How to deal with weapon power creep in an RPG? Power creep is a process that sometimes occurs in games where new content slowly outstrips the power of previous alternatives. This leads to players abandoning previous options in favour of the latest and more powerful alternatives, resulting in an inevitable increase in power throughout the game. I am developing a private RPG that has approximately 10 players. Although the scale of the game is very small, it is falling victim to power creep. Four players have reached the current "end game" weapon and armor set and are running out of things to accomplish in terms of collecting the most powerful items. I have a lot of great ideas planned, but many of them involve releasing weapons that are not stronger than the current strongest. The negative of this is that the players who have already achieved something greater don't look forward to the content update, and tend to come online less often. I don't want to release a weapon that is stronger, because this releases a lot of new issues with balancing in other areas of the game. I have a couple of ideas that could slow this issue Although the new weapons may hit less damage, they may perform different effects that benefit the player in different ways Reduce the damage of all weapons, so the slot for the previously strongest weapon opens up for a new weapon. How do I slow stop power creep of weapons and armors? (This question is not about finding ways to keep players online longer).


How to communicate success failure within an abstract hint system without using sound or words I am designing a hint system for a quot game quot . The game is an interactive art simulation for multi touch and although it is rather intuitive to figure out the basics of how to run that simulation there are some more complicated things to it that I would like to help the user discover. My design rules are that it needs to be abstract and mostly transparent. There can be no sounds or words to this hint system. I am hesitant to use symbols as well. I realize this makes it quite difficult to effectively communicate with the user but that is sort of the point. It is supposed to be a bit of a puzzle so it is rewarding to solve and in this case it is completely fine if the user does not. These hints will show up when the user is close to figuring out a new aspect of the simulation. The goal of it is to communicate what the missing piece is for them to get there. For example on one of the hints I need to get the user to hold a new finger down for more than 1 second under certain conditions. In order to communicate this I want to show some sort of indicator. When the user puts their finger on the indicator it reacts communicating that that was a good choice but there is still more to do. If the user lifts their finger before 1 second I want to show some sort of quot failure animation quot however if the user lifts their finger longer than 1 second I want to show some sort of quot success animation quot . The user would also notice that the behavior of the simulation changed. I have chosen a ring circle as the core shape for the indicator. This makes sense because generally a hint appears somewhere they are not touching and they begin being quot in progress quot once their finger is on the indicator. I am good with shaders so I will make it look better later. So far the hint has been reading but I am concerned about how clear it is whether they failed or were successful at executing whatever the hint was hinting about. I have thought about having the indicator turn quot green quot for good or quot red quot for bad but the problem here is that color scheme isn't universal. AND most critically it begs the question of what a quot neutral quot color is should be for the indicator before the user has started on the hint and while they are doing it and the indicator is following their finger. Teal was my gut instinct but that color is already pretty close to green. I am worried about the use of just color and specifically the colors red green so I am looking for other ideas on how I might be able to get this indicator to communicate success or failure following the rules at the top. Are there other ways I could communicate success failure? In addition does anyone know of any other games projects that use a non verbal written hint system communicating more abstractly with colors? Would be good to have some reference. Any related articles are great too. Here is sort of a state diagram of the indicator if that helps. I have included a simple mockup of the indicator with very simple shapes but obviously to give you an idea it will look better. In the holding example the hint would start by being in the state quot hint start quot somewhere on screen and when the user touches it would transition to quot hint in progress quot . If the user releases before 1 second it would then go to quot failure quot and turn red but if the user releases after 1 second it would go to quot green quot for success.


Scripting to block or not to block Context I'm making a little "program your robot army" sort of game in Java in which the player writes Lua scripts (which are then run by LuaJ) to program their robots to do stuff. So far there are two objectives Keep It Simple, Stupid, and React to the environment. To take a simple example of what I currently have, the player should be able to tell their robot to go to a particular location with something like robot goTo(5, 8) Like Colobot, the scripting engine effectively halts (blocks) at that instruction until the robot has reached its destination. I like this it's meets the first requirement nicely, in that you can't do anything until goTo decides to return. It's also simple on the Java side I can basically do while ( condition ) yield() and just resume the coroutine every tick (then maintaining state in local variables is trivial). But what if that resource at (5,8) disappears, or an enemy comes near, or energy runs low? There's no opportunity to bail the robot has to reach (5,8) before it can do anything else. The main other idea I can think of is to produce some sort of loop while not robot near(5,8) do if robot enemyNearby() then break and do some other stuff, presumably else robot moveTo(5,8) end end where moveTo this time sets the velocity acceleration and then immediately returns, without blocking until arrival. I could have robot goTo return the actual coroutine (either wrapped, so you just call it, or directly, which requires calling coroutine.resume and passing the coroutine), which might look something like this moveTask robot moveTo(5,8) while not robot near(5,8) do if robot enemyNearby() then break else moveTask() or perhaps coroutine.resume(moveTask) or some other syntactic sugar end end These last two approaches look pretty similar, but reusing a coroutine as in the second example makes managing state (e.g. a path) trivial, at the cost of exposing coroutines to the player. To reiterate, the goal is to allow for writing simple scripts, in which a set of actions are executed in series (sorta like queued actions in The Sims), while simultaneously allowing more complex scripts with actions that may be interrupted by arbitrary events (nearby enemy, target moved, stats dropping). Any tips or ideas would be much appreciated!


How to design AI Manager I am currently building a AI system for a game. I am familiar with State design pattern and implemented different states for each agent in my game. Different states are like Running, Attack, Idle, Cover, Support etc. In this game, I have around 10 agents which have mainly two behaviours Defender and Attacker. I made a class AIManager which have reference of all agents in the game. This class decides which agent will do what but I am facing issues in managing this class. There are many rules in the game like There will be two teams. Each team will have 2 defender and 3 attackers. Attacker will attack attackers and defenders. Defender only attack to defenders. At a time only two agents can attack a single agent. If defender is in cover, it will not go to support state. If defender is attacking, it will not go to run state. If attacker is attacking, it can run away on specific condition. ... etc To make these rules applicable, my AIManager class is totally mess, contains lots of if else, need to check every possibilities, for loops. I am sure I am not doing right in implementing these game logic because when I need to change some rules or need to add another state, I need to go through all my game logic. This manager code is totally unstable. I want to know how to tackle this situation, Is there any design pattern which I should follow or any suggestion would be of great help.


Alternative ways to make a battle system in a mobile indie game more fun and engaging I'm developing an indie game for mobile platforms, and part of the game involves a PvP battle system (where the target player is passive). My vision is simple the active player can select a weapon item, then attack use, and display the calculated outcome. I have a concept for battle modifiers that affect stats to make it more interesting, but I'm not convinced this by itself will add enough of a fun factor. I've received some inspiration from the game engine that powers Modern War Kingdom Age Crime City, but I want more control to make it more fun. In those games, you don't have the option to select weapons or use items, and the "battling" screen is simply 3D eye candy. Since this will be an indie game, I won't be spending on a team of professional 3D artists animators, so my edge needs to be different. What are some alternatives to expensive eye candy that you or others have used to make a non 3D PvP game more fun and engaging? Did the alternative concepts survive the release?


Ideal way to instantiate abilities in a class give a dynamic list of abilities to use? I have a PlayerClass class that is used to set my Player's class. For instance, this will make him a warrior PlayerClass warrior new WarriorClass() WarriorClass will instantiate abilities like so Ability ability1 new LeapAbility() Now my problem is that I will eventually dynamically update my Warrior's abilities (think talent trees or perks). So say I give warrior a list of abilities to use. How do I do this in code? Right now I need to know the Abilities before hand and hard code their instantiation in. Put another way, how do I instantiate a dynamic list of objects? I'm open to other solutions too if this doesn't make sense or is impossible.


How likely will I be able to get a job in game design with a masters in computer programming? I'm currently attending college and am almost finish with my Bachelors in Computers science.I plan on getting my masters in computer programming in hopes that it will help me get into game design. If not I at least will have a fallback plan in any other IT related field. I'm just curious as to how likely it is to happen for me.


What is balance needed between testing the game mechanic (play testing) and testing the code I do not work in the industry and I wondered very broadly what percentage is given over to play testing versus getting the bugs out. Or does no one really work it like this?


1 idea, 99 execution? I keep reading in the game development community that the idea of a game is 1 and the execution of the game is 99 . Do you believe that to be true? Not necessary in those percentages.. I always thought that a great idea is invaluable and it makes a game successful even though the execution is simplistic.


Best way to de clutter name tags on units in RTS This is an RTS MMO mobile game I am building, Each unit has health bar and name of the unit and owner on top of it and a small circle indicating if the unit is friendly and or has weapons activated or not. Problem is, when there are a lot of units in one spot, the tags become so cluttered and the critical information becomes lost. I have tried making the name tags more transparent but this does not help. Tried putting some name tags above the unit, other tags under the units, also to no avail. Tried removing the healthbars unless the unit is damaged, didn't help much either! How does RTS games solve this issue? I have seen some RTS games remove the healthbars for non damaged units, but this didn't have any impact on how it looks, and having no name tags or at least no owner name tags will be a no go as this information is critical when attacking approaching other units, or when picking own units (as units might be equipped with different tools and be named by their owner to be recognized.)


