What are some interesting new game mechanics that you like?

I like doing the graphical programming of games, but I am not so good at designing good game mechanics.

Some people love doing this, like thinking up worlds with mechanics like finance, weaponry, battle mechanics etc. i.e. the game rules that make a good game.

(It's not just me, I am reminded of games like Minecraft and No Man's sky, which had interested graphics and possibilities but didn't initially have much game-play.)

I would like to learn more about how to design games, balance them, and so on. But I can't find much about this. (It's more of a dark art!)

Do you know of any good games to look at with interesting game mechanics, or books to read about this?

(I am primarily interested in adventure type games, e.g. collect this, pick up that, use this, do this mission, kill that goblin, etc. or battle games like starcraft or even dwarf fortress).

Are there any recent games that you thought had interesting rules of play?

 

exanima made medieval combat games fun again. Check it out.

 

Play more games, then you will learn things about gameplays and mechanics. There is nothing new really. All been done. Thing you can change is scale, feasibility due to computation power and mix of other mechanics. Well and tech, for example VR, AR, Wii etc.

Because something is interesting for me, may not necessary be for you.

I say factorio.

 

I've been playing a good amount of Escape from Tarkov lately, and there's several innovative mechanics in the game that surprised me.

Firstly, playing in "Scav" mode, where you take over what would normally be an NPC enemy, and if you survive you get to keep all their gear they start with. I thought this balances pretty well with the cutthroat nature of the game when playing as your normal PMC character.

What amazed me most about the game though is the amount of weapon customization. It has to be the most detailed weapon modding/building system of any FPS game. As a real life gun guy myself, I was surprised to see weapon building not that far off from the real thing. It is done so well, I've had to stop myself from criticizing them when I notice some detail wrong, and remind myself this is a FPS game not a real life gunsmith simulator, they are allowed some liberties from reality. You can spend hours just looking through items and tweaking your guns, only to lose them in a second in a raid, or see your choices have a real impact in the fight. Great fun

 

Call me a heathen but the battle royal game is imho brilliant from a design perspective.

CoD and other games like Battlefield today offer unlockable items in multiplayer. I am reminded of the days when you were given basic starting weapons but had to find better ones if so suited you.

With said unlockables there is no longer or at least rarely on the map weapons which simply appear on the map.

I think Battle Royal solves a problem. If you don't like the progression feature in games such as Battlefield and CoD and you're hankering for some weapon finding then Battle Royal is the metagame for you!

The shrinking bubble is just a pressure field to force players toward each other. Sure its a little dumb, but its core to a game with no respawns.

 

One thing that makes games appealing is the ability to do things that would be impossible in reality.

You can use this basis to think up interesting mechanics for games.

What are some impossible things you wish you could do, that would make life easier or more fun?

Things that pop into my head - teleportation, walking on walls, reading minds, going invisible, freezing time, predicting the future, time travel.

Take one of these concepts and apply it to an everyday task e.g. You're a bicycle courier who needs to deliver packages as fast as possible without getting hit by cars, you can use your prediction ability to find the safest/fastest router once every 30 seconds or so.

A puzzle game where you need to escape from a government testing facility. You can travel back in time to steal keys/items from your previous self, but watch out, "future you" might try and take items from you!

 

That kinda reminds me of Sonic Adventure 2.

And there's even a segment in the game, where you play as Dr. Eggman, and must infiltrate an underground military type lab too.

Re-Edit: Oh no! I just realised you said puzzle game. Ignore my comment. Lol!

 

Game mechanics? Game design?

This one is easy. I will give you one, that many people still recommend.
You might want to check out a revolutionary game, by Yu Suzuki called Virtua Fighter. When it comes to game mechanics, that is like the top number one place to look. Because after all of these years, the combat fighting thing, gameplay and mechanics in that game, are still way ahead of the other 3d fighting games, like Tekken 7, DOA etc.

Another one I recommend, that almost came like close to Virtua Fighter (mechanics wise), is the famous Soul Calibur game, on that dreamcast console. Not even the sequels SC2, 3, 4, 5 or even 6, or even Tekken 7, could touch the mechanics of the Soul Calibur 1 game. And I find that interesting, as both a gamer and a game creator. That sometimes when you look at old mechanics in some older games, like for example fighting games (Virtua Fighter), they are sometimes more ahead, more evolved and newer, than the modern day games and fighting games, that we have in the present.

Brandy's epic mechanics rant:
And speaking of mechanics, it's really sad that alot of games, and even fighting games, have de-evolved mechanics wise and even gameplay wise. Even the movement in alot of games and fighting games, are either slowish, or too fast and clunky and not smooth. Maybe we need a Virtua Fighter 6, or an indie 3d fighting game, to kick Tekken and Doa's butts, and teach them and us indie game creators, how to do things, like movement, gameplay and combat mechanics properly.

 

Adventure games have become more and more focused on the storytelling side lately, and there has been little innovation on the side of mechanics (at least in the mainstream space / the games I've played).

Mechanics-wise most modern adventure games today fall into one of two camps (or often both):

1. Walk around an area and possibly use and examine things to progress the story.
2. Explore the story and possibly control story-branching through multiple-choice dialogue.

Sometimes there are also mini-games (What Remains of Edith Finch).
Quick time event challenges are also still a thing (Quantic Dream's games, Telltale Games).
Unlockables are also sometimes used to spice things up (Telltale Games).

In the action-adventure genre Hellblade had a pretty interesting "mechanic" / narrative technique in the dark rot that grows up Senua's hand when she fails and kills her if it reaches her head.

 

One book on game design I would recommend is The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. It is pretty high-level stuff, so it might not be the best book to get if you want to learn specifics about game balance and such, but I find it to be a great idea generator.

If you want a more practical book to learn the basics of things like feedback loops and balancing resources, then I would recommend the book Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design.

 

Is that by Ernest Adams andJoris Dormans? Like 62$. I have a long flight this weekend and needed some good reading

 

Movement.

It seems super obvious and super simple, but there are so many games that I feel utterly fail at making basic movement feel good. 99% of your time in a game that involves you moving a character, you will be moving in some way, so this very core mechanic has to be nailed. Honestly, if a game feel in any way clunky, I'm probably not going to finish it. Movement is often overlooked as a way to get from point A to point B, but as I see it, I also need to be able to just jump around and go weeeeee

Can you remove all the enemies, obstacles, and mechanics of your game and still have fun for ten minutes? I could jump around a Super Mario world with everything removed and still have fun, just because running and jumping is so much fun. You could remove all the enemies from Halo's Blood Gulch and I could entertain myself driving the warthog around the hills like it's a Tony Hawk skate park. I could bunny hop through Quake's world at a hundred miles and hour and love it. Gliding and shield surfing around Hyrule is what made Breath of the Wild so great for me.

I also was very disappointed by Axiom Verge. Game was great, but moving around felt clunky and not fun. Doom 3's slow ass marine who can barely hop a foot was not fun to play as. The original Legend of Zelda was a great game, but just walking from point A to point B is boring.

 

Yep, that's the one.