recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Platform Outline Colors Can Dramatically Increase Readability

It's common for artists to want to do outlines of objects in black. However, too many black outlined objects on screen can make it more difficult for the player to tell what's going on, which objects are important, and what they need to pay attention to. Instead of using black, try different colors. For example, try using red to outline objects that are in the foreground, and blue to outline objects in the background. It does not have to be a dramatic color, just a slightly off-black color can make a large difference.

## Metroid Fusion

Metroid Fusion uses different colored outlines to differentiate platforms from objects in the background. The foreground platforms here have red outlines instead of black ones, causing them to appear closer to the player's eyes. Not all objects in this image are outlined in different colors, though. The crumble block in the top left corner has a black outline, but that gives it a nice contrast to the red outlined platforms next to it.
Player Goals in MMO – Keeps the Player Motivated

Grinding in MMO can take the fun out of the game, but giving the player goals that are level based can stop the repetitive feeling. If the world in an MMO is populated with random enemies a good strategy that some MMO’s use is to make those enemies different level of difficulties. The new players can only defeat a handful of enemies first, but with every level they gain, they can take on a stronger enemy. It creates a loop, the stronger the enemy  means more experienced gained, but the higher level the player needs to be.  It gives the player a goal to level up too while keeping them challenged since they will have enemies on the same level and above as them. Adding locations, bosses, dungeons of varying difficulties gives the player another goal to accomplish. They will want to keep exploring the world if it is challenging enough for them.
Secret Rooms: Provides the player a spark of intrigue leading to curiosity

Including secret rooms throughout the game flow that allow for hints of storyline and character development can pull the player deeper into the game experience. Secret rooms can be hinted to players early in the game in a way that is subtle and encourage them to look for other clues during progression. The content of the secret rooms can hold a variety of opportunities to leave messages for the player. This can include hints into the storyline, characters, game world, and even provide small rewards such as extra currency or items. Secret rooms encourages the player to step out of the game world and explore the game community to find more secret rooms and purpose of hidden locations.

## Examples

### **Inside**

In the game *Inside*, the game designers provide a secret room for each level that provides additional content in regards to the story progression. They achieve this by leaving a subtle hint for players in the form of a yellow wire, which contrasts to the rest of the art scheme which is mostly dark grays, browns, and blacks. When a secret room is found, the player finds an object to interact with and once all secret rooms are unlocked, a secret ending is revealed. This provides another level of storyline depth that the player would otherwise have missed, and encourages the player to search for answers within the game community.

**Dark Souls**

The designers of the Dark Souls trilogy love to add secret areas to their games. These areas can be single rooms that contain chests full of rare gear or they can be entire zones that add to the mystery that is the Dark Souls story. Because darksouls was built to be played in an almost free roam style. the designers placed items as a kind of bread crumb led path of where they wanted to player to go. As the player navigates the path

from shiny item to item they will come across some items they can not reach. This sparks curiosity and enforces the desire to explore more of the areas. Once the player has found one secret area they will continue to looking for more.

**Shovel Knight**

 There are secret treasure troves behind hidden walls in Shovel Knight. These rooms are market by small abnormalities in the level, which the player needs to look out for. This design idea adds lots of flavor to gameplay, because players are always on the hunt for more treasure, and to find all of the secret areas in the game. Although these areas are not necessary to complete the game, they add a layer of interest for players going through the game again.
Too Many Ads – Interrupting Mobile Gameplay

Mobile games use ads to generate revenue for their games. Some developers put their ads in places in their mobile games where it becomes disrupting to, for example, in Geometry Dash, the ads in the mobile app occur about every third loss of a game. This can get jarring for the player because Geometry Dash involves the players losing the game a lot. It becomes frustrating when the player accidently hits the ad a repeated number of times. Badly placed ads in mobile games can cause the player anger and eventually they will stop playing the game altogether.

## Examples

**Flappy Bird**

Actually, there are lot of games have in game ads, especially some of free play games. Some ads in Flappy Bird are video and the player has to watch the whole 10 second ad in order to keep playing the game. The playing experience really not that good.

**2048**

Because most of the games are developed by Indie developers,games like 2048 are fun to play and also free to play. However, ads do pop up very often after ending a round. Sometimes it is annoying that you misclick the close button and the ads will direct you to a website and tell you to download some more apps.

