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

(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 4 things you need to consider when making a great video game!

1/ Levels.

All games have levels. Some may be one long level where everything happens where as others may be broken into smaller levels.

What goes wrong:
The company ‘Rare’ made many classics that would always be on the ‘to buy’ list. The problem was that in every game there was always that one level that was nearly impossible to pass. I would imagine the people who made the game would see how fast anyone in the office could play through the level, and add .01 of a second to create the time to beat.

By doing this you are creating one forced path through the level and everything out of that path becomes obsolete. Not to mention that in Goldeneye (N64) if you were playing with a PAL TV there was one level where it was near impossible to get the time cheat. By creating a difficult time to beat, Rare must have forgotten that PAL TVs have a slower frame rate so they were forcing players to play seconds faster then those using NTSC TVs.

Also in some levels scientists were in random generated positions. If you are going to give somebody a time to beat you cant have them rely on random luck.

Another thing that makes games look lazy is when you force your player to replay the same level with more enemies, or harder enemies. Or when you recycle bosses. Its exactly the same boss who has magically come back from defeat but now he is wearing a purple shirt and he has two guns.

I am going to use a NES game as an example. Not because it was a bad thing to do with limited memory, but just to illustrate a point. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out (NES) had several characters from the earlier levels reappear in the later parts of the game.

Unless it is a critical part of the story that the boss comes back (And I never agree with stories where people come back from defeat) then create a different character.

There are many examples of video games where the later levels are just the earlier levels. I will use another NES game as an example – Super Mario Brothers. Where some of the levels and the castles were the same but with bigger obstacles and smaller platforms.

We can forgive Super Mario Brothers and Mike Tyson’s Punch Out because of the technology. But when you see it in modern games one cant help but think if the game designers thought ‘That’s a great idea! Same level but more enemies’ or whether they thought ‘Yeah, they got away with it back then so why not now?’

The levels need to be relevant and they need to link together. If you are going to have snow levels and fire levels, don’t put them one after the other unless you are trying to convince people that hot volcanoes with fiery lava pouring from it is logically situated next to a ski slope.

What is the right way:
Have a variety of levels. Using a map always helps. Have a look at Super Mario Brothers III (SNES). The game was broken up into worlds. Each world had a theme. Each level was constructed based on that theme.

Also Ghosts and Goblins or Ghouls and Ghosts (various). At the start of each level you get to see the map pan from where you are to where you are heading. A massive quest to get from the graveyard to the princess trapped in the tower.

Make sure the enemies are cleverly animated and appropriate to each level, and I will mention again Yoshi’s Island (SNES). Have a variety of enemies each with a theme. If it is hot, give them sunscreen. If it is a miserable winter’s day, give them little coats.

If you want to reuse levels to add more difficulty then look at The Legend of Zelda (N64). By having the game change from day to night you can introduce ‘night time’ enemies. Walking through the paddock at day and night become two different experiences.

The levels also need to compliment the story line. If you are going to have your player tread carefully around the edge of a fiery hot volcano then your game shouldn’t be Extreme Winter Sports.

Good variety of levels: Super Mario Brothers III (SNES)
Bad variety of levels: Mike Tyson’s Punch Out (NES – and we can forgive it!)

2/ Cheats / Play guides

I love cheats. I remember as a kid spending upwards of $20 a month on variety of magazines (pre-internet days) and the first page I couldn’t wait to get to were the cheats pages.

What goes wrong:
I bought Mortal Kombat III for the SNES. It came with a manual that gave the story, controls and one move for each character. All moves were different from previous Mortal Kombat games.

So what did Midway expect people to do? Fluke every move? Try every single button combination possible to discover the moves? Or buy ($$) the official Mortal Kombat III player’s guide

A good concept that Mortal Kombat used was hidden characters. The bad thing was that methods of getting the hidden character you wouldn’t think of. See to me a hidden character should be unlocked if you beat x character without losing a round. But in Mortal Kombat is was along the lines of stand in the middle of the lounge room wearing bright red shoes and press the ‘A’ button 7 times while holding any object starting with ‘D’ that doesn’t rhyme with Gary.

Everything in the game that you want players to discover should be discovered using intuition, wit, or rewarding good players. You should never ever ever have to use a play guide to pass a game, or access a cheat.

We have a saying in our house which is ‘I’m going to stretch my legs’. This means going on the Internet, searching for a play guide and working out once and for all how to beat the boss you spent the last 50 years trying to pass.

Watch your Beta testers play. You will quickly discover that what you see as logical or a reasonable ask is the furthest thing from it. And when you say ‘You need to do this’ and they say ‘Oh yeah that makes sense’, they are only doing so with the hindsight of your knowledge. If you have to tell them, it is not logical enough.

If people can’t pass your game without a play guide telling them how to pass it then package the play guide with the game.

Also cheats should be fun and rewarding. There is nothing more annoying then spending 20 hours trying to pass a game and your reward is that you can now play through the game with an extra weapon. The reward is embarrassing and there is no incentive to replay the game.

What is the right way:
With Street Fighter games they now have a character move list that can be accessed by pressing the start button. That way you don’t need to purchase play guides to do moves. You can still buy strategy guides (which is a different thing) but you can jump straight in without having to consult an external source (not including instruction booklet which goes without saying).

In Super Smash Brothers Melee (gamecube) all the unlockables are depicted by a shadow or a question mark. So it is very clear the areas of the game that need to be unlocked.

