For those of you who missed part 1 – http://www.create-games.com/article.asp?id=1720
For those of you who missed part 2 – http://www.create-games.com/article.asp?id=1721
For those of you who missed part 3 – http://www.create-games.com/article.asp?id=1722

(Yes I know they are on the same article list page but some people may find this page alone in a search engine)

The purpose of this article is to discuss simple things that make video games fun that are often forgotten by video game designers.

Do not be put off by any ‘bad game’ I have listed. I am using them to illustrate a point only. This is my opinion only and you should always make your own mind up when buying games.

Some sections will overlap because often one leads to another.

So in no particular order – here are another 5 things you need to consider when making a great video game!

1/ Time to complete area

The time taken to complete the level (track, checkpoint, area etc…) will have an impact on both the enjoyment of the game and its lastability.

What goes wrong:
Doing time trials in Mario Kart 64 was a frustrating task. The shortest track was close to two minutes, and the longest, I cant remember, but I estimate that Rainbow road was four or five minutes. So you imagine sitting there for 4 minutes and 50 seconds – hit a wall – and then you have to do it all over again.

I don’t think anybody is going to care whether their best time was 4:55 or 4:45 – when the track is that long the time trials aren’t worth trying to better. When I do time trials I am pushing the kart as far as I can, shaving every corner, and one millimeter too much and I will have to restart. Nobody can keep up that level of intensity for close to 5 minutes. And with lap times well over a minute I don’t think they will be aiming for a better lap time either.

In Goldeneye (N64) some of the time cheats are close to 10 minutes. It’s a similar thing. Nobody wants to be racing through a level at full speed for 9 minutes and 50 seconds only to have to restart because of some stupid guard at the exit point.

If you have people racing against the clock (and this isn’t for all game types such as collect as many coconuts as you can in 5 minutes) then the times need to be short. You need to ask yourself – if you are setting a time limit of 10 minutes is there really worth setting one at all?

And it also goes for levels where time may not be a factor. Nobody wants to be 30 minutes into a level – run out of health – and have to restart. It shouldn’t take that long to get from one checkpoint/save point/level (etc…) to another.

If you do programming you will know to stay clear from infinite loops. Yet sometimes we can inadvertently create them. In Resident Evil 4 one of the bosses has enemies on the floor which you can waste for health and ammo, where the boss at the top is very difficult (unless you have a certain weapon). I tried it for the first time with just normal weapons. I kid you not when I say this but I played for well over 1 hour trying to kill him. Loose health – go down, spend 5 minutes refilling, head upstairs, shoot him once if I was lucky – repeat. I wasn’t fast enough to aim and shoot the head and the tentacle kept hitting me when I was lining up.

I couldn’t kill him, he couldn’t kill me. It was a stalemate. That’s what you can potentially create when you give players an infinite means of filling up during a near impossible boss (I reset it after over an hour, bought the weapon, and killed him in less than 2 minutes).

What is the right way:
In Super Mario Kart (SNES) the tracks take from between 40 seconds and a bit over 2 minutes. The perfect length for time trials. It is also the perfect length for when you are on the last lap in championship mode and you get beaten at the last turn and you have to restart.

The more repetition you expect the player to do, the quicker the area should be. Like with Super Street Fighter II (SNES). A difficult game on level 8 – but fights go for 2 minutes and there are only 12 characters to beat. So at worst the game will only take 24 minutes from start to end.

With Mario Party the longer you play a mini game, the harder it gets. Usually it will either be so hard that nobody (not even the intense computers) can keep going, or time will run out. Mini games usually last less then a minute so you can play plenty of them (in theory – but that’s another story) in quick succession.

Obviously there are exceptions. And some people might like racing around for 5 or 6 minutes in brightly lit suburbs. You need to make sure you are not frustrating the player. Just remember that when the player is trying to beat the game – it is only fun when they are winning. So don’t keep them frustrated for hours on end. If you don’t expect them to pass everything on the first go, then at least shorten the time it will take to pass the level when they finally do.

I might have had a lot of time to waste (waiting for the World Cup) when I played that boss for over an hour – but not many people will.

Good track length: Super Mario Kart (SNES)
Bad track length: Mario Kart 64 (N64)

2/ Game depth

The depth of your game is the variety of things the player has to do.

What goes wrong:
A friend of mine (OK - it was me) bought Playboy Mansion (PC). It was a fun little game to start off with. I played through the first mission and loudly announced that this was the best game ever! I then played through a second – somewhat similar mission…And a third…Hmmm…It seems that every single mission is the same and there are very few side tasks to keep one entertained. Games that lack depth can be boring.

As much as I loved Animal Crossing (gamecube) I sometimes found that it lacked depth. Each day within 30 minutes of playing I found that I had ‘nothing to do’. But I think that it is designed to play for 30 minute periods, 3 times a day rather then 4 or 5 hours on the trot which is what I’m used to doing (not a good idea kids!).

With the Movies (PC) I find there is a lack of depth. Write script, cast movie, go from location to location, publish movie, rest actors – repeat. If it wasn’t for the advanced movie maker it will be a highly repetitive game. But even then I will argue the advanced movie maker doesn’t have as much depth as one would expect.

