Game design is defined as such by the interwebs as this: "A complex design activity that gives rise to games through the creation of rule sets, resulting in play."
Doesn't that just sound exciting? Sounds like all you have to do to make a game is have a bunch of random ideas and throw them together, but really there is a lot more to game design then just that. You really have to do some creative thinking about it because putting a game together involves creating puzzles maps and events that make it fun for people to play, and more importantly want to play it.
Now to start off I ask a question to people who want to make games and the question is this: What does every game have in common? The answer I get back most of the time is story and on some level I would like to agree with this but it just ins't the correct answer. Every game, Every game, has one major thing in common, well 2 but the second is kind of varied. Every game has a goal, a way to win the game. It can be win the pot of money, get the most points before time runs out, beat the boss, save the princess. Having a goal is what drives all games whether they are video games or board games or card games as well as all sports amateur and professional. All games are driven by how you have to win and what you win which in most cases is bragging rights. Designers work constantly on figuring out how to make a goal both obtainable and challenging for players when they play a game, and this where Rules come in.
Growing up you heard what the rules were around the house, and they were mostly what not to do otherwise you get into trouble. Everyone probably heard "Don't touch anything!" before you entered some antique shop, why bring a little kid into an antique shop I have no idea never made sense to me and of course I was kind of a rule breaker...touch. Rules in games are very different as oppose to rules set by authority figures. First off they do not inhibit you to do something they mostly work in a way to make the game function properly and be fun. Poker would have no depth or be no fun if it was just 4 people around a table that threw $20 bucks down and the first person (jerk) just went and grabbed the $80 dollars. The purpose of rules in a game is to, in this case with poker, make that $80 dollar pot double if not triple. In video games rules change to be more of the mechanics of the game; how you move jump, shoot, open things, look around whatever that may be mixed with balancing different enemies and environments so as a player progresses they don't get bogged down with tediousness of lazy level design.
Now basic rules for board games and card games are as follows, you got to know who goes first. How is that decided? Well in most cases you roll a die highest number goes first. It's a pretty fair method that doesn't leave a whole lot of room to screw up. Other games I have played use things like who ever is oldest, is it someone's birthday, my favorite though has to be the game Gloom where whoever had the worst day would go first. The game is kind of messed up but that's what makes it fun.
Deciding who goes first is part of creating the turn order and what the players do with their turn as well as how the round goes. Does it go right or left from whoever played first or whoever the fist player attacks goes after, this is all part of the turn order. A turn order also dictates what a player will do on their turn it can be broken down in a few simple actions:
- Draw a card
- Roll a die or dice
- Move a number of spaces
- Attack
- Deffend
Oh Monopoly, it is notorious for how boring it can be, but it is also weird in that it is one of the most popular and recognized games in the world constantly being reskined with different looks like Star Wars or Harry Potter. 4 years ago I played it it for the first time in years and that was the very first game of Monopoly that I remember ever having finished without two people leaving the table because something else seemed way better. We started when the sun was up and ended sometime long after it went down and even when the sun was in the sky it seemed to last forever. You see the problem with Monopoly isn't the fact that it can't be fun, anything can be fun really, the problem is that once one person gets ahead of the other 3 and that's it, the other players lose interest because they can't catch up. To avoid this when I was kid and we had our "house rules" and that was whoever claimed all the railroads or got the boardwalk and park place won. We did that because if you landed on any of those and didn't own them you got jacked with rent. Real winning in Monopoly proper is you the winner have to bankrupt all of the other players and no matter what you do or what they do it just seems to drag out forever and a day, it really sucks. Really really sucks. And it all stems from one player getting ahead early of the others and the game just slowing down to a grinding halt. I don't know how I would fix this and even the game its self doesn't know how to fix it, coming out with different end game rules featuring a time limit but still even if a game last an hour it just feels very grindy.
