Expectability
| Bool by Messhof |
 Spikes or bonus items?
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When I play Breakout I want my balls to bounce under a logical angle. If my ball bounces of a completely wrong and unexpected angle and I miss the ball because of that then I am annoyed and quit. Same goes for a plaformer. If I see a set of spikes I must see by the shape I should avoid them. If I first have to hit a spike to notice that these are deadly and I have to start the game over again then I’m gone. Alternatively if I see a triangle pointing upwards within a platformer it should be a spike. If my experience tells me that these things usually are spikes then I avoid them. And if this happens to be the secret bonus element needed to actually complete the game and I die because I avoid it then that is bad game design. As a player I should see directly what I can expect from a situation. If I see a big pit with red smoking lava I know I should avoid it. If a player dies because of lack of understanding of what an element does then he will very likely quit the game.
Lack of game play
| Stop at 500 |
 Stop a timer at a specified moment. No think work required at all.
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To many games these days focus purely on the graphics. A game should be varied and interesting. It would of course be nice if it has some fancy graphics but it aren’t the graphics that make the game. It’s the gameplay. You can have beautiful graphics but if your game is boring people won’t play it. Good graphics can enhance a game a lot. However without the game play there is little that graphics can do. If you have a game where the only goal is to press a key at a certain moment then the game will be boring. People want variation within there game.
A game revolves around taking decisions. In Pacman you decide whether you go left, right, up or down. That keeps the game exciting, as you know what you must do. If your only decision is to stop a timer then the game will get incredibility dull. A player should always get new decisions, which he must choose. A player should not be walking for 5 minutes to the left without doing any thinking. A player mind should be kept busy throughout the game.