Developer Tip 003 – Basic Game Design – Content

Welcome to our third tip for developers.

Please go back and read the first and second tips if you haven’t already.
This tip is something that was always up for debate in my old classroom. It’s the content of a project and understanding what content to add, or remove if needed.

I’ll start with my own personal opinion. Removing maybe be a negative action, but can sometimes have a positive effect on your game. Cutting content allows you to work on other features faster and therefore push your development time forward as opposed to adding content and pushing it back.
If you read or watch any professional development studios talk about DLC, sometimes you’ll hear them say “We wanted to add it to the game, we just ran out of time before it shipped”. The content for the DLC was always planned, but the idea to cut it was most likely made so that could ship the game on time rather then push back their release date window. This comes from planning your content, mentioned in the last tip, but managing the content correctly and understanding what they could cut out.

To know what content to cut or add, you should really understand your game, and the genre for it.
I recommend people always start with a foundation and build on it.
Let’s say your making a shooting game, an FPS. You want to add a fancy reload animation, but you or your animator will be some time working on the animation. Well add in the foundation for the reload. Hide the gun from the screen, disable the fire button, reload the ammo variable back to full. After 2 seconds or whatever, show the gun again. Then you can add your animation playback in at any stage, since your code and foundation are in place.

Maybe you have an RPG and you want the player to run. But just cant get the animation or resources on time. Instead of him running, just copy and paste your movement and increase the speed it takes to move around.

Something that was always brought up is adding some content because it’s new to your game. It was always talked about, and even got some people in my old class into heated arguments over.
An example again would be something like this. You have a platform game, but your twist is the player can control the direction of gravity. If you and your team feel strongly that this is the cool point or “selling point” to your game well then prioritise it. Work on getting the foundation of how this will work before you’ve even designed more then one level, then build your levels after.
I saw people build an intro state, a game over state, and levels for their game, without having their key feature or content started. That’s a bad idea and your putting yourself under a lot of strain because your trying to design your key feature onto a box, rather then fit your game onto this design. This also comes back to my last tip on planning.. As we go deeper and deeper into development you’ll see how these key issues of content, planning and design and feedback always pop up.

You plan your content before you start adding and subtracting anything. Prototype before you add or subtract anything. Find what works, add more of it, find what doesn’t and remove it.
If your under a time limit, find anything that is extra like an effect, put it on the bottom of your to do list and focus on what’s needed to make your idea a game.