Josh Bycer lays out the concept of a “pain point” in game design - distinct from difficulty spikes or sources of challenge, pain points are sources of frustration that prevent players from engaging with the game’s core experience. They can be difficult for designers or fans to see, because once you’re used to them and willing to put up with them they become easy to ignore - but they’re important to notice and remove because each pain point a player runs into can be the final straw that causes them to abandon the game.
As satisfying as it is to dunk on esports pros for essentially complaining that they can’t play on easy mode (especially given the short-sightedness and lack of empathy on display in their desire to freely stomp on less-skilled players - everyone has a better time when skills are more closely matched), there’s also some fascinating psychology beyond that here.
While the article doesn’t provide citations for this beyond quoting Halo 2’s multiplayer lead, it claims that “every major multiplayer shooter since Halo 2” has had skill-based matchmaking in both ranked and unranked playlists, with the different lists existing to lure the hyper-competitive or more-toxic players to ranked and leave supposedly-unranked play more enjoyable for other players.
Andreas Papathanasis calls for recognition of the fact that in game design, simple isn’t bad and complex isn’t good. Thoughtlessly chasing complexity in game design makes games less legible, less accessible, and less approachable while increasing development cost.
Mike Bithell shares several important lessons he’s learned in his game development career that could also function easily as general life and career advice.
In the latest episode of YouTuber Razbuten’s series in which he watches his non-gamer wife play video games, the focus is on VR.
For me, the major takeaway is that because VR games don’t have decades of convention to lean on, they need to be much more intuitive and approachable than other games. As a result, while they’re roughly as approachable as other games for experienced players, for new players they are far more approachable… once you get over the hurdle of the expensive equipment required and the somewhat stigmatized and antisocial nature of the headset.
A short but interesting look at a change to Astroneer’s crafting system, illustrating the value of having multiple perspectives and challenging your assumptions when making design decisions (as well as the importance of ensuring that the complexity in a design is coming from the right place).
Not only is this an entertaining video of Beat Saber-inspired gameplay in Minecraft, you can actually download the custom world and play it yourself (full instructions in video description on YouTube).
I just love when games enable this kind of shareable creative expression and interactive intertextuality.