A good game a properly designed game should never make it seem like one player is ahead and no other players can catch up. It needs to feel tight the entire time you are playing constantly thinking about your next move and ignoring your phone for at least an hour. Sounds hard but come on unwind a bit. Getting a player that involved with a game getting them to think about their next turn right after their turn ends is what you want for any game. You want every player constantly involved right up until the winner is declared and you want that to be a surprise when it happens. It's hard to do even if you have a unique idea sometimes execution of that idea might fall short. The number one way of avoiding this is while making a game, any game type of game you are making, is testing it, testing testing testing testing testing testing testing! It's the difference between drawing up the blueprints of a house to actually building it to living in it. It's how you see what's working and what isn't and maybe even come up with new ideas that you never thought of in the first place. Always play test and ask anyone and everyone to help play test your game not doing so would be one of the worst things you could do in creating a game. And don't be afraid to ask either, most people like playing games it means they don't have to do other stuff they don't want to do anyway. Just to note your fist play test will be crap especially if the game is very rough but that is the best time to test when it is raw you can see things that are wrong from the get go.
A goal, rules on how to achieve that goal fairly, turn order, these are the thing that make up most games, if not every type of game, from card games to board games to video games all have these things in common. Video games however are different then a board game or a card game there is no denying that, but they do still share the same basic concepts as all games do and some have a turn order or are a turn based game; think old school Final Fantasy or other RPGs like that. Video games differ by 2 things, well a lot of things but I'm sticking with 2: 1) Unlike a board game or card game you can play a video game all by yourself and have fun while doing that. They're maybe a few board games or card games that you could play by yourself but I don't see why you would, and for me it will be a cold day in hell before I ever decide to play solitaire. With single player though we get a whole new dynamic that isn't in a board game or a card game, and that is that you the player become the main character the hero of a world that needs one. You are the reason everything is happening and you are the only one who can save the day; you are the most important thing in that world. It feeds the ego that's for sure but that's not a bad thing really so long as you don't start mistaking what is real and what isn't. This brings us to the next reason video games differ from their physical brethren and that is video games have a story. Oh story I have a problem with story sometimes because I feel that story is unneeded, but again, I ask myself this, why am I being shot at? And for that we need a story. Really I think the reason I don't care for a story is most stories in games just don't grab me the way they intend to if at all, not everything can be Bioshock: Infinite.
In a board game or card game what drives the game forward are the players taking their turn doing what they can in their turn and repeat this as the game builds to what one would hope be a memorable finish. Video games at least for the single player aspect have to have something else driving them and saving the day is a good motivator. Whether or not story is really needed is still a question I think, with one game like Bioshock: Infinite out there there with it's amazing story they're are a dozen others with some graveled voice tough as nails soldier who is fighting in the Middle East trying to protect the world from terrorism or from a corrupt government or aliens. I like, most people my age and younger grew up with games having a story to them, in the past they were complete crap but now you have big developers spending a good amount of money on a writer or writers to come up with a story that players will like. It has improved greatly in this generation but it still needs a lot more improvement and it needs to get away from the 3 act system that works for movies. Games can be much longer the 2 hours or at least you hope they are with the cost of a single game now a days.
Where video games have a story board and card games have something else to them and it borrows from story a bit. Now Magic The Gathering has a lot of lore to it with different generals and beasts with what they are and who they are, but while playing you're not really paying attention to that kind of thing. What these games have are themes, a setting that helps draw in players who would rather maybe not play a game at all. Me I don't really find poker all that fun, but what I do find fun is to run around a haunted house hoping that no one in my group goes crazy and kills everyone. A game has more depth or appears to when a theme is add and it's way better then just saying "I have a 2" "I have an 8, I win." That doesn't sound like fun at all to me, what sounds like fun is something like this. "I rolled a 2 damn it I can't slay the dragon, can someone help me?" "Yeah I can, I rolled an 8 it's dead!" slaying a dragon with a friend is way more memorable and if you are a designer you want your games to be memorable.
Making games is a weird art and science that can't really be define in a short little sentence. Some people love one game while others despise it for the exact same reasons that people love it. Why this happens I don't know but the thing I do know is games, like any hobby, helps people just relax and unwind after a crappy day. As a game designer you are basically responsible for making fun however you feel you should and can. Scare your players, make them laugh so hard that words aren't distinguishable, getting mad at one another in a playful way for keeping secrets, it is all part of the game making process and is weird and fun to see happen. If you like making games or want to just remember that a game is suppose to be fun have a goal and rules that are easy enough to understand and it also helps if you are making a game that you want to make and that you want to play.
