More fun elements: - less delay on any input - more feedback on input (particles, sounds, vibrations or screenshake, animation) - always something to progress in (goals that steer you - in non sandbox games) and achievements
Just wanna bring up the other side of the coin here. I actually like when certain attacks have a delay because it makes me debate about if i have time to pull it off. Imput delay does tend to happen less in single player games but if your playing on a large tv from 10 Years ago that has a mouse delay of like 20 thats kinda on the player. Not the Dev just saying. I 100 percent agree though particles sounds and feedback is really good stuff. I cant give the other side of something i agree with this much sorry. Enough sauce can make even the most basic meal taste really damn good. For me the heart of Fun is Feedback and involvement of the player.
For me these help massively: 1) Making the impact of actions come alive via cam shakes or effects. 2) embedding intentional trade offs for the players (i.e. don't allow infinite shooting, add trade off to counter balance)
There's a few things that added much more fun and polish just by being there in my game: - Menu transitions make the game much more dynamic. Its not actual "fun", but it keeps things moving which keeps the interest high too! - Interactable objects that have actually no real purpose in the game. In my case, I added things to destroy in the environments like trees. When i added those, the game jumped like ten steps in the fun-o-meter. - Anything ambiance related : Lights, light fog, audio
I'm working on a small scoped cleaning game and I think one of the easiest ways that I made my game more fun is by adding achievements for different milestones the player has reached, even the simplest things like cleaning your first object or creating a new save file can be turned into achievements. Adding achievements for these milestones makes the player feel like they are accomplishing something and motivates them to keep playing.
1) It's not actually the speed that matters. It's decisions per minute. The cosmetic effect of sped up footage primarily affects how much you can cram into a period of time allowing you to make more decisions. You can see this in Halo Infinite with the grappling hook. They nerf'd sprint into the ground because it doesn't match the slower tempo of Halo fights that everyone loves which sounds contradictory with the 1st point in the video, but again, it's decisions per minute. The reason the grappling hook was well received was because it increased decisions per minute without increasing speed. My game I'm making has a very slow combat system whereby a typical fight lasts a minimum of 30 seconds and the characters feel like they're fighting in molasses, but I have fun in my prototype because how I implemented the combat system calls for a huge number of decisions to be made very rapidly. Even though you're not moving around a lot you end up doing a lot. 2) This one feeds into the previous one of "more decisions per minute." More isn't actually good advice because balancing ruins a game very quickly when you just cram "more" in. In fact, I'd actually say the trend of "more" is a detriment rather than a bonus. Games have been heading in this direction for a while and it's bothered me ever since I was a kid. Even games back then you'd be 007 killing an entire army of goons. It does a good job of enhancing decisions per minute and letting the combat feel weighty, but it paradoxically also makes it feel very "light." It's hard to explain properly. You don't just want a player's decisions to be rapid, you also want the decisions to have a meaningful impact, but when you cram as much as possible into the game you make each decision feel far less important. This is something I've already noticed in my prototype, even though there are hundreds of attacks during the 30 second combat each attack carries significant weight to it because there's only one enemy. 3) I fully agree with sounds and music. It's incredible how much a difference a meaty and satisfying parry sound makes when spending upwards of a minute or more fighting just one opponent. 4) I feel like I'm being personally attacked with this one. Leave my hundreds of implemented mechanics alone! (Joking about the number, not joking about implementing a lot of mechanics) 5) A timer or scoreboard or something along those lines is hugely invaluable. It really is a necessity.
interesting take on the grappling hook, I complelty agree with it. I think the speed in halo reach was ideal. Have you played Chivalry 2? It is a fighting game with knights and a rather slow speed but the decisions per min you can make are very high. Anyway I subscribed your channel I am curious about your game
@@manuelkarner8746 Thanks! To be honest I'm in the stage where I'm using a lot of placeholder assets so I'm not going to be making videos for a little bit, but I'm just barely entering the stage where I'll be fixing that. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to show something off with pride.
