Common Mistakes in Game Design

As a game designer, it’s your job to keep target audience entertained through your game. There is not much to worry when people from your tribe comment on your work. If your end users also show disappointment, then this definitely means there was a mistake from your end. An ideal way to avert this kind of blooper is by educating yourself well in this area. A post graduate diploma from Singapore can help you fine tune your game design skills and minimize errors. 

Here is a list of some common errors for you to keep eye on.

Don’t make your game so long that players get exhausted by the time they reach the ultimate stage. Slow starts not only kill their enthusiasm but their interest too. Assassin’s Creed III and Skywards Sword are the perfect example of why you should avoid building something that takes longer hours of your users.  While these games were entertaining, players didn’t like the fact that they had to spend several hours to win them. Hence, beware of sluggish beginnings.

Incorporating unique quests in every game is not easy. That’s why having some common quests, like fetch requests, defeating a particular enemy or escort requests, is just fine. But, challenge is to make those typical quests innovative and stirring. Think it through what you can do to make a normal quest look engaging. What if you add stimulating stories to quest lines? If you recollect how Waking Nightmare quest in Skyrim was done, you will get an idea on what to do. 

Putting a never ending wave of enemy fighters is one of the examples of enemy spawning that can spoil your user’s mood. You can look at Bungie’s Destiny for example. After some time, people were tired of fighting never-ending enemy forces that emerged in certain rooms. Although you can never know the exact number of enemies you should spawn, but it’s wise to keep difficulty level balanced.  

Another common mistake that can be pointed out in this context is the way enemies appear in the scene.   Due to technical constraints, most designers show enemies emerge all of a sudden from thin air. This is not a good idea. You can make their entry more believable by showing them enter through a door or portal instead of any random corner. 

Long cutscenes and dialogues that cannot be interrupted or skipped may annoy your users. The evidence of this is The Order: 1886, which earned criticisms from players and critics alike. It had some surreal visuals, but not allowing players to skip them was a mistake. A long non-interactive moment generally put players off. In the same way, letting long dialogues to continue between characters is not a very clever idea. It can get them bored easily. Therefore, you have to be mindful about this aspect. One simple way of not disappointing either your users or yourself is by including options. Just give them the power of skip button and things are sorted.

Some mistakes in game design are avoidable if you attain higher training, such as by doing post graduate diploma Singapore. This article enlists the common mistakes first time game designers tend to make which you can avoid. 

Report this Page