Signs
Warning 3/15/2009
Warning Signs
Indicators of Poor Game Design
During early play testing, there are several possible indicators of faulty game design.
Both internal and external testing can uncover these warning signs.
If caught early, they can be properly dealt with before release and disaster can be averted. If they are missed or ignored, the game can be in serious trouble.
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New Players Cannot Play Without Assistance
New Players Cannot Play Without Assistance
If the development team must constantly provide help to an outside party to play the game, there is a problem.
They need help on controls, the user interface, the roles of in-game objects, or game goals.
Needing some game information is natural since it may not be complete or well documented yet.
Excessive difficulties, however, are indicative of deeper problems that need to be addressed. For example, a specific part of the game requiring frequent guidance should be eliminated or made easier to understand.
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Screen shot of Star Wars: Rebellion. Initial tactical design made the game incredibly difficult for new players to play without assistance. Several simplifications improved gameplay significantly.
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New Players Cannot Have Fun Without Assistance
Excessive Loading and Saving
If players are unable to enjoy a game without being guided by the development team to do the right things or go to the right locations, there is also a problem.
Excessive loading and saving during certain sections of a game is a potential indicator that the game is too difficult.
The game should be self-contained and provide this direction itself. Players should also be able to eventually find fun on their own, once they become familiar with the game.
It might also be the play style of the player. If all players do this, however, it is a bad sign.
The solution is to build this guidance into the game, and potentially eliminate the non-fun activities or areas of the game the players find themselves dealing with constantly.
To resolve the situation, determine the locations of excessive loading and saving.
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The frustrations in gameplay that result in this situation will not be far away. These frustrations should either be removed or somehow lessened in an appropriate way.
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Excessive Loading and Saving
Popularity and Unpopularity
Screen shot from Quake II. A common strategy in the FPS among some players is to save after every kill and restore after every time damage is taken. If everyone did this, it could be a bad sign.
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If players choose the same characters, weapons, units, and strategies again and again, it is a sign of game imbalance. Likewise, if something is consistently not chosen by players, it is another sign of game imbalance. Such imbalance can be detected by tracking player preferences and compiling statistics for later analyses.
Do not overreact early on, as players tend to cluster around certain approaches to the game as they are learning and gaining experience. Be patient. 8
Popularity and Unpopularity
The Best Offense is a Good Defense
If characters use only offensive tactics in conflict situations, this could be an indication of problems in the game.
Screen shot from Street Fighter 2. The Dhalsim character was introduced to balance the Ken and Ryu characters who proved too popular (and powerful) among testers of the game.
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There are too many health, weapon, and shielding power-ups so that the player need not worry about taking damage in combat games. Defensive moves are too slow, too difficult, or too ineffective to use in the game. The players are not given the time to react to employ defensive measures.
Appropriate gameplay tuning to overcome these situations is required.
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The Best Offense is a Good Defense
Players Frequently Reconfigure Controls
Screen shot from NBA ShootOut 2003. Like many sports games, defense is quite ineffective, so many people just ignore it. (Do a web search on "video game no defense", and the results are almost all sports titles!)
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Many games wisely offer the ability to reconfigure controls. If most players reconfigure the default controls, it is a sign they need changing. If players spend a great deal of time beyond this tuning controls, it could be a sign of a control poor scheme in general. Remember to work with and follow genre conventions in control schemes. For example:
The Quake II style for the first person shooter. The Warcraft style for real-time strategies.
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Players Frequently Reconfigure Controls
Players Frequently Reconfigure Viewpoint
If players are spending as much time adjusting the view of the game as they do playing the game, this is a bad sign. The player's viewpoint should be adjusted automatically to keep up with unfolding action.
Manual tuning should be allowed, but should not become a requirement to playing the game.
Screen shot from Unreal Championship. It is interesting that this Xbox title has been criticized for a poor control scheme requiring many reconfigurations, while its PC cousin released at the same time, Unreal Tournament 2003, has 13 been hailed for its controls and gameplay at the same time.
Automatic viewpoint adjustments must be done carefully, however.
Too often makes gameplay difficult. Not often enough, and you lose track of the action.
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Players Frequently Reconfigure Viewpoint
The VulnerabilityInvincibility Cycle
Many games cycle between periods where the player is weak and then nearly invulnerable.
The player acquires weapons and power-ups that make them almost invincible. When the effects wear off or the player dies, they are totally vulnerable.
The most interesting gameplay occurs when the player teeters on the brink of victory and destruction.
Screen shot from Splinter Cell. A very impressive game, but some people found they spent as much time moving the viewpoint as moving their character.
Players in the vulnerability-invincibility cycle move from one extreme to the other and never experience this kind of gameplay.
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The VulnerabilityInvincibility Cycle
Becoming a Technology Demo
If public testers show off the technology in your game to others, but put it away when it is time to actually play and have some fun, your game is in serious trouble.
You have essentially made a very expensive technology demo.
This is an indication that your game is not fun to play, despite its great visuals, sounds, artificial intelligence, new features, and so on.
Screen shot from Unreal Tournament 2003. Even though it has lots of power-ups, it never falls into the vulnerability-invincibility cycle. No one is ever helpless or unstoppable, as this shot shows.
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This needs to be fixed as soon as possible before the game is released. 18
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Becoming a Technology Demo
Becoming a Technology Demo
Screen shot f...