5 Game Design Categories
Which is most important to you?
I jumped back into Demonlocke this week. My goal has been to create a design space in the paper prototype that is interesting to me.
That does beg the question, what type of design space is interesting to me?
I think designers need to know this in order to enjoy working on their game. Otherwise, you may end up working on a game you don’t enjoy.
I came up with 5 different categories for design.
Worldbuilding
Level Design
Systems and Mechanics
Character and Plot
Music and Sound
I took these 5 categories and gave them a priority between 1 and 5, with 1 being most important:
1 - Systems and Mechanics
2 - Worldbuilding
3 - Music and Sound
4 - Character and Plot
5 - Level Design
Systems and Mechanics being the most important doesn’t surprise me. I think that is why I’ve spent so much time paper prototyping the battle mechanics for Demonlocke.
The results of this exercise will help me pick the kinds of game I want to make moving forward. For example, level design is really low on the list so I probably should avoid making platformers.
What is your preferred design category?
Thanks for reading,
Ben
P.S. Let me know in the comments if you enjoy a particular side of game design that isn’t listed in my categories.
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Having designed a prototype RPG for my masters, I found that I personally had to avoid writing the parts I love most which is the worldbuilding, characters, and story, and focus on systems and mechanics because they allow for testing and moving towards building an Alpha.
World building, charachter and plot all fall in the same line for me as a writer. You can have the best mechanics but without any story people lose interest.
That being said, games made in the sega genesis days had to tell a story with the world building.
I feel this is what you're trying to do with this game but you seem hung up on perfecting mechanics without knowing how the 'story' fits into the mechanics. Maybe you should flip your priorities around for a day and focus on these untouched parts to see the whole picture you wish to make.