Hi all. I’m fairly new to game design (not so much development). I’ve made the mistake of learning all the programming stuff before design, and since I’m a solo developer and for the time being I think I’m going to be staying that way, I think I’m in a bit of an odd situation.
I’ve watched hundreds (and I’m afraid I’m not exaggerating) of tutorials on game design. I’ve bought and read books (specifically Scott Roger’s Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, which was a fantastic read by the way), watched numerous GDCs, planned out my own GDDs, sat down and just played games and tried to figure out what might have been the designer’s thought process for each thing, what makes it fun and unique, etc. That said, I still am not sure how to make a game. Possibly it’s just because I’m not the most creative person.
I understand the programming side of things, and the engine itself. I’ve been working with it for quite a while, but I suppose the issue is that most of the decisions I make design-wise are completely arbitrary, no matter how much planning I put into it. Here is my general workflow and thought process when designing and developing a game, from the point where I come up with the idea to where I begin to work on it. This is an actual game idea that I am currently working on.
** I’m watching this video when I realize that a game like it would be interesting. I’ve got my inspiration for a game now - there are cops, citizens, and a murderer. Murderer kills a specific person, cops have CCTV footage everywhere and citizens all over the town to give them leads. The murderer has to cover his tracks (or try his hardest not to get noticed in the first place) and escape from the cops. The murderer gets 10 minutes after committing his crime, in which he can hide while the cops try to track him down.
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I begin planning it out in more detail. I’m getting more and more ideas, and now I’ve got a full GDD set up. The general idea of the game is the same, but now I’ve decided some of the more specific things. To save me some typing, I’m just going to copy and paste some screenshots of the overview from my GDD (screenshots because of formatting - there’s quite a bit of it and I’d rather not have to go back through and fix it all up to work on the UE4 forums).
General game overview: https://i.gyazo.com/60ccbf223b37e5df89e8aebfc0f1b107.png
Overview for this gamemode, which I call Murder (I plan on coming up with more in the future and implementing them at some point or another): https://i.gyazo.com/c1ec46991529baa23ee0bd1590ad0d06.png -
Using HackNPlan, I write out each and every task that needs to be accomplished and how long I think they will take. I write down their priority level from unimportant to urgent, and I write out the dependencies for each and every task - for each task, I know which tasks have to be done first, if any.
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Cool, I’m ready to start on the game now. But that’s the issue - I don’t know how. I’ve got all these bits and pieces of a game, but I’m not sure how to put them together.
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A little bit discouraged already, having not even started the project yet, I open up Unreal and start up a new first person project.
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Alright, I guess I can start with the HUD now. It’s not a priority, I know, but I should be able to get it done pretty quickly… then I can at least say I’ve gotten something done and I can feel good about myself.
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Cool, I’ve got the main menu HUD set up. I’ll implement it later on.
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Now I guess I can start with the level. I’ll start by coming up with a layout for it. Well, I know I want it to be a city… fairly small, only two cops are watching over it so it can’t be huge… wait, how do people plan out levels? Do they just start making things and see what sticks? No, I guess I need to draw an overview. Well, I mean, if I’m going to block out the map anyway, do I even really need an overview? Blocking the map out IS my overview. Alright. I’ll do that. I’ll block out the map. Well, I mean… I’ve got modular building assets. Do I really need to block it out? I guess not. Alright then. I’ll just start making buildings and stuff. Uhh, this building is going to go here. It’s gonna have some windows, and uh, a kitchen. Buildings have kitchens. Sometimes. Gonna add a porch, uh, and some furniture… Cool. That’s done.
Wait. This is a house scene - arch. viz. at the most. This isn’t a game level. Alright, I’ll just copy and paste this a dozen times. THEN I’ll have a game level, a fun environment to play in!
Wait. This is just a bunch of copy-pasted houses. This isn’t a game level.
