I'm currently playing the incredible Ghost of Tsushima.
One of the things I love most about the game is its immersive experience, largely thanks to the diegetic UI.
But why am I looting a poor woman's house? Or riding along the roadside to gather bamboo? Couldn't the upgrade mechanics rely solely on quests or exploration—like shrines or discovering rare items?
I don't see the purpose of resource collection mechanics in games like this. Can someone help me understand if there's a valid reason for it?

Like League of Legends for example: There are always items, classes, roles and individual champions that perform better than others and since the release of the game til today, they constantly have to nerf/buff stuff.
Another example that I have on top of my head is Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Earth and Air magic are way better than Water and Fire magic, and other secondary skills as well.

So this might be a silly question since I am a newbie, but how hard is it to get a game to be fully balanced? Is it even possible?

Hi!

I'm making a game about a mystery solving duo, one has a more by-the-book approach and the other is more of a loose cannon. I thought about making the dialogue options when talking to NPCs reflect that, with one option from the straight man character and the other option being from the more loose character. Sort of like in Mass Effect, where you can have options that are renegade and options that are paragon, but in this case it would give preference to one of the two protagonists instead.

Which protagonist is more frequently chosen to do the talking would reflect in future choices and ultimately in the ending.

How does this idea sound? Has any other games tried successfully to do this? What are the pitfalls to look out for to not frustrate the player?

Background

I'm making a main game that is a fantasy world simulation. But first I wanted to do something less time consuming and also that would let me play test some of my key ideas.

For that reason I'm doing a subset of the game using the core systems plus the parts that are specific to a magical learning institution.

The concept is done as a "Map & Manu" game with elements of Academagia, King Of Dragon Pass, Tokimeki Memorial type games, Long Live The Queen, and Kudos 2.

Notably there's no hand written dialogue or events, nor are there art assets outside of icons. The type of small square images you'd see in a building menu for a city builder.

So RPG/LifeSim/Scheduling/Strategy is basically the genre.

Questions/Discussion Request

So I'm posting this for two reasons.

One is if there's any obvious problems or snags I'm missing which I'm not too worried about but you never know.

The other is are there any things anyone considers key to a magical educational system simulator that you don't see.

Immersive stuff I haven't mentioned or just core game loop stuff.

Main Topic

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to improve on existing magical education simulations, what strengths the overarching fantasy world sim would provide, and how to create relatively unique gameplay. But most of all, like the overarching game vs existing fantasy strategy games, how could a I generate the experience of being a character in a variety of fantasy novels and generate a feel of attachment to the other characters as more than tools in the player.

You'll follow your character though ~16 years of schooling. 4 of primary school or alternatives like private invididual or group tutoring or early apprenticeship or even collaborative merchant early education(think the merchant school in the Valdemar novel Brightly Burning). 7 years of middle/highschool, intentionally set in a single large centralized school unless you use advanced setting. 5 years of unviersity/journeyman training/private military-government training.

The game generates roughly 8,000 characters counting students, teachers, administrators, student relatives and/or noble families, and city inhabitants since in 90% of cases any magical institution is generated in a large city like the national capital(the game represents the education system of a single nation), regional powerhouses, merchant cities, or in some cases cities that grew around a prominent magical school as the school itself expanded.

Now, that is all background and it is time to talk about the actual mechanics.

Every character in the game has a "Consciousness" that contains a personality, ideology, interests, desires, and goals. This includes your character.

Personality is a set of spectrums between two opposing "traits" like brave and cowardly or gregarious and shy or family oriented vs individualistic. Roughly 20 pairs. This determines individual feelins about various actions in the game and also impacts generated goals.

Ideology is partly cultural differences and partly just general ideas about society and the place of people in it. This carries over from the main game but is slightly less relevant here.

Interests are skills or hobbies. Some characters love learning magic, some love martial training or simply physical fitness, some like art or finance, some love animals.

Desires are things that characters want, obviously. Some characters might desire to be a famous mage or please their family or make friends.

Goals are specific things characters target to reach their Desires, desires being more general or abstract. Goals can exist in chains of subgoals.

Characters also have stress/dissonance/motivation/happiness. I'm not sure if I'll do all those or a few or maybe I'll end up finding a different term works better thematically.

When characters take actions they don't enjoy or feel bad doing stress and/or dissonance will rise. Stress can just include lacking sleep or having too many goals whereas dissonance is more about going against their personality/self-conception. Motivation/happiness is the result of engaging with interests or achieving goals or desires or generally being successful.

I'm considering some level of "emotion" tracking but I'm not sure.

Characters have individual "Opinions" of every other character which fluctuate over time. Interacting with Characters they don't like will have negative impacts on happiness/emotion/etc. And positive impacts from spending time with friends.