**Give it up 2:**

Give it up 2 is a mobile game which is available both on android and ios system. It's generally an interesting game but there are often ads showing up when players failed the game. Sometimes when players lose a game, they will eager to retry immediately. However, if an ad comes out at this time, players will go into their website and lose the continuous exciting feeling, so it's really frustrating for players.

**Trivia Crack**

Trivia Crack is a social game on mobile platforms. Its interface is also highly populated with advertisements. In addition to the ads that are present in the home screen, there are also full screen pop-ups that are generated every time the player loses their turn. This compounds the negative feelings resulting from the player’s failure. Some of these are video ads that require a few seconds before the player can close them. Overall, the player is left with a negative experience upon closing the game, which does not incentivize them to return.
Multi tiered loot rarities - adds replayability for completionists

This is a system that has been around for quite awhile. It is almost a staple in any dungeon crawler that has been made in the last 20 years. The common system for loot in these games is to vary the quality of an item by how rare that item is. This is good design because it solves multiple problems that a designer could have when making a dungeon crawler. The first problem it solves is it gives you as the designer more control of balancing for different zones in games. If players find a specific area difficult. You can increase the drop chance of stronger weapons in that area or the one before it. If one zone of the game is less traveled. Add a rare item to that zone to increase player traffic. The biggest function this system offers is that it gives the players a scale for the items they have. This is great because if a person doesn't have the best or rarest item from the area they have just completed, it gives them reason to go back and try and find the better items.

Example:

World of Warcraft uses this systems and benefits from it greatly. In WoW players will go back and solo instances and raids that have existed for more than 10 years. They will do this week after week with the soul purpose of looting a rare item that looks different from other items.
Overly punishing consequences in games - force the player to restart or leave the game.

Finding the balance of how difficult a game needs to be in order to keep the player engaged can be very hard as a designer. One thing a designer can do in games is make their players decisions meaningful and have consequence. This makes the player understand that what they are doing matters. A consequence mechanic can give the player a sense of ownership of the game. Some designers go to far and make the consequence to great. Permanent death or loss of an item can be to much for the player to handle. In most cases a player will roll back on a save when they have done something that has resulted badly for them. This type of thing has to be counter to what the designer had in mind.

## Examples:

### **Ghost Recon**

In some of the earlier ghost recons players are enticed to play mission on higher difficultly so that they can unlock special characters. These characters are heroes from current and past wars. Each hero has special traits and are buffed higher then common heroes. If the player chooses to play as one of these heroes and then dies that hero that they spent time to unlock is gone from the game. Permanent death for a reward item/character in a game is too harsh. This makes the player not want to play as the new character they just got for fear of losing them.

### **Pixel Dungeon**

*Pixel Dungeon* is a rogue-like game in the same vein as *Nethack.* It is a dungeon exploration game which forces players to progress through a series of ever-more-difficult levels to reach the bottom dungeon and claim victory. While doing this, players level up and acquire new items and accessories to help them in their quest. The game is designed to be difficult, and the difficulty of rogue-like games such as this is understood. Sadly, this difficulty can quickly turn casual players away from trying the game beyond a couple playthroughs. The game is very hard. If you die, you die. There are no saves, do overs, or repeats. You must start a new game as a new character every time, no matter how far you progressed. The fact that you will die and die often is actually expected for those who play such games, but it is not immediately obvious to a new player, and can cause frustration and avoidance of the game entirely.
Player waypoint/guidance system turning off randomly – confuses player

Using guidance or way point systems can be extremely helpful to players in an open world setting. The can be a detriment to the player when they are shutting off in the middle of levels. Consistency in when the system is active and when it is not is necessary for smooth game play and avoiding confusing the player at pivotal points of the game. Having hard rules for the system will make expectations for the level understood and may force the player to play more intuitively rather than form a dependency.

**Mirror's Edge: Catalyst:**

Mirror's Edge uses a waypoint system that highlights aspects of the environment to help the player run through the level and get from point a to point b. This even carries over into main levels which is helpful when the player is required to cross the whole map. However, there are points in the levels, generally when the player is trapped in a building and enemies are after them and they need to escape that this system shuts off. At this point the player is left to figure it out. There is inconstancy as to when this system shuts off during levels and when it doesn't. It makes it hard for the player to play an route out of the level.
No quick save or no pause game can get really frustrating.

The "save game" option in games has been in argument since a really long time. I exactly don't understand why the designers choose not to go with on demand save option. Maybe they just want the player to suffer from the disappointments they had planned for the player. Some designers like to go with the auto save or the check point feature but what if there's a checkpoint just before the boss and you hit the checkpoint with a really low health? You have no option but to restart the level. Auto save and checkpoints are also useful but they also lead to deadlocks sometime.

