Easily one of the best things about the gaming industry is that it’s constantly changing. Who knew music video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero would have such a huge impact in the first decade of this millennium? Even less predictable was its meteoric fall to the point where you could find accessories for these games in the discount bin for mere cents.

And just like mobile gaming and the MOBA genre, few could ever expect gamers to suddenly have a taste for games that make you rage and scream like never before. Just look at the reception the newly-released PS4 title Bloodborne has received since releasing. Despite being a game that most will struggle to complete, and many will drop due to its difficulty, it is already a critically acclaimed title and one of the highest rated Action RPG games in recent years.

How can that be, you ask? Here are four reasons why…

Hard games are more satisfying.

Even if you’re not a soccer (or football) fan, you probably heard all about Brazil’s final defeat in the 2014 World Cup. Despite playing on their own soil, and being of the most feared names in international football, they were completely dismantled by a German side in a way that had both Brazilian players and fans literally weeping.

Even though Germany themselves are an excellent team, it was quite gratifying for them to know they not only beat a powerful team, but also did it in front of a sea of yellow jerseys with an incredible 7-1 result.

That is what it’s all about when playing tough games. If you consider yourself a skilled gamer, there’s something captivating about playing a seemingly-unbeatable game where the odds are against you. It’s why after defeating a boss in Dark Souls, or completing a stage in Mega Man, you feel like your diligence and tenacity paid off. It’s an experience that doesn’t compare to games that are still fun but don’t require nearly as much skill to beat.

Hard games have little to no hand-holding.

While many gamers appreciate lengthy tutorials that explain the gameplay step by step, some of of us don’t care much for it. So when we’re forced through these hand-holding sections, we can’t help but throw our hands up in frustration. Although Assassin’s Creed gamers are notorious for this, it was quite disappointing to see The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword do so much hand-holding.

Do we really need a game intro that takes hours before letting you finally do things on your own? Or how about reminding us what an item is for the first time we pick it up after playing our file again, even if it’s an item we’ve collected dozens of times already? It’s then no surprise that gamers today are flocking to titles that, instead of holding your hand and showing you everything, force you to learn on your own.

Which leads to the next reason…

Hard games force us to learn and adapt.

This is possibly one of the most important reasons why games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne are so popular. Instead of feeding you information in tutorials, they toss you into the world and expect you to learn how to play yourself. Even if you look online for tips and “how to” videos, there is still plenty of challenge involved actually taking down a tough foe yourself.

The two games mentioned both have two gameplay elements that make a hard game fun: good combat and a punishing world. Suffice to say, the first time you fight a boss you will rarely defeat it in either of these two games. Instead, you’ll have to learn its moves and figure out what you’re doing wrong before finally coming out victorious.

At the same, time you’re never told if you’re going in the right direction or straight into a den of high-level enemies ready to tear you apart.

Hard games give us something to brag about.

Let’s face it: anyone can get through the average Call of Duty campaign, reach high levels on the popular match-3 games, or have an amazing village on Clash of Clans. It’s not that most games these days are bad or don’t have their own challenges, they’re quite simply not that difficult and can be mastered by just about any gamer. On the other hand, when you tell someone that you actually beat Dark Souls or solved every puzzle on Braid without looking online, gamers who know how tough the said task is can’t help but show respect.

What’s interesting is this is how it was in 8-bit and 16-bit era when difficulty was used to make sure games lasted longer. From Mega Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to Ghosts n Goblins and Battletoads, those of us who grew up in the NES days know how great it felt to complete these tough games. Even more satisfying, however, was going back to your friends and bragging to them that you finally did it, which would often be met with either disbelief or praise.

[su_note]Learn to develop all types of games at the School of Game Design at the New York Film Academy. Campuses in New York and Los Angeles.[/su_note]

Zombies.

Zombies, zombies, zombies.

For the past decade, the undead blighters have been rising from their graves and spreading their viral appeal through pretty much every medium and genre they can get their rotten hands on.

Cinema, TV, art, graphic novels, video gaming, books; you name it, and someone has tried to insert some zombie action into it albeit with varying levels of success (even classic romance literature got infected with the 2009 parody novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).

But even in the wake of the World War Z movie adaptation and the highly acclaimed Walking Dead show, it seems that the momentum is finally slowing to a shamble…

… at least if Google search trends are anything to go by.

