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[Gamer79]

Kind of a universal guide to creating a game that does not get instantly bombed or univerally liked

1. Make fun the center of the game. Forget all the technical aspects or graphic fidelity. The number one thing a developer should be asking themselves is it fun to play? Get friends, get family, hell random youtubers would do it for free, just let people play the game and determine if it's fun. If it's not, back to the drawing board. That has to be the focus

2. Keep the politics out of your games. Most people see sex/gender through the same lenses we always have since the beginning of time, Male/female. I am older and to me that is common sense. Read the room and realize there has been a major culture shift. The moment any developer puts something like "non binary" as a choice the game will almost certainly get review bombed and flamed. Regardless of how you feel about it, that's reality.

3. Shorter and better: I often find that many single player games are too long. My personal taste for the perfect length of a single player game is 12-20 hours. Often games these days drag on for 60 hours plus. Most of the 60 hours is filler and often times it's always not "fun." Condense the games, put more fun in a shorter amount of time. Also lets ditch the open world for every fucking game. It's getting old and only few do it right. If a game is 12-20 hours and it's really good I could always replay it in my mind and there could always be different paths.

4.Older genre's can still work: There are empty spaces or genre's of games that just do not get made anymore. A proper Arcade Racer, or pure FPS, or Turn based RPG on a large scale could be a great seller if done right. The issue is other developers have made these type of games with half effort and of course failed and blamed the genre. I get it that the cost of game development is so high and most publishers/developers want to play it safe but there is just entire holes and genre's of games that never get AAA releases anymore. Take a risk and make a high quality game in a genre that is not "mainstream." It has shown in the past that it times these become mega hits. Balatro got game of the year nominations for a spin on fuckin poker. Creativity is needed in this space.

5. Release a game that is not broken or needs major patches before it's playable. Beta testers: It's not secret that today's games are released with bug's and depend on consistent patches to fix them. What is insane is these companies spend a ton of money on Focus groups and game testers and other bullshit to test these games. They could do this much more cost effective and much more cheaply. There are people on youtube (lots of them) that go around and just break games for "speed running." Often times when developers of their own games see what these kids can do they are shocked. Hell reach out and end email's to these kids and let them play the game for a few months before release. Most of them would do it for free or even for a 12 pack of mountain dew and doritos. Get a team of these speed runners to play any game before release for a few months. These fuckers will find the holes.

6. Optimizie the fucking games: There is no reason why games like Final Fantasy are struggling to run on a 4090. Many games today release with crazy requirements but do not look much better than my 10 year old games. Some games come in over 200GB and you wonder what the hell for? Optimize the damn games. Care more about Quality. I miss the Nintendo "seal of approval" days. At minimum every game should release at 1080/60 with jsut average hardware. If the game releases with Stutters or needs Hardware Requirments that most users do not have, go back to the drawing board and optimize the damn game.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Step 1: don’t make bad game.

 

[TintoConCasera]

SMT games get it right: not only they do have a lot of hees, but they also have all the hoes.

 

[Sebastian1295]

The keys to making a good game are simple to me.

1: Have good writing at a bare minimum with good characters and a good story. If it's a visual novel then i expect a great story at bare minimum because there's not much gameplay in those types of games.

2: Have good gameplay to go along with said good writing.

 

[mariosbrother]

I appreciate quick pick up and plays such as ExoArmor and the game is microscopic by today's standards.
Dev posted this today:

 

[Skifi28]

1) AI
2) AIiiiii
3)AI AI AI AI

 

[Danjin44]

In my opinion complete creative freedom, devs should be allow to make what they want.

 

[rofif]

Look at 360/ps3/ps4.
hint (no fake frames, no fake resolution, no mandatory 60fps modes, no dei)

 

[LectureMaster]

My man is kinda cute making a thread to answer his previous thread question.

