One of the fun things about prototyping is how much my game can change from one day to the next. This can also be a bit of a problem. Yesterday I implemented the two remaining big changes that I thought were needed to the game. By the end of the day I had them both in the game and I started play-testing the thing. It turns out the game isn’t fun anymore; I completely destroyed the balance of the game. Now the game is much too easy and there’s no longer any challenge to it.

The problem this leaves me with is the following: I still have no end condition to the game. In the older system, it was too hard and users generally lost at the same point during every game. Not only that, but the player felt like he/she had no control over the game at the end of the game. Losing became an inevitability. This was not good. However, now it feels like you can’t lose. The game has become too easy and so it feels like your actions and choices have no consequences. I’ve been reading a book on game design theory and I think what I’ve done is removed “meaningful play” from the game somehow.

In order for the game to be fun, the player must feel like his/her actions are what determine the outcome of the game. In the previous iteration, it felt like no matter what the player did, they would lose, so their actions became meaningless in terms of the outcome of the game. Now, no matter what the player does, they can’t lose, so again, their actions become meaningless.

So I’ve prototyped the two extremes: one where the player always loses, and one where the player never loses. The real trick is going to be to figure out how the heck I implement something in the middle. I’m just not sure what that is yet…

Owen

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 8:59 am and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.