Game Development

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What does a good game consist of? (part 40)

Challenge Challenge is one of the key components of a good game. As far as that may sound motivating to you as a developer and a player, in reality it's a lot harder to implement than said, and also hard to beat, while playing. But that of course shouldn't stop you from trying to achieve both anyway. One way to make a game more challenging is to increase the statistics of AI opponents. Challenge sheet tier 1: bear hit points 100 tactics 10 attack 10 damage 1 defense 5 intelligence 1 strategy 1 swimming ...

What does a good game consist of? (part 39)

Stealth tools Splinter Cell games got really good way of performing tools. The more moves and techniques you know, the more likely you'll beat the level. Examples are night vision, third person camera look behind walls, triple beam laser, full legs stretch(far above the ground). You have to keep in mind that tools here also implies anything than else than weapons, as in various toolkits of all types. Like pistol silencer, camping shovel(to make a stealth camp), food, water and other needs for survival. It is possible to get creative and make outstanding and unique, when it comes to the kind of tools your games uses. Also keep in mind 2 dimensional games use stealth to. How to devise a stealth tool? Here is a good example: if you are making a first person shooter stealth game, you can try cloak modules, that consist a camoflague cloak. There is one thing you have to keep in mind though, the actual cloak structure and what kind of a cloak you use. In other words, modules consist a c...

What does a good game consist of? (part 38)

Top challenges You can measure your game design by measuring the difficulty of your challenges. Basically, all of them. After that you see which are the hardest, and then either keep them, or ideally make them harder or make additional ones on top of the difficulty of these ones. It may sound stupid, but the best games ever made are the ones that are hard, hard to complete and after that beat(finish all additional and optional setup challenges). The main or normal most useful procedure to measure the difficulty of challenges is by writing stars. For example, say an outstanding challenge you made is above most others, you give 6 stars, then you measure the others and see if you want any with 7 stars. If you pick any or multiple with 7 stars, just do the same procedure all over for reassessment. And keep repeating until you have a decent game design documentation. There's one very important thing to remember when making top challenges: they are hard and not everyone can beat them(in ...

What does a good game consist of? (part 37)

Challenging additional content Additional content here implies unlockable boss levels, medals, collectibles and trophies, not only (buyable) downloadable content. Additional content makes a good game replay able, so you can beat it multiple times. If you ever played Shadow Labyrinth on Steam, you'll probably want to play the game again if you beaten it. The game is very hard to play and finish, and that's exactly why it's worth playing again. There's no problem with making a hard game, but additional difficulty challenges keep the players playing for a lot longer time and difficulty makes a game worth playing longer, in fact a lot longer. Many players play idle clickers instead, because of being dead sick of hard games. What is the actual truth however is that hard games a great teachers of cunningness and life. It feels damn freaking good to beat a tough challenge. Additional challenges therefore come very handy when making a hard, exciting game. Making a good and a h...

What does a good game consist of? (part 36)

Strong anti hack protection Game that is well protected from hackers, has a lot of potential. And this does not imply strictly multiplayer, but single player as in using the single player to hack the master download server or the high scores. Americas army has a hacking prevention tool called PunkBuster. Here is a punk buster mod: void check_for_hacker_activity(int mod_id) { run(mod_id, "hack log", "master folder"); run(mod_id, "advanced aim bot"); } Another way to prevent server hacking: void clear_server(std::string server_name) { for (int index{1}; index <= 50; ++index) { clear(server_name, delete_log[index-1]); } } Most common hacks in multiplayer video games are flying, aimbot, wall hack, glitch abuse, automated grinding, immunity to damage. Fix flying hacking: void gravity_fix(std::string object_name) { flush_gravity(object_name, 100); } Fix aim bot: void reset_...

Game development is hard (part 2)

People understand the game development as something very exciting, and it is, but that doesn't make it an easy task, in fact far from it. All game development, especially coding is hard. And all good games that were ever made, were or are big projects. It takes money and effort to make an out-standing game, that will people will play for decades. Personally, I find coding the hardest part of all game development. Most people think that becoming and being a coder only requires schooling, learning coding every day and coding. But the truth is that coding is hard. It takes a lot of studying and coding. Having a MIT degree won't hurt anyone, either. Game coder is a vital and crucial position in a game development team of a business or a corporate company. The most important part of the development team, in other words. I am not saying that game art and level design and game design are not hard either, but coding is a notable exception. My main advice when it comes to coding, is: 1...