Being Experimental: Defying Genres
27 December 2006
Genres are there to help us. By setting a boilerplate mechanic that is proven to work, it allows designers to focus on twists and gizmos to differentiate themselves from the rest. They even allow some room for small innovations.
But this incremental approach to game design shackles deep experimental gameplay. If you fail at achieving something new within a genre, you’ll be tempted to give up and fall back to the core mechanics that everybody knows.
To truly be in the wild, genres must be left behind. One way I found for doing this is the removal of essential features. Removing these features burns the bridges to safety. They force you to rethink mechanics to the core.
The recipe is simple: grab any genre you know, think about what is the activity you do most while playing, and remove it. In most cases, it will feel contradictory and ridiculous, but if you think a bit you’ll discover that there are interesting paths you never thought about.
Some examples:
- A FPS without weapons (no shooting)?
- A turn based strategy game without economic nor military aspects?
- A MMORPG without leveling?
- An action game in which time is more important than space? (like Braid)
- A RPG without any kind of physical exploration or movement?
9 Comments so far
Leave a comment
one group has nearly done what youve said up top
its a first person platformer, cant recall the name now. just thought youd like to know someone is taking your advice to heart (in spirit)
horizon something? cant recall it
By william on September 9
I think you may onto something with regard to literature as well.
By Lee on October 3
William might be referring to Mirror’s Edge. There’s still shooting, but it’s minimal. The game falls back on conventions in other ways, but is still interesting as an example of removing features to create new gameplay focus.
By concrete_d on December 10
[...] an article I found in my distraction fueled [...]
By » Food for thought on May 12
Personally, I really liked portal.
By g0m on May 12
The industry stepped into a larger market, and more and more peoples took interest into indie games thanks to the unwell called casual gamers.
Developpers (artists?) like you brings new perspective for video games!
By Guillem on May 23
http://www.squidi.net/three/entry.php?id=30
Above is an idea for an MMORPG without leveling, money, experience points, money, and clans/factions. Needless to say, all conventions go out the window. I actually recommend reading that guy’s 300 mechanics website. It’s very well-written.
By Guest on June 14
And yet one of the most popular games ever made (World of Warcraft) is a veritable kitchen sink of features. The most popular franchise ever created, the Sims, is based on releasing expansion after needless expansion. Neither game is built around an economy of features or modes of gameplay. Your games are works of art, and fascinating ones at that. However, there is much money to be made in building a better mousetrap, and innovation creates many more duds (Black and White, Homeworld, Virtual Boy) than quality products.
By CaptPoco on August 7
@Captpoco: So, on account of the possibility of there being more bad games by experimenting, we should give it up and play it safe like the AAA industry has been doing for the last decade and a half?
No thank you I much rather Mr. Benmergui’s approach, because games need evolution, nor more stagnation.
By Eric on January 5
Leave a comment