Must I display Health and Mana to the player? I'm thinking of doing one or more of the following hiding the player's Health hiding the player's Mana hiding the player's Health from other players hiding the player's Mana from other players I don't know of any game that has done such things before so I'm wondering if this will have a positive effect on the players and why no game has done so before.


AI to help player by suggesting upgrades Suppose I'm creating a racing game.. I would like to implement an awareness system AI, that will suggest to the player that he can buy that booster or some other upgrade, .. etc. How should I start implementing that? A FSM ? A decision tree ? Suppose that I have variables like, how many crashes, how much is the damage, how many gates I have passed, .. etc how would I use those variables then to say for example you need to buy that stuff?


Can i make a Game for play store on my own I am not sure what i am asking for. Sorry if this question look stupid. I love to play games on android and pc . Some times very cool ideas strike me , but i don't know what to do with them. and they vanish over time. I got no computer science background , since i am a math student . Although i learned C for a week for a exam. In short I know C but just the alphabets. Is it possible that i can learn to make games. What should i have to learn. Is it possible to learn from youtube. Since it's like side hobby i can give it few hours a day ( not money ).


Do I have to explain the mechanical superiority of the player character within the fiction of the game? For quite a while I wonder how to formulate this concept, which seems to be common, yet barely addressed within games. It is about the concept of player controlled characters (PC) being consistently superior to generic non player controlled characters (NPC). This also must not depend on the actual player skill (defined as what the player can actively do), and instead be inherent to the PC itself. Now for RPGs it's usually something like destiny, magic, superior skill, backstory, better (enchanted) equipment, having a rare power. But what if it's about space ships with equal size, type and equipment? How could I explain that a player can repeatedly and easily grind through 5 10 space ships which he himself is using without having much room for player skill due to weapons and thrusters working automatically? Effectively pushing a button to start attacking just as his opponents are doing. Let's say it's the early phase of the game, just to keep this abstract. Also let's assume a standard, futuristic setting with no special lore based elements like psi powers or crystals. What guidelines or concepts exist which can be used to justify PC superiority in general? In a mathematical sense, do I have to explain 75 damage taken and 300 damage dealt as baseline for all PCs in a credible way? Or is that a silently accepted premise of games in general?


Cartesian Coordinates Layout The way cartesian coordinations are presented and used is kinda confusing. When working with 2D the vertical axis is Y, though when working with 3D the vertical axis is Z and Y becomes the "depth" axis. Basically I'm thinking the correct way, and best way would be to use the layout of axis. Though Blender (3D modelling program) and other program, a lot games, present the axis in the "weird order" (my opinion) Also if you read on Wikipedia about cartesian coordinates, your are presented with that layout of axis. Wikipedia Cartesian Coordinates Is there any specific or logical reason for this "flip" of axis?


Designing a unit combat system (java) I am looking to make a program that will allow me to test units for balance when in combat. The idea is that there will be two teams of so many units of different types. I would loop through a battle system that would pick units, have them attack, etc, and then see which team won and do this many many times for an average. The thing I am having issues with is how to design or make the classes for the units. I tried making a class for a generic unit and then classes that pulled from it for each different unit. The issue was when I called a unit from a team, tried to add one etc. I need to know what the unit type was, that was I couldn't write one function that understood all the unit classes. I am looking to make a system for the units that allows me to have each unit have the same basic stats, health, speed, etc. But that each unit will also have their own functions for abilities that would be different then other units. It would also allow me to make a method where I can say get a unit from an arraylist and call its get speed method and it wouldn't demand I know the unit class. For instance, grunt g new grunt() instead something where I can get the unit and just call, unit.getspeed() Any help or ideas for how I can do this, please ask for more information if needed.


How do I portray characters with a bum leg properly in an action game like Devil May Cry, without making him a liability? Right now, I'm designing a character for a 2D action platformer game. The problem is that said character has a bum leg due to an accident a few years prior to the game's setting, but was the first one to be dragged into a dungeon formed by the newly developing incident, and had to escape on his own. What I've thought about until now about this The character will move slower than the normal movement speed, cannot double jump, and have a lower jump height than the normal jump height. However, he would use a sword that doubles as a retractable whip, allowing his melee attacks to have a wide coverage. Said sword whip has low damage by default, however. There's also that his melee attacks are less focused on launching enemies upwards and more focused on knocking them back and maybe apply bleeding (non elemental damage over time). He would also have a shotgun that can be 'charged' to maximize the damage output, very much like the Gunslinger Style Shotgun in DMC3 and 4. My problem is that this character will be one from around eight (for now), and the other seven characters don't have such a disability two of them I intend to have the ability to glide mid air. The game will have a feature of switching between three characters chosen to engage the other dungeons, so he can be switched out for sections that require double jumping, but I'm not sure that's an optimal solution, especially considering the lower damage his weapon deals (making him a non optimal pick for boss battles). Should I just make each character fulfill a specific niche in terms of mobility options, melee attack options, and ranged attack options? How does one design the map and bosses for these cases, without making it seem like giving him too much of a break? P.S. Can a grappling hook be involved, without ending up making him the best option to navigate the map (like refreshing it only after landing)? EDIT I also have a thought of integrating this grappling hook into the sword whip, being able to pull enemies towards him, or him towards them. Is it possible to use this as a melee charge attack? Because I still think that it doesn't feel right.


As an indie game dev, what processes are the best for soliciting feedback on my design spec idea? Background I have worked in a professional environment where the process usually goes like the following Brain storm idea Solidify the game mechanics design Iterate on design idea to create a more solid experience Spec out the details of the design idea Build it Step 3. is generally done with the stakeholders of the game (developers, designers, investors, publishers, etc) to reach an 'agreement' which meets the goals of all involved. Due to this process involving a series of often opposing and unique view points, creative solutions can surface through discussion iteration. This is backed up by a process for collating the changes new ideas, as well as structured time for discussion. As a (now) indie developer, I have to play the role of all the stakeholders (developers, designers, investors, publishers, etc), and often find myself too close to the idea design to do more than minor changes, which I feel to be local maxima when it comes to the best result (I'm looking for the global maxima, of course). I have read that ideas game designs unique mechanics are merely multipliers of execution, and that keeping them secret is just silly. In sharing the idea with others outside the realm of my own thinking, I hope to replicate the influence other stakeholders have. I am struggling with the collation of changes new ideas, and any kind of structured method of receiving feedback. My question As an indie game developer, how and where can I share my ideas designs to receive meaningful constructive feedback? How can I successfully collate the feedback into a new iteration of the design? Are there any specialized websites, etc?


How should I design my score to visually accommodate large numbers? I am creating a simple punching game that counts the total number of punches dealt. Could you suggest a way for my game to visually accommodate very large numbers ( 100000). Currently my wire frame looks like this How should I display very large numbers here? I thought about shrinking the fonts, and creating abbreviations, but I'm not sure it's the proper way to go.


Design Pattern for Social Game Mission Mechanics When we want to design a mission sub system like in the The Ville or Sims Social, what kind of design pattern idea would fit the best? There may be relation between missions (first do this then this etc...) or not. What do you think sims social or the ville or any other social games is using for this? I'm looking for a best practise method to contruct a mission framework for tha game. How the well known game firms do this stuff for their large scale social facebook games? Giving missions to the players and wait players to complete them. when they finished the missions, providing a method to catch this mission complete events considering large user database by not using server side not so much to prevent high traffic resource consumption. how should i design the database and server client communication to achive this design condidering this trade off.


How to avoid a boring late game in strategy games while still keeping victories satisfying? A common thing I've noticed in strategy games (of all types, 4X, RTS, MOBA, etc.) is that most games eventually get to a point where it is fairly clear who is going to win, and the rest of the game just becomes playing out the motions, and if the winning player team doesn't make a major misstep, they will win. This is just kind of the nature of strategy games. They inherently have a "snowball" effect. The gameplay is all about setting yourself up for success over your opponents in the future, and whoever does this better in the earlier stages of the game should win in the later stages. This happens in every strategy game to some extent, even the most classic. In Chess, it becomes increasingly harder to win if your opponent takes more and more of your pieces and forces your remaining pieces into tough situations. As I said, this is just a fundamental part of the genre, so I'd hesitate to call it a problem. However, on occasion, in these types of games, you have matches where no player team gains a significant advantage early, and the game comes down to the last turn. In my opinion, these are the most exciting and interesting matches you can have. Furthermore, when this doesn't happen, the late stages of the game can feel very boring for everyone involved, where the winning player is just awaiting their inevitable victory, and the losing player their inevitable demise (this can be especially unfun for the losing player, as they probably have very few options, and it is just really unlikely that they are having a good time). So it would be cool if we could design a strategy game that avoids consistently falling into this state, right? Well, I have seen a handful of games like this, where a losing player consistently has avenues to victory, no matter how far behind they are. The issue with this is that if an upset happens (say one player was dominating the whole game, and then a losing player makes one good play at the end of the game to win), that victory can feel very unsatisfying for the winning player, as they may feel they didn't deserve it. Similar, the player who was winning most of the game may be very unhappy, as they may feel like victory was robbed from them, and they didn't deserve to lose. So essentially, no one is happy with the result. This approach may also make the early game less fun, as players may feel like it just doesn't matter. So is it possible to design a strategy game that avoids both of these issues? A game where we don't consistently fall into a boring lategame with a forgone conclusion, and yet also keep victories feeling satisfying and deserved? Or are these issues far too fundamental to strategy gameplay to overcome? If this question is too vague on its own, then we can focus on 4X strategy games, as those are the games I have experience with, and that I am interested in designing.


