A set of rules that govern an in-game experience. Game design is an effort to come up with game mechanics that allow for players to have a fun and engaging experience.
79
votes
9answers
3k views
What makes a computer opponent feel alive?
Are there any recommended blogs or whitepapers that talk about making the AI in an RPG game feel more real? (Specifically in turn based combat.)
I know something must be out there, but I am only ...
44
votes
7answers
10k views
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 ...
29
votes
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 ...
27
votes
7answers
7k views
How does pathfinding in RTS games work?
[crossposted from stackoverflow]
In a game such as Warcraft 3 or Age of Empires, the ways that an AI opponent can move about the map seem almost limitless. The maps are huge and the position of other ...
26
votes
11answers
1k views
How to encourage players to level up multiple characters?
In my game, it is possible to make multiple characters. You can make as many as you desire. What I usually do (and almost all players do) is just make a single character and level it up a LOT, and ...
25
votes
6answers
2k views
What's a way to implement a flexible buff/debuff system?
Overview:
Lots of games which RPG-like statistics allow for character "buffs", ranging from simple "Deal 25% extra damage" to more complicated things like "Deal 15 damage back to attackers when hit."
...
24
votes
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; ...
20
votes
5answers
1k views
Reasons to disable game save during combat (e.g. Mass Effect 2)
So I've been playing Mass Effect 2 (PC) and one of the things I've noticed is that you can only save your game when you're not engaged in combat. As soon as the first enemy shows up on your radar, ...
20
votes
5answers
970 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 ...
18
votes
15answers
1k views
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?
17
votes
5answers
631 views
Level Design, Implying a path to the player
I am looking for articles on level design and particularly for techniques to imply a direction the player to go in, instead of another.
Like which game mechanics can be used, how graphics, sound, ...
16
votes
3answers
680 views
In modern AAA games with open environment and lot of static content (eg : crysis), how is occlusion culling performed?
Two ideas i have in mind :
1) Scene is rendered to a invisible buffer, using low resolution and low polygon count models (or even using only bounding volumes like cubes or spheres). The buffer is ...
16
votes
4answers
2k views
“The Game Object” - and component-based design
I've been working on some hobby projects the last 3-4 years. Just simple 2d and 3d games. But lately I have started a bigger project. Soo in the last couple of months I've been trying to design a game ...
15
votes
4answers
3k views
Best strategy (tried and tested) for using Box2D in a real-time multiplayer game?
I am currently tackling real-time multiplayer physics updates for a game engine I am writing. My question is how best to use Box2D for networked physics. If I run the simulation on the server, should ...
14
votes
4answers
3k views
A list of game mechanics
I'm trying to compile a list of game mechanics, by which I mean high-level/meta game mechanics like Cooperation, Resource Management, Chance and Time Manipulation rather than low level mechanics like ...
14
votes
3answers
567 views
Peer-to-peer hostless competitive games of chance?
I'm wondering - have any games been ever created that are:
peer-to-peer without one peer being designated as host
competitive (not cooperative, players play against one another)
provably fair (there ...
14
votes
1answer
661 views
Elevation model for hexagonal game grids
TL;DR:
Where should elevation be anchored on a civ-style hexagonal grid? Center, side or vertex? (Or more complex?)
Question proper:
Consider for a moment a classic game we all know and love ...
12
votes
2answers
594 views
Formula for three competing heroes, each has one they can beat and one they're beaten by
I am trying to design a game for a project I have, The main idea is:
3 Types of heroes
3 Stats per hero
There are no levels involved so the differences must be located on stats.
Fight logic - The ...
12
votes
5answers
745 views
Game actions that take multiple frames to complete
I've never really done much game programming before, pretty straightforward question.
Imagine I'm building a Tetris game, with the main loop looking something like this.
for every frame
handle ...
12
votes
1answer
780 views
Programming a climbing system like tomb raider
I was wondering if anyone knew or had knowledge of how to program a climbing system like the one found in tomb raider/uncharted.
I had thought of just having bounding boxes at all the climbable ...
11
votes
6answers
579 views
Persistent Browser Based Game: To Captcha or not to Captcha?
I've been working (off-and-on) on a pbbg that's pretty old school. If you've ever played Carnage Blender then you get the idea.
If not, it's a simple idea that's been done a lot: A player is ...
11
votes
5answers
615 views
Do any games have this type of mechanic?
This question got closed on gaming SE as off topic. I hope it's on topic here.
Many years ago, a friend and I prototyped a simple 2d rpg with what we thought was a unique idea for the combat ...
11
votes
4answers
1k views
Programming the combat sequence in a role playing game
I'm trying to write a short "game" where a player goes around and fights monsters but I have no idea how to handle the combat.
For example, say I have a "Warrior" and a "Troll". How do the two fight ...
11
votes
1answer
723 views
Moving an Object along a Curve while Rotating it
I woud like to move an object along a curve. At particular points on the curve, I wish the object to change speed and rotate itself along its axis.
Imagine an airplane flying to a destination. It has ...
10
votes
6answers
442 views
Constant resource drain for strategy game
So I have a factory that builds a unit over time. The unit costs mass. Mass is stored as a floating point variable, and is constantly generated over time. Example, I have a resource node that gives 5 ...
10
votes
3answers
601 views
How to implement buffs / debuffs / temporary stat changes in an RPG? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What’s a way to implement a flexible buff/debuff system?
In the context of creating an engine for a RPG I want to implement a generic way to give effects / buffs / ...
10
votes
1answer
341 views
Why has it become commonplace for NPCs to have one weapon per class instead of variants?
