10 Questions for Game Developers

[madriel222]

Before you go and make your game, there are a few questions that everyone has to be able to answer.

1.) Where is the motivation?
This is quite possilby the most important part of both game and character development. You can't just arbitrarily have people doing things for no reason, nor can you have them do things for reasons that would defy their character. For example, you wouldn't have your noble and humble character do something out of greed (for the most part, multi-dimensional characters will be discussed later). You can choose something as simple as wealth and glory to things as complex as gaining the respect of the elders who exiled your hero when he was still young. So far I've only talked about what is often referred to as "greater motivation," or a general driving force of action. But you also need to consider "lesser motivations." Think of the following dialogue:

Random White Mage:Oh hero boy, why did we go into this dark cave?

Hero Boy: Ummm...Because the fluidity of the story depends on it!

There has to be a reason for everything, and travel most of all! Why would your characters go somewhere if everything were fine and they were unaware of some horrible evil approaching the town? They wouldn't. As game designers, we need to give our players real reasons to do everything!

2.) Where is the inner conflict/Where is the multidimensional character?
Think of a normal person. Except for those one in a million idealogues, most us are not entirely good or entirely bad. Even the most charitable person has a greedy streak on occasion. Even the nicest person explodes into anger sometimes. The point that we, as game designers, need to make is that these characters we create aren't pixels, but people. Inner conflict is a key to achieving this versmilitude. Have a character want to do one thing, yet do another. Unilaterally good or bad characters are boring (for the most part, at least if you have a character-development based rpg like the final fantasy series and such). This isn't limited to the main character, but extends to all of the minor characters as well. You don't need to show a multifaceted character with every character, but those that see decent time in the game should show the entire myriad of personality.

3.) How linear is my game?
I realize that, as game designers, we want to create games that are completely nonlinear and based entirely on the will of the player. However, this is completely infeasible. There are some choices that need to be made for the player if the game is ever to progress. These decisions can be made during cutscenes and the like. In other words, when you are looking at your game, ask yourself, does my game make a believable jump from one event to the next. This coincides with motivation, there have to be good reasons for doing anything. The goal of an rpg, at least in my mind, is not so much to give the most freedom the player, but rather to immerse the player in the world that i create, in the characters that i create. Don't lead the players by the nose entirely, but realize that for the story to move fluidly, some linear aspects must be included. Alloting too much freedom to your players can result in diaster.

4.) Where is the love?
I know that this sounds like an odd dimension to be absolutely necessary in a game, but love provides the necessary passion for your hero/antihero or even villian. This can be the love of a person, which has become more and more common in games of Japanese design, the love of a country, the love of an ideal, or the love of himself. This, as most of these aspects of design do, relates to the concept of motivation. Unlike the motivation mentioned above, however, this love, this passion, is something that your character would give his/her/its life for, something undeniably worth fighting for. Without this passion, your characters would have no motivation short of mind control to accomplish the impossible tasks that we demand out of them in our rpgs.

5.) Where is the twist?
Where is the unexpected? Every good game has this element (outside of the Zelda realm, of course, when you can see everything that's coming). The fatal flaw in many amateur games, though, is that they wait for the twist to come at the end. But take a look at the final fantasy series, there isn't one twist to the story, but many. In many rpgs, the characters know little what is coming at them. The very fact that they are ignorant, as the players will also be, will make plot twisting very easy to do. The characters anticipate something, and something quite different happens. Considering that they have little knowledge of the threat anyway, it's quite easy to leave false clues or overexaggerated advice to make the surprise all that more dramatic. You could have the players wait until the end to see that awesome twist that changes the whole complexion of the game, but getting to that dramatic finish would ultimately be a boring journey. Keep your players on their toes and you'll be on the right track.

6.) What is THE difficult choice?
Not every great rpg has this element, but i think that, in general, amateur games that utilize this aspect are far better than those that don't. At some point of your game, have your character make a choice that has horrible, perhaps even unseen, consequences no matter which he chooses. Of course, there should also be a benefit depending on how he or she chooses, but the emphasis needs to be on what is lost. Consider the following questions for some difficult choices:

-We tracked down the dragon that wiped out the entire western slope, but now she says that she knows of a coming danger in the east. Do we kill the dragon for what it did, sticking to a notion of justice but remaining ignorant to the coming threat, or do we allow it to live, knowing better of the danger but allowing the beast to commit more horrible deeds?