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Okay. I’ll just work on the character mechanics for the Murderer for now - knifing, shooting, inventory, stuff like that. Forget about the level. I’ll make that later. Well, on second thought, it’s gonna be awfully hard to test the murderer’s mechanics without having something to test it against. I’ve got no other characters… I don’t have the cops or the citizens. How can I make one character without having the other? How can I make the Murderer be able to shoot and stab, if there’s no one to shoot and stab? Inventory - how can I make an inventory without items? Okay, I’ll start with items. Wait, how can I make items if I don’t have a world to put them in…? But I don’t know how to make the level.
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I start thinking more about how this one house should be laid out and how it would affect gameplay. Well, the murderer might be hiding in here. Let’s give some places to hide. There’s a bathroom - it has no windows, and it’s closed off from the rest of the house. Cool, the murderer could hide in here. I suppose. I’ll also add a couch by the window - the murderer could crouch behind the couch so as to not be seen through the window. Cool! A house that makes sense from a gameplay standpoint, and looks aesthetically pleasing.
Wait. This is a single house. I need to make a city. This is a house. You know, just… one house. This isn’t enough - how can I test gameplay mechanics for a city-based game in a single house?! I suppose I need to make the entire map now, then.
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At this point, I’ve just copied and pasted a metric crapton of houses all over the map, having yet to add the key places like the camera room and the banks. I plan to do that later.
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Okay, this isn’t working. All I have is a level full of a hundred copy-pasted houses. THIS ISN’T WORKING. OH MY GOD.
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I exit Unreal, and I refuse to touch it again for a month. Rinse and repeat.*
I think the two main issues here are in workflow and understanding of level design. I’ve read a lot of World of Level Design posts and I get the general idea of it. There should be points that the player can use as reference - such as the Citadel in Half-Life 2. There should be inspiration for it - a setting and a theme. An urban city in my case. Objects of interest should stand out - like the way all objects of interest in Mirror’s Edge are red, in contrast to the white on grey color scheme of the environment. Scale is important - keep things to scale with the player. Small details matter. Make things make since in terms of gameplay. I get that - truly, I do. But how do I make a level, from the creative standpoint? How do I come up with the idea for the level - how do I plan it out? When I’m sitting down with a pen and paper, how do I know where to put each building? How do I know how far away to space things? How do I know how many buildings to have? How do I know what kinds of buildings to have? How do I decide how it should look? The choices I make - I want to have a solid reason behind them. Not just “I thought this might work, so why not.” This issue actually is more prevalent in platformer and puzzle games that I’ve tried creating in the past. I don’t know how to plan these things, so I make them up as I go. Usually for a platformer, I’ll open up the editor, throw some random platforms around. Some will be high up, some lower, gaps in between so you can jump across. Why not add an obstacle here and there. I have no more ideas by this point, so let’s just finish the level here! Now for level two. Let’s add random platforms here, an obstacle here, and the level ends here! Level three… wait a second, this is the same as level two and one except just laid out a little different. I guess the game ends there! For puzzle games, it’s the same thing. The player will pick up this cube, and put it on this button. Okay, next puzzle. The cube is in a different place, and they put it on a different button! Coolio! This time, it’s a SPHERE and the button isn’t a button… it’s a hole! They pick up the sphere, and put it on the hole. GASP! Now for the next level. How about… there’s a sphere, AND a cube! Genius! And there’s both a hole, and a button, and they have to put the sphere and cube in the right places! Now level four… Well, let’s have a doorway here, and uhh… you place the cube on a button, right? And so it opens up the door. And then behind the door, there’s a sphere. And you put the sphere into a hole, and it opens up ANOTHER door back in the starting room. A door that you never even saw before! So now you have to turn around, go back through the door you previously opened, and into the new one. I’m fresh out of ideas now. I guess that’s it. Game’s finished.
Anyway, sorry for this massive post. Any suggestions, tips, or advice would be fantastic. Thanks!