Characters will have different "potential" and "talent" in different areas of magic, as well as mundane skills. As the player, though the NPCs operate similarly, you'll need to balance characters you like with characters who fit your needs. Say you want to learn some kind of specific magic. Engaging with talented teachers and students will help you learn fast but whatif you don't like those people? Since you have to balance emotional stability and happiness with learning, you'll have to spend time with people you like, doing activities you, and ideally they, enjoy, to wind down from stress.

Consider Academagia

Purely from a mechanics perspective you want to priorities adding specific characters to your "clique". There's a couple characters with strong social buffs and a couple with luck which is rare, and a couple with fitness buffs to sleep less and finally a couple that give a buff to rare subskills, which also unlocks those subskills for training if you don't already know about them.

You almost always want pretty similar clique members and there's no real personality conflicts or anything. Academagia has Emotions and Stress but you don't spend a lot of your time on them and the relationship building actions are just generic. Gossip/Befriend/[thing I forget].

There's a variety of locations like theatres or stables but you don't go there *with* anyone really and in most cases characters don't care. "Girl who really wants to complete the [Path Of Fire] like her older sister in her first year"(Academagia 15 years on never put out the second year much less the other 3) isn't really a thing. Neither is "nature dork boy who wants to explore the entire [Imperial Reserve] to look at all the cool flora and fauna". But it is an iconic plot point in *many* fantasy novels of someone with a unique and non-expected interest that lets the main character befriend them. Many cases involve princes or princess or high nobles or w/e but even sometimes with genius prodigy commoners or w/e.

Social Stuff

My goal, through gameplay, is to encourage immersive behavior/choices. Going to left field for a second, there's a big debate about how Crusader Kings 3 is too easy and people always say to just roleplay, but the *game mechanics* don't naturally support that. I think that is an example of "ludonarrative dissonance". And this also comes up in many magic/raising sims.

My approach to resolve these issue has two prongs. One is the idea of it being more efficient to roleplay your character to maintain your effectiveness at learning magic or doing cool adventures. Discovering the personality, interests, and also strengths of the other students through gameplay actions rather than omnisciently knowing them from the start, and also non-student characters, and then making socializing decisions where they function as more than just tools for power leveling.

Like sure Billy is great at offensive evocation and associating with him could raise your own talents faster and he could help in combat if you do combat, but also he's an asshole and he doesn't enjoy any leisure activities you do but you need to raise your relationship to fully benefit from his knowledge which involves spending time doing activities that raise your stress and dissonance, and are maybe scary or boring. So your overall schedule then has to be loaded with actions that counteract those negatives. Of course if your character is also a violent asshole then it would be both immersive and effective to associate with Billy a lot.

Raising and then maintaining high relationships as a necessary way to improve yourself also limits you, immersively, to a select number of friends and allies. And you'll invest in that relationship over time so that you spent a large portion of your school life with those people engaging with their idiosyncracies and making them memorable despite the lack of fancy portraits or voice acting.

Secondly, as this was a system developed more for the strategy game aspect of the main game I've been working on for years, is putting the information you need to discover and engage with concretely in the game. Characters generate on world gen their "Consciousness" which *includes their desires and goals*. They'll also generate some over time. That information is thus accessible through gameplay and not non-existent/rng as in many games and also not available to the omniscient player in an unimmersive way. Similarly the player is encouraged to detail their own interests, desires, and goals, so that other players can interact with them the same way. Mechanically engaging with interests or achieving goals or fulfilling desires provides mental/emotional boosts to you. And it is dependent on the amount of time since you inscribed that information into your character's "Consciousness". You can't simply add a desire right before you would complete it. You could refuse to engage with the mechanic to avoid letting the NPCs know things about you, but you'd actually be hurting yourself.

Just as helping a character fulfill their goal of pleasing/impressing their family though emotional support, potentially gifts/training, or cooperating on long term actions is a core part of building your relationship and also making them happy and effective, the same applies to your own character. Your "roleplay goals" actually mechanically impact your character. Whereas in many games like CK3 or Academagia your roleplay doesn't impact the simulation at all and it can't be engaged with by NPCs.

Family, Teachers, And City Slickers

Similar to students, non-student characters in the game will have unique interactions with your "Consciousness". If you have desires or goals that allows the NPCs to engage with you in unique ways. A teacher or book seller might have a rare book containing spells or knowledge that you want, or magical objects relevant to your interests, and when they are trying to find a student to do something for them, they can appeal to you in a distinct way for assistance. There are also "shady" and "secret" organizations in the game who may want to blackmail or bribe students to do things for them. Or persuade them with various things. If your character has gray morals perhaps you'll steal something for a crime syndicate in exchange for favors or knowledge or even blackmail on *other* students. And of course you could be the one taking the role of instigator offering things also.