For instance, in Half-Life 2 you have Civil Protection, Combine Soldier and Combine Elite. Each class has a weapon. Is there a shift away from this at all, where the NPCs are matched with the player ...
10
votes
6answers
1k views
How do I ensure an appropriate payout ratio for a slot machine?
I have done a lot of research into random number generators for slot machines, reel stop calculations and how to physically give the user a good chance on winning.
What I can't figure out is how to ...
10
votes
1answer
713 views
Best Method to Simulate Height in a Tiled Top-Down Game
What is the best method to simulate height for a top-down tiled 2D game? One way I thought was to make tiles which are supposed to be higher brighter, but I was wondering if there was a standard or ...
9
votes
4answers
5k views
Logic behind a bejeweled-like game
In a prototype I am doing, there is a minigame similar to bejeweled. Using a grid that is a 2d array (int[,]) how can I go about know when the user formed a match? I only care about horizontally and ...
9
votes
6answers
510 views
Designing rules to fight smallpox in Civ-style TBS games
TL;DR: How do you design a ruleset for a Civ-style TBS game that prevents city smallpox from being a profitable or viable strategy?
Long version: Civ-style games are pretty great. Bringing a ...
9
votes
4answers
781 views
Balancing game difficulty against player progression
It seems that the current climate of games seems to cater to an obvious progression of player power, whether that means getting a bigger, more explosive gun in Halo, leveling up in an RPG, or ...
9
votes
2answers
668 views
Bomberman clone, how to do bombs?
I'm playing around with a bomberman clone to learn game-developement.
So far I've done tiles, movement, collision detection, and item pickup. I also have pseudo bombplacing (just graphics and ...
8
votes
7answers
549 views
How to create a mathematical mechanism in order for a game to be balanced?
For example, in a game like Diablo, how did they decide how much damage each skill does?
Is it the amount of clicks that the player needs to do? Or maybe the expected lifetime of a player? Maybe ...
8
votes
5answers
618 views
Do you think it's Possible to go from C++ Straight to 3D (skipping 2D)
Do you think it's possible to go straight from Experienced C++ programming (5 or so years) straight into learning DirectX 3d?
I mean....i'd be starting with the basics, im more interested in setting ...
8
votes
2answers
239 views
Is there a design flaw when an entity's state doesn't fully utilize enter(), execute() and exit()?
I'm following Mat Buckland's Programming Game AI by Example, and I find that I don't always have use for enter(), execute() and exit() on an entity's state. For example, in an RPG, a weapon may have ...
8
votes
2answers
3k views
Interaction between engine parts
I want to ask a question about how the information exchange between game engine parts should be implemented.
The engine is separated in four parts: logic, data, UI, graphics.
In the beginning I made ...
8
votes
7answers
1k views
Other games that employ mechanics like the game “Diplomacy”
I'm doing a little bit of research and I'm hoping you can help me track down any games, other than Diplomacy (online version here), that employ all or some of the mechanics in Diplomacy (rules, short ...
8
votes
3answers
417 views
How to add a sound that an enemy AI can hear?
Given:
a 2D top down game
Tiles are stored just in a 2D array
Every tile has a property - dampen (so bricks might be -50db, air might be -1)
From this I want to add it so a sound is generated at ...
8
votes
1answer
201 views
Showing range on hexagonal grid
Here is the situation.
I have hexagonal board,and a unit on it,with speed or move value 4.Diffrent terrain has a diffrent cost.When i click on the unit,game should show me a move range.
My solution ...
8
votes
5answers
415 views
Building (simple) stellar systems
I'm currently looking at how to easily simulate some stellar systems (meaning some central stars and then some planets with maybe satellites), in order to allow later some space based strategy game ...
8
votes
4answers
819 views
Time reverse mechanism in games
I am wondering about how time manipulation mechanisms in games are typically designed. I am particularly interested in time reversing (sort of like in the latest SSX or Prince of Persia).
The game ...
7
votes
3answers
423 views
How was 20Q made?
Ever since I was a kid, I've wondered how they made the 20Q electronic game. In this game, which is it's on device, you think of an object, thing, or animal (e.g. a potato or a donkey), once you ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
How do I render terrain in a 2.5D perspective, like in the game Don't Starve?
I have experience in making 2D side scroller games such as Terraria, but now I want to challenge myself and make a game that has a 2.5D perspective. The game I am trying to mimic is Don't Starve. ...
7
votes
3answers
381 views
Intellectual rights to game concepts
For a client I might be making a small puzzle game about getting a item out of a puzzle. The concept will strongly resemble this game :
...
7
votes
3answers
227 views
Where can I share and get feedback on my game idea?
I have read that ideas / game designs / unique mechanics are merely multipliers of execution, and that keeping them secret is just silly. But, I haven't found anywhere to share these ideas and receive ...
7
votes
5answers
842 views
Turn-Based RPG Battle Instance Layout For Larger Groups
What a title, eh?
I'm currently designing a videogame; a turn-based RPG like Final Fantasy (because everybody knows Final Fantasy). It's a 2D sprite game.
These are my ideas for combat:
The player ...
7
votes
4answers
504 views
Recursive dungeon maps as represented by an elastic 2d array
I came up with a method for recursively generating simple dungeon maps by starting with one room and recursively connecting new adjacent rooms randomly to it.
Maps are represented as two dimensional ...
7
votes
2answers
747 views
Level Implementation
I recently started to create a sidescroller game, for learning purposes. While creating several levels for it, i stumbled upon the question, how to implement these levels into my game. I made (and i ...
