recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Sound Effects Make the World Go Round!

## **The Snack:**

Sound effects, while a seemingly minor aspect of gameplay, can be pivotal in the level of cohesion and immersion a player experiences. And when I talk about sounds here, I mean the diegetic, in-world sounds of the game: things the actual character in the game would hear. So not music or audio cues separate from the in-game world. Paying attention to the small details of sound - the sound a door makes when opening versus shutting, what footfalls sound like on dirt versus cement, what various projectiles sound like when they hit various obstacles - is crucial to truly immersing a player in the world of the game. It is important to not only have sounds, but to make sure those sounds feel natural, that they belong and are happening when they are supposed to. Sounds can communicate a lot to a player, and if they are being used right, they can even communicate things about the game to the player. For instance, if a player is familiar with the sound of a door opening and closing, then hearing that out of context (i.e, when they haven't done anything to a door) can alert them to possible enemies or danger nearby. Or perhaps a sound indicates a puzzle being solved, like hearing a wall slide open to a secret passage after triggering the catch, even if the player isn't in sight of the wall opening.

## **Examples**:

Many games do a great job of fleshing out their worlds with sound. The game that came to mind for me was *Fallout 4*, though many other games could be substituted into this sentence.

**Example (not the author's one) 02**: In **Eternal Darkness** sound effects help to set the mood of the game (player's immersion) and also they make the player have feedback while hitting enemies, or they help the player know there is an useful object around him/her.
Know when to stop, where to stop...Good design of safe house with supplies

In action, adventure or arcade style games, it is very important to perform a well designed level design with putting safe houses that serve as a checkpoint and supply spot where player can save and resupply in game world, as well as relax and rethink in real world. It helps create a flexible game experience curve, making player feel nervous and eased in different time periods. The locations of safe house is based on the game experiences of numerous players to make sure that most players are able to get to the safe houses with little game resources(like ammo, hp,mp,etc).

## Examples

   Dead Space is a fiction, horror and adventure TPS video game. The player controls Issac Clarke, a ship systems engineer who must fight his way through a mining starship infested with an alien scourge, with different weapons and combat strategics. In this game, safe houses with resuplies are deliberately set, right where most players are in lack of ammo, feeling hard to continue and tired. In the safe houses, players can get ammo, charge the shields and save, also have a rest and rethink the game strategy or previous game experience. After a short rest, player will feel energetic and eager again to proceed.

Left for Dead 2

Every chapter of the game is broken up by reaching a safe house. It always contains fresh ammo for everyone and some health packs. There is often a new weapon in the safe house as well. This way the entire team can start at full health and ammo before continuing the next part of the journey. The game is also progressively difficult before reaching a safe house adding to the sensation of accomplishment when the entire team gets inside. They are then free to pause and breath before fighting more zombies.

## Final Fantasy XV

In Final Fantasy XV, many daemons roams the world during both day and night. The player is incentivised to not travel at night becasue the monsters that are out then are much stronger in level and tend to be very difficult for the player to defeat, especially in early game areas. In order to find safety, the player must seek out a campsite and set up their tent. Camping is also the only was to apply the experience players have gained from the day's battles. Camp sites provide the opportunity for players to eat food, giving their characters massive and varying buffs for the next day's journey. Due to the nature of the buffs and other bonuses players are given while camping, as well as the deadly nature of nocturnal daemons, the player is ever cautious not to find themselves stranded far from a campsite at dark.
Non-Linear Gameplay Lets Players Enjoy the Moment

Usually (but not always) there's some pressing issue that the player has to attend to:  a prince[ss] to save, an Amulet of Yendor to recover, a giant boss to fight..  Sometimes the resulting gameplay is coupled so tightly to the "plot" of a game that the player has no choice but to do what the game tells them to.  This isn't necessarily bad.. but it does mean that the player is always working towards a goal.

No introduce non-linear gameplay.  Non-linear gameplay is essentially when a player is allowed to choose their own objectives within the game environment. A player can choose to rush straight to the castle where the royal subject is being held captive or descend straight away into the dungeons where the Amulet is rumored to reside...  but the player can also choose to explore some other portion of the game world, play minigames, farm for rupees in tall grasses, or just take in the majestic environments that develpers created for them.

Ultimately, non-linear gameplay allows a player a choice:  they can rush to complete everything the game asks them to in the "main quest" or they can roam about and search for secrets within the world.  All-in-all, non-linear gameplay allows the player to choose what's important to them and to pursue that goal in particular.

