Elements of Game Design Part 1
What is gameplay?
I believe that gameplay relates to the
way in which the player interacts with a game, excluding factors like graphics
and sound, gameplay is more the experience of the game and how the mechanics of
the game are set up to create the experience, good or bad, the gameplay can
make or break a game no matter how immersive the world or how well written the
story, bad or unwise choices in the gameplay and or game mechanics can really
ruin the overall
game
and the enjoyable experience that external factors like the graphics and sound
strive to create.
In summary without going into to much
detail on the topic delving into different gameplay types, I believe that the
term gameplay is meant to signify the experience either individual or communal
that player receive while playing a game.
Who are the leading lights in game
design?
In my opinion the companies at the top of
there field in game design are the ones that consistently produce triple A
games that reach worldwide sales, these games become household names for their
distinctive design and gameplay. Companies like EA with titles like Sims, Fifa, Crysis,
Dead Space and Need For Speed and many more. However companies like this are
only one side of the argument from my point of view, these high end businesses
are too set in their ways most of the time to create something individual and
innovative, too
scared by the unknown, will they make a profit on the game? And so settle for
much safer options. Although this produces big game titles, it keeps the
industry stuck in a circle of repeating the same things over and over with very
little change. This is where smaller companies come into their own and rise to
the top of the list for game design in my eyes. A recent example is Thatgamecompany’s game
‘Journey’, a much less well known company, the game was released solely for the
PS3 journey broke out from the shackles of normality and genre rules and made
it’s own, the game focused on immersing the player into the very emotional
story and did so immensely well, earning several ‘game of the year’ awards and
an incredibly positive overall reception.
To sum it up, I believe that the leading
lights in game design really depend on what you class as successful design, be
it world popularity due to following the same strict rules and plots, or new
out of the box thinking to produce a new experience, writing your own rules
almost.
Where does game design take place
in the modern developer? Is it a single person’s responsibility?
In a word, no. Game design takes place in
a skilled team, where teams
of people have there
separate responsibilities that are spread out to handle various parts of the
game.
The design takes place through out the
company itself, many different departments will together to achieve the end
result, this team
will include designers, artists, programmers and Game Testers
all working in unity.
Do different games require
different design principles?
In my opinion games of the same genre do
not require different design principles, they all require musical scores
appropriate to the style, believable visual environments and immersive writing
and gameplay.
However games outside the genre do not
change the design principles, more alter them to fit, they still require all
those elements however they change slightly from a horror to adventure,
everything will be altered to match the style and feel of the game, that’s why
the music and gameplay style in Dead Space has a distinctive horror and
gripping tension feel, where as Journey has a much more relaxed musical score
with a much more simplistic approach.
What is important for you when you
play?
When I play a game the single most
important factor for me in the immersiveness created by the game, and that for
be being the sound and plot. I can overlook areas like graphics and gameplay so
long as the story and musical score is engaging enough to keep me wanting to
play.
Now graphics and gameplay do matter, I do
find it fascinating to see how designers want to the player to engage with the
characters, environment, but without a gripping story and immersive soundtrack
I find it more to be a shell of a game.
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