recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Bad game covers can spoil the game's reach

Video games is a competitive industry, and its failure can come in many forms. Game producers ensure that there is zero disaster in sales and marketing as that plays a significant role in the game's reach. People buy a game by checking their reviews or by even seeing its cover art. Personally, I feel it is the cover art which makes the consumer dig more information about the game. The wrong usage of cover art will misrepresent the meaning; the game production team is trying to convey. On the other hand, if the cover art represents false information, the game can get sued. In essence, cover art plays a prominent role in driving the game's reach and a bad covert art can make a good game look bad.

## Examples

### #1 Donkey Kong (1982)

The Mexican version of Donkey Kong(1982) cover was a complete misrepresentation of the original game. The main character shown on the cover is some random clown trying to climb a ladder. Some blob like dragon characters attacks the clown character by drilling him down. None of these mechanics are present in the original game. This kind of misrepresentation can get the game sued thus spoiling its reach.
Developing mechanics over narrative can create unique storylines

Developing a narrative based on a unique mechanic has the potential to create just as unique a storyline. A fine-tuned mechanic that has proven itself to be engaging and exciting can evolve into a multitude of stories. Keeping an open mind pertaining to the narrative while developing a mechanic can unlock creativity in designers and open new possibilities for them which they might not have seen had they been committed to a particular narrative direction.

## Examples

### **Portal**

Portal employs a very unique mechanic in which players place and utilize a device which can create portals between any two places they deploy them. The mechanic is amazing, engaging, and very en

joyable to play with. The story, though dependent on this mechanic, evolved from it. The original mechanic was developed for a game called *Narbacular Drop*, which was a student project with an entirely different narrative. Because the mechanic was unique and they weren't tied to their original "story," the developers were able to iterate to *Portal*, which has become a hallmark of gaming innovation and possibility in the industry.
Art That Blends Into The Background Confuses The Player

Assets designed for video games need to have distinct indicators that they can be interacted with. When art assets in a game lack any indication of interactivity, the player assumes they cannot be interacted with. This is confusing to the player, especially in multiplayer games where a new player is at a disadvantage because they lack prior knowledge of the environment. Through playtesting, designers can how look at how players interact with assets and fine tune their gameplay experience.

Example 1

In the relatively new Worms: WMD, one of the new designs is building that can be entered. The problem is that these buildings blend perfectly into the rest of the map, so unless one has past experience, starts a match inside a building, or in some instances just gets lucky, they might play an entire match without going into a building.
Incomplete game / money grab DLC

Games are often updated after its release by their respective
companies in a form of DLC. DLC are new contents made to further expand upon the
original game. Fans then get a choice of buying theses DLCs or not, knowing it
would not greatly impact the original game. To the fans DLC felt like an added bonus
to a game but not a requirement to experience the whole game. This game design was
great and many fans were willing if they so choose to pay a little extra for
these DLC.

Unfortunately lately companies have been misusing
the concept of DLCs. Instead of releasing a full complete game they would
release incomplete games and force you to purchase their DLCs to have a complete
game experience. This tactic has angered many people in the gaming community because
they felt cheated and were forced to pay for something that should have been
part of the original game. Many people felt betrayed by these companies seeing
these DLCs more of a money grab rather than adding to the original game.

A great example of this is “*Total War, Warhammer*” made by Creative Assembly. Months after the announcement
of this game fans were angered by the fact that the chaos warrior, one of the 5
faction in the game was a DLC. The chaos warrior was such big part of the Warhammer
universe that many fans felt that it should have been part of the original
game. To fans it felt like Creative Assembly was not adding to the original
game with this DLC, but instead broke apart the original game and sold it separately
to make more money. The original game without the chaos warrior DLC felt incomplete
due to the fact that the chaos warriors took up about 20% of the map and they were
unplayable. This lead to a large angry mob of people arguing online over these
DLC practices.

 Example 2

Payday 2 is a cooperative
first-person shooter video game developed by Overkill Software and published by
505 Games. The main problem of this game is that it has way too many
pointless DLCs. The developers are not satisfied with the money they made and
started to create dlcs that contains better weapons than the vanilla weapons to
grab money from players if they want a better experience.

Example 3: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

The ending for this game is highly dissatisfying. It wasn't until later that I learned that the ending was incomplete (not all the issues from the story were resolved), that if I wanted to get the "full" ending to the game, then I would have to buy the DLC for the game. It is very irritating. Why would someone want to pay upwards of $80 for an incomplete game?

