Understanding the concept behind designing a game

Introduction

Game design is a bit like chemistry. You choose the mechanics that produce the response you want from the players after determining the reaction you want to elicit. And yes, the outcome will probably blow up in your face if you choose the wrong mechanics.
This is why it is very important to have a clear understanding of the concepts behind game design before diving into it to avoid problems.

What is Game Design?

The art of using design and aesthetics to create a game for amusement, education, exercise, or experimental purposes is known as Game Design.
Those who create games are referred to as game designers. A game designer is someone who imagines almost everything about a game, including its plots, characters, visual designs and layouts.

What are the principles of game design?

We have quite a few principles, but i'll list the most significant ones here that you should learn about. They are as follows:

• Objectives
• Constraints
• Success Criteria
• Reward
• Play

Now, let's take each point and break it down into an understandable piece.

Objectives

There needs to be some kind of goal or outcome that people can work towards. The more defined they are, the easier it is to participate.

What is the object of the game? What are the players trying to do? This is often one of the first things you can ask yourself when designing a game if you’re stuck and don’t know where to begin. Once you know the objective, many of the other formal elements will seem to define themselves for you.

This is one of the most important principles. During this phase, you need to come to a conclusion about what the goals of your game will be. This principle determines how and what your game will look like.

Constraints

A constraint is a rule that applies throughout a game mode. A constraint enables or restricts play in certain ways, but it does so universally and usually without variation. Constraints let the player know the boundaries of the game world, and the player develops an instinctive feel for them.

Video games get to have the most fun with constraints. In the virtual world, physical constraints like gravity and time can be mutable. The variability of them is a part of why actions in video games are often exhilarating, and why gamers sometimes think that games are better than life.

Players can sometimes affect constraints, depending on the game. When the player buys upgrades to his car in Forza, for example, he permanently alters the acceleration and steering of his car. Races will unfold differently than in previous attempts because he changed the constraints.

Constraints also play a role in AI behaviours. When not engaged in direct combat with the player, enemies frequently exhibit default or randomly generated behaviour patterns. The ability to recognize those patterns allows the player to play with a sense of strategy. Once he understands a constraint, it often becomes an advantage rather than a hindrance.
There need to be some limits on what players can do or can't do when achieving those objectives. Constraints should be relevant.

Success Criteria

Setting clear and well-laid out success criteria makes a game more structured and comparatively easier to master. Players should know when they have successfully accomplished objectives at any stage of the game.

Reward

Incentives that reward success should be noted. An example can be virtual coins or money.

Play

Playtesting a design game is very important to get a sense of what is fun and what isn't fun before you roll the game out for the public to use.

How to start creating video games

• Develop an interesting concept.
• Create a game design document.
• Get to know some basic game design principles.
• Kickstart

Develop an interesting concept.

This is the first step, come up with an interesting idea. Also, you must decide what style of game you wish to create, e.g., racing games, etc. You will also need to look into the art style, special features, look, and storyline of your game.

Create a game design document.

A game design document is a document that contains the most important aspects of your game. The document should include:

• The idea or concept.
• Genre
• The Story and Characters
• Core Game Mechanics
• Gameplay
• Level and World Design
• Art or Sketches
• Monetization Strategy

What makes a good game?

• Continuous Challenge: A good game designer gives his players continuous challenges, each of which leads to another challenge to keep them hooked on playing the game.
• Interesting Storyline
• Flexibility: Make sure there are many different ways to accomplish each goal.
• Immediate useful rewards
• Combining fun and realism

Conclusion

In this article, we learned:

• What Game Design is,
• The principles of Game Design,
• How to start creating video games,
• What make a good game.

I hope i was able to make it clearer and i wish you success in your game design process. If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment under the article or reach out to me on Twitter.
If you need any information on how to begin your game design/development, check these sites below:

• How To Start Your Career In Games Development
• Unity Game Development: Create 2D And 3D Games With C#