I'll list some examples for teachers. Some teacher may discover your interest in their field and offer you special lessons in exchange for chores or favors or even shady stuff against other rival teachers. Sabotage requests are probably more common in the post-secondary education phase at a university or something. Maybe that teacher needs a lab assistant or someone to go on errands missions to collect ingredients or represent them in meetings. Potentially shady meetings or secret auctions? They'll make requests to students, either you or other NPCs, based on their knowledge of your personality, any secrets or desires/goals they know of, and so on. You might also get referrels from your friends or family. Maybe our old violent friend Billy is working for some teacher to do something and if your character is an amoral asshole like him he'll suggest you for a helper if he trusts you.

Another relevant thing is that because, as noted early in this post, the game is a "scheduler", you'll have to make actual immersive social tradeoffs. This game particulary, as a subset of my larger planned game, uses "Attention Points". You'll get a certain number per day, and you'll be able to allocate them over "periods/blocks" of 2 or 3 hours, not sure yet, but with a limit per block. Maybe you have 1440 Attention points, and 12 distinct 2 hour periods, and each period you could use no more than 240. Sleeping doesn't use Attention Points. There are some pre-scheduled events like classes, default group meal times, sleep periods, and such but you don't have to go to those. Also within an "event/situation" you'll be able to decide on how many Attention Points to dedicate and to what. Chatting in class vs taking notes etc. The main thing is you'll usually have to do some things but not others, especially for the holidays but sometimes a "mission/errand" will mean you can't be in class or do some other event.

Core Game Loop

So there's sort of a creation phase, a planning phase and an input phase.

For the creation phase:

You'll think of some core goals you want to achieve in your run.

You'll build your character.

You'll probably want to start off with general goals since you won't always know what the "non-standard" stuff in a particular world will be.

You are intended to add goals/desires over time so the first time you play a specific instance you'll add more specific goals as you advance.

If you run the same instance again you could obviously know ahead of time what some of your final specific goals might be.

For planning phase:

This is just day by day and week by week, what are your plans?

You can set plans earlier than the day or period they actually go into effect.

You'll have a sort of long term planning board as well that's more general vs selecting specific actions.

There's a sort of scratch/notes system to just help you keep track of things as you go which isn't gameplay related, and you don't *have* to use it.

For the action phase:

This is stuff like, are you going to class, have you told any NPCs of a planned interaction like a study group or party or w/e.

This is on a "day" level.

Then you've got your block/period level.

Okay you went to the school lunch hall today, who did you sit with and where? Did you talk about stuff?

During stuff like lunch you'll usually be gossiping, maybe debating group plans, talking about your day with each other.

This kind of information is important to the social gameplay. Becasue each character only knows what they've heard or observed. You don't have detailed objective information.

Oh you went to class, did you gossip, take detailed notes, daydream, sometimes the teacher may ask questions. Other students could potentially intiate interactions.

Where a student is during a block/period is super relevant. Overhearing things, seeing events happen, knowing who was in class or at lunch.

Locations

"Locations" also have special effects. There's small non-magical stuff like the lunch hall making people friendlier or giving small boosts to the results of social actions.

There's also fancy stuff. Any action you take that relates to learning, mundane or magical, gives a certain base value to your knowledge of that skill.

Studying with people good at a skill gives some boosts, especially for the students who are less skilled. Teachers also impact learning.

Classes has small general buffs to anything within their broad topic. Divination class, pyromancy class, evocation class.

Evocation is a spell *type*, pyromancy is general study of the *fire affinity*. A specialized class or "subject" could be *fire evocation* specifically.

Different structures and geographical features can impact "type/affinity" comprehension or "mundane comprehension".

Studying herbology in a forest glade and so on. There are also Magic Locations with "high affinity concentrations" or something that are even more effective than a natural Location.

There are hundreds of locations including the defaults like the lunch hall or the school gym or classrooms but mainly made of up the procedural locations.

You can explore the school, the grounds, the city, and the surroundings and learn new locations but often you'll learn a location from a friend, teacher, city dweller, older sibling, parent, organization, from Divination, or by having a certain base affinity/potential or a trained skill. Locations have "requirements" for being discovered unless you are told by someone else.

Learning

So as you can see there are a variety of ways your social interactions directly and indirectly impact your educational success. Raw networking also helps you reach a better, or merely particular, post-secondary education result.

Basically to actually learn mundane or magical skills you pick a location, potentially some other people to be involved, dedicate a particular number of attention points in your schedule, and then depending on your base affinity/potential, the potential/skills of the other characters, the impact of any location, or I guess spells/potions/gear which we didn't cover in this post, your knowledge gain is then calculated. You'll get a report at the end of each day. You'll also potentially get details of a modified relationship with people you engaged with. And finally of course your emotional/mental state. Also your emotional and mental state can modify your studying gains.

