What makes a game good? A simple question with a not-so-simple answer
The success or failure of any product is subject to how well it can satisfy its target audience; when it comes to video games, the player's preferences are central in deciding how a game will play out. Hence a better question to ask here is, what do players expect from a game?
Gamers seek quality through goals driven by a motivating story, challenges that reward them, and mastery of everything the game offers. Much of this intrigue is shaped by the gameplay, game mechanics, and design choices, all of which boil down to one aspect, a good gaming experience that you can create too by choosing to hire game developers with Aspired.
But that’s easier said than done, so before we dive into how game developers impact game experience and how you can hire developers to create quality games, let’s first understand what makes up a good gaming experience.
Good Game Experience Matters
When playing a game, multiple thoughts go through a player's mind stemming from the storyline, functional activities, and aesthetics the game offers them. Assessing these thoughts beforehand enables adept game developers to create scenarios and designs elements in a predictive manner that aim to satisfy the player’s curious endeavors/actions.
Players expect a game like Call of Duty to provide them with a fast-paced multiplayer experience, which compels Activision’s developers to create features that enhance this experience further.
On the other hand, fans of the Dark Souls series expect boss battles that challenge their nerves and reflexes; now imagine if FromSoft’s developer decided to focus on multiplayer instead; that would result in a disastrous game experience for the fans.
Key Elements of Game Experience
Experts in the game development industry will have you know that there are three key elements considered to be the critical determinants of a quality game experience, these are:
- The game’s context/story
- Objectives that need to be completed to win
- The learning curve, i.e., how the player understands the game
Context includes the storyline and the aesthetics, both of which work together to set up the stage for what the player can expect from the game. The objectives provide activities that result in game progression or rewards, keeping the player engaged.
Lastly, giving information that lets players figure out what needs to be done provides them with much-needed incentive and creates a sense of intrigue to find out what more there is to learn.
When looking at the bigger picture, it becomes clear that the game experience is born of the combined vision of the entire game development team, including producers that provide the initial idea of the game, story writers that create relatable characters, sound designers that set the mood of varying scenarios, and artists who design attractive digital elements.
But where do game developers fit into this equation?
How Expert Game Developers Impact Game Experience?
Creating an everlasting game experience requires developers that can bring the combined vision of the entire game studio onto the digital plain. This is why it’s integral to hire game developers that have the skill set to intuitively transform that experience into an interactive product. This transformation is made possible by how these game developers perform the following tasks:
Translating Requirements Into Effective Code
With all the elements that encompass game experience, game developers have to additionally focus on technical specifications and business requirements. Thus, before starting to code, they analyze these requirements and aim to understand how they’ll be cohesively implemented in the code, along with defining the information flow to shape the code in a logical manner.
The result is efficient code that holds up logically and provides an actionable product while ticking all the boxes regarding game-related and business requirements.
Ensuring Players Interact With The Game
Experienced game developers are able to go a step ahead and walk a mile in the players' shoes, allowing them to interact with entities in the game, similar to how a curious player would. This mindset enables them to incorporate a sense of realism within the game by making elements and characters feel alive and interactive.
These details add to the immersion, ensuring the player’s eyes remain glued to the screen. This becomes much more evident when considering how a game such as GTA would feel lifeless without all the interactive elements and amusing characters its massive sandbox offers.
Integrating The Latest Gaming Trends and Technologies
All game developers can agree that nothing adds more to the game experience than new features that push the boundaries of what’s possible in gaming. This is why you should hire game developers aware of current gaming trends and advancing technologies that could provide a novel gaming experience for players.
This results in a technological jump that catches players by surprise and compels them to experience these innovative changes firsthand. A prominent example is how Fortnite combined the battle royale trend with completely new building mechanics, forever changing the industry and becoming a household name for years.
Conclusion
Games have become an important aspect within the world of tech. With 3 billion customers across the globe, several companies aim to begin their game development process to capitalize on this prosperous situation. The first step to success here is hiring game developers that can create lovable game experiences for your audience.
Hire Game Developers With Aspired
If you’re a business that’s looking to hire game developers possessing the right skills and experience needed to create revolutionary games, then look no further.
Connect With Aspired Today
Aspired has been helping companies hire game developers for over three years through our rigorous screening process, ensuring only the cream of the crop is selected to work on your projects. Connect with us now and get your game development team in just 48 hours with a 60-day trial to experience top-class development firsthand.
FAQs
The following skills are commonly found in experienced game developers:
- Problem-solving ability
- Creative thought process
- Programming knowledge and technical skills
- Staying abreast of industry developments
- Knowledge of game design
- Communication and collaborative ability
- Passion for video games
- Time management ability
The game development process involves the following eight stages:
- Stage 1: Project ideation
- Stage 3: Pre-production
- Stage 4: Production
- Stage 5: Testing
- Stage 6: Pre-launch
- Stage 7: Launch
- Stage 8: Post-production
Although the cost of a game can vary depending on the project's scale and requirements, the average indie title can cost around $50,000 to $700,000, while a AAA game can cost $200 million or more.