Sefa’s Game Dev Blog

A blog made for game developing

[sefanursoyludev]

How to make your game stand out

Everyone can make a game. But to make a game and and make money from it is still a hard feat in this day and age. This is mainly because all different types of games already exist today. The best way to make a living off of games today is to make a game that stands out. Here are some ways that you can make a game that stands out.

As stated before, most types of games have already been made. Every game has influence from another game. But the games that stand out are the people who take those already existing types of games and adding a twist or a unique feature to it. This way, you can appeal to more people as there is already an existing audience interested in those types of games. 

The biggest way that a game stands out, especially for indie game developers, is the art style. Different art styles attract different people. Today, the cartoony, low poly type of art is very popular and is seen in big AAA studios. This is mainly because indie developers used them in their own games. Though games with high graphics that look amazing are popular, any form of art, if used correctly in a game can grab anyone's attention.

A really popular way to make a game stand out is to make a game that stands out is to take completely different types of genres and merge them together. This is seen in Doki Doki Literature Club, where the game starts off as a normal dating simulator and halfway through the game completely flips into a horror game that actually messes with the files found on your own computer. They took two very well-known genres and made it into a game that was very unique and that gathered a lot of attention.

This is the most obvious advice that can be given, but another way to make your game stand out is the way you market it to your potential audience. Marketing your game on a platform that is known for gaming, such as YouTube, Twitter and Reddit, you can slowly build up an audience during production of the game. Some developers also take it a step further, where they make it so that there are hidden hints and secrets in marketing photos and posters. The creator of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise Scott Cawthon, released many announcement posters of his games where the audience can find secrets and such in the game by playing around with the brightness and going into the code of the game. Not only is it a great way to keep your audience engaged for the game, these steps are used in the actual game as well to find secrets of the lore.

Henceforth, the best way to make your game stand out is to create a game that has one unique feature, even if the genre or theme already exists, to have a unique and attention grabbing art style and to also market your game in a very smart way.

[sefanursoyludev]

Unit 7 Practise Production Post Mortem

Unit 7 was the unit when it all went down. This was the unit where our idea for a game actually became a game. This unit was when we had to get our Beta and Gold versions of the game done.

The biggest thing I learned in this unit was collaborating with the other two disciplines. I learned how to work with them in the most efficient way and was able to see how well they worked in their own respective fields. I also learned how important it was to constantly be in touch with each team member, even if it’s just chatting with them online. This way we could rearrange the things that people can get done and how much they each person needs to get done. I also learnt how important it is to keep everyone in check, to be willing to cut things out of the game and to be able to have serious conversations with team members if things aren’t going to plan.

What I liked in this unit was the people I met and the many connections I made. I truly had fun working with the team that I had and got along with all of them. I also thoroughly enjoyed the development aspect of the game. I loved seeing slowly evolve over time and slowly becoming the game that we envisioned. 

The one thing that I disliked about being a producer on the team was all the documentation that was involved. I hated having to keep up with all the burndown charts and I was involved with assigning the team members with other tasks. Through this experience I learned how much work actually goes into making a game and the responsibilities involved in creating them. 

Things that I can learn from for future projects is to have a lot more meetings with the group. Even if there is nothing of importance to talk about, having just a group meeting just to talk about where the game is at and what still needs to get done is really good. Though we did this through stand up in class, it was very dry and we didn’t really discuss things properly, which caused problems later in production.

Overall, my experience was very positive and I had a lot of fun during this project. I feel that I learned very important skills that will help me immensely in the future. I was able to learn so much about production and game design in just a couple months and feel that this was a very valuable experience.

[sefanursoyludev]

Making a board game

Making a board game is quite a difficult thing to accomplish. One thing that makes it very difficult is that the game needs to be explained just through a piece of paper that the players have to read. It’s also a lot harder to design a board game because the possibilities are endless.

One really good thing to do even before starting the creation of your game is to first gather knowledge on other board games. Play a whole bunch of board games, not only ones similar to what your planning to make. This way, you can gather knowledge on many different parts of board games, what kind of mechanics do they have, why are they fun, why are they bad, how was the game explained to them. Gathering all of this knowledge is the biggest step to making any game.

