Challenge
Research
Accessibility
Feedback
Testing
Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, argued that happiness is the feeling that power increases
- that resistance is being overcome. He argued that happiness is achieved as the result of hard
work.
A good videogame presents the player with a challenge. The player is also presented with the tools
and information necessary to
overcome the challenge. The tools and information should usually be given at a reaonable pace
instead of everything being handed to them at once and overwhelming them.
Constructivism is an approach to learning in which the idea is that human learning is
constructed, that learners build new knowledge upon the foundation of previous learning.
Scaffolding is a teaching technique in which instructors deliver lessons in segments and hints
rather than spoonfeeding the entire knowledge to the learners. This helps the learners be able
to solve problems mostly on their own.
Fill The Glass is an indie game
developed by Gabemcarvalho. The premise
is clear from the beginning of the game.
The player quickly understands what to do and how. Once the foundation is established,
challenges are introduced. The jug movement becomes more challenging as it comes close to being
empty. The player can also manually choose a harder mode by picking up a specific glass.
Challenges are of many kinds. Examples of motor skill based challenges include controlling a race
car or a character in a platformer.
Another kind
of challenges are more reliant on the players' cognitive processes such as memory or problem solving
skills and these can be seen in puzzles and strategy games.
It is important that the player should not be made to feel that they do not
have any agency over the game or that they are a passive observer.
Research plenty. Find and play a lot of games including those that are not popular. Deconstruct and
analyse the games you play.
Learn from experts through seminars, interviews, online videos such as Game
Developer Conference.
Watch and read reviews and criticisms - increase your collection of perspectives.
Observe and learn
from the world around you - watch the way people behave, the way animals and insects
behave. Ask yourself how you can gamify it. What is the person or the animal trying to achieve? What
are they capable of doing and what are the obstacles? What can be added or removed to make it more
entertaining? How can rewards be integrated in a given scenario?
Ask yourself what can be changed in an existing game to make a different game or make it more
entertaining. In order to be able to come up with ideas, you must first possess knowledge
regarding the kind of things that can be added - for this, you need to research and find as much
information as possible. If you are unable to solve a problem or do something effectively with the
knowledge you currently
possess, you should acquire more knowledge or change the way you see the information at hand.
Mental fixedness is a barricade to creativity and you should always try to see things from more than
one perspective. Learning from everyone and everything allows you to see things in many different
ways.
Videogames were once praised for having accessibility features, but now it is the norm to have them in almost every game. Gameaccessibilityguidelines.com provides a great range of information on how to make your game accessible to a wider range of players.
Feedback (audio, visual, haptic) is a crucial part of
communication. Depending on the type of feedback, it can often encourage the player to repeat an
action or avoid it. What usually makes a
videogame effective is constant feedback.
In Fill The Glass, filling a glass with
water, despite being a simple and ordinary premise,
is made fun through feedback and a little bit of challenge.
There is a wide variety of audio feedback for every action that can be performed by the player.
There
is feedback when a glass is picked up, when it is put back down empty, when it is being filled, when
it is set down full, when
it falls down, etc.
Some game controllers provide haptic feedback for almost every little thing happening on the
screen. This makes interactions and the whole experience more responsive and immersive.
Jonas Tyroller made a game in which he
made it fun to press a button with the help of feedback.
Information is crucial to the player in making decisions. When a player fails to complete a task, it
should
not be so because the game did not provide them adequate information or in a clear manner. Whenever
the player does something or tries to do something, the game should provide informational feedback
to let the player know what their actions are achieving or not achieving.
Have your game playtested by as many people as possible before releasing it. Keep in mind that you
should prioritise the kind of players that you wish to target. You would not want puzzle players
to playtest a racing game. Players often find bugs and glitches you may have missed, and
playtesting also helps in evaluating how effective the game design is.
If your game's
difficulty level seems reasonable to you, it will most likely be extremely challenging to the
players. This is because you understand how your own game works and you have played it many times,
but a
new player will try your game for only about 20 seconds before deciding to drop it if they do not
like
it or understand it.
Whatever game you are working on, set a deadline and try to complete it, especially if it is your
first game. If you wait to start or finish a project, it is unlikely to ever be finished. Just start
making something even if it is never going to see daylight. You can't learn to ride a bicycle by
watching
videos and reading books. It is through experience and reflection of your experience that you learn
best.
This article is not a one-size-fits-all advise but is only meant to help you to some extent. Many games exist which transcend norms or provide experiences other than happiness. You are encouraged to explore and experiment as much as possible.
Updated on 3 February 2023
Published on 1 February 2023