No more using customers as beta testers. If your game has major bugs (read, bugs that crash the game or cause paths reasonable players would take to make it impossible to proceed), you fix them ASAP, and you apologize. If you can't (or won't) fix them, you hand out refunds.
If you don't do something with a character or franchise for twelve years, it goes in the public domain. No more crushing the projects of the few fans who still give a rat's ass about things you stuck in a junk drawer more than a decade ago.
Demos and screenshots must come from passages that will actually be in the game. It's too early to be certain something will be in the final game? Tough. I guess it's too early to release a demo.
All games except MMOs must retain their basic functionality, even if a server goes offline. If that means you have to issue a patch that stops a game from trying to look up authentication servers in its sunset years, do that. You're not making a big profit off the game anymore by that point, and you know the pirates have already gotten their piece.
Becoming an e-sports mainstay is a privilege, not a right. If you're doing things to your game that make it more exciting to the audience at the cost of making it less enjoyable or flexible for the players, you're doing it wrong.
FPSs: if you're boxing a player into an area for a period of time, own up to it. No invisible walls, no unpassable chest-high walls. Everything else the player should be able to navigate smoothly. The player's character should not get stuck climbing an ankle-high step or travelling between two pillars that are a person-width apart. Real people navigate these things without difficulty all the time. Games like Brink and Dishonored have made it clear that it's possible to do this; follow suit.
RPGs: Think about the dialogue you've just written. Would a reasonable person respond, "No, I'm not going to do that" or "you're obviously setting me up for betrayal/leading me into a trap"? If so, rewrite, or at the very least give the player options that acknowledge that awareness.
Third person games: Does it add anything to the experience for the player to be able to accidentally fall to their death? Not "misjudge a jump" or "get knocked off a precarious balance point", mind you, just fall in a hole because they were struggling with the camera, say. No? Then howzabout maybe make it impossible for that to happen?
Facebook games: If all you have to contribute to the arena is microtransactions and paranoia that people's imaginary houseplants (or the equivalent) are going to wilt if they don't check in every ten hours, kindly die in a fire. I don't care how nice the houseplants look.
Speaking of which: all marketing campaigns that basically amount to proving your loyalty to a brand or the allied brands of a brand in order to get the best experience in your central game need to die, now. I do not want to download your app on my phone, play your hashed-together Facebook game, buy Doritos and alienate everyone who follows me on Twitter by spouting your catchphrase. I don't even want to be required to play the multiplayer version.
If you don't do something with a character or franchise for twelve years, it goes in the public domain. No more crushing the projects of the few fans who still give a rat's ass about things you stuck in a junk drawer more than a decade ago.
Demos and screenshots must come from passages that will actually be in the game. It's too early to be certain something will be in the final game? Tough. I guess it's too early to release a demo.
All games except MMOs must retain their basic functionality, even if a server goes offline. If that means you have to issue a patch that stops a game from trying to look up authentication servers in its sunset years, do that. You're not making a big profit off the game anymore by that point, and you know the pirates have already gotten their piece.
Becoming an e-sports mainstay is a privilege, not a right. If you're doing things to your game that make it more exciting to the audience at the cost of making it less enjoyable or flexible for the players, you're doing it wrong.
FPSs: if you're boxing a player into an area for a period of time, own up to it. No invisible walls, no unpassable chest-high walls. Everything else the player should be able to navigate smoothly. The player's character should not get stuck climbing an ankle-high step or travelling between two pillars that are a person-width apart. Real people navigate these things without difficulty all the time. Games like Brink and Dishonored have made it clear that it's possible to do this; follow suit.
RPGs: Think about the dialogue you've just written. Would a reasonable person respond, "No, I'm not going to do that" or "you're obviously setting me up for betrayal/leading me into a trap"? If so, rewrite, or at the very least give the player options that acknowledge that awareness.
Third person games: Does it add anything to the experience for the player to be able to accidentally fall to their death? Not "misjudge a jump" or "get knocked off a precarious balance point", mind you, just fall in a hole because they were struggling with the camera, say. No? Then howzabout maybe make it impossible for that to happen?
Facebook games: If all you have to contribute to the arena is microtransactions and paranoia that people's imaginary houseplants (or the equivalent) are going to wilt if they don't check in every ten hours, kindly die in a fire. I don't care how nice the houseplants look.
Speaking of which: all marketing campaigns that basically amount to proving your loyalty to a brand or the allied brands of a brand in order to get the best experience in your central game need to die, now. I do not want to download your app on my phone, play your hashed-together Facebook game, buy Doritos and alienate everyone who follows me on Twitter by spouting your catchphrase. I don't even want to be required to play the multiplayer version.
