Homework - Iteration: Quantity is a quality all its own
Summary
A large part of the work when it comes to designing videogames involves solving problems. Whether it’s bugs in the code, issues with how systems interact, or unintended player behavior giving you headaches, there will always be tricky conundrums requiring smart solutions. How you go about them will be instrumental in determining your success as a designer. While there are many ways to go about solving problems in games, one of the best is iteration. Come up with a bunch of different ideas on how to solve the problem and test them out. They won’t all work, but each one will give you a little more of an idea as to what the path forward should be.
Example
When Blizzard was developing Diablo 3, they had a thorny situation that needed attention. In the previous installation, players could gather full rejuvenation potions, which would instantly heal their characters to full health and mana. This meant that any damage that didn’t threaten to kill the character in one hit became largely irrelevant, and minimized the usefulness of all kinds of defensive abilities that reduced damage or healed the player. They coded and implemented a bunch of ways to fix the issue, and through this process came up with the health globe idea that ultimately ended up working.
Homework
Imagine you’re developing the next great battle royale, like Fortnite or Apex Legends. The game is great, but it’s taking too long for players to find one another. We’ve all seen the shrinking circle, but what are three or four other solutions you could use? Then apply this method to a game that you’re working on!
