I have noticed that students want to really design a great game. I believe that anything we want to do, we want to make it great. However, anyone would agree that the knowledge and foundation behind any project is absolutely necessary. It is okay for things to be missing but only to the detriment of the said project. Some games’ design that I have seen seem to lack a essential component and that is game analysis and deconstruction.
There are many of us who know how to do this and it’s not really brain surgery. I didn’t even know what deconstruction was as a child (or heard of it). When I played games (before I ever heard of C++), I would always ask questions about the game I was playing. “I could barely reach that star. Why can’t I reach it?” Or, “why is that the way to get around this wall? How would I have ever been able to figure that out?” I believe that it is as easy as asking questions about games and why things are done. Some of them might be issues with bugs and what the developers did was a solution for the player to avoid something detrimental. However, those same workarounds contribute not only to stability but also to a better gameplay experience.
Using my first example above when I asked a question about not being able to reach a star, I really felt that I should just be able to reach it. As I continued to play that game, I really just wanted the game to allow me to jump and get that star. I finally was able to reach it the way that the developers wanted me to reach it. That particular path was an experience that the player needed to go through and increased the gameplay and immersion of the player. I had to use a new mechanic to reach the star and would have never experienced that had 2 ft. been added to my jump.
This is a really basic example (once again, I was a 12 year old kid) of how I was able to do this and still continue to do it. Playing games is fun… it’s supposed to be but don’t forget that we are a part of an industry to provide that fun on our projects and having that ability really helps. I am not a pro in this department but I still use the same tactic with other things that I have learned throughout the years. Ask questions about the game you are playing. You’ll be surprised at how things work when you yourself try to analyze and break them down.
