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[Retro]

I have some things I want to vent out about game design, but not to bore you with long posts I decided to try a video format. Only instead of watching me talk you rather enjoy a time-lapse drawing of the illustration that I made for the topic.

Dawn of Design — Creative Foundations

There is also a loose script if you prefer reading.

Discussion:
I know the things I talk about are a matter of taste and I respect everyone's choice in what kinds of games you like to play and create. But still, I hope some of you can relate to the frustration I'm feeling about the games industry and their approach to the design process. I think it was Derek's article on TIGsource about his experience with mainstream and indie games that described my initial thoughts on the subject very closely.

But even indie titles don't give me an answer to the lack of games that focus on creation and learning versus those revolving around destruction as one of their main game mechanics (shooting/fighting). The few games like Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft that are primarily about building things are clearly the minority. So why do so little developers make games about creation?

[Alistair Aitcheson]

Really enjoying watching the timelapse! Very interesting to hear your thoughts about where your inspirations come from. I did

myself a few weeks ago, and it's very interesting to hear someone who's key motivations are completely different to my own

Your main motivation seems to be about enabling creativity and creation from your players, whereas my own is about enabling abstract problem-solving. The two are similar in many ways, but also quite different, and it's wonderful to see how designers with motivations other than your own think

Many thanks for sharing this video, and I look forward to the rest!

[ANtY]

Piece of nice drawing, but it's strange that my philosophy is nor like Retro nor Ali. I liked the timelapse but Ali's video was more like I can learn something new about game design.

[s0]

But even indie titles don't give me an answer to the lack of games that focus on creation and learning versus those revolving around destruction as one of their main game mechanics (shooting/fighting). The few games like Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft that are primarily about building things are clearly the minority. So why do so little developers make games about creation?

FWIW the "Aufbaustrategie" (construction and management simulation, according to Wikipedia) genre is extremely popular in German-speaking countries. Examples include The Settlers, the Anno series and and Port Royale.

Not sure what the situation is today because I get most of my gaming news from American sites, but I remember the genre almost as big as FPSs when I grew up.

[Retro]

Ali:
That's a very cool presentation. I agree, it's similar and different at the same time. It's funny that I have some kind of tendency to not like puzzle games, yet I loved tetris and columns (I think on GameGear) and the design I'm making now will combine the building with a puzzle like interface. I wonder if I'm subconsciously turning it more into this way because it seems to be a good selling genre, yet my design kind of naturally evolved from the initial idea into this.

How much did you look at the market when creating Greedy Bankers? Or is it exactly the way you would want to make it even if you could do any kind of game you imagined?

ANty:
Mind saying what is your philosophy? Would love to hear your take on this.

C.A. Sinclair:
I was a big fan of the second Settlers and the original Anno, really good examples of this genre. The more business Tycoon games did great in the old days too, but after the cloning started (all kinds of whatever tycoons done just as skins over basically the same shitty simulation) I think it got to a very bad name and you could hardly find a mainstream AAA business strategy. Now with Farmville cropping its own style of harvesting frenzy clones, the situation is yet again the same. If I see another isometric city/restaurant/bakery/farm/nightclub/treasure/empire game without any real simulation (and virtual currency to skip over the waiting part) I'm going to puke.

[ANtY]

I'll try to write something tomorrow, I'm sleeping too little lately 

[Alistair Aitcheson]

Ali:
That's a very cool presentation. I agree, it's similar and different at the same time. It's funny that I have some kind of tendency to not like puzzle games, yet I loved tetris and columns (I think on GameGear) and the design I'm making now will combine the building with a puzzle like interface. I wonder if I'm subconsciously turning it more into this way because it seems to be a good selling genre, yet my design kind of naturally evolved from the initial idea into this.

How much did you look at the market when creating Greedy Bankers? Or is it exactly the way you would want to make it even if you could do any kind of game you imagined?

Glad you liked the video I think it seems perfectly reasonable that your design would shift the way you say it has. Creating stuff when you can do anything is all well and good, but once there's limitations to be overcome in order to create what you want, that's where it gets interesting. It's why Minecraft is a more fun than MS Paint, and probably why putting some kind of puzzle mechanic in the building could probably add interest. I look forward to hearing how it pans out!

As for the market for Greedy Bankers, the game is exactly how I wanted to make it, and didn't design it to attract a specific audience. I do really enjoy this kind of game, and it was really a case of exploring how I could make something "simplex", like I talk about in the video. I love a good arcade game, and really go for games which you can play in short bursts but keep on coming back to, striving to improve. The main reason I chose the Greedy Bankers prototype to develop into a full commercial product was because it was my favourite thing I'd made so far.

I think there's a lot to be said for not second-guessing your market, unless you know it really well, though.  I'd assumed that because puzzle games were so popular with casual players (especially on mobile devices), that Bankers made perfect sense from a commercial standpoint. The flaw in this thinking is that there's already a massive number of similar-looking titles available, so encouraging players to try out mine is actually quite challenging. People seem to really enjoy it when they play it, but so far it's been hard to catch their attention in the first place.

But we all learn with experience, and I'm hoping I can find a way to get more people interested in trying it out as time goes on

[Retro]

Really interesting thinking. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts on the second episode when I get to it, because it's going to be on (my very naive) market analysis.

The flaw in this thinking is that there's already a massive number of similar-looking titles available, so encouraging players to try out mine is actually quite challenging. People seem to really enjoy it when they play it, but so far it's been hard to catch their attention in the first place.

Let me know if you figure this one out. The hours I've spent thinking what could I do to let people know about our game ... it took three months of crazy ideas, networking, updating the app. At least I feel the effort has payed off now that Touch Arcade finally reviewed us. But I think the retro niche is very small on iOS, or at least it's very hard to reach through zero budget internet marketing.

My current solution to this is the realization that game development business is not just game development, but should include marketing and sales as an integral part from the get go. That's why as a game designer I'm now not just thinking about the design of the game, but also the marketing opportunities of the concept, business model how it will be sold. For example: my initial structure of levels in the game was redesigned to allow for a shorter release cycle and in-app purchase business model. In this way the business aspects have an impact on game design.

Basically you should start selling your game the first day you start developing it. Most do these two sequentially with marketing as an afterthought. Right now I think this is the main cause for our problem (good game, great feedback and no cash in the bank ).

[Retro]

It's been a while, buy I've finaly created my second video blog.

Dawn of Design — Market Analysis

There is also a loose script if you prefer reading.

Finding out the 63% caused quite a (tangential) discussion already, but if you have any thoughts to add based on the video I'd love to hear them.