Game Design Principles Of Game Design

First of all I would like to say Wow! The work that has been done on Wynncraft is amazing, and you should consider porting it to its own game engine.

Two of the most common game design models are First Person action games where success is based on the skills (and gaming hardware) of the player behind the controls, and Role Play where success is based on the level, skills, gear and class of a character within the game.

Wynncraft is clearly an RPG with level grinding for combat, gathering and crafting. So why does every dungeon have a parkour segment that is clearly an FP mechanic ? It completely breaks the 4th wall of character immersion when you realize leveling your dex or agility will do nothing to help you. If your video is to choppy to dance across pinheads at a sprint then you (as a player) will never pass a dungeon regardless of your (characters) level.

As a developer it is important to know what motivates your player to continue playing and what (un)motivates them to quit playing. In an RPG players are proud of their achievements in levels and acquired rare gear. FP style obstacles or tasks that are not affected by levels or gear diminish those achievements. Imagine a level 100 character having difficulty with an FP task, then a level 5 noob runs past and completes it easily ... How is that player going to feel about all the work he put into his level 100 character? Why would he be motivated to put more work into it? That's why, as a general rule, FP style play is avoided in RP style games.

And a final note on dungeons in general .. It is usually implied in RPG s with different character classes that each class will have different combat strengths and styles. Dungeons should be passable in more than one way to allow for different classes to utilize there own unique advantages. For example; a parkour to bypass a room of difficult mobs or a hopper for mob token items to bypass a difficult puzzle. So nimble and clever characters can bypass the heavy combat and combat characters can bypass the acrobatics and IQ tests.

Overall I'd give Wynncraft 7 out of 10 in its current state. I do realize that some of the limitations are due to the minecraft engine. I will continue my adventures in Wynncraft and if I see anything else that could be improved I'll be sure to let you know ... till then, keep up the great work! :)

 

You should reach lvl 100 first
As you lvl up, the quests get significantly better with cutscenes and understanding of lore etc

 

You ever got to legendary island? I do. Even with top-of-the-line gear and helpful buffs, I never defeat the third boss (of 10)
Then someone like YYgamer can just crush all of the bosses with A MEME BUILD OF ALL THINGS.

Should high-level gear always give you an advantage? Then skill becomes meaningless.
Allow me to once again bring Don't starve as an example for this, because it's such a great game. (Though it's more of a survival game)
Say you are fighting Deerclops, the cruel beast of winter. It's a hard fight. It hits hard, it tanks a lot.
You can
A) Overprepare for the fight by grinding items for ages
B) Defeat it with basic weapons and skill
(C: Hide in the caves, like a coward)

This is what a RPG should be like. Better gear makes you better, but you can defeat the tasks in front of you with skill if you want to.

As said above, get a class to level 100 first. I know it sounds like gatekeeping, but if you have 100% done the game, you actually know how to suggest, because you know what the game is lacking because you have seen what it has to offer. So don't complain if you haven't seen the problem.

Other nitpicks:
If wynn changed to a personal, new engine
Nobody would play it anymore because it would lose the charm of being a MMORPG inside minecraft.

Honestly? Ever go into a parkour section with a high level class?
A mage or warrior can just skip 90% of it with spells.
An archer or assassin can use spells to incerace speed, making it easier.

Also, if it's fun, don't ask questions. Parkour is usually enjoyable. So why do you complain? Should all dungeons be just boring grind sections?



Disclaimer: I think there was some salt up there. Just understand that games should take skill. If nothing takes skill then what's the point?

 

I think you've gotten the wrong impression. This post in not about "I'm a noob and can't finish this quest... <cry>". This post is about basic principals of game design that are covered in collage courses in game development.

The term "First Person" is a literary term describing a story that is told by a character who is part of the story. ie. "I went to town and traded my cow for some magic beans"

In gaming "First Person" refers to any game that you as the player at the controls are competing against with your own skills .. not just FPS games like Quake and Unreal but also pac-man, space invaders, mario cart and even vanilla minecraft or don't starve. Just having to run around and gather a few things does not make it role play, even in quake you need to grab your armor and rocket lanucher.

By comparison, Role Play would be "Second Person" the person telling the story is not the person in the story. ie. "Tommy went to town and traded his cow for magic beans"

So in Role Play gaming your own abilities should not have an impact the outcome .. the abilities of your character in game are the only ones that should apply. You as a player are not in the game with your own skills ... you are "playing the role" of your character with their own skills and abilities.

