Game Development

Street life After seeing so many repeating themes in games(FPS competition and war-theme, strategy, tactics, teamwork) I have of making a refreshing one. While I have likes for many themes in games, I thought adding a new, refreshing theme would be nice. Why street life? Because I have so many bad memories with street fighting, being broke and cold blood pumping trough my veins-the last one because of heavy schizophrenia, and it is not a pleasure feeling. How would you implement it in a game? I'm not sure, but I can readily it was cool in GTA San Andreas. So many rappers draw inspiration from it. The street life, not GTA. If we conclude, GTA is based on street life. I think this is important to notice, as many people(including myself) live many kinds of street life, so it would probably smart to fix this hole in games. Let me talk about my schizophrenia: ugliest form of schizo. When I first had it(12 years ago), I could see colors flying around me, demons, ... on th...

Lesson in physics I think distinction of whether game physics will be real or fantasy/sci-fi is an important to make. This is in my opinion an important aspect of a good game. Either way gravity is a law of gravity you just have to understand and same goes formula. It's good if you know about friction, fraction, quantum physics, and most importantly, even relativity of time, and electricity works. Gravity is important in space games as well. How much do you remember of this from high-school? Either way if you remember a good deal or not, this is an important reason why you should Wikipedia and Google for thorough research on math, chemistry, physics, literature, art, music and poetry. This is the lesson I tried to get across: research your problems and you'll have much better chances at making a game. That and if you're still in school/college, don't cheat at tests and actually listen to the professor: so keep learning, no matter how much you have mastered ...

Basics of level design What is difference between "overall" game design and level design? In my opinion a good game designer should be well-skilled in basics of level design and vice-versa. What should a "in-general" game designer know then about level design? First of all, how to use a 3d modeler, 3D paint, the game engine if one exists. What about the other way around: what should a level designer know about game mechanism design? A level designer in a RPG(role-playing game) should be very well-informed of the story and quests. Furthermore, a level designer should understand how to make levels which encourage replayability. What kind of levels would encourage it? -the hardest form would be non-linear quests, which we already described -an easier form would be a well-calculated difficulty system -wide open large manually created world(like Darkfall Online) -lots of Achievements which would prove player's skills even after one has beaten the campaig...

Structure of a game A game normally consists of some challenges to overcome. This can appear in the terms of a campaign, chapters or skirmish(battle-only) levels. Challenges can be single-player or multiplayer. On the development aspect, this means the Game Design Document must include the core game mechanics. Furthermore, games include a certain quality of graphics, while some have no emphasis on graphics whatsoever. But have would one implement graphics in a GDD? Myself I find it an impossible task. While I'm not saying some games don't have remarkable graphics, I don't think they have a place in the Game Design Document. Another example is game physics. They can be described even if they are set in normal ("real") physics environment. Let's try to describe graphics in a GDD by an example: All levels need great textures, lightening effects, weather system, beautiful models and landscapes. Let's try to incorporate this into test-driven devel...

Unreal Tournament 2004 - Game Analysis Keep in mind I'm not making a review, and no review score. I thought I would analyze a good game I enjoyed a lot; because it should get us closer to understanding. Let's start with the no lying fact I never used any version of the Unreal Engine, but I can readily says it's complicated. Graphics are awesome, but they only distract you from really immersing yourself. What about the difficulty curve? I have to say it's awesome beating on Adept mode, even though it takes a very long to beat. But to beat a single level on Godlike, it's impossible unless you've played a long time and even more time on having superior reflexes and puzzling skill. Which I don't imagine myself doing it even though it would mean learning a new skill. Why not? Because it would take a very long playing it to achieve basics competence with other elite players. Also I have great reflexes(I train Shaolin Kung Fu), but I can't win on Godl...

"I make games and I'm proud of it" This is another interesting quote from Raph Kostert's "A Theory of Fun for Game Design". It represents a very important aspect every good game developer should understand. If you make games in pride of the processes, you'll enjoy it and most importantly, you'll realize you're contributing to humanity. Why is that true? Because of what I've stated in the first part of the series. If we continually don't fight for a better game design and quality of development of every role in the process, world will not keep up with the need for really good games, the influence of games on other multimedia, books and all types of arts and sports will be affected. Which means the world is in small-chance, but high-potential danger. I really am proud to call myself a game developer.

What is a game designer? Another difficult question, yet important one. As I have already stated, game designer has an important role. What is interesting to notice however, is the fact the entire development team should add to game design documentation. What is a role of game designer then? I think a good one would make a design which would also affect all the other documentations(level designer's especially). What would a good GDD(game design documentation) consist of? In my opinion, it should cover: -all the quests -level design -coding style(inputted by programmers) -world design -core and expanded game mechanics How would one design a good game then? Let's try to explain it by an example: I once made a game in 30 minutes and it was a good game. But it had a major problem: it was an average game, and nothing more than that. And I couldn't possibly build on it because I'd be creating more of the same. So the question arises how long would it take to cr...

Immersion I believe immersion is rare to get by these days. But considering it is an ecstatic state(I was in such a state three times and can guarantee if feels good) we should at least explore it. How can we better immerse ourselves? You can immerse yourself in your work, observing art, while listening to music, in enjoying the texture and taste of good food, but most importantly for us, in a video game. How many times have you really immerse yourself in one? Me neither. But jokes aside, I have never really been immersed by a video game. No lies. Since it's such a good feeling, let's take a look at how we could better immerse ourselves in a game: -drink some water while playing, I don't think there's another substance(except energy itself) which can stimulate our brains positively as much -daydream about our games -try to find some inspiration in a game for an artwork we are doing -make your life an adventure(do things you like, have a playful attitude, re...