  Example 3: HellDivers

In this 2.5d based multi-FPS game, you need to pay money to buy the game, however all experienced player agree that there are some essential equipment you need in difficult levels. If you do not have them, you are not likely to be invited to a combat team. And the worst part is that not only these equipment needs extra money, but also the game does not tell players this things. So player usually pays much more than the game itself to actually have a proper game experience. If so, why not raise the price in the first place?
Clippy the Narrator

This occurs when a character with no business talking to you right now pops up in a box on your screen and would like to chat. A recent example would be in Act 4 of Diablo 3 where the Lord of Terror is constantly showing up to see how you're doing. Sometimes it's to make sure you know where to go next to foil his plans. Other times he just wants to talk about his garden.

The problem with this is that, like Clippy the Microsoft paperclip who always thought you were writing a letter, it breaks your concentration and the flow of the game. Diablo has no reason at all to be talking to you right now. How is he even doing it? Is there a PA system or something that he can use to broadcast these messages? He's essentially breaking the 4th wall every time he shows up because, but for the very thinnest of veils, He's talking directly to the person playing the game instead of the character they are supposed to be playing. The player doesn't need to be told where to go after every boss. They have a map in this game that can show them where they haven't been. Is there really a concern that, if Diablo doesn't tell you, you might not notice all the demons? Or that you wouldn't explore? If you found a gate or a rift that was pumping out demons would you suddenly be lost and confused with no idea what to do?

Narration itself is often seen as a bit of a crutch in many films and this is no different. There are, of course, amazing examples of narration in games. See Bastion. The reason it works so well is because it is established from the beginning of the game that you the player are being told a story by narrator. It is consistent with the game that you would be hearing from this person as they tell you a story.

### Examples

#### The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

The owl in LoZ: OoT interrupts the player a number of times through the main game storyline. He shows up to briefly summarize and set up the scene but in a frustrating, and intrusive way. The text boxes are bland and dense with little to no information, almost composed solely of flavor text. Also, the only way to escape his narration loop is poorly designed which punishes the button masher.
Good story can’t save a player from the boredom of a repetitive mechanic.

Everyone loves a good story, but games that place story over giving players new interesting ways to
use previously established mechanics will
lead the player down a path of boredom, which causes them to lose interest in the game. Game designers should always
seek, to reinforce story with added depth and complexity in the use of the
established mechanics.

### Examples:

#### Assassin's Creed

One can look at any of the assassins creed series to find this design problem, and while more so evident in some of the more recent chapters of the series. It is just as true with the original game. Once the player learns the basics in this game, it is simply a rinse and repeat strategy. And while entertaining for a while, the story is not enough to allow the player keep interest until the end of the game. The designers would have done well, to add more complex situations, to enable a continued increase in their difficulty curve.
Game Design Snacks Wikia

## Welcome to the Game Design Snacks Wikia

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Allow the Player to Fail!

A staple of the arcade era was the designer's willingness to let the player fail. Whether this was for more spent quarters is irrelevant because it taught us that it's healthy for players to occasionally fail in a game. Games like *Mario, Dark Souls*, or *Super Meat Boy* (get the low-hanging fruit examples out of the way) lets the players fail mercilessly in order to provide them with a greater challenge. Taunting the player with a difficult yet achievable task increases their determination to get it done, which can result with an increase in player involvement. The experience of failing is both humbling, and lets the player know that they did something wrong and to learn from that experience to grow as a gamer. While hand-holding is becoming a staple principle of many contemporary games (or where failure isn't even an option in games like *Cookie Clicker*), games that instill a heightened sense of challenge continue to be some of the most enjoyed games on the market.

## **Examples**

### **1001 Attempts**

1001 Attempts is a simple game available through the Android Play Store. The objective is to move left and right and jump from the floor to the ceiling while dodging all manner of deathly obstacles and collecting shiny gems. As may be hinted at in its name... you will fail.. you will fail A LOT. But this failing turns around and spurs you on to try again. To try to beat your high score. To make another attempt.
Cinematic Intrusions - Interrupting the Gameplay Loop

In games that rely on a number of cinematic effects and flourishes, too many of these can slow down the main gameplay loop of the game. Specifically, I'm referring to the respawn - live - die - repeat loop. Again, specifically to the death sequence of the player. While the death sequence could be as simple as a fade to black, they can also be accompanied by a short cinematic, audio cues, and other narrative explanation for the player's failure. While it adds to the aesthetic and gives player actions consequence, it can be incredibly frustrating from a basic game play design lens. If the player has to wait a number of seconds for their character to respawn due to a death cinematic, when this is done multiple times over and over, the wait to play again can get exhausting and can interrupt immersion as much if not more than the actual death of the player itself.