Multiplayer card game using PHP Ajax and mysql I am designing a map game, using PHP and MYSQL. I don't know how to make the players who sign in to the website to see other players who are also connected to the site and be able to chat with one another. I want to design the game in such a way that 2 players can play with each other and be able to send messages during the game while others groups are playing at the same time. I have designed the map game successfully, but the problem is making the player 1 who log in to site to see the player 2 who will also log in and both can get connected to play each other. http i.stack.imgur.com YyCPG.png I will appreciate your responses.


Quest and NPC System Design I am developing a quest system for a game and am looking for the most abstract way to go about connecting the system to the NPC conversation system. This isn't much of a question about the code to do it, but more looking for input on designs for it. Structuring of the quest system and NPC conversation system has already been completed. What I'm trying to figure out is with my current NPC system, what is the best way to integrate the conversations and quests for the NPC. Assume that, given my conversation system, the Conversation object holds a tree of all conversation nodes that the user will go through. I assume that each NPC will be given a Conversation object to go through in some way (whether this is directly or through a quest object is what I'm trying to decide). Some NPCs may have a standard conversation they have with a user and other NPCs might have a quest which contains conversations within it that the NPC should step through dependent on their current step in the quest. But then some NPCs might have a standard conversation and a quest or even an NPC with multiple quests and a standard conversation. What I'm trying to figure out is what is the best way to "connect" these systems so that is abstract, dynamic, and clean. Any suggestions to help me think it out would be great.


How do games go about designing weapon damage? In Action RPG games, I was wondering how weapon damage numbers and attack speeds are decided on. Do most games come up with their own or do they "steal" numbers from other games? How would I go about coming up with my own numbers?


Access Entities components via the Entity that holds them, or via a separate System? Now, I'm implementing a component based game engine and I came to a thought Which way should I access my components? Have a list of Entities, which have a list of Components, and access them by going trough each entity, and updating drawing whatever on each component. or Have separate systems for each component type and acces them by going trough that systems components. Or does it really matter? I think that the second way would seem faster...


Literature about Open World Games, Freedom to Choose I'm doing a diploma thesis about the development of games with freedom to choose or open world. Topics will be i.e. development issues in programming and the design itself, mechanics etc. For that I need literature and lot's of it. Do you have any suggestions?


How can I introduce time pressure on the player's decisions? I am designing a hacking game, in which the player usually can take his time thinking about how to overcome the obstacles that he she currently faces. However, I decided that besides coming up with clever solutions, hacking should also feel intense, and that the game needs some ways to put a time pressure on the player's decisions. First such mechanic that I added reassured me that I am going in the right direction Sometimes the player can trigger a network trace, which lasts X seconds and can potentially kick the player out of the network unless he she reacts quickly enough and succeeds in evading the trace. I would like to add perhaps one or two more mechanics that would put the player under a time pressure, but I am a little stuck and always seem to come up with a variations on 'Countdown', i.e. 'There will be (a punishment) in (X) seconds, unless (some action is taken)', but obviously all those mechanics end up too similar. In abstract terms that is, without knowing the particular mechanics in my ruleset how can I introduce a time pressure on the player's decisions?


iOS gaming with copyrighted characters? Can I use animate characters in an iOS game if I do a citation in the credits. Ex Steven univers in a fighting game and I list Rebecca Sugar in the Credits or by the character bio.


How can I prevent balance waiting and turtling as a response to cooldown mechanics I'm working on a turn based RPG with classes. I want one of the spellcaster classes to have standard magic points, but another to have abilities with time limitations, one or more of Use ability every N minutes of real time Use ability every N turns of combat Use ability once or N times per day (sleep to restore, or wait out day night cycle) There would be restorative items that could restore your "charge". These abilities would be more powerful than regular spells but constrained. This spellcasting class is a burster gives you big hits but infrequently because of the limitations. The party carries them along as baggage until they get in a jam or run into a boss, then unleashes the hammer. I like it as an option to add depth, and it has interesting speedrun possibilities. The last one is easy enough to balance if the party has to trek back to town and sleep to recharge, but I have a day night cycle. Here are the problems as I see it Real time N times per day Player can just wait. I can make the duration punishing, but then it greatly reduces the utility. It also means that the player is not playing the game, this is after all supposed to be about entertainment. No fun. Every N turns in combat Player can just have every character defend heal every round until the burster unleashes another round of big damage. I actually want this to be viable, but I don't want it to become the obviously best strategy for battles. So far it doesn't seem to be a huge issue as the caster just cycles through lesser powers until the big bang recharges. It's rough in the early game, but that's part of the balancing. The problem is that I'm having trouble getting it to be not so OP'd as to be obviously the best while still remaining good enough to be useful. Any suggestion on how to balance these mechanics to mitigate camping turtling?


Dealing with disconnected users Just a strange question. I was thinking about it today. About a poker game website apps or any online gaming platform with money being involved. What would be the best way to deals with disconnected users trying to avoid a loss or maybe real disconnection. I doubt pausing the game until that player comes back is very suitable. Any ideas? Suggestions?


How to manipulate 2d image as different objects Hello Im very new to this so I don't even know what this process is called exactly. Im posting image of flappy bird here in which it consist all the objects day, night, birds, font etc Here So how to use them in 2D game? this is just example i have used. How to manipulate different objects at different coordinates ? Thanks.


Why do games have hats? I noticed that a lot of games tend to have hats. I was wondering why? Is it some sort of tradition to add hats to your games? What makes this trend so popular in game development?


What is the purpose of a guild bank? I've seen guild banks in Wow, or Dofus, and other MMO games. In the guild I've been a part of, we mostly used the bank as storage resources stored that end up not being used are wasted. Sometimes there is a free share policy, but there is always that one guy who will take stuff he does not really need and sells it. This led me to wonder what is the original purpose of a guild bank, what do players like to use it for, and how can a game help them do it?


How would you code an AI engine to allow communication in any programming language? I developed a two player iPhone board game. Computer players (AI) can either be local (in the game code) or remote running on a server. In the 2nd case, both client and server code are coded in Lua. On the server the actual AI code is separate from the TCP socket code and coroutine code (which spawns a separate instance of AI for each connecting client). I want to be able to further isolate the AI code so that that part can be a module coded by anyone in their language of choice. How can I do this? What tecniques technology would enable communication between the Lua TCP socket coroutine code and the AI module?


Application of Game trees in AI My specific area of interest is designing the AI of real time multiplayer games, for example, RTS games. Moves by players happen simultaneously, so I was wondering whether or not it would be modeled with a sequential (extensive form) game tree or something else. I don't know if this is even the correct approach at all, and if some other algorithms are more applicable. How much of Artificial Intelligence design is based off of game trees or extensive form games, and are there any suggested textbooks which thoroughly cover the subject game tree application to AI or AI of RTS games?


Designing RPG player classes, and the trend to avoid a Priest or Cleric RPG class From my experience, RPG classes ("hero" or "villain" types) are often divided into four categories 1. Mage 2. Priest 3. Rogue 4. Warrior However, there are quite a few popular RPGs that ignore the Priest or Cleric "base" character class entirely. Two game series of note The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim), and Dragon Age. Is there a specific reason why this is so? Perhaps the background story makes allowing players to be a Cleric difficult for example, if there is a large amount of NPCs in the game that have the adventure class of Cleric, and making that class available to players would be detrimental to the story of the game. I've pondered this quandary myself when working on developing my own video RPG should the character class options be sub categorized with the aforementioned base classes? Or perhaps even more difficult of a question to answer, should a video RPG include some kind of Deity system? The RPG approach to "gods" is difficult for me, particularly because I've have somewhat of a spiritual perspective on real life, I'm not sure how to reconcile my choices with game design to my choices regarding spirituality. Any helpful responses will be greatly appreciated!


How to build repetition into a game that won't ruin the experience I am building an Educational technology (Edtech) game that attempts to follow the format of an adventure RPG while teaching foreign languages. Obviously, EdTech games must actually teach, which requires repetition for mastery. Especially foreign languages which requires a lot of practice to master. But, the game's goal is for the story line and game world to be immersive to the point the player is hooked in. Repetition often destroys the immersive aspect and linearity of a story. What are some strategies to ensure the necessary repetition is happening such that a student retains the information, but also has fun playing along with the story? Are there any?


Character progression through leveling, skills or items? I'm working on a design for an RPG game, and I'm having some doubts about the skill and level system. I'm going for a more casual, explorative gaming experience and so thought about lowering the game complexity by simplifying character progression. But I'm having trouble deciding between the following Progression through leveling, no complex skill progression, leveling increases base stats. Progression through skills, no leveling or base stat changes, skills progress through usage. Progression through items, more focus on stat changing items, items confer skills, no leveling. However, I'm uncertain what the effects on gameplay might be in the end. So, my question is this What would be the effects of choosing one of the above alternatives over the others? (Particularly with regards to the style and feel of the gameplay) My take on it is that the first sacrifices more frequent rewards and customization in favor of a simpler gameplay the second sacrifices explicit customization and player control in favor of more frequent rewards and a somewhat simpler gameplay while the third sacrifices inventory simplicity and a player metric in favor of player control, customization and progression simplicity. Addendum I'm not really limiting myself to the above three, they are just the ones I liked most and am primarily interested in.