Example:

Rainbow Six Vegas.

Quite a few people had hate for the checkpoint system in Rainbow Six Vegas and called it a negative feature. Primarily because of the frustration of having to repeat the same actions over again until a particularly challenging point was overcome. Also if you cross the checkpoint when you have low health or ammo that became a really big problem for players
Mutiplayer system

Multiplayer gaming will provide more exciting game experience than a single player. It requires player to fight with other players. The game is going to have more competition than a player play alone. That will make the game more enjoyable rather than lose interesting. In addition, Online multiplayer force player have communications with other individual player in order to complete a challenge together. That will improve player social communication skills.
No EXP/Levels in Turn Based RPGs – Makes Combat Pointless

Turn Based RPGs have a lot of filler combat in them that do
not necessarily increase a player’s skill at the game. A lot of these battles
serve as a way for the player to increase the stats of their character, making
some of the more challenging fights manageable. If these enemy encounters do
not provide any level up equivalent nor make a player better at the game, then
combat has become completely pointless. Players do not want to be stopped every
second by random enemies for no reason at all.

Examples:

Paper Mario: Color Splash has been nailed by critics as
having a combat system with few rewards. While the overall gameplay was seen as
solid, battles yielded no formal experience points used for level ups. This
game tried to work around leveling up by having battles reward the player with
item drops that can increase the amount of paint a player carries. Paint is
used during combat to make attacks deal more damage to enemies. But the issue
is that a player’s paint is very easy to refill making increased paint storage
an extremely weak replacement to a classic RPG level up.
Repetitive Puzzle Design

Forcing the player to repeat puzzles that they technically already completed before can become boring for the player, and be seen more as a chore. Utilizing similar mechanics is important to teach the player, but by using the same exact puzzle design for multiple levels or points of progression, the player sees through the lack of creativity of the designers and begins to ask "why are you making me do this?" It is not a good idea to just re-skin puzzle design with different colors in the hope the player won't notice.

## Examples

**The Talos Principle**

In *The Talos Principle*, the designers too often use the same puzzle design between levels and to accomplish repetitive tasks. For example, once the player collects enough puzzle pieces, they can open doors and portals to new locations, but the puzzle design is almost always the same; fit the puzzle pieces into the board until all pieces fit the board perfectly. At first, this design is accepted by the player when they only have to use four or five puzzle pieces on a board, but later on the puzzle design becomes more of a frustration when each board uses eight to twelve puzzle pieces. The issue is not the increase in puzzle pieces, but more so that the exact same puzzle design is re-skinned in just a larger board without any new elements.

**Zero Time Dilemma**

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma has a few repeating puzzles, of which, a couple of them never really iterate on the original design. One puzzle in particular (similar to the puzzle above), is repeated about four different times in the game, each time just giving it a different skin. This leaves the player bored after completing it a couple of times.
Overdevelopment - Too much nonesense

Producing titles that work in a series require the developers to come up with new and exciting controls and game elements that are intended to enhance the player experience. However in many of these attempts developer tend to get carried away with superfluous ideas that don't better the game but actually muddle it more and take away from what made the game fun in the beginning. A lot of sports games dive deep into this rabbit hole with needing to produce a new game every year and a hook to sell their product.

Example: Madden

Since the inception of the Madden games the developers have been attempting to make the game more and more realistic but in recent years have taken this too far. By adding things like the quarter backs cone of vision, advanced playbooks, player controls of the characters have all but made the game a better experience. They may have made the game for life like but as a result the play-ability of the game has gone down and most gamers have relied on the ability to turn the controls back to a simpler version. This along with additions of the ability to create portions of fans and other unnecessary has taken madden from its roots.
Reset rank points gives players new beginning in new season

Ranking reset design was commonly used in nowadays competition games. By dividing time period into seasons, the game can offer different gameplay in certain different time. A ranking reset can also give players new beginnings and new goals. For players who are in low ranking level, this is a great chance to restart the competition, and for players who are in high ranking level, they are willing to test their ability in new season, too. It plays an important role in recalling players back into the game and gives a reason for players to start the game.