This is the risk you run when you have ‘one giant level’. That’s not to say games with ‘one giant level’ will always lack depth. Very few will argue the Sims lacked depth. It is important that if you do have one giant level that you are giving the player enough to do. Because they may get a feeling that they have been doing the same thing for hours on end.

Although ‘many levels’ isn’t always a sure answer for depth either. If level 86 of your game is the same as level 1 except the character is in a graveyard instead of a Castle then you may also need to incorporate more depth into your game.

What is the right way:
Every single game of Worms (PC) is different. You can play through Worms 2,000 times and each game will still be different.

There is a lot of depth in Worms. The landscape is random. The positions are random. The weapon drops are random. Your strategies vary depending on all of that. This why games like this have an incredible amount of replay value. Every single game is different.

Plus there is a lot to do. Close combat, camping, trying to pinpoint a grenade between a weak enemy and an ally (usually you end up embarrassed and one worm short).

You need to make sure they are doing a variety of tasks. Like with The Legend of Zelda III (SNES). This isn’t simply a case of ‘go to castle – beat boss – get gem – repeat until you have 8 gems – beat final boss – yay!’ Link can run, jump, swim, push blocks, talk to locals, blow up caves, the list goes on. And in the earlier parts of the game you see routes you can’t yet pass and you can’t wait to revisit them once you get more powerful!

In the Sims (PC) there is always ‘something to do’ – and there is a lot of variety in what you can do. You find as you play from day to day and as you play different houses that you are always playing each game different (I know that keeping them healthy can be repetitive but the depth is still there).

Let me justify criticising the advanced movie maker for the Movies (PC). I bought 3D movie maker when I got my first PC 10 years ago. There is an immense amount of depth in that game. This isn’t about choosing pre-made scenes and applying your actors to them. You get to create the entire movie yourself – scenes, actors, props, placement, sound effects, speech, music, camera angles etc…And skilled users can even manipulate the character animations and have them doing naughty things. I don’t know why the Movies wasn’t like this.

To explain the difference in another way: The Movies is like me giving you 800 sentences and telling you to make a story using only those sentences. Where as 3D movie maker is like me giving you a pen and paper.

So just to get back on track – depth can be the difference between a ‘play once’ title and a ‘still playing’ title.

Good depth: Worms (PC)
Bad depth: Playboy Mansion (PC)

3/ Modes of play

The modes of play are accessed as a menu on your title screen.

What goes wrong:
Press the start button and you see two pieces of text. One says ‘Play’ and the other says ‘Options’. So you go to the options screen and it simply has ‘Volume, Controls, Rumble’.

By doing this you are giving your player only one mode of play. Although having different modes of play doesn’t suit all game types it is definitely worth considering.

But it is also important to make sure all modes of play are interesting and relevant. A common mistake in game design is ‘modes for the sake of modes’ giving an illusion that the game has depth – but the reality is you will never play that mode.
Each mode of play needs to have an appeal and purpose.

There are many games where they have a massive single player mode – and a four player death match. The latter is very boring, irrelevant and often played once. Obviously they included the four player mode so they can claim it is a multiplayer game.

The reality is that all the game play is in the one player mode and the multiplayer mode seems to be a dull spin off clumsily put together.

What is the right way:
With Street Racer (SNES) they had the championship mode, head to head, time trials – modes of play you will expect with racing games – but they even had a game of football! Racing around in mini cars trying to get a giant sized ball into a goal is a lot of fun.

When doing this you are offering the player a variety of ways to play your game. Not all modes of play will appeal to all players but you are at least widening the potential audience. You are also adding lastability and replay value to the game.

In Mario Party you can do solo mode, party mode, mini game mode, and in version 6 you can even do Microphone mode where you can play the extremely entertaining quiz. Because sometimes you want to play through the board game where as other times you only feel like playing the mini games.

I generally get in a mood for what video game I want to play – solo, one vs one, multiplayer with a mix of human and computer characters – it is good when a game can offer different modes to satisfy whatever way I may feel like playing it.

Super Smash Brothers Melee (gamecube) sees you doing solo mode, individual challenges, player modes, multiplayer mode, and even special games like Super Sudden Death (my favourite), or Slow Mo – and you can even play alone of in teams (friendly fire is also an option). Super Sudden Death, 2 minutes, first to 200 kills – an immense amount of fun.

Good variety of play modes: Super Smash Brothers Melee (gamecube)

4/ Controls

The controls are what makes the thing on the screen move, hit the pointy thing, and lose one of the numbers in the top left hand corner of the screen.

What goes wrong:
Many people felt the controls in Turok II (N64) were poor. I can’t recall them because it was a long time ago but basically they were different to what you would expect and took some time getting used to. I’m not saying that you need to copy games but you do need to understand how people are playing games. If 95% of games use ‘A’ as the action button then you probably should too. You don’t need to force people into learning your unique way of how games should be played unless it is critical to their game playing experience.

If you decide to have ‘B’ as the button for choosing things and ‘A’ to cancel I can guarantee you will frustrate a lot of your players.

