Questions tagged [game-design]
Game Design is the process of deciding the rules and mechanics of a game, and solving balancing problems to achieve the intended play experience. For questions about design of software code, use the Software Engineering or Algorithm tags instead. Likewise, questions about visual design should use Art or Graphics tags.
1,682 questions
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How to define ammunition capacity
I work on a space combat/exploration game, and I got to a point where I require external opinions.
The setup is this: A space ship can have 2-4 weapons, each weapon can have 2-4 ammo types. Ammo types ...
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How to add skill expression to a text based turn based game?
I’m working on a text based and turn based roguelite. I want to have some way of requiring more skill than just mastery of the characters abilities. The dilemma I’m facing is that I’m not sure how to ...
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Status effect duration decrease in a turn-based game
I'm trying to implement a mechanic in a turn based game, and deciding when in the turn order a status effect's duration gets decremented.
Background:
Game is turn based, where there are two opposing ...
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How do I make roguelike class combat options unique and interesting?
My fighter character in a text based roguelike I’m working on is going to be kind of like a sleeper mage due to their spell list and now I’m wondering how to make my mage unique
If I give the mage ...
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What do game studios look for in entry level resumés for designers?
(Inspired by this question which was closed as unclear. I'm attempting to focus on one part of what that querant was asking.)
What do game studios look for when hiring entry level designers? Are there ...
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16
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The quest for a Wiki-less Game
I often see that a community will make a wiki for games that have a large amount of elements, I am attempting to create an in-game application of a "wiki" keeping track of what has been ...
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How to avoid stagnating gameplay in a Non-Linear game? [closed]
In open world games, the progression, in most cases, is Non-Linear leading to players either going through the game at an extremely fast pace, or others stagnating without understanding what to do.
Im ...
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Is it ok to name my game "theme park administrator"? [closed]
English is not my primary language so, I'm wondering, is it ok to name my game "Theme park administrator" ?
Would "Theme park universe" be a better name ?
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What are the implications on play experience when giving the player hints in a game that asks players to figure out concepts and abilities?
I've recently come up with a decently hard video game concept where the player needs to figure out concepts and abilities in order to use them. There is no tutorial or anything similar showing them ...
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How do you determine what order to process chained events/interactions?
I'm trying to write a top-down tactics RPG game in python, and run into the first major decision I can't make with my limited knowledge of RPG fundamentals.
In our game you create a team of characters ...
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Are unsafe attacks necessary in combat systems?
I have been studying a lot of combat systems across various genres of games, and from those that I have seen, having unsafe attacks seems to be quite a common staple. But I am not sure why? I think I ...
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How can damage be quantified in a game-agnostic way?
We're all familiar with the usual pattern in games where players have "100 health", which is typically meant to represent an abstract percentage. Or, some games may use different numbers.
...
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How to make classes (Warrior/Archer/Mage) feel unique in an idle game?
I'm making an idle game for PC, Steam, called Infinite Forest Idle.
The main game loop is:
Click "Start Adventure"
Your character starts fighting monsters, monsters drop stuff you need to ...
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How to make the character selection screen? [duplicate]
Hi to everyone i want to make the character selection screen the following 2 are scripts
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Ethical and Unethical methods of developing a game
I am wondering what methods I should and shouldn't do for making a game.
An example of what I am asking is, how do I stop people getting addicted to my game and play for many hours on end?
What ways ...
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Should I be worried about reverse engineering revealing secrets?
I saw in the past that some games' mechanics have been revealed in details because of reverse engineering, and even the entire source code sometimes.
I'm working on a C++ game with some deeper secret ...
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making a 5 minute Metroidvania prototype and wanna know if my dev process is good
I've been learning Godot and game dev as a whole since the start of this year and I've sunk dozens of hours into practicing making games in it, lately I've set out to make a very small sort of "...
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Simple or Complicated mechanics, what benefits they have and should I be worried about overcomplication?
When creating a game, is it better to have complicated but interesting mechanics, or simple and understandable mechanics?
From a design point of view, I can understand that simple mechanics can be ...
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2
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153
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How to add natural barriers or obstacles without impeding vision?
I am working on a natural, fairly small, grassland like environment/level. I have a few natural, minimally intrusive paths (something like this) throughout it to help guide players to the main weenies ...
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How would you intentionally create overlapping rooms with procedural generation?
It seems like every procedural dungeon generation tutorial focuses on how to avoid overlapping rooms, so how would one go about intentionally overlapping those rooms instead, possibly treating the ...
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Making games for yourself with a story?
I want to develop games for myself. Sadly, I'm limited to making text-based things (though this does have some practical benefits). The biggest limitation though is none of my games can really have a '...
user179028
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How do you effectively induce "berserk" player behaviour?
I have recently been wondering, how can you "induce player behaviour" in a video game
An example of what I am thinking of is when a player uses an ability like "rage" or "...
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How do I go about creating an interesting progression for metal refinement for my automation RPG? [closed]
So, I'm having trouble devising a progression system for metal refinement in my game concept. I've tried doing research for it, but while I am trying to be realism focused (at least for automation, ...
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What is the point of a "rebirth" mechanic in a game?
There are many (mini)games which revolve around the player collecting points to buy upgrades (think Cookie Clicker, ROBLOX simulator games, etc.). Most of these games have a mechanic called "...
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How to allow replaying levels in story mode
I'm working on a game that focuses on a campaign/story mode for the majority of the content; the player progresses their character, collecting items/currency/upgrades along the way, and playing levels ...
