Gamdesign on the example of HBT

Hello Citizens Stopgamovites. Now I will simultaneously promote my game project for Android, which has as much as 24 downloads at the moment, and to conduct a discussion about the game design. You can play here. Why 24 downloads is a topic of another conversation, marketing. And now – game design with a capital letter.

How it all begins

Imagine once that the stars coincided so that you played in two very different games, but in your mind they were combined into something more. So it happened to me. These games were Islanders and, unexpectedly, those very heroes 3. What will happen if a 2 player will build buildings on a limited field? Even better if the combinations of buildings between the enemy and you will give bonuses to both of you. In this case, the player needs to think how his enemy can answer the move. This is how Core-Yeya is created. Then the processing of the idea begins to the “real” embodiment.

Checking the idea

Checking out in laying out cards on the floor with attempts to play this very idea with yourself, each time changing some random parameter of the system (one) to the game session to get the most interesting game result.

Since the Core-Ide already described the main hemplex and was simple, I had easier than the rest of the game designers using the principle of designing “on paper”. For example, in shooters you have to draw a whole level, count the shots and movements of the player at the level using cut circles and ruler (for a bullet flight). This allows you to roughly imagine how the player will act and start them with a gamedic manipulate. A good example of the gamed -design of the shooters is Doom Eternal, where the game designer makes the player rush forward, in close battle, giving him treatment and cartridges for this. Yes, all good games are when you are not playing the game, and the game designer plays with you, your psyche patterns and behavior.

My design on “paper” looked like this:
– I lay the cards with a shirt up in the form of a field.
– I lay out other cards nearby. Reds (Buby, Worms) – this is my player, black (baptism, peaks) – enemy.
– I play by laying cards on shirts. First his own, then enemy, in order to prevent himself from collecting combinations.
– I suffer that the number of cells at the level is odd, and I go more by one move.
– I remove the problem.
– I repeat the game.
– I understand that you need a hexogonal field, not a square, t.To. There are too many connections on the field and the second player cannot contrast me with anything.
– I remove the problem.
– I repeat the game.
– And t.D.

The main questions that you need to ask:
– Can I pull out this idea. You are not an experienced studio. The chance of the success of your product is minimal. Can you at least finish the development?
I do not need millionth profits, a demonstration of ideas is important, play with the player in your game. The very idea of ​​implementation is so simple that it will not require the days to draw the movement of the protagonist of the protagonist. There are only static pictures of houses and a bonus dictionary from combinations.
– If you have a limited field, what is its boundaries?
I was assigned an approximate number for the player’s move – 20 seconds and the middle time of the match 5 minutes. It turned out 5*(60/20) = 15 moves. Since the bot walks instantly, we do not count his time. There should be 15+15 = 30 cells on the field for two players.
– What are the conditions of victory and defeat?
Free cells end, t.To. their limited amount. Therefore, the game should end standard when the cells end. Who is the winner? – the one who scores more points.
– How many different buildings can be built in one match?
Psychology books written that a person can remember a maximum of 3 to 5 objects at the same time. Experience in other games suggests that from the spell book we use only a couple of spells for almost 100% game situations. Yes, and lures on a mobile interface conveniently conveniently 5 pieces. Therefore, take 5 pieces.
– Square or hexogonal field?
The difference in the hexogonal field and ordinary, square, is not immediately clear. But its essence is as follows – on a hexogonal field around a cell of 6 cells, and on a square – 8. These two extra cells are a huge difference. On a square field, it is impossible to prevent the enemy from building combinations of 4-6 buildings in principle, when the maximum number of buildings in the Combo is on the hexogonal-3-4. Since the number of buildings is not large and there are not many moves, we choose the second option.

The graphics can be obtained in the following ways:
– You draw it yourself
– You give it to the artist and he draws what you need for money or for free. But even for money, he can get bored and you will have to redraw everything again with the help of another artist. A very small number of artists will want to repeat the style of your previous.
– You buy asset-pack on some site. But in the end you will need a sprite of which is not there and you will redraw everything.
– Secret technique, about which I will talk about only after 150 likes to this post and 200 downloads of my game: 3 (in the current version of the game it was not used)

Engine:
– I have a 2D mobile game. Unreal Larabet.uk Engine disappears.
– The computer collects the scene in Unity in 5 seconds. The studio opens with minutes. Unity falls away.
– I want to write a code, not climb the gamies. Gammakers/Constructs fall away.
Godot remains.

Music:
Since the game was planned for mobile devices, and they play mainly in the subway, I just leave the player the choice of music in the playlist without introducing it into the game. Perhaps in the future it will appear.

Mathematics

The idea seems to be checked, it is interesting to play, it does not create any logical conflicts. You can stop to create the logic of the interaction of objects. In this case, this interaction – bonuses from combinations, bonuses for risk, bonuses for the initiative.
What is it at all?
Bonuses from combinations – This is a bonus for thinking over the game in front, for knowledge of the mechanic and miscalculation to the future. The farther in time you can calculate your game, the more points you get.
Bonuses for the risk – This is a bonus for risky moves, when an opponent may have a clear answer to your combination. Therefore, you can spend the moves to clarify this information, or take a chance, getting a great advantage.
Bonuses for the initiative – In step -by -step games, the first player has an advantage in the initiative. But in a limited space with the ability of the second player, respond to your sloppy moves, the bonus for the initiative is approximately equalized for two players.