 

[Gorgon]

Kind of a universal guide to creating a game that does not get instantly bombed or univerally liked

1. Make fun the center of the game. Forget all the technical aspects or graphic fidelity. The number one thing a developer should be asking themselves is it fun to play? Get friends, get family, hell random youtubers would do it for free, just let people play the game and determine if it's fun. If it's not, back to the drawing board. That has to be the focus

2. Keep the politics out of your games. Most people see sex/gender through the same lenses we always have since the beginning of time, Male/female. I am older and to me that is common sense. Read the room and realize there has been a major culture shift. The moment any developer puts something like "non binary" as a choice the game will almost certainly get review bombed and flamed. Regardless of how you feel about it, that's reality.

3. Shorter and better: I often find that many single player games are too long. My personal taste for the perfect length of a single player game is 12-20 hours. Often games these days drag on for 60 hours plus. Most of the 60 hours is filler and often times it's always not "fun." Condense the games, put more fun in a shorter amount of time. Also lets ditch the open world for every fucking game. It's getting old and only few do it right. If a game is 12-20 hours and it's really good I could always replay it in my mind and there could always be different paths.

4.Older genre's can still work: There are empty spaces or genre's of games that just do not get made anymore. A proper Arcade Racer, or pure FPS, or Turn based RPG on a large scale could be a great seller if done right. The issue is other developers have made these type of games with half effort and of course failed and blamed the genre. I get it that the cost of game development is so high and most publishers/developers want to play it safe but there is just entire holes and genre's of games that never get AAA releases anymore. Take a risk and make a high quality game in a genre that is not "mainstream." It has shown in the past that it times these become mega hits. Balatro got game of the year nominations for a spin on fuckin poker. Creativity is needed in this space.

5. Release a game that is not broken or needs major patches before it's playable. Beta testers: It's not secret that today's games are released with bug's and depend on consistent patches to fix them. What is insane is these companies spend a ton of money on Focus groups and game testers and other bullshit to test these games. They could do this much more cost effective and much more cheaply. There are people on youtube (lots of them) that go around and just break games for "speed running." Often times when developers of their own games see what these kids can do they are shocked. Hell reach out and end email's to these kids and let them play the game for a few months before release. Most of them would do it for free or even for a 12 pack of mountain dew and doritos. Get a team of these speed runners to play any game before release for a few months. These fuckers will find the holes.

6. Optimizie the fucking games: There is no reason why games like Final Fantasy are struggling to run on a 4090. Many games today release with crazy requirements but do not look much better than my 10 year old games. Some games come in over 200GB and you wonder what the hell for? Optimize the damn games. Care more about Quality. I miss the Nintendo "seal of approval" days. At minimum every game should release at 1080/60 with jsut average hardware. If the game releases with Stutters or needs Hardware Requirments that most users do not have, go back to the drawing board and optimize the damn game.

 

[HRK69]

I'm so tired of people whining about long games.

Not every game is 100+ hours, and if one is, then it’s obviously not for you.

Developers shouldn’t have to shorten their vision just because some people can’t commit to longer experiences. There are plenty of shorter games out there, so go play those instead of demanding every game be tailored to your liking.

Not every piece of entertainment is made for everyone, and that’s okay. Complaining about it like it’s some grand injustice is just complete and utter nonsense.

 

[Generic]

Kind of a universal guide to creating a game that does not get instantly bombed or univerally liked

1. Make fun the center of the game. Forget all the technical aspects or graphic fidelity. The number one thing a developer should be asking themselves is it fun to play? Get friends, get family, hell random youtubers would do it for free, just let people play the game and determine if it's fun. If it's not, back to the drawing board. That has to be the focus

2. Keep the politics out of your games. Most people see sex/gender through the same lenses we always have since the beginning of time, Male/female. I am older and to me that is common sense. Read the room and realize there has been a major culture shift. The moment any developer puts something like "non binary" as a choice the game will almost certainly get review bombed and flamed. Regardless of how you feel about it, that's reality.

