Hello, I'm Blob. Just recently have I read a post entitled "
Making successful games on Kongregate and the World", which I'd managed to miss seeing for a long time. The post is a large exuberant list of good-practices when designing flash games. Originally I was going to write a reply in the thread, but my post is in such a scope that it seems more fitting of its own thread. If you haven't read the initial post of that thread already, I advise you do.
I found the content of the heading post to be a perfect compendium of much of what I disdain about the stigmas we've attached to videogames and the flash games the post is focused on. Let it be said that the thread is not misleading and is, in fact, accurately titled, making its contents all the more nauseating. It should also be noted that no ill-will is intended from my response.
Anyway, here is the long list of comments I wanted to make regarding many of the tips given, some sarcastic:
First ImpressionsName [of game] must be short and give a good impression(nouns work better, or smart puns)
Interesting things have relevant names, but are usually just vague enough to pique your interest, they're certainly not concerned with blurting out the concrete form of the work (See: Shakespearian works, popular modern literature, good games (Dark Souls, Mother)). The name should be as long as it needs to be, and in mercy of God, please don't name it after a pun.
Contemporary touch(like a spaceship game named after the name of a recently discovered star)
Yeah gotta make sure you date it so it won't be relevant in a few years.
Take advantage of similar successful games
I don't even know what this means but clearly it's shallow.
Season(releasing "Snow Battle 4" on august is not the best)
Anything that is designed to be only seasonally relevant has an expiration date of months. Don't do it period.
Use some magic words like "unique" "436 different weapons" "12different races" "completely original"...
This is usually a popular subject for satire by more conscious people because they understand that throwing around empty numbers and nonsense phrases like "completely original" mean nothing. You can make a game with 1000 levels which all suck and last seconds each or you can make a game with just one meaningful and substantial level worth your time, the numbers tell you nothing, and what's considered "completely original" is somewhere between entirely subjective and nonexistent.
Funny catchy introduction to the description("Being a zombie isn't easy...", "Those baddies will never learn they don't stand a chance against you!")
I think the only place you could find lines like these are on the boxes of old family-friendly comedy films from now-dead rental store chains, thankfully these are now mutually hated.
Keywords!
Grow = this game is for upgrade addicted ones!
Explicitly designing an upgrade game to feed people who are addicted to them is to birth a parasite onto the human race.
BalanceNo excessive worry of losing
What if my game is exploring the theme or associative-emotions of loss?
-give some money/exp even when losing
This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard.
High level cap
Gotta make sure they keep putting more time into the game. More time. Lose more time. More time. More.
Can buy all upgrades
The fact that you keep assuming these games will inherently have upgrades or addictive elements is scary. Anyway, this method makes the choices the player makes entirely pointless because there's ultimately no customization or personality to them, they will always end up with the same results. Even in highly addictive products like MMOs you're kept away from this opportunity because of said reasons.
Not all upgrades are needed to beat the game
How about none are needed.
Point out in the description if it will harder than usual.
I didn't realize we had an established standard for how difficult a video game is by default.
No instant losing
Why not? Plenty great and respected games do this.
Choosing difficulty levels is not useful
Player can instantly adjust difficulty level during the game doing some actions
What
Some gain when you lose.
You already said this but it's still the dumbest shit ever.
No 'now you have to restart all' game over
R.I.P. Roguelikes & Survival Games
No more than 1 minute of game between a save-point and another
no tricky jump timing(many players are not skilled...)
No challenge either
AddictivenessAddictiveness
I lose sleep at night knowing how this world perceives and treats games.
Medium lenght(min 2hours, max 20 days of story-mode gameplay)
If your game has communicated its gameplay or message perfectly before that, too bad! Better pad it out!
Challanges!
No we already established those were out.
Impossible challanges are not literally impossible
I want you to read what you wrote
Small hints on how to beat challanges
Jump Better. React Faster. Think Harder.
Replay features
MORE TIME. MORE. LOSE MORE TIME. MORE.
Feeling, SettingEmotions
exploration
This is not an emotion.
cuteness
This is not an emotion.
conquer
This is not an emotion.
problem-solving
This is not an emotion.
advancement
This is not an emotion.
and other more!
and other more!
and other more!
Know what emotion your game creates and enchance it!
Emotions can make the player remember the game(just as a bookmark on his brain!)
impressions(the fastest given, the fastest forgiven!)
