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In one of her previous Biting the Hand columns Jessica Mulligan stated that game designers/developers find the look of their game (the art) more important than the gameplay. In this latest Biting the Hand column, Jessica makes room for Raph Koster, to present his views on the matter, from the perspective of an 'art guy'. Raph was a senior game designer on Origin Systems’ Ultima Online and is currently the Lead Designer on Verant’s Star Wars: Galaxies.All innovations in game design are going to be "experiments." And yes, when you play a game, you’re stuck playing it with the features that the programmers and designers put in there. And it isn’t necessarily the best way for the game to work. But you are playing the game they made, not the game that you wish were there. And yes, they have to decide what to put in, and yes, they are going to decide based on their own best judgment, make trade-offs, and yes, even have a "Vision." It wouldn’t get done if they didn’t. This issue is really about is features and decisions that don’t pan out. Or that players don’t like. Yes, these do happen, and sometimes a designer may choose to not have a feature known to be fun in favor of trying something new.
The choice is simple. Have the old, fun way. Or try something new. Sometimes the new thing turns out to be fun. Sometimes it doesn’t, and now we know. If we choose the door on the left every time, we’ll eventually end up with only one game. Yes, it is a bad thing when un-fun features are in a game. But that is the price of progress, and I am not afraid to say it. |
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A Case for Art