The best way to first create your game is to write out all the rules on paper. Try to make sense of them and make them make sense just on paper. Doing this first allows you to work out most of the really big problems from the start. If you jump right into prototyping without first doing a plan of some sort will result in a lot of problems during production.

After having made an in depth plan of the game, start prototyping. This is when most of the game development occurs. Continually play test your game, with anyone and everyone and see what the major problems are. Do they understand the game from the rules without you having to explain it to them, how the mechanics work, if they work at all, if the game is fun etc. Play testing is the most important in a board game because everything comes down to how the game is explained to the player and how they interpret the rules.

A very important thing to do is to also keep a logbook of the development of your game. This is because there are many board games out there and you may have to prove that you have created this game by yourself. This will be very useful if you happen across another game that is very similar to your own.

The best way to create a board game is to just play test. Play testing a board game is where most of the game development occurs and where most major decisions about the game are made. If you just follow these simple rules while making a game you should be able to create a fun and enjoyable board game.

References:

https://geekandsundry.com/6-must-know-game-design-tips-from-the-creative-director-of-fluxx/

[sefanursoyludev]

How to make good tutorials for games

Tutorials are essential parts of a game and are usually one of the hardest things to get done right. They need to be done in a way that the players will learn how to play the game but also make sure that you are not so bored out of your mind that you stop playing the game in its entirety. So here are some basic rules that you can follow to make a good game tutorial.

One of the best ways to create a good game tutorial is to make the tutorial a part of the gameplay, rather have the player read a page of text. This is because most people hate to read when they want to relax and play a game. It also causes a problem if the people who are new to the game just skip through the tutorial and be completely clueless in the actual game. Having the tutorial be a part of gameplay also guarantees that people know how to play the game and know exactly which controls do what.

Another big mistake is to put make a tutorial that covers most of the gameplay functions right at the beginning, even if the player may not need that function until further into the game, or even at all depending on how they play the game. This makes the game extremely boring for the players, and makes them either want to skip through everything or not play the game at all.

One great way to make sure that your players know how to play the game is to make the tutorial fun, or better yet, make it so that the tutorial flows well with the game and thus they don’t even realise that they are in the tutorial. A great game that does this is Portal. That whole game is essentially a tutorial, however most people didn’t even realise as it was all in the gameplay and flowed well together.

A couple things to remember when making a tutorial is to know your demographic and make your tutorial according to that. Don’t assume that people know how to play your game and make your tutorial around that. A mistake that a lot of designers make is that they think they’re game is simple. They forget, however, that they’ve been working on this game for months, possibly years, and the game is just second nature to them, which makes them forget that the consumers know nothing about the game.

In the end, the best thing to remember is that tutorials should be fun and a part of gameplay. They shouldn’t break the immersion of the game and should teach everyone how to play the game.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCPcn-Q5nKE

[sefanursoyludev]

Unit 6 Production Planning Post Mortem

Unit 6 at AIE is when all three game disciplines design, art and programming come together to create a game as their final year project. This project is to teach all of the disciplines on how to work together as a team, alongside with the other disciplines, which is a very big aspect in the game development industry. Unit 6 was the planning part of the final project and was when the team came together for the first time to meet each other and to come up with a game idea that was all agreed upon by everyone else.

One major thing I learned in this unit was communication. I realised how important it was for everyone to get along and talk to each other. This is especially more important in the planning part of the game because all major aspects of the game have to be decided upon and agreed by all members of the team. Another important thing was to make sure that everyone got along with each other and were able to understand where the other disciplines were coming from. As one of the designers in the group and as a producer, I had to make sure that the programmers and artists were doing things within the scope and where made sure of each other’s abilities. 

What I liked about this unit was to be able to see how the other disciplines work and how much they can get done within one day. I also liked how quickly most of group members got along with each other and were able to make friendships quickly.

One thing I found difficult in this unit was the conceptualization of the game. Even though we picked an idea, we struggled a lot with the finer details of the game. We struggled to decide on what exactly the game was going to have in it. We couldn’t decide on those specifics and thus, left them for later.

