I just finished reading Agile Game Development with Scrum, which I highly recommend to any game developers out there interested in learning about iterative development and how it applies to practical game development

Currently I'm reading Code Complete (2nd edition) which is highly recommended by tons of great programmers. I'm only a few chapters in but so far I'm finding it packed full of absolutely essential methodology for business software development. Most of it also applies to game development as well but it seems like most of the ideas need to be toned back quite a bit to make them more practical for how games need to be made. Still though, it's forcing me to think about development in new ways and so far I'm really digging it.  I also peeked ahead a bit and there's lots of info on design patterns and other really, really, useful stuff. I'm looking forward to getting to the "meat" of the book.

I'm also working through Game Design Concepts, which is a free online game design course that I simply cannot praise enough. Seriously, this is not an option - this is a must for any aspiring game designer.

Looks like an exciting game! ...definitely one that I can see myself playing to completion and trying to find all the goodies.  I'm following this, following you on twitter, and would be happy to tweet the trailer.  Keep up the good work.

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First of all, this is a fantastic thread!  There are some really great thoughts presented here.

It's a very interesting way of thinking about game design, keeping the player in mind, feeding him bits of information, rather than pages at a time, that make up a whole inorder to solve a mystery/puzzle while at the same time giving definition to the world.  It keeps the player attentive, inquisitive, because they've learned to listen to words of the characters in the game early on, where other series suffer from shoving superfluous information inorder to bring some backstory to the world, early Zelda's kept dialogue minimal but seemingly important and indirectly giving character to the world while keeping this sense of mystery still intact.  The mystery being the world, also by having these inaccessible areas to explore (key/lock system), you ponder what's beyond them.

I'm very new to thinking about design so this might be obvious, but I always thought games were no different from storytelling and film, there's just this new layer of interaction you have to deal with.  But its through interaction that you tell the story, not by words alone.  Your building an experience, working on the players memory so to speak through subtle things found in the environment, the sights, the sounds, and you tie this into the gameplay as well as some dialogue.  A lot of games I've played have forgettable scenes/areas, single use environments, in Zelda throughout the series (at least up to Majora, haven't played the others) there were at first mystery objects in almost each environment that called you back to them once you had the information/item that told you what to do with the objects, so as the player you had to keep a mental image of the world and where they saw what.  I could to tell you almost 90% of the map OoT, and 5% of any other game I've played - I think that says something.

The world is like a giant loose dungeon composed of other dungeons.  In a smaller dungeon, you are doing the same thing, paying attention to your environment because you know you'll have to do some backtracking inorder to solve it.

I'm kind of rambling I don't know if these paragraphs tie into eachother and they probably are not very keen insights, but they're useful to me.  I definitely want to implore some of this into my own games

You may be new to design but you're obviously light-years ahead of most designers out there.  Far too many think about game design in terms of how to incorporate previously proven mechanics and ideas... and fail miserably because they never understood the essence behind the mechanic or idea and why they worked in the first place.  For good design, you absolutely MUST....

Be able to imagine yourself AS the player

RESPECT the player as an intelligent person who is very capable of making connections that aren't immediately obvious

Realize that immersion is not just about making an intimate connection with the player through narrative. Books do that, art does that, movies do that... but games have something that NONE of those have... interaction. Just like visual and audible details are unfolded throughout the course of a great novel or film, in a game the INTERACTION must unfold, little my little, throughout the course of the game. Let the world expand in the player's mind by first letting it be a mystery and then giving them tools and subtle clues to let them explore and figure out the world by themselves. That makes players feel like they have special knowledge about the world they are in that others may not even know about or think about in the same way. It makes the player feel special and it makes the world they are in feel special. You just CAN NOT get that if you explicitly tell them what to do.

Trust that player's will invest time to grow their skill and overcome extremely difficult challenges if it at least seems possible and they are otherwise connected to the game. They will NOT become frustrated and quit unless you did something else wrong. Contrariwise, extreme challenge reaps extreme pleasure when finally overcome by your OWN merits. Again, it's about respecting the player and putting yourself in their shoes.

(there are more things you must do but those are the ones that immediately spring to mind and seem most relevant to what we're talking about here)

i think AAA game companies are actually underestimating players. plenty of players like games that are tough and complex, but companies think 'oh we can't let the player ever got stuck on a level or die too much, they'll get frustrated!'. i think the popularity of games like dark souls, minecraft, dwarf fortress, even the binding of isaac to an extent, as well as superhard masocore games like i wanna be the guy, shows that players can handle much more than most companies think they can

i think people like challenges, even challenges that are above their level, games they know they'll probably never beat. there's just a loud minority of people who dislike hard games, but i think the silent majority prefers a game to skid marks on their souls and such

Bingo

People like challenge with variety and surprise mixed in.
The frustration came from obnoxious and tedium difficulty with no margin for improvisation. Most new neo hardcore game does have the good bit back: good design.