How can I make my players interested in the game lore of my MMORPG? In WoW (World of Warcraft), players skip all quest descriptions, and mindlessly spam "auto attack button", ignore the environment, lore, NPCs as they never existed. I.e., they enter a brain dead "mode". If you ask someone of them what he saw, he won't be able to remember a thing. Except the "Lvl 60" number. I noticed that in my game, if I include lot of mobs i.e. 1 pack for every 10 seconds of distance traveled, the same effect happens. Players ignore all lore and are inflicted with amnesia. I also noticed that if my dungeon starts empty e.g. the first 30 meters completely barren of mobs, the players go Lore heavy mode and spend every inch and cranny to find everything. Question How can I make a player switch to Normal Brain mode (craves for lore) after a group of enemies have been killed?


How can story and gameplay be artfully merged? Let me give some context. Three of my friends and I have a pretty good game idea cooking. It's based off of a prototype I made that's evolving into a cool game mechanic. The mechanic itself is a toy that's fun on its own, but we haven't designed any puzzles around it yet. We have a design document going, and we are answering a lot of questions about what's in the game. It's become clear early on that everyone (including myself) likes the characters and the story a lot. Considering what our favorite games are, this is unsurprising. A story driven game makes sense to me. I like the emphasis that Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, Portal 2, and Tomb Raider place on story, and I imagine our game will have a similar feel (lots of dialogue, plot twists, lovable characters). These games, IMO, have very successfully merged gameplay and story, so I know it's possible to do this successfully. However, one team member raised this point in the design doc I am feeling like fleshing out the story is our biggest hurdle right now for making more design decisions like more specific decisions about levels etc. Is this true? I am uncertain about working on the story extensively before gameplay, and my uneasiness was reinforced when I read this question about story vs. gameplay. Main Question My team and I want to design a puzzle adventure game, such that (in the final version of the game) the puzzles and other gameplay sequences integrate with the story as naturally as possible (the gameplay should, of course, be fun on its own), while the story itself (including plot, characters, events, etc...) does not feel contrived. In light of this goal, in what order should the design of gameplay and story be carried out? And more importantly, what tasks can should be completed in parallel (by different team members)? Is there anything we need to be wary of during development?


android game development dilemma I'm doing a android game project that has a character that can do basic movements like step, turn left, turn right, raise left arm etc. When combining those moves together, the character can do some complicated movements like a dance routine or so. I'm banging my head to figure out what to do about the graphics. I can do a 3D model with animation then export it to the format of Bones library that displays the character movements. Like shows in this video. I wish to have different characters with different characteristics like height, clothes colour and such. However, that means I have to stock pile more 3D models that have different settings. Alternatively, I can attempt to code from scratch that have bones system, meshes, skinning, animation. More control and flexibility but the appearance won't be as good as 3D model and it takes alot more afford (as it appears to me). The character will be in 2D if I go down this route. I will use Android OpenGL library for this. I thought of 2D but then I realize that it's pretty similar to 3D option. My question is that what can I do here? What else I can do to make the best of this situation? Edit thanks for the comments and answer but I have sorted my "dilemma" now. Im using jpct ae and bones library for my project. The downside is that I need to use a 3D model to make use of those library. They are actually very good and suitable for my need when working with a 3D model. Cheers.


Designing interface for interacting with game objects I'm making a roguelike ( like) game, somewhat like Project Zomboid or Don't Starve. In my game, there are many different object in the world that the player can interact with there are also many items, some of which may be required for a particular interaction. Physically, all I have to trigger the interaction is the mouse click when player clicks on an object, something happens (adding right click is an option too, but staying with just one button is preferable). There are several problems here For a given object, there might be several interactions possible. I might want do drive the car, or access its truk, or refuel it etc. Some interactions may require an item I need an axe to chop down trees or a fuel source to refuel a car. Some interactions may be non obvious, so I need to have some sort of discovery mechanism. Some way to say to the player "You could chop down this tree if you had an axe". Some interactions should be very quick. Whacking an enemy with a bat should NOT require clicking and then choosing an action from menu just clicking should work. Added The list of objects, items and interactions is pretty open ended. I'm still developing the game, and in the future players might make mods. This means that the interface must be generic enough to adapt to new interactions automatically. Given these constraints, I'm really struggling to devise a good interface for interactions. I can't show a menu of all possible actions on click, because that would break (4). I can't just leave one single on click action, because that would break (3) and probably (1). How can I present all options to the player in a usable and preferably obvious way?


What do you do when you are at an impasse in the design phase? I own a small web dev shop, and in our down time, I plan on having my guys work on a game (I will be paying them anyway, right?). A few buddies and I started talking about this game, and have been going through the motions of talking designing it out. Only problem we are at an impasse, and can't seem to get passed it. The vote is at 50 50 . Compromising hasn't worked. I have though about just making an executive decision since I am funding the development design of the game, but I don't want to lose my friends support for the game, and their other opinions. I don't know what to do.


Does inflating scores make players happier? I realize that this will depend on a game to game, situation to situation basis and that this is not a very technical question, but I remember hearing in a tech podcast a few years ago that inflated numbers of points (e.g. 1000 points vs. 1 point) was preferable in games because it was either a standard or because it had been shown to produce better feedback experience from users. Either case, it seemed to make users happier than lower numbers of points. I have since been unable to find supportive evidence either way for the theory that inflating scores can keep the user engaged. Is this inflated point theory true? Where can I find more information and, particularly, some experimental data on different approaches and their effectiveness?


How to achieve an GPS Based game like "Parallel Kingdom" I'd like to use Google Maps, in my game, much like quot Ingress quot , quot Pok mon GO quot and quot Parallel Kingdom quot . When I take a deeper look into the Android API Google Maps API, and dozens of forums, I noticed that it's very hard to display sprites or even animations using the Google Maps API. Someone said that you need to layer stuff. Someone else said it's better to use game engines for that. No one tells me how to begin. I opened Android Studios and made a new Google Maps project. I compiled and ran the app. There is the map, so I guess I have completed the first step. How do I combine the Google Map with an extra view or LibGDX layer for displaying sprites? How manage this with a multiplayer server? I am wanting to set my map up like quot Parallel Kingdom quot , which you can see, below.


MiniMax not working properly(for checkers game) I am creating a checkers game but My miniMax is not functioning properly,it is always switching between two positions for its move(index 20 and 17).Here is my code public double MiniMax(int board, int depth, int turn, int red best, int black best) int source int dest double MAX SCORE INFINITY,newScore int MAX DEPTH 3 int newBoard new int 32 generateMoves(board,turn) System.arraycopy(board, 0, newBoard, 0, 32) if(depth MAX DEPTH) return Evaluation(turn,board) for(int z 0 z lt possibleMoves.size() z 2) source Integer.parseInt(possibleMoves.elementAt(z).toString()) System.out.println("SOURCE " source) dest Integer.parseInt(possibleMoves.elementAt(z 1).toString()) (int )possibleMoves.elementAt(z 1) System.out.println("DEST " dest) applyMove(newBoard,source,dest) newScore MiniMax(newBoard,depth 1,opponent(turn),red best, black best) if(newScore gt MAX SCORE) MAX SCORE newScore maxSource source maxDest dest maxSource and maxDest will be used to perform the move. if (MAX SCORE gt black best) if (MAX SCORE gt red best) break alpha beta cutoff else black best (int) MAX SCORE the score if (MAX SCORE lt red best) if (MAX SCORE lt black best) break alpha beta cutoff else red best (int) MAX SCORE the score for ends return MAX SCORE end minimax I am unable to find out the logical mistake. Any idea what's going wrong?


Is there a definitive reference on Pinball playfield design? I'm looking at designing tables for Future Pinball but I'm not sure where to start as I've little background in game design per se. I've played scores of pinball tables over the years so I've a fairly good idea of what is "fun" in those terms. However, I'd like to know if there is a definitive "bible" of pinball design as far as layout and scoring mode design goes. I've looked but there doesn't seem to be anything really coherent that I could find. Is it simply a lost art or am I missing some buried gem?


Are dice rolls for damage calculation bad design for a tactic focused game? I'm trying to come up with a combat system for a turn based RPG that is inspired by pen amp paper RPGs, but with more importance on positioning and strategy. I feel like in games where a good strategy is important, a dice roll for damage calculation like in Dungeons amp Dragons, etc is really bad, because your best strategy can and (eventually) will be ruined by a bad roll or a very good roll of the enemy. The two most obvious solutions to prevent the player from this frustration are to do a fixed damage calculation without dice or to reduce the impact of the dice rolls, but they both just don't feel right. So is it considered bad design to do a dice based calculation model or is there a better approach to combine those two key features?


