I started using Miro to author my game design, mainly because I can arrange designs spatially (this helps me visualizing and navigating my ideas). Once I saw you video title it instantly lit a light... I could not but notice that my board actually naturally took shape of three groups that you describe, mechanics at the top and I got design in the bottom which just recently was getting shaped into two distinct areas itself as I keep working on it by adding more detail (first section is using mechanics to create gameplay and another one is purely visual and sound design). I am never going back to lists or wikis or any other sequential medium.
Thank you for making this I'm planning to make an adventure game where you get quests from different npcs and the world/locations get influenced by how you complete the quests. There's also a management system where you manage a location and develop it by the result of quests. But i'm thinking its not so good for being "fun" unless I make the story very good. I'm a solo dev and its my first project, so i'm thinking now to just have the management part and don't implement the story/adventure part. Its a sidescroller so not much combat or platforming mechanics, its just go to point a to b and in between you get events. I'm at the prototype stage so this video helping me in rethinking the design :D
I think this is definitely a very bold first game already. In my opinion having your first game being narrative driven (Aesthetics in this case), is really hard, as usually we are actually quite clueless to how it comes to writing good story and structure, making it really easy for a game to not be fun. The best fun for the effort usually comes from having solid gameplay mechanics, and how these mean the players to approach certain challenges (dynamics). I think a good example of an Aesthetics focused platformer would be a Spiritfarer. This is a game that truly awakens some emotions, whilst not being the most complex game mechanically. Could be interesting to dissect what makes it work. -M
There has been a lot of academic research spawned from that first MDA article about more structured ways to design games. And I do agree with you; for how relevant and intellectually intriguing the academic work on this matter is, there is definitely a gap between that effort and the game design practice, especially for indie games.
Fun.. yea pretty much the most important aspect of playing any game, video or cards or tag or sports etc. Humour is similar, i can find a joke hillarious.. but my mum is horrified
I started using Miro to author my game design, mainly because I can arrange designs spatially (this helps me visualizing and navigating my ideas). Once I saw you video title it instantly lit a light... I could not but notice that my board actually naturally took shape of three groups that you describe, mechanics at the top and I got design in the bottom which just recently was getting shaped into two distinct areas itself as I keep working on it by adding more detail (first section is using mechanics to create gameplay and another one is purely visual and sound design). I am never going back to lists or wikis or any other sequential medium.
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check out Miro.
Thank you for making this
I'm planning to make an adventure game where you get quests from different npcs and the world/locations get influenced by how you complete the quests. There's also a management system where you manage a location and develop it by the result of quests.
But i'm thinking its not so good for being "fun" unless I make the story very good. I'm a solo dev and its my first project, so i'm thinking now to just have the management part and don't implement the story/adventure part. Its a sidescroller so not much combat or platforming mechanics, its just go to point a to b and in between you get events.
I'm at the prototype stage so this video helping me in rethinking the design :D
I think this is definitely a very bold first game already. In my opinion having your first game being narrative driven (Aesthetics in this case), is really hard, as usually we are actually quite clueless to how it comes to writing good story and structure, making it really easy for a game to not be fun.
The best fun for the effort usually comes from having solid gameplay mechanics, and how these mean the players to approach certain challenges (dynamics).
I think a good example of an Aesthetics focused platformer would be a Spiritfarer. This is a game that truly awakens some emotions, whilst not being the most complex game mechanically. Could be interesting to dissect what makes it work. -M
Really interesting video! Love the explanations of the design concepts :)
There has been a lot of academic research spawned from that first MDA article about more structured ways to design games. And I do agree with you; for how relevant and intellectually intriguing the academic work on this matter is, there is definitely a gap between that effort and the game design practice, especially for indie games.
Fun makes you feel good ❤
Thank you! I got this video right on time.
Fun.. yea pretty much the most important aspect of playing any game, video or cards or tag or sports etc. Humour is similar, i can find a joke hillarious.. but my mum is horrified
What would you advice begainer who is learning game dev. Shall I learn 2d platforrmer for pc or work on mobile games?
I would focus on making a 2D platformer. Being able to successfully market and sell a mobile game is much harder than a PC game. Good luck! -M