Exploring the design and development of video games
In Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, automatic weapon upgrades were introduced to the series. Weapons would gain experience as they are used to defeat enemies. When they have enough experience, they upgrade to a completely new weapon, which is better than the original in every way in most cases (except the lava gun). Weapon leveling is …
Chapter 3 – Billboard Design 101 In chapter 2, we learned people scan rather than read. So, we need to be designing for scanning instead of reading. If they’re going to act like you’re designing billboards, then design great billboards. Here’s what you can do: Take advantage of conventions Make it obvious what’s clickable Create …
Chapter 2 – How people really use the web In Part 1, we learned about usability and the importance of self-evident UIs. In order to create self-evident UIs, we need to understand how people actually use software. People quickly scan everything and click the first thing that grabs their attention. They don’t treat the web …
Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability is an incredible book to help user interface designers create systems that make users delighted. While intended for web and mobile developers, there are countless concepts all game developers will want to know. Here are my notes: What is Usability? A person of below …
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is an insanely complicated game. The excellent battle mechanics is just one example of how complex this game is. With all this complexity, surely there are things we can learn about how to teach players mechanics in games. Let’s explore how Xenoblade 2 teaches players and how it could be better. Self-Evidence …