3. Shorter and better: I often find that many single player games are too long. My personal taste for the perfect length of a single player game is 12-20 hours. Often games these days drag on for 60 hours plus. Most of the 60 hours is filler and often times it's always not "fun." Condense the games, put more fun in a shorter amount of time. Also lets ditch the open world for every fucking game. It's getting old and only few do it right. If a game is 12-20 hours and it's really good I could always replay it in my mind and there could always be different paths.

4.Older genre's can still work: There are empty spaces or genre's of games that just do not get made anymore. A proper Arcade Racer, or pure FPS, or Turn based RPG on a large scale could be a great seller if done right. The issue is other developers have made these type of games with half effort and of course failed and blamed the genre. I get it that the cost of game development is so high and most publishers/developers want to play it safe but there is just entire holes and genre's of games that never get AAA releases anymore. Take a risk and make a high quality game in a genre that is not "mainstream." It has shown in the past that it times these become mega hits. Balatro got game of the year nominations for a spin on fuckin poker. Creativity is needed in this space.

5. Release a game that is not broken or needs major patches before it's playable. Beta testers: It's not secret that today's games are released with bug's and depend on consistent patches to fix them. What is insane is these companies spend a ton of money on Focus groups and game testers and other bullshit to test these games. They could do this much more cost effective and much more cheaply. There are people on youtube (lots of them) that go around and just break games for "speed running." Often times when developers of their own games see what these kids can do they are shocked. Hell reach out and end email's to these kids and let them play the game for a few months before release. Most of them would do it for free or even for a 12 pack of mountain dew and doritos. Get a team of these speed runners to play any game before release for a few months. These fuckers will find the holes.

6. Optimizie the fucking games: There is no reason why games like Final Fantasy are struggling to run on a 4090. Many games today release with crazy requirements but do not look much better than my 10 year old games. Some games come in over 200GB and you wonder what the hell for? Optimize the damn games. Care more about Quality. I miss the Nintendo "seal of approval" days. At minimum every game should release at 1080/60 with jsut average hardware. If the game releases with Stutters or needs Hardware Requirments that most users do not have, go back to the drawing board and optimize the damn game.

Add a multiplayer mode. Singleplayer-only games shouldn't exist.

 

[Valonquar]

Big fat anime tiddies

 

[T4keD0wN]

I aint reading all those useless steps, anyway you can simply skip them all and start with:
Step 1. Pay the reviwers to say the game is good and it will be percieved as a good game

 

[Sooner]

I'm so tired of people whining about long games.

Not every game is 100+ hours, and if one is, then it’s obviously not for you.

Developers shouldn’t have to shorten their vision just because some people can’t commit to longer experiences. There are plenty of shorter games out there, so go play those instead of demanding every game be tailored to your liking.

Not every piece of entertainment is made for everyone, and that’s okay. Complaining about it like it’s some grand injustice is just complete and utter nonsense.

Long games aren't usually long because of "vision". It's the opposite. They are pressured by publishers to pad out thier games with unnecessary bloat, because they believe longer "time to beat" scores will result in more sales at full price.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Put in gay chickens and charge a subscription

 

[Guilty_AI]

Long games aren't usually long because of "vision". It's the opposite. They are pressured by publishers to pad out thier games with unnecessary bloat, because they believe longer "time to beat" scores will result in more sales at full price.

Then the conplaint shouldn't be about "long games" but rather bloated ones.

 

[Phase]

Reactivity. The single most important aspect of a game is how it reacts to your actions. It won't apply to every genre but take RPG's for example; Without reactivity they become dull and lifeless (e.g. Avowed). But do it well and your game is going to be loved because it'll feel like a real world that exists even without you there.

 

[Alebrije]

Git gut.

 

[HRK69]

Long games aren't usually long because of "vision". It's the opposite. They are pressured by publishers to pad out thier games with unnecessary bloat, because they believe longer "time to beat" scores will result in more sales at full price.

