Hey Guys!
Unity 3D has been an amazing engine to work with, I have recently switched to it after using 3D Game Studio for 8 years. This is the first project I made in it and it was also a prototype to test out fun gameplay, I was so surprised at the results of this experiment I put up a youtube video explaining in detail the fun design of the game.
Enjoy!
David
Cool game there david, saw your an aussie too, fantastico!
Enjoyed watching your video
That 2-parter was a very interesting watch. Thanks for putting it together.
I think you’ve got a lot of good ideas about how to make great gameplay, and I bet it was a rewarding experience to implement them so far. However, although I agree with the things that you stated that make gameplay fun for people, for some of us, “gameplay” can not be separated from graphics and audio, without losing its appeal. You speak about rewards; I have always found it to be rewarding to see and hear things based on certain methods of performance. I have no interest in the concept of a score. I play a game to experience little pieces of art, which is a mix of what other people have created, and what I put into the system in my own way, like any other art.
God of War series: To start off with, gameplay is highly controlled, in that the designers know what weapon you are going to be using, and how powerful it will be. Later on, you decide how you want to equip yourself, and decide how you want the bodies to be flying around the screen, until they are destroyed. The basic gameplay does not change, but you have the freedom to change what the game looks and sounds like, to a good degree, while you’re playing it. It’s not a case as with most games, where one type of weapon is clearly superior for certain tasks - it’s more about personal style. So if the weapon looked and sounded bland, why would I bother to use it?
X-Men Legends: The announcer would say “COMBO!!!” so frequently, that when you were leveled up, it would sound like “C-C-C-C-COMBO!!!”. I could see that being extremely irritating, but I thought it was hilarious, and a large portion of the fun, for me, became trying to make him stutter as much as possible.
Halo series: I love Halo 1. Halo 2 and 3 introduced a new story arc, with characters I hated, and I hated Halo 2 and 3. They are completely separate entities, to me, despite similar (and some would say improved) gameplay.
Grand Theft Auto series: The gameplay itself could be given a different face, and I might be interested, but the thought of playing as a scumbag, progressing through the game by committing crimes, makes me sick.
So, your idea of story ruining a game is completely accurate, but it’s highly subjective! Those last two series have sold wonderfully!
I played a game, which I liked very much, that reminds me of your game. It’s called Assault Heroes (Xbox Live Arcade). However, in all honesty, in its current state, your game is not interesting to me, despite similar gameplay. (Geometry Wars is another not-too-dissimilar game, and its lack of graphical representations of realistic objects made it too boring for me to handle.) In Assault Heroes, there were little cinematics, in which the cars were given personalities, and there were large robots that resembled animals (I like looking at animals), and little guys with a hilarious war cry, that could be run over, or burnt to a crisp. Now, Assault Heroes is not the greatest game I have played, and I would say that you could probably take gameplay first, and apply a theme to it later, if you wanted to make a game like that. This could also be said of Cooking Dash, another recent game I like very much. But to make a game that I would consider really awesome, I think that more elements need to come together simultaneously.
I’ve found this extremely challenging to do, so it makes sense that I have found only a small number of titles to be “really awesome”. I will be watching any other videos you come up with though, because although there are other things are incredibly important to me, that you have not put so much weight on in your video, my favorite art form is the video game itself - and the game most certainly has to be fun. I just think it needs to look fun, sound fun, and control in a fun way, in addition to the seemingly more intangible aspects of fun that you are researching.
Keep up the good work.
David,
Just watched the video, very good to see the game play and hear your thoughts on design.
Hoorah- aussie!
Thanks for sharing this David. It’s good listening to other peoples insights about gameplay.
I couldn’t agree with you more. It seems around here the prevailing sentiment is graphics are king. A fun game with bad graphics on the forums gets much less buzz than a boring game with wonderful graphics. I am between projects right now, and found myself planning a setting rather than a gameplay mechanic. Good thing I watched this.
Hey Guys!
Thanks for your kind words! Good to see Aussies here 
@Jessy I think what you are touching on is a different demographic of genre of game. People enjoy different types of gameplay and when you create a certain type of gameplay you are targeting a demographic. This is about how to make fun gameplay for a specific type of demographic and compared to the range of genres and games out there these videos only touch on a small aspect of what makes all these games fun.
The idea of a story interfering with gameplay was specifically towards the action genre, and the thought wasn’t that story can’t work with it, it is that story needs to be crafted in very tactfully to make it work with the action genre:
From wikipedia:
“An action game requires players to use quick reflexes and timing to overcome obstacles.”
With other game genres the story actually becomes part of the gameplay. Those are just my thoughts though.
Have you played Assault Heroes? I think your game is in exactly the same genre. As for making a game for a demographic, that sounds like some sketchy, do-it-for-the-money territory, to me.
Targeting a demographic isn’t sketchy at all (and frankly neither is money-making, but that’s not the point). Its a fact of life that a College kid who likes to play chess in his free time isn’t gonna like the same kinds of games as a 10 year old who has the attention span of a gnat. Its just part of making a good video game that you know who you’re making it for, because if you try to do it for everyone you’ll make compromises, and then nobody will like your game.