What I disliked about this unit was how hard it was to get things decided and finalised. I realised how hard it was for us to decide on things and if things were changed, some people who were absent or not there would need to keep being updated. This made it more difficult for me as the producer because I wanted people to know what they were doing and how much they would need to be doing.

Overall, I still had a fun experience in this unit as I was able to meet amazingly skilled people. Planning a game is so much fun and interesting, and being able to do this with a team of people all interested in making a game was very fulfilling.

[sefanursoyludev]

Unit 5 Quality Assurance Post Mortem

Unit 5 at AIE was learning about quality assurance of games. This was a unit that I highly enjoyed and discovered that I had a high interest in. In this unit we learnt about smoke testing, user testing and bug testing.

This unit taught me the importance of QA in game design and how much of an impact it really has on the development of a good game. We learnt about the different types of testing that designers will use during game development. We were given a game within development and were expected to do these tests on this game. Everyone was expected to do three types of tests, smoke testing, bug testing and user testing. Smoke testing is a form of testing in which the tester will check to see if the major aspects of the game are working, such as the core mechanics and if the core game loop is functioning. Bug testing is also another form of testing in which the tester will look for any existing bugs within the game. They will try to do anything and everything to find bgs within the game so that they can be fixed by the development team. User testing is also a very essential part of game development, as it allows designers to see how consumers respond to the game and if it is the expected response wanted by the team. These are the main areas of testing that we learned during this unit.

Though I enjoyed this unit a lot, I struggled a lot with my game initially because I was assigned a horror game. Being the scaredy cat that I am, I found it difficult to conduct bug testing, as I could barely get through the game at the beginning. But, this issue was quickly solved after I got through the game a couple of times and I had played the game without headphones in a minimized window.

Overall, my experience with this unit was very positive and I was able to see how much QA actually affects the outcome of a game in development. I also discovered that I seem to enjoy QA a lot and discovered a different part of myself. Though I would’ve enjoyed this unit a lot more if I had received a game that I enjoyed playing, but this was also a great learning experience for me as I will not have control over which game I have to test if I get into this industry.

[sefanursoyludev]

Principles of Game Level Design

After reading a blog about the 10 principles of game level design (linked below), I decided to write my own blog on the same topic. Level design is a major aspect of the game design and contributes to good game design immensely. It allows players to experience the game in a much more intuitive way. To create a game with good level design there are 10 principles that you can follow;

The level should be fun to navigate

- The player should always know where to go, through visual language and cues

- The level should encourage players to further explore the level, with secret levels and hidden routes that they can find

It should not rely on words

- Great level design should use the environment to tell the story, through lighting, placement of objects and so on and so forth

- Using words and cutscenes takes away from the player experience, as it breaks the gameplay loop and forces players to focus on things that they have no control over

It should tell you what to do but not how to do it

- The player should always know what to do through level design, but there should be multiple routes and ways to how the player does it

- For example the player know that they need to get to a specific location, but how they get there should be dependant on their choces within the game

Should constantly be teaching the player

- Each level should show and teach a key mechanic, first teaching the player in a safe area, and then challenging them to make them use the mechanic

Keep you on your feet

- Keep the level fresh, don not fall into routines and make the game predictable to the player

- Fun is created in a game through uncertainty, keep forcing the playing to traverse in and out of the comfort zone

It should empower the players

- The level should show the power they have over the game overall, they should be able to see the consequences of their choices

- Allow the player to fulfill their fantasies and avoid making them do menial tasks

It should have different routes of varying difficulty

- Design multiple pathways, so that people can choose different ways to overcome the challenges, all in varying difficulties, such as easy, medium and hard.

- The different difficulties should also have different prizes

It should create emotion within the player

- Use architecture, lighting, setting, etc, to induce different types of emotion for different types of scenarios

- Force the player to feel different emotions based on the constraints or freedom within the level

- For example, make a smaller, more narrow level to induce more of a tense or scary emotion, and an open level to make the players feel that they are free and safe.

Level design should be driven by game mechanics

- Game level design should be driven by the way the game interacts with different mechanics

- Create levels that allow the player to use the mechanic efficiently and in the best way possible.

