The Weekend Debate: Design Trendsetters

aiming down the sights! the fact that one game used it and now every fps game must have it defiantly shows that its the greatest impac in fps gaming.

Artificial Intelegance is almost everything in games knowadays. Poor AI means majority of games become repetative and easy.

Know give me that beta code ! lol

“Press Start”

How about straight up dual analogue control for shooters? Probably the single biggest thing that has attributed to the success of the shooter on consoles. Without that, we wouldn’t have any of the big hitters today. We can see it filtering into new consoles even now, where dual analogues has become the standard for gaming and is one of the very reasons why the Vita looks so exciting. Even games like Counter-Strike are making their way to consoles now, something that would have been taboo pre-PS1 or even during the PS1 era.

I always liked the way the controls in Assassins Creed 1 were explained as being a puppet. It sounded confusing at first, but they were surprisingly intuitive. Now though, they seem to be cramming too much into the controls. More isnt alwasy better….

Kinda goes hand in hand with regenerative health, but cover mechanics and cover shooting has had a huge impact. Uncharted for example was one of the first to nail it. Slowly working through picking off your enemies while under fire. Especially on higher difficulties popping out from cover for an elusive headshot before taking too much damage.It has given players a lot of choice of how to attack, with what guns or from what direction, which enemies to kill first.

The red barrels which have taken over the FPS world. Those conveniently placed barrels filled with fuel couldn’t be any better in turning the battle around.

Nowadays they’ve even changed the colour of the barrels to contain different exploding materials.

The multiplayer XP system, most all of the games this gen have it

Wolfenstein 3D

Open world games! That’s the biggest and most welcome change recently IMO, now players can do whatever they want, following the story, side missions or just walk around. That, for me, is what make games worth playing

I think that a very recent example of a game mechanic will pave the way for great moments in future console games. It is something that the Naughty Dogs themselves arguably created, and that is their ‘Dynamic Traversal System.’ Shooting people whilst climbing up the side of a train, or more recently hanging off the back off a plane, are just two examples of why ‘on the edge of your seat’ game moments make that series so successful.

RPG progression mechanics outside of RPG’s as they are absolutely everywhere and people love it. Progression keeps us playing, even when it is artificial.

split-screen multiplayer FTW!!

i think it has to be auto-saving checkpoints.

i dont think this has been a good addition for game difficulty as games that use this feature are basicaly offering you unlimited lifes and some people just blast through sections of games with out skill and just hope to get to next checkpoint (these are the people you destroy in online mp)

i still remember when it was an achievement to complete games as you had lives that you had to earn but that seems to be a thing of the past in most games.

so for better or worse im going to say this is one of the things that has the biggest impact on game design

Open world games, changed the direction games can take, namely GTA 3.

FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS!

they are defently the most popular games of this gen by far. They have shown what a great game is to most people.
first person shooters are the main game that evryone plays.

This depends on the definition of impact. Is it the mechanic that has been adopted the most by other games? The mechanic that made gaming famous? Plus, some design choices have evolved over the course of several games, like the idea of stealth gameplay for instance. Based on the above criteria, you can either say it is the 2d to 3d switch, rpg leveling, cutscenes, quick time events, aiming down sights or even the pong idea of having an enemy. I don’t think that there is a single best/newest/most revolutionary concept.
That being said however, I still have a personal opinion on the matter. When you look at gaming now, the thing that has really set it apart from it’s earlier stages is non-linearity. Things like different RPG builds, customizing your character/car, opening up the world, choosing what level you are going to do next, exploring at your own pace and even changing the story are key elements that originated from the idea of letting the player choose his/her own journey. The open world of the Grand Theft Auto series and the interactive story from the Fallout series are all different examples of this design choice. It has almost become a requirement for games to offer choices to the gamer.
Oh, and multiplayer.

Quick-time events !

You are seeing them a lot these days in various games.