Currently the way I'm looking at it is that once you have your gains, you can sort of direct them towards a goal. A spell, a skill, etc. You can't send all the gains from a particular thing to a single result imo. That makes it more interesting. So you earn, havent' coded the precise mechanism, 100 "nature points" and 50 "evocation points" or w/e. You can direct 40% of your "nature points" towards learning/improving/mastering a nature spell or skill. Nature might be too broad here. Let's say flora knowledge, herbology knowledge, tree knowledge, alchemy understanding. As not actual terms but just hypothetical ones. Then maybe growth spells, modification of plants spells, and some other very specific nature spell subcategory. Depending on the specifics of your study/practice session.

But you get penalties to spellcasting, crafting, or even directly learning, if you don't keep your "focus" and "mood" elevated. Spend too much time studying with someone you hate or socializing with them for relationship points and you drive down focus and mood.

You *could* make a loner character with lots of discipline, focus, introversion(raise energy doing things alone, lower it in social settings) and then spend more time studying and not have to worry about having the right study buddy and being able to study much longer and such. But then if you *did* need to interact with people for some reason, begging a professor to go to a special study session or use the "under the volcano lava study room" you'd of course have to work harder to build that relationship and get a yes.

I really want to generate a feeling of having to balance competing desires and needs and having to make tough trade offs to achieve certain goals.

Programming

Here I just want to say I've written a lot of the code for this, much of it simply cloned from the larger primary game I'm working on. Loading and generate data and doing UI work. I've done *some* of the "functions that actually use and manipulate the data", but that's mostly what is left. The individual elements I'm talking about here are all in code. Mostly just working out the best way to integrate them to get the final result that fits my immersion goals.

I want this thread to contain every satisfying movement mechanic known to man.

If there are other threads like this, link them I’m curious.

Thx!

I’ve been working on a stealth / tactical shooter type game for a couple months now, got some systems in place but I’m constantly contemplating design to try and figure out what I want to focus on next and what I want the final result to be.

However it’s all getting very complicated. I’m considering stuff like weapon sway amount, enemy hit reactions, balancing stealth systems to accommodate more reactive stealth and choreographed stealth, it’s become very hectic as one change affects 10 other things.

I’m wondering if I’m potentially over-designing. And it’s had me wondering…

How much of your game, or any other game you play, has its design left up to chance? There are so many specifics for me to consider that it’s giving me a headache, which had me wondering how much of a AAA game or indie game’s design ends up how it is as a result of more simpler decisions.

How much should we be doing? I’ve got a few core principles that most decisions are based around, but I don’t know how far it should go. Do you tend to think hard about all these minute systems or just see where it goes?

Thinking of pursuing game design as a career path and wondering if it is worth taking at degree level or if I am better off teaching myself?

I'm working on a roguelike deck-building game and feeling stuck on how to design the attack system. The game takes place on a 2D hex grid, where using a card requires selecting it first, then picking a target tile. I want to minimize the number of card categories, and so far, I've included:

• Move: Move across the grid. One tile costs 1 AP.
• Shield: Adds to defensive stats, which may reset after the turn.
• Attack: Allows you to attack enemy units with the active item.
• Special: Cards that modify stats.

(AP = Action Points. Each turn grants 3 or more.)

My main challenge is figuring out how attack cards will actually work. I want the game to include physical attacks (swords, spears, bows) and elemental magic/arcana attacks while not having a specialized card for every type of attack you can make.

I like the idea of players picking up new items from the grid during gameplay and so adding an inventory to the game will be done, allowing players to swap items from their inventory to item slots mid-turn for perhaps an AP cost. I’d appreciate any ideas here.

The biggest hurdle, though, is magic. In most deck builders, spells are tied to individual cards, but I want to avoid this. If every spell had its own card, the odds of drawing the right element (e.g., fire-based magic for a fire-sensitive enemy) would be too low. I’d prefer a single type of magic card that can be used for various spells.

The simplest idea I’ve come up with is to allow players to equip a wand or magical accessory in their item slot, using the same attack cards. The challenge, then, is determining how players would choose which spell to cast. Another option would be to split attack cards into physical attack cards and magical attack cards, but this could force players to commit to a physical or magic-focused deck strategy too early, which feels restrictive.

For context, gameplay-wise, the battle mechanics are somewhat similar to Alina of the Arena. I’ve made good progress on the game so far, and it would be a shame to stop now because of this design challenge. I really believe there’s a great solution out there, I’d love to hear any ideas or suggestions you might have!