- 413
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2
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Audio Cue for Accuracy game
I'm really not sure if this is the appropriate community to ask in. I want to use some sort of audio cue that provides feedback for a player's accuracy in a task. They perform some action in real time ...
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Can I remake an old game? I do not want to sell it [duplicate]
Im gonna remake an old video game that was for play station 1
And when i done it i wanna create a video about game and gameplay and Construction steps and upload it to YouTube
If i put download link ...
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Architecture and design patterns for components
I was working on a physics-based plug-in/ extension for Unity water which would essentially be another component in Unity water.
The goal of this extension would be to integrate interactive physics ...
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2
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123
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How to compute XP thresholds when scaling changes for each level range?
I am developing mobile game and I am stuck on an issue regarding proper player stats scaling based on level.
As a parameters for the computation we have:
base XP value
multiple increment values (for ...
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Stackable items: what's the point of an item not stacking to infinity?
Pretty much every inventory system that doesn't care about realism and still lets you carry thousands of useless items in your pocket will decide to give items a maximum stack size anyway. This number ...
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What are my options for creating animated planets and stars in Godot 2D?
I'm creating a simple game / digital picture frame as a present. It is split into a picture scene and a planetary scene, which will have slight animations, date, time and maybe some messages.
The ...
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2
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Calculating average ttk given accuracy and healing
I'm trying to calculate the expected ttk for weapons in my game but I'm having trouble because players can miss and enemies can heal.
Let's say an enemy has 100 health and every second you have a \$p\$...
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3
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268
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A good genetic system?
I was trying to come up with a genetic system for my game. However, after doing the math I found the system I had in mind won't really work.
Characters have 5 stats that can range from 0 to 12. What I ...
user175083
2
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1
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Keeping a game from getting boring once you have everything?
I'm making a sims-clone, as I've said numerous times already. I'm not slavishly re-creating any one of the games (though I often feel like I have to at times for practical reasons, on a side note ...
user175083
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Complexities regarding starting resources
My text-based game will be a sims clone. I'm having problems though deciding what resources the player should start out with.
I'm wanting to implement a form of the legacy challenge from the Sims 2, ...
user175083
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1
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Implementing building structures in a text-based game?
Basically, I'm trying to make a text-bases sims-like game. Obviously, making a text version of a graphical game while keeping it actually interesting to play is proving quite difficult.
One of my ...
user175083
2
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1
answer
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Converting a real-time game with regeneration into a turn-based one?
I'm wanting to make a text-based game, it'll be about managing families like the sims games.
I'm running into innumerable problems with such. One is how to make it turn-based. I know its technically ...
user175083
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3
answers
6k
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How to make the player feel like giving up?
I am planning a game that has a level that is a confusing and illogical maze, and I want to make the player feel like giving up, but not so intense that they want to quit the game. Also, I'm probably ...
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How to make an actual idle game fun?
I'm making an Idle RPG with a roguelite element.
I want this game to be a true idle game and not like most other idle games where you have to click an upgrade every 10 seconds to keep progressing. It'...
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How do I come up with the stats of a weapon? [closed]
I am working on a game, where mosquito is one of the enemies. I'm trying to evaluate the stats of the Electric Racket (used to kill mosquito in real life)?
How can I come up with the stats for such a ...
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3
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Should I make my "big idea" first? [closed]
I have one game idea that has stuck with me for a long time that I'm using as my inspiration for getting into game design, and I want to make sure I make it to the best of my ability. Aside from the ...
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Avoid player getting stuck with underpowered character
For a sidescrolling shooter I’m working on, I got stuck on the following: The game allows the player to buy upgrades for their character. This oppertunity comes in the form of a shop that sits at the ...
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Would slo mo work for multiplayer?
I have hardly any programming knowledge but I want to get into game design but I have a question would slo mo work in multiplayer if used in this way. Where the player experience the game 10 times ...
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Why should a game include a range of possible damage values per hit?
I’m asking this because this reminds me of critical hits, preventing battles from being too predictable, BUT if I already have crits… why would I have damage ranges?
Especially in action games, there’...
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How should I organize the type advantages and disadvantages for my monster-catching RPG?
I’m making a Pokémon-like game called Beasts of Iatu. The problem I’m having is creating a chart for the attack and defense changes between types. There are fourteen types in Beasts of Iatu, though ...
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Does "critical chance" have any reason to exist?
How do you make critical attacks not useless in video games?
In most games, critical attacks are just a random chance to deal extra damage—but why would players choose random chance rather than extra ...
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Is there some psychological reason for why most game's UI is always the same colors?
Shooter games : Either Blue/teal/azure or other shades of blue and transparent or gray and transparent
MMO games : Either blue and transparent or shades of Brown+Gold or a very dark red, so dark it's ...
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Don't know what to work on next [closed]
I'm currently working on a 2D platformer, and I have no idea what to add next. I've created the code for the player, the animations for the player(just the player for now so that I don't get burnt out)...
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Why does my 2D + 2.5D implementation look weird?
I am thinking about this for a very long time but I couldn't figure it out.
I have to rotate my character 360 degrees, and because of that, I have to use a top-down perspective like in Hotline Miami.
...
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How do I save the player's level progress in GameMaker?
My game, made in GameMaker, consists of various rooms (levels) through which you go on progress. So, imagine I'm on level 7, and I leave the game, it goes back to room 1. Also, the only thing I have ...
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