### Examples

#### Rise of the Tom Raider

Being a narrative driven adventure game, the player's progress relies solely on their uncovering of the plot and the actions and consequences that they take as Lara Croft. Rise of the Tomb Raider, however also has a number of lengthy death cinematics that when piled on top of each other during a particularly difficult level or sequence, can be annoying.
Allow and welcome players design mods to improve gameplay

A game that allows modding is said to be "moddable". Mods can make a changeable game with all kinds of fantastic game play and help to continue the success of the original game, even when the original game has become dated. Some player attracted to these kinds of games because It allows them to extend the game. Making game support modding is a relatively advanced area of programming. when companies open their games up to mods, so users can tweak them or build entirely new games on top of the same basic engine.

## Example

#### **Don't Starve Together**

   Don't Starve Together is a multiplayer roguelike survival game. It has a very stylistic macabre art style, with gameplay that hinges on a deep and varied crafting system. Using the Steam Workshop, Don't Starve has a very active modding community. With nearly 800 mods currently available, for example, the season clock allows you to know when the winter is coming and then prepare for it, and the character mods leads you to experience thousands of different character with different skills. There are unlimited ways you can change your Don't Starve experience. This is one of intriguing parts in DST.

### **Minecraft**

Minecraft is a custom sandbox game. It is so popular all around the world and I believe one of the reason is that it has so many funny mods. The designer of this game allow different kinds of mods in the game. Look at the picture in the right, it's definitely Minecraft with high quality lighting mod. These powerful mods make MC into a changeable game with all kinds of fantastic game play.

### **Banished**

Banished is a town-building resource management game centered around balancing the production of the town to the expansion and population of the town the player is in control of. Given the importance of how resource harvesting and storage can impact the player's success, there is demand among the player-base to modify these values. On Steam workshop there are many player-made mods avilable for download which do just this - modify the resources available to players, how they are gathered, and how they are stored and used. This allows players to customize the experience of the game to their own tastes.
Changing the controls for the sequel takes away a piece of the game that brought players back for more.

Players that usually purchase and play sequels do so because they loved the first game and wanted to play it more. But, when a game designer chooses to change the main mechanics of the game, specifically the controls, this can irritate the player who was hoping to get the same game, but with new narratives and challenges. Game designers should look at sequels as an extension to the first game, and leave the core mechanics alone. A player should be able to begin play without having to relearn how to play the game.

Changing the controls of a game can have negative effects on how the game plays. For an example: Assassins Creed: Unity. In this version of the game the designers decided to completely change the controls for sequence of battle. In the original games, the controls were fast and required little effort. This gave the game a fast-paced flow, and made the player feel like a deadly assassin. But in Assassins Creed: Unity they designed the fighting sequences to be slower, more representing the feel and pace of fencing. By changing the controls, the designers ruined the core flow of the game.
Giving the Player Multiple Options for the Exchange of Resources - Creates Interest in the Resource Management System

Some games only have a few options for the exchange of their resources. While effective, this type of resource management doesn’t itself bring much excitement to the gameplay. There is no need for the player to really consider what the ramifications are for spending most of their resources on one option or another because there are no ramifications. Giving the player multiple options for the exchange of their resources adds another layer of complexity to the gameplay. If all options can be useful, the player must now decide which ones would actually help them the most for their progression throughout the rest of the game. In some cases, it might be best for them to actually conserve resources and wait for a benefit that would be much more rewarding, but costs more.

**Examples:**

Dragons World

In the mobile game Dragons World, the player has habitats full of dragons that accrue gold with time. With this gold, they have a variety of things they can purchase. Some options will lead to a larger income, while others will bring the player closer to other objectives, such as collecting all of the dragons or making their battle dragons stronger. It is up to the player to decide which route will benefit them the most going forward.

The Last of Us

In Naughty Dog's critically acclaimed game The Last of Us, the player is often rewarded for exploration in the form of resources such as alcohol, batteries, blades, etc... These resources can be used to craft useful items however the items you can craft share the same resources. For instance the player can use some alcohol to create med kit which can be used to recover some health, or they can use that same alcohol to make a molotov cocktail which can be very effective and taking care of a large group of enemies.
Good Post-Apocalypse Game Environment Design

Many of the Post-Apocalypse Game’s Environment design doesn’t seem to be immersive enough for players. There are good Post-Apocalypse games that did the environment really well. For example, Tom Clancy’s The Division.