What is pet system that easy enough to complement simulation games core loop? I want to implement cat for the main character of my games but I don't have any references.

Hello, I am trying to workshop a character in my platform fighter with a bait-and-punish style as their main game plan. I am currently having notable difficulties because my first result was considered more of a combo-oriented rushdown fighter. In contrast, the other idea was considered more of a melee spacer due to the kit's focus on long-ranged melee disjoint. This got me thinking... what makes a bait-and-punish-styled character? Do you think that it is its unique archetype, like a grappler or zoner, or a single aspect of various archetypes? If it's the former, what are the widely accepted pros, cons, general gameplan, and the types of moves said character would receive to augment their playstyle, can they work with projectiles, if so what types of projectiles would be the best, can they work as either a lightweight or heavyweight,? Are there platform fighter characters (or fighting game characters in general) you think to match up with the archetype I'm talking about that I can look at and reference? Basically, how can I balance the planned kit to fit the bait-and-punish-styled mold, I am genuinely curious about what answers I get.

Hello everybody.

I've been partaking in this fun exercise of designing a Harry Potter game of my dreams and wanted a few fresh ideas for a skill system that could be applied to magic.

First of, a bit of context: this exercise relies heavily on knowledge of the previous HP game titles, often borrowing a few interesting or unrealized mechanics. Earlier games were more focused in puzzle solving and platforming while later games were more combat oriented. Each has its perks, and my hope is to gather what's best from each of them.

So, about my system: I was thinking of merging a spell learning tree with a skill tree, making it so certain perks are gated behind learning a certain spell, which would likely depend on story progression. In short, spells would be like the main nodes in the tree while upgrades would function as buffs or upgrades to the spell.

There would be 4 main branches the player could specialize in:

The charms branch, focused on spells made for manipulating the environment around the player and applying certain tenporary effects on enemies, such as Wingardium leviosa for levitating, Carpe Retractum for tethering, Incendio for burning, etc.

The jinxes branch, focused on both offensive and defensive spells, more combat oriented. Some examples include the Knockback Jinx, Stupefy for stunning, Confringo for blasting, etc.

Then there's the Transfigurations branch, which is by far the most complex. The game would feature a whole dynamic transfiguration system where the same spells, when applied with different temporary effects, could result in entirely different transformations, sometimes yielding worse results if dangerous combinations are to be attempted. Example: an opponent scorched by incendio, if transfigurated with Avifors, could turn into a toasted raven, while a seemingly harmless opponent, if bloated with Engorgio and transfigurated with Draconifors could yield a full on dragon, becoming deady.

Finally, there's the last branch, which is the Potions and Gadgets category, acting more like an inventory access. There the player would keep potions they brewed as well as a few lore-friendly trinkets that could aid stealth gameplay, for example.

Now my question is how could I go about this merge between the spell and skill trees, considering not all spells are selectable but rather are passive buffs to the player or context sensitive, i.e. Cast when prompted. Furthermore, I too wanted to incorporate a spell mastery system, where consistent use of a certain spell would accumulate experience points for that specific spell which would then level it up, giving the player perks like easier and more powerful casting, although I'm not sure if it would be fully compatible with the skill tree design.

How does this all sound? If any of y'all have references from other games or genres, please bring them to the table, for I admit my reference pool can be limited. Feel free to ask tough questions as well, I'm mostly just sorting out my ideas before committing to anything.

Hey all, I'm new to this subreddit so I'm not 100% sure if this question fits here best. I'm working on a rpg game set in a fantasy medieval setting, which has a variety of weapons. Currently looking to see how to balance weapons across different weapon types. A simplified explanation for the context: Small weapons like daggers tend to be low damage but fast, while big weapons like mauls tend to be high damage but slow. Leaving aside specific traits certain specific weapons might have, I was wondering if I should have a consistent baseline DPS per tier/level across all weapon types (e.g. tier 1 has DPS 5, Tier 2 has DPS 7, etc), or if certain weapon types will just always have a better DPS. I don't think there is a true answer to this, so I'm hoping to see what you all think.

While working on Meow Mission, I hit a design roadblock: how do you visually guide players to interact with puzzles without holding their hand or leaving them frustrated? I found some solid insights on GameDeveloper.com that really helped me rethink the approach.

They broke down how visual hints work in games:

• Environment changes: Like grass dying after players take a shortcut—subtle but effective.
• Cracked objects: A simple way to signal, “Hey, you can break this!”
• Lights: Lighting up a path or area lets players know it’s accessible.

For Meow Mission, we ran with this idea for a block mechanic. To hint at which direction to push an explosive block, I added soft energy ripples flowing outward. It doesn’t yell at you, but if you’re paying attention, it’s clear. I wanted it to spark curiosity—enough to say, “Wait, is this important?”—without breaking immersion.

