Game Design

• There are a lot more things I studied about Game Design, but most of it comes from analyzing different games; these analysis are not in the site, as they are still quite disorganized, as most of it is me brainstorming.

Game Dev

• GameDesign: GameDev Challenges .

• Evolving from a Beginner Game Developer to Novice .

• Evolving from a Novice Game Developer to Intermediate .

• Failing in the right direction so you don't quit Game Development .

• On the difficulty of making games .

  • Pretty good. Shows the difficulty well, although I still think it's a bit understated.

• Originality and market saturation .

  • Very interesting video, kind of discouraging though :/

Design Ideas

• Process of creating a Mini-game .

• Dialogue management .

Difficulty

• Creating different difficulty curves by inducing more player movement .

• Making a design challenging and punitive, and receiving playtester feedback .

Replayability

• Creating replayability via speedrun, competition and curiosity .

  • Great video.

  • The author categorized the video as:

    1. Incentives.

    2. Rewards.

    3. Speedrun

  • It's funny to see people going OOB during speedruns, sounds cool.

• Create an orthogonal design (Linearly Independent Mechanics) .

  • The idea of creating mechanics that are Linearly Independent so one mechanic cannot be used to reach another.

  • In other words, it's about creating new mechanics that don't derive from previous mechanics.

Exploration

• Exploration: 4 ways players 'discover joy' .

• Backtracking .

• Lock-and-key pattern and backtracking .

• "Why is it so difficult for a game to have interesting exploration, despite having so much content" .

  • The video has some interesting criticisms and hot-takes about some Triple-A games.

  • It is said that games should value 'meaningful journeys' more than 'you see? you can go there'.

• "I choose not to explore there now" vs "I can't explore there now"

  • .

  • Difference that occurs in linear vs open games.

  • 'I can't explore there now'

    • Metroidvania

  • 'I choose not to explore there now'

    • Atmospheric reasons:

      • Barotrauma.

      • Sunless Skies.

      • Rain World.

      • Darkwood.

      • Subnautica.

    • 'I want to do this first, I don't know':

      • Stardew Valley.

      • Subnautica.

Expressiveness / "Autonomy" / "Volition"

• The Fallacy of Autonomy: Understanding How to Give Volition to the Player .

  • GREAT video.

  • "Volition and Self-determination theory".

  • "Volition" ~= "Will".

    • Autonomy (I think the correct word is Agency)

      • "Narrative Purpose".

      • "Meaningful choices".

    • Relatedness.

      • "Someone needs me".

      • "Belonging" -> "Tank + Healer".

    • Competence.

      • "Growth"

      • "Conquering challenge".

  • "Procedural Volition".

    • More verbs (variables) for the player.

      • Players can make choices and act on them, procedurally changing the world at scale.

    • Focus on impact that has value.

      • Content changes dynamically along with objectives, structures and activities.

    • Latent variables.

      • Player patterns become important to "weight other variables", so opportunities and content that appear will resonate most with the player.

      • Align based on affinity.

  • Several criticisms are made about "lack of autonomy", for example in Sandbox and Procedural elements.

    • Cool!! High five! I agree with everything!

  • Examples of problems found in games are given:

    • GTA V.

    • Skyrim.

    • Mass Effect 3.

    • The Witcher 3.

    • No Man's Sky.

    • Spore.

  • At the final minutes it is said that "Character Customization" is not what moves players to have Volition, since data shows that mechanics and how the player interacts with the world are what really impact the feeling of Volition.

  • The video ends at {47:17}. The final questions in the video are irrelevant.

Puzzles

• Explaining mechanics organically .

  • It's about level design in Celeste.

  • Very good video, teaches a lot about platforming challenges.

  • {23:29 -> 26:58}

    • Very interesting section on teaching the player mechanics by building knowledge progressively and intuitively.

Stealth

• Creating cover in shooters and stealth games .

• Tips for balancing a stealth game .

• Stealth in video games .

  • Good video, gives some interesting points on making stealth more engaging:

    • Make AI consistent.

    • Disempower the player (i.e., increase difficulty, often).

    • Let the player improvise.

Mechanics

• Level design of the desert from Ori and The Will of The Wisps .

  • A very nice video explaining that fun mechanic.