•    Tom Clancy’s The Division

This game is an online open world third-person shooter. The game was set at the time where smallpox sweeps through New York City. In the game, the atmosphere feels really immersive. Traffic Jams with the damaged car, ambulance, police cars, military strong hold on street junction, Body Bags can be found in the streets and alleyways, Quarantine Areas with biochemical wastes, by going into specific quarantine areas, players are required to put on a filter mask. Etc. Every scene is full of story. Wondering what happened here?

Example 2: Fallout 4 -

Fallout 4 created a huge environment for players to explore that was rewarded players for exploration. Throughout the world are side quests, characters, hidden challenges, weapons/items, and enemies. The game did a great job at showing you the neighborhood you lived in before destroying it in its post apocalyptic state. The environment was also a large improvement on its previous installments in terms of scale, graphics, and aesthetics as the previous game received criticism for its heavy use of shades of brown and grey. Fallout 4 made sure to add more colors and compelling visual elements all the while retaining the sense of a world destroyed by atomic warfare.

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Creative Audience Engagement Makes for More Inclusive Play

Games are generally limited to a player capacity set by the
system or game. This forces the room or participants into active groups (those
that are playing) and passive groups (those that are watching). As game
designers, if we take into consideration the audience when making a party game
we can create a more encompassing environment. The party game then becomes
about the whole party rather than the few that have controllers.

**Jackbox Party Pack 2-Quiplash**

Jackbox is a party game that allows up to eight players at a time. But during games like Quiplash people who are not directly playing the game can participate as audience. They can vote on answers and help influence the outcome as the choice that was voted for gets a higher score. This engages the audience

by giving their decision weight in the outcome of gameplay.
Designing Breaks in Gameplay Which Limit Player Mechanics To Create Tension

As a player progresses through a given game, they learn and utilize various mechanics. Some simple examples might be jumping, shooting, or running. One way a designer might enhance the player experience is by briefly limiting the player to one mechanic or a limited subset of the player's original possible actions. The effect this has on the player is to force them to reasses their relationship with the game world. In practice this will create a fresh experience for the player, especially if coincided with a narrative event.

Example:

One great example of this is in Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare during the Chernobyl missions. After several missions of the main campaign, the player is caught in a wide flat field in a ghillie suit with a large group of enemies walking right past them. Suddenly they can't run, jump, shoot, or even stand because doing so results in immediate death. This break in the flow of the game allows the player to feel a degree of tension that they otherwise would not.
Games can be engaging and educational

Educational games get a bad rap because, well, they’re often
times boring! There are those rare few that exceed expectations. The best
educational games are fun! They have a core mechanic that doesn’t get boring
after a few minutes. They have lots of visual feedback and occasionally a
compelling story line. They are all about the whole package, not just the
education. These are the types of games that are amazing games that just happen
to be educational.

*Epistory: Typing*
Chronicles *is just one example. In this game you are a girl riding a fox in*
this paper world. She’s trying to remember who she is and how she fits. The
only way to progress in the game is by typing words that pop up over objects.
The game does not spit out random words either, they are often linked to what
is around the player. There’s a point in the game where there’s a log blocking
your way and the word “TREE” pops up over the log. After typing the word “TREE”
correctly then the player is able to progress through that passage and more of
the world is opened to them which is like a way of saying when you learn to
type the world opens up to you. In addition, typing is reinforced through the
navigational keys that put the player in a correct typing position. This
position is built into the game play so it is not distracting. Below is a
picture showing the tree example cited.

Just Dance Series: Just Dance is super engaging and it also could be educational. Why educational? It literally teaches players how to dance while playing the game. The thing I like in Just Dance is that a lot of people are shy about dancing in front of people and then Just Dance would be the best choice for those people. It is the best educational dancing game I have ever seen so far. Isn't that amazing?
Excessive Use of Barriers in Level Design Can Close the Player Off From the Game World

## Concept

The world a game takes place in can be just as important as the characters or story. This importance of the game world is not only based on the lore of the world or the design of it, but also on the size or apparent size of the world. In certain genres which include an open-world or exploration element, such as adventure games or RPGs, this visual of having a larger world that the story takes place in can enhance player immersion and suspension of disbelief. This can be true even if the player is blocked from exploring certain areas of the world.