Google Trends: Popularity of Zombies on the Decline

Looking back over the last decade, we can see that the number of people Googling the simple search term ‘zombies’ started off at a fairly even pace before starting to climb around late 2008. Incidentally, this is the point at which Max Brook’s great book World War Z started to go global, and the release of the aforementioned Pride and Prejudice and Zombies may account for the sharp spike you can see in early 2009.

This fascination with all things undead quickly grew, hitting a couple of peaks between 2013 and 2014. Again, neatly tying in with the global release of the movie version of World War Z.

Save for one or two minor attempts to rise from the grave, it’s been declining ever since. The zombie trend isn’t quite un-undead just yet, but it’s certainly heading that way.

So what’s the take home message here? Well, if you’re at game design school working on what you’re sure is going to be the next big zombie apocalypse game, you might want to reconsider your options because tastes in video games strongly mirror the wider consensus.

Are We Bored of Zombie Games?

As we can see from the above chart, interest in zombie games follows the same pattern as interest in zombies in general, but is actually shifted to the left – it got started a lot earlier, and also hit its peak a couple years sooner. Either way, the outcome is the same.

But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. Zombies may be going out of vogue, but the elements that made us fall in love with them the first place are on the rise.

Survival Horror Games More Popular Than First Person Shooters

In a strange twist of fate, first person shooters, which have been a mainstay genre of the video game industry for decades, have been dethroned by a newly rising star.

Survival horror is really coming into its own of late, particularly in the multiplayer sphere. Games like Rust, 7 Days to Die and DayZ have each sold millions of copies despite none of them having gone to full release as of yet.

Single-player survival horror titles are also doing well in the current market. Arguably, the award-winning and utterly terrifying Amnesia: The Dark Descent kicked things off in 2011 (right before the major peak), and more recent titles like Alien: Isolation are carrying on the trend.

Of course, there’s no reason why zombies can’t be the antagonist in the survival horror environment (DayZ being an example) but for the most part, the genre is around crafting and picking your battles wisely.

Also worth noting, as a relatively new genre, there’s also plenty of room for innovation in survival horror games. So, game design school students have plenty of new ground on which to create…

… but at this stage, the same can’t be said for zombies.

* N.B: Above graphs do not represent absolute search volume, but search interest relative to the highest point on the chart. It sounds like an odd way of doing it, but it’s a better way of focusing on patterns and makes comparative graphs like the ones above a lot clearer. More details here if statistical normalization floats your boat.

A few months back we showed you three quotes spoken by some of the most influential game designers of all time. From standing up for creativity and finding innovative solutions, to making games that forces players to think, there is plenty to take from their words of wisdom.

The following are a few more quotes that every game developer should ponder at least once in their lifetime (the earlier the better, of course). Even if reading these doesn’t turn you into the next Miyamoto, it can’t hurt listening to what designers who helped shape the industry have to say.

The game designer’s purpose

“I had no special training at all; I am completely self taught. I don’t fit the mold of a visual arts designer or a graphic designer. I just had a strong concept about what a game designer is. Someone who designs projects to make people happy. That’s a game designer’s purpose.”
-Toru Iwatani

Despite not being a household name like other more notable designers, Toru Iwatani is responsible for a little game called Pac-Man. Yes, that yellow character from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, as well as the Google’s April Fools’ jokes. Although Pac-Man isn’t as recognized as Mario or Master Chief, 30 years ago it was a whole different story.

The fact is, Pac-Man served as one of the first games to bridge a gap between the arcade geeks and general audience. Aside from thousands of arcade cabinets across the United States, you could also see the circular mascot on T-shirts, in pop songs, and more. This was all at a time when it seemed impossible for a video game to transcend into mainstream, especially when they were still deemed as a waste of time by many.

So why was Pac-Man such a huge hit? The short answer is: it made people happy.

[Tweet “As a game designer, your only purpose is to create experiences that will bring joy to people.”]

Iwatani’s quote shows us that instead of letting titles or skills get to your head, focus on what’s important: making games that people will enjoy. As a game designer, your only purpose is to create experiences that will bring joy to people.

Remember this the next time you find yourself struggling with a new mechanic or gameplay idea you want to implement. Ask yourself: will this make my game more fun?

