSZ6m0

There's games that have crap controls. I remember Constantine's thing for needing you to adjust the camera to do certain actions on the PS2. The game cares about the angle of the camera more than the character position and angle to do some actions. I know people would object to me saying these, but Mario64 and all 3 Super Smash Bros. I'll be ripping on the Smash Bros games' controls my entire life, their controls are very stupid and the people that decided to make them the way they are with no alternatives deserve a hard smack in the back of their heads.

Some are boring generic crap devoid of anything interesting about them. Look at any Cabela game. No story, boring gameplay, no imagination, or anything fun about them. They should never be allowed to exist. Even the most stereotypical rednecks and hillbillies would be offended by some of the things said in those games. Sports games fit that description too. Just update the stats of teams from year to year, up the year number, and you've got a new sports game. People enjoy the gameplay or are just big fans of sports I guess?

Some have frustrating gameplay elements. Programmed camera angles always annoy people. The old Resident Evils and Dino Crisis games do that. Some have elements that make you roll your eyes, like Doom 3's character not thinking of duct taping hit flashlight onto his guns, even though the military's guns in the future should have mounted lights on them or something.

Some have so little to them you can beat them in a day and have nothing more to do in them than that. The Terminator game for the PS3 fits that description 100%. Even every trophy is nothing more special than beat a level, get a trophy, or do something else effortless. There's nothing to unlock. Beat it once and that's all there is, 6 hours of life spent and however much money you wasted on it.

Some have nothing interesting in the story department making them boring. Game's that come out based on movies around the same time as a movie usually aren't interesting, and also usually have very boring or crappy gameplay.

Some people think the most important thing about games is their graphics, in which case I tell them to go enjoy the most realistic graphics by putting together a 10 piece jigsaw while it's on fire, because you can't get any more realistic graphics than reality. They love pretty graphics and couldn't care less if it is the most frustrating or shitty game on this planet.

For some reason some of these games seem to be unconditionally loved by certain people. Some love boring sports games and blow a load in their pants each new one that comes out. Some people like hunting and somehow seem to think there's a crumb of anything in Cabela games to buy and worship them endlessly. Most people can tolerate the controls of Mario64 and the Smash Bros games. Some don't mind wasting $60 buying that Terminator game for the PS3 even though there's less than a day's worth of play to get everything out of it. Some people like me can tolerate bad voice acting and horrible camera angles with frustrating gameplay in the early Resident Evil games because we like the story that much. Some people are lobotomy cases and enjoy Big Rigs for the PS2.

[dlevere]

You are right about that Constantine game. I could only get through about 1/8th of the first level. Same goes with Mission Impossible and Superman 64.