Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Game design
Game design might seem fairly simple, but there is a lot more to it than most people
think at first. Game design encompasses deciding on the style of your graphics, what
the world will look like, the mood, designing the main gameplay mechanics of the
game, the overall goal for the player, and the basic story idea. Of course, often there
are graphic and sound artists who do the actual work of creating the graphics and
sound for the game. But the graphics and sound styles first need to be specified in
the game design, or the artists won't know what sort of graphics and sound to create.
Probably the most important thing about a game is that it is fun. If it is not fun, the
players won't play it. However, it's not quite so simple because different players like
different types of games. So, what is fun for one player may not be for another. So
don't try to please everyone as this is generally not possible. If you do, you could eas-
ily find yourself chasing an unreachable goal.
In the world of game design, there can be arguments about the most important ele-
ment. Some will say graphics, and others will say gameplay. However, in reality, they
are both very important. Graphics make a game look good, but graphics don't have
to be realistic. They can be cartoony or have other styles that don't look realistic. This
doesn't make a game bad by any means. A good example of this is Nintendo's
The
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
that uses a graphical style known as
toon
shading
to give its world a cartoony look.
The final experience that you get from a game is not down to just graphics, gameplay,
orsound.It'sacombinationofalloftheelementsthatcometogethertocreatethefinal
game. Of course, controls are very important because they are the interface between
the player and the game. If the interface is weird or doesn't work well, players prob-
ably won't play the game much. Sound effects and music set the mood for the game
world, and the graphics provide the visuals and contribute to the mood as well.
Game difficulty
Probably one of the trickiest aspects of game design is the game difficulty. You don't
want to make it too easy, or some players will get bored and quit. Likewise, if you
make it too difficult, some players will rage quit. So, how do we deal with this issue?
One way is to make your game have multiple difficulty levels so that the players can
select the one they want. Most commonly, they are named
Easy
,
Normal
,
Hard
,