### Examples: League of Legends

League of Legends was the first game I met that have clear concept about seasons and ranking reset in different seasons. Ranking reset is an essential step for Riot to plan for new season. Since League of Legends relies greatly on balance and update its version frequently, it has versatile gameplay in different season. The reset of ranking score can greatly encourage players to try new champions and experience new game mechanisms.
Switching music tracks on common actions is annoying

## Bad Snack

Sound design in games is important. If you have music in your game, make sure that each track of music plays at appropriate times. It's important that each music track fade into and out of each other at appropriate times and not too often, or else it can be incredibly jarring. If you want context-sensitive music, it's better to have sound channels that layer on top of each other instead of switching tracks completely.

## Example: Xenoblade Chronicles X

In this game, you get a mech roughly halfway through the game that lets you traverse the landscape faster and easier. Mountains that you could climb before can easily be jumped over with the mech. However, later in the game, the mech is upgraded to enable flight. While it helps for traversal, enabling flight mode has a completely different music track. Getting the flight module also disables jumping in the mech completely, so whenever you want to scale terrain, you must fly and must change the music track.

See the end of this video for an example:
Multiple player card combinations keeps the player changing strategies

Games that have multiple paths to victory or defeat keep the game
maleable. Maleable in the sense that players have to constantly
reconsider their strategy when they come across new choices or when they
 gain more knowledge on how to better use an item or character in the
game. When you can counteract someones strategy by replacing an existing
 character or item this makes the game longer lasting. People will play
the game more often figuring out how to fine tune and improve each
strategy against one another. This is best illustrated in a mobile game Clash Royale. In Clash Royale you are given cards that represent characters you can play in a battle against your opponent. Each card/character has a cost to play it on the battlefield. The goal of the game is to destroy each others towers using an eight character card deck during battle. Strategy goes more in depth once you realize you need to manage your mana or energy. Both players have the same amount of energy through the match so you have to find a way to save mana all while trying to launch an assault on their towers. If you are able to defeat a card/character that cost a lot with a character that has a low cost you have an energy advantage and will be able to launch another character giving you the advantage. This cycle goes on and on and on throughout the three minute battle and maybe into a one minute overtime if regular time ends in a draw. Here is the pro tournament they held on YouTube:

☀https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5v\_qyJn0Q8
Violence is not the only way!!! Letting player take the pacifist route.

Hundreds of brutal violent games expect their player to kill npcs, blow them up, punch them till they bleed to death, etc. At the end of every level only the number of enemies you killed matters.

But some games, even the most brutal ones allow there players to take the pacifist route and not kill a single npc. Players can complete the whole game without having to raise their sword or point their gun at someone. I think this is a good and a smart design and attracts a whole new bunch of audience for example the people who don't like killing or bloodshed and also the players who like to be as sneaky as possible when they play. Also it promotes replayability, as the existing players of the game can complete the game in a non-violent way.

These games even give extra points for not killing anyone and not being seen by anyone when player completes the level in a nonviolent and a sneaky way.

Thief is one of those games where you can complete the whole game without claiming a life. The protagonist Garrett is a thief, not a cold-blooded killer. The player gets awarded with a "Ghost rank" for being non violent and sneaky. Even the bosses have non-lethal options, allowing you to sneak out of a battle instead of fighting to the bitter end.
Vulgar Elements in Games

One question about playing video game is that: is video games good or bad? To answer this question, we need to know that good video games teach people how to be good while bad video games "teach" people how to be bad. One of the very bad things I really hate is the vulgar elements in the some dirty video games. Like GTA, player can have sex in the games and do some other vulgar stuff (If you don't know and don't believe that, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSOfHSFHoA ). Actually there are a lot of dirty video games where players can have sex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trIVYo4zN9E. Most of the video games players are young people who are lack of self-control, what will happen if they couldn't control themselves after playing those dirty games? We all know the answers.

My Example: GTA 5

Guess what happen after this?

Example 2: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt)

Developer CD Projekt Red took 16 hours of motion capture data to film the game's sex scene. Although the game gives the gamers plenty of chances, sex scenes usually divert the player from the mission and from the game itself.
Simulator games missing basic mechanics

Simulator games are supposed to represent an experience in a way that any skill level can enjoy. This includes those that know nothing about the subject to those that are experts. Games will often miss the basic mechanics of what they are supposed to be simulating. Amazing detail is put into these games and it can be ruined but the smallest failing in detail.

