Usability is a theme dear to my heart. I’m a staunch believer that every game should have mappable control buttons and allow me to invert both the X and Y axis. Damn you Final Fantasy XII for ruining my ability to turn left and right correctly the first time!
In that vein, LevelUp’s Gaming Tidbits last week pointed me towards Improving Usability in Games. I fully agree with the points in part 1, with particular emphasis on point 5: Know what the f’k I’m doing.
A player should be able to put down a game for a period of months at a time and still be able to hop right back in. Anything else is self-defeating and counter-productive.
How to Make Games User-Friendly: Part 1 - James Portnow on Next-Gen
This problem is exactly the reason why I’m so passionate about journal systems in games. It applies to games as simple and linear as Army of Two or as complex and unwieldy as Deux Ex: Invisible War. I and so many other gamers, simply cannot afford to play every day or even every week. When we do find the time to get return to a game after a holiday, (or after a month of Guitar Hero 3 obsession ;) we need to be reminded of what the hell we were trying to achieve before RL got in the way. A simple log of what’s just happened and where we could go next would make our game experience so much happier.
I’m not quite as enamoured with part two of the series but James makes some good points about the advantage of an in-game manual and SD-TV compatibility. Read them yourself at How To Make Games User-Friendly: Part 2
What are your most reviled game design decisions?
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April 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
tricky as needs will be different for different folks - some people have lots of time some dont, you dont want to necessarily dumb things down to lowest common denominator, but you also dont want alienate players with complex systems.
ideal route is to have design systems that let anyone pick up and play, but have layers of depth with which to reward dedicated gamers.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I agree that games should be designed with simplicity in use and design , complexity in the nature of the game . You do not want to make a system where people have to spend 10-15 mins to grab the functions and then get on with the game, it kills the very purpose of any game,entertainment.