Greetings,

In my honest opinion, I believe that the Spawn system has always been a delicate subject in online gaming experiences. A number of various spawn systems proposed by game developers have eventually been slightly or at times been completely revamped according to user responses and demand. One thing that is certain though is that noone will ever be fully satisfied due to the reason that certain individuals may prefer to select their own spawn point anywhere in a map, for example by throwing out a spawn grenade. This could have positive and negative impacts, depending on the user, but it appears to be majorly criticized to do the mass of users launching these spawn grenades at terribly bad areas. Then you have other fixed spawn areas that must be captured in order to spawn at a new location. I truly enjoy discussing the subject of spawning.

Good luck to all!

AI – Artificial Intelligence that are not fixed to where they will go and how they will shoot(don’t have a linear path set for them, so each time you play a level it will happen differently instead of the same each time you play it). Games Like Uncharted 3 are great examples of this, on which other dev’s should act upon and implement in future titles as the AI dont’t move in a linear way but in a different way every time. Makes use for great replayibility. And just makes it alot more fun in my opinion as everytime you play it you will be faced with a different problem as the AI will move differently and shoot differently each time.

I would say it would have to be multiplayer.
It has opened up games and given them lasting value. I don’t think a franchise like Call of Duty would be as popular without.
These days very few games are released without a multiplayer aspect even games like Mass Effect and Dead Space now incorporate a multiplayer.

HUD-less damage indication.

Progressing on from the regenerating health, I think the visual delivery of how this is represented without the use of icons, energy bars or HUDs is a great design progression for games.

The use of vision effects like colour “bleeding” and fades to represent your characters state of health has made games even more emersive as an experience, making them even more immersive than ever.

Games like Uncharted, Killzone/COD/Battlefield/[insert FPS game here] have amazing graphics, great sound and mis en scene complimented by the use of “HUDless” damage indication.

@DAVIE222
No not everyone. I find them to be the most tired, barely evolved pitifiul excuse for a gaming genre there ever was.

I find the question somewhat flawed. Surely you’d have to go way back and say something like the shooting mechanic from Space Invaders (and I’m sure there was something like Space War before even that) or whatever game made you first control an onscreen character. None of today’s games would exist if not for the originals that kickstarted the entire thing.

Hmm, I’m going to go ahead and say that regenerative health is the biggest game design change in the past few years and has quickly become the rule of every game, and not the exception.

Uncharted, Killzone, Gears of War and pretty much every other First Person Shooter has adopted the rule and it is simply expected in the genre nowadays.

The ability to play online mutliplayer has been the game changer! Look at Call of Duty, many people rarely touch the campaign and go straight into the multiplayer element. It brings friends together playing either co-operatively or competitively.

Online multiplayer’s definately had the biggest impact on gaming. Although games with multiplayer can be played locally it rarely compares to playing them online whether it’s because you get the screen all to yourself or because instead of 2 – 4 players you can get as many as 24. Even single player story driven games are getting multiplayer tagged on and sometimes it works well. Uncharted springs to mind. Not only that but games that were originally single player have developed into franchises that are bought solely for their multiplayer. CoD and BF3 are brilliant examples:p

Tricky question. For me it all relates to “realism and plausibility”.
On the subject of “regenerating health”, that to me really detracts IMMENSELY from the realism that most games nowadays have you immersed in. It’s like an ultra-realistic movie about the dark underworld of prostitution, but featuring a purple unicorn who goes around saving kids from the trade (perhaps a bit extreme…).
In all honesty, I would actually argue that regen-health has had the biggest impact on gaming, but sadly it has had a negative effect.
As more games try to seem realistic, anything that sucks me out of
the realism is impacting my experience of the game. It’s actually the only mechanic that on more than one occasion has been noticeable.

It was truly refreshing to play Resistance 3 and feeling nervous about death when I started a new level with less than 20% health. Made me change my play-style to be more stealthy, carefully planning each move. If I had regen-health, I would’ve just been reckless! But shortly thereafter I managed to magically make all enemies freeze and wait for me while I selected one of the 12 weapons that I was hiding in my pocket… realism gone once again!