Accordingly, t.To. The combination bonus is the main one for this game, it is important to calculate the number of possible combo in cases where you – strive to create a complex combination, and the enemy is trying to interfere with you.
After that, you need to choose the minimum number of points in the round, which the player without combinations should get. I chose 3 points. T.e. The construction of something that does not give any opportunities and combinations costs 3 points. Since each point can lead to victory or defeat, combinations should not greatly increase their number. It is important that it is more weak than the weaker combinations.
For 15 moves, such data turned out (approximately):
1 building – combo 15 times – the player receives 3 points
2 building – Combo 14 times – the player receives 3 points + 1 for a combo on average 4 points
3 building – Combo 10 times – the player receives 3 points + 1.5 points on average 4-5 points
4 building – combo 3 times – the player receives 3 points + 5 for combo + 4 points for risk
5 building is impossible

Mathematics of the main objects is ready.

Diversity

At this moment, the gaming prototype has already been made (transfer the building and get glasses). They played it and the players liked it. This is a Core mechanic. Now it is difficult to call the game, she lacks diversity.

Game variety is no different from human. Everyone has two legs and do about the same thing, but we consider it to be “different”.

How to make diversity?
– Add neutral buildings that are already on the cells at first the games and interfere with the construction of buildings on certain cells.
– Add buildings that will give bonuses only from the buildings of the initially standing on the cells. These are the buildings “Starters”. They are good at the beginning of the game, but completely useless to the end, since free cells have already ended nearby. Now neutral buildings are obtained by points of the beginning of the development of player combinations.
– Add buildings that will interfere with combinations to the enemy and give you an advantage.
– To develop the idea of ​​interference and add the buildings “S recleas”, which will interfere with the construction of buildings in some area.
– Add levels with the limit of moves, but the absence of cell limit.
– Add the levels where you must lose to the enemy to win.
– Add levels for a set of a certain number of glasses.

And much, much more. A good Core mechanic allows you to wind up almost endless additional mechanics in gemple, although in essence this is the same accumulation of glasses, just with different events.

In fact, the RPG/Diacabox and other games where the player controls one hero is the most boring genre of game design (hereinafter, to reduce letters, I will call this RPG, although this is not only RPG). In RPG there are only two parameters – the damage and the amount of health to death, t.e. time that you can inflict damage. Loses the one who can no longer cause damage. Everything, this whole game. All bumps and the rest of the bells and whistles are just DIVERSITY.
Examples of diversity:
– Stunning is an increase in your health (the time that you can inflict damage to death) by the amount of damage that the enemy has not inflicting in a stun.
– Evasion 50% is an increase in your health by 2 times.
– Damage protection 50% is an increase in your health by 2 times.
– Dota is an increase in your damage to damage to the bottom due to one move when the bunker was superimposed.
– Absorption of 5 units of damage is an increase in your health by 5 units multiplied by the number of enemy attacks before your death.

I can continue endlessly, but of these millions of parameters it all comes down to two of the above – the damage and the time that you can cause damage.
And now, we will break you completely. Damage and time can be represented as trapezers (in the picture rectangles)

The damage to the robber does not decrease, I simply reduce the size of the image by making the axis y positive in two directions

After the information is presented in the form of rectangles, the RPG becomes a game about which the area of ​​the rectangle is larger, the player or its opponents. Everything in the shower. As he said – a boring genre, and you still live with it.

Testing and refinement

After the development of a dozen levels, it is necessary to test the idea of ​​a large number of people to get reviews. After that, having processed reviews, you switch to the second iteration of the project where you finish new levels and finalize the old ones based on reviews. The number of iterations will depend on your desire and capabilities. The more iterations, the smaller the effect of them, but the higher the quality of the game.

The very essence of iterations is for me, in the development of game design. In HBT, I challenge myself (so that each level is felt differently) and the player (playing on his vicious feelings). Yes, the whole game is built that you reject your patterns of behavior and look at the world differently, that in my opinion you should make puzzles.
Fun points in iterations:
– Since I could not draw a palm tree, at first I painted a bunch of cacti. It was considered to be a forest. Because of this, not a single player could go through the second level where the sawmills should be built, even from 10 times, since the cactus is not a tree.
– The level of “IQ Test” is the level at which most players abandon the game because they cannot go through it because of their desire to always lead the points.
– The level of “dominance” is the same as the level of “IQ Test”, but for adults. It needs to build a useless building on it to win. Without introducing tips, it completely broke human nature. The most acute emotional reactions were here.
– For about 50 testers from close circle and random users, it can be assured that the game is suitable for only 10% schizoids. The remaining reticents either silently delete the game, or scream and throw a phone (mainly female faces). Theoretically, I explain this how unremarking to the destruction of the inner world.