Level designs which block the player from exploring or, at least, viewing the larger game world can reduce player immersion in the story of the game as this in-game barrier blocks the player from connecting with the world on a sensory level.

## Examples

*Tales of Xillia* is a JRPG focused on traveling around the game world to find a solution to the over-arching conflict affecting the survival of the planet and its residents. Given the nature focused themes of the game as well as the open-world exploration encouraged by many previous iterations in the *Tales of* series, having a connection with the game world the player is working to save would be an important aspect to player immersion in the story.

However, the vast majority of the outdoor areas of the game are closed off canyons (see image). This level design closes the player off from the world by denying them access to it both physically and visually. Additionally, no explanation is ever given to the player as to why there are so many canyons and gullys in the world, as the overhead map the player can use to fast travel between locations shows shows none of these geographic features.
Dynamic Difficulty - Balances the Game to the Player's Skill Level

While many games let the player adjust the difficulty before the game begins, and some games let the player adjust the difficulty while the game is in progress if they find it is too easy or too hard, fewer games adjust the difficulty naturally based on how the player is doing. If the player does well, enemies might start to do more damage, or they might find less ammo in the environment. If the player starts taking more damage or failing to clear events, the game naturally eases things to help the player out.

## Resident Evil 4

Probably the best example of this is in Resident Evil 4. The game has two difficulty settings, Normal and Professional, but each mode has dynamically adjusting difficulty while the player plays through it. If the player is very accurate with their shooting and takes few hits, enemies and boxes will start dropping less ammo and health items. If the player starts taking more damage or runs low on ammo, the game will add more health items and ammo pickups to boxes to help the player out. Some weapons even have soft caps on the amount of ammo you can carry - for example, the game will not drop more ammo for the Mine Thrower weapon if the player has more than 9 Mine Thrower darts in their inventory.

### *Halo: Combat Evolved*

*Halo* let the player choose the difficulty from several different levels. This allowed the game to cater to the casual players and the hardcore players, and players at different levels between.  *Halo* ended up reaching a large target audience because of the ability to choose the difficulty. The later games in the series allowed the player to pick specific levels and change the level of difficulty of
that level so the player could practice and get better. The ability to chance the difficultly at any time made *Halo* an engaging game for all skill levels .

### Dirt: Showdown

Showdown has a form of dynamic difficulty adjustment that is unique to and useful for racing games. No matter what difficulty is selected, AI drivers are affected by DDA. For instance, if most drivers are far ahead of the player, they slow down slightly to prevent runaway victories. Inversely, they will speed up a little if the player is in the lead, to keep the player on their toes. In addition, there seems to be a higher chance of leading AI players making mistakes and crashing to give the player a chance to overtake them.

**Diablo III**

Diablo III has a good design in game difficult settings. In the beginning, there are 5 different levels for you to choose. As the game went by, the difficult and monster level will change dynamically according to player's level and equipment. You will never meet monsters whose level is great lower than you. And your reward will change dynamically according to the difficult level you are.
Content Bloat Overwhelms and Frustrates the Player

It is easy to think that more is better when it comes to games. Why not, if more content means giving the player more choices, or extending the progression and therefore life and replayability of the game? The caviat to this is that there is such a thing as too much freedom and choice, and in this case, it is called content bloat.

Not only does this content bloat confuse new players (particularly when much of the content is introduced too quickly, without giving the player time or instruction to learn how to react to it), but it can also simply waste the developer's time.

An example of this is Battlefield 4 -- on release, this game had 64 primary weapons and 13 sidearms, and now that all of its DLC has been released, it features a staggering 88 primary weapons and 17 sidearms. Though these weapons are spread out over a few categories, such as assault rifles, shotguns, machine guns, etc., each category has many choices to choose from.

Keep in mind, these are only the weapons. This does not count the myriad attachments that can be placed on these weapons (some of which share stats and have only cosmetic differences), class-specific gadgets, player skins, weapon skins, and vehicle customization.

Image Source: http://lparchive.org/Battlefield-4/Update%2001/4-OGDpSH8.png
Broken level up/promotion system – Causes frustration within competitive communities

Often, multi-player games will have some sort of
ranking/level/promotion system to encourage competitiveness.  This is a good way to create a competitive community and player base that will feel rewarded from their skill in the
game.  For this to work it is imperative that
the leveling up system be balanced and working.
For example: if it is too easy to level up players will not feel
rewarded for reaching a higher level, if it is too hard to level up players
might become frustrated and stop playing the game. The worst of all is when the
system is broken.