Example: City Skylines

This game is on of the best city simulator games ever made. The amount of control the player has over every detail is incredible. However there is a detail that breaks the entire traffic managing system: Cars won't go right at red lights. The player can place roads in which ever manner they choose. Overpasses, underpasses, onramps etc. Yet when all the roads are lined up for smooth traffic it all comes to a screeching halt as traffic backs up waiting to to right at a red light. One of the main methods for dealing with traffic in the game is a circle traffic intersection. Yet cars will not go into the wheel without stopping the entire flow of traffic in other directions.
It takes too much time to finish one game in board game

Some board games have very complicate mechanics and strong strategies so players need to think a lot to make the decisions. As a result, some games will take more than 3 or 4 hours to finish. In most cases, the long-time lasting will distract players and players may also feel bored and tired because players have no exciting feedback such as winning or losing the game. Sometimes they will lose the motivation to go on.

The Game Of Thrones is a strong strategy turn-based board game. In each turn, players need to distribute multiple commands to the areas they control. The commands need to be chosen carefully because there is only one command to an area and players need to balance the attack and defense well. Then reveal and execute them one by one. There are also three random things in one round. All these action will take a lot of time to complete and the game will have 10 rounds in total. So it will take over 5 hours to finish one game. Sometimes players will choose to quit the game in the middle because they feel really bored.
Utilizing a Limitless Inventory

Most agree that it is inherent to good game design that a player only be allowed to carry a certain amount of weapons, health potions, or other similar items. This is because the accumulation of them would cause the player to become overpowered and the game to become too easy (and no longer challenging or fun). However, I personally have always had a deep appreciation for games that allow for the limitless carrying of "wealth" items - innocuous pick-ups that only serve to be sold off for the accumulation of in-game currency. In addition to this function, they can serve many purposes that add dimension to any game. First of all, they are fun to collect. Killing big enemies and seeing the items drop all over the screen for one to round up, following dark, winding tunnels into unknown territory in hopes of a reward, retrieving setting-specific items and feeling a deeper sense of immersion - these all contribute to the idea that picking stuff up and keeping it in one's pocket is just fundamentally pleasing. Payoffs such as these respectively encourage the player to be more brave in combat, give the player the desire to explore the world down to its narrowest nooks and crannies, and generate more engagement in the story. For this process to be interrupted by the player having to intermittently drop off their loot in some chest because of an arbitary inventory limit would be a shame.

**Example: South Park: The Stick of Truth**

The element of an unlimited inventory was something that I adored in the South Park game. Though there were limits to how many Cheesey Poofs (health potions) and similar essential items the player could carry, one could haul around as many items belonging to a category called "junk" as their hearts desired. These items were interesting, funny, nostalgic to followers of the show, hidden in unexpected areas, and kept the spirit of the game alive. I found myself easily adding several hours to my total game play time trying to look for more - and this process alone was rewarding as I discovered characters and areas I might have otherwise missed. I even earned a trophy at the end of the game for being such a hoarder!
Use the Random Number Generator Correctly - Create Interesting Gameplay

Most games include randomness in them in order to improve replayability and to make things a little more interesting.  If you can't always predict what will happen then the game tends to be more fun for the player.  This, however, can be undermined by improper use of a random number generator.  As such, pure randomness isn't always fun.  It's better to make things partially random so that they vary rather than appearing purely chaotic.

### Good uses for the Random Number Generator

* Level layouts in Roguelikes (i.e. choosing between different rooms and how to connect them)
* Random drops based on the player's level and the mob defeated
* Procedural Generation of a game world

## **Demonstrating Examples**

### Example 1: Minecraft

Minecraft!  Everyone's favorite (or at least, the most popular) sandbox game!  Minecraft uses the RNG very well.  Each of its worlds are "procedurally generated".  That is to say, it utilizes an RNG and a seed in order to ensure that the likelihood of seeing the same landscape in each world is as minimal as possible.  There are still patterns and algorithms that Minecraft utilizes to generate the landscape, but these patterns are sufficiently varied by proper use of the Random Number Generator.

### Example 2: Hearthstone

Many of the hearthstone cards have random elements and it would be a lie to say they all used RNG correctly. However, a few cards add the perfect variability while not making the player feel like they have no agency. If we consider the card Sylvanas Windrunner we can see there is a random element in the deathrattle (triggers after minion dies). Although this effect is extremely powerful and completely out the players hands, the opponent rarely feels 'cheated' by sylvanas as they always get the choice of how to respond to her. After my opponent plays sylvanas should i trade away in all my minions in possibly a sub optimal way so that there is nothing left for sylvanas to steal when she dies? do i spend a large amount of mana to use one of my powerful removal spells? or most excitingly, do i load up my board with low cost weak minions before i kill her and hope she doesn't steal one of my more powerful ones? The randomness here CREATES choice rather than destroying it which is the key to adding randomness to a game without it making the game not fun.

