Intro
Last time you played a game did you play it for your fun or the developer’s fun? You obviously played it for your own. The game is for the gamer, not the designer or programmer. So the player should be free to:
· Use his preferred weapon(s) as opposed to feeling he cannot snipe or take full on (or anywhere in-between)
· Choose to sneak or to assault
In Rainbow Six: Vegas, attempting to sneak up on the enemy will sometimes be stopped when the main character (beyond player decision) decides to whistle and this attracts unwanted attention (its still a awesome game).
The other path
Nope, this section is not about multiple pathways (although multiple pathways should be allowed in any good game (not that it would make a game bad if it were without multiple paths (See Half Life 2)). This section is about giving players slack to players to do whatever they wish, and encouraging behaviors (rather than forcing).
For instance, if a game were based around zombie killing, you could have hiding or killing, both beneficial, as one may carry awards for hiding while the other will give awards for killing. But in order to further encourage, you may give players rewards in order to encourage them to do it further than the award.(Just told you what I’m making with the Escape Engine first).
Another game idea I had once encouraged the player by introducing a character which would kill for better weapons (even if it were unnecessary) , perhaps encouraging players to do the same. Do note this may be a bad idea as the player may have needed to save the characters ass.
Another way (back to rewards) would be to allow players to choose a path from two sets of goals, which would be repeated every level, when the player meets the requirements, he unlocks an item.
Game Mechanic Slack
Player controls must be simple
Player control should not be too extensive where it becomes an overwhelming responsibility, for example in Crysis, the team decided to have a cloaking, but the player had to fiddle with temperature controls, but they got it removed. It was too complicated and made the cloak more about responsibility than making things easier. It would have destroyed the player’s beliefs that it made things easier (making them feel invincible) and instead, done the opposite.
Player control should give feedback for example in Dead Island, a currently in development game you can gore up your enemies face when it is hit. Other ways are destroying cover or destroying objects.
If we shoot a zombie in the arm, we want his arm to blow off. If we shoot him in the knee, we want him to limp. And if we shoot him in the head, we want his head to explode. We want our bullets to create wounds. Now let's watch a bit of Umbrella Chronicles, and watch the zombies go down undamaged, as if beaned with a baseball
http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_p4.html
