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  • How can you avoid game design mistakes? Well, when it comes to making a game, it all can

  • sound deceptively simple: You just need art, code, music, and a game design right? Well

  • the truth is, there are a lot of moving parts and challenges within each discipline. What

  • everyone is working towards though, is executing on the game's design. Everyone on the team

  • needs to be working towards a single vision, and quarterbacking the team is the game designer.

  • The best music, art, engineering, and marketing in the world can't save a game from poor

  • design.

  • In this video we are going to give you game design tips straight from expert game designers

  • that will ensure you save time, money, and build excellent designs. These are the same

  • tips that we've seen used while building smaller indie games all the way up to massive

  • triple-A titles.

  • We are Ask GameDev, AKA Handsome Boy Programming School, AKA I saw De-sign, AKA The Ace of

  • Base of Camel Case, and these are seven common game designer mistakes to avoid!

  • Welcome back! If you're new to Ask Gamedev, we make videos to help you learn about the

  • games industry so that you can elevate your games and Inspire others. If you're on a

  • gamedev journey, consider subscribing. We'd love to help you along the way.

  • Let's get into it. Here are design mistakes to avoid.

  • We're starting with this one because it's arguably the most consistent mistake that

  • we see in our industry.

  • It's great to have a grand vision, but one of the biggest mistakes we've seen game

  • developers make, is just simply starting too big. Say you have 10 features to hit, and

  • you're designing them all at the same time. What happens if the first feature turns out

  • to be a dud? Would that affect the other 9? Would it render the other 9 pointless? Designing

  • too big reduces your ability to pivot or modify your ideas.

  • Instead, it's better to take the opposite approach. Define what your core is and tune

  • that until you are positive it works. Once you're happy with the core, you can start

  • layering the rest of the game on top of it. In a nutshell: Keep your game simple and add

  • to it when you are confident in your core.

  • Just remember the ASK rule: Avoid Starting Kingdoms. Start with a house, then grow from

  • there.

  • A lot of today's great games started from bite-sized demos, or even emerged from game

  • jams. The dev teams took a small idea, made sure it worked, and layered from there. The

  • concept for Superhot, for example, was originally developed for the 7-day FPS challenge.

  • #2 - Not considering how to onboard the player

  • Designing complex systems or deep mechanics can be fun, but it's always import to consider

  • how the player will learn to play. As a designer you will understand every little aspect of

  • your game, but you also need to consider what a fresh player's experience will be like.

  • If people aren't understanding your game, it's not the player's - or the playtester's

  • - fault. It's an indication of something that needs to be fixed. Remember, you won't

  • always be there with the player explaining things as they play.

  • Here are some ways that you help the player learn:

  • The most simple way is to have solid tutorials with well-explained concepts, and feedback

  • loops, that teach through difficulty ramping. You can also just have a really intuitive

  • design. How do you know if it's intuitive? Playtesting!

  • And finally, you can have a well-designed onboarding process built into the experience.

  • For example, if you're building a platformer, you can design levels in a way that compartmentalizes

  • things that the player needs to learn, in a step by step fashion. Do you ever wonder

  • why Mega Man games have an intro level before they get into letting you pick which Robot

  • Master to fight? Well, the intro levels are designed in a way that you'll learn all

  • the basics first, so that when it comes time to choosing one of the next levels after,

  • you'll be prepared for any of them, regardless of your choice.

  • #3 - Being too committed to an idea

  • Like they say: ideas are a dime a dozen. A particular design might sound brilliant during

  • a brainstorm, or look awesome on paper or in your head, but the truth is, you don't

  • know how much fun that design will be until you actually execute on it.

  • If after prototyping it, or getting feedback on your design, it doesn't seem to be working

  • or isn't fun, you need to be able to iterate, adapt, or let the idea go. It's great to

  • be a champion of your own ideas, and selling your ideas is definitely a much needed skill

  • in this industry, just don't get too attached. Know when to hold 'em, and know when to

  • fold 'em.

  • One of the most famous videogame pivots in recent history has to be the story of Fortnite.

  • Epic's initial vision for Fortnite wasMinecraft meets Left 4 Dead”, and it was launched

  • as a cooperative sandbox shooter. With the success of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds

  • skyrocketing around the same time of Fortnite's launch, they decided to pivot. They added

  • a Battle Royale mode and the rest is history.

