What Does a Game Designer Do? The Door Problem.

A must read. It’s pithy, funny, and spot on!

http://www.lizengland.com/blog/2014/04/the-door-problem/

Gigi

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I like this article!

The link to the poster appears to be broken. However I found another link on google.

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has flashbacks to eve’s door fiasco

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I think I need to make a game about doors now.

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You could have a magic wand that makes doors everywhere and call it Portcullis.

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A rhythm game where the blocks that fall to be tapped are all doors & all the music in the game is from The Doors

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Door simulator 2016

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How many doors do you need to be considered AAA?

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It’s not just the number of doors. Any fool can throw together a procedural algorithm to pump out a thousand doors.

To be AAA you have to hand craft each door.

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This actually reminds me of the questions Engineering would ask Design when they were unprepared with every aspect of a feature during planning meetings.

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What about procedurally generated doors that fit in procedurally generated holes in walls etc? Rogue like dungeon door crawl

well crap now you got me really thinking about a game about doors.
I think I would take my main inspiration from the old Spy vs. Spy NES game. mixed with Lemmings.

You play as the doors. and you have to open and close the doors to help the “lemmings” escape the building.
they are trying to escape … no I got it!

Tittle: Rats on a Ship or Rats of the Titanic
Objective: open the right doors to let the rats escape a sinking ship, while at the same time closing doors to prevent the boat from sinking. Can you save the rats and the ship at the same time??
Setting: top down view of a level of the boat. Water starts pouring in from holes on the sides. Rats start making their way from room to room trying to get to the stairs that lead to the next level. Imagine a rat maze that you can manipulate by opening and closing doors.

It could bee one of those star award games where you get stars based on how man rats you save then unlock other boats and other levels with different obstacles.

Bam! a game all about opening and closing doors.

“idea guy” strikes again.

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The thing is? In a way there are already games about opening and closing doors. Just, some of the doors aren’t.

You know how in comedy the ‘Straight Guy / Funny Guy’ schtick exists? I think for games, our own variation is ‘Lock & Key’ - you need to get a key to get past a lock of some sort. It can be a door. It can be a block you can’t mine. It could be a really powerful monster that’s standing on top of a narrow, but unusually resilient and load-bearing rope bridge.

Jokes aside, I think the Door analogy is powerful, because it’s more or less the truth in game design. We put something in front of our players, that (ideally) they want to get past to see what’s beyond, so we give them the tools in a way that feels satisfying to them, so they can.

Epiphany Moment!
Good games give good tools to players in fulfilling ways, that lead to a satisfying payoff.

Bad games give bad tools to players, and/or don’t give a tool to the player in a fulfilling way, and/or have a disappointing payoff.

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42

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& bad games let their players act like tools

I for one do not accept this clear case of tool shaming. A strong tool has every right to go off to be used however it wants to, and no self-appointed moral guardian has any authority to assassinate the character of someone purely on the grounds of promiscuity. #EndToolShaming.

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Oh no. RockoDyne has evolved into a Tool Justice Warrior. I’m scared. Hold me.

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now all I can think of is a handyman superhero going around & saving tools from being misused while installing doors, & seeking revenge for those that couldn’t be saved.

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Or a first-person repairman simulator…well, there’s already a janitor simulator, and somebody has to fix the doors that were kicked in or blown off their hinges!

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