Game Development Theory 1：What makes a game ‘good’?

The factors would affect a game to be good a good game:
• Immersive Environment/Experience
• Interesting & Captivating background storyline
• A Fun Experience (make people feel happy)
• Sense of realism
• Preferred type of game
• A sense of Achievement
• Functional & Optimised (needs to work properly)
• Experiential gaming (which is not able in real life by some special situation)
• At least one unique element
• Challenging Reward Cycle – which must be challenging – the reward must be proportionate
• Good level of customization (Game Dependent)
• Effective Characterisations
• Karma Effect
• Progression:
 Story-line/Plot
 Characters/Skill
• Good Rating + Sales
• Innovative development & Effective testing
• Community interaction
• Competition + Ranking
• Appropriate Sound Scape
• Graphical style + texturing + Effective Colour Palette
• Meet Player expectation
• Accessibility Options
• Don’t let the payment content affect the balance of the game
• ……

In order to make a good game, there are lots of factors will affect the quality of the game and the user experience. Some of them I have list above. The following, I will describe some factors which wil make a game good in detail.

As a gamer, the first thing is to configure out what I am playing for. There is always something to be gained by playing a game, otherwise there is no need to play. There is always an underlying motive, it can be relaxion, an idea, a novel feeling, the joy of winning over an opponent and so on. So, it is clear now, a game which can satify the motivation must be a good game for the person. What doesn’t satisfy or even irritate the player is necessarily a bad game for the person. therefore, good and bad are generally determined by one’s subjective attitudes.

Games just like music, literature, art, etc, needs to keep up with The Times. For example, “Just Like Heaven” which is one of the most popular music in the 1980s in British, but now there are not many people who know it and like it. Also, nowadays, there is no one that has become a best-selling author by writing romances of chivalry, as it already behind the Times. Although the old culture has great value, modern people prefer to care about life emotions, campus youth, feminism, environmental protection, and other new contents. A game creation must follow, otherwise, no one will see, can not provide inspiration and help to modern people, which would lose a certain practical significance (but this does not mean that the work that does not follow The Times is no value).

In my perspective, the top five factors which would affect a game to be a good game. There are Playing Method, Fair, Storyline/Plot, Multiplayer team and Picture Quality.

Playing Method
It’s the essence of the game. A good game can have no gorgeous special effects, can have no wonderful music, but as long as the gameplay is exquisitely designed, it is also a good game.

For example, a mobile game: Temple Escape. In this game, all you have to do is control the runner to avoid the obstacle, eat as much gold as you can from the side of the road, and keep running, and as time goes on, you’ll get faster and harder and harder to avoid, until you can’t avoid the obstacle. It seems simple, but this kind of fun parkour method is very popular. It can make people feel happy and relaxed when they are busy at work. The ranking also extend the life of the game, allowing people to constantly challenge themselves and others. So, it won the App Store download Champion of that year. A small game, because of the exquisive playing method, got good reviews, so play method is one of the most important element. Some games, on the other hand, cost a lot of human and financial resources, but do not please, a large part of the reason is that the playing method of the game is boring.

Fair
This is another important attribute of the game. We all know how important relative fairness is in life, and it is the same in the games. For example, Cross F, is one of the most played online FPS games worldwide, was one of the most popular game in China until , but because of the unfair charge props, that cause lot of player leave the game.
It started with money to buy Nepalese sabers, Barretts, and camouflaged soundtracks. All kinds of fancy props and characters appeared on the mall interface, and the prices were getting higher and higher.

The launch of “Hero Weapon” marked the last time officials tore down the FIG leaf, and the game began to encourage the player to top-up more money in the game in a big way.

I don’t deny that the existence of heroic weapons will make game publishers more profitable, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with players buying their favorite items. But in the face of a weapon prop at a cost of 888 yuan, in few years ago, many players can’t afford it.

“Because I couldn’t afford the hero weapons, but I didn’t want to be bullied by them in the game, so I chose to leave.” This is the voice of most players at that time, because you can not face your enemies alone change the speed of the faster, more stable trajectory than you, the bullet rate is a lot higher than you, it is no different from the single side of the crush.

Storyline/Plot
Some people say that playing a good game is like watching the perfect movie or reading a beautiful book. I fully agree with this view. I believe that if the gameplay is the essence of the game, then the storyline and plot are the soul of the game.
For examle Assassins creed, from the first generation of Middle Eastern customs, to the second generation of the Renaissance Florence trilogy, the third generation of the liberation of the American continent, the fourth generation of the British pirates, the fifth generation of the French Revolution, the sixth generation of assassins mutiny, the seventh generation of the British industrial Revolution, and the eighth generation of Egyptian origin. Every generation you play Assassin’s Creed, you get to know that era again. Through games, we can act together with historical celebrities. Playing games is like being immersed in that era. This is a game supported by a strong background and plot.

Multiplayer team

A person’s game often will not have a too-long life, as a player plays a game too long for a person, it will get bored.
Multi-player interaction is another factor that would affect a game to be a good game, and this applies to any project. You can imagine, how a person can always play a game alone. But with the team, it will have more fun.
Legal of Legend, Pubg, Dota, these three games are all really good games. The quality of the game, the playing method, the number of players, are all role models in the industry. They have one thing in common, which is the interaction with many people. Because the presence of many people makes the game no longer lonely. Another important reason is that people tend to trust their teammates. It’s hard to move up the ranks of competitive games by yourself unless you have unique skills. However, once you meet the team members with poor strength, it is difficult to lead the team to win by yourself. A strong teammate you know will help. As a result, team-oriented games are popular with players.

Picture/Image Quality

Comfortable visual experience, often at the first encounter, the exquisite quality of the picture wii make the player hard to stop.
It doesn’t mean all the game should be the top quality of all images, but it has to conform to the aesthetic standards of this era and meet the basic visual requirements of the player.
For example, Gluttonous Snake on Nokia’s N series phones in 2005， that was in advanced pixeel model, but now it has been upgraded from the original 2D plane to 3D and the image quality gives a high - end image quality similar to that of a PC. As a result, the game was well received at the time.

Reference:
BBC, What makes a good computer game ? available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkcqn39/articles/zw96tfr [Accessed on 28 Sep 2020]
Quora, What makes a game be a good game?, available at： https://www.quora.com/What-makes-a-game-be-a-good-game [Accessed on 28 Sep 2020]
Brandon Rollins, Brandon the Game Dev, 10 Elements of Good Game Design, February 17, 2020, available at: https://brandonthegamedev.com/10-elements-of-good-game-design/ [28 Sep 2020]
CrossFire, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossFire_(video_game) [Accessed on 29 Sep 2020]
Assassin’s Creed, available at： https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed_(series) [Accessed on 29 Sep 2020]