Good advice in general. The real core to making a fun game is to have fun gameplay first and all the rest second. Don’t stick with concepts that don’t work, are boring, or just generally frustrate the player.
Get a general “proxy” base gameplay for your game and build on it from there. Always making sure the stuff you’re adding is fun and has replay value.
With that said… I don’t know if you were wanting critiques on your actual game or not but I felt I’d share…
I think if offered the chance to play your game based on the videos, I wouldn’t play it. It just looks generally boring to me. Sure you have some good concepts of gameplay in there… but wandering around in a dark maze shooting little blocks so that I can build up my weapons to shoot more blocks does not make me jump out of my seat with anticipation.
It’s not unique as a concept (moving around shooting other moving things has been done to death) nor does it have anything compelling people to want to play it over other top down action shooter games. Just seems like your run of the mill shooter game.
Though I give you props on polishing some of the effects and doing as much as you did in the span of time you did it in.
I think visuals do play a role in games. Every aspect of a game can have a huge impact on the game in the end. It’s not really safe to assume that good gameplay will sell a game regardless of graphics or sounds or anything else.
Most of what you said is pretty common knowledge for game designers. Give players objectives. Reward them. Give them better ways to attack while giving them tougher enemies to fight. Don’t make players grind the same stuff for too long. Etc.
Did I say anything about making it for everyone? Targeting a demographic is risky business, artistically. If you make compromises in an effort to please people you don’t even know, your work is likely to be phony, rehashed crap. This has been the fate of nearly every licensed game out there.
I looked at the other stuff on your youtube account. I’m looking forward to what you can make with Unity. It’s really impressive stuff you’ve got there.
Thanks Gizzard it’s much appreciated!
Konidias I really appreciate what you have to say, I do wonder if your impression would be different if you played the game as the intention of those videos was not to communicate the game experience itself but how the gameplay was made. Playing the game is a completely different experience in itself and I’d say it’s hard to judge it based on those videos.
Gil’s working on the art work at the moment and it is going to be made into a fully polished casual game.
I’m really anctious to play this, it looks really fun! Any chance you could put up the “box” version for testing? I’d love to try it even without any good graphics
BTW, there’s a place in the video with ALOT of small rectangles and they all move together somehow. It’s a really nice and beleivable effect.
Keep up the good work,
Socapex 2K
Fun-topic:
There is very-very interesting and funny book about fun in games, I recommend to every developer:
There is another great source for casual game developers – to understand how the successful casual game works, also recommended (if not obligatory 8))
http://www.igda.org/wiki/Casual_Games_SIG/Whitepaper
and especially the design section:
http://www.igda.org/wiki/Casual_Games_SIG/Whitepaper/Production_and_Design
Thanks Socapex!
I appreciate those links helioxfilm! Very very useful infromation. Thank you.
Hi, David
Nice to see you here!
Well, I,ve been use 3dgs for a long time too(about 6 years), And guess what, I just try to make the game from your code(zelda), but I’m stuck in create the game level. W3d is so frustating me.
And You have a very great contribution at the 3dgs forum.
But one day I found this Unity3D in my life, actually about 2-3 months ago. And I’ve instantly falling in love with this Software.
It’s just take about 1-2 hours for me to decide, that this software is what I’ve been looking for, for a long time.
I decide to stick with it.
I will totally give all my power to this software.
And since you’re the hero from the old forum.
I guaranteed that you’ll become the HERO in this forum too!.
It will very great if you convert the amazing kingdom heart or zelda code to unity! 
See ya.
Hey David, I just wanted to say that I thought your videos were fantastic. I enjoyed the detailed explanation, and it looked quite fun. But I think that aesthetics were a big part of my attraction to your game. Despite the fact that you used only Unity primitives, it expresses a clean and deliberate look that adds alot of focus to the game. It looks to provide a great deal of the fun in action games, without bringing along the abundant visual noise present in many titles. So I wish you the best, and I look forward to being able to see your future work.
-Chris
P.S. I have to completely disagree with the notion that the usage of demographics/psychographics is inherintly sketchy, or that it is a limiting factor in artistic expression. They are a tool like anything else, and though there are heartless and artless companies who use them as their ONLY source of guidance, there are just as many independant artists who use them as a way to better understand how their projects will persist.
If I wanted to create something that I felt would impart a valuable piece of knowledge to people my age, there are certain things I’d LOVE to know.
With regards to the people who would be playing, what kinds of things would be necessary for them to experience what I’ve created to the best of their ability? If people in this age group are generally unfamiliar with how I’m presenting my information, than perhaps I should invest a little time in a more robust tutorial. And that is information I’d love to have before betting the bank on a project.
Yes! There are people out there that say
“Guys like bbs->Game with lots of bbs will sell
->production.”
But that isn’t at all the only use of demographics/psychographics on a project.
@DavidLancaster :
I have used also 3DGS from long time ago.
I can only say 3DGS is far beyond Unity for the moment in terms of workflow, and Unity is now the number one personnaly i think in terms of ease of use, even more if you want ot use Physics easily !
Welcome aboard