Visual hints are everywhere in games, but it’s wild how subtle (or loud) they can be. Games like Portal or Hollow Knight absolutely nail this balance, where the visuals guide you without making it feel forced.

How do you guys handle visual hints in your games? Or are there games you’ve played that stand out for doing this just right? I’d love to hear some takes (or frustrations) on this topic!

I have 3 months to make a game, and I am currently using Godot. I have a little knowledge of coding and am learning from tutorials. The last thing I learned was character movement. Let's say I'm not very good at understanding code like a pro. Can I create a simple and convincing project for my final year?

Now I have this idea for an ability in a fighting type game that makes the player go underground and go back up with a punch that knocks back others. But the problem is that I also wanna have walls and trees that would make the ability useless if it could only break out from the ground. Since enemies could just climb a tree. So should I make the ability more punishing or scrap it or any other suggestion?

Using output RNG is easy - you roll a number and it either meets the criteria or not. But I don't know how to do it when rolling happens first and then player decides what to do. Is it even possible? I think it would be something akin to deciding whether you want to spend enough of some resource to successfully dodge or not.

This post is partly just me "rubber ducky designing", so bear with me as I go back and forth:

Hit stop is great in games for selling the impact of attacks, and I'd love to fit it into my 2D platformer, but I'm not sure how it should work with the in-game timer. Basically, I want a Level Time like in Sonic Games: it counts up from 00:00:00, and gives you more bonus points for a lower time. There's more to getting a high score in this game than just beating the level fast (trying to keep an enemy chain going, for example), but it's still important

Making this time freeze during Hit stop is probably the better choice, but I'm wondering if that might create some discrepancies in player perception that could cause problems later. When listed IGT decouples from real time, things can potentially get weird, unless there's an obvious reason for it (like Time Stopping abilities).

I suppose the intention of hit stop generally IS to suggest that "time freezes" for just a moment to sell the impact, so a pause there should be fine, thinking about it some more. Now the question becomes how long it should last...

Is it any good? I want to get ot but its wayyy too expensive so can anyone send me photos of all the cards. Thank you!

This is a series of game design articles written by me.

They’re more on the advanced and mature side of topics that dive much deeper into the idea of creating a truly Infinite Game - as in something that feels like your typical epic narrative driven 10 hour campaign experience, but having an infinite metagame that keeps the experience going without the game resetting after you’ve reached a what is commonly known as the “end game”.

These articles give you hints on how to surpass that limit and go beyond.

Games Are Need Satisfiers
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JIuP…AS_UhCwihE

Throwaway Games Are Band-Aid Approach
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c9wK…7iQLclssh0

Future Of Games, The Next Big Innovation
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Soe…jV7LkeoZhU

My View On The Universe, Life And Death (Part 1)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mmyt…CXzSTLbBMw

My View On The Universe, Life And Death (Part 2)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x7K3…tZgw8bt3Io

Forking Drives Innovation, Not Competition!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K9nu…VIlfRX8-no

Why I Don’t Play Competitive Human Vs Human Games Anymore
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AEL4…gNWE4psDfs

How To Get Started As A Complete Beginner In Game Development
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1su-K…Nx3LYYHAkU

How To Grow As A Game Designer. My Story and Biggest Epiphanies
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uc7p…kHGVElCiIw

What Really Is a Game Designer And How To Master This Skill
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYeW…cJ8O2nA46Y

Evolution of a Game Designer According to Common Knowledge, Which Isn’t Always Correct Knowledge
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WN99…txwMd78VnI

Additive vs Multiplicative Game Content And Why The Latter Is Better
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X46P…vXm51VBMBQ

Scope Creep Is Not An Enemy, You’re Just Incompetent and Inexperienced
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dUnM…0r3MzPFXCI

How To Contextualize Narrative Within Infinite Metagames: Player-Run Services
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MChl…VCHAD5FgPI

Where Does Meaning or Motivation Come From In a Video Game? How To Make a Game Worth Playing?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AYFU…r-x3pQrDUA

How To Set Up Pacing, Difficulty, And Progression Within An Infinite Metagame
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qfdo…ATPgpe5fr0

GUEST ARTICLE - Exploitative Game Design: Beyond the F2P Debate
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tuL7…Y2nHYk0t1U

GUEST ARTICLE - Loopholes in Game Design
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IfTJ…aPREabJn8Q

Enjoy! 😉

Hi everyone, I'm currently working on a personal project and especially the ruling for a small tabletop rpg system. The basic setting idea is a city connected to a dungeon with many levels and that goes deep underground, here people start their careers as adventurers and explore this dungeon to earn wealth and fame. Specifically the players can choose from three basic classes and on each level they'll unlock skills chosen randomly from tables divided by classes and power.