Game design for lumosity type games This must be a odd question. My company asked me to design some games similar type of lumosity (http www.lumosity.com ). I guess someone already played those games. I fight with them, saying , the algorithm behind is proprietor and gave a reference of below link http www.lumosity.com blog brain performance index what is bpi They said, keep the algorithm in BLACK BOX and go ahead of designing the game. Now I have no idea how to start without that algorithm. So I need experts suggestions. Anyone have any idea about this, I mean how to think design about the games? Should I simply tell them, it is not possible, you can fire me?


How to deal with raw values and percentages? What is the standard practice for dealing with attribute modifiers in games where units have attributes, such as RTSs, MOBAs and RPGs? Specifically, in which order are "buffs" given to the unit? Suppose the case where unit X has 10 blah points (BP). It obtains two modifiers that add 10 blah points, and another one that adds 30 blah points. Finally, a enemy unit applies a 40 blah points modifier. What is the usual way of processing this, for player familiarity's sake? Aggregate by grouped type (10 30) (1.0 0.1 0.4) 28 Obtention order (10 (1.1) 30) (0.6) 24.6 Aggregate iteratively by type (10 30) 1.1 0.6 26.4 Some other way?


How to make a simple escape the room game? I want to make a very simple "escape the room" game. I was hoping for something that looks something like this. You would see images of some room and you click around to move or to add things to inventory. Then, you can select something in your inventory to use that item with something on the screen. During the whole game there would be a text box describing what is happening (probably in really broken English instead of Japanese). I am looking for something that can be quite simple. I would prefer to have the ability to play sound (probably mp3's) when something happens. It can be web based or a downloaded executable or .jar file. It doesn't have to be perfect, just a proof of concept really. What is the best approach to get this game working with minimal effort? Are there some libraries that can help? I have plenty of Java experience and some C , PHP, and others. I'd rather avoid Windows based technology as I primarily run Linux. I am willing to learn other languages if they have a huge advantage. Ideally, if someone could point me to an example program that I can modify. I'm not expecting to sell or distribute this game.


Square Based or free movement What are the pros and cons of using a 'square' or 'space' based character movement mechanic vs using a free movement mechanic? Square Space Movement on a ridged grid using 'squares', 'hexagons' and 'triangles' Free Character can move to any valid position on the game board Some examples of 'Square' Final Fantasy Tactics Zoids Assault Some examples of 'Free' Star Craft Age of Empires Baldur's Gate I am designing a game that is a Tactical RPG my current idea is to use a square grid with a standard character size of 3x3 or 5x5 so that the maps tiles are more granular.


What would encourage a player to play the both the combat and building aspects of my game? I have been planning all of the features for my game idea. It is an RPG fantasy free roam game, in which the main focus of the game is on combat and adventure, though I also want to add in the ability to be a carpenter, shop keeper, brick mason, and or cook. Though this is all well thought out, another thought has cane to mind Why would anyone actually follow through with the average life style or even begin to think of living a normal life? I thought of how an experienced adventurer might "retire" and go into business for themselves, but what could be some other things that might make a player go for the worker's lifestyle?


Design constraints for games that the elderly (65 ) get engaged with I'm a newbie in game design and gaming in general (Tetris, board games, this sort of things). But have observed that the elderly got very much engaged with bubble shooter and solitaires (quite different approaches). I've tried to look for something similar, and have tried to initiate some in these games, but nope, the shooter is always preferred. Does anybody know of general criteria, design constraints, or (even better) concrete examples of games that the elderly like to play, apart from these two? Note agreed, not correctly tagged, but can't find something that fit, nor can I propose new ones.


How do they made Pok mon games so flawlessly balanced? I find it hard to believe how well balanced the Pok mon games are. Not just within the games, where you'll find amazing balance from the very beginning to the very end, but, surprisingly, even when things get more competitive. If you have ever played the simulators that are available, you'll know what I'm talking about www.smogon.com. There are thousands of unique Pok mon characters, moves, traits and items. Yet, if you try to find a single broken strategy, You can't. And if you do find something obscure that could give you a good advantage, you'll realize it's impossible. The emerging competitive scenario is one of the most amazing strategy games I've ever seem, and it's not even a feature of the Pok mon games!


Why use random numbers when it comes to rewards and stats? Many games use random numbers for things like attack damage, gold loot, or monster type being spawned. It is obvious that random numbers allow you to generate content to make games more re playable, but I am talking about specific things. For example In DOTA, when you kill a monster you get a random amount of gold in between x and y where x and y never change. When you attack anything you have a chance to do damage within a range such as 52 60. How would making the gold drops static change the game? I feel like the random numbers enhance the game play, but I am having trouble understanding why. Does anyone know any reasons why random numbers can make game play better when used with things like damage or loot? I'm hoping for answers that don't attribute it to luck being a good thing.


timebased scoring algorithm for game i am developing a game where user has to find target number using 5 given numbers and 4 operators. the score depends on the type of operators and number of operators used and time. score typeOperators noOfOperators timeScore where typeOperators is the sum of score for each type of operator, 1 pt for , 2 pt for , and 3 pt for . if all the three operators are used once, typeOperators will be 13. currently, i am thinking of timeScore max(0, x timespent) But, the game should avoid the situation where the user finding target number with worst solution but with minimum time gets higher scores. so the more weightage should be on the typeOperators rather than timeScore. can there be any better approach?


How can I make backtracking interesting? When a player navigates a space for the first time, it is very interesting the content is new, the dangers are unknown, paths need to be found. However, various situations force the player to backtrack, or navigate the same space multiple times. Perhaps the level designers are being economical, or trying to build familiarity with a space. Perhaps the game itself is open ended, or like a sandbox, where navigating the same spaces is part of the game itself. These can make the same spaces seem tedious and sparse. Given that backtracking (or navigating the same space multiple times) is unavoidable, what are some effective, economical ways of making it interesting? Please keep in mind We are reusing levels deliberately, either for effect or to save on cost. Therefore modifying the levels beyond recognition would be against our intent. We also cannot modify the gameplay too much if we were attempting to save cost by reusing levels, incurring more costs by adding gameplay would be counterproductive. One quick fix I had in mind was to give the player some sort of powerup or vehicle so that they could backtrack faster. I'm sure there are better methods, and examples of games where they were used.


what should the size of a flash game in Facebook be I'm developing a flash game and i want to put it in Facebook ,My question is the Proper maximum size for it. 500 KB 1 MB ??


Implementing complex AI in an ECS? I'm having a hard time wrapping around how something quite stateful such as complex AI would be handled in a pure ECS (such as components being only data and systems operating on that data) Things like different enemies in a game that cast different spells, or bosses with various phases and abilities like in an MMO.Usually i'd handle such a thing with data and behaviour components and state machines, but this violates the data driven ECS paradigm. Is there an easy way to handle this sort of behaviour in an ECS or is a different approach required?


How to make a chat lobby in my game? I'm writing my own RTS game in Delphi. Single player part is almost done and works well and I'm thinking about adding multi player to it now. There's going to be a lobby where players should be able to chat and organize games. I tried googling for a convenient way to do it, but couldn't find anything related .. My idea looks like follows Players are identified by Names they choose and their IPs There's main chat area where all players meet There are rooms, where players may select game options (map, teams, flag colors, etc..). After everything is settled players exchange IPs and multi player engine starts. I want to avoid usage of server side software. Currently I'm looking into running everything through SQL database where each player commits posts and his state and reads other players posts states. Whats the common practice of organizing in game chat lobby?


How to know if a game concept is "different enough"? For the past year or so, I've been designing a top down zombie shooter game. However, after playing a 2d top down battle royale game, it's given me inspiration to build a similar game. The graphics would be very similar, though there would be new things like building. I'm trying to decide if this concept is different enough there's another similar game, though it has different graphics and some other key differences. I'm wondering at what point two games become too similar, and how to avoid taking too many ideas from one game (a common problem for me).


Plot and Story design basics I have made several games but they have all been space invaders or mario style. Following my last question (thank you for all the great answers) I am trying to write out a plot line and a plan for the events that will take place. The problem I am having is that my story's tend to resemble things that already exist like films or other games I have played. The events to feel like a mix of various other games I have played. So apart form become a more creative person does anyone have any advice. Has anyone written a fairly lengthy story for a game and have pointers or does anyone know any good books on the subject. Any thoughts would be welcome, story of event ideas to. FYI the game has a final fantasy style battle system and a pokemon catch raise system.


I'm a single developer making a game made of blocks. Can I make 3d characters made of blocks without looking like Minecraft? I would like to differentiate the look as much as I can but yet it has to be within the limits of what is reasonable for a single programmer can do. I have alot of ideas that would make the game itself different but I'm afraid the look of the blocky world and blocky characters are going to be too much like Minecraft. I've toyed around with the idea of giving the characters big heads, or skinny bodies, or elbows and knees.


Is it possible to use an image, sound or font without importing them externally? SDL2 It's hard to explain my question, but I will try my best. When loading sounds, images or fonts in SDL2 (with SDL image, SDL mixer, SDL ttf) you need to load them from an external source path. For example, res image.png the issue I have with this is that the user can edit this file which changes the look of the game. Is there a way in loading the asset internally? (If that's the right term?) So that it cannot be edited by other people. Thanks.


