30 video items
MDA Intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB3gNkFmIMA
A brief introduction to the MDA framework, which looks at a game's mechanics (actions the player can take), dynamics (interactions between those mechanics), and aesthetics (player feelings that rise from dynamics).
Why We Love Metroid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r6pAiZTEA8
metroid growth subtlety respect cross-game analysis
What makes Metroid games unique and special and stand out from others? Most of the games in the series so far focus on three themes: growth (gaining in power and abilities over time, which makes past challenges trivial); subtlety (environmental story telling and scant details that the player discovers organically), and respect (leaving the player to discover where to go and how to progress through introspection and intuition)
Stop for Big Moments!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdVkEOzdCPw
Using a small stop effect when the player gets hit or dies, can make a huge impact of the game. Without it, players be confused about how they got hurt or killed. The stop can range from a simple pause, to a fancier player death effect. Layering on a screen shake and slow-motion after death, can make the effect even more obvious and dramatic.
What Makes A Game Speedrun Friendly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixmOKhM_AlI
speedrunning Neon White Stuntman
You can make your game more speed-running with some (mostly small) changes: make all cutscenes skippable; make tutorials skippable for players who know how to play; minimize time to retry a level (players will retry a lot); allow user-set retry points; and remove randomness as much as possible.
How Do Save Systems Shape Games?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzk5CESZMDQ
saving Shovel Knight Resident Evil Fire Emblem
Save systems broadly fall into two categories: save anywhere, and desginated save points. Save anywhere reduces the tension or drama of losing progress from dying, which most games can work with. It encourages more risk-taking and experimentation, because the risk is low. It can also enable save-scumming: with randomized games, players can reload repeatedly to get the game to give players what they want. Designed save points often provide safe havens or telegraph boss fights. Bigger gaps between save points raise the stakes. Auto-saves work well, but can potentially soft-lock (players can't progress further because of the state), or in a state where players can't win if you continue. Keeping recent backup files avoids this problem.
Are Score Systems Still Relevant?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6y9PJipfpk
scoring Tony Hawk Pro Skater Assault Android Cactus Opus Magnum
High scores originated in arcade games, but can provide modern games with additional benefits. Achieving a high score can be like an additional difficulty level if it requires more skillful play; it can turn the game into a very different, second game; and it can incentivize personal performance within levels. But, take care to avoid the downside of demoralizing players by slapping them with a poor ranking.
How Do You Improve Turn Based Combat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktogjiX3eI4
turn-based combat RPG JRPG Disgaea Persona 5 Paper Mario Pokemon Super Mario RPG Dragons Quest Fire Emblem cross-game analysis oil
Turn-based combat is often slow and grindy. How can you improve it? Speed up actions, intros, and attack animations; use quick-time events so attacking and defending are interactive; streamline menu navigation; integrate turn economy (add, cancel, speed up, and slow down turns); reward players with new moves, interesting tactical choices, and story bits between battles; make interesting, unique monsters; use fights sparingly; grant small rewards like skill-points.
Building Better Crafting Systems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj7EaryBgak
crafting cross-game analysis oil theory mechanics balance
An in-depth look at the three components of crafting systems: collection, crafting, and usage - and how to make them shine; mistakes to avoid that make crafting laborious; how to make simple crafting meaningful; and when your game should and include crafting: to give players control over the way they play, and an organic way to interact with the mechanics.
What Makes a Good RPG Town?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXleufh2mY0
towns RPG JRPG cross-game analysis
What makes a great town? A check-point and safe space between danger; a health/resource refiller (if battles are about resource depletion); a break from intense combat with things like secrets, lore, or mini-games; a place to complete quests for rewards; hints about future dangers or optional quests; a source of environmental storytelling
How to Design Great Metroidvania Levels | Game Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAHXYfP38CA
You can use a few simple techniques to design a great metroidvania: draft the map as a bunch of connected rooms; develop the timeline of key events, bosses, and locations; plan player abilities and how they fit into the world; make individual rooms; test, test, test, modify, and test again.
