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Ingredients for a great game

There are millions of computer games on the market, how to make your game the best seller? What features should be included? I’ve taken a look at the top sellers above trying to determine what makes a great game.

Set player in focus

The player wants to be focused on the game, he wants to feel that he can control the outcome of the game. It doesn’t have to be easy, or it shouldn’t. The more difficult the game is, the better the player will feel when he has completed the game and won.

For example, in Sid Meiers Civilization, the player is focused and can affect the outcome of the game. He knows that it is up to her whether he wins or loses. This concept is seen in virtually every blockbuster, Doom, Civilization, The Sims, Sim City, Warcraft, Command & Conquer to name a few.

This can also be done in games that are heavily story driven. For example, in several Lucas Arts adventure games the concept that the player can control their destiny is used frequently. Developers should look to base the game too much on what the computer does or other factors.

Simplicity

Never underestimate simplicity; a gamer usually doesn’t like to read hundreds of pages in order to play a game. Advanced features could be included for sure, but still the player should be able to understand in ten minutes what the game is about and how it is played. If the player doesn’t, the game will likely become a dust collector in the basement.

Here comes the design of the menus and the interface. Avoid having weird controls, like the fire button on F, for example. If you were making a third-person shooter, you’d want to use the same set of controls that other games in the industry use.

The menus should be easy to understand, I have reviewed many games where the menus are made up of symbols without any text. This is not recommended as the interpretation of a symbol is highly subjective; try mixing symbols with text.

Values

By action I don’t necessarily mean violence. However, there should be something going on in the game, and when it does, the player should really notice it. For example, killing an enemy in a 3rd person shooter should bring blood, building a police station in Sim City should reduce crime, killing the last enemy in Warcraft should bring victory. This may sound pretty basic, and it is, but still some developers don’t think in these terms.

History

Never underestimate the history of a game. If you read any gaming magazine today, you’ll notice that there’s a great deal of focus on graphics. Graphics are important, but they mean nothing if the backstory sucks. Of course, this is not true if a game is innovative. Doom didn’t have a very well-developed story, but it was still innovative because people had never seen anything like it before.

But usually the story is important, sometimes a player wants to feel part of something bigger.

To cite a few examples, we could start with practically all role-playing games. However, don’t make the mistake of writing the story too complicated. A simple story or a shorter story should work well as long as the story is good.

graphics

Yeah, well, I have to mention it. Graphics serve a purpose as I see it; they improve gameplay and all the other factors I’ve mentioned. They are important in the sense that they communicate the game to the player. They don’t have to be impressive, but they should have a purpose.

A recent example of this is Command&Conquer Generals, the graphics are good, they serve a purpose and enhance the gaming experience. However, the game in question didn’t last that long for other reasons.

There are several games with bad graphics that are still fun to play, for example Warcraft 2 or the old Sid Meier classic Pirates.

Things people can relate to

A best-selling game has to include something that the player can relate to in some way. The Sims, which is the best-selling game in the world right now, has several factors that people can relate to in real life. However, remember that different people relate to different things.

Let’s say a person just watched a sci-fi movie and thinks “I really want to fly a spaceship like in that movie”, so the person in question starts searching for said game. This is also one of the reasons why the Warcraft series became so popular, the orcs and other characters in the game that people remember from reading Tolkien’s book.

Developing a game about solving equations is probably not going to be a success, since very few people identify with it. These are the main factors that create a good game, if you follow these factors you will probably have a pretty good game. Of course, there are other elements that make the difference; marketing is one of them that will become more important as the gaming scene grows.

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