Week 7: Game Design Philosophy
Game Design is one of, if not the most important part, of making a video game. There are many different parts of game design, and in the post I will go over my larger overall view of game design and a smaller more technical part, that being the reward system in “Wander Bread.” The most important piece of game design philosophy to me, and a quote that I consider every time a make a decision while making this game is, “Make a game you want to play.” The quote really speaks to me. Besides obvious benefits, like being more motivated to work on a final project that you can enjoy not only as a coding project but as a fun game you get to play once finished, it also serves as a good guide. Most non-technical questions about the game I’ve asked myself can be solved be answering the simple question of “What would I, as a gamer, have more fun experiencing?”
The other part of game design I want to cover are rewards. Rewards are very important in a game. They are a major part of what makes a game fun, and what makes players happy. Many games have two main types of rewards, small rewards and big rewards. Some examples of small rewards in different games could be coins, a map of a level, an extra life. Big rewards often include new game mechanics, unlocking large new areas, or the player leveling up. These won’t necessarily appear in wander bread but are good examples to differentiate between big and small rewards. It is important to often give the player small rewards while intermittently giving them a large reward. Of course, the most important reward should be intrinsically fun gameplay.