- Also create levels that constrict player mechanics for a more tense and challenging experience

These are the major principles of level design that will allow designers to create better levels that allow the player to experience a game that is much more intuitive. These principles do not have to be followed, and can be changed and adapted to better fit different games.

References:

https://mad-gfx.com/news/2018/7/15/10-principles-of-good-level-design

[sefanursoyludev]

Unit 4: Narrative Design Post Mortem

Back for another post mortem after completing another unit at AIE. This unit was the narrative unit. The whole purpose of this unit was to tell a narrative, using all the skills and design techniques we learnt throughout the year. We were only required to make a 60-90 second vertical slice, which is to pick a very small part of the story, and make that part into a game.

I made a FPS game that told the story through triggering animations. I picked the beginning part of my story because I felt that doing that part of my specific story would be much more fun in a game, and required less coding and relied more on animations and design.

The main thing I learned from having to create my own story in a game, was how much a story can be told just through atmosphere, sound and lighting. I learned just how much lighting mattered in a game. Just by changing a couple of settings, the environment can change from calm and peaceful to horrifying. It’s the same with sound. If you put the wrong sound or audio into the game, the mood and atmosphere would be drastically different from your original intention.

What I liked in this unit was to be able to work on my own creation from conception to the final product. Being able to have complete control of the product and create what you want completely was what I enjoyed the most in this unit. Being able to change things as I wanted and as I felt was required made it easier for me to be able to still create my game on time in a mostly complete form.

There were many difficulties in this unit that I ran into but one main difficulty was the animations. Creating animations in Unity is usually a simple thing, however, this became much more difficult when I wanted to do multiple animations on one mesh/object. If you don’t know, putting multiple animations on one object in Unity can be quite a challenge because once you animate an object, you cannot put another animation on it unless you delete the Animator. The only way around this, or the way I eventually ended up doing, was to make all your animations and save them. Then, in the Animation editor put the multiple animations onto the object, relying on timers and triggers in code to be able to time the animations correctly. This was something that took me the longest to get done as I had to figure out how to get the animations to work, alongside of painstakingly making the animations themselves.

What I would do differently would be to get all of my animations done quicker and earlier, because I did most of my animations last and they didn’t turn out as smooth as I originally wanted them. I would also do all design parts of the map first, Such as getting the layout of the house complete before immediately jumping into the meshes.

Overall, I really enjoyed this unit at AIE. Of course I found some things that were difficult, however the overall experience was a lot of fun and allowed me to learn so much in game design and development.

[sefanursoyludev]

Games that can be Understood at a Glance

After watching Zach Gage’s GDC talk about creating games that are understood with one glance, I felt that making a post on it was only appropriate, as it will help me and future game designers greatly.

Though this concept relates more to mobile game designers, I feel that this topic is something that all game designers should be familiar with.

First of all creating games with this concept will give you three benefits:

Easier Tutorilasation - creating tutorials will be much easier if most of the game can be understood by just looking at the screen.

Improves Organic Discovery - if everything you need to play the game is on the screen, people will discover things for themselves and be more drawn to play the game when they aren’t told everything from the get-go.

Easier Marketing - screenshots and gifs will need little to no context, drawing more people in and making the game more desirable to play.

Just by making your game more easy to understand, you can improve its marketing value and make it much more appealing to play, making your job as a designer much easier.

As Zach Gage explained in his talk, to make a game where you can understand it in one look, or has he calls it, to make it ‘subway-legible’, you need the Three Reads.

He first explains it with how to create a concert poster.

The First Read will be the name of the artist who will be playing, to draw people in to read the next two reads.

The Second Read is the date and time of the event and the price of the tickets.

The Third Read is extra details like who created the event and etc.

These three reads can easily be converted to game design like this:

The First Read => What draws you in? => The Core of the Game.

The Second Read => The Key Details =>. Big Unintuitive Rules.

The Third Rules => Contextual Information => Contextual Rules

But because games can move and be animated, you can add some advanced concepts to this to make the game flow much better and easier to read what is happening as you advance in the game.

The first advanced concept is to use animation to swap reads. This can easily be seen in card games, such as Hearthstone, where the cards you choose to play and actions you do are constantly swapping between reads, making it much easier to read the flow of the game.

