Sins of Game Design

[MortisLegio]

1. Thou shalt not end the game on a cliffhanger when no sequel has yet been considered.
2. Thou shalt not infinitely respawn baddies.
3. Thou shalt not try to fake a skybox with flat textures.
4. Thou shalt not be on the Wii.
5. Thou shalt not trade proven design for gimmicky aestetic reasons.
6. Thou shalt have a deep, meaningful story.
7. Thou shalt not be accessible to horddes of screaming, curshing 9-year-olds.
8. Thus shalt force neither stealth or combat

...How's that?

9. Thou shalt not make the same game over and over (Tombraider)
10. Thou shalt not fuck up a good series (Turok)

 

[Sigel]

1. Thou shalt not end the game on a cliffhanger when no sequel has yet been considered.
2. Thou shalt not infinitely respawn baddies.
3. Thou shalt not try to fake a skybox with flat textures.
4. Thou shalt not be on the Wii.
5. Thou shalt not trade proven design for gimmicky aestetic reasons.
6. Thou shalt have a deep, meaningful story.
7. Thou shalt not be accessible to horddes of screaming, curshing 9-year-olds.
8. Thus shalt force neither stealth or combat

...How's that?

9. Thou shalt not have annoying invisible walls.
10. Thou shalt not have escort missions.
11. Thou shalt not have horrible voice acting or dialogue.

 

[Marv21]

1. Thou shalt not end the game on a cliffhanger when no sequel has yet been considered.
2. Thou shalt not infinitely respawn baddies.
3. Thou shalt not try to fake a skybox with flat textures.
4. Thou shalt not be on the Wii.
5. Thou shalt not trade proven design for gimmicky aestetic reasons.
6. Thou shalt have a deep, meaningful story.
7. Thou shalt not be accessible to horddes of screaming, curshing 9-year-olds.
8. Thus shalt force neither stealth or combat

...How's that?

9. Thou shalt not have annoying invisible walls.
10. Thou shalt not have escort missions.
11. Thou shalt not have horrible voice acting or dialogue.

12. Thou shalt no have a sewer level!

 

[camokkid]

thou shalt not pass up an opportunity for co-op gameplay

 

[camokkid]

so....

L4D is going to gaming hell?

 

[Cogzwell]

Draw


...ok i didn't actually play FFVIII, but i saw the system used, i've heard people complain, and GAMESTOP won't buy it from you

 

[Nimbus]

1. Thou shalt not end the game on a cliffhanger when no sequel has yet been considered.
2. Thou shalt not infinitely respawn baddies.
3. Thou shalt not try to fake a skybox with flat textures.
4. Thou shalt not be on the Wii.
5. Thou shalt not trade proven design for gimmicky aestetic reasons.
6. Thou shalt have a deep, meaningful story.
7. Thou shalt not be accessible to horddes of screaming, curshing 9-year-olds.
8. Thus shalt force neither stealth or combat

...How's that?

9. Thou shalt not have annoying invisible walls.
10. Thou shalt not have escort missions.
11. Thou shalt not have horrible voice acting or dialogue.

12. Thou shalt no have a sewer level!

13. Thou shalt not place graphics above gameplay.

 

[Nutcase]

Infinite spawns.
I hate them so much I could spew bile into china when I run into them.

Infinite spawns can be a good thing if done properly. Take for example Aliens vs Predator (PC). The Xenomorphs spawned infinitively, forcing you to move forward. If you camp yourself in a corner (as a Marine) and wait for the spawn to die down, you will run out of ammo and eventually die. AvP is a horror game, and emulates a Xenomorph horde attack quite well. You need to get the hell out of there otherwise you'll be overwhelmed.

You can't mention the infinite spawns without also mentioning the fact the game purposely omitted a savegame feature, and you didn't exactly know when you were in a spawn area. That combination was the cherry on top which pushed the otherwise very good game into one of the best FPSs ever made.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I would say the massive amounts of copycatting, or incredible amount of sequels that add nothing.

Copycat games that really add nothing, but are just made to copycat GTA, or Half-Life, or Halo, or Final Fantasy, or God of War, or.....

and Guitar Hero.... just... stop. Go die in a fire. So much crap in one year for crying out loud just stop and take a breather.