## **Examples**

### **The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion**

In Oblivion, the player is first led through a "tutorial dungeon" in which they escape from a prison cell.  This dungeon teaches the player how to play the game in a discreet manner while simultaneously introducing the main plot:  Tamriel is in danger and it is up to the player to save it as the Emperor shall die before the player escapes the dungeon.  Once the player is out of the dungeon, though, all bets are off!

The player can choose to rush striaght to deliver the Emperor's Amulet to Jauffre.. or the player can explore the world, join the Mage's guild, the Theive's guild, or the Dark Brotherhood!  The player can do anything!  This allows players that want to complete the main quest to jump right to it.. or it allows others that want to hunt for Nirnroots to enjoy one of the most beautiful games of that decade.  No rush.

### **The Stanley Parable**

In *The Stanley Parable*, the path players are to follow and tasks they are to perform are dictated to them by an unseen narrator. But players have the option to do other things, things they weren't told to do, things that are opposite of what they were told to do. It is an excellent, almost satiric game which plays with the contrast between following the linear story-line or going off the beaten path.
Rushing Things to Enhance Gameplay

**Rushing things to enhance game play.**

Verbs and objects are important part of game play. Rules
should be implemented to guide player learning habits. This takes time and make
reduce pacing of game. In order to overcome this, creators add lot of objects
that were a part of later game play to make player more involved. This gives
additional advantage to player who may not be able to learn anything out of
this. Since, these object should be achieved and not just provided, player will
not appreciate that object. Although, this provides player an advantage, it
loses satisfaction or experience that should be important part of game play.

**Fallout 4 Power Armor**

During first couple of quest in the game, Player receives a
power armor that is an important aspect in game play. Power armor is equipped to
protect player from damage from bullets and falling, provides player additional
weapons to shoot any enemy. This has caused disruption in the game play and has
provided advantage to player. Player does not need to search waste lands to
find pieces of armor and then assemble at work bench to produce. This is
directly handed to player at beginning of game. This removes the satisfaction
of collecting pieces and making it yourself.

**Grand Theft Auto**

It is an open world action-adventure video games series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. In this, there is an entire range of artillery weapons available to the player from the beginning. This assumes that player knows which weapon is suited for which task or worse, lets the player use a really big weapon like a grenade launcher where a single skilled shot would have been sufficient. This does enhance experience of the player by giving more freedom but renders the different weapons and sequential tasks given to the player, pointless.

**Ark:Survive evolved**

It is an open world game that lets players survive in a world of dinosaurs. The annoying thing about this game is that the developers constantly pushes out new content and introduces new bugs. The developers didn't seem to fix the old bugs instead.
Lack of Cross Platform Support Reduces the Size of the Target Audience

In this day and age software has to be multi-platform to be competitive.  Major AAA titles are receiving desktop releases and console releases.  Popular game engines like Unity and Unreal have the options to build one version of a game for many, many platforms...  and yet some development companies continue to develop exclusively for one platform. This greatly limits how many players have access to their game and reduces the effective reach of their software.

Further, some companies release their game for multiple platforms. There's an XBox release, a PlayStation release.. and a Windows Release. Somewhere in there they forgot about other major operating systems: Mac OSX and the various flavors of Linux. Even more egregious is when they seem to notice Mac OSX (which is Unix based) and forget about all other Unix based operating systems.

This is especially problematic given a number of reasons:

* The tools to make crossplatform development easy and efficient are numerous.
* Major game distribution networks like Steam support Linux.
	+ Steam even has its own linux distro called "SteamOS" that it's pushing.
* Android, a competitor for the most used Operating System in the world, is built on linux.
* Some companies already jump through hoops to support Desktop and Console releases. The difference between a Windows build and a PlayStation build of a game is larger than the difference between a Windows build and a OSX build.

As such, the fastest way to ensure less people buy your game is to exclude popular platforms on which your game could be played. This becomes especially problematic for the game company that decides to release only a Windows build on Steam for their game as the number of games that support all three major platforms on Steam rises: players will choose to play what is available to them and the games that don't provide all the necessary support will find their titles selling less than they otherwise would.

## **Examples**

### **The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion**

This wonderful game is, sadly, not available for any desktop OS other than Microsoft Windows. Yet.. it is curiously available on the Play Station 3 and the Xbox 360. With the exception of the Xbox 360, the Play Station 3's internal architecture is undoubtedly more different from Windows than Windows is from any Unix based operating system. Ultimately, though, the game had to be compiled at least twice and using at least two different toolchains so the decision to not support any other desktop operating systems locks off players who would love to have a reason to purchase this game and play it again for old time's sake.. but can't due to portability constraints.
Narratively Utilize the Unexpected!

