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[AlexRamallo]

I noticed a trend while playing through some LD37 games where people are just slapping on numbers to different character traits, and leveling those up as "progress"

Which is of course not surprising, as that's how RPGs work most of the time. The thing that bothered me though was that I played through three completely different games where gameplay consisted of shooting enemies to get money, then buying upgrades to character speed, shoot speed, health, damage, and weapon (usually bullet spread or something like that).


The games were generally well made, the gameplay mechanics were varied, yet the progression was exactly the same. I thought it was just a weird coincidence before I realized how common that design is. Noticing this, having played through the third game like that really made me tired of it. Reminds me of mobile games where everyone with an internet connection is scrambling to make flappy bird and bejeweled clones.


This type of simple progression seems like a generic game design. Like, it should become a popular thing to make in tutorials, much like there are hundreds of tutorials teaching people how to make their own flappy bird clones.


I don't mean to talk shit about these games I played, because they were very well made in other aspects. If I hadn't played 3 in a row with the same design, I probably wouldn't even have noticed.

[zombieonion]

Is it really progression though? Just making numbers grow?
Also, if it's LD games, I wouldn't count on much progress of the content type. What is sad is when such practices (just growing numbers) become the progression of non-jam games.

[Photon]

Is it really progression though? Just making numbers grow?

Yes. Its basic quantitative progression, but progression nonetheless.

[timba]

Obviously, there are other kinds of progression.
MOBAs (Dota, LoL, Smite...): Understanding how the game works, general strategies and heroes mechanics, because these games are so deep and big.
Prison Arquitect: Learning how to construct a well-designed prison takes time. Same for other types, like roller coaster parks.
The Escapists: Learning how to escape the prison takes time. Fulfilling a given task is pretty cool. I am doing a game based on this case.

[josehzz]

That kind of game is "easy" to make, I have also made something similar for a past game jam (FPS shot targets and get points before time ends) and because there are alot of FPS in the market from where to take references is easy to go and follow that design path... and also Unity and Unreal made it easier

[FreeFly]

I heard something from my pc screaming "BLIZZAAAARD" 

Being serious, every RPG implements some of those mechanics, but I find them boring. When I used to play Ultima Online skills were important, but they weren't everything. Your status was the result of your social skills, you could be respected or hated just because you belonged to a Guild, not because you had more money or more stuff. you could be the richest asshole in the shard, but you couldn't have any super equipment just because of that, and you could be crushed by the poorest jerk around, if he was a better player than you. That was interaction...