I think that flashing lights and spectical sell games, and feels fun. But, also, you have a point about decisions per minute. I consider that to be a state of mastery. When the decisions you make are deliberate, thoughtful, productive and planned and you've reached a state that your intentions are executed at the maximum speed you can endure. It's super satisfying, the issue with that is balance. Games like Super Smash Bros are perfect examples, simple controls a child can learn, but with application of time and effort and skill those same controls can perform amazing sequences that seem super human at times. The way the controls are designed have a very low skill floor but a massive skill ceiling. That allows the player to basically find and feel mastery at, a variety of levels. The issue with decisions per minute is when the player MUST perform at that level. When the only path forward is by raising the skill floor. This is when I see players tap out of games and stop having fun. Making a game that meets the player at difficulty and coaxes them forward, vs a game that stops them and prevents growth or even participation until a benchmark is past, is in my mind, the difference between games that are fun unanimously vs games that are closed off to only certain types of gamers. It's also important to keep in mind what the game is offering people. Some players see fun differently. For me, timers kills the fun, where as for others they add to it. Knowing who your selling the game too is hugely important in the end.
I like the idea of playing around with variables, it takes the dev bias out of the table and may even create a new game mode (or at least the initial idea of one)
Sid Meier (designer of some classic games like the Civilization games, Pirates, and Railroad Tycoon) has some rules he follows for game design, and one of them is double it or take it out, which is similar to some of the ideas you presented today.
I think for something like a psychological horror game that is narrative based, if you can do something like multiple endings based on what you did as a player during the game, it adds replay value. Silent Hill did this really well. They didn't do the normal "last boss battle can give 3 endings" like today's games do, they had endings based on things you did or did not do long before the end boss, so to get those endings you needed to replay the entire game more than once
Great video! Want to add my two cents regarding the points covered in this video 1) Game speed : Yes game speed usually make games more enjoyable, however that's primarily due to reaching the "fun" part faster, or reaching milestones in less time. If a game has speed options, you can bet than 90% of players will play at highest speed possible. A counter argument is that higher speed makes a game lose its charm much faster, and you risk your players missing out on some fun aspects of the game that cannot be properly translated when sped up. Other than that, you mentioned some great hacks to make games feel faster without affecting actual play speed! 2) Taking an aspect of your game and multiplying it: That's just great advise, lot of caution needed but overall it's just a great way to experiment with your game. Will say that doing any drastic changes in your game can result in a bit of tunnel vision, it's fun for you because your game is your baby but it might not be for others, so always try and get as much feedback as possible, especially when doing big scale changes. 3) Game Jams : Just do it, you literally have nothing to lose, just go for it. Worst case scenario you'll end up with an unfinished project and you'll have learned a couple things. 4) Sound design (and visual effects) : tbh if you want your game to have music / sound, it's best to implement it early on. But don't have your game unmuted 24/7, you'll end up normalizing the music which will kill any objectivity, if you listen your favorite song 100 times in a row you'll get sick of it, same thing with your game's OST. Instead, do regular play test with sound on to make sure your music and game fit well together. Composing your own music can be challenging for sure, but it can also be extremely rewarding and you might discover a new passion. If you've never tried writing music I would strongly advise to give it a go, even if just once, and see what you come up with. As with any other creative prospect, you won't know if you'll enjoy the process until you try it. You can make very decent music entirely for free and with minimal research 5) Unfun mechanics : 100% agree. It's easy to get lost in the sauce and cook for too long. A game bloated with mechanics which you have to keep track of is just tiring. As a dev, you might think that your mechanics make perfect sense and are self explanatory, they're not! The best remedy for this is as always to get as much feedback as possible. In my opinion one of the best mechanics any game can benefit from is manufactured scarcity, raise the requirements, increase the difficulty, take your already existing mechanics and simply add layers to them (e.g a craft menu doesn't have all the crafting slots available from the beginning) 6) Timer / Score : The only reason speedruns exist lol. Anything that can bring a competitive aspect to your game will usually do wonders, being on the upper echelon of that leaderboard is just a great feeling. A couple things I would add to this video to make a game more fun would be : - Polish : A game with unresponsive menus, laggy input, and all things gameplay wise can really impact the fun factor of a game. Polishing a game, especially a small one isn't really tough, just take the time to get a proper feel of your game and compare it to similar successful games. - "Exploits"/"Hacks" : Not in a literal sense, but things that make your game easier that aren't obvious from the start. Maybe mechanics that require some exploring from the player, stuff that isn't explained anywhere but just exists. This can be a huge hit or miss, especially if the game has leaderboards, however self discovery will always be the best way for players to enjoy a game. - Show don't tell : A golden rule for all story driven mediums, the more text your game needs, the less you should explain. This works especially well if you have an interesting art direction. - Coop : Not all games will benefit from coop, and not all games need coop, but everything is better when you can share it. - Meaningful updates : For indie devs, I honestly believe that being active in your community, listening to your player base and pushing updates catered to what your playerbase asks for is a great recipe for success, you may not hit million of players, but the ones that'll stick with you will most likely support you through your whole game dev career, cherish them and they'll always be invested into helping you making better, fun games
I think adding a lot of rewards in the game helps. If you remember in Sonic the Hedgehog it was very satisfying collecting 100 rings without getting hit because you got a free 1 up. But since the Later Sonic games you have infinite lives, collecting that 100 rings literally does nothing. But they added back in later on by having a end level score screen that rewards players for not getting hit. Basically the more rewards you get for playing well (or at least playing correctly), like getting a critical hit. The most fun the game is.
