Friday, September 08, 2006

What makes a good game feature?

We are doing some internal game design here at Snowblind, and as part of that I got to thinking about what makes a suggestion for a new feature worthy of inclusion into a game's design? The link I mention in this blog is an attempt to enumerate some of the more successfull mechaniscs used in games. I found myself wondering how you evaluate those mechanics for use in your game, and probably more importantly - how to evaluate new mechanics and game ideas for suitability.

Here's what I came up with, I'd love to hear what you all think. I bet there are some good articles on the web about this type of thing; if you know of any do share!

New Things (tm) should be:


1. Fun, fun, fun!
2. Fitting with the theme of the game.
3. Designed to avoid unbalancing the gameplay.
4. Inspiring to the player, urging them to play our game to experience it.
5. Enhacement of existing game design, resulting in a deeper and richer game experience. This is perhaps better said in consideration of its opposite: Avoid features that make the game overly complex or too disparate.


Bonus points for features that:


1. Distinguish the game from others in the marketplace.
2. Broadens the appeal of the game to a wider audience.
3. Can be expanded and explored more fully

What do you all think?