My Personal Game Design Rules

Hey all,

So recently I've been talking with my friends about what makes a good game. I've had to repeat, many times, my personal rules when I design games that I feel makes a great game.

I'll gloss over them here:

Coherence / Following the rules: The game must be coherent and consistent, game objects / characters must obey the rules that the game designer sets early on in the experience, no exceptions.

Do or Show, Don't Tell: The game must show the player or make the player use mechanics of the game in order for the player to understand them. Allow the player to learn mechanics in a safe environment with minimal punishment so that the game can introduce challenges while feeling "fair".

Exercise the Brain: Learning is fun, variety is learning. Multiplayer games are great at this. A good game teaches everything it has to offer before the player stops playing. The more rigidly constructed your game is, the more limited it will be.

Content is king: Neat particle effects does not make a great game. "Keep the great, trash the okay". A game with 10 hours of great content that the player will remember with 20 hours of padding is a 10 hour game.

Player Choice Matters: Let decisions have weight, don't leave decisions up to the player that ultimately mean nothing, that's not fun.

That's really it, not that complicated. Before you ask, I don't like Heavy Rain very much, it's a movie. The above is subject to interpretation, and by no means a law, just the rules I follow. If you disagree that's fine, let me know, maybe I overlooked something!

Jimmy

The Spread of Misinformation

Hey all,

Today I read something that really struck me:

"Social media sites are more powerful than science itself, more powerful than reason, more powerful than knowing what you're talking about."

(It came from here: Click!)(Paraphrased a bit)

I would have to agree as well. It seems that people are really good at spreading misinformation that seems "logical" across the internet. Like, would you eat something common in salad dressings if you found out that one of the ingredients was commonly used as a household and factory cleaner?

What if I told you I was talking about vinegar?

At face value, talking about chemicals, vaccines, etc. and painting them in a bad light would make sense, but it's just interesting how many "facts" get through without thorough research and without peer approval. Google University is strong.

I guess what I'm saying is... Do your homework, and listen to experts. Trust your doctor.

Stupidity spreads. Lol.

Found the quote I needed to read.

"Love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor." - Dante

Credit to @honzogonzo for posting that. If he's wrong then blame him. Lol.

I feel like I suffer from having too much pride sometimes, and don't take a moment to be humble. Hopefully posting here will help.

Another Art Dump?

Hey all,

Project Chang-e (The project name, if you will) has reached a point now where a lot of the content is now in script, and minimal changes are actually made to game code. It's a strange feeling knowing that not a lot of coding is required from here on out.

I've been working on art recently, posted below.
Once again, they won't make much sense, but they will eventually.
I've been working on my drawing skills that aren't pixels, man it is rough. I have to get over my phobia of people laughing at what I draw, it's a long story, but basically I never heard the end of the jokes about how my art skills suck. I eventually only drew funny things on purpose so that laughter was the intention. I'm going to put that phobia to rest.

Anyway, the art. Appreciate, don't steal! I may put watermarks on these images at some point to protect them.

At some point I'll post what the game itself looks like, I can tell you now it looks at lot better than it did a few months ago! I'll be making more art and having an actual artist go over my work.

On another note, I'm gonna take the time to be more humble, I feel like I've been a bit of a prick recently and it's not healthy. Like, I feel on top of the world since I just got promoted at my job, get paid more, been winning at Street Fighter, making progress in art, music, and programming etc. But I don't need to talk about it every day / carry myself like I'm important. Time to take a step back and just appreciate what I have so far.

Thanks,

Jimmy