                              Hearthstone - swapping between reads

Another advanced concept that Zach mentioned was to toggle to the Fourth Read. This is the first time that the Fourth Read is mentioned. In digital games, a very common thing is the menu that can be toggle on or off. So to make the game not look to busy when playing the game, it is suggested that you create a toggle for the menu. This way you can toggle it into the Fourth Read which basically means you cannot see it or read it.

Overall, even if this blogpost may seem to be directed more towards mobile game designers, they are concepts that can be used by anyone, even if not all, but some can come in great assistance.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YISKcRDcDJg&t=1179s

[sefanursoyludev]

Unit 3: Prototyping Fundamentals Post Mortem

Back again with a new post mortem at the end of the third unit learning Game Design at AIE. Yet another tough battle that I had to overcome was learning the fundamentals of C# used in unity and creating my very own game.

Unlike the other units for this year, Unit 3 was the prototyping unit for learning to code and to use what you learned to create your own game.

I was quite excited to learn coding at the beginning of the unit, and was ready to learn. After learning the first few functions and operators I was confident I could create my game, titled Burger Pop, a bubble shooter pop game. Basically a game within the same genre as Bubble Shooter. But my confidence was beaten down and crushed when I started the production of my game. The reality of coding came like a punch in the face, and it came hard.

First of all my game required very different scripts than what we were learning in class. Though that may be my fault for trying to make a game of a different genre, but being able to find anything on the web for my scripts was almost impossible. Most of the internet help were for games made in 2D, using very high level scripts that were not of my level. I guess I learned that I should do much more thorough research before I plan to do anything from now on.  

The other difficulties were being unable to get most of my bugs fixed. Another trial of coding especially when this is the first time you’ve learnt coding. I had a lot of trouble trying to create my code in the first place and once the bugs appeared, I found it extremely hard to smooth them out. My patience and tolerance quickly wore out. But I hung in there and somehow got some sort of working game in the end. Though it’s not perfect, I am surprised I got as far as I did with making the game.

I learned a lot within this unit. Mainly the invaluable coding skills I have picked up and how much I have learned in general to what is needed when creating a game. I also learned a big lesson, nothing will happen if you just want it to happen, only if and when you try your hardest will it occur.

I also have a lot of regrets, especially with the genre of game I picked and the amount of time I didn't spend making the game. I regret not asking for help more in class, which definitely pushed me back and made my journey through this course much more difficult.

Overall, though I might not have enjoyed this unit as much as the other ones, I feel that it is the unit that I learned most about Game Design, and it was the first time I ever learnt coding. But most of all I learned the most about myself and my abilities and capabilities when it comes to coding.

[sefanursoyludev]

Unit 2: Level Design Fundamentals Post Mortem

The second unit has officially come to an end and boy was it a roller coaster. Here is my post mortem on my journey these past 6 weeks.

This unit was to learn level design fundamentals. At AIE we were required to make our own level design for a game created by the design teachers, in a group of 4 people including myself.

This unit was a tough one because we had to do level design and create all of our own meshes and textures. It was a great learning experience and i found that i was really great at modelling in Maya. We learnt how to use SVN and understand the significance of all the different roles of people that made up the team. I also learnt how important it was to communicate because multiple times we ended up being in the unity scene at the same time and causing problems with our SVN. There was so much other things I learnt within this  small amount of time. I think back to my unit 1 post mortem and truly se3e how far i have come. I learnt how to use Maya properly (mostly), how to make proper textures and UV mappings, animations and how much time we truly waste even though we know we have so much stuff to do.

What I did well within this unit was not much, if I am to be honest with myself. I was very happy with how my Maya meshes turned out, especially my hero model. I found i did textures pretty well, but I did very simple meshes. I also made a light flicker in which I was very proud of and felt I did those very well in unity. I was able to do these things quite well but I still had much difficulty getting them right and made many mistakes on the way.

What I liked about the unit was the huge learning benefit and the immense amount of skills and abilities I learnt within a mere 6 weeks. I enjoyed the team I was in and thus, I enjoyed working on this unit in general. But what I liked most in this unit was seeing the level slowly come together as we put meshes into the scene.