Fun is to not be frustrating or boring - to keep the difficulty in the range between too hard and too trivial. It should be challenging in the right amount. You can reach that with lots of playtesting and tuning, ... or dynamically adjusting the difficulty ingame. An example would be to lower enemy spawn rate when the player dies a lot, or increasing it when he barely gets hit. Or more subtle changes like enemy accuracy or damage modifiers.
Made a prototype recently, was really happy I got the basic mechanic to work. Took a step back and was like - oh, this isn't fun. Moved on and took my learned lessons with me.
I can not simply agree to the points made. What some if them do, more speed, more stuff, effects etc. is hide and drown issues that need to be fixed, not hidden.
Make actions punchy and satisfying. How flashy and crunchy do you want it to be? YES! Give players more decorative things to destroy. EXPLODING PUMPKINS!
These are all proxies for increasing the rate at which the player experiences emotion from to the game. Speed increases excitement/adrenaline type feelings and random funny things increases the haha/funny feelings. Depending on your games genre, you have to figure out what kind of emotion your game benefits from the most to improve the player's enjoyment (fun). Horror is difficult because there's no easy shortcut for creating atmosphere; it's sound, visuals and manipulating and preying on the player's expectations.
I believe you should analyze your game first before deciding to increase speed and number of things to find the source of the fun. Some games get worse if you increase those aspects. For game based on score making, yes increasing those might increase the fun. Same goes with timer, it might make the game not fun if the game is meant to be played slow and in cozy state. Back to my point above, after finding source of the fun, find anything which hinders or reduce the fun. Remove or minimize the latter to increase the fun.
Great tips here (in both the video and the comments)! That's a question I always been asking myself making my own game, Roadhouse Manager: is this mechanic fun? I ended up drastically iterating my game from a it's original more simulation-hardcore RPG design to a more time management type, action rpg, with more streamlined gameplay. Each of the 5 points in the video applied at various times to my design, really good points to consider.
I know, I know, nobody cares about the cool systems you are proud of having implemented when they don't directly influence gameplay (or not that much). Still, I fell into this trap. Well, it is kinda fun watching my NPCs do chores for me in my postapocalyptic mecha-farming hybrid but it might have been more fun if you could these things myself.
RPG devs, please stop torturing people with your storytelling, the dialogue especially. 1. The genre is not a catch-all excuse for you to bombard me with 150 unnecessary dialogue prompts at the start of your game. 2. Please let me turn off the beep-boop dialogue sfx if you've added it to your game, because I actually do want to hear the musical masterpiece you've commissioned. 3. If you're going to dump exposition on me, pick a better time to do it. I didn't battle my way through story missions to reach Blood-eye the Highlands Ripper so he can read me a novel. I wanted to engage in ferocious combat with your aply-named berserker antagonist. Seriously, I came all this way after he murdered my best friend, and I want bloody revenge. Now is NOT the time for exposition! The exposition is delivered via 150 unskippable dialogue prompts? AAAAAAAAAAAH!
