Dave wrote:Asking the forum for game design and mechanics is essentially the same thing as game creation-by-committee, which almost always ends up being a wreck, usually of Exxon Valdez proportions. Asking forums for technical help is fine; asking for core features or design is probably a recipe for disaster.
Lies. Just listen to all my advice and then give me a piece of the action.
You need a design document of some sort, and use this as a reference for further additions (because there will be) and to help you identify those things you find important. It will also help you see just how big of a job you're making for yourself, and realize like all good companies that giving a more focused product leads to a better product. There's a reason they didn't get overly complicated with Diablo's story.
In this document you must describe in some form of direction for all your departments. Basically, design/art/code. Since you are not a big multi-million dollar corporation, this may be a few people wearing multiple hats. But you can't design a game the way you make stone soup. Unless you know what you want it to play like, look like, and sell like, you won't ever get any form of a successful project, and you should just give up now and save everyone the aggrivation. Things will change, you'll get new ideas, and drop old ones, but so long as you have identified a core set of principles, these changes won't break the fucking project.
Three big topcs:
1) Who am I selling this to? What demographic am I appealing to? How will I sell it to them?
If your game about werewolves is marketed to angsty emo gothic fiction readers and furries, your game will absolutely fail, as it is much harder to sell an emotion than an experience. Don't ask what they'll like about the
setting, ask what they'll like about the
game. There's lots of Star Wars games, but during development they identify demographics they want to sell to, and the setting becomes just a contrivance. Is your Werewolf game a brawler? Side-scroller? Role playing game? How will these people find and buy the game aside from word of mouth? Are there websites, publications, or other marketing venues you can use to target your product, or other games you can compare it to in order to attract cross-over purchases?
2) What's it look like? How does the art save you money? How does the art generate profit?
Do you want it to look 3D? Go die. 3D art is hard and time consuming, but more importantly, programming a 3D game engine that doesn't blow ass can be hard to do, unless you want to wrangle with one that's in existance--in which case you better do things the way that engine likes. How about 2D? Are you using pixels in an isometric world? Sprites in a 3D world? And so on. This decision should be first and foremost about making sure your coders can handle the requirements. If your coders suck, stick with flash sidescrollers and sell the thing online somehow. If your coders are good enough to handle 2D art and such, you may be able to sell it like a real product. Art should never be more demanding than the coders can allow. And art should make you money. If you're selling a beat-em-up and your art is hand-drawn by someone who isn't an excellent artist, then you're a moron, so don't do that. Make sure your art fits the people you're trying to sell to, instead of trying to be true to some fictional "true nature" of your game. Games are products, like hamburgers and underwear. They exist to serve a need, not glorify your vision.
3) What about the game is fun? How does the game keep the focus on the fun? How do you control the game?
Mechanics and design are quite important, second only to code. If your game is about being a badass werewolf who beats up fantasy kingdoms, then skip the bullshit parts that don't involve beating on people. Don't force players to do stuff that isn't fun just because you think it's part of the genre or because you like it as an idea. You're selling an experience. If that experience is beating up monsters, make sure you're doing that 90 percent of the time. I can't sum up game balance, but let's hope you understand the merits of bugtesting, and for goodness' sake make the controls sensible. Most games really only need a D-Pad and 2 buttons. If you find yourself needing more than 3 buttons, re-think your control scheme and ask what all of that is used for. And also ask why you ever need a menu. Picking up coins doesn't need a button--you always want to do it, as an example. Unless it HAS to require a button or a menu or some interface nonsense, don't have it.
The rest of the design comes down to not making an awful game. That's like saying "the rest of writing a book comes down to making a good story." You either do it or you don't, but in truth, that stuff isn't really all that important. If the game plays well, is coded well, isn't overly ambitious and actually can be found and purchased, it'll make money. If you can make it acutally fun to play for more than a little bit, it might actually make a profit. Your idea shouldn't be for a werewolf game, but for a good game, and then onec the basic mechanics are decided on, make it a werewolf game. But if the game doesn't make sense or isn't "fun" without the setting, then it's a bad game.