Once again, long games just aren’t for you. Stop complaining and stick to shorter ones.

This is just like the whole "Souls games need an easy mode" debate all over again.

People demanding that games be altered to fit their personal tastes instead of simply playing what aligns with their preferences. Not every game is meant for every player, and that’s okay. Developers don’t have to cater to you just because you think a game should be different.

And this argument that long games are artificially padded due to publisher pressure? Sure, some games suffer from unnecessary filler, but let’s not act like every expansive game is a cynical attempt to manipulate "time to beat" scores for sales. Many developers create long games because they want to craft rich, immersive experiences, ones that take time to unfold. Dismissing them all as “bloat” is just lazy criticism.

Not everything has to be trimmed down to match your attention span or your schedule. If a game’s length bothers you, then it’s simply not for you. Play something else and move on instead of demanding that everything conform to your tastes

 

[64gigabyteram]

1. Make fun the center of the game. Forget all the technical aspects or graphic fidelity. The number one thing a developer should be asking themselves is it fun to play? Get friends, get family, hell random youtubers would do it for free, just let people play the game and determine if it's fun. If it's not, back to the drawing board. That has to be the focus

I think gameplay is the most central component to any game. But restricting games to needing to be gameplay heavy fun when successful games like Silent Hill 2, The Last of Us, God of War (though still fun it is noticeably less gameplay heavy than its PS2/3 ancestors) Red Dead Redemption 2, Disco Elysium etc aren't necessarily the most arcadey in your face fun experiences ever is just beyond me.

2. Keep the politics out of your games. Most people see sex/gender through the same lenses we always have since the beginning of time, Male/female. I am older and to me that is common sense. Read the room and realize there has been a major culture shift. The moment any developer puts something like "non binary" as a choice the game will almost certainly get review bombed and flamed. Regardless of how you feel about it, that's reality.

can't play Baldur's Gate 3 no more because it's too 'political'..... RIP
Or Disco Elysium, since it's very political I'll just have to throw that one in the trash... Deus Ex, too. Gotta trash that one.

Politics is far more than identity politics and even then having progressive identity politics in your game doesn't make it an automatic failure. A lot of the time quote on quote woke games will fail because they just plain suck.

3. Shorter and better: I often find that many single player games are too long. My personal taste for the perfect length of a single player game is 12-20 hours. Often games these days drag on for 60 hours plus. Most of the 60 hours is filler and often times it's always not "fun." Condense the games, put more fun in a shorter amount of time. Also lets ditch the open world for every fucking game. It's getting old and only few do it right. If a game is 12-20 hours and it's really good I could always replay it in my mind and there could always be different paths.

This is an opinion. One that I heavily agree with, but ultimately an opinion. As seen by some of the responses in this very thread, length between most gamers is a varied opinion. Some of us like our 60 hour games and some of us like shorter stuff. Persona sells and Devil May Cry sells too. Ultimately the length of the game will determine its audience, so this shouldn't be a set in stone rule to follow.

5. Release a game that is not broken or needs major patches before it's playable. Beta testers: It's not secret that today's games are released with bug's and depend on consistent patches to fix them. What is insane is these companies spend a ton of money on Focus groups and game testers and other bullshit to test these games. They could do this much more cost effective and much more cheaply. There are people on youtube (lots of them) that go around and just break games for "speed running." Often times when developers of their own games see what these kids can do they are shocked. Hell reach out and end email's to these kids and let them play the game for a few months before release. Most of them would do it for free or even for a 12 pack of mountain dew and doritos. Get a team of these speed runners to play any game before release for a few months. These fuckers will find the holes.

Normally I would agree with this but even the buggiest pieces of shit can become beloved games like Skyrim which was broken and buggy AF, still kind of is.
Or Smash Melee which was rushed and buggy, yet its bugs made it one of the longest lasting and most beloved competitive games ever.
Under certain conditions bugs can be overlooked or even positive to a game.

