I'm a game design student and I'm currently working on a narrative/puzzle game. What do you look for when you play games? (I'm genuinely interested in finding out what people want when they play, it's always super interesting!)
Great/interesting characters you can connect with that is like my number 1 thing or just a great world you can learn about. I find world building VERY important
I'm a super big fan of the story guy when it comes to games, so I tend to look at what the story has to offer me above else. But, usual narrative particulars aside, I think it's cool when the game itself is really intertwined with the story instead of it just being like okay here's the narrative portion and here's the gameplay portion. Like if I'm exploring a world and I'd see some nocs talking about the news or posters on the walls about beliefs or just seeing how the entire world works as a setting for the narrative. Interactables that may not help me solve a puzzle, but gives me a piece of the world. Tying it alltogether so it feels like one united thing sorta type
Yeah games like Bioshock nailed the environmental narratives! I'm still learning but it's such a cool way to convey more in-deep story while not telling to much to the player!
it's a personal taste but i like the dark insides of a character , not just the backgrounds but mostly the psychology behind their very persona and all
It's always a good thing to add to complete a character's development, but I find this sooo hard when writting. (it might be because I'm creating characters from IRL ppl so it's hard to know what's hidden inside real humans xDD)
Me personally I enjoy games that have a main storyline but if there's limitations such as waiting 30 minutes to unlock something before you get to a next level then I appreciate having like some side quests I could indulge myself in, or like mini games to get small rewards
Yeahhh I heard Outer Wild's designer talking about this were they added fallbaks and side curiosity to resolve when you cannot resolve a puzzle, it's such a good deisgn pracitce!
a big good plot twist, especially if there's foreshadowing!! making me stare at the screen for a moment with my mouth open, love the feeling of finally knowing the truth or either way discovering that i've been completely lied to ദ്ദി ˉ꒳ˉ )
apart from a story with a convincing narrative, a really strong visual style is what sticks with me; having cool recurring motifs or general patterns can add to the game's identity and story a lot
There's so many things that I wanted to say that already been said here so I'll say what I DON'T want to see/don't like in a game: - Flat characters that serve for only one purpose, as in they only have one personality either the good perfect Mary Sue character that loves everyone and don't know how to hate someone (I'm looking at you Nilou Genshin Impact) or the ugly and bad and bully character "look at me I'm very clearly bad and have no personality and I'm only there to make other characters look more bright" (I'm looking at you Ambre My candy love)
- Characters with potential that absolutely get little to no screentime to the point where they're almost forgot by the creators (hello Otomo puyo puyo)
- The pacing, one perfect example where the pacing is horrible is Persona 3, I really like the game and the story but oh my GOD IS IT SLOW I had to go into more than 40h of playthrough before the game finally becomes interesting but before that the game was super repetitive, slow and boring
Good worldbuilding and character design in general!! I studied digital media in University, so I also think ui design really pushes game experience to the next level, especially unique AND functional ones. I usually think towards the Persona series/Metaphor ReFantazio (Atlus is particularly crazy with their newer ui + menu designs); re for its popular grid style, and I personally like the organization of the Dark Souls series (clean and organized info)!! I think these types of things are overlooked when thinking about games as a whole, but good ones (and bad ones) are recognized, and the best definitely elevate the experience of a game!
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- Flat characters that serve for only one purpose, as in they only have one personality either the good perfect Mary Sue character that loves everyone and don't know how to hate someone (I'm looking at you Nilou Genshin Impact) or the ugly and bad and bully character "look at me I'm very clearly bad and have no personality and I'm only there to make other characters look more bright" (I'm looking at you Ambre My candy love)
- Characters with potential that absolutely get little to no screentime to the point where they're almost forgot by the creators (hello Otomo puyo puyo)
- The pacing, one perfect example where the pacing is horrible is Persona 3, I really like the game and the story but oh my GOD IS IT SLOW I had to go into more than 40h of playthrough before the game finally becomes interesting but before that the game was super repetitive, slow and boring