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Low Hanging Fruit
I find that when developing a game, there is usually some low hanging fruit - some obvious tweaks and changes that would likely improve the game. That seems like a good place to start, before diving deep into a development project, before stripping a game to studs and rebuilding it, might as well try the obvious tweaks and pick off that low hanging fruit!
I suppose that's a product of experience, where a designer who hasn't encountered certain situations or design problems makes relatively common "mistakes," and another designer or a developer who has seen that situation before immediately notices it.
I've started looking into taking freelance development jobs, and as an example, on one of them there happens to be a lot of this low hanging fruit. So before I really get in there and start messing around under the hood, I'm starting with some of the more obvious stuff, like false or uninteresting decisions (decisions made without proper context), unreliable abilities, unnecessary layers of randomness, and obvious card imbalances.
When you design, or develop, what kinds of low hanging fruit have you come across?
4 comments:
I'm still working on my first two game designs, but have a background in web design, graphic design, and usability, so most of my thinking comes from those fields.
I'd LOVE for you to go into more detail on the things that seem obvious to you. I've learned a lot from reading through your thought processes in this blog.
Some of the things I'm constantly on the look out for in my games include:
- Exceptions to the rule. It better be worth it, but it very likely isn't. Change the rule to be more encompassing, or just remove the exception.
- Don't make me have to remember things. I don't want to forget an important rule, but I also don't want to have to continually open the rulebook.
- Unnecessary complexity. When combining two things into a single concept actually simplifies quite a bit and lowers the mental load of the entire thing.
- Call things what they are. Theme is helpful, until it isn't. Example: Don't be clever. Just call it the discard pile.
- Whenever possible, put the action closer to the effect. I find this to be more intuitive for new players. Example: Place an action disc on the Gather space of your player board and gather wood from a forest on the map where you have a worker. Or instead... put your worker on a forest to gather wood.
When I hear the "low-hanging fruit" argument, I am reminded of the story about two groups of scientists planning a mission to the moon. After a week, the two groups are evaluated. The first group has barely started working on the physics, math, and rocket design. The second group is much closer to the moon, having climbed a tree.
The moral is that getting 1% closer to your goal might feel like a short-term win, but might be a complete waste of time.
@Ekted: Long time no see! Thanks for commenting
I'm not sure if your comment is saying that going after low hanging fruit in development is good or bad -- I guess it's a waste of time because it's like climbing a tree when what you really want is to get to the moon?
Maybe this depends on the perspective -- a designer starting a game from scratch has a lot farther to go than a developer coming in after a game is "fully designed" so to speak
@Steve Erwin: Those are all great things to watch out for and adopt in your designs!
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