The feeling of accomplishment

“Easy to me does not equal fun. I want puzzles where people have to think about it, and when they solve the puzzle, there’s that feeling of accomplishment. That’s something that’s really valuable, that concrete feeling that when you accomplish something [in the game], it feels like you’ve done something worth doing. If the game is too easy, the accomplishments aren’t valuable.”
–Eiji Aonuma on Skyward Sword

Although Shigeru Miyamoto is known as the creator of The Legend of Zelda series, it’s Eiji Aonuma who has been at the helm of every title as either Director or Producer since 1998. This includes entries considered the best in the series, like Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and The Wind Waker.

The quote above was said during a Game Informer interview while discussing Skyward Sword, a game that despite being criticized for several game design decisions, was widely praised for its creative puzzles. Just as Aonuma says, these puzzles were made to make even the veteran Zelda players think outside the box and put in extra effort to complete. Most notable was the Sky Keep dungeon that required players to connect rooms in different ways, making the entire dungeon almost like a jigsaw puzzle itself.

[Tweet “The best way to captivate your players is by forcing them to think, which in turn will give them a sense of accomplishment.”]

There is a reason why most gamers are currently loving the revival of hard games in our industry: they want to be challenged. From big-budget titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, to indie games like 1001 Spikes and Super Meat Boy, there’s no denying that gamers today want an experience that is anything but easy.

Even if you don’t plan on designing a tough-as-nails game, remember that the best way to captivate your players is by forcing them to think, which in turn will give them a sense of accomplishment.

Getting out of your comfort zone

“We had done two games, System Shock 2 and BioShock, with a world that was dead, effectively, already and you were just sort of coming in after the fact…you were a silent protagonist and two games where there was nobody around you…And if we were to walk away from those very comfortable little binkies of ours, what would we do?”
–Ken Levine on BioShock Infinite

With three different games under his belt that have each won countless awards and amassed cult followings, Ken Levine is arguably one of the best game developers of our time. His game titles are praised for their excellent stories and fun gameplay, but even more so for providing experiences unlike any other.

Even with System Shock 2, gamers received an interesting hybrid gameplay and moody sound design unlike anything they have played before. Its spiritual successor BioShock did the same, while also providing one of the most memorable and impactful video game quotes of all time: “Would You Kindly?” His last title, BioShock Infinite, also received critical acclaim for its brilliant storytelling and gorgeous settings.

[Tweet “The best game designers try to get out of their comfort zone and create new things.”]

Like the quote reveals, the Irrational Games team decided to take on the challenge of introducing elements into BioShock Infinite they had never worked with before. Among these are bright outdoor environments, a talking protagonist, a supporting character with helpful AI abilities, and more. It’s no surprise that the game took so long to develop.

Perhaps knowing that even the best game designers try to get out of their comfort zone and create new things will help you do the same, especially if you want to give the world the next big hit.

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For game developers to attract players to their game and keep their attention, more than a fun and captivating main quest is needed. Gamers do want to see an interesting story unfold as they overcome all sorts of challenges to get one step closer to their main goal, but they also want other stuff to do along the way.

Even if your game has plenty of side quests to check out, it won’t matter if most of them feel more like a chore than anything else. This is because side quests are more than optional missions to collect rewards; they are a way for players to get more out of a game they’re enjoying. To avoid having dull and unattractive side quests, consider the following hints while designing your own.

Make the plot and characters involved interesting.

The best side quests you’ll find usually contain their own small story with some sort of conflict that the player will be responsible for solving. More importantly, these side quests are enticing when the story and characters relate in some way to the main plot. Whether they do or not, having boring characters and a forgettable problem to solve is what you want to stay away from.

A prime example of a side quest with an engaging narrative is one from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask involving two characters named Anju and Kafei. Set to marry on the day of the Carnival of Time, their plans are ruined when the notorious Skull Kid turns Kafei into a child. Things worsen when the wedding mask he plans to present Anju is stolen, forcing him to go into hiding while a depressed Anju wonders where her husband-to-be went.

This particular quest is memorable mainly due to its impactful ending. Although you manage to reunite Anju and Kafei, it is mere minutes before the moon is about to destroy them all. This is because Link can never save Termina and help the two lovers due to the three day time limit, which means that helping them indirectly dooms them as well.

Avoid the exhausting collection quests.

When it comes to collection quests, one of the most notorious game series is Assassin’s Creed. In Assassin’s Creed III, for example, there are eagle feathers hidden throughout the entire game; 50 to be exact. These feathers are found in some of the most obscure locations that are anything but convenient to reach, often requiring plenty of time and effort to collect.

