Daunting project + audience I care about = motivation.
Category Archives Caleb’s Game Devlog
Thoughts on Game Development and Game Design. Expect quick-thought blog posts, scripted videos, and even podcasts. If you want to learn my philosophy on video game development, this is a great place to start (and end).
The game-making lessons we mentioned are:
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Re-use of levels doesn’t have to be boring. Narrative, along with day segments, means each environment feels very different despite their repetition. (Death Loop). Mentioned: Dishonored 2 Devs Explain the Clockwork Mansion.
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Simplicity can be deceiving. Simplicity doesn’t mean boring. (Super Auto Pets).
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Difficulty doesn’t make Caleb hate a game. Rather, artificial difficulty (ie, design ignorant difficulty), is what makes Caleb hate a game. (Ori and the Blind Forest).
The game-making lessons we mentioned are:
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Inscryption - A game’s mechanics don’t have to be novel in order to be worth playing or developing around
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Luigi’s Mansion 3 - Puzzles should have feedback to guide the player. Meandering and luck are not satisfying game mechanics.
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Doki Doki Literature Club - Video games can still be meta, even after Undertale. If the game’s conceit is unique, being meta isn’t necessarily a death sentence.
In September 2015 I decided I wanted to make a video game. Having no experience with game development, let alone any experience with programming of any kind, I sensed quite a daunting journey ahead of me. So I took to the internet.
Once the player’s mental model adapts to the understanding that face buttons function differently than shoulder buttons, and those in turn function differently than d-pad buttons, the player’s experience starts to feel intuitive. A well-designed input system never explicitly communicates to the player about these functional categorizations. Smart input design simply reveals it to the player.
Gamepad directional buttons tend to be pressed for longer durations than keyboard arrow keys. This means user input isn't just a preference; it's a gameplay consideration.
Games usability seeks to answer three questions about a game as the player plays it:
- Does the player know what they have to do?
- Is the player able to do what they need to?
- Does the player know how to achieve their goals?