Colors and sounds give a fast impression
Text, jokes and humorous situations give a mid-fast impression
Story and gameplay(game mechanics) give a slow impression
I venture to say you know nothing about emotions or human psychology. In Color Theory, Music Theory, Comedic Study, and Literary Theory there are no given 'impressions'. Art can be used to deliver any kind of pacing and any kind of mood no matter what medium. There are vibrant, kinetic uses of color and distilled, depressing uses of color. There is slow music and fast music. There is rapid comedy that makes you laugh and black comedy that makes you cry. There is no one speed at which a story must go, or one 'impression' it gives you.
You can convey awe by
enabling fullscreen mode
glowing shooting effects
having a thing player cared shattered and then reconstructed
weapons have extra effects after 500-1500sec
colors and sound after a grey world
Brian Moriarty on Awe, The Secret of Psalm 46:
Contemplating these dazzling jewels of wisdom and eloquence gives rise to an extraordinary feeling.
A potent, rare and precious emotion with the potential to completely upset your life.
An emotion powerful enough to make a man abandon his wife and children, forfeit career and reputation, lay down his possessions and follow his heart without questioning.
That sweet, sweet fusion of wonder and fear, irresistible attraction and soul-numbing dread known as awe.
Awe is the Grail of artistic achievement. No other human emotion possesses such raw transformative power, and none is more difficult to evoke.
Few and far between are the works of man that qualify as truly awesome.
Now, please don’t come away from this lecture thinking that the key to awesome game design is the installation of Easter eggs!
Ordinary games, with their contrived Easter eggs and cheat codes, are like the Battery of the Month club.
You have to trudge down to the back of the store to get what you really came for.
If super power is what people really want, why not just give it to them?
Is our imagination so impoverished that we have to resort to marketing gimmicks to keep players interested in our games?
Awesome things don’t hold anything back.
Awesome things are rich and generous.
The treasure is right there.
---
I hope that quote speaks for itself.
Art and Sound Realistic art=Realistic gameplay(there is no immortality bonus when you are playing in Call of Duty)
Art has no rules? Does now.
No art paradoxes(like pixel graphics and high-definition landscapes...)
Disregard that there are many famous "art paradoxes" that mesh styles together.
no colors if the game is black and white
You can convey awe by
-
colors and sound after a grey world
Tower DefenseIf Tower Defense
(many top games share these features)
I'm not quoting this whole thing because it's too long, but it may as well be the template for every tower defense game, and you're advised to follow it as well as you can so you end up with the same thing.
Puzzle GamesDescriptions!
-player knows what can do
Funnily enough I'm working on a puzzle game specifically about the player not knowing the extent of what they can do.
Themes -zombies;enough human resamble real wars, enough evil to don't feel bad at destroying them.
Just gonna quote this.
-unusual funny animals (like squirrels, hedgehogs, giant whales...)
Ah yes, I believe this was a heavy theme used in many of Shakespeare's finest.
-mondial events(7/11, end/begin of a war, maya predictions,olympic games...)
7/11
Hahahahahaha
That's a good place to stop.
---
I say all of this not to condemn but to enlighten. I'd like to end this with some excerpts, hopefully interpreted optimistically by you, that run in contrast to the mass common video game perception:My favorite videogames are the games I don’t fully understand. They stay with me after I stop playing. They ask questions I cannot answer. They resonate with mystery.
I get little satisfaction from completing a game. How boring, the feeling of 100%, all content exhausted, all achievements earned, all collectibles collected, all endings ended. If I see all there is to see and then put the game away, satisfied, then the game has failed me.
I can no longer stomach good game design. Wherein I am led, step by step, through a litany of features and abilities, all while being made to feel strong or smart or cool. I am rewarded with unambiguous feedback and steady progression. I am assured that every puzzle and challenge, every problem, is solvable in the end.
But the most interesting problems aren’t solvable.
-
The Super Nintendo had wonderful games, but it was a sequel system at heart. Its core classics were updates, not radical new vessels for mystery. Super Mario World, A Link to the Past, Super Metroid…they had their share of mystery, sure. It helped if you were new to each series. If you played their NES predecessors, then these sequels were mostly just great games. Rounded, handsome, refined.
They fulfilled their 8-bit promise. They were fairer, clearer, more rewarding, less jagged, more super. And less mysterious. Their auras diminished by excellence.
And mystery is not excellent.
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