Having been part of quite a few competitive games, I've always had an inclination towards games that allowed me to do what I wanted and more. I think that feeling that a player gets when they feel like they can do anything comes from the freedom of control and movement. Usually in a certain world, a player quickly understands its limitations, what they can and cannot do. That sets the tone in terms of control and movement. So, when the ability to fully control the part that you CAN control and even potentially control the parts that you thought you couldn't, is where the difference is made. On the production side, that's where the creativity aspect starts.
Why are competitive games very creative?
Within the confines of the world, the player finds himself, with a limited amount of options. Obviously, with a controller, there are only so many combinations that can be done as well. So, acknowledging the boundaries and limitations, the developers have to carefully choose every set of combinations whether it's for the controller or keyboard to make the player feel comfortable and not restrained. Taking League of Legends, for example, the movement is very basic and you only have 3 skills + 1 Ultimate. Now, what is one reason League of Legends feels so good to play? It's because even with only 3 + 1 skills, the player feels like they can move however they like. The developer opted to go with one of the skills always being a movement or 'escape' type of skill that would allow for faster and sometimes unpredictable movement. The other two skills then, just complement the character, ie. attacking skills. That competitive game breakdown can be applied to many highly successful competitive games such as Gears of War and its wall bounce or Smash Brothers and its Up-B recoveries. If you've played these games, you know!
Creative games do more than competitive games
There are many ways a game can become competitive, being creative is definitely a big part of it. However, there are also a lot of games that are very creative that are not necessarily creative. A good and fun way to explore fun and original concepts is to make a lot of minigames within one big game. That's a concept that Nintendo explored quite often. We immediately think of Super Mario Party or WarioWare Inc. Mega Party Game, but they utilized that idea in many more games such as Super Mario Sunshine or even some iterations of Zelda. It's a good way to test all the different creative ideas and to see what format sticks and what people like. Having said all that, so far I've only told you what I considered to be creative games and how they become arcade games or competitive games. So here are the games that I consider being very creative:
My list of top creative games in no particular order:
- Fortnite
- Bulletstorm
- Gears of War series
- Starfox Adventure
- Super Mario Sunshine
- League of Legends
- Super Smash Brothers
- Rocket League
- Omega Strikers
- Loadout
I loved every single one of these games as they each offer something that is unique and can't be found in any other game. That's enough of a read for today, I'll describe in a future post which feature makes them so original and different from other games of their genres.
Why are competitive games very creative?
Within the confines of the world, the player finds himself, with a limited amount of options. Obviously, with a controller, there are only so many combinations that can be done as well. So, acknowledging the boundaries and limitations, the developers have to carefully choose every set of combinations whether it's for the controller or keyboard to make the player feel comfortable and not restrained. Taking League of Legends, for example, the movement is very basic and you only have 3 skills + 1 Ultimate. Now, what is one reason League of Legends feels so good to play? It's because even with only 3 + 1 skills, the player feels like they can move however they like. The developer opted to go with one of the skills always being a movement or 'escape' type of skill that would allow for faster and sometimes unpredictable movement. The other two skills then, just complement the character, ie. attacking skills. That competitive game breakdown can be applied to many highly successful competitive games such as Gears of War and its wall bounce or Smash Brothers and its Up-B recoveries. If you've played these games, you know!
Creative games do more than competitive games
There are many ways a game can become competitive, being creative is definitely a big part of it. However, there are also a lot of games that are very creative that are not necessarily creative. A good and fun way to explore fun and original concepts is to make a lot of minigames within one big game. That's a concept that Nintendo explored quite often. We immediately think of Super Mario Party or WarioWare Inc. Mega Party Game, but they utilized that idea in many more games such as Super Mario Sunshine or even some iterations of Zelda. It's a good way to test all the different creative ideas and to see what format sticks and what people like. Having said all that, so far I've only told you what I considered to be creative games and how they become arcade games or competitive games. So here are the games that I consider being very creative:
My list of top creative games in no particular order:
- Fortnite
- Bulletstorm
- Gears of War series
- Starfox Adventure
- Super Mario Sunshine
- League of Legends
- Super Smash Brothers
- Rocket League
- Omega Strikers
- Loadout
I loved every single one of these games as they each offer something that is unique and can't be found in any other game. That's enough of a read for today, I'll describe in a future post which feature makes them so original and different from other games of their genres.