  • #4 - Creating an overly rigid design

  • Don't focus too much on "what's supposed to happen" or "how the player is supposed

  • to play". Games are experiential and should be fun to play. If your design is too rigid

  • (e. g. This is the only correct strategy) then your game may not be any fun. You're

  • creating the experience, but not controlling the experience - make sure you make that distinction.

  • If your players are just following a series of instructions, exactly the way that you

  • want them to, then the experience becomes akin to just painting by numbers.

  • Some things you can do to make your designs less rigid are:

  • Add open-world elements to your environments Provide secondary or tertiary paths through

  • gameplay Use real-world physics. And

  • have destructible environments that let the player decide how to advance. Broforce is

  • an excellent example of this. In Broforce you can play through a level like a basic

  • action platformer, but since mostly everything is destructible, you can also just tunnel

  • your way through a level. And since you use a differentBrowith unique skills each

  • life, there are numerous fun ways to take down enemies, and get through a level.

  • #5 - Focusing on story too much up front

  • Unless you're a making a visual novel, don't focus too much on story up front. There may

  • be exceptions and story is important but don't put all your effort into writing a plot if

  • you don't know how the game will play yet. Like a lot of the common game designer mistakes

  • on this list, this takes away room for you to pivot, adapt, or completely change your

  • design if you feel the need to do so.

  • With a few exceptions, most of the core Mario games have the same basic story: Bowser takes

  • Princess Peach. Mario saves Princess Peach from Bowser. Even know we all know what's

  • going to happen, we're always psyched for new Mario games because they're extremely

  • innovative, charming, and fun to play.

  • #6 - Underestimating Polish

  • Polish, polish, polish! Never underestimate how important tuning and polish are and how

  • much time it will take. When you are working on a feature, and you think you are 80% done,

  • you're probably only halfway there. When estimating time, be sure to allocate a sufficient

  • amount of time on the schedule for tuning and polish.

  • We've seen a countless amount of games rush through or even skip this phase, and just

  • end up crashing and burning at launch. Don't get your game skewered by rushing through

  • tuning and polish. As Shigeru Miyamoto says “A delayed game is eventually good, but

  • a rushed game is forever bad”.

  • And lastly #7 - Arbitrarily adding things

  • When working on games, it's easy to get carried away and just arbitrarily add things.

  • You'll hear the phraseWouldn't it be cool if….?” a lot! Sure a lot of things

  • sound cool, and probably are, but you have to be purposeful in everything you add into

  • your design.

  • Beware of feature creep and know why you're adding something. Don't just add a feature

  • simply becauseit could work”. An unnecessary feature may be harmless, but some may actually

  • harm good features and take away from the overall experience. So at best, you're just

  • eating up time that would be better spent polishing the rest of the game, and at worst,

  • you're adding things that ruin the overall experience.

  • Some of the best games that we've played are also some of the most minimal. Take Thomas

  • Was Alone for example. With great writing, excellent level design, and a gamefeel that's

  • tuned perfectly, Thomas Was Alone was able to breath life into basic, colored, rectangles.

  • Well that's all 7! If you'd like to protect more freshly authored game code, you can take

  • a look at our previous gamedev mistakes video, 8 mistakes to avoid when making your first

  • game, here:

  • What other game designer mistakes can you share with the Ask Gamedev community? Let

  • us know in the comments!

  • And before we leave you this week, let's take a look at the Ask Gamedev Community Member

  • Game of the Week! This week's game comes from Sharky, who shared their game on our

  • Discord Server. Chromasia - Rock Paper Tactics by Nexus Games.

  • Chromasia is a turn-based tactical RPG that puts an interesting spin on Rock, Paper, & Scissors.

  • Explore your way through a dark but comical story, and choose your own path to 1 of 8

  • unique endings.

  • Chromasia was built by a team of two people and made with a custom engine that uses the

  • LIBGDX framework. It's available now on Steam.

  • Thanks for watching! we are Ask Gamedev and we make game development videos on how to

  • elevate your games and inspire others. We publish new content every week so consider

  • subscribing - and hit the bell below to be notified as soon as a new video is available.

How can you avoid game design mistakes? Well, when it comes to making a game, it all can

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