Mechanics
One aspect of being a designer, being able to create good and matching mechanics inside the game.
Main Mechanic
The starting point of any game project should always come from one of two places, either the Target Public or a Great Idea. Usually it's the former.
The most essential point for a project is for the designers to know who for and why the product is being made.
Usually, the best approach is to first focus in a set target public. It will define the possible game styles, story and mechanics appropriate for it, which can then have an idea centered around.
A violent game for a young audience, for instance, is normally not good.
Another way to start is to believe in a great idea, and try to mold it around the public instead. This can be risky, since the main idea might at some point start steering out of the ideal zone for the public, which will lead to a lot of rewrites on the process and cost a lot of time and money.
The High Concept
Once the public or idea has been defined, it is vital for a High Concept to be written. This is the entire main concept of the game in very few lines.
In essence, this allows the team to visualize the main point of the game and steer it into the right direction.
As an example the High Concept for the "Crystal Seasons" game was something like:
"A third person cartoon collectathon game where the player uses the seasons to collect items and defeat the boss."
This tells the team everything the game must strive to be at the end.
-It is a third person game.
-It is in a cartoon style for the public.
-It is a collectathon style game
-It must use the 4 seasons as
mechanics.
-The player's purpose is to collect
items during the game in order to
progress and defeat the final boss.
The game can then be produced, taking caution in it always following the High Concept. If any of the points is not met, the direction is wrong.
Story
A story can be made after the High Concept is clearly defined.
This can be optional, since many games don't really focus or need much of a story, and otherwise focus entirely on the mechanics. It never hurts to have a bit of it though.
However, for many other games, the story is the most important part, and can either make or break the game.
Writing a story is very difficult and takes a long time, and therefore most of the time it is continually made seamlessly while the game is in production.
It is important for the story to always feel present, but not hammered down at the player at every moment.
The rule here is always "show, don't tell".
Mechanics
The mechanics can then be planned according to the High Concept.
In any game, there is always a main mechaninc that is repeated through the entire game, with other smaller ones surrounding it.
It can be said, for instance, that the main mechanic of Assassin's Creed is to stealthily kill the main targets, while shooting, jumping or climbing all help the main mechanic to be explored.
In Zelda, the main mechanic is to use the sword to kill enemies, while other weapons help, but are not more important.
One very important aspect of the main mechanic is that it can't be difficult or long during the gameplay, otherwise it will get tiresome very fast. It has to be something very quick, almost impercetible, like mario's jumping.
It is a good idea to keep all the mechanics tied to the main motif of the game. It helps to make the mechanics intuitive through the level.
On "Crystal Seasons" case, the main mechanic is the umbrella's attack and gliding and the side mechanics are the season's power inbued on it.
Design wise, the gliding is affected by the season's, with its gliding floatationg effectiveness being powered up or down graded.
All imbued powers have relation to the seasons and are effective on items that also rely on the seasons to work.
Finale
The final moments of the game are also one of the most important parts of the product.
The final scene must always make the player feel like the journey has been worth their effort. A bad ending can and will ruin the entire experience up to that point, making the game plummet from top grade to a near zero.
The final scene has to use all the habilities the player has been learning through the game. Most of the time that means that all the most worked on mechanics must be useful during the scene. It needs to be difficult and long enough so that all the previous challenges look easier,
All the choices, if any, must be taken into account, or the illusion of choice will break.
Story wise, the final scene has to wrap all the story, even if it was set for a sequel. This doesn't mean that some points can't be left for interpretation, but they need to make sense in that case, as the Silent Hill series masterfully shows.
