Game design fundamentals

[Poo Bear]

Told through the medium of a game - fun and cute, should be part of your first lesson on a game design course I think

Scary thought - in the future all jobs will be turned into games, people like playing games, even repetitive activities or boring activities can be fun when a game is overlaid over them. One day we'll teach children by turning everything into game, then we'll keep the population at large productivity and happy by making work a game too.


http://www.kongregate.com/games/pixelate/understanding-games-episode-1
Super simple, but I love the bit where they highlight that representation is not completely separate from game mechanics. How it looks creates expectations on how it should play - I know its obvious but seeing pong turn from abstract paddles to more realistic bat and ball really brought that home.


http://www.kongregate.com/games/pixelate/understanding-games-episode-2
Another super simple lesson, but trying to balance the little game to be challenging without being too hard or too easy is very interesting.


http://www.kongregate.com/games/pixelate/understanding-games-episode-3
Players don't read manuals, boy is that a fact A nice demo of what happens with a tripped down game and no manual - trial and error in full effect.


http://www.kongregate.com/games/pixelate/understanding-games-episode-4
Direct a character or be a character?

[Slyh]

Rule #1 in Flash game design: Add a volume control!!!

Apart from that issue the games/lessons were quite fun. :)

[Poo Bear]

Rule #2 in Flash game design: add a skip button to the initial advert