Overall I think that making a thread with a premise like this is never going to work out. You make the game you want to make and let it find its audience. If it doesn't, oh well try again.

Even if Shigeru Miyamoto himself came out and gave his idea on what constitutes a good video game, I still wouldn't think his opinion should be the end all be all. He has experience making Nintendo games, and not really games from other publishers, which can also be successful and good in their own right.

There's no true set in stone rulebook to making a good game, IMHO. This kind of thinking that there is ultimately leads to samey, formulaic games. As the first reply pointed out just don't make it bad- give it something that makes it compelling, something that people can look back on and say "that was what made the game a 10/10 for me." Which is why I think your 4th reply of making it unique and exploring different genres was the opinion I can 100% agree with.

 

[Sooner]

Then the conplaint shouldn't be about "long games" but rather bloated ones.

Most long games are long because of the bloat, and the bloat is do it can be long.

 

[64gigabyteram]

Most long games are long because of the bloat, and the bloat is do it can be long.

what's constituted as bloat in your eyes? And what are some examples of some overlong/bloated games?

 

[Sooner]

Once again, long games just aren’t for you. Stop complaining and stick to shorter ones.

This is just like the whole "Souls games need an easy mode" debate all over again.

I have 301 platinums. I've spent over 100 hours on more games than I can count. I basically finish any game I start.

There are tons of games that I finish and think the game would have been better with 40% of it trimmed off. It's very obvious when a game is drawn out to artificially pad out the playtime.

And I'm not sure what this has to do with Souls. I love those games and agree adding an easy mode would be a terrible mistake.

 

[phant0m]

Step 1: don’t make bad game.

lookit the big brain on Gamer_By_Proxy

 

[Guilty_AI]

Most long games are long because of the bloat, and the bloat is do it can be long.

Even if that were true, it doesn't change the main complaint is bloat, not length

 

[cash_longfellow]

1: Don’t make a shit game

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

hips and nips

 

[Black_Stride]

There is no one size fits all.

Your list would delete so many great games from existence.
Including 2023, 2022, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014 game of the year.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

You forgot fanservice and pro male gaze female character designs

 

[Felessan]

Kind of a universal guide to creating a game that does not get instantly bombed or univerally liked

1. Make fun the center of the game. Forget all the technical aspects or graphic fidelity. The number one thing a developer should be asking themselves is it fun to play? Get friends, get family, hell random youtubers would do it for free, just let people play the game and determine if it's fun. If it's not, back to the drawing board. That has to be the focus

2. Keep the politics out of your games. Most people see sex/gender through the same lenses we always have since the beginning of time, Male/female. I am older and to me that is common sense. Read the room and realize there has been a major culture shift. The moment any developer puts something like "non binary" as a choice the game will almost certainly get review bombed and flamed. Regardless of how you feel about it, that's reality.

3. Shorter and better: I often find that many single player games are too long. My personal taste for the perfect length of a single player game is 12-20 hours. Often games these days drag on for 60 hours plus. Most of the 60 hours is filler and often times it's always not "fun." Condense the games, put more fun in a shorter amount of time. Also lets ditch the open world for every fucking game. It's getting old and only few do it right. If a game is 12-20 hours and it's really good I could always replay it in my mind and there could always be different paths.

4.Older genre's can still work: There are empty spaces or genre's of games that just do not get made anymore. A proper Arcade Racer, or pure FPS, or Turn based RPG on a large scale could be a great seller if done right. The issue is other developers have made these type of games with half effort and of course failed and blamed the genre. I get it that the cost of game development is so high and most publishers/developers want to play it safe but there is just entire holes and genre's of games that never get AAA releases anymore. Take a risk and make a high quality game in a genre that is not "mainstream." It has shown in the past that it times these become mega hits. Balatro got game of the year nominations for a spin on fuckin poker. Creativity is needed in this space.

