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Category: Game Design

Market shifts when we move, not when we pay for it to move

Published by Paolo on 02/09/2024

I am an avid listener and consumer of information on the business I love. I like to hear about market trends, data, and insight. It’s not a matter of knowing which trend to follow. I like to learn more about how the market reacts to our craft.

The issue with that is that majority of this content comes from consultants and managers. They pretend to quantify everything, and it doesn’t work like that.

Market trends influence the industry and investments because those act when informed on this data. But data cannot measure intangible things such as cognition and emotion.

Creativity evades quantification. Business people want certainty: I put X and then I will get Y.

It’s what we put out there that shapes the market. We design games for an audience, and we shouldn’t decide to read the previous spending choices for that audience. We should instead focus on what they were looking for, in exchange for their money. Our job is to read something intangible, but existent.

  • If millions of players play daily a specific game in a genre it doesn’t mean there is an actual market around that genre. They will most likely continue to play that game in that area. And they are looking for another kind of experience to complement the one they get from that game.
  • Also, mobile games have shifted in the last decade from the first long-term minded business based on brand (Rovio, King, Supercell) to the last short-term performance marketing companies (MiHoYo, Voodoo, Playrix). And the results are out there, few winners of the race to the bottom.

That’s where the art of game design truly helps. Too many times our business is led by people who prefer to make something bad but controllable instead of something good but not controllable.

And to make something spectacular, you should focus on making something good in first place.

Pawtners Case first blockout

Published by Paolo on 29/08/2024

This week I have worked intensively on my indie game, Pawtners Case. You are a police dog and you have to help your colleagues to solve cases.

The first level I am prototyping is a medium one. The goal is straightforward, you need to reunite with your colleague, Agent Quinn, and escape a warehouse. There is a bomb to dismantle, too.

This week I have implemented a lot of features, and a blockout. You can see the result here:

For the blockout, I started by looking for references and setting up a moodboard:

Then, I proceeded to create a notepad where I defined my goals, the sequence, and so on. Later I created a map:

Then, in Unreal Engine I set up the level, iterating on the concept. I have to say that I find Unreal Engine versatile for a game designer. It has integrated a gameplay framework that makes things easier. I am happy with my choice!

Why do you make games?

Published by Paolo on 28/08/2024

You will likely work on a project that will not ship when you work for a company. If it ships, the odds say that the game will fail. If you and your team manage to get over the odds, it’s a little miracle.

The same thing is valid when you are on your own. You control the vision of your creation, but the numbers are there.

Are you working in games to be successful or are you doing it for the craft?

Inspired work to earn trust

Published by Paolo on 27/08/2024

Reading and watching the latest releases in video games I arrive to a thought.

You need inspiration to make a good game, no matter the level of experience you have in this sense. If you want to earn the players’ trust, you have to deliver something novel. Not something new, but a product that works and has unexpected elements that surprise people.

People are great at understanding the personality of what we deliver. They understand when there is a derivative choice or something that comes from the truth of our craft. In some platforms, they can decide to close an eye.

  • Whales of f2p mobile games know that the game is designed to grab their cash, and they decide that it’s fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHtNcTA8t6A
  • People playing Helldivers 2 understand when a new upgrade on weapons is made to sell them a season pass.

Lessons from Black Myth Wukong

Published by Paolo on 23/08/2024

Everyone is talking about the monkey, a breath of fresh air during those challenging times. I am watching the game intro over and over, it is probably one of the best I have ever seen.

  • Character: he’s brave, he’s not humble, he is imperfect. He is relatable with Goku also for non-Asian audiences. That cloud flight scene is pure genius.
  • Combat: it starts from the best thing of the game, fighting bosses. You cannot lose here, and you have everything unlocked it’s on you to discover.
  • System: it shows you a possible evolution of your character
  • Promise: the theme is well set at the end of the prologue. It’s about rising again.

But wait, why did the semi-god fall off? It’s not clear and I am not the only one that wants to know why…

Regarding the development, the team had experience in live service games and they decided to steer off completely learning Unreal Engine from scratch.

Great things happen when you have motivation and true experience but in lateral sectors! Black Myth Wukong is another proof of this.

LLMs and critical thinking

Published by Paolo on 22/08/2024

One of my duties as a game designer working in a team is to give feedback. Usually, I give it to other designers, artists, and writers. Giving feedback is hard, because when we’re asked for it we tend to look for the defects. Or, at least, I do.

The same is true when I am on the other side. I ask for feedback and I already know that 80% or more of that will be some critical opinion. I accept it, because I know how it is when I am on the other side of the table.

I have developed this interrogation to LLMs that helps me a lot with my designs. I provide the machine with my design goals and elements and ask it to do my job. The result is wrong, and average. I criticize it and find solutions.

The dialogue with a dummy entity helps with my critical thinking.

Pawtners Case

Published by Paolo on 21/08/2024

Today I have completed a set of new mechanics which will be useful for the very first prototype of my game. You can watch here:

I have also changed the name of the game, after listening to the first feedback on a Discord server. The game will be called Pawtners Case, I am studying also layouts for a possible capsule. This is what I got so far:

I am impressed by Unreal Engine. I don’t know why I didn’t use it until now. It has a whole gameplay framework already implemented, you can set things up very easily. And placing object in the level is fairly simple. It doesn’t have the huge community that Unity has, but it’s a powerful tool.

Now I need to focus on the level for the first prototype, and double check which mechanics I am missing.

The courage of logging out

Published by Paolo on 05/08/2024

I was watching this fantastic video, a little clip from an interview to one of my favorite singers.

Apart from the fact that I love when someone I consider a true talent shows humility and thanks his high school teachers, I think lots of things are transferable to my professional life.

The main one is that you have to truly dedicate yourself to something to become good at it. And this is not anything new, but in my life I have:

  • my family
  • my clients
  • my hobbies
  • this blog to maintain
  • a Substack where I teach game design in Italian
  • my LinkedIn account
  • a Reddit account

that means lots of distractions for becoming a true expert in something. That’s why the time in high school is so valuable now to me.

I wish myself the courage to log off and pursue my dreams, today.

Creating content

Published by Paolo on 12/06/2024

“The tune had been haunting London for weeks past. It was one of countless similar songs published for the benefit of the proles by a sub-section of the Music Department. The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn the dreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound.” (G. Orwell, 1984)

Videogames, like music, are perceived by some people working or investing in them as “content”. That’s where the very concept of creativity starts to be corrupted up to a level that is hard to answer quickly to some issue.

Creativity to me has more to do with removing things than adding. It’s like you throw the clay, or something like that, and then you start to dig material away from it.

Everyone who worked with me can confirm this, I start very ambitious and then I work shoulder by shoulder with engineers and artists to remove stuff. It’s better to have 1 thing well polished than 5 generic. It’s better to enhance a strong part of a game than to create a new mode to sustain the weakest ones.

The dopamine culture wants content, and it’s harder to see this simple truth.

The Action Man fantasy

Published by Paolo on 10/06/2024

What I really liked to see yesterday at Microsoft’s XBOX Showcase 2024 was the presentation of the new Call of Duty.

I am never been a COD fan, and I have never played that game too much. But I liked the developers’ interview explaining how they changed a single thing, the fantasy, to innovate meaningfully on the whole game.

The new fantasy of the “action man” led to a whole new set of features and animations. Some of them is designed for new audiences who, like me, are not experts playing that game. Refreshing!

Impressive and you can see how the game design is definitely a role shared among the whole team.