Multiplayer in general has become a trend for many games as opposed to just being an integral part of, or the entirety of a game (like recent Battlefield games and Warhawk respectively). Every game these days feels the need to have multiplayer regardless of genre and when a fantastic game like Vanquish doesn’t have it the reviews always tend to see it as a negative, which sucks in my opinion when games never seem to get negatives for having tacked on multiplayer. Social interaction and multiplayer with rank progression and unlocks to keep people playing are a big deal this gen though, which is great for those who are into that stuff but I’m bored of tacked on multiplayer that makes its way to most games these days, games designed around the multiplayer always seem to have much more replay value.

Z-targeting

Online play, hands down.

just a few years ago there was no such thing as online play apart from perhaps the measly PC LAN-parties. as internet speeds became faster the PC games started to incorporate it more and more and then the PS2 came out, and finally there was an “easy” way to play a game with someone in another country even without worrying about if the hardware could handle it.

now you can get games that are online only like MMOs’ and even starhawks baby brother, warhawk. showing that you don’t need great AI or even graphics because blowing up/winning a race [etc.] someone (who may not even speak your language) at 2am in a room that only requires a PS3, TV and internet connection never gets any less satisfying.

though that being said, I wish modern games still had split-screen.

Respawning , a word hardly used outside of gaming. Allows players to mystically jump straight back into the action.most common in multiplayer games but spawning also allows enemies to appear from dead ended corridors. More than that spawning enemies allows more involved and longer combat sequences, now a staple of most games. As an afterthought invisible walls and dead ends are seeming less common with better graphics and level design such as in Uncharted 3.

Long live the explosive barrel.

Which game mechanic or design choice has had the greatest impact on gaming….The SAVEGAME by far….

Long gone are the days of getting a code or the opportunity to save at the END of a level,
Nowadays you don’t even need to save your game as it’s already done for you AUTOMATICALLY.
This has made GAMING alot easier IMHO and the challenge of a game is nowhere near as hard as it was back in the day….

Greetings all.
In my opinion, the design choice I believe has had the greatest impact is Sandbox gaming.
10 years ago, GTA3 broke the mould by allowing console gamers to choose their own path. Previous to this first/third person titles had very much been ‘on the rails’ affairs, with the player being moved from area a to area b to area c, with very little opportunity to go back to areas you had already visited or explore with little or no consequence/interruption Whilst RPGs had used a form of Sandbox for many years it took Rockstars seminal classic to really expose the possibilities of Sandbox gaming in the console market, particularly in relation to 3rd person action titles. Allowing players the game their way and at their own pace.
Without this change in developers approach to game design, we would not be enjoying the likes of inFamous or the fantastic Batman: Arkham City.

Hey! I don’t know what its called but i think that filming actors in those suit things with green screen has helped modern games massively! It just makes your character seem much more realistic! For example uncharted use this method of animating the characters and there are loads of different animations for every move, like when you melee you could sometimes jump and kick the target,hit them with the butt of your gun or maybe even sllide between their legs and go for a dirty punch in the crotch! it chooses either of these moves from whatever angle you attack, making the game look seamless and fluent! This is a vast improvement from the jumpy, one animation attacks from older games!

Thanks!

Well, to be fully honest perks change it all. Where all soldiers end up with the same guns and equipment, the perks give them a little ‘of their own’ that can be used tactically against your opponent.
Another step in gaming towards reality, everyone is different!

Why is the world an interesting place? Because we’re all different!
What would Ezio from Assassin’s Creed be without his charisma that Altair didn’t have?
The game may look the best that it can be, it will be definatly the level of your own taste you can include the game that is the best design a gamer can have. Why drive with that car that you don’t like if you can pimp it up to your golden bling bling fantasies?

That’s what’s gaming for, anyway, to be what we can’t in real life!

Online gaming!! ! Nothing has changed so much game experience as the online multiplayer system did.

As far as design choice, difficulty. And mostly in the negative sense.

Difficulty nowadays for most developers means to turn up the AI accuracy to 99.9% and lower your health to one or two hits. I understand this generation it’s super tough to meet deadlines and not many can be bothered to differentiate difficultly modes, so that’s unfortunately one huge step taken backwards.

On the positive side of this design, we are seeing couple of games that do it right.
Arkham City has Mr Freeze block your previously used attack when playing on Hard difficulty, this is simply ingenious and added SOOO much to the game.
Killzone 2 definitely improved AI patterns and enemy AI in general (not so sure about KZ3)and forced you to play more smart and again, this lead to the game feeling like a new experience on harder difficulty.