In Burnout games (Playstation II) it has a shadow for unlockables and also has text that clearly says ‘To unlock this item you must perform 10 headlines’.

Notice how with both examples they are getting you to do things you would expect to do, like finish the game and master each level. Players know that to fully pass the game they generally need to get all items from all levels on the hardest difficulty setting. So this is where the cheats should come from.

And the cheats are things like extra characters, or more levels. Cheats worth playing for.

In The Legend of Zelda III a small booklet warning game players to only consult when stuck was provided with the game detailing how to pass the more difficult parts of the game.

Good use of cheats/play guide: Super Smash Brothers Melee (gamecube)
Bad use of cheats/play guide: Mortal Kombat III (SNES)

3/ Save system

As games become larger and more complicated it is unrealistic to expect people to pass it in one sitting. We need the use of a save system.

What goes wrong:
I bought Turok II (N64) and was on the last level. I had 2 points of health left and no weapons (outside of the default infinite ammo crossbow I think). I made the mistake of saving the game.

I was accustomed to games like Zelda where if you restart you have some of your health refilled. If you restart in games like Super Mario Brothers you have 5 lives restored. But not with Turok II. What you have when you save it is what you get. After ½ hour of frustrating play I was able to scrape together a few weapons, ammo, and health and save it to prevent having to replay the entire game again!

Also in Turok II you can’t save whenever you want to. You need special check points to save the game. So you leave the check point, fight furiously, barely scrape through, limp to the next checkpoint with 2 health points and a pair of pants – and then you have two choices: If you save it you must continue playing with two health points. Or you can replay from the last time you saved it and hope to scrape through with 3 health points.

And if you have finally killed a boss and you are called away from the game before you get to the magical checkpoint – you must do it ALL again

What is the right way:
Whenever you restart a Mario game you have 5 lives. Plus you can also save at any time. Also with Zelda games you restart with some of your health refilled.

But the best save system is Pokemon (gameboy). You start off exactly where you saved the game. And when you ‘black out’, you restart in the last town you visited allowing you to refill your health and recharge your Pokemon.

Its easy to worry that a save system may make the game easier. I must admit it is easier to play though each world on Mario with 5 lives instead of trying to play through the whole game with 3 lives like in the past. You need to find other ways to make the game difficult – or make your game shorter – instead of a dodgy save system.

If you have a game that takes over 20 hours to finish – you shouldn’t force the player to pass it with one life, and whatever health pickups they manage to find on the way. Because if it comes down to replaying the entire game again after 19 long hours because I am too weak to pass the last level – or using the game as a coaster – I will choose the latter option.

Good save system: Pokemon (game Boy)
Bad save system: Turok II (N64)

4/ Storyline

A video game is an interactive story. Therefore the story is very very very important. In a lot of cases you should be able to write a book around your story line. This doesn’t mean to write a book and break it up to get a game – because then your game will be too linear. Your game should be like on of those ‘Choose your own adventure’ books.

What goes wrong:
In the movie Terminator, John Connor fought robots in the future alongside some guy who would have been about his age (because when he traveled back in time he was about the same age as Sarah Connor). Now this guy made love to Sarah Connor and she gave birth to – that’s right – John Connor.

So how can that be the same John Connor as the one in the future if they were produced by different fathers? And if it didn’t matter who produced the kid as long as he was called John then why did the robots try to kill John in Terminator II when Sarah could have easily produced or adopted another John?

Ok so we all enjoyed Terminator but the point is that when you are selling your video game you are selling your story. You need to make it a believable fantasy – and you must try to avoid loopholes or mistakes in your storyline.

Another bad thing is when video game designers get lazy and decide to make a game based on a movie or TV show. Like when South Park was made into a First Person Shooter. This is just mind bogglingly stupid that it hurts just to think what is going through their minds when they make this. Nobody is watching South Park thinking – ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if this was a FPS?!!!’

Movies made into racing spin offs, sports spin offs, etc…etc…It is very lazy and an embarrassment to any video game designer that works had for their game’s storyline and characters.

What is the right way:
Your story line doesn’t just last the length of the game. Your story line is before the game, during the game and after the game. If you ever plan to do a prequel it should already be written for you because you need to know the past of all of your characters, and the fantasy world you are creating. If I asked you ‘what did your character have for breakfast?’ you should be able to tell me.

Mario eats mushrooms and he grows to double his size. Are they magic mushrooms? Does he grow or does the world around him shrink? What happens if there is a climate change – can the mushrooms still thrive?

I know I’m being a tad ridiculous here but these are things you need to know about your game to avoid any loopholes or inconsistencies in your story line.

And different players come from different ages. You might be up to version 75 of your game but that doesn’t mean new players have played the previous 74 versions. Make sure they have a means of finding out what happened in the other 74 games. They should be able to pick up and play without having to chase an old title that is no longer being produced.

Oh, and the only movie to video game that has ever impressed me is Goldeneye (N64). So don’t even bother converting a movie to a video game just to save having to think about the story, or to milk sales from the success of the title. If you are going to make a game based on a movie then you need to work very closely with the makers of the movie so you understand the story just as good as they do.

Good storyline: The Legend of Zelda (various Nintendo)
Bad storyline: South Park FPS (N64)

So there you have it. Even more things to consider when making a video game. We are probably half way through the points have set out for making a great video game. I say probably because I haven’t written the other points into detail yet. There may be more, there may be less.

Stay tuned!