XCOM: Enemy Within

In XCOM: Enemy Unknown or Enemy Within, it smartly uses RNG (or Random Number Generators) to determine if the squad that the player controls will hit their target. There is usually a percentage (like 80%) to see how likely it is that they'll hit their target. This increases the tension and makes the gameplay more interesting.
Inventory Pool on Death

Inventory loss in games has been around for a long time as a way for death to become meaningful. Theoretically, by forcing the player to lose part of their inventory, games should become didactic: they quickly teach to player to become better, to take more care when approaching dangerous enemies and situations. However, this loss of inventory is traditionally minor and therefore the amount of educating that is done is also minor. One recent twist on the formula is to make the loss large but give the player the chance to return to their corpse and regain what was lost. This accomplishes two things: first, by stripping the player of a large amount of resources it makes death initially feel more severe. This is a far more effective method of teaching the player to play cautiously than traditionally low penalties. Secondly, it rewards players for getting back to the location where they died and doing progressively better each time. If a player is particularly afraid of a large enemy, they will exercise more caution around that enemy to avoid being killed and losing their inventory again and again.

## Example: Salt and Sanctuary

In Salt and Sanctuary, players lose all of their unspent currency, “salt”, upon death. The player has one chance to reach the area of the level in which they died to regain their lost funds. If the player dies on the way, the salt is lost forever. When the player reaches the area where they died, they are required to kill the enemy that killed them to get their salt back.
Using Game Engines to Their Potential Wows Players

Game engines developed by teams with a lot of resources are extremely powerful, particularly these days -- however, many games fail to capitalize on the strengths of the engines they are built on, whether those may be graphics, performance, scale, networking, or all of the above. Many engines that are compatible with all platforms such as Unreal and Unity take one-size-fits-all approaches that give games that are built on them access to many features without any strong standouts. Some games, however, make a point to push their engines to the max, and it shows.

### Examples

Battlefield 1

BF1, the newest game in the renowned Battlefield series, runs on the latest iteration of the immensely powerful Frostbite game engine, developed by DICE Stockholm, a Swedish studio owned by EA. Frostbite, originally designed for Battlefield: Bad Company (2008) is designed for massive yet detailed environments, large player counts (up to 64 in one match), and world-scale dynamic lighting with relatively little performance hit. Battlefield 1 takes advantage of these features, particularly in its "Operations" game mode. In this mode, 64 players fight linearly across a gigantic, destructible landscape; when the attacking team wins, the game transitions to whole new map (to simulate World War I military campaigns).
Visual Feedback

When a player uses a verb to interact with an object, it’s
almost always a good thing to have some sort of visual feedback to let them be
aware of the action. Sounds can be acceptable, but in most cases visual
feedback is most important. This can be as simple as showing a switch has been
toggled from an “up” position to a “down” position, or as surprising as adding
an aura to a secret door that the player casts a spell on. Whatever the case,
visual feedback lets the player know the effect of an action, but also leaves
them feeling like their verbs are powerful and grounded in the game world.

### ***Prince of Persia (1989)***

As can be seen in the GIF, there are many examples of visual feedback, even in this game that has been developed much before the advancement of graphics hardware. The splash when prince and the enemies take hits, the blinking of HUD elements, the shaking of tiles, the emergence of swords from the ground, etc. are subtle but effective visual cues that underline the player's many interactions.

### **Fruit Ninja**

Fruit Ninja provides visual feedback for every significant game event, including but not limited to:

1. Swiping on screen
2. Slicing a fruit
3. Slicing a group / combination of fruit
4. Slicing a bomb
5. Special Banana timed events (Frenzy, Freeze, Scorex2)
6. Earning achievements

Each of the player verbs gets special attention, spraying fruit juice on the backdrop of the game for slices, or leaving a bright trail for every slice. These pieces of visual feedback allow the player to see what's important, and to feel rewarded for their successes as the game defines it.
Uncertainty in horror games

In many horror games, keeping the player "in the dark" by forcing the player to imagine what the horror is introduces uncertainty in game. This is good in horror games because if the player don't have much knowledge of the enemy/ghost in game then the player will keep thinking about it. As a result, they will fear the unknown and try to keep distance as far as possible. But the player needs to be drawn towards enemy so that the game will proceed and tension will be balanced.

