The Danc Verb ->subject System

[Bane_Star]

I don;t know if anyone reads Dan Cooks Blog about game design. Alot of Theoretical workthrough.

I really enjoy using his verb + subject system on Game design theory. It breaks a game down into managable chunks, easier to code.

As I understand it, When you design your game, you don't look at all the 'pretty' that will be your end game project, but instead identify the key factors that make your game FUN.

Let take a game like Diablo.

Why was Diablo so cool? because it had a simple interface, click on screen, character moves there.

This is the verb MOVE. Simple and elegant.

want to pick up an Item, click on it, TAKE. if your backpack is disorganised, ORGANISE it.

Then you go to town and you BUY and SELL.

Since the Average brain only likes to deal with 6-10 items of information at max, we ignore a bulk of the extra, and even feel confused by it. Diablo wins the average brain by only dealing with a select number of Verbs, and breaks subjects down into groups.. also in sets of 6-10. Weapon groups, creature groups, areas of your character-sheet, If you overload the brain with too many things, the user becomes overwhealmed, but none of us want to admit we're too stupid to cope with it all, so we blame the game.

As Indie developers, we tend to look at so many of the less important things, design doc's with innumerable pages of junk.. but not listing.. what is this game about? How can my players identify the games core in less than 1 second.

Heres a link for people who would like to really understand the dynamics of player desires:

http://lunar.lostgarden.com/labels/Worth%20Reading.html

[Chris]

Interesting! Thanks for this.

[PaxBritannia]

Interesting, although the number 7±2 is normally referenced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magica ... _Minus_Two

On menu items, I tend to keep my options at in groups of eight per menu, with a maximum of eight menus operable at any one time.

The menu system in my current project is extremely easy to use. Although the type of menu I'm using has been used in some software programs, it's never made its way online. I'll tell you when it's finished.


pax.