Other than what I liked about the unit, what i found difficult was time management. It was in this unit that I finally understood the true meaning of time management and how greatly it affects your progress. I found it very difficult to stay focused and would always get distracted with something, which inevitably is a negative consequence on the unit. I also learnt that just because you’re “working on the project” doesn’t mean you’re doing anything significant ar helpful for the group.

There are so many things I would do better next time. Time management, texturing, modelling, almost everything I would definitely do better. I would try to focus more on what I needed to do rather than what I wanted to do.

Overall this was a great learning experience but it was not so good on a stress level.

[sefanursoyludev]

The Secret Of Monkey Island

Back again with a new game design post and today I will be doing an analysis on the game, THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND.

Secret of monkey island is a point and click adventure game, set in the age of piracy within the Caribbean. The major aspect of the game is puzzle adventure, where you will always find yourself solving one puzzle or another to further the narrative of the game; save Governor Marley from the evil, Pirate LeChuck.

The game design was wonderful. You went in to play a puzzle game and you really did play a puzzle game. The puzzles were all intertwined, and you would always end up using almost all of the items in your inventory and, like any other puzzle game, you find yourself with items you picked up at the beginning of the game that only became useful towards the end. Which added a layer of difficulty when you're stuck on a puzzle and you would keep using that one item that was there from the beginning but you still haven’t figured out what it’s meant for. Another design aspect I enjoyed was that even if you were stuck on one puzzle, just by exploring the map, and trying to solve it, you will discover the other puzzles or even end up solving a puzzle immediately because you somehow had the item in your inventory. Though I found myself  looking at the internet for help, in games such as this, having a higher difficulty will keep the players more engaged. And, as it is the core element of the game, making the puzzles easy defeats the purpose of the entire game. A very unique feature to this game was the combat. The only combat in the game is also a puzzle, where the combat is won not through your skills with a blade but your skill of insulting the enemy, seen in this small scenario.

Insult: “You fight like a dairy farmer.”

Comeback: “How appropriate. You fight like a cow.”

– Sword fight insult

The only way to win in the combat is to gather information by combating random pirates on the map screen, which added another layer of puzzle solving which was entirely unique to this game.

"Swordfighting is a little like making love. It's not always what you do, but what you say."

– Sword Teacher to Guybrush Threepwood

Other than the very solid game design, the character and charm of the game was what kept me going. The unique characters and hilarity of some of the puzzles just left you wanting to play more. The main character which you play as, Guybrush Threepwood always had something to comment that just tickled you the right way. He always had something to say about everything, even non-playable objects. Some of his glorious quotes:

“I’m selling these fine leather jackets.”

“Please? Pretty please? Please pretty please with sugar on top?”

"I can’t help but feel I’ve been ripped off. [Towards the fourth wall.] I’m sure you're feeling something similar." (Not to mention the perfectly timed fourth wall breaks)

The overall game is very consistent and always left you amused at the end of every play session. You would find yourself just having conversations with the characters because their answers and the way they treat your character always put a smile on your face. The sarcasm, the fourth wall breaks and the absurdity of the game will always be relevant, to any generation, and hence why it is still played today considering it was made in 1990. It is still so popular and relevant that the first two games, THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND and MONKEY ISLAND 2: LECHUCK’S REVENGE had special editions made that had 3D animated graphics.

Guybrush: At least I’ve learnt something from all of this.

Elaine: What’s that?

Guybrush: Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.

Elaine: A what?

Guybrush: I don't know. I have no idea why I said that.

[sefanursoyludev]

Unit 1: Introduction to Game Design Post Mortem

Today we finished the first unit of the design course at AIE. The first unit was an  introduction to game design, meaning an introduction to how we, as designers, would make game documents and use platforms like unity. This is a post to write about my experience in the first unit of this course.

Firstly we started off with analysis of board and video games. I very much enjoyed this part of the course. I liked being able to view a game and break down its mechanics and the impacts it has on the players. I felt I did this part of the course well because I enjoyed being able to write about a game that I enjoyed playing.

