What Makes A Good Game?

[~ Z ~]

Depending on what we like and how we play games, we can argue about what truly makes a good game. If YOU were to develop a game what would you think the consumers would want in your game? What age group are you aiming for? Any specific genre/style of game you would develop such as a RPG or Platformer? ​

State all your thoughts here! ​

 

[ShineCero]

Story is certainly a must for my taste, or at least has an objective. A game that all about being a flower for indefinite amount of time, can be considered I supposed, a stress reliever, but I wouldn't call it an "game" in the truest sense.

Obviously the most important one is gameplay. If the gameplay is chunky and/or unplayable, I would devote no interest of playing it.

Don't care for graphic, but I do want a play a game that at least good too look at. Don't want to play a game where the heads are in someone ass if they're talking or something xD

 

[LoopyPanda]

Perhaps a coherent and immersive story with a lot of substance to the characters (including the side characters that have relevance). If it isn't a story oriented one, then perhaps a game that I have many different things to do in one day, like animal crossing.

Easy to learn gameplay without the dumb "button diagram" screen popup. 

For looks, I'd say visuals that make it stand out.

II'm not sure what genre I like myself, but I definitely am not good enough to make a real RPG platform game lol

 

[Grey Star]

Effective teaching methods for the gameplay to give the player the ability to work within the game to overcome any challenge, and not have it be endlessly complex.

Something like Super Metroid or Shovel Knight.

Something like what Ronnie describes.

 

[JamesYTP]

Well, as a student game designer whose actually made some stuff I actually feel like I have quite a bit to say here. The first thing always is having well thought out and tested game mechanics that are fun to play with. One very important thing that's taken for granted a lot is feedback, or in more layman's terms things like sound effects, animations etc. have a large part in whether or not doing something in game just feels good or not. Art work helps a lot too, being able to convey as much as you can visually is important in setting the tone for your games. A good story is always good if it's a largely single player game, and I tend to find being able to integrate and tell as much of the story in game rather than in cutscene always makes for a more immersive experience.

 

[Elio]

Engaging story and simple but exciting game mechanics does it for me. Story integrated with game mechanics that makes the story more interactive (i.e. FFXIII-2's Cinematic Mode and Live Trigger, Dragon Age and Mass Effect's dialogue options) is one of my favorite things, as you get a degree of control of the story. At the very least maybe battles that are interactive to some degree (like Kingdom Hearts' Command system after KH2 and Bayonetta), just so you can make battle scenes more exciting. 

I've always been a fan of games that have a very deep, holistic and immersive story, though. Games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect, as well as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts to a degree, have always been so interesting to me not only because of the plot itself, but everything else that makes it: characters, lore, history -- everything that makes up the story more interesting. I suppose fantastic worldbuilding in a game would be the kind of thing I'd do. Visuals and a great soundtrack does it too -- it helps tell the story and make it more interesting, but I feel like art doesn't help much if the story is bland and boring (it's like overcompensating for something that isn't, you know?). Still, I like having graphics that are good to look at, but I probably won't want to play it much because the story is so boring. 

All in all, I think what makes a great game is the same thing as what makes a great book -- capture the audience's attention, immerse them in the story and the world within the game, and leave them so satisfied after playing that they come back and play it all over again. That's how I see it. And that would be my approach.