Example: Silent Hill

If we take a look at game "Silent Hill" there are many instances where the player only hears the noise or sound of rattling or roars of the ghost and not the actual ghost is seen. This gives the player a sense that the ghost is somewhere near but doesn't know the exact location.
Unrefined RNG System - leads players to frustration easily

## **Overall Description**

RNG is widely used in all kinds of video games, and undoubtedly it adds lots of varieties to games. However, if RNG is not implemented properly, the result would become somewhat meaningless and it can easily lead players to frustration because RNG is not supposed to be completely random.

## **Example for Demonstration**

### ***Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare***

Supply drop system is unsurprisingly returning in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Players will be able to spend keys or COD points to purchase and open supply drops to obtain weapons, calling cards, emblems and other cosmetic items. It is understandable that duplicate items will appear multiple times as the system uses RNG. But what is really unacceptable is to obtain the same item multiple times from the same supply drop, considering how large the random item pool is.
Unequal player killing... Annoying sometimes but can attract players greatly if handled well

In some online games especially MMORPG, there are unequal player killing all the time. Some player might be ambushed by other hostile players, and some who are on a low level might be slaughtered by those high level players. Some games do nothing about this and the players feel upset and leave the game. However in other deliberately designed online games, unequal player killing is a good way to evoke player emotions and competitive minds, which is of great value to keep them playing and investing. Creating different player allies to let players protect each other, keeping a "revenge list" for each player, and making those killers wanted in the virtual world... there are many good designs regarding player killing that makes the player experience actually better.

## Example

ZhengTu is a Chinese 2D-based MMORPG. As the image shows, it has poor graphic and everything seems rough and even "ugly", however hundreds of thousands of players invest years millions in this game. In ZhengTu, unequal fight and unequal player killing is encouraged, but that does not mean that players are not protected and the game environment is unequal. Players can join a big guild to seek protection from higher level players and make them proud with more members, which satisfies both sides, or play longer, harder, and even pay real world money to buy powerful equipment to revenge because there is this "revenge list" and "wanted list" in the game to encourage killing those aggressive players.
Locking certain content or region behind quests

In games with a massive world and routes to offer, locking certain content behind various quests is not a great idea. Every player likes to enjoy various and different kinds of elements within a game at their own pace and sometimes they would not prefer to do any quests which the game may ask of them. But locking a certain content like a new map for example behind a certain task or quest is really bad for the game design. As, such quests should be voluntary and not forced onto the player.

## Example

**Guild Wars 2**

Guild Wars 2 is a great example for such a game, with every quarter-yearly update Guild Wars 2 introduces a new region with living stories, but there are certain items which are only available in the new region. In order to access the new region, players are required to complete the quests.
Uniqueness Arouse Players Curiosity

Without doubt, uniqueness of games lead the trend of game development in certain time. It drags people's attention and curiosity to play the games and even some people might just go along for the ride. People would buy and play the games mostly because their curiosity makes them want to do that. Unique selling point plays a crucial role in competing with millions of other games. In the process of designing a game, developers are supposed to discuss about what uniqueness it has and how this uniqueness work in the game in order to arouse players' curiosity.

My example: Pokémon Go with its unprecedented game mechanic gives our players a super fresh feeling about video game and arouse our curiosity to want to see how this game is going to work. With the development of video game technology, Pokémon Go perfectly utilize AR system to not only show people what AR is about but also show people video games are not totally virtual any more and it creates immersive environments between virtuality and reality.

Pikachu!!!

**Goat Simulator**

This game simulates the player as a goat. The player can do basically whatever she wants and scores with damage she makes around the town. This game is unique in the character setup (aka a goat) combined with the "damaging" gameplay; it is quite different from the other simulators where you do what the simulated object usually do in real life.
When using character dialogue in a game, keep it to a minimum.

Too much dialogue in a game can
distract from gameplay. Video games are unique from movies for example because
they are interactive. When the main character in a game is talking so much that
the player isn’t able to actually play the game then there’s a problem.

My example of this, is a game
called *The Clockwork Man* which is a
puzzle game where the player is trying to help the main character find certain
objects in the room and later on, help the main character put things together
to make them work in certain situations. The game flow is dialogue, puzzle,
dialogue, puzzle, dialogue, puzzle. Yes, it’s true that you can skip the
dialogue in the game but should you really have to? A good game uses dialogue
to progress the game, not get in the way of it.

**Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord**

I know this game take some people 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach the first battle. It's a hybrid between an SRPG and a visual novel. I think many visual novel has this problem.