When telling a story in games it can be difficult to keep the player invested, especially if the game mechanics aren't revolutionary. When designing a narrative, don't be afraid to include unforeseen story elements. For this point I'm not talking about quick, small twists like Carmine getting sniped in the face in *Gears of War* (1) or all of the bait and switch tactics of *Borderlands 2*, but am instead referring to large, sweeping themes or mechanics that aren't commonly found among a game's genre. Taking the player in a direction they least expect to go can provide an extremely rewarding sense of diversity and novelty into the game.

## Examples

***Titanfall 2***: The campaign of *Titanfall 2* pulls off an exhilarating and novel form of time travel - a narrative (and in this case, mechanical) element not often - if ever - used in war-like shooting, "*Call of Duty*-esk"-games. After playing the first *Titanfall* and a slew of *Call of Duty* games, I began playing *Titanfall 2* with an idea in mind of what I was going to experience from the campaign due to all of the games having a shared design vocabulary. Once the game introduced its time traveling mechanic, a sci-fi element I didn't see coming at all, I was immediately more invested in the campaign due to the game's novelty and not feeling like a re-hash of its predecessors.
Many side missions, objectives and collectibles to achieve 100% completion

Many of the open world game these days have an excellent story-line and a variety of stuff to play and do in the game. But they also have these humongous list of side missions to complete, objectives to achieve and collectibles to collect. I agree that they add more to the game in terms of gameplay, but it would be far better if they were reduced and integrated into the story itself. Not all players have the luxury of time to complete such tasks and often they are left unfinished once the main story missions are completed.

### Examples

#### 1. Assassin's Creed III

The link here gives a comprehensive list of the objectives and missions you need to complete in order to achieve 100% completion in Assassin's Creed III.

#### 2. Batman Arkham City

There are tons of collectibles in the game and they are scattered all over the game world. Some of them are well hidden in places you would never see in normal gameplay. There are just too many question marks that it eventually became frustrating. Especially for players who want to complete all achievements, having to go to each question mark and solve puzzles over and over again is just boring and time consuming. This mechanism has nothing to do with replayability. It just exists to drive players crazy.
Too much customization in a class/job based game makes the design lose uniqueness

Class/job based roll playing games are design around the unique play style of each class/job. A good class/job based rpg can balance these different classes/jobs while maintaining the uniqueness of each of them. Customization can be beneficial to the class/job design allowing the player to add personal flavor to the game. However, too much customization of the classes/jobs can also harm the original design. For example, if a class is designed base on doing damage, and is allowed to customize the abilities to heal, then the need for the classes centered around healing is lost. One may argue that, this can balance the classes since none of them will be better than the others. Indeed, when the classes/jobs are balances by being able to do everything, the uniqueness of certain class/job will not be as obvious. By allowing a class to be customized to perform more roles than it was originally designed for, it can lose the the uniqueness of the original design.

## Examples:

### Final Fantasy Explorers

*Final Fantasy Explorers* is an action role-playing that allows the player to chose from the standard final fantasy jobs and weapon types in order to go out and hunt monsters. This game also allows the players to heavily customize their jobs: allowing casters to use each others spells and weapon user to use a lot of the same weapons and attacks. The player can also further customize these spells (mutations) and attacks in order to add extra effects on them, such as making a damaging spell heal over time or a defensive ability to inflict damage. All of these customization options make a lot of classes played similarly or being able to perform the roles that was designed for certain classes originally.
Overpowered characters - makes the player feel cheated

The balancing of characters has become a full time job for a lot of game designers. That being said there are still a lot of characters that make it in to games that do not play fair. When a character is overpowered it becomes obvious very quickly.this is true regardless of whether that character is playable or none playable. These characters usually break the game as it was intended. when they do this it takes the player out of the game and can cause enough frustration for the player to quit.

Example: **007 Golden Eye**

 In the Golden Eye multi player a common strategy for players was to crouch while they ran through the levels. This was a good strategy because it put the players hit box lower to the ground decreasing the amount of area their opponents had to shoot them. One character became overpowered when they used this strategy. that Character was Oddjob. He was a midget and so when he crouched his hit box became the smallest in the game by a large margin.