Alongside with these, we also learnt how make a Doom map and how to use Unity for building landscapes and buildings. This part of the course was very difficult for me because i had never used any of these platforms before and it took a long time for me to be able to wrap my mind around it. I am glad I was able to learn how to use them, however I was unable to get used to using them and, thus, was unable to create good products in them. Unity’s controls are very hard to get used to and will take practise to be able to be good at it, however, it is a valuable tool to know how to use and I am proud of myself for learning as much as I did. In future, i would like to practise using Unity more in my own time to make up for my lack of experience.

                              Scene in Unity I created using a reference

                                         The reference for image above

                        Another scene created in Unity using a reference

                                       Reference for image above

                        Physics scene created using physics in Unity

We also learned how to use Adobe Photoshop. I quite enjoyed dabbling in Photoshop, though I hadn’t had much experience in it, I found it much more enjoyable and fun than using Unity. The controls were much easier and it allowed me to express myself in a way that I was much more happy with. Using Photoshop was a much easier process and was easier to pick up, but practising using it at home will do me much good and I will try to do so in the future.

Finally, the last thing we learned about was how to write a Game Design Document. This process was long and very tedious. We had to do two drafts of a 20+ page document, get feedback from three people on each draft and then writing a final. I found the process very annoying and hard to achieve in the time frame that was given. Though I did find creating my own game very fun, once it came to the specifics, I started to see how much mistakes there were and how much I had to change to make the game make sense. It opened my eyes to how game designing actually works and how much work is actually required before you even start to design the game in a playable format. In future, I will try to use my time much more wisely to be able to create a much better document.

Overall, though I enjoyed being at AIE, the course work was very overwhelming and difficult. However, I am really proud of myself for pushing through and being able to learn the things I learned and be able to learn all of these new things that were otherwise foreign to me.

[sefanursoyludev]

Player Expression and Creativity

Welcome, readers, to my post on the topic of player expression and creativity in games. Though I will mainly be referring to video games, the ideas I will be talking about can be used in all sorts of different games.

Player expression is an area or mechanic of some sort within a game which gives the player the ability of innovation and growth. In certain games, players are not specifically told what to do and thus can do things in their own way, with their own expression. For example, within the Hitman game series, the player is given the objective to kill a target, but not how. Thus, the players are allowed to experiment different ways in which they can complete their objective, encouraging player expression. These can be seen in other games as well, like certain missions in Assassin’s Creed and puzzle platformers where there is more than one way to get through the puzzle.

Player expression is important because it gives the player a chance for experimentation within the game and allow them to immerse themselves into it further. It also gives more replayability to the game, allowing the players to continuously replay and experiment and express themselves in different ways.

Player creativity is also a way in which players can express themselves. Allowing players to be creative within the game, as a part of the gameplay itself. For example certain games, such as Passpartout: The Starving Artist, where doing creative things is the core mechanic in the game. This way the player is motivated to be creative, whether or not the player believes themselves to be creative. The player can express their artistic or creative abilities through the game and be able to create things that they could not otherwise create in the rel world.

In most cases player expression and creativity can go hand in hand. Players can express their creativity within a game if the game allows them to do so. Henceforth, the best way to create games with player expression is to leave enough room. Well, what is it to leave enough room? It is to:

Not tell the player what to do, and

Get them to figure out things for themselves

Give them mini-objectives

Create agnostic units, let them figure out what is an enemy and what is an ally

Give the players the tools to say things (or empower them to generate their own data)

Allow them to create their own stories within the game

Give them freedom to roam and do things their own way

Allow them to experiment

Have a range of solutions

Listen and respond to data

Give achievements based on new things that the players have discovered

Add new data based on their data

Allow them to follow their statistics and validate them

These three steps are quite useful when creating a game with player expression. They are clear steps, though not all have to be implemented, they create a great guideline that most people can use to make a great game that can be both engaging and fun.

References

1. https://www.gamespot.com/forums/system-wars-314159282/games-that-excel-at-player-expression-33399306/

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1evPcFmddc&index=8&list=PL2e4mYbwSTbbjN6TTMo6toJfByWpKvEDH

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4U8WXd0f3c&index=6&list=PL2e4mYbwSTbbjN6TTMo6toJfByWpKvEDH

[sefanursoyludev]

Hello World

Hey!! This is a new tumblr/blog made solely for the purpose of game development.