## Examples

Halo 3 - A great example of a broken ranking system is Halo 3.  Halo has always been a competitive title where
players spend hours practicing and honing their skills.  Unfortunately in Halo 3 there was a major
flaw with their ranked system.  For some
reason the system made it very hard to level up when you went on long winning
streaks.  This is the exact opposite of
what a ranking system should do.  This
flaw caused players to lose games on purpose in order to rank up faster. This
flaw caused a lot of frustration within the Halo 3 competitive community.

Halo Wars - Halo Wars used a variation of the True Skill system that Halo 3 used. Halo Wars' ranked system did not punish players for win streaks but instead punished them for playing against lower ranked players. If a player ranked highly defeated a player of a much lower skill, then the player ranked highest will actually go down in rank. This is punishing players for a broken matchmaking system. Regardless of the skill gap, a rank should never go down for winning a game.
Clear and organized feedback

Feedback is a conversation between designer and player. When player use a verb, clear feedback is very important to player in order to navigate the game as mush as possible. Especially, when they completing the challenge. In addition, clear and organized feedback will make game interface looks batter and create a more complex and rich experience for player. So, player more likely to play the game repeatedly rather than lose the interest.

## Examples

### **League of Legends**

league of legends is a well know game with very clear UI. Players are able to get feedback from multiple ways. Player could know teammate's health situation by look at left game icons. Middle lower bar shows player's health and karma, and look at the mini map can get other players location. All feedback are well organized.
Maya

**Maya** is a contestant on The Survivor Show. She is a party girl and constantly disobey's her parents.

While she looks harmless, If she's ticked off she can beat you up or worse KILL YOU!

But while this is a fact , Maya come on TSS to have fun and makes friends in which she does but they turn on her and is she eliminated eleventh.

## Personality

Maya is a wild rebel. No doubt about it. While she loves to party and rebel against her strict parents, Maya is very smart and excels in classes. Most of her teachers claim she doesn't 'apply herself.

While she is rebel, she is very friendly and come onto TSS to make friends and doesn't really care about the money.
Destructible Environment System

By manipulating the environment, it opens a wide variety of gameplay tactics for players to choose from and compete with other players. Destructible environments, especially use in FPS games can be a trend and add another tactic layer to the gameplay.

**Example1:Rainbow Six Siege**

Rainbow Six Siege is a Competitive First Person shooter developed by Ubisoft. Due to the gameplay, players can breach in through doors, walls, and things. The game was created in a material-based destruction engine and it procedurally breaks everything down in the gameplay. The destructible environment design was a designed for letting players explore the environment and destroy it to take advantage of it.

**Example2: Just Cause 3**

   Just Cause 3 was an example of how fun environment destruction can be. Almost everything in that game could be destroyed and it was fun. And it added a layer of different tactics of how to kill the enemy and take their bases.

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**Example 3: The Worms games**

The Worms games are all about destroying your enemy before they destroy you. Most of the weapons in these games will blow chunks of the environment away. For example, you can blow away a section of rock that is holding water back. That water can possibly wash your enemy away or even drown them.

**Example 4: Battlefield: Bad Company 2**

Battlefield: Bad Company 2, unlike its successors--Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline--contains countless destructible objects. Almost all buildings on every single map are destructible. This creates the atmosphere that players can actually change the map structure as they are playing, which added the complexity as well as replay value of the game as players know that every time even if you play the same map, situations are going to be different.

**Example 5: Red Faction: Guerrilla**

In Red Faction Guerrilla the player can destroy just about any building they come across using a variety of items; bombs, rockets, vehicles, matter disintegrating weapons, or even just a sledgehammer. This adds a bit of extra strategy as the player can use this to their advantage in battle, collapsing a building on their enemies, driving a truck right through the front door, or even just bashing down a wall with the sledgehammer.
Hidden Story

## Snack

This snack isn't for every game. In fact, it may not be for most games. But, if used well, it can provide a very rewarding experience. The idea is to drop bits and pieces of story around the game. The idea here is that you the designer have a story that you want to tell but you want the players to fill in and uncover a lot of the details themselves. To accomplish this, you drop breadcrumbs for your players to follow if they notice them. Most players will bypass these breadcrumbs all together. A few will not and they will pick up and follow the crumbs. They will post to Reddit and a certain group of your players will be scouring the game for more clues.