@@Nipah.Auauau I could give a lot more feedback to RPG devs than I've detailed in my post, but I just wanted to give some examples of common anti-fun sequences of gameplay. "The genre is not a catch-all excuse for..." is the most important feedback I wanted to get across that one person has already misunderstood. Poor implementation of common systems leading to lengthy periods of dull gameplay is what I think hurts the indie RPG scene the most. FF7 starts off right in the thick of the action, but it's the 7th title in an already popular series, so it had the luxury of assuming it could drop players in the thick of it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend 'My First Indie RPG' to take this approach, but it does have more potential to be fun than the alternative of repeatedly mashing one button through the first chapter of 'My First Novel'.
@@smokelingers I agree with your first half but not the second. I don't see why an indie RPG dev can't do the same thing FF7 did with its opening level. The setting FF7 takes place in is unique to that game only so it's not like Squeenix could rely on people being familiar with it. It was also their first foray into 3D so they were expecting a lot of new gamers to check it out too. "In medias res" is a popular narrative technique for a reason.
lol I tend to uninstall overly fast games (perhaps its because I am old, but I also did this when I was young). Music is the first thing I turn off after I install a game. The only time I didn't is the first level of the original doom.
More fun elements:
- less delay on any input
- more feedback on input (particles, sounds, vibrations or screenshake, animation)
- always something to progress in (goals that steer you - in non sandbox games) and achievements
Just wanna bring up the other side of the coin here.
I actually like when certain attacks have a delay because it makes me debate about if i have time to pull it off.
Imput delay does tend to happen less in single player games but if your playing on a large tv from 10 Years ago that has a mouse delay of like 20 thats kinda on the player.
Not the Dev just saying.
I 100 percent agree though particles sounds and feedback is really good stuff. I cant give the other side of something i agree with this much sorry.
Enough sauce can make even the most basic meal taste really damn good.
For me the heart of Fun is Feedback and involvement of the player.
@@MisterRandomEncounter I agree that If there is immediately and strong feedback, delay can be fine especially for heavy attacks.
Watched this video 2x speed. You're right, much more fun.
my slow, mute, complex misery-simulator is in shambles :(
For me these help massively:
1) Making the impact of actions come alive via cam shakes or effects.
2) embedding intentional trade offs for the players (i.e. don't allow infinite shooting, add trade off to counter balance)
There's a few things that added much more fun and polish just by being there in my game:
- Menu transitions make the game much more dynamic. Its not actual "fun", but it keeps things moving which keeps the interest high too!
- Interactable objects that have actually no real purpose in the game. In my case, I added things to destroy in the environments like trees. When i added those, the game jumped like ten steps in the fun-o-meter.
- Anything ambiance related : Lights, light fog, audio
I'm working on a small scoped cleaning game and I think one of the easiest ways that I made my game more fun is by adding achievements for different milestones the player has reached, even the simplest things like cleaning your first object or creating a new save file can be turned into achievements. Adding achievements for these milestones makes the player feel like they are accomplishing something and motivates them to keep playing.
That's the whole point, treat players like if they have ADHD 😂
1) It's not actually the speed that matters. It's decisions per minute. The cosmetic effect of sped up footage primarily affects how much you can cram into a period of time allowing you to make more decisions. You can see this in Halo Infinite with the grappling hook. They nerf'd sprint into the ground because it doesn't match the slower tempo of Halo fights that everyone loves which sounds contradictory with the 1st point in the video, but again, it's decisions per minute. The reason the grappling hook was well received was because it increased decisions per minute without increasing speed. My game I'm making has a very slow combat system whereby a typical fight lasts a minimum of 30 seconds and the characters feel like they're fighting in molasses, but I have fun in my prototype because how I implemented the combat system calls for a huge number of decisions to be made very rapidly. Even though you're not moving around a lot you end up doing a lot.
2) This one feeds into the previous one of "more decisions per minute." More isn't actually good advice because balancing ruins a game very quickly when you just cram "more" in. In fact, I'd actually say the trend of "more" is a detriment rather than a bonus. Games have been heading in this direction for a while and it's bothered me ever since I was a kid. Even games back then you'd be 007 killing an entire army of goons. It does a good job of enhancing decisions per minute and letting the combat feel weighty, but it paradoxically also makes it feel very "light." It's hard to explain properly. You don't just want a player's decisions to be rapid, you also want the decisions to have a meaningful impact, but when you cram as much as possible into the game you make each decision feel far less important. This is something I've already noticed in my prototype, even though there are hundreds of attacks during the 30 second combat each attack carries significant weight to it because there's only one enemy.
