How to design a game: an overall high level view?
Designing a game involves several steps and considerations.
Here is a general outline of the game design process:
1. Understand the medium and elements of game design: Familiarize yourself with game design terms and concepts such as story, setting, characters, play sequence, level design, interface design, difficulty, balance, depth, pace, replay value, age appropriateness, and more.
2. Analyze existing games: Study and analyze different games from various mediums, such as video games, board games, card games, or sports. Identify the medium, player format, objectives, rules, resources, and theme of each game. Compare and contrast the games to understand what you enjoy and dislike about them.
3. Explore play value: Identify different types of play value, such as competition, cooperation, exploration, creativity, or social interaction. Understand why people play games and what motivates them.
4. Modify existing games: Choose a game where players can change the rules or objectives. Play the game normally, then propose changes to several rules or objectives. Predict how each change will affect gameplay. Play the game with the rule changes and observe how the players' actions and experiences are affected. Discuss the impact of the changes with your team, friends, industry colleagues, etc…
5. Design a new game: Create a vision statement for your game, including the medium, player format, objectives, and theme. Describe the play value and make a preliminary list of the rules and resources. Draw the game elements and record your work in a game design notebook/document.
6. Prototype and playtest: Create a prototype of your game, addressing player safety and ensuring clear rules.
Test the prototype with different people, making adjustments based on their feedback.
Repeat the playtesting process multiple times and record the results in your game design notebook.
7. Share your game at events and online platforms to get feedback . This will allow you to get feedback about your idea, how it has been implemented (designed/coded) and have you learning important insights to improve the game or to take in consideration for your next game.
These steps provide a general framework for designing a game. It's important to note that game design is a creative and iterative process, and each game designer may have their own unique approach.