A great example of this is the entire story line of Overwatch. Overwatch has a few cut scenes but mostly it's just presented as a competitive shooter game without story. However, many players have noticed breadcrumbs and dug deeper to find an underlying story to the different levels. For example, a weapon on display in a museum in one of the videos shows up as the payload item that players have to escort. In another level a character mentions delivering a bomb to kill bots. When the payload is delivered it sends out an EMP style explosion.
Ingame Manual Archive - Replacing the old paper booklets

A commonplace occurrence in RPG systems and certain strategy games, a ‘digital manual’ accessible from the game’s menu can offer a chance to alleviate the need for required ingame tutorial text (which is often skipped). These articles offer the chance for new players to learn the game on their own time without forcing veteran players to sift through text, as well giving players the chance to learn the nuances in certain games that can’t be covered in standard tutorials.

### Examples:

#### 1.Fire Emblem: Awakening

The Fire Emblem series has always had one of Nintendo’s more complex systems, as you must manage your units while taking into account unit weaknesses and a rock-paper-scissors style advantage mechanic. Awakening, in particular, manages to use an ingame manual to great effect. The game indicates when an article is added, thus telling the player that the current encounter has added a layer to the mechanics, and pops up with said article on the bottom screen (but this can be toggled off easily). The articles also use more pictures than text.

#### 2.Mass Effect

   The games of the Mass Effect series have virtual codices that are chock-full of not only detailed descriptions of gameplay mechanics but also entries on the locations, races, and lore of the series. These are completely optional and easily accessible for the pause menu, allowing dedicated players to read all they want about the entities in the games.

#### 3. Assassin's Creed Syndicate

The Assassin's Creed Syndicate has a complete encyclopedia of people, locations, collectibles, present day and miscellaneous. It provides detailed information of all those. You have to discover things in game which adds the entries to this database.
Extreme Difficulty Advancing Brackets in PvP - Dissuades Players From Playing

Most competitive online games have different ways of handling their player bracket systems. In some cases, companies make it extremely difficult to move up from the lower brackets, where 90% of the player base is at. Even if the player is winning games, they still are stuck in "matchmaking hell" for months. This frustrates players to the point where they will just quit the game and move on to something else. By creating a system that better encourages progression through the ranks, this will mitigate these player losses.

**Example: Starcraft 2**

 An extremely high percentage of players in Starcraft 2 are either in Bronze or Silver division. There is a very arbitrary system that decides when the player can rank up, with no real visible signs of improvement. This creates a bottleneck in the Bronze/ Silver division, which makes it extremely difficult to move out of.
Distracting or Cluttered UI - Leads to Player Frustration and Creates Barriers that Keep Players From Enjoying the Game

User Interface (UI) plays a crucial role in the
user-friendliness of a game.  A good UI
can lead to a streamlined experience for the players. However, on the other
hand a distracting, poorly organized or cluttered UI can take away from the
gaming experience and sometimes leave players irritated or even frustrated.

## Examples

NBA 2K13 – NBA 2K13 is a good example of how a
UI menu can be poorly organized as well as distracting.  It can be difficult at times to find things
in the menu as there is a lot of text going on as well as the need to push
several different buttons to navigate.
The biggest downside of the menu is how distracting it can be. The menu
features gold looking tabs and window and there are movies and visual effects
constantly going on in the background. This can make it difficult at times to
read the menu and figure out what is going on.

*Battleborn*

 The cluttered UI in *Battleborn* distracts from the action. The amount of visual information available to the player is far too much to take in effectively, and therefore it's wasted and ineffectual.
All bugs are not bad, they can make for unique features

It is a well-known fact that bugs do arise during game development. But not all bugs or glitches are bad all the time. Some bugs that change the way the game is played have the potential to be converted to unique mechanics. More often than not, these bugs that become features are what sets the game apart from the rest of the games in that genre.

## Examples

### Tribes Series

The skiing mechanic in the Tribes series of games is one of its defining features and is what sets it apart from the rest of the pack of shooters out there. However, this mechanic came about as a result of a bug in the physics engine of the game. Instead of dismissing it as a bug and fixing it the designers decided to embrace the bug and convert it into a mechanic and eventually became a unique selling point of that game.

### Skate 3

Skate 3 is known for being filled to the brim with hilarious and often disturbing physics bugs. While many game developers would be sweating bullets having released a broken game such as this (\*cough Tony Hark Pro Skater 5 \*cough) it actually became a large selling point for the game since players were trying to find new and even more hilarious ways to break the game. I would highly recommend watching this video for some lolz.

