Game design fundamentals

It is well known that game design can be tricky, and not having a proper, well-tested design for our game will eventually give us more than one headache. This is the reason why the very first thing to do before starting our video game development is to organize our ideas by following game design fundamentals.

By doing this, we will have the opportunity to address many inconsistencies and contradictions that will crop up in our game, as well as avoiding many dead ends and frustration for our game's players.

These fundamentals will guide us through each and every detail of our video game, focusing on players' interaction with it, and their reactions.

The six game design fundamentals are as follows:

• Anticipation
• Focus
• Announcement
• Behaviors
• Player progression
• Environment

Anticipation

The first fundamental of game design is anticipation, which means we have to give players all the essential information about our game. This means being completely honest with them, for example, explaining what the story's main idea is, what the gameplay will be like, how hard it will be to overcome puzzles or enemies, what the appropriate age to play this game is, and what the environment/theme is.

Of course, we don't have to tell players everything; it is always good to have some aces up our sleeves, but basic information explaining what players will encounter will avoid their frustration in the future, which could eventually lead to losing their trust.

A good example of this is Dark Souls. Imagine the first 30 minutes in Dark Souls is fighting with enemies that are really easy, with no chance of dying, and then we get to the Boss Fight, which, of course, can kill us in two or three hits. Then, the player would get the You Died screen in about 15 seconds perhaps, and it would cause a negative reaction because they didn't anticipate it. What is the solution for this? Basically, anything can kill us in between one and five hits, no matter how tough our player is, or which weapon we are wielding. By doing this, the player knows this is a tough game, in which we will be killed plenty of times, and we'll just have to get used to it.

If they know what to expect from our game, it is up to them to choose how to proceed, but it is our job to point them in the right direction, which leads us to the next fundamental.

Focus

The second fundamental is focus, and I like to use this word because it has two interpretations.

The first one is giving players something or someone to focus on. We should always give players some tips as to which is the right direction to go in, because if not, they will try to guess where they should be heading, and it is possible many of them will fail at in knowing where to go. If a player finds themselves wandering around with no direction for several minutes, they will become frustrated, and this is exactly what we are trying to avoid. But, usually, players to feel that they are not being taken by the hand through the game, and this is why these tips need to be as minimal as possible.

A good example of this is in Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. In these games, we will always find the right direction if we follow what I call the yellow tips, which means they usually use the color yellow to point us in the right direction by using yellow pipes, yellow flags, yellow edges, yellow straps, and so on. After we have played the game for about one hour, this becomes an unconscious decision and we feel nobody is helping us through the game, but deep down they are.

The second one is focus on players, which means our main attention has to be placed on them. They are the reason we are developing this game, they are the target of our ideas, so we need to challenge them, keep them satisfied, give them reasons to go on with the story, maintain their interest, get them through different emotions—joy, fear, happiness, and challenge them, depending on the theme of our game. We need to show the player, through our game, that they are the main focus of it, and everything revolves around them.

Announcement

The third fundamental is announcement, which leads to one reaction from the player we want to avoid at all cost: Where did that come from?

Announcements to players are essential for the gameplay, and these may come in many shapes and many forms. We need to inform players in some way that something is about to happen. The player like to be prepared to react, and to make a decision, but in order to do this, some sort of hint has to be given at the right time.

We don't necessarily need to do this every time; in fact, going back to Dark Souls, designers chose not to do so (at least hardly ever), but that game is designed from its core to be as hard and frustrating as possible—it is kind of one of its main features. So, unless our targets are hardcore gamers, we should at least, in a subtle way, announce to our players that something is about to happen.

Let's try to explain this with an example.

