Game Design is the practice of creating and balancing systems and the mechanics which the player uses to affect those systems. This is not to be used for programming questions about the "design" of features, engines, etc.
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Game development Blogs [closed]
What are good game development/design blogs to follow?
Please one blog per answer (make sure to provide a link) and give a brief summary as to the content of the blog posts.
If you can, pick a ...
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32answers
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How to prevent the “Too awesome to use” syndrome
When you give the player a rare but powerful item which can only be used once but is never really required to proceed, most players will not use it at all, because they are waiting for the perfect ...
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30answers
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How do you prevent inflation in a virtual economy?
With your typical MMORPG, players can usually farm the world for raw materials essentially forever. Monsters/mineral veins/etc are usually on some sort of respawn timer, so other than time there ...
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6answers
2k views
How to deal with (bad?) player suggestions
Every game which builds a community while still being in active development will soon be confronted with players who post suggestions for new features on its forum. Most of these suggestions, however:
...
62
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16answers
18k views
Good game design books? [closed]
I have some experience in creating, however I like to have some well written reference material to help me produce better products. Are there any game design books that are not aimed at a particular ...
59
votes
9answers
2k views
What is the purpose of having lives?
I think in game design it is incredibly important to ask the question why about everything, especially something that has become so standard as lives. So I am asking, what is the purpose of a game ...
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19answers
7k views
Level Design Tips [closed]
What are some pitfalls or pieces of good advice when designing levels or maps for a (presumeably 3D but not necessarily) game?
55
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12answers
3k views
Why do most 2D platformers start off in the left and progress in the right direction?
In almost all 2D platformers I've played, your avatar always starts off on the left side of the world, and continues on to the right. Is there something designers gain by doing this?
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8answers
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How to develop RPG Damage Formulas?
I'm developing a classical 2d RPG (in a similar vein to final fantasy) and I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to do damage formulas/links to resources/examples? I'll explain my current ...
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14answers
4k views
1% idea, 99% execution? [closed]
I keep reading in the game development community that the idea of a game is 1% and the execution of the game is 99%.
Do you believe that to be true? Not necessary in those percentages..
I always ...
38
votes
8answers
2k views
What can make a peaceful game successful?
Today, the most successful games are action games like FPS, RPG, MMORPG...
I'd like to make a peaceful game, but I don't know how to attract people. I can make good graphics, but that's not the main ...
37
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12answers
2k views
Coming up with manageable game ideas as a hobbyist game developer
I'm trying to come up with ideas for games to develop - as per the advice on this question I've started jotting down and brainstorming my ideas as I get them, and it has worked relatively well - I now ...
36
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8answers
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Why do most video game guns reload without losing unused ammo in the magazine?
If I have picked up 500 spare ammo and I 73/100 bullets in my current gun, why will I end up with 473 spare ammo instead of 400 (losing the 73 unused rounds in the previous magazine)?
Is this just to ...
36
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13answers
1k views
Creating meaningful and engaging quests
Kill X number of monsters.
Gather Y number of items (usually by killing X number of monsters).
Deliver this NPC's package to this other NPC who is far far away.
etc.
Yeah. These quests are ...
33
votes
13answers
1k views
what is the best way to eliminate grinding in games?
This is a very persistent question in game design, especially in games where you need to hold/retain players like MMO or social games. (On a side note grinding can easily calculated so its easy tool ...
33
votes
14answers
2k views
MMORPG design for time-limited players
I believe that there is a significant market of players who would enjoy the exploration and interaction aspects of MMORPGs, but simply don't have the time for the endless grinding marathons which are ...
33
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3answers
4k views
“Press Start” screen - why?
Just wondering: A lot of games start with their intros/vendor videos, and then show a "Press Start" screen before the actual main menu.
I never quite figures out the purpose of this, why not go to ...
33
votes
4answers
2k views
How to break the feeling of busywork in a game
I don't know if this topic has been explored before but in a handful of games I've played there comes a point where trying to explore everything, doing sidequests, or even trying to get gear starts ...
32
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6answers
1k views
Why use random numbers when it comes to rewards and stats?
Many games use random numbers for things like attack damage, gold loot, or monster type being spawned. It is obvious that random numbers allow you to generate content to make games more re-playable, ...
31
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4answers
958 views
Creating an illusion of stress and danger
I'm currently experimenting with an adventure game setting where at some point the game is quite calm and the player has to solve puzzles and at some point there are enemies or environmental traps.
I ...
31
votes
12answers
2k views
How to know when your game concept is simply not fun and to stop
I'm a new hobbyist game developer but have yet to come up with something original that I found to be really fun. The hardest part I find about game development is this:
You have an idea that in your ...
30
votes
2answers
2k views
Good game design process for a do-it-all programmer
I am pretty new in game development - on Android platform and thinking about one-man game development. I know I can't professionally do everything such as graphics, sounds, and music but I think I can ...
30
votes
16answers
2k views
Turn-based strategy games where action happens in real-time?
Okay, this idea has come up for the 3rd time in conversation now, and it's been bugging me for years. The idea is a game where all players make decisions/issue orders to units while the game is in a ...
29
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8answers
2k views
Is it possible to calculate or mathematically prove if a game is balanced / fair?
This question is not focussed on video games but games in general. I went to a boardgame trade fair yesterday and asked myself if there is a way to calculate the fairness of a game. Sure, some of them ...
28
votes
7answers
1k views
Which purpose do armor points serve?
I have seen a mechanic which I call "armor points" in many games: Quake, Counter Strike, etc. Generally, while the player has these armor points, he takes less damage.