So this is a design choice overlooked and lazily made by many developers this gen because they probably don’t think it matters but just look at games that do difficulty right and you can see what a huge impact it has over any collectibles and anything else as far as replayiblity and enjoyment of the game.

Being able to save a game at any time, rather then checkpoints. i know loads of games still use the checkpoints to save the game but i prefer being in control of when i want to save and start the game exactly where i left it especially in Skyrim. Also autosave is good as well in open world games like skyrim, i who knows how many times i have used an autosave to bring me back to a point where i didnt mess up

The integration of multiple forms of gameplay is by far one of the greatest things to have been added to games in recent years.

In the past you would feel somewhat detached from events whenever you’d approach a vehicle and see “Press square to drive”, only to find that when you do so that the game throws you to a poorly formed cut-scene and skips the ensuing chase.

These days games like Warhawk have paved the way for allowing the gamer to play in all the available roles, driver, gunman, pilot and more! This had been attempted to a certain extent in older generations with the resulting experience leaving a lot to be desired. However, with newer and more powerful hardware and software these issues have been resolved, giving gamers greater involvement and a greater experience as a whole.

The double jump

Impossible in reality but annoying when it doesn’t happen in a game

By far the biggest impact on gaming can be found in automatically regenerating health. I was going to write ‘health bars’, but even they don’t exist any more!

Nowadays instead of looking at a bar to look at how long you have left to live, you have to look at a visual aspect to determine your length of life left in that game. I’d say it makes it more intense and more focussed because you are not relegated to hunting for health packs to progress to the next part of the game.

One criticism of it though is that the visual aspect needs to be done well to avoid it being irritating. I remember MW2 and how it had a jam-like effect when you got shot in the leg/face/arm/funny bone by a little pistol, I didn’t like the regenerating element so much here compared to in its predecessor (COD4).

Quick Travel. Can’t be done in real life to just teleport to places but without it, some games like SKYRIM (Which I love… Managed to power through the lag! 160+ hours now ) would have become tedious having to travel to and from just to deliver a book :/ Although I still would’ve done it XD

The change from a little menu level that leads to other levels like in Sly Racoon 1 to a more adventure like one path level like Uncharted.

The loot system from many RPGs has been hugely influential in the creation and success of more casual games, like those found on Facebook. Given 10 chests, getting a reward out of every 2 or 3 is worth the time and effort you’ve diverted from advancing whatever quest you’re currently on. It’s a noted behavioural effect and not something unique to gaming – casinos (and now developers) spend a lot of time researching to try to maximise engagement and profit. And while it’s still present in today’s RPGs, that instant gratification aspect of loot has permeated many other games and genres, most notable being the level-up rewards from a majority of online multiplayer games and the structure of Facebook games like Farmville.

I would have to say story telling, and interactive drama.

Heavy Rain and previously Fahrenheit spring to mind.
But also LA Noire where Facial motion expressions were taken to another level.

Uncharted as well feels like a movie blockbuster.

Manual save functionality/Quick save. I remember the days when you couldn’t just hit save, leave and come back, picking up exactly where you left off.

Whether being able to “quick save” (save at any location at any time) is a good idea though is another issue all together. Some say it makes a game too easy, as you can just quick save before running around every corner, but again, it’s great being able to just play 10 minutes when you just feel like playing 10 minutes.

Now, where did I leave my jet pack?

Slow motion. the game looks way cooler when you watch that kill slower

Brilliant luvin it

I’m not sure if this counts but free roam (sandbox games) has certainly done a lot for many games. I hate games where you have to stick to a path and replay exactly the same thing, but I love going around and doing whatever you want in games like fallout and saints row, it opens up so many things you can do in a game

I would have to say the character progression systems moving into so many genre’s other than RPG’s. When you look at games these days, a vast majority of them have RP elements involved. Allowing you to create your own character, develop that character to fit your play style and effectively emerge yourself into a game by making a “mini-me” on a variety of different genre’s from sports games to shooters, or even driving games.