**Dynasty Warriors**

Dynasty Warriors is a tactical action video games. The player plays as one of the "Heros" and tries to claim territories as much as they can. However, the heroes are way too over powered. In other words, it is a grass cutting simulator. The enemy soldiers are weak enough that you can take 10+ of them at the same time with one swipe of the blade which the hero uses.
Mechanics That Only Show Up Once

As we play games, we develop a rhetoric of useful verbs that define the type of game that we are playing. These verbs form expectations of what's to come next in the game (am I going to jump, shoot, accelerate, etc.). But there have occasionally been games that decide to include missions or modes that introduce verbs that are very different from what has been established throughout the rest of the game. To make things worse these activities might not appear often (or else they would be associated with the game genre's main verbs). This colossal shift in game language can cause a disturbance in game flow and can commonly be seen as an unnecessary impediment to the core game.

**Examples:**

***Life is Strange:*** The entire game has the player solving 3-D time puzzles until nearly the end when it introduces a new type of puzzle that uses new types of mechanics. Episode 4's "Board/Clue Puzzle" has the player navigating and selecting 2-D items in an attempt to find matching clues. Nowhere else in the game is this style of play utilized since it contradicts much of the previously established gameplay - it's 2-D, the player never uses their rewind power (the main theme of the game), and the player is navigating static pieces of information as opposed to the game's otherwise ample object interaction. Because of these reasons, it feels jarring and intrusive to the game's core gameplay.

**Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core:** Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core is an action RPG about fast pace fighting and leveling up. Though it is slightly different from the other games in its series Crisis Core it is still an RPG at heart and not a stealth game. Yet despite this Crisis Core has an incredibly annoying stealth section in the game that is only used once. It is worthless to the narrative and the pacing of the game. Stealth is not a verb that I would associate with Final Fantasy yet there are many Final Fantasy games that attempt stealth sections briefly and they all seem to fall flat. Stealth completely rivals what a Final Fantasy game is.
Open world exploration helps the player to connect game with the reality

Open world prevents the use of invisible walls and load screens which are common in linear level based games. This gives the player the ability to do stuff at their will rather than doing task after task. In the real world, people love to explore any distant object like a mountain, skyscraper roof, aerial view from a helicopter and so on. When a game offers similar setting, people can connect the experience with reality by trying stuff which they wanted to do in the real world. Though this might sound like adding complexity to both design and engineering, modern engineering techniques have found a breakthrough through the procedural generation of the environment and design principles balancing freedom of exploration with a narrative storyline.

## Examples

### #1 Assasins Creed

Assasins Creed came up with the concept of exploring the open world in a historical setting. It placed the player in different timelines which intertwined factual historical data with the game's fictional storyline. AC was the first game which provided complete interaction over the environmental objects like climbing to any possible roof, jumping from rooftops, hiding inside objects in an open world. In 2007, this experience was huge as games at that time imposed many restrictions on a free world, and hence AC created a new benchmark for the open world games.
Western Europe and Mediterranean (Representative World Cup)

**Note:** Please do not edit or alter this page unless you have permission from the pages' author(s).
Some *minor* grammar and spelling fixes are allowed if you find any errors of this type.

* France
* Luxembourg
* Belgium
* Netherlands
* Italy
* San Marino
* Andorra
* Spain
* Portugal
 Confederation
 Head coach
 Captain

**Western Europe and Mediterranean** national football team, or simply **Europe**, is the men's football team that has represented France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, San Marino, Andorra, Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar in Representative World Cup.

**Europe** team became the finalist for twice, in 2009 and 2013, but was losed to Great Britain and Nordic Union. The captain of the team is Spanish midfielder, Andres Iniesta, who played for Barcelona.
Main path isn't distinguished from side paths.

Games often have side quests or hidden parts of their games. Players can be confused when they encounter a split in the path and don't know which one is which. Some players want to complete everything possible and seek out the hidden rooms. If they ended up choosing the main path instead of the secret one they'll often be forced to backtrack to the fork in the path. Then once completing the side quest, backtrack again through the area they'd already gone. This frustrates players who otherwise would have delighted in a secret room.

Example: Trine 2

Many secret rooms and pathways exist in Trine 2. Sometimes it's not clear which path leads to the next part of the story and which is just for bonus points. Navigating the levels can be difficult if there are enemies, and pushing through one path only to realize that the path not taken was the shorter bonus path can be frustrating. The paths should be clearer when it's a quick side path.

**Morrowind**

In Morrowwind the main quest chain starts at the very beginning as it should. But, when you get off that boat and go through what your character looks like and the attributes you want, the main story kind of becomes ambiguous. The quests in this game are all recorded in the players journal. Quests are not categorized as Main or side quests. On top of not knowing what quests is the main quest, there is an item you are given that you need to give to an NPC in order to move on with the quest chain. This item can be lost or destroyed which in turn breaks your involvement with the main story.

