18 items tagged with game analysis
Shovel Knight and Nailing Nostalgia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHhX5GtWNr8
game analysis Shovel Knight nostalgia 8-bit aesthetics
Shovel Knight nails nostalgia with four main techniques: copying from multiple sources (not just one game), emulating what works well from those games, modernising what doesn't work (e.g. checkpoints instead of lives), and rose-tinting - such as smooth controls, wide screen, difficulty options, and other modern trimmings.
Side Quests - How To Make A Good Detour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTJ_RjfhGVQ
side quests game analysis cross-game analysis Yakuza Bug Fables Paper Mario Mass Effect Cross Code
How can you make amazing side quests? With a few ingredients: start by making it easy to accept and track side-quests. Side quests can advance and supplement story, provide a variety of gameplay in mini-games, require different elaborate usage of game systems, or provide extreme difficulty with a super-boss or secret dungeon. Rewards should be appropriate and worth the effort, they can keep players ahead or keep them from falling behind.
How Games Use Feedback Loops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4kbJObhcHw
game analysis Call of Duty Mario Kart Pyre
Games contain both positive feedback loops (winners win more, losers lose more) and negative loops (winners get disadvantaged, losers get advantaged). Positive loops accelerate the game but may alienate low-skill players, while negative loops give weaker players a winning chance but may frustrate stronger players. Plus, some tips to minimize the drawbacks.
Game Designer Critiques The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MC8QQaV1zI
game analysis Link to the Past level design ARPG core loop
The first half of this video looks at A Link to the Past's game design: the core pillars of exploration, combat, and puzzles intersect heavily. Each item works for multiple core pillars; the core loop is explore, fight, puzzle, and get an item; it teases secrets you can't reach; unlocking items minimizes places to backtrack; and the game is based around interaction with the world, not necessarily the core gameplay.
Directing Exploration - How Games Guide Players WITHOUT Tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrL3iG_uacw
game analysis linearity open world
Break games down into three categories: linear, semi-linear, and open-world. Each guides the player subtly or directly, using visual cues or forcing back-tracking. An analysis of Mario Brothers, Metroid, and Legend of Zelda (NES originals) shows how Nintendo masters this in the first few seconds of each of these games.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's dungeon design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouO1R6vFDBo
game analysis Link to the Past level design linearity open world
Link to the Past uses a combination of linear dungeons, open dungeons, and hybrid dungeons. Linear dungeons build tension and direction, hybrid ones allow some exploration, and open dungeons allow you to explore and solve them in any or short orders if you know what you're doing. Many dungeons loop back, giving the feeling of being bigger than they are, and one uses 3D space.
Oil it or Spoil it!
https://www.fortressofdoors.com/oil-it-or-spoil-it/
game analysis final fantasy Dragons Quest x-com oil
We often talk about game juice as cascading actions in response to user input, but what about oil? 'Oiling' a game to remove user pain can drastically improve it. Examples from Dragons Quest, Final Fantasty I, and X-COM illustrate pain-points and their solutions.
Steambirds: Survival Mobile
https://lostgarden.home.blog/2011/10/13/steambirds-survival-mobile/
arrow of play game analysis choice pacing goals
An introduction to the concept of arrow of play, the property of systems that always move the player forward (such as hunger in roguelikes). Several examples from Steambirds about arrow of play: decay, increasing enemies, short-term and long-term goals, currency and currency flow, and limited choices.
Royal Match - The New King from Turkey?
https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/2021/3/21/royal-match-the-new-king-from-turkey
match-3 game analysis Royal Match mobile
An in-depth look at Royal Match, how it fits into the match-3 puzzle mobile industry, and how it recombines, innovates, and removes elements from other games to create something which a much better user experience for players.
Skill-based bonus levels in Royal Match (Match-3)
https://twitter.com/emojipopcast/status/1379890929897598976
match-3 Royal Match game analysis difficulty
A short Twitter thread analyzing how Royal Match maintains a casual difficulty while providing high-skill bonus levels for expert players to try, every ten levels. These are optional, high-risk, high-reward levels.
Game Design using Micro Macro Meta Grouping
https://levimoore.dev/game-design-using-micro-macro-meta-grouping/
theory core loop meta game analysis
How to analyze the micro, macro, and meta groups of your game; what they look like when done really well; and an analysis of a few games (Candy Crush, League of Legends, Minecraft, Overcooked) using micro, macro, and meta.
Top 7 Idle Game Mechanics
https://mobilefreetoplay.com/top-7-idle-game-mechanics/
idle incremental game analysis
A brief look at seven sub-genres of idle games, and some of the game design pros and cons of each sub-genre: Linear clickers, arcade idles, merge games, management games, simulations, RPGs, and story-driven idle games.
The Design of Mario Odyssey's Cascade Kingdom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxELCfmpr7E
game analysis Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is fun from the get-go, by following three principles: multiple options to overcome any obstacle, clear objectives for the player, and increasing the difficulty of a mechanic step by step as the level progresses.
Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley
https://www.pixelatedplaygrounds.com/sidequests/game-design-perspective-stardew-valley
A look at what makes Stardew Valley such a well-designed game: variety (both small-scale variation and large-scale mechanics), activities overlap giving the player multiple choices, and delayed rewards.
Mitigating complexity and toxicity: A look at League of Legends
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesign/comments/kpwtkn/mitigating_complexity_and_toxicity_a_look_at/
A look at Leage of Legends and how to reduce community toxicity in it, and in MOBAs in general, by changing the game design. Add opportunities to learn rules, make rules self-describing, speed up game, reduce the impact of a single bad player, and more.
What makes a Souls-like (and why the definition is important)
https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/29/what-makes-souls-like-why-definition-important-dark-souls-13193303/
souls-like game analysis Demon's Souls Nioh
An opinion on six of the key defining characteristics of souls-like games, and how a few souls-like games implement them: the bonfire (reset and refill health), souls currency, stamina, shortcuts, and health item refills.
The Brilliance of Bastion's Flexible Builds
https://www.deengames.com/blog/2018/the-brilliance-of-bastions-flexible-builds.html
Bastion allows player flexibility and experimentation with different builds, by allowing you to pick your choice of weapon and character upgrades, and swap them at any time between levels.
Downwell's Dual Purpose Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5C1Uj7jJCg
theory game analysis Downwell emergent gameplay
All game elements in Downwell serve two or more purposes, which creates emergent gameplay and difficult choices for the player. Weapons also refill health, enemies provide a temporary speed reduction, and replaying levels allows you to master the controls.