However, they act in a similar ...
28
votes
5answers
825 views
How can I make space recognizable and easy to orient in?
I'm thinking about making a game set in space, that would feature very large, procedurally-generated game world (many stars, planets and what have you). However, I foresee a big problem: cosmic space ...
27
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9answers
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Why should I choose to design a health bar rather than heart containers?
When designing any hero-based game, be it adventure, RPG, brawler, or similar, you eventually need to decide on your health system. Barring any regenerative systems with zero UI (like Call of Duty), ...
27
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3answers
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How to design the attack class in an RPG game?
I am in the planning phase of a small RPG style game.
The character will have have a set of attributes, like strength, agility, etc which are represented as integers. The character also will have a ...
26
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3answers
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+500
When should I hard-code data versus load external data?
I'm a thousand or so lines of code into making my own 2D space-based game, which creates networks of randomly generated star systems and populates them with a random selection of planets, stations, ...
26
votes
7answers
907 views
Does inflating scores make players happier?
I realize that this will depend on a game-to-game, situation-to-situation basis and that this is not a very technical question, but I remember hearing in a tech podcast a few years ago that inflated ...
24
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8answers
1k views
In-Game Tutorial Decisions
I'm working on a game with confusing mechanics such as energy storage and the coolant temperature. What is the best way to get a new player learned quickly? What are the pros and cons of different ...
24
votes
19answers
1k views
Are there many games involving the manipulation of water?
I'm in the very, very early brainstorming stages of a game which centers around the manipulation of water and the terrain around it. (i.e., changing the water's state between solid, liquid, gas; ...
23
votes
10answers
1k views
Alternates to scratch damage to solve combat deadlocking
Scratch damage is a game mechanic whereby any successful attack always does some minimal amount of damage. This is often used in subtractive combat systems, where the defense is subtracted directly ...
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11answers
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How do you come up with ideas for new games?
What is the best way in your opinion to find new ideas for games? I want to invent something really new (like Gish, World of Goo, Crayon Physics etc), but I'm having problems coming up with new, ...
23
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6answers
2k views
Designing a game - Where to start? [closed]
A friend of mine and I are planning a game together to work on in our free time. It's not an extensive game, but it's not a simple one either.
He's working on the story behind the game while I'm ...
23
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2answers
1k views
Is there a way to procedurally generate the history of a world?
I am somewhat intrigued by the diagram found here representing 1800 years of cultural history in an imaginary world some guy created.
This sort of thing would seem to have strong applications for ...
22
votes
7answers
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Does an inventory limit in an MMORPG make sense?
I am currently developing a simple 2d MMORPG. My current focus is the inventory system.
I am currently wondering if I should implement a limit on what a player character can carry. Either in form of ...
22
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6answers
866 views
Have any video game designs used non-uniform random numbers in interesting ways?
A variety of video games use uniformly distributed numbers to decide the outcome of an event, such as a "50% chance to hit" almost always means to check if a random floating point number from 0-1 is ...
21
votes
8answers
2k views
Why is permadeath essential to a roguelike design?
Roguelikes and roguelike-likes (Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac) tend to share a number of game design elements:
Procedurally generated worlds
Character growth by way of new abilities and powers
...
21
votes
13answers
2k views
How to implement “bullet time” in a multiplayer game?
I have never seen such a feature before, but it should provide an interesting gameplay opportunity.
So yes, in a multiplayer/real-time environment (imagine FPS), how could I implement a slow ...
21
votes
4answers
1k views
Randomly generated story
I'm developing a game at the moment and I had an idea where the game's story line would randomly generate as the player progressed and their actions would affect the story.
Would this be a bad idea ...
20
votes
5answers
2k views
How should I structure a design document?
Should the design document be a continuous line of text, with real sentences, more like a description of the entire game, or should I structure it in simple points? What are the benefits, and are ...
20
votes
5answers
1k views
Spreadsheets in Game Design?
There have been two instances from the past two weeks that I've heard from well known successful game developers that they use spreadsheets when designing games.
The first being David Whatley in ...
20
votes
4answers
2k views
How to determine the amount of experience needed for leveling up
Related questions under this topic might include:
How should I base how much experience points it takes to get to the next level?
What factors are involved in this?
How do I keep the player not ...
20
votes
6answers
2k views
Game planning and software design? I feel that UML is not convenient
In my university, they always emphasize and hype about UML design and stuff, in which I feel it is not going to work well with game structure design. Now, I just want a professional advice on how ...
19
votes
2answers
818 views
Who kept a blog for a year with a new game idea every day, and where is it?
There's this indie game developer who tried to come up with a new original idea for a game every day for a year - and he put all his thoughts on his website. +200 ideas so far, if I remember ...
19
votes
3answers
852 views
Making a game as a tutorial?
I am in charge of a game development club at my school and I'd like to work on a project this summer that I could use as a tutorial next semester. I have never done anything quite like this so I was ...
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votes
15answers
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How to discourage micromanagement in strategy games?
When designing a strategy game (or one in a similar genre), how do you avoid having your players focus almost entirely on micromanagement? What should be done and what avoided in gameplay mechanics?
18
votes
3answers
523 views
How do you choose the right price of items in your games?
I have a game in which the player earns money for wining races and, then, he can spend that money to unlock new levels or to improve his vehicle. Now, I am choosing the money you earn and the prices ...
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votes
2answers
1k views
A good way to prototype game ideas?
We, as in my 4 person indie group, have an entire whiteboard that looks like graffiti for prototyping our game ideas. We look at it every day and choose which idea draws us in the most when we near ...
