Jon and Dirk discuss several games at length this week, namely: Monaco, the new Walking Dead chapter, Super Crate Box for the Ouya and Civ 5: Brave New World. Topics covered include how penalties can improve a game, the importance of polish, and why diplomacy in 4X games always seems to be bad.
This was a long one and we really went into a lot of detail on interesting design topics relating to the games we’ve been playing. The big takeaway from #38 is “polish your games, because if you don’t players will notice – and it will undermine everything you actually did well.”
It’s easy for developers to overlook what they believe to be small flaws, but players have a very different perspective. While the best games aren’t perfect, by either luck or intention their problems tend to be peripheral to the core experience. Unless you’re just naturally charmed, the only way to reach that point is through extensive playtesting.
– Jon
Jon Shafer on Design 