5. Release a game that is not broken or needs major patches before it's playable. Beta testers: It's not secret that today's games are released with bug's and depend on consistent patches to fix them. What is insane is these companies spend a ton of money on Focus groups and game testers and other bullshit to test these games. They could do this much more cost effective and much more cheaply. There are people on youtube (lots of them) that go around and just break games for "speed running." Often times when developers of their own games see what these kids can do they are shocked. Hell reach out and end email's to these kids and let them play the game for a few months before release. Most of them would do it for free or even for a 12 pack of mountain dew and doritos. Get a team of these speed runners to play any game before release for a few months. These fuckers will find the holes.

6. Optimizie the fucking games: There is no reason why games like Final Fantasy are struggling to run on a 4090. Many games today release with crazy requirements but do not look much better than my 10 year old games. Some games come in over 200GB and you wonder what the hell for? Optimize the damn games. Care more about Quality. I miss the Nintendo "seal of approval" days. At minimum every game should release at 1080/60 with jsut average hardware. If the game releases with Stutters or needs Hardware Requirments that most users do not have, go back to the drawing board and optimize the damn game.

Most of these points are of no direct correlation to a good game.
Grind are no fun yet many games centered around it and people play them in millions (and there even some mocking of play for fun gamers from play2win gamers). There are a great media, games included about political aspects IF a game is actually about it and not something else, like Detroit is a game about politics/philosophy. Shorter doesn't mean better, like many gaas a long, even eternally long and there quite a few good ones. A great game succeed even if it's in a bad state initially.

Actually it IS much simplier -
1. Know your player base, what they are and what they want
2. Don't allow fantasies "I'm creator [with vision]" gets into your head
3. Keep your budget in check

 

[{insert code here}]

OP, Bullet #1 text should be in bold, weighted font. If the game isn't fun to play then literally nothing else matters, imo.

SMT games get it right: not only they do have a lot of hees, but they also have all the hoes.

Who are these hoes? I don't believe you. Gonna need to see the receipts my guy!

 

[Jetpac]

Long games aren't usually long because of "vision". It's the opposite. They are pressured by publishers to pad out thier games with unnecessary bloat, because they believe longer "time to beat" scores will result in more sales at full price.

Almost every RPG (including two of my all time favorites BG3 and P5) disagrees with you.

It’s YOUR preference for shorter games not ours.

 

[TheKratos]

Be Capcom

 

[HRK69]

I have 301 platinums. I've spent over 100 hours on more games than I can count. I basically finish any game I start.

There are tons of games that I finish and think the game would have been better with 40% of it trimmed off. It's very obvious when a game is drawn out to artificially pad out the playtime.

And I'm not sure what this has to do with Souls. I love those games and agree adding an easy mode would be a terrible mistake

So, you’ve played a lot of games and put in hundreds of hours, cool. That doesn’t change the fact that not every long game is bloated or artificially padded. Sure, some games overstay their welcome, but that doesn’t mean all long games should be cut down just because you feel they would be better that way.

And I think it relates closely to the Souls games:

1. Players want an easy mode because they prefer games to accommodate their personal playstyle

2. Players want shorter games, expecting developers to tailor experiences to their preferences

Some want tight, concise experiences, while others want sprawling worlds that take time to explore. If you think a game would be better with 40% trimmed off, that’s your opinion; but plenty of people enjoy those “extra” hours. A long game you find excessive might be exactly what someone else loves about it.

Not everything needs to fit your ideal pacing. If you’re finishing games and constantly thinking, this should have been shorter, maybe the problem isn’t the games, it’s that they aren’t the right fit for what you actually want.

Acting like all long games should be shorter just because you have a limit on how much enjoyment you’re willing to have is ridiculous. If you’re burnt out after 12 hours, that’s a you problem, not a flaw in the game itself.

But if a game is genuinely fun, why put a cap on it? Just play what makes you happy, and let others enjoy the longer experiences if that’s what they’re into. At the end of the day, gaming is about having a good time, however long that may be!