Developmental dead ends and the pitfalls of game trends.

[lucidium]

sundin13 said:

EDIT: I deleted my first paragraph somehow? Ummm...well ill just leave this:

Central Question: "Will this make my game better able to achieve its goal?"

I think that is the central question of game design, and one that is often ignored for the sake of adhering to trends. Regenerating health has its place, but it seems like every FPS these days has Regenerating health. Why? Well because it is the popular thing to do.

This question should also be asked when designing an area in a foreign world like you are talking about. Would making the world look significantly different than earth and leaving the potential for the player to be confused make the game better achieve its goal? In many cases, I'd argue yes, but once again, this question needs to be asked for all games, and there are times when an "earth-like" planet may be best.

I have never made a game (although I have thought about it for a long time) but I think that in pre-production, this central question needs to be asked about every system in the game. Many video games seem to take the central layout of a popular game, tweak one aspect and call it brand new, even if all the other pieces don't really fit to the ideology of the central idea.

the challenge is finding solutions to these problems that enhance or create gameplay previously not done before, shying away from them and sticking to what people are comfortable with is the main reason why everything feels so overdone and tired. 

 

it takes just one game to try something fresh and succeed for others to follow suit,  there are so many aspects of game design that just arent given the attention they need simply because they would rather spend 10million prettying up and reskinning an old game and passing it off as new than stepping back and asking themselves how can we explore beyond whats currently the norm.