**Destiny**

Destiny has so many different directions and options that the main story or plot of the game gets lost. So much so that a player could easily become confused to whether there is a main story or if the game is designed just for battling against their peers. The game is so convoluted the player can never tell which is the main direction of the game or if they are doing something that is unimportant to the main point.
Lack of Avatar Increases Empathy

While having an avatar within a game does have its advantages, developers often forget the upsides of having no avatar at all. Even in most first person games the player controls a character that, despite the developer's possible efforts to make the character a blank slate, the aesthetic distance between player and game is still made tangible by said avatar. Games that do not have a visual representation of the player’s character command that it be the player who performs the important actions rather than their character. In so doing, the aesthetic distance is mostly removed and the player then feels that they themselves slayed the dragon or cheated on their wife.

## Example: Papers, Please

In *Papers, Please*, the player is a border patrol officer for the pseudo-communist country of Arstotzka. Aside from the occasional short cutscene, there is no avatar for the player, not even hands or arms from the first person perspective. In so doing, the player is forced to fulfill, or decline, the role of border patrol; the player lets immigrants in or turns them away, separating families. In doing this, the player easily feels empathy for these characters and, without an avatar to blame their actions on, the player themselves feels guilt when the secrecy service remove a would be immigrant and execute them due to the player declining their forged passport.
Poor ammo system leads the player to frustration

**Shooting games are a popular kind of games nowadays. The pace**
and mechanics of those also rely on how do they deal with the ammo system. Do they need to reload or is it infinite shooting? Do they have a cool down between shots? Do they have to find new cartridges or it is only time-based reloading? There are so many choices involved that could change completely the player experience. If the game has a poor ammo system, the experience is going to be affected, and even the immersion. Probably the best way to deal with it is first deciding the pace of the game and play testing the available options to achieve the desired results.

**EXAMPLE 01 (author's): Mass Effect 2**

ME2 was one of the games that had the hardest feedback about the ammo system changes I heard of (check the video bellow: less than 1 minute but pretty much the summary of players nonacceptance about the changes on top of the ammo system). Having thermal clips instead of limited (or unlimited) ammo upset a lot of players, it broke immersion and the mechanics didn't feel right. On option is that thermal clips mechanic actually was bad, but another option is the fact that ME already had an audience to care for and this audience felt the game feeling changed drastically, driving the game to a bad review. Either way, it shows the importance of how the ammo system can impact the game,and therefore the players.

## Example 2: Resident Evil 5

In final stage of the *Resident Evil 5* the player required to have certain amount of bullets and if he didn't reach the stage with the proper amount, he couldn't defeat the boss. Even after restarting form the last saved checkpoint player will get the same or less amount of bullets in the final stage to defeat the boss. The only break in this loop - is to play the game from the first mission and saving the bullets to defeat the boss. It signifies the poor management of the bullet by designers and failure in portraying the message to the player from the start to manage their ammunition.
Steady Progression Across a Series – Good for the Story Ark

When creating sequels in a series where you play as the same character it may be difficult to know how to deal with character progression from one game to another. Some games go for the “you forgot everything, and now you have to start over from zero!” Approach, like in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. But what is most effective is when a game can make the player feel simultaneously as if they are starting a new experience, but yet are also continuing from the progress they made in the previous games. Allowing the player to feel as if they are continuing their progress helps them to feel that what they accomplished in the last game was meaningful, and it helps the player feel more immersed in the story.

### **Example #1 Mass Effect 3**

Mass Effect 3 is a great example of this as experience carries over from one game to another. However, even starting a new game with no carry over from Mass Effect 2 the game still starts the player off with a solid base of experience points, helping them feel as if they are merely picking back up, a couple of months from where they left off, and allowing them to expand their abilities even further from the previous game while still giving them a number of new abilities to learn.
Item wheels – Lets the player choose quickly

It can become a problem when games have many items or weapons to choose from. Many games fix this by having item wheels or weapon wheels that pop up on the screen and allow the player to quickly choose their weapon from the choices on there. This eliminates the time that the player has to pause the game, go through their inventory, and pick out which weapon they want. For example, Red Dead Redemption has a very easy to use weapon wheel, and it allows the player to cycle through the choices very quickly. This allows to the player to spend less time in their inventory and more time in the action of the game.

## Examples

### Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess is the first Zelda game to uses a item wheel (it then returns in Skyward Sword). Previously in the series, you were forced to pause and switch your item in your menu, which got fairly tedious when you had to flip through menu screens to find the item screen.

### Doom 4

Doom is a fast-paced first-person shooter game where players constantly change weapons to fight against enemies. Instead of pressing number keys, The weapon wheel in Doom gives players a faster option to choose weapons from.