How can I discourage camping while still supporting a "sniper" style of play? I am trying to add features into a third person shooter that suit a sniper style of play, in addition to the current rush deathmatch style it was designed for. The current gameplay is similar in style to Gears of War and Battlefield, perhaps similar to Call of Duty in terms of combat ranges but a little slower paced. The levels are similar in size to large COD maps, or medium Battlefield maps. Two things which I was planning to add includes some long sight lines and also some "sniper nests". I am concerned though because these two features can open the door to a lot of camping. Sniping and camping are not the same things in my opinion, but it can be easy for campers to abuse such features for easy gain, when they were intended to promote tactical sniper use. That said, I don't believe in blaming the flaws of a game on a player's choice of play style. Sniper Uses long range rifles, may stay in a specific spot that is tactically advantageous at the time, but knows how to move to other locations good for sniping. Provides spotting and suppression for more offensive rush style team members. Camper May use any weapon, always stays in the one spot and waits for players to pass by, leading to easy low risk kills. Follows the same strategy regardless of what is happening in the game match. Is more focussed on own performance as opposed to supporting team members. So, I am trying to think of some ways in which to try to discourage camping while still allowing legitimate sniper play and preserving the original rush gameplay.


OpenGL ES 2.0 Setting up 2D Projection This article describes in general, how to draw sharp OpenGL 2D graphics, using fixed function pipeline. http basic4gl.wikispaces.com 2D Drawing in OpenGL Because OpenGL ES 2.0 has some ES 1.x functions not available (such as glOrtho()), their functionality must be substituted in Fragment Vertex shaders. My question is, how to setup the following 2D projection in programmable function pipeline? const XSize 640, YSize 480 glMatrixMode (GL PROJECTION) glLoadIdentity () glOrtho (0, XSize, YSize, 0, 0, 1) glMatrixMode (GL MODELVIEW) How Fragment and Vertex shaders must be configured to fully substitute the above mentioned fixed function 2D projection setup?


Fight with creativity burnout I have big creativity burnout Do you have any ideas how can I fight with it ??


What is "convexity" in the context of game design? I have overheard game designers mentioning something called convexity in games. This seems to be a game design specific concept, different from (although possibly related to) that in geometry or game theory. Unfortunately there are very few sources online mentioning it, let alone a definition. From what I could gather, it has something to do with player choices. So what is convexity? How does it manifest in a game? What's an example of it, or the lack of it? Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or if it depends, when is it good, when is it bad?


Character Models Single Mesh vs. Individual Parts I was looking up 3D character models from various games (Battlefield 3 and DMC to be specific), just as research work and upon importing the model into Blender3D, I found that every part of the model was a separate mesh object (head, armor vest, legs, hands, etc.). This got me thinking Why didn't the artist model them as a single object? I think that would be better because You can save a few polygons in your model . Doesn't animating separate parts cause clipping issues as one mesh may not deform in sync with neighboring mesh? All parts were overlapping each other the armor vest was overlapping chest polygons, which were not visible and thus wasted. All polygons and edges connected to each other.


What underlying character stats would you put into your "character" object in an RPG engine basically I'm making my own RPG TBS engine named Uruk (making an rpg themed about the epic of gilgamesh) and I am thinking of a combat system similar to the Disgaea franchise or the Super Robot Wars franchise I'm currently in the process of writing the "character" class (cant name it character since it causes confusion with the primitive data type "character") and right now i've decided to go with the regular RPG route of including the following base stats strength Agility Willpower Endurance Luck and the base stats would then dictate the following stats Attack (probably a combination of the strength stat and weapon stats) Physical Defense (determined by endurance and armor) Magic Resistance (maybe something to do with willpower and armor) Crit Rate (luck and agility) Max Health (endurance) Max Mana (willpower) Max Stamina (combination of strength and endurance) Move per turn (determined by character class or agility) of course there would also be a leveling system with level and experience stats the biggest problem I am facing right now is whether I should put additional underlying stats (hidden from the play) for leveling purposes (for example stats such as strength per level and max health per level) and how would i go for implementing said underlying stats with a class system, currently I am using an enum within the character object (calling them objects to avoid confusion with programming classes and character classes) to implement the class system and I have been considering on whether I should just write multiple objects extending on the character object for each character class or should I keep on using enums to represent different classes


How is game difficulty tested balanced? How is game difficulty typically tested or balanced so that there's a steady progression of difficulty how do I ensure that no level is too difficult or too easy for its point in the game? Are play testers of various skills brought in, or a random sampling of people? What considerations are should be taken into account during the actual level design process?


What makes puzzle games addictive? I'm currently developing a puzzle game for Android that is sort of along the lines of Alchemy. I was wondering what makes games like Alchemy or Bejeweled so addicting? How do I keep players interested in the game to want to play it over and over? Is it the scores? Level advancement? The challenges? What should I be doing to try and keep a player engaged with a puzzle game since they are often quite repetitive?


Guidance for building a proper in game economy I'm seriously thinking of building a space opera game which would share some of Machiavelli The Prince aspects regarding commerce each player will be able to extract build buy sell donate a wide range of products (from ore to spaceships roughly). However, I'm struggling with the economy aspect of it. Should the game define the prices once and for all? Should each player be able to determine his own buy sell prices, and if so, how? How can I avoid over engineering this game economy mechanism, while still making it attractive for users? Edit thanks to your very nice input, some more information about the setup it's a "player only game," with no "computer managed player." players start with a planet and some resources units and then (try to) expand players can be of multiple "species" with no proper relationship apart from the one they might make up no possible notion of "central bank" or similar in the first place consequently, I would prefer "not magic" on the economy, by that I mean a standard currency whose value would be determined by the system. However then I don't see how trading would be appealing, since bartering would be the only way, which feels a bit clumsy for the players. I was thinking of having some rare metal as the standard exchange medium, but then I wonder how would to include other basic economic attributes, such as the population's wealth... Hopefully it doesn't look too daunting...


Reduce Blur and headache during gameplay I am implementing a browser based Javascript game here. On tougher levels when the speed of the game increases, what we observe is that the user will experience headaches and the view will start to blur when the user stares at the screen for some reason. How can we find the reason for this reaction in the user and avoid it? How to simulate the problem Go the link Click on Play Play the third level for 5 10 seconds


Am I allowed to use a real life celebrity in a game? In previous questions many users asked whether or not an athlete can be used in a game. Yet the answer was no due to multiple copyright their images and names had. However anyone can use a politician's name and physical appearance due to the fact that they are "public figures" (example Obama). In this case, I want to use famous game developers such as Kojima and Gabe Newell in a game. Am I allowed to use them? or should I make references to them using distinct names (I.E. Lord Gaben). How can I find out whether or not a person is a "public figure" and if their appearance name is protected?.


How to create a legally valid timestamp of unpublished game artwork Before publishing promotional material of my first indie game I wanted to mark all my artwork with a legally valid timestamp. There are two ways I know to do this 1 go to a sollecitor lawyer and pay for them to certify the document 2 use an online webservice to mark any given file folder readable to the service Anyone has already done this and if yes how (e.g. which website have you used? which type of solecitor have you contacted? etc..)? I am doing all this because I have prepared a kickstarter video that I wanted to publish in these days to ask for some additional funds to complete my game and, as it contains sequences of the game, I am at the same time worried about publishing it (somebody might copy the characters as I say in the video that I would like to do also a comic book series based on those characters). I guess that "eCO" (or something similar) becomes a must in this case right? Kind Regards PS I know that there is always the good old "send yourself a mail with a stamp and a date" but is not very strong as proof.


Game Characters vs Characters in other medias How do a characters designed for a game differ from characters made for books or movies? When a book or a movie is converted into a game, what are the differences and similarities that have to be addressed? Are there pitfalls in character design when jumping between these different medias?


How to Create a Game? I'm a newbie. I like to play games, but I'd also like to program them too. I know it's difficult to create a game, but please share the basic info I need to get started creating my first game. What do I need to study to become a game developer? What is game AI? What is a Game Engine? What are the different types of game engine?


Random Procedural vs. Previously Made Level Generation What the advantages disadvantages of using random procedural generation vs. pre made levels? There seems to be few that I can think of, other than the fact that items may be a problem to distribute in randomly generated terrain, and that the generated terrain may look weird. The downside to previously made levels is that I would need to make a level editor, though. I cannot decide what is better to use. Could answers include code examples of both procedural and premade generation, as well as the pros cons?


Giving points to users how can I make it interesting? I have a website where users can choose the winner of a sporting event. If they guess correctly they get 1 point, otherwise they receive zero points. At the end all users are ranked based on their score, which is computed like this score points (number of guesses number of misses) It's a rudimentary system but it works alright. However I am looking for a points system that's more interesting to the user, that makes the game more engaging. For example giving more points for picking the underdog in an event might make the game a bit more interesting. Can you offer me some suggestions?


