Designing your first game - The Basics

So you're eager to get started on your first game. What will you make? A first-person shooter that takes place in a cyberpunk setting? Or perhaps an epic adventure game about a hero who battles monsters and saves the world? I'm sure you have myriads of ideas in your head but before you begin, below are some initial advices to designing your first game.

First, take a look at your team. What do you have to work with? Are you by yourself? Do you have help from programmers? What about artists? If so, how many of them do you have? The reason for these questions is that they will help you determine what kind of game you're capable of developing. For example, if you have more artists than programmers then you may want to design a small and simple game that uses a lot of artwork. However, if you only have one artist and he or she specializes in pixel art, then maybe you want to develop a 2D game. Either way, know your team and their skills and then design your game accordingly.

Second, keep the game's design simple. Even if you have multiple programmers helping, as a game designer you need to crawl first before you can walk. Design a game where the player only needs to remember a few core actions that you can teach them all in the beginning of the game. The rest of the game can have a myriad of obstacle types for the player to overcome, but what's important is that the player will still only need to remember those same core actions in order to overcome those obstacles.

This applies to the game's assets as well such as objects and enemies. Design a handful of basic and modular assets that you can use, combine and arrange with others to create new challenges and obstacles. Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't introduce new objects or enemies to the player as the game progresses, but the more you're able to use the same assets over and over again, the more time your programmers have to polish the game. Plus, it forces you to be creative by making new things while using the same pieces, sort of like LEGO.

Third, design a game with consistent visual rules. If you have a blue flower pot that can be smashed, ensure then that ALL blue flower pots can be smashed. If there are pots that can't be smashed, make them different by perhaps colouring them red. If you don't have consistent visual rules in the game, it can break immersion as well as the player's flow. Although players can't always see what's right, they can always see what's wrong.

Well, that's about it for this post. I'll go into more advanced game design topics in future posts but this should help you get started in designing your first game. Good luck and see you all next week!