### Prototype 2

In prototype 2 the power wheel quickly lets you choose between all your available powers during any fight. It proves very helpful when changing your attack-style mid-fights without breaking your immersion in to the game.
Making a Game More Accessible – Allows for a More Inclusive Game for All Players to Enjoy

Making a Game More Accessible – Allows for a More Inclusive Game for All Players to Enjoy

Most video games leave out many groups of people with disabilities. Whether it be someone who is color blind, blind, hearing impaired, etc. they are an audience that has not been as catered to as they should be. Many developers do not use their resources and take the extra time to figure out how to incorporate ways to enrich the playing experience for players with disabilities. Developers that do find ways to cater to these groups are not only just doing the right thing for their players, they can use it as way to gain positive press to promote their games. This can be achieved by finding clever uses for haptic feedback, sound, or shying away from using only color to identify elements of the game.

Example #1

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

This game allows a toggle option of a “color blind assist” mode. This removes a lot of the color dependent visual cues and allows players who are color blind to be on a more even playing field with the rest of the player base. Specifically, it made sure that players could not get their teammates mixed up with enemy players due to the color of their names blending into the background.
Multiple story-lines in a game: players have a chance to decide how the story will become

In general, players play the same game will have the same story and same final result. Multiple story-lines is that the players can make some decision to decide how the story in games will become. Also, players can do some sub-tasks to see an extra story or have an additional benefit.

**Example:**

Blood Will Tell: Dororo

The game is divided into nine parts, and each part has a main fiend that player must fight against. However, the players have to look for where the other fiends were by themselves. The final result depends on the sequence of how the players fight against the fiends.

Undertale

The video game: *Undertale* is all about giving the player choices. From the beginning of the game, you have the choice to either kill the monsters or talk your way out of battles. Both of these paths have consequences that you learn about while playing the game but they will each lead you on a different path.
Slowly Teach the Player

The number of mechanics in a single game can become quite large and can become overwhelming for a player if they are told about too many of them too quickly. This is why it is a good idea to give the player one or two mechanics at a time. Give the player time to use the mechanic and learn how and when to use it. Give them time to learn how to use the mechanic in combination with previous mechanics given. This process will help the player get accustomed to each mechanic individually and learn the dynamics of the mechanics when used together.

Example #1: Portal 2

Portal 2 does an excellent job with teaching the player how to play the game. The player starts out with learning how to jump. Then the player learns how to pick up objects and set them down to solve puzzles. Then the player is given a portal gun with control over a single portal, then eventually given control over the second portal. The game continues to introduce the player to new mechanics until the player is fully educated on all of them and knows how to use them. The player is even challenged to use mechanics together in order to progress in the game.

Example#2: Tiger Knight: Empire War

The gameplay of Tiger Knight: Empire War is quite complicated. In the game, players have to control an avatar, which can attack or defend enemies with different angles and have to command their soldiers. The game gives players an very specific tutorial for players to learn how to play the game step by step. For example, at beginning, players learn how to use a sword to attack enemies. If players finish the first step, they can learn how to use sword to attack enemies when they are riding (move faster so is harder to attack the enemies). Players have to finish tutorials step by step. If they do not pass the tutorials, they can not go to the next levels. This design makes beginners can completely understand how to play the game.
Locked levels gets the player curious and pushes him to play the game and unlock them.

Some games require the player to unlock new sets of levels/ maps in order to progress forward. This creates a sense of curiosity in the player when he realizes that some part of the game is locked and this motivates him to play the game and unlock these levels/maps. By doing this the player will have a clear goal in his mind and he will set out to accomplish these goals.

**Examples**:

GTA San Andreas

In GTA San Andreas, some areas of the map will be locked in the game initially. If the player tries to enter these locked areas, he will be gunned down by the police. The only way the player can unlock these areas is by progressing in the story and completing all the missions. By doing this, he can unlock the new area and explore the new city that he just unlocked. This instills a sense of achievement in the player and he is motivated to unlock other levels in the game.

Rayman Origins

In Rayman Origins, progression demands that players unlock new sets of levels by completing the sets already available to them. They can also unlock a bonus area and boss by collecting all of the Skull Teeth, which are available in separate speed-focused levels. The player is driven to finish all of the levels and collect all of the Skull Teeth by their curiosity of what new places they may get to explore if they do so. This element of mystery aids in the progression of the game, as it helps to keep the player engaged.
Keep The Main Character's Appearance Ambiguous - Players Can Project Themselves Onto The Character, Creating A Deeper Connection With The Game

Many games try to establish the main character by giving them defining traits, personality and appearance. But let's look at what happens when a game does the opposite. Having a faceless protagonist lets the player project themselves into the character of the protagonist. This makes it easier for the player to connect with the game and the sense of immersion is easier to achieve. What is the easier to relate to? A huge, well built dude who speaks with a gruff voice, or a character in a suit who's face is never shown.