### Klepto

Klepto is a thief simulator where the player will need to get into apartments and houses to steal things without being captured by cops. The game itself, in terms of core mechanics, is rather average. However, what really makes this game attractive is its ridiculous glitches and bugs. Those glitches make the normal game flow almost unplayable, but players will be able to admire the funniest glitches in the game with friends.

For more information, please watch two attached videos.

### Quake - Rocket Jumping

Rocket jumping is the use of rocket launcher weapons to boost a player's own jump height by shooting the ground as they jump. This was first used as an exploit in Doom, but was popularized in the Quake series. Competitive players used the move as part of their repertoire, and rocket jumping became a core mechanic of later Quake games (and even Team Fortress 2).
Cooldowns can be used to balance games

Cool down is a period of time when an **action can't be used after it has been used**. It imitates weapons / actions becoming overheated in real life requiring some time to cool down again. If, in a game, one player has had the chance to use an action against an object, which may be the game itself or another player, **continuously using the action might not give sufficient time** to provide a feedback to the player and / or other players to act. This can lead to **poor balance** and consequently **deteriorated experience**. Incorporating a cool down **puts a cap** on using that action and solves the previously mentioned problems.

**Avalon: The Legend Lives**

Text-based online multi-player role playing game released in October 1989 that follows closely in the tradition of early Multi-User Dungeons. It is from this game that the genre defining feature of cool down originated to give a more meaningful experience of player vs player fighting.

**Resident Evil Revelations**

   In Resident Evil Revelations, the boss fight sequence against the Malacoda has the player fire a chain gun from a moving helicopter. The chain gun however starts to overhead and can become inoperable if the player continues to shoot. In order for the chain gun to cool down, the players needs to stop firing. This sells the experience of firing a weapon that can overheat and adds a bit of strategy to the gameplay as the player has to keep track of the heating level of the gun and decide when to fire to maximize their chance of winning.

###

**Need for Speed: Most Wanted**

I liked how Need for Speed franchise implemented cool down in 'Most Wanted' to evade cops. Once the player loses the visual contact with police, the player can enter cool down zones and stay there until their heat level reaches zero. The player will be re-engaged into pursuit if the cops enter the pursuit circle. This gives interesting choices to the user like to either drive to new cool-down zones or wait there and monitor the cops activity. Overall, the cool-down works like a hiding spot creating an agitated experience to the player.

**The League of Legends**

Cool down being used in the League very well. It prevents player overpower and gives players equal chance to win the game. In the game, different action have different cool down time in order to balance the difficulty.

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**Paragon**

Cool downs are used in MOBA game, Paragon where a specific ultimate power of the player has a longer cooldown as compared to some basic attacks which have relatively shorter cooldown time. This gives a balanmce to the game as a player cant keep using his ultimate power continuosly to inflict more damage on the opponent. He has to now strategically use his ultimate power at the right time.

In the below image, the circled part that I have highlighted in red is the cooldown timer for that particular attack.
Aim for a Tight "Game Feel," for the Player's Enjoyment

"Game feel" is a term that is commonly thrown around, but it means different things to different people. To me it is a mix of audiovisual and haptic (if possible with the medium) feedback combined in a satisfying way with player interactions. Reduction of input lag is very important in this, as the player should feel as if they are directly manipulating the game's actions and getting appropriate feedback, rather than feeling as if they are using a controller which in turn is manipulating the game.

### Example 1: Nuclear Throne

   A fantastic example of this is the game Nuclear Throne. Though a top-down, 2D shooter like many before it, the developers of the game had game feel as a specific goal in mind. Each of the many, many weapons in the game was hand-tweaked to feel unique when used and fired. For instance, firing a shotgun will violently shake the screen as multiple huge projectiles burst out, pushing heavier enemies back and sending lighter ones flying away. Even simply moving the reticule around the screen moves and refocuses the camera, giving an almost unrivaled sense of responsiveness.

### Example 2: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

Of all the Tony Hawk skateboarding games, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 has the tightest control scheme and the most polished game feel. With the addition of reverts and spine tranfers from previous titles, long satisfying combos could be made continuously through any given level. Grind speeds, ollie heights and even something as simple as the satisfying scrape noise that accompanied each revert had been fine tuned from the previous three games to provide the slickest feeling. THPS 4 is arguably not the best skateboarding game or even the best game in the Tony Hawks series but in terms of effortless player interaction it should be celebrated.