Imagine we are playing a Treasure Hunter game in which we need to walk through a secret cave in Bolivia filled with traps. If the player was never told that the cave had traps, it may cause a negative reaction. So, what we should do is have a Non-Playable Character (NPC) with him/her who says, remember there are traps in this cave, which can be triggered by stepping on the wrong spot, or finding bodies on the ground with injuries that could have been caused by a trap. Also, as shown in the following screenshot, we could walk the NPC directly into a trap, activating it. Some of these options are more visible to the user, and than others, so, depending on our target audience, we should choose the most suitable one:

We can see that the NPC character, colored in blue, steps on the trap. We can execute a click sound at the same moment to indicate that something happened and get the player's attention. Once we are sure we have got them looking at the NPC with our announcement, we move on to the next step, the reaction. The player will now see an NPC killed by the trap, so they will learn that they have to be careful from now on:

Behaviors

The fourth fundamental is behaviors, and it refers strictly to the behaviors of world objects and living things in our environment. Everything that happens inside our game must follow the same logic because, unconsciously, the player is expecting that, and as I mentioned in the previous fundamentals, we do not want to break our players' trust in or expectations of our game.

Not only should we maintain their trust, but we should also maintain environmental coherence, in which the player can move without being interrupted because something was off. This will cause a deeper relationship between the game and the user, which leads to a great experience.

Imagine we are back in the Bolivian cave and one trap makes the entire room flood; it would be more immersive to see how some objects are affected by the water, by getting wet and finally floating around. Anything that gives the impression that what is happening in the environment is consistent should be considered as a way to move forward.

Let's go back to the announcement example, for which we also have the following screenshot for reference. If the NPC walks over the trap and it isn't activated, then as a player, I will assume that if I walk over the same trap it won't be activated. So, if we don't follow this consistency and decide to activate the trap, the player will consider this to be unfair and will become frustrated, and of course we are trying to avoid this:

The NPC walks over the trap. If the rules apply to the entire world equally, the trap should be activated for both characters, or neither character, regardless of which one is the player and which one is the NPC/enemy:

The NPC/enemy steps on the trap and nothing is activated, so the player continues, with the player having in mind that perhaps the trap is stuck and cannot be activated. They trust us to be fair:

So, following that logic, the player decides to walk over the trap. Once the decision is taken, the player hears a sound, the trap goes off, and finally we see the spikes:

The trap is activated, the player character is dead, and now the player is mad at us.

Player progression

Player progression is the fifth fundamental. Although it may sound redundant alongside focus on the player, I'm here to tell you the difference.

In Focus section, I explained that the game must revolve around the player, and through player progression, we, as designers, will make the player feel that. Why is that? Simple—once players go through several levels, they will get used to the gameplay and the mechanics, and will end up feeling that our game is no challenge for them. So, usually, we decide to create more difficult levels and enemies, but in this case, player progression will end up being a punishment.

This is why we need to keep on showing them that they are the center of attention, and reward them for them to keep on playing. There are many ways to do this, for example, we can add features to the player—some special skills, armory/weaponry, or skins for our player. Enemies have to keep up with the player's progression, because if not, the player will become overpowered and ruin the user experience.

Environment

The sixth fundamental is environment. It is one of the most important because we can speak to the player through our environment. We can achieve this in many ways, through sounds that can anticipate events that will happen in the future, always maintaining coherence, or through lighting, objects, animals, and backgrounds, among many other things.

On top of this, the environment has to affect the player because, as part of the world, in some way, it was shaped by them. But in order to make the player feel that every choice they make matters and affects their surroundings, we can make the environment change through player progress.

A perfect example for this situation is the environment changes in God of War 3. As soon as the game starts, we get to kill Poseidon and flood Greece in the process; then Hades, which liberates all human souls; Helios, hiding the sun forever after; and more when we move forward.

Not only do we communicate via the visuals and sounds we use, but also through the space we provide for the player to move in. For example, if we want the player to feel that they are trapped, we can reduce the amount of movement they can perform. Or if we want them to feel lost, we can provide a big map with a few things to find on it.

It is important that we have in mind that, if enemies appear in our environments, we need to plan our levels so that the amount of space is consistent with the amount of enemies, and provide the opportunity for the player to beat them.

Conclusion

These principles will guide us through a good design for our video game, always having in mind that the player must be and feel themselves to be the center of attention, feeling challenged and rewarded and never having their trust broken, in a coherent world that is constantly talking to them in many ways.

By doing this, together with attractive gameplay mechanics, well-designed levels, and nice aesthetics, our game will give the player an immersive and unforgettable experience.