Posted June 24, 2021 by The Gates of Truth
To the Gates of Truth – Game design break down 2
Hi! So here is the second post concerning my design thinking and how I tried to approach game design in “To the Gates of Truth”. I will break down different aspects, such as narrative, mechanics, iterations, or the way I organize.
Today:
2 – Adapting or being inspired by a game?
Whenever I play a game that I love, there is a little voice in my head that tells me: wow, I wish I could make something like this, create and share such an awesome experience!
When creating and designing, there is no wrong in being inspired and taking references, we must start somewhere and build from it. But to have a reference, you must understand and apprehend it by playing, observing, and thinking. I guess we could separate two approaches (that are not exclusive) to observe games: from a player perspective and from a designer one.
Of course, it is not like we have physical lens to observe but it is more like how we can decompose our playful experience.
From a player perspective, I tried to get some “whole” observation of what pleased me: the controls, the mechanics, the story, the narration? Or was it a particular moment or climax? In video games, a lot of features are hidden to the player knowledge, so with this perspective you rely on feeling and “guts”.
From a designer perspective, I guess the observation and decomposition is a little bit more systemic, mechanical… just like some reverse engineering.
For those who don’t know, reverse engineering is trying, from a product, to deconstruct every aspect of it and understand how it was built this way.
I guess I tried to make both perspectives, as anyone does. But focusing on a particular perspective depends on the objective: if you want to “adapt” something specific, then you need to be precise when observing as a designer. If you only want to be inspired, a little bit of both is important.
But, of course, the question remains: how to be inspired without copying and making something original? That would be for another time.
Summary: I would like to see two approaches when analyzing a game in order to inspire yourself. From a player perspective (feelings, guts) or a designer one (reverse engineering). We tend to observe with both perspectives but knowing in which proportion is important.
So, what about you? Have you already tried to design a game inspired by another? Or a particular hack or mod?
Thank you for taking the time to read and see you in part 3 :D