So, I came up with this idea but before actually putting more work on the ruling I wanted to ask to people that probably have more experience than me: can someone think about other games that did something similar? Mostly so I can take inspiration and avoid doing something that could accidentally end up "copying" that/those game(s).

This one's related to my previous post as alongside that, I'd want to have a stress system that you need to manage otherwise it will hinder you in daily life and missions. Narratively, my protagonist's mental health will start deteriorating due to the atrocities they witness throughout their journey, the amount of killing that they do, and overall stresses that comes with attending college.

The stress meter will have a maximum of 100 with milestones every 20 points. Every time you reach a milestone, penalties will occur and I was considering you'd get a game over if your stress is at 100 for a certain amount of time to indicate that the protag reached their limit, but I think that might be a bit too harsh. The player would get opportunities to reduce stress in their daily life by resting, socializing, or doing relaxing activities. As for how they'll gain stress, it would be through story events, actions during missions, and dialogue choices.

The penalties for stress would start once you reach a milestone and will go away once you go under the milestone. If stress reaches 20, bonuses from daily activities will be reduced. If it reaches 40, their abilities and aim will be harder to use. If it reaches 60, certain activities and dialogue choices will be locked. If it reaches 80, more activities and dialogue choices will be locked alongside abilities being only 1/4 effective during missions. Once you reach 100, you'll have certain amount of days to reduce it before you get a game over or probably have very limited options in daily life and missions will be super difficult as your abilities are practically useless.

This is what I've come up with, but I don't know how balanced it will be or how the story will be affected by the MC's stress levels. How could I improve this idea?

I'm trying to take something as abstract as a discussion and turn it into a fun game mechanic. The idea of the game is that you want to try to convince your coworkers to unionize. Before you go ahead and mention Ace Attourney or Disco Elysium, let me explain.

I am not looking for a visual novel style mechanic. It's not the thing I'm going for. I was thinking something more akin to for example Undertale. It's fairly easy to imagine the battles you have with characters as an abstraction of a discussion with them. The outcome of the "battle" in my game would be that you convinced the other character, and they're now on your side. Reading should be minimal, if not just non-existant.

So I'm thinking that it should be a sort of minigame like a Pokemon battle. It's integral to the very core of the game, so it must be engaging without being too complicated.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I know I should practice a lot, but I really don't know where to start. There are some kind of games which are easier to learn? Or should I just learn a bit of everything?

I'd like to hear people's input on this because I feel like I'm in the minority here. The Witcher 3 is one of my favorite RPGs, but my biggest gripe was the level requirements for gear. I understand it is meant to balance the game and deliver what the developers believe to be the best experience. However, IMO this makes a game far too balanced and removes the fun of grinding for gear. I usually point towards Souls games or the Fallout series as examples of RPGs that don't have level requirements for gear yet still feel balanced for most of the playthrough.

For me, what is enjoyable about an RPG is not the grind but the reward for grinding. If I spend hours trying to defeat a single enemy way more powerful then me just so I can loot the chest it's protecting, I expect to be able to use the gear after doing so. So to finally defeat that enemy only to open the chest and realize you can't even equip the gear until your another 10 levels higher just ruins the fun for me. Especially when you finally get to that level, in all likelihood you'll already have gear better that what you had collected.

I've thought about implementing debuffs for gear like this instead of not allowing the player to equip it at all. I'm just not sure what peoples' consensus is on level requirements, do you guys find it helps balance the game or would you do away with it if possible?

When the primary weapon of choice is a blade, featuring guns as secondary weapons, how do I make enemies that warrant the use of the guns?

So far the blade is the easiest/quickest way to deal with them. I'm not talking about ammo/usage but actually needing the gun to get rid of enemies. The blade is obviously stronger and has the only real risk of getting hit than being at a distance. The gun would be obviously a bit weaker, but I have yet to figure out enemies that really need the player to use their gun. Any feedback is welcome!

I'm developing a turn based strategy game inspired by my childhood memories of playing tabletop Warhammer Fantasy (and sprinkle of HOMM 3 + Diable II). The primary game loop is building warbands (armies) consisting of X points where each unit costs some amount of points. Once you have built your warband with various regiments and champions (heroes) you battle other warbands in single battle or campaigns.

The first platform I'm going to release the game is mobile and I'm wondering wether I should add "Auto Combat" mode like in HOMM 3 to allow players to play even when they are not fully concentrating on the game, but it feels like that might make the game pointless because that's the purpose of it, there is no much game beside the battles like in HOMM other than planning and designing your warbands (which was my favorite part of playing Warhammer Fantasy).