## Examples

### Metroid

Metroid is the perfect example for the silent and ambiguous protagonist. Throughout the whole game the player controls the character Samus without ever thinking about who that is. Regardless of gender the player is able to easily imagine themselves in the place of Samus. It is not until the end of the game that Samus is actualy revealed.
Moving Units Effectively (RTS)

In real time strategy games the player is commonly tasked with moving their units constantly. In the olden days of RTS games (Dune, Warcraft I, etc) players would first have to select a hotkey and then left click on the ground in order to move their units to that location. This was not only an extra time consuming step but also intimidate new players in the genre that were not yet use to hotkeys. In order to cater to newer players and also speed up user actions new RTS games have adopted the right click movement control. Now players can either chose to use the old method of hotkeys and left click or simply right click on the ground to move units to that location. With this feature added most RTS games can be played using just the mouse alone.

## Example

### Wacraft III: Reign of Chaos

In Warcraft 3 the player can select a unit by left clicking and then right click on the ground to move them. This allows the player the ability to quickly input multiple move commands as compared to pressing a hotkey and then left clicking.

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### StarCraft II

StarCraft II is another RTS game which allows you to move units effectively.  You are able to box select units, right click to move, hot key + click to attack or perform special abilities.  You can also set up control groups that you can recall by simply pressing a key.  StarCraft II also allows you to queue commands for units.  This allow a player to better multitask and focus on multiple aspects of the game at once.
Seamless Integration in Gameplay

Seamless integration of other players in single player campaign decreases the distinction between single player and multiplayer. It adds to the immersive nature of the game. It also helps in keeping the player engrossed in the game for longer duration of time and increases the element of surprise in the game. This in turn makes the game alluring and realistic to play.

### Examples

#### 1.Watch Dogs

In Watch Dogs, other players can hack and install a virus to your in-game smartphone at any time. When this happens, you’ll be alerted with an on-screen message and virus installation percentage. As it increases, you must use your smartphone’s Profiler app to find the hacker.Hackers appear in your game as regular NPCs. Though the person playing the hacker is actually Aiden Pearce in their game.

#### 2. GTA: V

   Personally, I thought GTA V's integration of the smartphone was well done. It solved the "inventory and main menu" problem by using the popular smartphone for the mechanic to keep it in theme and unobtrusive. The fact that the phone just barely slips into view out of the corner of your eye is also an attest to how smartphones may be peripheral, but can require front and center attention to maneuver when doing particularly engaging tasks like driving a car.
Random Scoring Factor Decreases Sense of Achievement

In order to have a good sense of achievement, the player has to know exactly how to do better in the game. The player has to know the reasons behind a bad score or a good one. If the algorithm behind the scoring is too obscure, player would become frustrated because she has no idea how to get better.

Example:

**Game Dev Tycoon**

Game Dev Tycoon is a game where the player starts her own game company in the 80's and progresses over time as new devices are developed etc. The player has to choose a game genre to make and come up with a game name. The game would then be reviewed by several game magazines and go on market. The player makes profits by selling copies. In the game, there is no way to control the quality of the game being developed. Only the genre, name and platform is being determined by the player. So the magazine reviews would come across quite random and the copies sold seem even more random. This is not a good experience and is not motivational to the player.
Seemingly significant features in puzzle games turn out to be meaningless

For puzzle games or games incorporating puzzle solving elements, players tend to take "hints" seriously. They pay more attention to observing the environment and try to learn as much as they can through interaction with the game. Some elements in a puzzle game may seem to be significant; they capture a lot of attention from the player. However, they turn out to have minimal impact in solving the puzzle. This ineffective learning is frustrating, especially when solving puzzles .

Example:

Little Inferno is a game where the player burns all kinds of stuff in a fireplace. The player uses money to buy objects to burn from the "categories". Burning objects earns various amount of money. If the player burns two or three objects together that happen to form a "combo", that combo turns into stamps. Moreover, certain number of combos are required to gain a new category, which is how the player proceeds through stages of the game. The combos are given implicit names, such as "Watching You". So the most significant puzzle solving in the game is to figure out what the combo is and burn it. However, the game has its setting in a neighborhood. So occasionally, the player gets mails from the neighbor, sometimes asking or sending package, but more often, chit-chatting. The player has no way to add dialogues, just clicking through the whole mail.