-Two party members are being sacrificed for their transgressions, there is only time to save one though...

In each of these circumstances, there are significant consequences either way, and these are the sort of dilemmas that players crave. Necessary, perhaps not. Helpful, definitely, consider it when designing your game.

7.) Are there conflicting desires/motivations within the party?
For those of you constructing a game with a single hero, liken to the Zelda series, then skip ahead. For the rest of you, it is absolutely essential to have characters that have principle disagreements and conflicting motivations. Think about it, if all of the characters were driven by the same motivation and never really had fights amonst themselves, then they might as well be a single person. Increasing the number of party members needs to also increase the diversity within that party. Have the greedy character and the altruistic character together. Have the cold hearted murderer and the coward journeying for the same cause. Remember that each character you include is an individual and needs to be treated as such.

8.) Are my rules of nature consistent?
This should seem like a no-brainer but it is also a common flaw in many amateur games. If you have it so that time flows slower as one gets closer to the Tree of All Time, then this should be consistent throughout your entire game. The problem that most designers have with this concept is just laziness; they figure that if they skip it, their players won't tell the difference or just accept it because it's a fantasy world with fantasy rules. But, like motivation, everything needs to happen for a reason. Consistency with your rules of nature, be they magic or physics or even politics, will add that touch of realism that each of us strives for in our game designs.

9.) What is my most original concept?
Not everyone needs a perfect custom menu or custom battle system to make his or her game unique, but everyone does need that little something that sets his or her game apart from the pack. While I encourage originality in all aspects of the game design, even fan games need a sense of something special to be playable and replayable. This originality can come from one of two sources: gameplay or storyline. For gameplay elements of originality, I'm referring to those who create CBS's or CMS's or for those of us who create those wonderful chipsets that just separate the game from the pack. These are well and good, but finding an original concept from within this area is rather difficult, as many of the "good" ideas have been supposedly "used up." So, one should look to originality in the storyline. I'm not advocating that you completely avoid the trite and overused, but instead take the conventional and twist it to suit your needs. Have that traditional good vs. evil plot, but have those lines occassionally be blurred or even completely turned upside down. Have that "humanity in certain peril" line of reasoning, but make the threat far deeper than anyone had ever imagined. Anything worth saying may have already been said, but that doesn't mean that we can't use previous concepts and use them to our own design advantage. The key here is to run with an idea, your most original concept, and make it yours.

10.) Who is my audience?
Way too many people do not take this into consideration as they're making their respective games. When designing, you have to realize who exactly your making your game for. If you're making a game geared toward the gaming community at Charas, then you're probably going to want to include some elements that are consistent with those that the group enjoys. These elements will be completely different than, say, if you make a group for your fraternity brothers just to goof around. I'm not saying that you should relinquish your creativity in favor of what the group likes, just keep in mind that who you direct your game towards should have an impact in how you design it.

[Dragonium]

This is basically common sense; everyone making a game is aware of this stuff. Good work on it though. All tutorials are useful and helpful to someone.

[madriel222]

I appreciate you taking the time to comment.  You're right, much of it is "common sense," but such a quality is becoming increasingly lacking, lol.

[Dragonium]

I agree. A lot of people (Including me at one time, admittedly) just start epic game projects, when they either have a half-baked story, or have only thought up the first part of the story.

Sigh.

[DragonBlaze]

Its a good tutorial. Yeah, a lot of it is common sence, yet saddly a lot of those questions go unanswered in a lot of games (mainly noob games). So yeah, good job

[Yhtomitsu]

im shore it would be useful to some one good work

[X_marks_the_ed]

Helpful to me at least. I noticed I only have two real suprises in NFT. One comes early, one comes late. Thx.

[ForeverEternal09]

Good job!  The game my friends and myself have been making is getting to be a real large scaled game that it becomes easy to forget the basics sometimes.  I think I will go back to my laptop and revise my story with these pointers fresh in my head.  You see I'm one of those psychotic people that have three computers in my room (all built by me) that are networked together for group projects and still my game doesn't make much progress.