Non-linear quests I have shared so far my thoughts on non-linear stories, but let's expand on it and actually define how would it be used for quests. I have once tried to make a game with non-linear story, but when it came to actually making lore quests, I ran into a major block: how could one possibly make a dynamic story? The game design documentation for my game is already 30 pages long the quests would make it even longer. So there had to be found another approach. I was stuck there for months. Until I read about test-driven development. TDD or test-driven development strives to make game development process shorter, with less computer resources usage. But how would one create a quest which would connect to 20 different quests? Here are my ideas: - use Lucid Chart for diagrams of the quest structure tree - better organize your code - small amount of connections for each quest - read on object-oriented programming - make it more than a chore, the point is to have...

"The way it's meant to be played" This is something I've been wondering about a lot lately. It is a trademark from Nvidia company which created Geforce. You have probably seen it in the Unreal Tournament 2004 intro. Most people see it, but just take it for granted. To me it is an interesting pattern as I love to see details consciously and this one is the most interesting one to me as it provokes so many thoughts about the topic I'm writing about, which is how to make better games. So what do you think it means? Fair play? By the rules(no cheating)? Unreal is a good game to play? Perhaps a thrilling challenge at hardest difficulties? I think all of the above would be a good example of directions for a better game: fair play means a healthy competition while respecting opponents and teammates. By the rules means no cheating. I think I find cheating bad for the gaming atmosphere. A thrilling challenge can be a great. But most important one is a "a go...

Roles of game development team members I think it's important to understand the various roles of a game developers of all kinds in order to understand what would a good game consist of. How can you can make a good game if you don't collaborate well with other teammates? This happens mostly if the workers have no clarity how the entire game process happens in detail. I will also explain my experiences as a member of an indie team, and my time of being the only developer in my team(which is at the time of writing and posting this). Project Leader Must be on top of the entire development process and is(but not exclusively) in need of understanding all other aspects and roles of the game development process. Lead Programmer Takes care of the coding process. Must be good at coding games. And has to code the game too. Programmer Coding is hard. It has to be done right, productively and requires making fast algorithms. Which is neither easy to learn, neither to do. One...

Levels grinding Experience points (XP) hunting means getting a certain amount of experience points to progress to the next level and is a one of the core game aspects of many games. It is so popular in games the fact is I saw it in more than 100 games. And rightfully it is, as it's a master-piece of what many people love. But what is the underlying mechanism? While it may be lots of fun for many players, the whole point is just doing the same kind of tasks to level up. Personally, I don't find that too interesting. I mean clearly it is there for a reason, but why would anyone call it fun, if we look directly at the underlying mechanism? Is it fun then because of  being a superior level? There is a level cap in most games, but what about ones who use infinite level cap? Well I think this a good step beyond capped-skill leveling, but clearly we can go further than so by going a step ahead? My idea is basically to make something which requires doing special tasks, such a...

Graphics in games Many argue(including my brother) argue they believe graphics is as important as game-play. I think while good graphics can be awesome, especially when combined with good physics. However I believe you can get as far in quality of the game without good graphics, or even further. Why so? Let's take a look in comparison to other game qualities: - physics: laws of physics are universal and you can't make them any better with graphics; same goes for space games, physics win there over graphics and if you tried to code a game while relying on graphics, you would spend ten times longer making good physics - immersion: let's be honest, good immersion is a rarity and focusing on graphics instead of game-play only further negatively affects the immersion - story telling: in role playing games, no quality of graphics will substitute for a good lore system , as quests have really nothing to do with graphics or even user interface -user interface: you may b...

Part 3 discusses how to create good patterns as we now know games have to be complex. Making interesting patterns To learn something, the object of learning has to be interesting enough to really internalize it. But how do you actually internalize? Through my life and study of the brain I realized conscious realization is far superior to forming habits. The patterns which are most interesting to learn are those who are interesting. On one side there is consciously and deliberately learning new lessons. Habits on the other hand are friend of routine , and routine is the enemy of intelligence. In real life you can do this by turning your life into an exciting adventure by having a playful and learning attitude towards your every day chores and tasks. How would you design and implement interesting patterns in games? My process with regard game design is to make a dynamic quest system(in case the game is a role-playing game) so there's not only non-linear story but multiple ...

Part 2 talks about difference between the terms "complex" and "complicated". Complex versus Complicated Let's first look at how we would define a complicated game: -hard to understand -too many difficult patterns -sometimes even annoying -won't teach you anything new None on this list are good components for a good game. On the other hand let's take a look at a oversimplified game: -too easy to grasp, too hard to master -too many simple patterns -dull and idle entertainment -won't teach you anything new Notice how they both won't teach you anything new. Should teaching valuable real-life lessons be a trait of a good game? The last elements on the list made me guess if both sides really teach nothing new, what is the golden-middle? Let's take a look at another term, called a complex game and how to define it: A complex game is neither simplified nor complicated. Does that mean it can teach us something? Most certainly I b...

I'm now alone in development. This had downfalls and benefits. Downfalls are I have loads of work, effort and time consumed. Benefits are more freedom, the exploration of all game development roles. The game is progressing, but I have a long way before it's published.

This is a very challenging topic and it inspired me after reading Raph Kostert's Theory of Fun for Game Design which concluded games are becoming more and more boring; and while you can certainly have some fun playing many games, they are decreasingly(if not equally) fun as games of previous millennium. As games are inspiration of other forms of art, this can be alarming and dangerous to the mankind. With this in mind, know that playing older games doesn't mean playing better games. So what can we do to fight this increasingly dangerous threat? This is the cause of this blog posts series. My goal is to make you understand better what a good game consists of. And also of course to help fight this threat to humanity(just like Raph Kostert is). Let's try to solve this problem in following points: -what is not fun in games? -what makes games repetitive? -what makes games overly addicting? -how to write an engaging story? -how to make engaging worlds and levels? -w...