What do you expect the player to learn?
- Learning is fun in a game. When you design a game, players are not going to be experts, but on the journey from noobie to pro, what mechanics, tricks, or patters do you expect the player to discover. Like in Tic-tac-toe, a play may discover that they should block the other opponent when they have 2 in a row or that they should start in the middle etc. Learning feels like you are creating your version of winning.
- A simple prototype would be to give an objective to a player and see how they go about it the first, second and third time. Observe and record the changes in their approaches.
- I think this will be a sucess prototype.
Who is your target audience?
- Not everyone is going to enjoy your game. So when you decide your asthetics, it’s important to acknowledge who you want to appeal to. If the game cutesy and wholesome? maybe you should include a penguin mascot! Is the game gory and fast past? maybe you should have a darker color scheme. Enjoyment in a game is inpart to how they see, touch, and experience in the game.
- A prototype would be to describe your game to a person and then have the person draw a mascot for the game. What colors do they use? What shapes do they draw?
- I think this will give inspiration for what to make the game look like!
What assumptions are you makeing about your players?
- If your game is simple, it will probably be more accessible for children. But a simple game might not entice more hard core adult gamers. The point being that different people will play different games. It’s important to remember you aren’t building the game for yourself, but for the people that will be playing it. What knowledge should they have? Would the game be more fun if they are interested in the theme or have played a similar game before?
- A prototype would be to interview 2 different types of players, maybe young and older, then ask them some questions that are core to your game. Then observe what answers they could and couldn’t answer
- I think this prototype will show which audience better fits your game!