3) I fully agree with sounds and music. It's incredible how much a difference a meaty and satisfying parry sound makes when spending upwards of a minute or more fighting just one opponent.
4) I feel like I'm being personally attacked with this one. Leave my hundreds of implemented mechanics alone! (Joking about the number, not joking about implementing a lot of mechanics)
5) A timer or scoreboard or something along those lines is hugely invaluable. It really is a necessity.
interesting take on the grappling hook, I complelty agree with it. I think the speed in halo reach was ideal. Have you played Chivalry 2? It is a fighting game with knights and a rather slow speed but the decisions per min you can make are very high.
Anyway I subscribed your channel I am curious about your game
@@manuelkarner8746 Thanks! To be honest I'm in the stage where I'm using a lot of placeholder assets so I'm not going to be making videos for a little bit, but I'm just barely entering the stage where I'll be fixing that. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to show something off with pride.
I think that flashing lights and spectical sell games, and feels fun. But, also, you have a point about decisions per minute. I consider that to be a state of mastery. When the decisions you make are deliberate, thoughtful, productive and planned and you've reached a state that your intentions are executed at the maximum speed you can endure. It's super satisfying, the issue with that is balance.
Games like Super Smash Bros are perfect examples, simple controls a child can learn, but with application of time and effort and skill those same controls can perform amazing sequences that seem super human at times.
The way the controls are designed have a very low skill floor but a massive skill ceiling.
That allows the player to basically find and feel mastery at, a variety of levels.
The issue with decisions per minute is when the player MUST perform at that level. When the only path forward is by raising the skill floor.
This is when I see players tap out of games and stop having fun. Making a game that meets the player at difficulty and coaxes them forward, vs a game that stops them and prevents growth or even participation until a benchmark is past, is in my mind, the difference between games that are fun unanimously vs games that are closed off to only certain types of gamers.
It's also important to keep in mind what the game is offering people. Some players see fun differently. For me, timers kills the fun, where as for others they add to it. Knowing who your selling the game too is hugely important in the end.
Rule #1: add a grappling hook.
Rule #2: bullet time
Rule #3: kill cams
Rule #4: Trains
@@kodaxmax Rule #5: Glider
i actually legitlike this list
I will die on the hill that the grappling hook is the single greatest mechanic of all time.
That's really LEET of you guys to make your video exactly 13 minutes and 37 seconds :3
Hi, I am the CEO of E.A and Ubisoft. You want to make your game fun ? Add a season pass. And lootboxes. Gamers love those.
and don't release it on PC, if you have to... give it last gen treatment.
I like the idea of playing around with variables, it takes the dev bias out of the table and may even create a new game mode (or at least the initial idea of one)
Sid Meier (designer of some classic games like the Civilization games, Pirates, and Railroad Tycoon) has some rules he follows for game design, and one of them is double it or take it out, which is similar to some of the ideas you presented today.
I think for something like a psychological horror game that is narrative based, if you can do something like multiple endings based on what you did as a player during the game, it adds replay value. Silent Hill did this really well. They didn't do the normal "last boss battle can give 3 endings" like today's games do, they had endings based on things you did or did not do long before the end boss, so to get those endings you needed to replay the entire game more than once
Great video!
Want to add my two cents regarding the points covered in this video
1) Game speed : Yes game speed usually make games more enjoyable, however that's primarily due to reaching the "fun" part faster, or reaching milestones in less time. If a game has speed options, you can bet than 90% of players will play at highest speed possible. A counter argument is that higher speed makes a game lose its charm much faster, and you risk your players missing out on some fun aspects of the game that cannot be properly translated when sped up.
Other than that, you mentioned some great hacks to make games feel faster without affecting actual play speed!
2) Taking an aspect of your game and multiplying it: That's just great advise, lot of caution needed but overall it's just a great way to experiment with your game. Will say that doing any drastic changes in your game can result in a bit of tunnel vision, it's fun for you because your game is your baby but it might not be for others, so always try and get as much feedback as possible, especially when doing big scale changes.
3) Game Jams : Just do it, you literally have nothing to lose, just go for it. Worst case scenario you'll end up with an unfinished project and you'll have learned a couple things.
