Showing posts with label Game Design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game Design. Show all posts
Originality in Video Games and Speaking in German
When creating successful video games, truly original thinking is rarely a virtue. Oh yeah, that's right - I went there.
Let us start with the very basics. Video games are commercial art. The art part is all good times and laughs but the commercial part puts food on the table. And so, assuming you wish to live with a bit of financial security and die with both of your ears still attached to your skull, you will have to consider the audience for your game and whether they want to pay for it. And so then, like so many things, originality in video games creates a lot of Sturm und Drang among professionals. But it's rarely a black and white issue, rather its shades of gray - not to mention black and blue at times.
Video Game Design: Striving for Perfect v. Good Enough
When is a video game shippable? When it's as perfect as it can be - or when it's good enough to not embarrass a game dev?
More than a few video game designers have a few credits on our resume which we are, shall we say, less than proud of. Let's face it - most of us have a few real stinkers. Nobody sets out to make a bad game but sometimes circumstances dictate otherwise. Video game development is a commercial art. So by definition, game designers struggle to balance the demands of a business alongside their creative aspirations. Eventually, everybody needs to ship or suffer the ignominious fate of Duke Nukem Forever. But the eternal question for game developers is when is the product done?
More than a few video game designers have a few credits on our resume which we are, shall we say, less than proud of. Let's face it - most of us have a few real stinkers. Nobody sets out to make a bad game but sometimes circumstances dictate otherwise. Video game development is a commercial art. So by definition, game designers struggle to balance the demands of a business alongside their creative aspirations. Eventually, everybody needs to ship or suffer the ignominious fate of Duke Nukem Forever. But the eternal question for game developers is when is the product done?
7 Principles of Good Video Game Design
As the Apple faithful descend on WWDC, we ask what can Steve Jobs teach a game developer about good video game design?
If "child"-proof bottle tops, blinking VCR clocks and Apple's iPad teaches us anything, its that good design makes a difference. But as game designers, we often struggle to define "good design". Design in the vocabulary of the games industry spans everything from the video game narrative to character visualization to the game combat mechanics to the statistical curve of the level progression. So how do you come up with meaningful criteria for separating the good from the bad? Is there an objective way to evaluate design? Or is good design purely in the eye of the beholder?
If "child"-proof bottle tops, blinking VCR clocks and Apple's iPad teaches us anything, its that good design makes a difference. But as game designers, we often struggle to define "good design". Design in the vocabulary of the games industry spans everything from the video game narrative to character visualization to the game combat mechanics to the statistical curve of the level progression. So how do you come up with meaningful criteria for separating the good from the bad? Is there an objective way to evaluate design? Or is good design purely in the eye of the beholder?
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