Week 17: The Search for Week 16 - Game Design Notes 1; Loving What You Come To Hate (Which you used to love)

So I totally missed last week. No great excuses other than being busy, which isn't a great reason to have skipped posting even a quick update. For my atonement, I'll actually start my series of Game Design Notes, in which I will talk about various lessons I've learned in the hope that someone benefits from my past experiences. This week, I'm going to talk about one of the first things that I ever noticed about myself after getting into game design, and how I went about fixing it.

Game designers play lots of games. Well, they should play lots of games. If you aren't interested in playing games, I'd question why you're interested in making them. There are too many lessons to learn from what others have done and are doing. Yes, a turn-based strategy game can certainly speak to something that you're doing in your first person shooter, you just have to know where to look. This is a skill that develops over time, and is very important. This, however, isn't what I'm here to talk about today. Today, I want to talk about a phenomenon that I know I experienced, and in speaking to numerous other designers, isn't limited to just myself. It has nothing to do with working with engine tools, developing systems, or playing games for research. It, instead, has everything to do with playing games for fun.

When you become a game designer, you have to develop a critical eye so that you can ingest everything media related that you consume. Asking how a wrestling gimmick might be applicable to your game is a real thing. Understanding the economy in a city building simulation can potentially help your realty system in your open world game. You begin to peel back the curtain, as it were, and this is two-fold when it comes to games; since they are what you work on. This has the very real effect of liking games less, especially early on in a game designers career.

After I got into the industry, I went through a period of about a year in which I could not really enjoy playing anything. I'd find every fault I could, not just bugs, but flawed systems or poorly designed levels, and blinded myself to anything good that was there. The critical reception didn't matter. For instance, Oblivion came out during this period of my life, and while I put many hours into that game then I really didn't have fun playing it. Sure, I learned a lot by being this critical, but I got into game design because I loved games, and suddenly what I'd made a career of was making me hate them. I had to take a step back and see what had gone wrong. I realized the following things, and they're tips I now give to any designers I talk to that have mentioned having the same problem.

1. Being critical is OK. It's necessary. Knowing how something could be made better is part of what makes a designer a designer.
2. Just because something could be better doesn't always mean it's bad. It just means there is room for improvement, be it in an update or a sequel. There are certainly times when something is bad, but figure out if its absolutely game-breaking versus something that would just make the experience more enjoyable.
3. Try to understand why something you perceive as bad is bad. What was the developers reasoning? Is there another system that the one you perceive as bad is interacting with, and the way it works is actually vital to the other or both?
4. Make sure that something you perceive is bad isn't just something that you don't like. There is a big difference between something being flawed and something you just don't enjoy. This is arguably the most important of the tips.

These have helped me remain critical while enjoying games that I am wanting to play mostly for fun over just research. As a game designer, I cannot just play for fun...I am always going to be analyzing. I just have to remember to have fun at the same time.

Started playing Star Wars The Old Republic again this weekend. I'd forgotten how much I really liked the game, and they've done a lot with it since going Free 2 Play. Still playing all the other games listed in currently playing, too. Really enjoying HotS a lot, and Bloodborne now has improved load times, which help playing that immensely. Until next week!

Currently Playing: Pillars of Eternity, Final Fantasy XIV, Bloodborne, Star Wars The Old Republic, Heroes of the Storm
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 4 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Bloodborne)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: 0