4) Sound design (and visual effects) : tbh if you want your game to have music / sound, it's best to implement it early on. But don't have your game unmuted 24/7, you'll end up normalizing the music which will kill any objectivity, if you listen your favorite song 100 times in a row you'll get sick of it, same thing with your game's OST. Instead, do regular play test with sound on to make sure your music and game fit well together.
Composing your own music can be challenging for sure, but it can also be extremely rewarding and you might discover a new passion. If you've never tried writing music I would strongly advise to give it a go, even if just once, and see what you come up with. As with any other creative prospect, you won't know if you'll enjoy the process until you try it.
You can make very decent music entirely for free and with minimal research
5) Unfun mechanics : 100% agree. It's easy to get lost in the sauce and cook for too long. A game bloated with mechanics which you have to keep track of is just tiring.
As a dev, you might think that your mechanics make perfect sense and are self explanatory, they're not! The best remedy for this is as always to get as much feedback as possible.
In my opinion one of the best mechanics any game can benefit from is manufactured scarcity, raise the requirements, increase the difficulty, take your already existing mechanics and simply add layers to them (e.g a craft menu doesn't have all the crafting slots available from the beginning)
6) Timer / Score : The only reason speedruns exist lol. Anything that can bring a competitive aspect to your game will usually do wonders, being on the upper echelon of that leaderboard is just a great feeling.
A couple things I would add to this video to make a game more fun would be :
- Polish : A game with unresponsive menus, laggy input, and all things gameplay wise can really impact the fun factor of a game. Polishing a game, especially a small one isn't really tough, just take the time to get a proper feel of your game and compare it to similar successful games.
- "Exploits"/"Hacks" : Not in a literal sense, but things that make your game easier that aren't obvious from the start. Maybe mechanics that require some exploring from the player, stuff that isn't explained anywhere but just exists. This can be a huge hit or miss, especially if the game has leaderboards, however self discovery will always be the best way for players to enjoy a game.
- Show don't tell : A golden rule for all story driven mediums, the more text your game needs, the less you should explain. This works especially well if you have an interesting art direction.
- Coop : Not all games will benefit from coop, and not all games need coop, but everything is better when you can share it.
- Meaningful updates : For indie devs, I honestly believe that being active in your community, listening to your player base and pushing updates catered to what your playerbase asks for is a great recipe for success, you may not hit million of players, but the ones that'll stick with you will most likely support you through your whole game dev career, cherish them and they'll always be invested into helping you making better, fun games
I think adding a lot of rewards in the game helps.
If you remember in Sonic the Hedgehog it was very satisfying collecting 100 rings without getting hit because you got a free 1 up. But since the Later Sonic games you have infinite lives, collecting that 100 rings literally does nothing. But they added back in later on by having a end level score screen that rewards players for not getting hit.
Basically the more rewards you get for playing well (or at least playing correctly), like getting a critical hit. The most fun the game is.
Fun is to not be frustrating or boring - to keep the difficulty in the range between too hard and too trivial. It should be challenging in the right amount. You can reach that with lots of playtesting and tuning, ... or dynamically adjusting the difficulty ingame. An example would be to lower enemy spawn rate when the player dies a lot, or increasing it when he barely gets hit. Or more subtle changes like enemy accuracy or damage modifiers.
13:37 length video, nice
Love this kind of content, some common sense stuff I never thought about. Good stuff!
Making it faster is such a good tip.
Thanks for this video.
Made a prototype recently, was really happy I got the basic mechanic to work. Took a step back and was like - oh, this isn't fun. Moved on and took my learned lessons with me.
I can not simply agree to the points made. What some if them do, more speed, more stuff, effects etc. is hide and drown issues that need to be fixed, not hidden.
Really like this video. So much more positive than in the past.
Another way to add fun (or remove unfun):
- Don't make me read. Reading a lot of text isn't fun. If I wanted to read, I'd pick up a book.
Make actions punchy and satisfying. How flashy and crunchy do you want it to be? YES!
Give players more decorative things to destroy. EXPLODING PUMPKINS!
These are all proxies for increasing the rate at which the player experiences emotion from to the game. Speed increases excitement/adrenaline type feelings and random funny things increases the haha/funny feelings. Depending on your games genre, you have to figure out what kind of emotion your game benefits from the most to improve the player's enjoyment (fun). Horror is difficult because there's no easy shortcut for creating atmosphere; it's sound, visuals and manipulating and preying on the player's expectations.