We’ll talk about rewards later but it’s worth noting that all you receive for this time-consuming task is a new outfit. Quests like these are enjoyed by some gamers, but many would argue that they’re simply added to inflate the game time via tedious, unfun tasks. Unfortunately, we can hardly blame developers for doing this. These days, gamers demand their purchase be justified by the promise of lengthy gameplay time.

If you do find yourself adding a collection quest in your game, figure out a way to make the rewards feel worth the effort. In Arkham Asylum, all you get for completing the Riddler side quest is a brief audio of him getting arrested. Fortunately, Rocksteady went a step further in Arkham City, and rewarded you with a confrontation with the Riddler himself, which is much cooler.

Use side quests to immerse players into your world.

One effective way of using side quests to captivate players, is by using text or audio logs. In BioShock Infinite you can collect portable voice recording devices called voxophones left behind by the inhabitants of Columbia. When obtained, they offer some of the most interesting story tidbits, as you listen to people that actually live in the game’s world.

Another way is to give players an attractive reason to explore the game’s environments. Even if your game ends up boasting an expansive world with amazing places to check out, chances are many gamers are never going to bother unless you give them a good reason to do so. One of the best examples you can look to is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

In this critically acclaimed game, you have the option of traveling to every single island in the game in order to chart them on your map. What makes this side quest so great is that each island has its own mysteries to discover, from unique puzzles and enemies to small dungeons with a worthy prize at the end. Many even contain small quests of their own, filled with novel challenges you won’t find anywhere else.

Offer a variety of side quest types.

If you want players to hate your game’s side quests, make them feel repetitive. This is usually done by having too many of the same types of side quests throughout your game. For instance, no matter how fun the combat is in your game, no one wants to do a dozen “kill x number of enemies” quests in a row.

Try to sprinkle different quest types throughout the game to keep them feeling fresh and interesting. It also helps to know perhaps the most common types of quests: kill quests (kill a certain boss or number of enemies), fetch quests (deliver an item somewhere), escort missions (protect a person or objective), and gather quests (collect a certain amount of an item).

A game known for having a good variety of quests is World of Warcraft, perhaps the most popular MMO of all time. No matter what zone you go to, or level you find yourself at, the designers made sure to offer different objectives for you to choose from. Delivering an impressive selection of side quests to complete is one of the reasons World of Warcraft is still at the top more than a decade after its launch.

Make sure the rewards are satisfying.

Let’s briefly go back to the Assassin’s Creed III example from earlier. Even if you use an online guide, you’re looking at several hours of your time in order to collect all 50 eagle feathers. After all that hard work, does it truly feel like it was all worth it when all you receive is a new outfit for your character to wear? Unless you’re a completionist, probably not.

We’re not saying that a quest always has to end with an amazing new item or upgrade for the player, although this is usually welcome if the quest was very challenging or time-consuming. The point is, some players are happy to complete a quest if all they receive is an interesting resolution or extra piece of story to enjoy.

Chrono Trigger, arguably one of the best RPGs of all time, offers some of the most satisfying rewards of any side quests you’re likely to play. Cyrus’ Ghost is a prime example that gives players both an upgrade to the Masamune, as well as a heart-warming scene where Frog finally gets to say goodbye to his deceased friend. So even though the rewards you get are great, it’s the story scenes tied to the side quest that feel even more special.

Have worthwhile quest chains.

As the name suggests, a quest chain is a sequence of quests that must be completed in a certain order. These quests are usually tied to the same plot, increase in difficulty as players progress through the chain, and offer a gratifying reward at the end. Quest chains can, of course, consist of any number of quests and be made available at different times in the story.

Quest chains are particularly compelling because they often take you across different locations throughout the game, encouraging players to journey into new areas they might otherwise not experience. At the same time, they also allow you to follow a single plot-line in stages, which players can find themselves attached to if they’ve been involved with it most of the game.

A good example of an interesting quest chain is the one from Ocarina of Time, where you receive the Biggoron Sword at the end. Although it only involves trading items to different characters and doesn’t have much of a story, it’s a fun series of quests because you get to learn a lot about less important characters in the game. Without doing this quest you’d never know that Anju and Grog are actually siblings, both the children of the carpenter Mutoh and grandchildren of the potion lady Granny.

[su_note]Learn to make your dream video game into reality at the School of Game Design at the New York Film Academy. Campuses in New York and Los Angeles.[/su_note]

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