 

[Sigel]

1. Thou shalt not end the game on a cliffhanger when no sequel has yet been considered.
2. Thou shalt not infinitely respawn baddies.
3. Thou shalt not try to fake a skybox with flat textures.
4. Thou shalt not be on the Wii.
5. Thou shalt not trade proven design for gimmicky aestetic reasons.
6. Thou shalt have a deep, meaningful story.
7. Thou shalt not be accessible to horddes of screaming, curshing 9-year-olds.
8. Thus shalt force neither stealth or combat

...How's that?

9. Thou shalt not have annoying invisible walls.
10. Thou shalt not have escort missions.
11. Thou shalt not have horrible voice acting or dialogue.

12. Thou shalt no have a sewer level!

13. Thou shalt not place graphics above gameplay.

14. Thou shalt not have water or ice levels.

 

[TheSentinel]

Thou shalt let the players shape their own scenario.

In detail, make us feel like what we're doing is having some kind of difference in the game world.

For example, in, say, Fallout 3, I go to Fort Bannister, kill the Talon Company Mercs, kill Commander Jabsco, and for the rest of the game, no more Talon Company.

I feel like I made a difference in the world by eliminating one of the most evil factions in the game. Let us do that, devs!

 

[bob-2000]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color

Seriously, game designers. It is not your enemy. Use it.

here's a simple test to see if you can be a main-stream game designer;
"What's you favorite color?"
"Grey"
"You got the job"

Heres one; If a baddie dies, don't respawn it for no good fucking reason (Far-Cry 2)
another; Good graphics don't compensate for bad game design, (Far-Cry 2)
and yet another; Don't shoehorn a multiplayer mode into everything (BioShock 2)

 

[Planlixix]

1. Thou shalt not end the game on a cliffhanger when no sequel has yet been considered.
2. Thou shalt not infinitely respawn baddies.
3. Thou shalt not try to fake a skybox with flat textures.
4. Thou shalt not be on the Wii.
5. Thou shalt not trade proven design for gimmicky aestetic reasons.
6. Thou shalt have a deep, meaningful story.
7. Thou shalt not be accessible to horddes of screaming, curshing 9-year-olds.
8. Thus shalt force neither stealth or combat

...How's that?

Nice!

Only two more an' we can ingrave that on two granite tablets.

What say you?

I say we do it.

...8. Thou shalt force neither stealth or combat

9. Thou shalt keep an even pace to keep thine players interested?

This bloke has the right idea.

10. Thou shalt RUN ON MY PC, GODAMMIT!

11. Thou shalt not ever, ever, EVER make another motherfreaking Sonic game. Those things are as dead as the Backstreet Boys, so stop beating a dead horse. And for that matter, stop Zelda. And Halo. And Final Fantasy. And Mario. And Super Smash Brothers too. MAKE A BUNCH OF ORIGINAL GAMES FOR ONE YEAR!!!!!

12. Okay so I stole this from an earlier post but Thou shalt be able to save progress at any time so thou can get up and get pizza from the oven.

13. Thou shalt not make stupid AI



EDIT: Yea totally notice I missed a thread where this continued on page 2... dang my need of getting used to forums!

 

[KapnKerfuffle]

Unskippable cutscences and definately no unskipable cutscenes before save points.

 

[Seras]

Quicktime events that force you to replay them time and time again.... im looking at you Ninja Blade.

Ai that only act when the player triggers something, like in CoD:WaW they only move up once you hit a point on the map and getting to that point means replaying the same part again and again because of one nade thrown from the other side of germany -_-;

And JRPGs with No Japanese Voiceovers... Maybe not a Game Design Sin but a pet peeve of mine ^-^;

 

[Vrex360]

Dead Spots where you have cleared all the enemies in a room and you now have no idea what to do next.

Also, this goes to Oblivion and Fallout 3 in particular, a massive sin is having small crevices in rocky outcrops that if you accidentally jump into them you become stuck and are unable to move or do anything only load your last save which takes you about twelve miles backwards to do it all over again.

 

[ForgetRealism09]

Stupid friendly AI