Game Design Tips

Making a game fun

It’s more fun if a game has challenges that complement each other. The trick is to make a game challenging through a progression of steps with increasing difficulty. This makes a game tough, but fun too. Start off your game with enough simplicity that the game player can learn as they progress. This creates game player competence, expertise, and the feeling of accomplishment and reward. It’s this which keeps a player driven to move on to the next level or area of your game, and wanting to keep coming back for more!

Test your game

Use the training grounds to help test your game, your assets, and then test the entire progression of your game from start to finish. Look for unintended consequences, such as exploits. An example of an exploit would be things like getting something valuable over and over again, more so than what you intended. This might make your game too easy, and remove the challenge of the game. Try asking a few people to try out your game, so you can get feedback on the fun factor. It’s really difficult to test a game by yourself. Outside feedback is incredibly valuable.

A game “hook”

You want to hook your player through story, mechanics, or characters. The “hook” is the thing that grabs your player’s attention and keeps them interested and focused. So think about creating an interesting story, fascinating characters, or engaging mechanics to keep your player wanting more. It takes planning and trial-and-error before you can get all these working together harmoniously, but even just one of these areas being fleshed out well will retain many players!

Sound design

Believe it or not, sound is an important part of game design. It can help tell your story, build excitement, and other feelings. It can also be used to lead characters into areas or away from areas. This component can lead a player through progression with more ease. Put some time into thinking about the choices of your sound design to help make your game more grand and enjoyable.

Preparation and organisation

An often forgotten, but very important part of game design, and projects in general is organisation! No one can keep all this information in their heads, especially when thinking about fun factor, balance, player feedback, and everything. So keep all your documents organised, separated into folders, and easy to reach. Use charts, spreadsheets, storyboards and anything that helps develop your game idea while helping you enhance your game vision too. It might feel like a pain, but you’ll be thankful later.