Good talk that gives a nice overview of some fundamental open world design principles and pitfalls! Always fun to hear from a veteran that has worked on several big projects. :)
I really enjoyed the distinction between different player types and designing the different systems in the world around them. But how do you know if player types like or dislike a certain new system without testing?
The thing that put me off destiny is that it doesn't explain to the player what the game is and what you need to do. I spent ages wandering around and not getting it. Too many games forget that some of their audience is new to a franchise that's why Mass Effect 2s game design is still fabulous.
When defining world design within the context of games, we should have a clear or clearly implied distinction between world building and level playability. Or else we are just conjoined with film and books with process and technique. Which we are to some degree, but then definitely not to some others. Somewhere along that line of thought lies the definition for World Design in games. Not what was was shallowly presented in the beginning of this talk.
I wish companies wouldn't push it, I wish devs wouldn't stand for it, and most importantly I wish consumers would lower their expectations and be more forgiving with bugs and amount of content
@@Butch989 I don't believe customers should accept bugs to reduce crunch. That would just mean a shorter dev cycle with the same amount of crunch. It's possible to release a relatively bug free game without crunch. It just means a longer dev cycle and less profit in the publishers hands. We should not purchase games where crunch has been used to finalize the game.
@@John-996 isn't it obvious though?if during crunch devs worked 2x the amount of hours per week, for let's say 3 months, then it means that they either needed 6 normal months to finish the game or they needed 2x the amount of developers during those 3 months. In practice you'd find that a well-rested people work more efficiently, so you'd need only let's say 1.5x developers or time. But also in practice, it's more of a fault of bad planning and scope creep (or just not limiting the scope when you see the time is tight... or worse, not seeing that the time is tight). And thinking that the developers' time is flexible and you can just make them work more (= too much) if the plan is too big for normal hours. There are plenty of other industries which manage to do great stuff without overworking. It's just CEO's greed and not caring for the enployees which pushes for earlier (impossible) deadlines and not hiring more people (I know that involving more people takes soke time so it needs to be planned and calculated beforehand, too).
Lol. Feedback said that the players were overwhelmed by "content" in Dragon Age Inquisition. Yeees, the thousand and one meaningless cookie cutter MMORPG style farming content. I don't think the amount of "content" was the problem more that the presentation and inability to distinguish the generic side quests from the generic main quests.
Great talk! The section on shared worlds that feel friendly was particularly useful. Thank you!
Good talk that gives a nice overview of some fundamental open world design principles and pitfalls! Always fun to hear from a veteran that has worked on several big projects. :)
One of my favourite talks so far, too!
very nice talk. Also, she's so humble.
Nice talk. Love the public events in Destiny 2
Wow i can see how as a game designer id constantly just be thinking to myself "No you're just playing it wrong" game design is hard
I can't believe the whole crowd didn't cheer at the resume in the beginning, dragon age and mass effect get just one woo?! Crazy world
To be fair, those were the worst games in the franchises, unless we count Andromeda. So, yes, AAA titles, but not exactly the most legendary choices.
Awesome talk, thanks !
Great talk! Very helpful. 👍
Nice talk; I even participated in various surveys on quantic foundry's site. Cool stuff.
That's some resume 😳
I really enjoyed the distinction between different player types and designing the different systems in the world around them. But how do you know if player types like or dislike a certain new system without testing?
approximate based on their preference, experience and feedback from QA/testers.
Aloha and mahalo for the info!
That was a very great talk !
i swear to god i can be a game designer from watching all these talks. hire me bungie.
Good vid
The thing that put me off destiny is that it doesn't explain to the player what the game is and what you need to do. I spent ages wandering around and not getting it. Too many games forget that some of their audience is new to a franchise that's why Mass Effect 2s game design is still fabulous.
When defining world design within the context of games, we should have a clear or clearly implied distinction between world building and level playability. Or else we are just conjoined with film and books with process and technique. Which we are to some degree, but then definitely not to some others. Somewhere along that line of thought lies the definition for World Design in games. Not what was was shallowly presented in the beginning of this talk.
Crunch. Isn't it interesting how normal this term has become? This is the reason why I could never work in this industry.
I wish companies wouldn't push it, I wish devs wouldn't stand for it, and most importantly I wish consumers would lower their expectations and be more forgiving with bugs and amount of content
@@Butch989 I don't believe customers should accept bugs to reduce crunch. That would just mean a shorter dev cycle with the same amount of crunch. It's possible to release a relatively bug free game without crunch. It just means a longer dev cycle and less profit in the publishers hands.
We should not purchase games where crunch has been used to finalize the game.
@@360dom360 but how do you make a goty game without crunch?
@@John-996 limiting scope creep, longer deadlines, more flexibility with moving deadlines, etc
@@John-996 isn't it obvious though?if during crunch devs worked 2x the amount of hours per week, for let's say 3 months, then it means that they either needed 6 normal months to finish the game or they needed 2x the amount of developers during those 3 months. In practice you'd find that a well-rested people work more efficiently, so you'd need only let's say 1.5x developers or time.
But also in practice, it's more of a fault of bad planning and scope creep (or just not limiting the scope when you see the time is tight... or worse, not seeing that the time is tight). And thinking that the developers' time is flexible and you can just make them work more (= too much) if the plan is too big for normal hours.
There are plenty of other industries which manage to do great stuff without overworking.
It's just CEO's greed and not caring for the enployees which pushes for earlier (impossible) deadlines and not hiring more people (I know that involving more people takes soke time so it needs to be planned and calculated beforehand, too).
Lol. Feedback said that the players were overwhelmed by "content" in Dragon Age Inquisition. Yeees, the thousand and one meaningless cookie cutter MMORPG style farming content. I don't think the amount of "content" was the problem more that the presentation and inability to distinguish the generic side quests from the generic main quests.
First!!!!