In Street Fighter games when they ran out of ideas for moves they decided to reverse them. A lot of the time it felt difficult and uncomfortable. Particularly fighting games that wanted you to charge up for 2 seconds then press down and a button – even though up is jump. Or they want you to charge forward for 2 seconds – which forced you to walk aimlessly toward your opponent leaving you vulnerable.

While it may be good to think of new move sequences to prevent the player from getting ‘too used’ to your controls (which spoils sequels) it needs to fit in with the other controls, and it also needs to feel intuitive and comfortable. (this may sound like a contradiction to the above point but the first point is about operating the game where as the second is about playing it).

Let me try to recall the game title (although the game isn’t important, the lesson is). In Resident Evil 4 (gamecube) if you use one stick – up is up and down is down. But if you use another – up is down and down is up. This takes a while getting used to and spent a lot of time firing in the air while a monster was swinging his axe wildly in my direction.

It is important to make sure the controls within your game are consistent.

With Worms 3D on the gamecube you had to pass the controller around to other players. This made the game unplayable – it was too much of a chore to pass the controller around so many times during a game. If it is a multiplayer game then you should at least give the player a choice which controller to use (to accommodate for players with just one controller, or where there is three players and only two controllers).

Some PC games let you do ‘hotseat’. I find it very annoying constantly switching seats with somebody or having people lean over the top of me. I know the simple answer is ‘Well its just an extra mode of play which you were preaching above so if you don’t like it then don’t do it idiot!’. I was just trying to illustrate a point where the controls may not be practical.

Whenever somebody new plays one of my games for the first time, I am often the one that has to explain the controls. Sometimes it can be frustrating or tiresome especially when you have to list all the exceptions.

What is the right way:
In Mario Party – A for action, B for cancel – and then a clear list of controls prior to each mini game. The controls are usually simple (as much as I hate button bashing!). You don’t need to reference the instruction booklet to play it – you can just jump straight in. And while there is a plethora of games and a variety of ways to play it, you can quickly reference the on screen instructions prior to playing the game, and even enter practice mode.

In Zelda games they generally have an action button which does a variety of stuff – run, jump, swim, talk, push. And they even offer on-screen tips for when the button can be pressed. This can sometimes be better then having a different button (or combination of buttons) for everything.

Some games have a ‘tutorial’ level at the start of the game where it teaches you all the moves. And as you progress they teach you all the extra moves you can do. This means you can pick up and play without constantly glancing toward the instruction booklet. It also helps players get used to your controls if they do vary from other games – which they most likely will.

With Mario Smash Football, prior to every game you get to choose which controller you wish to use. This allows you to use your own controller or share with the closest person. Picking a controller is a lot better then having one assigned to you.

If the controls are frustrating then the game is unplayable because that is usually the only way players can interact with your game. So make sure you test it with people of all ages, reflexes, and left and right handed.

When you invent a game – pretend you are instructing somebody how to play it. See not only how much you have to reel off – but also how much of it is obvious because it’s printed on the screen, and how much needs to be referenced (such as instruction book).

Good use of controllers: Mario Smash Football (gamecube)
Bad use of controllers: Worms 3D (gamecube)

5/ Novice to Advanced

How steep is the learning curve from one difficulty level to the next?

What goes wrong:
Some games only have two difficulty levels – very easy or extremely difficult. So you play through easy mode and you beat it within the day. And then you up the difficulty level and it is nearly impossible!

Players can only learn your game through playing your game (unless you have ripped off other people’s games). So there needs to be the ability to learn your game as they progress.

Another big problem is when you can breeze through the earlier levels and then suddenly you reach a near impossible level. Level 1 is easy. Level 2 is easy. Level 3 is easy. Level 4 is impassable. A game should never have a sudden jump in difficulty.

What is the right way:
Mario Golf (gamecube) allows you to pick a variety of difficulty settings for the computer character matches. Each one increases in difficulty as you would expect – but the increase is gradual rather then sudden.

It’s just like school. You might study English every year throughout your schooling but the increase in difficulty is gradual each year. You wouldn’t like ABC in lesson one and irregular verb conjugation in lesson two. So it’s not something you need to put your players through.

In Mario platform games the earlier levels are easy – but as you progress- they gradually become more difficult. This is something you notice if you decide to use warp zones instead of playing through the game properly. When you do go through level by level you will find that it does get harder each time – but the difficulty increases by proper increments.

You may want to make every single level of your game difficult – that is OK. Ghosts and Goblins (NES) did this and it was a great video game. At least there is consistency between levels. Once the player starts playing they get accustomed to it and that’s when you need to be gradual with the learning curve if the difficulty is to increase. But if its hard from the word go then they will expect it.

If you want your game to get harder as you progress – make the difficulty curve smooth. Otherwise players will be trying to come to grasp with the intensity of the game mid way through it rather then the start.

Good use of novice to advanced: Mario Golf (gamecube)

Well that’s it for this section of the article. I hope you enjoyed it. And as always keep posting comments so I can know how useful (or useless) it has been.

Stay tuned for more!