How to start encouraging team collaboration? I am working on converting a single player game to multiplayer, but I am concerned that if I simply do a 1 1 conversion, even in modes with "multiple players" there won't be any incentive for team work. And since I have more experience with single player mechanics than multiplayer ones, I could use some advice on this. Here is what I have implemented so far points that reward team based achievements higher than single player achievements eg. single kill vs team kill a "spotting" mechanic which allows players to show their team the enemy's position on the minimap health amp ammo items which can be shared to resupply the team team based game modes such as capture the flag, TDM etc My main concern with the above, is that there is a heavy reliance on individual players to want to play in a team based way. If they don't want to, they can still lone wolf it in most cases which can have a negative effect on the rest of the team who is trying to play collaboratively. It only takes one person in a team to spoil the fun! For example, the COD series has had a number of perks, achievements and streaks designed to encourage team collaboration but I have rarely seen these used in multiplayer since a lone wolf strategy seems to be more common. Another example, the Battlefield series has had an entire class devoted to supporting team members with health packs, repairs, ammo resupplies etc and in multiplayer it is common to see this being used to fully effect. So why do such features mechanics work in one game of the same genre but not in another? I assume the type of player is relevant here, but there must be more to it than that. What are some tried and true ways to encourage team based play or collaboration? This does not necessarily mean players talking to each other, but rather working together to achieve the same goal or different parts of the same goal.


Cost to licence characters or ships for a game I am producing a game pitch document for a university game design class, and I am looking for examples of licencing cost for using characters or ships from other IP holders in a game. For example cost of using an X Wing in a game, licencing from Lucas cost of using the Enterprise in a game, licencing from Paramount cost of using the Space Shuttle (if any), licencing from Nasa EDIT The closest information I can find is from an article about Nights of the Old Republic, but isn't nearly specific enough for my needs What Kotick means by Lucas being the principal beneficiary of the success of The Old Republic is that there are most likely clauses in the license agreement that give percentages, points, or another denomination of revenue out to Lucas and his people just for the Star Wars name, and that amount is presumed to be a great deal of money. Kotick is saying that because the cost of the license is so prohibitive, as he has personally had experience with in his position as CEO of Activision Blizzard, that EA will not be able to be profitable because of the hemorrhaging of money to the licensor. EDIT 2 Another vague source stating that FOX uses a "five figure rule" (assuming between 10,000 99,000) It seems FOX, like most studios, will not license individuals to create new works based upon their products. They will only commission individuals of their choosing if they elect to branch out into expanded product lines related to those licenses. Alternately, they are open to making the licencing available to large corporations with access to global markets, but only if those corporations agree to what Ms Friedman called a "five figure guarantee". Presumably this means that the corporation seeking the licensing must agree to pay a 5 figure sum for that license, and be confident that their product will sell enough volume to recoup that fee, and to produce sufficient profits to make the acquisition worth their while.


Could I make my own pokemon game without running into a copyright issue? I've always wanted to make a video game that criticises pokemon. I want to know if I could use pokemon as the characters in the game without running into copy right laws. The game itself will have nothing to do with the normal purpose of pokemon but at one point also mimics pokemon mystery dungeon a little. that point in the game would be similar to the rescuing of other pokemon and will also have some of the same characters in pokemon mystery dungeon. so, could I possably make this game? or not. If I couldn't, what would it take to have permission. If your wondering how the game criticises pokemon, it does so cause it's supposed to be a gory hard core M game. What if I was to not include any of the titles from pokemon like pikachu for example and just simply give the characters real life names as well as give minor changes in designs and abilities? Could that help avoid copyright problems?


100 points between 0 1000 on an increasing scale Basically, it's for roleplay, I need to generate 100 points along a scale. Level 1 is the starting amount, and is at point 0 on the scale. Level 100 is the highest amount planned at this point, and it needs to be at 1,000 on the scale. My problem is generating points 2 99 between those two. I could do it cheaply and just go with one level at every 10 points. But that's not how I want it to function. Ideally, I'd like a sloping curve, so that in the early stages, levels might be only a number or two apart. Such as Level 1 0 Level 2 2 Level 3 4 But then as the level increases, the number also goes up. Level 98 960 Level 99 980 Level 100 1000 Can someone help me figure this out?


Bartle taxonomy formula Anyone knows the formula inside the Bartle Test of players taxonomy? I need to do the test, but I need the weight of each question to make something more accurate and trustworthy to the real test... Some links to the online test http matthewbarr.co.uk bartle http 4you2learn.com bartle


Have any video game designs used non uniform random numbers in interesting ways? A variety of video games use uniformly distributed numbers to decide the outcome of an event, such as a "50 chance to hit" almost always means to check if a random floating point number from 0 1 is greater than 0.5. Many games will layer a few of these uniform percentages on top of each other, for instance a D amp D hit roll is a uniformly distributed number from 1 20, except that 1 and 20 have special outcomes. To my mind it seems like things like critical hits are added by designers to try and emulate the fact that in reality hitting missing or winning losing is not actually a binary outcome. In many cases the real life amount of "damage" done by an attack would likely be closer to a gaussian bell curve distribution, which many results in the middle but the occasional very exciting outlier and smooth curve connecting them. Dice games like Settlers of Catan emulate gaussian distributions by adding together multiple independent rolls, but I feel like I've almost never seen this mechanic in video games. It seems like games like Civilization (Sid Meier talked extensively at GDC about player perception not matching the actual math used in the game) would benefit from results that matched how things work in the real world. Have any video games used a gaussian or otherwise non uniform distribution of random numbers in interesting ways?


Coming up with manageable game ideas as a hobbyist game developer I'm trying to come up with ideas for games to develop as per the advice on this question I've started jotting down and brainstorming my ideas as I get them, and it has worked relatively well I now have a growing collection of ideas that I think are relatively original. The trouble is that I'm a solo hobbyist developer so my time is limited (and I have short attention span!) I've decided to set myself a limit of 1 working week (i.e. 35 40 hours) to develop prototype my game, but all of the ideas that really spark my imagination are far too complex to be achievable in that sort of time (e.g. RTS or RPG style gameplay), and none of my simpler ideas really strike me as being that good (and whenever I get a flash of inspiration I invariably end up making things more complicated!) Am I being too picky should I just take one of my simpler ideas and have a go?


Does the protagonist's age matter in a 3rd person shooter? There have been very young characters in modern games that wield weapons including firearms before. Two good examples include Ellie from The Last of Us, and Clementine from The Walking Dead. Whilst I don't support the idea of having gun wielding children as characters, I do understand the context of use in the above two examples and the points being made. I am designing the concepts of a 3rd person action game. The protagonist is a modern male adolescent (about 13 years old) and their age is important because the game's design is centred around the idea of growth and having the protagonist learn and achieve milestones through the game's progression. Being an action game there is combat and weapons including firearms. What I would like to know is, is there particular considerations I need to take with the issue of having firearms and a very young protagonist? At the moment the gameplay progression has the protagonist starting of as completely unarmed, having to initially rely solely on hand to hand combat and other stealth and platformer based skills to progress and learn new abilities. I would like to make more weapons and eventually firearms available to the protagonist, but have their use be completely up to the player and not a necessity for game progression. Most importantly I would like to make sure that the finished game does not come across as promoting the underage use of guns. So is the protagonist age an important consideration in this type of game genre, or not? For example would I need to make sure I include a tutorial scene where the protagonist is taught how to fire a gun by an adult?


Game Map Implementation I want to know how I can create a virtual town or city (like skyrim towns or gta4 liberty city) Should I create something on paper and copy coordinates? (Building1 floor corner coordinates are these, ceiling coordinates are these, 2nd floor coordinates are these etc, and then road1 coordinates are these...) And then apply texture on these things? Start with just 1 building and extend it in time? But this seems like a ton of work. For simplicity if we assume that there are 5 buildings on a road, this is like 90 vertices. And if I decide to make a house wider, then many things will be affected and I have to find new coordinates for every house corners. How did the developers of GTA 4 do it for example? I would like to know an appropiate method to create a static virtual map where the player can move into houses and interacts with objects in it. Please note that these buildings are not cosmetic only. I should be able to place objects in houses such as tables and the player should be able to jump on it etc. Thank you, I will vote when I have the reputation.


Scaling web game to suit any screen size I've made a simple multiplayer game, and now trying to make it fit on any screen size. I've tried stretching it out to fit the browser size, but it just appears weird and distorted. I'm also trying to avoid having borders around the edges as it doesn't look particularly nice. Is there a way to solve this that is fair to all players?


Tower Defence game scoring system I am in the process of developing my first game on android mobile platform, it s a tower defence game and I am currently busy designing the scoring system. At the end of the stage when the user has defeated all the waves of enemies I want to take his score and somehow calculate a rating out of 3 Stars. What will the best way be to calculate a score? When should I increment the score during gameplay for example when an enemy dies? And how do I calculate if the score is worth 1 3 Stars at the end of the stage? Basically I want help or any ideas on how the formula should look like and how to calculate if the user scored a 1.. 2... or 3 Stars. My variables in game Every enemy has a value Example 5 The stage has a number of life s before you are defeated Example 20 Each stage starts with money that you buy your towers with Example 120 Each towers costs money Example 30 A stage can consist of 1 or more waves of enemies. Any help or ideas would be appreciated as I am new to game development .