**Example 02: BRAVELY DEFAULT**

This game has 4 different characters the player controls. While playing in the Nintendo 3DS it was noticeable the amount of meaningless conversation in between them, breaking the player immersion. After a while, the player starts pressing 'x' to skip the speech balloons. This is not only annoying, but also can prevent the player to get actual information that is needed at a certain point of the game (by driving the player hit the 'x' button all the time, he/she could accidentally skip something important that will affect the gameplay itself). On Bravely Default the large and useless conversations happen over and over, making the player tired and frustrated (since it does not have an option to play without those).
Tying the art style into the core mechanic can enhance the gameplay

A good video game takes an
enjoyable core mechanic and develops it. One way to engross players is by using
the art style to encourage the player to use the core mechanic. The player’s emotions can be heightened by this combination of art style and gameplay if it’s done well.

### Examples

#### *Yoshi’s* Woolly World

   Yoshi's Wooly World *is an excellent example of seamlessly incorporating the core*

mechanic into gameplay. Yoshi uses his tongue to unravel the wool in the game to discover new places. After eating the yarn, he makes a new yarn ball to throw at platform frames so that he can progress up on the newly "yarned" platforms. He can also eat enemies, make a new yarn ball and throw is at new enemies or objects while moving along. These are just two examples of how the art
style enhances gameplay. Be prepared to have a perpetual grin when playing this game!

#### Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse uses a clay aesthetic that Into many of the mechanics in the game, from kirby going through doorways, or enemies spawning. these small additions enhance gameplay by making it feel like characters are really made from clay.

## **Lumino City**

Lumino City is another example of tying art style into core mechanics. The game is made up of hand-made paper art assets and so the objects in the game have literally paper interaction. The main character has the corresponding paper art style. The animation of the character and the rest of the game scene is done to fit the paper style. It really does feel like the art style determines the game mechanics to a great extent.
Players are forced to change play style.

Many games offer a wide variety of skill trees and abilities. However players can get sick doing what they are familiar with and won't risk changing out their spells. This can make a potentially diverse game seem boring and stagnant. This can be fixed by forcing the player to shift their abilities no certain levels. Or by taking away certain abilities all together.

Example: Transistor

The sword in transistor has 4 slots for 4 abilities. Each ability can have others modifiers added to it as well. The combinations of different abilities is immense. However players will get comfortable with their play style and become skilled at the combos they have set up. This leaves many abilities unexplored. Transistor gets around this by having some "puzzle" levels that choose the player's abilities for them. Often combinations that are strange or wouldn't at first glance seem to be effective. This gives the player a new appreciation to the depth the designers have gone in designing the abilities.

During the main story line if the player loses all their health one of the abilities is broken for a set amount of time in the game. They are welcome to swap in a new ability but that one is gone for 2 checkpoints. This also forces the player to change their strategy or at least have back up strategies.
Wrong timing of sound effect.

In some games, it's observed that the sound effects are too intense which can scare the player in a bad way. Especially, if we see fighting games or survival horror games, they have special sound effects and hence they sometimes tempt to be out of control. It may affect the player's mental stability and make them unconscious for some moment. Hence, there should be some control over sounds in high-end games.

Example: Destiny: Rise of Iron

In this game, many a times there are fighting sequences which needs lot of sound effects in play. But, at some point it is not necessarily required to be loud. It can be subtle and without disturbing the gameplay the player should be able to proceed further.
Narrator isn't cut off when completing a room.

Many games rely heavily on a narrator to tell a story. Games will often leave enough distance between narrator cues that the player can hear the whole story. This way when a player finally finishes one section of the level, he'll be able to continue the story when he leaves the room. Even if the level is easy and the player can finish it quickly, there will be a long hallway or some other delay device to let the narrator finish. Getting on an elevator that doesn't open until the narrator has finished is also often used.

Example: Portal 2

At the end of each level there is an elevator that you enter to move on to the next level. That ride time is used by the game to finish the narration. That way the game designers can still have a lot of story and don't need to worry about players missing it by finishing the level to quickly.

## Gone Home

In Gone Home, the primary goal of the game is to find out what has happened to the player's little sister, Sam. When the Player picks up a note or a photograph, Sam will begin narrating about that object. Given that the house is a large puzzle with many hidden rooms and passages, the player is always searching the environment. When players walk away from the objec tthey picked up, Sam's narration will continue until it is finished, generally no longer than thirty seconds.