Games Design

Gameplay relates to how a game acts in response to the player’s control and as a result, how pleasing the whole gameplay is to the individual player.

‘Rockstar Games’ have the market cornered when it comes to the design of their games. Their series of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ has an addictive quality with their clever use of storyline combined with gameplay and graphics. They create aspects of the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ games effectively. For example, their plants and bushes are produced by slotting two flattish planes of leaves together which is clever as the realism of the plants are portrayed. This technique goes unnoticed when walking or driving past the plants.

It is the whole companies’ responsibility to help sell their games, but the games design department has a major role in this for the aesthetic value of the game, but this can sometimes overshadow other important features of a game such as gameplay.

Many companies create video sequences in the middle of gameplay just to boast about their ultra-realistic 3D graphics which end up making the game tedious when the videos drag on. Where is the gameplay in that when the player is is just staring mindlessly at the screen? Some companies forget that people purchase games to play them, not watch.

Use of colour is an important principle with different genres in order to be an effective game to sell to the market group. For example, if the genre was horror, common colours throughout the game would be black, grey, brown and red. Setting the scene is important for the genre of a game. In a horror game, the story is frequently set in dark, secluded, claustrophobic corridors, warehouses, forests etc. In a fantasy game, the scenes are likely to be set in open fields, jungles, sea fronts and large, spacious buildings.

When I play games, it is important for them to have the correct mood set for the relevant genre to create a more realistic effect needing to be achieved by the games designers. Also, there should be a relevant balance between actual gameplay in a game and the aesthetics from game design and ‘Rockstar Games’ have done this successfully with the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ series.