Boss Battle Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPugc51udc
bosses Arkham Asylum Metal Gear Solid Star Fox Adventures
Three ways to make a great boss include a test of skill, a narrative device, or a mechanical change-of-pace. You can see good, and bad, examples of this, in Batman: Arkham Asylum, Metal Gear Solid 3, an Star Fox Adventures
Good Game Design - Bosses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwLPF11eos
Good boss battles are fun, challenging, intimidating, unique. They sometimes give awesome rewards, introduce new mechanics, or use multiple phases (to keep things fresh). They should have a purpose - why am I fighting this boss? Avoid padding bosses with health, or giving unavoidable or overly difficult challenges.
How Games Do Health
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AEKbBF3URE
health first-person shooters Doom 2016 Call of Duty Dark Souls
Games use different health systems, including: discrete health generated by health packs; regenerating health, which makes games more intense; persistent health, which makes every encounter important; hybrid systems; Yoshi's Island, where the game changes entirely when you get hurt; and others. There are many interesting systems and possibilities.
The Rise of the Systemic Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnpAAX9CkIc
emergent gameplay systemic design
Systemic design is when game systems can impact each other signicantly, which often leads to emergent gameplay. You can achieve this by: allowing things to be aware of and interact with other things (e.g. NPCs and animals interact); designing consistent, universal rules (e.g. wood can catch fire); and giving the user a goal, along with an open-ended way to achieve it (don't constrain the solution). Examples from Breath of the Wild, Far Cry, GTA, Dues Ex, and more.
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.
The Complete Evolution of Ultimate Weapons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P56OH7RQy8
Final Fantasy Final Fantasy Evolutions JRPG cross-game analysis
A quick look at how ultimate weapons changed, starting with Final Fantasy 1 and up to Final Fantasy 15. Common themes, including trade-offs: ultimate vs. second-tier best, ultimate per character vs. ultimate per class type or category, ultimates with special effects, and ultimates that require powering up to reach their full potential.
Final Fantasy Evolutions: Blue Mage Job Class (Final Fantasy V - Final Fantasy XIV)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvg7ta05BGk
Final Fantasy Final Fantasy Evolutions cross-game analysis JRPG
Final Fantasy 5 introduced the Blue Mage class. How did the design of this class change through to Final Fantasy 14? From aesthetics to mechanics. Blue magic is sometimes character or materia specific, and often shared with class members. Characters either need to win the battle, see the spell, or be hit by it. Often it's a utility class, and sometimes a special move; and sometimes, it erodes your soul.
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.
How to Keep Players Engaged (Without Being Evil)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbzGO_Qonu0
engagement pacing intensity difficulty core loop goals
How to keep players engaged, without addictive evil design? Pacing (varying the intensity) of the pillars (core gameplay) such as alternating puzzles with action or cutscenes; anticipation and foreshadowing (what's behind that giant door?), mysteries (including narrative), long-term goals like collectables or map completion, and compelling challenge (not too easy or difficult)
What's the Point of Critical Hits?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMFkd7edBR0
critical-hits mechanics balance
Critical hits are deceptively simple: add more damage randomly. You can change both aspects (when to crit, and what to crit) to create unique mechanics, such as extra status effects, skill-based critical hits or even negative critical hits. Critical hits work well in some genres (RPGs, first-person shooters), but can frustrate in others (fighting or tactical games).
The Psychological Trick That Can Make Rewards Backfire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ypOUn6rThM
behaviour player psychology theory
Achievements and designer-made quests are extrinsic rewards, which can backfire and demotivate exploration and experimentation, which are intrinsic rewards. Leaderboards and personal bests work as self-motivating instric rewards.
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.
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.
7 Game Design Mistakes to Avoid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x4Q_SOLN28&t=300s
project management polish tutorials
Seven common game design mistakes, including: thinking too big, ignoring onboarding tutorials, being too committed to an idea, igoring polish, and including random things.
Are Lives Outdated Game Design?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2CLO8CcBjg
lives checkpoints side-scroller platformer
Older games use lives or checkpoints, which cause frustration when replaying the same content over and over, but it's useful for procedural games. Powering up after death can reduce boredom. What other methods can replace lives?
Getting Started in Automated Game Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZv-vRrnHDA
procedural generation automated game design generative space
A detailed introduction to automated game design: writing code that designs game mechanics for you. Start with three landmark games, look at the search space size, and use automated game-playing to tell how strategic or fun the game is.