Programming the combat sequence in a role playing game I'm trying to write a short "game" where a player goes around and fights monsters but I have no idea how to handle the combat. For example, say I have a "Warrior" and a "Troll". How do the two fight each other? I know I can do something like Conan Warrior.new() CaveTroll Troll.new() Conan.attack(CaveTroll) CaveTroll.attack(Conan) But what part of the game controls the monster? Do I just stick the above sequence in a loop until one of them dies? Or does the game "engine" need to have a part that deals specifically with combat? Or is this an aspect of the Troll's artificial intelligence that needs to take care of it's actions? Also, who what determines the actions that the monster takes? Maybe a Troll can bash, kick, bite, cast spells, drink potions, use a magical item. Does the game engine determine what action the Troll takes or is that something the Troll class manages? Sorry I can't be more specific but I need some guidance on which direction to go with this.


Calculating the flavour of a dish in a cooking game I'm currently working on a game that sees players cook dishes and are scored on their performance. To determine whether a dish is good or not, I will be looking to see if these elements are balanced Salt Fat Acid A dish is made up of multiple ingredients and each ingredient will have its own salt, fat and acid levels. Adding too much or too little of an element (e.g. over salting) results in a weaker score for the player. There are also a few other factors that affect the salt, fat and acid balance The number of ingredients (adding more ingredients should reduce saltiness, fattiness and acidity) Acid can reduce the saltiness and fattiness of a dish. Salt can reduce the acidity of a dish. This idea comes from Samin Nosrat's book Salt, Fat, Acid Heat. Below is an image from her book where she breaks down 4 popular salads and shows how each of the ingredients affects each element. If the player was to recreate quot The Caesar quot salad, they should get a perfect score for balancing all those ingredients but if they created a salad with just bacon and anchovies it should be considered too salty. Texture is another element that the player needs to balance but this won't need to be calculated in the same way as the other elements. My plan here is to check if the player is making a salad it should have some crunch to it, whereas if they are making a roast the meat should be tender. Given a set of ingredients, I would like to calculate whether the dish is balanced or not. The game will probably have 100s of ingredients and I would like some advice on how to best calculate these elements, score the player and balance the many ingredient combinations a player can come up with.


android game development dilemma I'm doing a android game project that has a character that can do basic movements like step, turn left, turn right, raise left arm etc. When combining those moves together, the character can do some complicated movements like a dance routine or so. I'm banging my head to figure out what to do about the graphics. I can do a 3D model with animation then export it to the format of Bones library that displays the character movements. Like shows in this video. I wish to have different characters with different characteristics like height, clothes colour and such. However, that means I have to stock pile more 3D models that have different settings. Alternatively, I can attempt to code from scratch that have bones system, meshes, skinning, animation. More control and flexibility but the appearance won't be as good as 3D model and it takes alot more afford (as it appears to me). The character will be in 2D if I go down this route. I will use Android OpenGL library for this. I thought of 2D but then I realize that it's pretty similar to 3D option. My question is that what can I do here? What else I can do to make the best of this situation? Edit thanks for the comments and answer but I have sorted my "dilemma" now. Im using jpct ae and bones library for my project. The downside is that I need to use a 3D model to make use of those library. They are actually very good and suitable for my need when working with a 3D model. Cheers.


Term for coordinating design elements to produce larger possibility spaces? The concept is when content elements work together in such a way to produce more possibilities, playable content, or engagement than the relative amount of added content. Mathematically A content gives you x units of gameplay B content gives you y units of gameplay (units of gameplay are however you'd like to measure them, hours of play, total items, actions discussion branches, etc.) A x B y A B x y ? So that when the game includes both A B The gameplay unit increase could be x y (x y) c x y This concept of expressing it mathematically leads me to want to call this Content Multiplication. But I haven't been able to find much on a specific term for this (most of my attempts have lead me to math games). Example In a game like Minecraft, there's a mechanics and dynamics that define crafting. By themselves they produce a set of craftable items. Once a player crafts them there's less or no desire need to craft them again. Then a relatively small mechanic is added that causes loss, perhaps on death or through durability. The impact on player motivation and time played is much larger. Forcing players to either recraft items, or to craft extras preemptively. No new items have to be added to the crafting system, and having players lose items isn't a big change (not a lot of work). Specifically if we look at just these two mechanics, and the expected impact they have together. Perhaps we're talking about Minecraft 0.1, and only crafting exists, and a decision needs to be made on what next feature to add, that provides us with the most benefit in gameplay content for development effort. Conclusion Is there a term to describe the intentional design of coordinated mechanics and system to produce larger sets of content with minimal effort? Edit Emergence Emergence typically refers to unforeseen and unintended results rising from a rise in complexity. Emergent results are frequently hard to quantify, or to ascribe cause to specific elements. What I'm looking for is an explicit, deliberate, and predictable outcome from the addition of a single element to an existing system. Contrasting Example An example of emergence can be found in the original Deus Ex. Being able to place mines on walls and jump off of them. This effect was (likely) unintended, caused by the interaction of complex systems, and in cases where it could be used to skip content, actually reduced the amount of gameplay. Emergent Gameplay While designing for emergence can be intended, the outcome is less certain or planned.


Game timings and formats There are more or less standardized TV show movie formats and recommended timings 1. By the early 1960s, television companies commonly presented half hour long "comedy" series, or one hour long "dramas." Half hour series were mostly restricted to situation comedy or family comedy, and were usually aired with either a live or artificial laugh track. One hour dramas included genre series such as police and detective series, westerns, science fiction, and, later, serialized prime time soap operas. Programs today still overwhelmingly conform to these half hour and one hour guidelines. Source 2. In the United States, most medical dramas are one hour long. Source 3. Traditionally serials were broadcast as fifteen minute installments each weekday in daytime slots. In 1956 As the World Turns debuted as the first half hour soap opera. All soap operas broadcast half hour episodes by the end of the 1960s. With increased popularity in the 1970s most soap operas expanded to an hour (Another World even expanded to ninety minutes for a short time). More than half of the serials had expanded to one hour episodes by 1980. As of 2010, six of the seven US serials air one hour episodes each weekday. Source Interesting. Are there any standards of timing in game development? Well, 5 20 minutes casual games, of course. There is even a "5 minutes game" site. And 1 hour gamer site. Are there 1 week, 1 year, 1 eternity game formats? Chess and Go deep games that you can study all your life but they are played in hour or several days (pro games). Addictive long term online role playing games (without win condition) are played in monthes and, possibly, years. Replayability is an important factor to consider. It's good when game design document contains a line "A game is designed for solving in X hours". How can it be measured before there is any prototype or demo? When you know your game format, you know your audience (and vice versa). It is practical question. Are there psychological researches about dynamic of gaming interest and involvement? And is there a correlation between game format and game genre?


Should developers make their games easier with new versions? It seems that the game Angry Birds is becoming gradually easier with new versions. Maybe so people get the illusion of progress and satisfaction of breaking new records? I would like to know if gradual small modifications of games to enhance the sense of improvement and learning by users is known common standard practice in game developing. (I don't mean to say that there is anything wrong with such a practice.)


How to control the list of items on the screen? I am an experienced app developer (c ) however I am just looking at starting 2d game development. I have read some articles and understand the concept of the gaming loop controlling the application flow. However there seems few articles explaining general concepts for an existing developer. From these I assuming that each on screen item becomes it's own object and handles it's own location, drawing, collision detection etc. (though correct me if I am wrong) My question is how to control the list of items on the screen? Are these stored in a simple collection and then removed as they fall out of play and is this collection held by the game engine or individual components? An example would be bullets from a gun?


Is flowchart correct way to visualize gameplay? I made the following flowchart in draw.io. it's just a simple arcade shooter. cardboard zombie pops up, bang, or not. I don't have any official education in game production. So, are there other chart styles, or UML diagrams that would be better suited for drafting this type of simple game play?


Can i put the main Love2D functions inside a table? Instead of having a file with load, update,and draw can i say have a table called player, then put love.update and love.draw in that table to handle the drawing and updating of that particular player?


Prototyping a puzzle game for solvability of levels I am in the prototyping phase of making a puzzle game for iOS. The basic premise of what the player has to do is get from point A to point B by navigating through a maze like setup, while moving blocks out of the way, and avoiding enemies. This is my first approach to a game like this so I am wondering how others have made sure that the levels they create are solvable. For example take the classic Unblock game where you have to move the red block off the game board by moving the other non red block pieces out of the way. It gets difficult because they are all in a tight space with not much movement to be had. Has does the creator know that the arrangement of puzzle pieces are placed in a way that makes it possible to solve the puzzle? Do they start with paper prototypes and work from a solvable end state backwards to make the initial game board layouts?


Authoritative Server Movement and Collision I am attempting to write a proof of concept in preparation to do my first networked game. I have decided to do an authoritative server with client side prediction. I am trying to implement my architecture like this diagram from an excellent article on the subject In the article, the data that is synchronized is the player's position. This works great for turn based games, but what about real time games? In my game, each entity has a position and a velocity vector. It is the server's job to detect collisions. I have attempted to send the server velocity changes, but I am having an issue where the server's position and the client's position begins to diverge because their clocks are not perfectly synchronized. So my question is, is it standard practice to send positions as the synchronized state between a client and server instead of a velocity vector? Will changing to synchronizing positions instead of velocities open my game up to cheating? Is there a better way to synchronize the players' states with the server? Also, if I use positions, doesn't that mean that the other players are going to be seen in a past state? Will that mean that the server might send a player killed message before the collision is visible to the player in the present?