Meowskivich's Rules of Game Design

Making a game is a lot like playing a game where you get to define the rules. Meowskivich, developer of AR-PUH-GUH, shows us what his rules of design are, and why they're important.

Of all the rules I, as a designer, have, the only rule of mine that has a defined spot is the most important rule of all:

RULE #1 – FUN

This is something that many people don’t seem to understand very well; is the game fun? How do you tell just how fun it is?

This is something that matters greatly as it supersedes all other matters, as even ancient games with poor graphics and mediocre music that are fun are still some of the best games to spend time with.

There are a few subsections to determining fun, and they’re in the form of questions whose purpose I feel appropriate to fulfill.

1 – Did you have fun playing?

If you aren’t having fun playing your game when you test it out, or if you really didn’t care about what was going on in the game, would you seriously expect other people to have fun too? Hopefully not.

If you’re not having fun, then I suggest you either adjust your ideas until you ARE having fun, or drop the idea and rework it another day.

2 – Was the experience smooth and gratifying?

This isn’t something to fret about greatly until finishing up your product, but it is something to keep in mind: Did the game feel fluid and working well? Or did you feel like controls were perhaps off, and a little rough around the edges?

A smoothly running game will prove a more pleasant experience for the player, and thus prove to be more fun.

If your game feels rough, then try to determine what was bringing down your experience and try to fix it as best you can. This is a process that I advise taking slowly, as rushing is prone to cause even more roughness.

3 – What was fun?

Find out what was most fun in your game! Separate it from the rest in a mental list, and keep in mind that of which was less so.

This process is also a good way of practicing step 2, as you are then able to take what was less fun and then smoothing it out, as we go into…

4 – What can I improve?

Time to see what you need to improve, as well as seeing what COULD improve as well. In your pile of things that aren’t so awesome, see what you can smooth out to make BE awesome. If you can’t seem to get things right, or it just doesn’t fit in your game, then remove it and save it for another day, or it’ll stick out like a grape skittle in a bag of M&Ms.

Next, look at what you already find awesome and think “how can I make this MORE awesome?” Before you make real attempts at this, I’d advise making backups of these parts to make sure that if you accidentally mess up parts and make them LESS awesome, then you can restore it.

And that’s basically it. This is strongly based on YOUR opinion, so if you lie, it’s only going to be lying to yourself. So, as a review, try to ask these questions while working and testing your game:

-Did I have fun playing this?

-Was it smooth and gratifying?

-What exactly was fun?

-What can I improve?

With all that in-mind and combined, you’re sure to make your game more fun and enjoyable. – Meowskivich

P.S. If there’s a particular subject you’d like me to work on, just send me a PM on Slime Salad!