Add Some Unpredictability To Your Games | Game Development Tips

Unpredictability is at the core of the world that we live in and without it our world would be too perfect.

When you as a Game Developer are making Game Mechanics for your Games

sometimes what happens is, you get too much into the zone and start making Game Mechanics that are Inorganic.

These Game Mechanics on the first sight might seem to be right to you

but on a closer inspection you will notice that something is very wrong with them.

A Game Mechanic most of the Time is a simulation of something that exists in the real world like a Weather System.

Or Maybe if you are making a Factory Simulator sort of Game

you might be creating a Game Mechanic to automate a machine.

Now when you are developing these Game Mechanics

if you made them Inorganic, then the problem is that they will do the same thing at the same time like,

it will Rains in your Game every 3rd day of the Week in the Rainy Season.

Or Your Factory Employees will keep on working like robots day and night without rest.

Now of course you don’t need to simulate every single part of the real world as that is just improbable

but you should also not keep these Inorganic Game Mechanics in your game, if you didn’t meant for them to be like so.

To resolve this issue you can add some Unpredictability to your Game Mechanics

which will in turn make your Game Mechanic more Organic and closer to what they are in the real world.

There is also another reason for doing this and that is

a game which is widely predictable will grow boring really fast.

and you don’t want your players to get bored of your Games.

So, in this article, we will talk about some points that will help you make your games more Organic and Unpredictable.

This Post is Part of the – Game Development Tips Series, in which i give tips and tricks that will increase your productivity and make your life easier as a game developer whether you are making a 2D Game or A 3D Game.

If you are working with Unity on a Low End / Low Spec PC, then take a look at this article here,

where i have given 5 actionable points that will help you in achieving a much smoother Game Development experience

and will stop you from banging your head on your desk out of frustration.

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#1 – You Should Not Hard-Code Things In Your Game

The First thing is that you should try your best to never ever Hard-Code anything in your Game unless it is absolutely necessary.

because if you have hard-coded something then that means that it will always stay the same.

This in turn will make your game predictable and after a while of playing your game your player will start getting bored.

Let’s take the Pokemon Games as an example,

think that every time you are in a region of bushes on some Route,

a Pidgey pops out every 5th step you player takes.

Now this would be fun for time or two

but soon that fun will turn into frustration and your Player will stop playing your game.

Instead of this, if Pokemon other than Pidgey also popped out and they did so at a random step intervals

then it would make a much more enjoyable Game as it is no longer monotonous.

So, all in all what I’m saying is just be extremely careful when hard-coding anything in your game

’cause that hard-code has the power to destroy your game.

#2 Add some Unpredictability To Your Otherwise Monotonous Game

Another point to consider is that when you hard-code things in your Game Mechanics,

your Game World will become like a Machine

that will do the same things at the same time and become too Predictable and Mechanical.

While being predictable to a certain degree is necessary

but if your whole game is completely predictable it will become stale pretty quickly

and the player will soon find that they no longer enjoy playing your game.

This is something that at least i as a game developer would not want my game to make the player feel.

I’m not saying that things in your game can’t follow rigid schedules.

For certain type of games like Factory Simulators,

it is extremely important that everything follows a certain rigid schedule.

But what you need to do is

add some Unpredictability and Variables to this otherwise Monotonous Game like

Machines breaking down
Workers on riots
Fire in the factory
Crunch time leading to low productivity

and what not

to make the game more enjoyable and re-playable for years.

The more depth your Game World’s Base Systems and Game Mechanics will have,

the more lived in your games will feel

and all in all that’s the whole point when you are Designing and Developing a Game.

Making it so that the player can connect to the World and the NPCs like they are part of that world

while also making them feel like the NPCs are real people

and Not making the player feel like he or she is controlling a character

but instead making them feel like they are the characters themselves

is what you should try to do as Game Developers when you are Developing a Game.

The more organic you Game World feels

and the more Logically Placed unpredictability and variables you have in your Game Mechanics,

the better your game will be.

As the world we live in is an extremely complex system

and if you as a game developer are able to emulate even a small aspect of that sort of complexity in your game

then all i can say is

kudos to you.

#3 Too Much Unpredictability Is Just Chaos And You Should Not Do That

Now finally, there comes a point where you can go to the other extreme

where your Game Mechanics will completely Unpredictable

Now this is also bad and not what you should be doing.

If your Game Mechanic is completely unpredictable then your player will have no way to strategize and think about his next steps.

This will lead to your player feeling frustrated and thinking that your game is incredibly buggy

and finally he / she will stop playing your game.

For Example think about the Harvest Moon Games,

When your player is planting a seed,

he / she expects that if they water it every day, the plant to grow in a certain amount of days

Now, if you have made the number of days to grow a plant completely Unpredictable

the the player won’t know how many day they need to water the plant and wait to get their produce.

It can be 1 Day or 30 Days as your Game Mechanic is completely Unpredictable

and the only thing the player would be able to do

was stare at the plant while watering it with their tears of frustration.

So, my point is that you have to balance out the unpredictability and that you should not go crazy with it.

Everything is good in a certain proportion.

If all you need to make your game fun to play is a pinch of salt

then Don’t empty out the whole packet of salt in your game

instead, Just use a pinch of salt.

Too much of anything can destroy a completely viable product

and that’s the same case when using Uncertainty in your Games.

Conclusion

Well folks, that does it for this article.

i hope that this information will be helpful to you.

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