True. This is very important. After each challenge is overcome, there should be a period of rest where the player can reflect and revel in their accomplishment... and realize that they want more. ...and then give them more.  You can't give them more if you give them everything right up front.  Better yet, just nudge them in the right direction and let them find "more" all by themselves.

There's truth to both schools of thought.  You can't market a crap game and a great game that no one knows exists won't get played.  It's important to work on both throughout the entire process.  At least, that's how I see it.

[...]there would be more of a build-up, instead of mass-panic right from the start.

Build-up is always good

Nice start. It seems like the money needs to have more of a purpose. It might be cool if you could enter a shop by pressing a button or walking into it so you can buy cool weapons and such.

Sweet!  That means there's only 80% more to do!  :D

I also dislike the 'save anywhere' approach because for me it can ruin immersion.

I never much cared for save anywhere either.  It doesn't really bother me per se, but as a player there have definitely been a lot of times where the fun came from NOT knowing if I was going to be able to make it to the next save point and having to play my best. Then, when I manage to get there I'm happy.  If I don't make it, it's encouragement to try again (because now I can do it better).

  SO AWESOME!!!! 

Or, what about allowing the player to save anywhere and anytime but the data that gets saved is the last "safe state"?  That way it's impossible for the player to screw it up but then they still have the ability to pause when they're in danger to save... just in case they forgot to. Just a thought... not saying there's any "right" way to do it.

Loving it so far.  Keep up the good work!  

Thanks  

Just read your blog post via your profile link, just wanted to say you're not alone in your feelings towards game development, I'm the same; and I'd wager a larger number of people round these forums are too. Love making games, hate day job - risk of making the full time jump scares me but each day I feel I'm being pulled closer and closer to that goal... One day

Oh and before I forget, made a new site quickly today: http://iamclaw.com

Loads to do, but it's a start.

Thanks a lot!  I definitely get that impression.  People here seem very passionate about their games and I'm glad to be here.  I should have joined in a long time ago.

Oh, and I like the look and feel of your new site.  I obviously have a lot of work to do on my site as well. Working on my web presence still feels like an awkward time-eater to me but I'm seeing more and more just how important social marketing is and I'm trying to figure out ways to spend more time on stuff like that.  Plus, it just feels good to make connections with like-minded people... I think that's a big part of what I've been missing.  Anyway, I'm glad to be here and, again, the game looks amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

Seems like once the ability to save anywhere, at any time, is implemented... auto-saving in known safe areas would be a super duper easy and fast solution.

My first game was ASCII Pong, which unfortunately I don't have a screenie of. However, I do have a screenie of my second game, Lilly Pads, which was a straight-up Frogger rip-off


The first game I designed myself was a pornographic game called JackOff, which I'm obviously not going to share pics of publicly. I remade this game about 5 years ago and it came out pretty good. Too bad I can't share it! It's super funny... but I really don't want to be publicly known for that sort of thing.

However, I do have another game I made shortly thereafter that I can show you, and it was based around the same sort of mechanic. This one was called Bombs Away... a curious name considering the bad guy never dropped bombs. Instead, he dropped potted plants which you had to catch to keep them from breaking. Funny how the bad guy is wearing some sort of prison garb... makes him seem "evil" don't you think? My favorite thing is when he throws angry cats at you. Unfortunately that version has been lost somewhere. I remember this game being pretty fun and only taking like 2 days to make... Maybe I'll remake it with some weekend, for the nostalgic fun of it. If I do I'll share it.


The first "complete" game I made (which basically just meant that it had a title screen, end game screens, options menu, pre-designed levels and smarter AI) was called Battle Tanks. This one would be too large of a project to spend the time to remake but I can still play it with DosBox anyway, so I'm good. Those mines can be triggered with bullets and then they explode all tiles around them, including triggering other mines. It also featured one-way tiles, which are what those green tiles with the gap in them are. There was no tutorial so I basically showed how that worked by spawning the player in one level where they had no choice but to go through one.  One of my favorite things to do on this level was to use a mine to destroy walls on one side so that I can walk off the edge of the screen and come out on the other side, right next to the AI tank and a one-way tile (a guaranteed win).


Anyway, those are my good old DOS days.  Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce!  This was fun :D

Loving it so far.  Keep up the good work! 

^^ This

This is looking really nice.  Keep it up!

I tried everything I can think of to log into my tigsource database account but no luck. I tried to register again using my normal email and username but it says that both are taken, so I know that I do indeed have an account. Is there a password reset link that I'm just no seeing?  Thanks.  http://db.tigsource.com/

This looks AWESOME!

just a heads up.  most of these links are broken.  here's a good one: http://luckylionstudios.com/license