Sometimes, it’s easy to take games and the way that they’re designed for granted. Of course there’s a certain, satisfying tone of audio feedback when you pick up a health item, that just makes sense. However, it’s worth considering if it only makes sense to you because so many games over the years have decided to integrate something similar into their own game design.
Once upon a time, even this basic fact about games might have been pioneering. That might help you to turn your attention to new game design decisions that become the norm, as it showcases a desire to break new ground within the industry.
Short-Form Gaming
Rogue-like games, as well as the kind of games that you find through online casinos are shorter – enabling a player to play a complete ‘game’ in up to an hour, meaning that a lot of these feedback loops have to be compressed.
This isn’t always true, and the nature of these games vary. With progressive jackpot slots in Canada, the stakes are continuously heightened, and that means that while the individual loop of any given round of slots might close off, the player has to be informed through this feedback that while one summit has been reached, another is coming up. This is quietly reinforced by the platform offering players multiple ways to pay on an encrypted platform, meaning that security and comfort is at the bedrock of even the more challenging aspects of the games.
Multiplayer and Emergent Gameplay
Part of what draws people to multiplayer games to begin with is the lack of framework that’s holding together the experience. Games like God of War: Ragnarok and Uncharted have all received very high amounts of critical praise, but there is an undeniably scripted element to the way that the games unfold that mean they aren’t for everyone. This can be great for creating a cinematic narrative, but it’s arguably less immersive. When it comes to chaotic multiplayer games, strange and funny situations can arise naturally as a result of all the game systems converging in unpredictable ways. A lack of control as far as the developer is concerned (outside of ensuring the game stays together) helps the player to perhaps have more agency.
Cosy Gaming
A lot of the old design impulses arguably go out of the window (or at least need to be rethought) when it comes to the genre of cosy games. The enormous amount of success that a game like Stardew Valley has seen over the years tell you how popular this kind of game can be, but providing players with those same hits of dopamine in feedback loops can seem less obvious when you’re not in constant virtual combat loops.
Part of the difference comes down to what the player comes to the game from in the first place. You, as a game designer, are no longer trying to create an atmosphere of adrenaline, you’re trying to create the opposite – something relaxing, and that means that the rewards can be much more lowkey as a result, yet within that context, they might be equally rewarding to a player’s brain.
