Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
However, you should not allow these genre descriptions to circumscribe your cre-
ativity—especially at the concept stage. If you have a wholly new, never-before-seen
type of game in mind, design it as you envision it; don't try to shoehorn it into a
genre to which it doesn't belong. A game needs to be true to itself, so a truly hybrid
game may need to mix challenges that aren't typically presented together. But
don't mix characteristics of different genres without good reason; a game should
cross genres only if it genuinely needs to as part of the gameplay. A flight simulator
with a logic puzzle inserted in the middle of the game just to make the game differ-
ent from other flight simulators will only annoy flight sim fans.
Many game designers make the mistake of thinking that all players enjoy the same
things that the designer enjoys, so the designer has only to examine his own expe-
rience to know how to make a game entertaining. This is dangerous hubris. We
make video games to entertain an audience. You must think about who your audi-
ence is and what
they
like.
Unless you have been commissioned by a single individual, you design a game for a
class of people, not for one person. At this early stage, you must think about your
audience broadly, as a group of people that you hope will enjoy your game. One of the
first questions a publisher will ask you is, “Who will buy this game?” Think carefully
about the answer. What characteristics are your players likely to have in common?
What things set them apart from other gamers? What challenges do they enjoy?
More important, what challenges do they
not
enjoy? What interests them, bores
them, frustrates them, excites them, frightens them, and offends them? Answer
these questions, and keep the answers close at hand as you design your game.
THE PLAYER-CENTRIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE TARGET AUDIENCE
As Chapter 2 explained, the player-centric philosophy of game design requires that you
think about how your design decisions affect a representative player's experience of the
game. This approach ensures that your decisions serve the player's interests first, espe-
cially in the later stages of development when you are often tempted to make decisions
based on cost or convenience.
A game concept is not complete without a statement describing its intended audience.
Defining a target audience is not the same as player-centric design. You can apply
the player-centric approach only
after
you have defined the target audience. You
must begin by asking yourself the question, “Who am I trying to entertain?” Once
you have that answer, you can use it to apply the player-centric approach to other
design issues, asking yourself, “Does this feature entertain a representative player
from my target audience?”
