Gameplay - Unleash Yourself

Hi All,

I planned to open this topic long ago,,
My problem was (and still) the time to do so,,

But I think it is the time to open such topic in our forum,,
As a small participation in this great forum and community of developers

Fine,, you will find that this topic is educationally somehow!! But It is not,,

I will not just copy and paste theories form the internet or other sources,,
Personally,, I hate theories and guides in this industry

The purpose is to give practical tips for the game design process! As simple as this

This thread and its related threads will discuss the following,,

What is the meaning of “Gameplay”?!
How it can change the fate of your game?!
How Gameplay is designed?!
Who can design good Gameplay Mechanics?!
What is the meaning of “Balanced Gameplay” / “Positive Feed-Back” & “Negative feed-back”?!

What about the Gameplay Vs. Graphic Debate?!
What about the Gameplay Vs. Story Debate?!
What about the “Save-Game Types” Debate?!
The difference between 1st person or 3d person prospective?
And so on,,

Here we go,,

Gameplay design is not that simple task as it appears,,,
And it is not just a “cool” idea that we shall do,,, cool idea for you doesn’t mean it is cool for others

How many big titles did not bring the expected revenue because of “Repetitive Gameplay”

How many times did you buy a game and feel that there is no need to complete or beat it?


Important Note:
Do Not think commercially or in your sales revenue while developing your Gameplay!!
Know that: Games can bring Money,, But,, They are not developed to bring money!

Not developed to bring money???????
So why we develop games?

I will tell you,, we develop game for:
1) Pure Entertainment Purposes
2) Educational Purposes (Educational Games)
3) Social Communication Purposes (like in MMO games)
4)
5)
….

So,, we have to know the purpose of our game before thinking in anything else!

Now,,

Let us define this Magical term “Gameplay”

You will find many definitions on the internet,,, forget them!

Think about Gameplay as “Challenges & Choices”

Trust me, if you can look at the “Gamplay” word as Challenges & Choices in the game
You are standing on the right track.

I told you before,, I will make it simple

You can say that gameplay is when the player enjoys to stay in your game.
Appetizer to catch the interest in starting the game and trying it are the first things.
Challenges and choices have to follow.
Consistency and surprises are important to keep the interest in the long term.

But, isn't gameplay the way the controls work? How the controls make the player feel what he is doing while he plays the game?

Hi Pappenheimer,, thank you for your add

Actually, what you said is also related to the "Challenges and choices",,

Again, If the player enjoys to stay in your game,,
it is the types of "Challenges and choices" you provide that attracted him!

May be fighting system,, may be exploration in a nice environment,, May be solving puzzles ,,

All that are called Challenges!!

This will be clear when we put the types of "Challenges",,

the player will not be technical to say that,, he will only say that the game has great ideas!

Let us take an example,,
take any game you played,, and try to remember why did it catch your interest to start the game?! and to beat it?

Story + Graphic has an impact too,,
we can not denied that,, but we here concentrating on the Gameplay itself




No at All,,
we called this the Game Interface System!
Hardware Interface System!

Games are "interactive" softwares, and the controls are the way to interact with your game!

Wii, Xbox360, PS3, PC have different controls, but they can run the same game with the same Gameplay!

Your question about the role of the controls is very smart question!!

Controls is your key for "interactivity" ,, if designed well,, you will feel that you have full control over the game!

and able to proceed smoothly within the game and its challenges!

Sorry for the delay,,

Fine,, we agreed that Gameplay can be considered as Challenges & Choices

But How??

I prepared the following draw (using paint for quick) just to make the idea clear

The Gameplay for any game is the time line between Challenges & Choices,, as example:

You can look at any game as the time line between Challenges & Choices as mentioned above,,



What is remaining now is to know the "ALL the types of Challenges available"

Because selecting the type of Challenges will determine your game Genre


Examples:

- If your Challenges are type of fighting ,, then you are designing an "Action Game"

- If your Challenges are type of solving puzzles ,, then you are designing an "Adventure Game"

However we will discuss the types of Challenges and the best way to combine them