I think the neighbor feature is a good way to add interaction in the game with other characters. But the features would have to be more engaging in order to add to positive gameplay experience. Since this mail feature is so irrelevant to the core game and pops up randomly, it disturbs immersion for the player.

Below is a screenshot of a typical "random" mail.
Trying to put too Much Complexity into a Mobile Game can make for a Frustrating Experience

As mobile game become more and more popular, many popular AAA titles are creating titles for the mobile. This can be a good thing, as popular
games move to mobile. It can help to stabilize some AAA titles that might be
struggling on other devices. But when games try to keep the complex aspects of
their game, while trying to fit everything into the small space that is available
to mobile games, it can create a frustrating experience for gamers as they try
to navigate a much smaller space.

 Example: **Sim City-Build It**

Sim City is very complex and huge AAA simulator with many
games under their name. That complexity is a big part of their game and franchise.
But their mobile game, while trying to keep the original feel and complexity of
the larger game, can make for a frustrating experience. Movement and menus are
hard to navigate on the mobile device. Mix this with a small and hard to manage UI can make the game a frustrating experience.
Offering Rewards for Optional Ad-Viewing Positively Reinforces Integrated Monetization

## Snack

Games that implement monetization often use monetization in an aggressive manner, either by forcing the player to watch ads with the option of paying to go ad-free or by making it a requirement to access certain content. This type of implementation essentially takes the player hostage and makes them feel impatient, disconnected from the experience, and cynical towards the game creators.

By offering additional rewards or currency the player can access elsewhere in the game in exchange for watching an ad, the developer is giving the player a choice, both with positive outcomes. One, the player can refuse the offer and continue playing the game. Two, the player can watch the ad because of the in-game incentive, and may watch more ads in the future because of the positive reinforcement and freedom of choice. The experience of watching ads isn’t forced and doesn’t require anything from the player. Instead of the player making the compromise, the developer is the one making the compromise, but one that is beneficial to them in the return on positive reputation while theoretically getting similar monetization results.

==

Examples ==

### *Crossy Road*

*Crossy Road* never requires the player to watch ads, and uses this exact system of monetization. The player can earn extra coins by watching an ad, which they can use to purchase new characters. The coins can be earned elsewhere in the game, but as the sole resource in the game, the player is motivated to earn more each opportunity they get. The game has no currency store either, so ads are its only online form of monetization (they do have a merchandise store, though). The player has the choice to play the game as long as they want without ads, but is likely to watch an ad if they wish to earn characters as fast as possible.
Limiting Replayability with Old Saves

When a player progresses through a game that focuses on replayability, but does not allow the player to replay levels based on their progression, it can discourage the player from playing previous levels. Only being able to reload a level based on an old save with old items, gear, and skills, can be quite a disappointment when the player really wants to go back through the game with all of their customized abilities from end-game. Once a player completes a game that focuses on replayability, they have the desire to go back to previous levels with all their strength and glory, but by not allowing them to go back with their in-depth skill tree and talents they took so long to acquire (from end-game levels), the replayability aspect can feel lackluster to the player.

## Examples

### **Dishonored**

In*Dishonored,*the game design is built around replaying levels and choosing to complete them in a variety of ways (killing enemies, never being seen, etc.). Once the player completes the game, they are encouraged to replay past levels because of achievements and additional rewards based on playstyle. The issue is exposed when the player replays a level, but realizes they have to reload an old save with weaker gear and skills than what they had when the completed the game. The player may feel cheated because of all the time they spent upgrading armor and items, as well as choosing talents in their skill tree.
Subtle use of light/color can helps guide players to their destination

When designing levels developers must always be mindful of how the player will interact in that environment. Complicated environments can easily become a frustrating experience for the player if they find themselves hopelessly lost. Rather than breaking the immersion of the game by having to resort to a minimap or a nav point system, developers can simply use clever lighting or use some distinct colors. Players will naturally be drawn to an area that seems different to the rest of their surroundings, so a simple spotlight or maybe the use a some brighter contrast colors will catch the players eye and drawn them in that direction.

### **Example 1: Left 4 Dead**

Left 4 Dead was a game based on classic horror movie tropes, and as such borrowed heavily from lighting principles used in those types of films. The developers used these lighting principles not only create the very dark and terrifying atmosphere but also as a means to help guide the player where they needed to go. A bright light in the distance or some bright yellow police tape could be used to guide the players eyes towards where the developers intended for them to go. The headlights of the car below naturally guide the player down the intended path all the while leaving the other paths available for the player to explore if they feel so inclined.