Game Design

Game design can be taken lightly and give great games like Minecraft, but it can also be taken very seriously and turn into Diablo 2. Small changes to a game can turn into huge changes in how the game is approached by players, so extra attention has to be given to the decisions made when designing the game.

So, I want this to be a game that people have a reason to come play again once they're done with the single player. Quickly, I can think of two things that can help achieve that. First thing is depth, having many strategies, many ways of playing the game, and having room for creativity. Second thing is multiplayer. I like multiplayer a lot, I have a very competitive mind and I know many people would come back to a good balanced, deep game, even if there isn't any reward at the end of it.

But multiplayer for the sake of multiplayer is bad. You don't want to add in the ability to play with your friends just because everyone else does it. That's the difference between World of Warcraft's and Fable 2/3's multiplayer. World of Warcraft could easily be a single player game, but they added reasons to play with - or against - friends. Fable could easily be a good multiplayer game, but they added the ability to have someone else in the game without giving it any reason to exist. They did have reasons to add this, but they didn't do it for those reasons. It ended up severly limiting the positive impact on the game.

What does that mean for this game then? Well multiplayer has to be crafted along with the game and it needs a reason to exist. Here's the overall structure of the game I'm doing.

First, there will be the single player, obviously, where you level your character which you will later use in multiplayer. There will be a plot, an end-game goal and a way to beat the game. When you level your characters, you will gain skill points which you can spend to add utility to your character. Examples of this are stamina to run longer, increased accuracy with rifles, better firing stability when you just want to unleash everything, better driving skills and so on. In no way will there be a power creep. A well placed sniper shot will always be lethal and a car splatter will always hurt the same. You will also find gear. Water bottles, food, medications, gas, cars. All of these are persistent through your world, but they can't be brought in multiplayer. That gives you a reason to play single player, but when you get in the ranked death match mode, you only bring your skills.

So what will that multiplayer be then? Think of this mode like the hunger games. Everyone is put on an infected island with a city and everything you could need. The last one to be alive wins. The ressources on there are more frequent than in the single player mode because it's a more isolated area. There are no survivor NPCs because it's a PVP mode. Since you only bring in your skills, you start with an empty inventory, or more like a common citizen who's on vacation (Clothes, mobile phone, bottle of water).

That's cool and all, but then you get ranked mode. Sure, you can also play an unranked match. Anyway, you need 10 people minimum to start the game (I think if I sell the game cheap enough I can manage a big enough player base for this) and then you win or lose points based on how long you stay alive compared to everyone else. That's like the arcade trap, where the high score is the reason you come back to the game. If there's enough depth, then strategies can emerge and be broken, and competition ensues.

I might put in some cooperative multiplayer, but then again I have to build the game around it. I will not put in limitations on the second player either. There will be no split screen, only network play. Most likely no limit on the number of coop players either. Once the competitive multiplayer is done, the same code can be used for coop, especially since I don't want to disable friendly fire, ever.