Any times for aspiring game developers?
Iâm assuming you mean tips, because otherwise I donât actually know what youâre asking here. :p
I suppose the biggest tip I could give you is to ask why. Play your favorite games, pick a specific game element, and ask yourself, âWhy does this exist?â
Tear it down brick by brick. Whatâs it trying to get you to do? Why is it trying to get you to do that? What systems does this feed in to? Basically, reverse-engineer their game design. Watch gameplay footage in slowmo if you need to (youâd be surprised how much this can help you focus on whatâs going on under the hood).
It wonât be easy, depending on how new you are at thinking like a game developer, but itâs essential to get you in to the head space of how games work.
Thereâs articles that are worth reading, too. I think Iâve mentioned it before, but there was a really great article I read like, ten years ago on Gamedev.net about the importance of telegraphing.
I think this is it: Difficulty in Dexterity-Based Platform Games
Which basically means that for anything that is going to deliberately harm the player, you must tell them, first. They use examples from Crash Bandicoot, about how you telegraph, for example, a falling platform. The player steps on the platform, thereâs an audible âcrumblingâ sound, and the platform itself begins to shake. The player immediately knows the footing is unstable and that they have to get off.
(This is why people get frustrated at Sonic games like Sonic Advance, because they often kill you without warning you that you could die. Games need to play fair.)
And even if you do not plan on making a platformer, itâs still probably a good read. Because, I mean, actually, something else you really, REALLY need to be thinking of is difficulty balancing. That is probably up there with the top, I dunno, three things that newbie game developers get very, very wrong.
Always find people to playtest your game. Always always. And always find new people to playtest your game. As the developer of your own game, you will have ZERO sense of what is too hard or too easy, and if your testers get too familiar with your game, youâll pass that lack of awareness on to them.
If you show a fresh group of people your game and 3/5 of them say itâs too hard, then itâs too hard, full-stop. The only acceptable response from you, the game developer, is if youâre trying to make a game thatâs difficult on purpose (see: Volgarr, Meat Boy, etc.) â but even then? Itâs still probably too hard.
Whether or not a game is too easy is even harder to detect, because, at least for me, itâs really easy to just shut your brain off for an easy game and then 20 minutes later go âI guess that was okay.â
In that situation, Iâd say lean towards higher difficulty and then find areas where your players are getting frustrated and then make those bits easier. Once the complaints stop, youâre good to go.
Thatâs really all of the general information I can think of to suggest. I hope it helps.