Some additional info about the game that might be relevant. The game will be completely free (no ads or micro-transactions). Units will be upgradable between battles using currencies and collectible cards. Each unit will have different skills and item slots for upgrades. The game is already 85% ready so now what mostly remained is content and polishing.

Hi game design community!

Hope everyone's having a great day! 😊 I wanted to share a game project I've been making. This is an underwater survival game that I initially just wanted to play with my friends and family (though who knows, maybe I'll publish it and see where it goes!).

A bit about me - I'm pretty good with programming and I'm a huge GMTK fan. Love analyzing games I play too! Since this summer, I've been working on this multiplayer survival game where you dive deep underwater and have to work together to survive against marine creatures.

The base mechanics are kind of like Thronefall, where enemies can flood your base ( like barotrauma, with water ! ) if you're not careful. I've got a simple GDD going that covers all the mechanics stuff - you've got a tight inventory with just 5 slots, electricity systems to manage, turrets for defense, crafting, some pretty cool monster designs if I do say so so myself, and of course oxygen management (can't forget to breathe underwater!).

Here's my thing though - I know all these parts are cool, but I'm kind of stuck no how to actually start putting it all together. I've heard about design techniques like MDA and resource tap and sink cycles, but honestly? I'm not super sure how to use them effectively. I can show you my GDD - it's just a page long, nothing fancy.

I really want this game to be fun, you know?

Like, I know there's never a 100% guarantee, but when I watch GMTK videos, they go so deep into game design that it seems like they've figured out ways to make games more consistently enjoyable. Would love any advice you all might have!

I am working on a 3D Card Summoning game. Each card can Level.

Why? Levelling is fun and rewarding. (And more)

Why don't they get stronger? Makes it easier to balance the game (I work with small numbers). If you play a lightning bolt you can expect what will happen. And not have to consider the level of the card. You can add new cards to your decks without the problem of being to weak without the levels.

How it works: Deck boxes have different abilities. But the require a specific level threshold of the cards inside to be met. For example a elemental spell box: Requires 10 Levels of fire cards to activate a fire aura. The idea is that levelling the cards will still be rewarding because you can activate these buffs. At the beginning you might have to put 10, 1 level fire spells into it. But later only a single 10 level fire spell should be enough, which means you can build your deck more flexible.

Class/Faction System: Cards can not only activate buff of deck boxes. But will also define you as a player. Having many levels in mushroom cards will unlock "Friends of the Shrooms" now you might get access to a mushroom village, get better trade prices from mushroom volk and be allowed to buy rare mushroom cards. But if you decide to acquire some of the demon cards... They might be very strong. After you bought them will you play and level them? They might unlock negative statuses. Who wants to trade with someone involved in dark magic. Better to get rid of them again... Or go all in.

Thanks for reading. :) What do you think of these systems? Which games have similar ones? Will players get it or be frustrated that a level up don't make the cards stronger?

Let's say I wanted to make a stealth game and in it, my protagonist has to balance having a normal life and going on missions. In Persona, the main draw of social links is to bond with other characters to gain bonus EXP for fusions, but what if there was no leveling up? Persona 5's social links also had the problem of prioritizing unlocks over what characters you liked so I can't just do that.

How would I make players engage with the Social Link system without turning it into a min maxing sim? How can I make the social sim work with the main part of the game?

i'm currently designing a fantasy turn based rpg, and a massive part of the design process is doubling down on the conventions of both rpgs and fantasy stories that i like and removing everything else as much as i can. one of the things that i hate about rpgs is grinding, and i thought maybe i could keep character stats while removing levels and therefore removing the need to grind.

let's say this game has 5 stats. in a regular rpg, these stats would begin very low and as you level up, you would gain points to bank on these skills. the problem with this is that it encourages the player to grind a ton and more often than not, the player will bank these points on health and damage. no matter how many intricate and interesting mechanics i add in, if having a ton of health and dealing a ton of damage works, it's just braindead to NOT bank these points on those stats.

i instead want to imagine these stats, instead of starting from the bottom and going up linearly, they start at 0 in the middle and go up to +10 or -10 (roughly) depending on what equipment you have. you unlock new equipment by exploring the areas and doing side-quests, so to progress and get stronger you do the fun thing which is getting immersed in the game rather than killing the same enemies over and over.

this mechanic is also reverseable. this game will have 3 damage types, and most enemies will be immune to at least one of them. so if you make a build thinking of one specific type of damage but then come across an enemy that is immune to that, you can always remake your build to counter that. the occasions where an enemy is immune to two types of damage at once will be rare.

i'm pretty confident this is the right step to take on my game but i wanted to see if this no-level thing would work in this context, since from what i could tell, most rpgs that don't have level ups are action rpgs, so it's tough to tell if this works on a turn based rpg.