Game Design Musings: too complex? Introduction

Many games feature complex interactions, mechanics and controls. Often we find ourselves just slightly dissatisfied with an aspect of a game; and want just a few more options here, a little more complexity there. We believe that suddenly this will make the game, which was previously a passable experience, transform in to something better.

This can be contrasted against a few examples where ideas ran rampant, and a game has collapsed under its own weight, whether by becoming convoluted, or being so complex that it turns into a mess of bugs that hardly works.

When games were in their infancy they were simple, by necessity, not design, there was just not the hardware to support some of the complex ideas which must have been floating around the brains of game developers. However as time went by we were given more and more tools to play with, and some raced away from the simple model as fast as possible without thinking of the direction they took.

This has led to developers throwing on feature after useless feature, just because it is new. What is worse, it is then decided that because games X, Y and Z were successful this new game needs all the features that made X Y and Z so successful, and the more time passes, the longer the list of arbitrarily 'necessary' features from other games gets.

Now in 2010 we have the luxury of many new, almost scientific approaches to game design, discovered, nurtured and shared by some brilliant minds. It is easier than ever to distill a game down and examining it as if under a microscope, cut out what is counter productive and create a game of pure fun.

Over the course of this article series I shall explore a few approaches to the complexity of a game,  and compare their differences.

I am currently working on: A Morrowind mod!

I have joined a group working on an already established mod, I won't say who or what... But I'm very happy to be exercising the creative side of my brain that has all but atrophied over the last year. Which is what working at a software company writing systems to be used in insurance broker's offices will do to you.

"Hardcore vs Casual games." is a meaningless phrase.

The Escapist recently had an article that commented on the definition of hardcore commonly accepted in the gaming scene. I recommend reading it, and agree with the closing message. To call this game casual or hardcore, or that player hardcore or casual is a statement often thrown about with negative connotations; usually with the individual or game in question being too much of one or the other, but which one, and did you actually mean it as an insult? Without taking in a lot of supporting context it is almost impossible to tell, this is obviously quite problematic. Why do we even do this, when really casual and hardcore don't mean what we are trying to say.

I was going to develop for the iPhone, but I'm no longer considering it.

I am not the only one in this boat, there are a number of others of a higher profile than mine (not a hard status to reach ;) ) that have thrown up their arms in disgust at the behaviour of Apple with regards to developers, however the voices we have heard sing this tune before have been established entities, well travelled in the arena of iPhone development. On the other hand I was just beginning, but without even having to go through the horrendous approval process I decided this was not the place to be.