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The Short Memory of Game Design

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the remember-and-keep-your-twinkie dept.

Gamasutra has another piece in Ernest Adams' ongoing series Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! This week he looks at the terrible long-term memory the game industry suffers from. Because of fast turnover within company ranks, games released by a single studio can consistently make the same bad design decisions over and over again. From the article: "Which is worse: A game that introduces its features sparsely but regularly, or one that gives them all to you at once and then never gives you another one? I would much rather play the former. Obviously this will vary somewhat by genre, but offering up a new twist every now and then will certainly help to keep the player's interest. Too many games turn into a boring grind in the last third or so, and the player has to slog through it if he wants to see the ending. We didn't get into this business to make boring grinds."

2 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Re:what has the author done exactly? by joystickgenie · · Score: 3, Informative

    Honestly I was expecting way more from his because I have read some of his articles before and many times he seems on point. But here is a list of his credits for your perusal.

    Published Games

    RabbitJack's Casino for IBM PC (1989-91)
    Third Degree for CD-I Player (1992)
    John Madden Football for 3DO (1994)
    Bill Walsh College Football for Sega CD (1995)
    Madden NFL 97 for Sony Playstation, IBM PC, and Sega Saturn (1996)
    Madden NFL 98 for Sony Playstation and IBM PC (1997)
    Madden Football 64 for Nintendo 64 (1997)
    Madden NFL 99 for Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64, and IBM PC (1998)
    Michelle Kwan Figure Skating for IBM PC (1999)
    Madden NFL 2000 for Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64, and IBM PC (1999)

    Unpublished Games

    Takeover for IBM PC (1991)
    Dungeons & Dragons for the CD-I player (1991)
    Baseball '93 for IBM PC (1992)
    Wildfire! for IBM PC (1993)
    Baseball for Sega Genesis CD (1995)
    Psychic Warriors for IBM PC (1998)
    Genesis: The Hand of God for IBM PC (1999)
    Dungeon Keeper 3 for IBM PC (later retitled War for the Overworld) (2000)
    Theme "X" (2000)

    To me personally this credit list doesn't seem very impressive from design aspects. Perhaps he made a name for himself in the industry with his consulting work.

  2. Re: catchup system by DocSavage64109 · · Score: 4, Informative

    City of Heroes and City of Villains have a system where either the higher level character can temporarily be a lower level or the lower level character can temporarily play as a higher level when teaming. It makes the game fun and playable for both the hardcore and the lite players in our guild.