bad game designer no cookie

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Published by GameFront.com 14 years ago , last updated 2 years ago

Posted on September 5, 2007, Shawn Sines Gamasutra's Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie VIII

Gamasutra's annual Designer's Notebook feature, Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! explores the flaws in games that push gamers to the limits of their tolerance for idiocy and beyond. The article includes this year's submissions of "Twinkie Denial Conditions" and a No Twinkie Datebase of all TDCs organized by category.

The article goes into several game design flaws that bug the heck out of gamers. Wildly atypical game levels, like that required sports minigame in your RPG aka the blitzball level in Final Fantasy X or the stealth mission in your FPS are aggravating. Any obligatory minigame that requires a player to use a completely different skill set to advance in the game is truly annoying. Games that fail to give you clear short term goals are also a pain. Loading from a save point in a game that gives you no clue where to go next or access to a log or the mission cinematic can really be discouraging. Dominant Strategies also cut down on the enjoyment of games. For a player who learns all the special moves in a fighting game, getting served by a button masher takes the fun right out of it.

Some other TDCs, presented with a sense of humor, are Amnesia at the Game's Beginning, Incorrect Victory Checks, Illogical Victory Checks and the ever popular Seizing Control of the Camera at Bad Times.

I'd personally like to add one of the things that irritates me to no end, games where all the coolest moves and actions are executed in cinematics and cut scenes i.e. Dirge of Cerberus. Enough said.

via Gamasutra

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