Both are valid game designs .. both are fun to play .. but they do not work well together in the same game. Wynncraft is clearly an RPG. So as a developer of an RPG all tasks should be impacted by character abilities and skill levels.

This is not just a personal opinion. It is an accepted principal in the game development industry. I mentioned it here with the hopes that the developers here would recognize its significance and perhaps help make the game better in the future.

 

Nice to see a thought-out thread, although I would have to agree - you've seen exactly two dungeons out of nine (not including the corrupted counterparts, some of which differ significantly from the originals) so there's a lot you're missing (and when you get to it - we already know Undergrowth Ruins sucks).

I'm in agreement with Bluescreen, in that it's best to have some amount of FP skill involved, such that for the most part, you can beat a challenge with stronger items, or with skill (given a certain minimum strength... spider build can't solo LI because it's damage output is too weak.... @TikTok ).

I see your point about parkour - quite a bit of it is overdone in my opinion (looking at new SST here). But as Bluescreen mentioned, a lot of the parkour, especially at early levels, can be bypassed relatively easily by higher level players with movement spells (particularly since endgame classes tend to have high Int, while lower-level classes rarely focus on Int to start with). Walkspeed especially helps with this - my current endgame build has approximately +110% walk speed (from only three items and archer Escape buff), while the highest walkspeed you can get at your level is 107% if you focus your entire build around it.

Selvut would like this thread :D

 

Who cares @YYGAYMER should do it anyways.
YY you better start going ballistic on levelling scribing/alchemy/cooking
!

 

Such "design rules" may be a good start to orientate in which direction you are going, but if you take them as "laws", they will become just an unnecessary restriction. I would say the best way to make a good game is to find creative solutions to make gameplay more fun and not just stupidly follow general rules, they may give you a general idea, but should never be used as a step-by-step instruction. Taking general rules to serious while doing a creative task won't bring you far.
Just because Wynncraft heavily relies on level progression it doesn't mean it has to cut out everything that mainly requires skill rather than levels. Whether parkour makes gameplay more fun or not is argueable, I would definitely say yes, having parkour or puzzle-challenges makes dungeons and quests much more interesting than just non-stop mob-slaughtering. And personally I never had the feeling of immersion being broken just because I cannot "buy" success with skill points or levels.

 

He gives wynncraft a 7/10 based on the fact he did two dungeons and his criticsm is on dungeons alone? Like the rest have said, dungeon parkour can be easily skipped as a higher player than a lower one. Your example is of an assumption that higher levels are forced to do the parkour like any other level. Like @Bluescreen has stated, you can’t really rate the game overall unless you hit level 100, as there are a lot of endgame content that really shines conpared to the simple low level quests. (most of the time at least, some exceptions like dejavu) I also dislike the fact that you judge wynncraft overall based on dungeons alone, when there are many other aspects that are wildly different, and again, you have only done 2 of the 9 dungeons.

(sorry if I sounded a bit toxic, no personal harm to you)

 

To have fun....?
There are plenty of games that are fun but involve very little strategy to no strategy at all, most of these games being family games. Games were made for entertainment. If something takes skill but is boring, what's the point in doing that either? Nothing, really. Sure, I understand that we're talking about wynncraft here (and I do agree there needs to be more skill involved in it), but you completely ignore the entertainment factor with this part at the end.

 

I would like to know the secret to skipping dungeon parkour

 

I call it teleport, escape, and charge. Assassin is the only class who can’t

Edit: assassin can im dumb

 

It's possible with assassin. Just saying :)

 

You're telling me I can completely bypass the winding paths of the Sand-Swept Tomb parkour or the invisible walls in the Ice Barrows?

 

Those are exceptions, there are still parkour segments which can be easily skipped my the sewers parkour

 

This talk about first second and third person bugs me. From what I have heard, (from credible sources) the "person" team is used to describe the point of view the player has in relation to the character.

If you are the character and are viewing the game as If you are is the same place as them it is first person.

If you are viewing it from the view point of other characters then the one you control it is in the second person
(Games are rarely made in second person due to the complications of everything)

If you see the character as if you were in the sky or some where outside of the player and other characters then the game is in third person.

I believe that you are getting the point of view and what a game is made for confused. A game is made to attract your attention and allow you to react to events that happen. By far the most common was is to make a goal for the player to reach, and force them to react in certain ways either in speed or a specific order of preforming reactions to make reaching that goal harder.

In Wynncraft is to get to lv 100 and have fun getting there.

Anything Else?

Sincerely,
Captanredbeard​