Return to the Core of Gameplay · 1961 days ago

It doesn’t take much to get distracted in all of this game development. There’s graphics programming, ai programming, modeling, animating, texturing, game design, concept art, budgeting, scheduling, sound design, sound effects, visual effects, scripting and at least one other thing (read: 10 billion other things) to juggle while making this beast of a game.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in all the technicalities of what must be done, and lose track of the important part of the game. That one core piece of the game that you were so excited about it in the beginning.

When thinking about the heart of gameplay, this interview always comes to my mind:

The most important thing is that the game director not lose sight of the point of origin, the reason they’re creating the game they’re creating. Every game starts off with some core element that you want to create and you want people to experience, but gradually, a lot of times when people are creating games, things don’t develop the way they expect them to, so to solve that problem, people gradually add new elements to make that game better. In doing that, you can end up going down this path where you’ve added all these different elements, and the game changes from what it was originally intended to be. Now, of course, if in doing that the game gets better, that’s not a problem, but a lot of times it’s very important for directors to refer back to that starting point and make sure that they’re staying true to that. And obviously, there are exceptions to the rule where you do have to add on new elements, then the problem with that is that the game development never really ends, because you keep adding new things until you decide it finally becomes interesting.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Game Developer magazine interview June/July 2004

This week it’s time to go back to that center of the game, do a little game design and thinking. Turn the computer off, sit down with a pencil and some paper and bring that heart of the game back into the forefront.

- Clint



  1. In case you run across this and don’t know him, here’s more info about Shigeru Miyamoto
    with links to more interviews as well.
    — Clint    Apr 25, 08:17 PM    #