Sorry musicians, I turn the music down till it's barely audiable.
1. Add more "hey!"
I believe you should analyze your game first before deciding to increase speed and number of things to find the source of the fun. Some games get worse if you increase those aspects. For game based on score making, yes increasing those might increase the fun.
Same goes with timer, it might make the game not fun if the game is meant to be played slow and in cozy state.
Back to my point above, after finding source of the fun, find anything which hinders or reduce the fun. Remove or minimize the latter to increase the fun.
thanks for sharing!
Please do a video on horror games, im really curious about your views on them
Great tips here (in both the video and the comments)! That's a question I always been asking myself making my own game, Roadhouse Manager: is this mechanic fun? I ended up drastically iterating my game from a it's original more simulation-hardcore RPG design to a more time management type, action rpg, with more streamlined gameplay. Each of the 5 points in the video applied at various times to my design, really good points to consider.
You clearly enjoy action games.
I know, I know, nobody cares about the cool systems you are proud of having implemented when they don't directly influence gameplay (or not that much). Still, I fell into this trap.
Well, it is kinda fun watching my NPCs do chores for me in my postapocalyptic mecha-farming hybrid but it might have been more fun if you could these things myself.
advice like this always forgets the inherent subjectivity of fun in pursuit of false perfection.
Not to mention it heavily depends on the game. I really dislike the "Make your games faster" tip. For some games, sure. But others, no.
Solid advice.
9:22 SS-LIGMA ahahah
1:25 what if it's in VR?
250 mb limit on the game jam, does that mean i should probably do a 2d game?
Fun first!
Measurements not timer, people want to better themselves or see some basic metrics, not be hastened by something arbitrary.
RPG devs, please stop torturing people with your storytelling, the dialogue especially.
1. The genre is not a catch-all excuse for you to bombard me with 150 unnecessary dialogue prompts at the start of your game.
2. Please let me turn off the beep-boop dialogue sfx if you've added it to your game, because I actually do want to hear the musical masterpiece you've commissioned.
3. If you're going to dump exposition on me, pick a better time to do it. I didn't battle my way through story missions to reach Blood-eye the Highlands Ripper so he can read me a novel. I wanted to engage in ferocious combat with your aply-named berserker antagonist. Seriously, I came all this way after he murdered my best friend, and I want bloody revenge. Now is NOT the time for exposition! The exposition is delivered via 150 unskippable dialogue prompts? AAAAAAAAAAAH!
maybe you should stick to platformers
@@LOC-Ness Have you ever once in your life released an RPG video game or are you just baiting me to argue with you? Be honest.
Seriously, all these "Chrono-Trigger / Earthbound inspired" indie RPG devs need to watch the first 2 minutes of the OG Final Fantasy 7.
@@Nipah.Auauau I could give a lot more feedback to RPG devs than I've detailed in my post, but I just wanted to give some examples of common anti-fun sequences of gameplay. "The genre is not a catch-all excuse for..." is the most important feedback I wanted to get across that one person has already misunderstood. Poor implementation of common systems leading to lengthy periods of dull gameplay is what I think hurts the indie RPG scene the most.
FF7 starts off right in the thick of the action, but it's the 7th title in an already popular series, so it had the luxury of assuming it could drop players in the thick of it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend 'My First Indie RPG' to take this approach, but it does have more potential to be fun than the alternative of repeatedly mashing one button through the first chapter of 'My First Novel'.
@@smokelingers I agree with your first half but not the second. I don't see why an indie RPG dev can't do the same thing FF7 did with its opening level. The setting FF7 takes place in is unique to that game only so it's not like Squeenix could rely on people being familiar with it. It was also their first foray into 3D so they were expecting a lot of new gamers to check it out too. "In medias res" is a popular narrative technique for a reason.
lol I tend to uninstall overly fast games (perhaps its because I am old, but I also did this when I was young).
Music is the first thing I turn off after I install a game. The only time I didn't is the first level of the original doom.
How to make game fun: remove unfun things! 😂
Love your videos guys but man, really?
3rd. 🎉❤
First wooo
bruhhh first comment