Designing video games is a spate voiceless than masses think . Even avid gamers plausibly have very little knowledge of everything that goes in to construct a great game . We ’re speak more than just respectable narrative , big name voice actors , or flashy art . There are exquisitely tuned design decisions that can be the divergence between a game being truly gratifying , and even habit-forming , or one that ends up collecting dust on the Used Games shelf atGameStop .
Many of these subtle design tricks were revealedin this Twitter yarn , started by game designer Jennifer Scheurle , about hidden game pattern brilliance . We love game here at Goliath , but we have to acknowledge that we had no mind about almost all of these . If you ’ve ever wondered what sort of put-on are used to make video game enjoyable , check out this lean of brilliant blueprint tactics used my developers .
14. Last Hit Points Worth Extra Health
You ’ve all been there — just scantily escaping a grueling battle skirmish by the skin of your teeth , a solitary sliver of wellness leave in your character . As you exhale deeply , scour the map for more health , and allow your adrenaline outwear off , you credibly have no estimation that the plot was designed to produce this exact second .
Many games , such asAssassin ’s CreedandDoom , make the last few tick of health deserving double ( or even triplex ) the even amount . The issue is that gamers finish up with that feeling ofjustbarely surviving , which is both exhilarating and makes for a memorable gaming second . In world , if the in - plot reach point solve consistently , you probably would have been dead a twain minutes originally .
https://thelimbogamer.wordpress.com/2025-04-16/why-assassins-creed-is-important-and-its-not-the-gameplay/ Via thelimbogamer.wordpress.com
13. Ignoring Third-Person Controls
Some of the biggest and substantially - sell games feature third - person controls , likeGrand Theft AutoorUncharted . You ’ve belike played multiple games that use third - individual control , really . But what you probably did n’t earn is that the game is designed to ignore your comptroller input at times .
formally , developers call it “ thumbstick correction . ” On a more basic stratum , it simply exists to keep your dunderhead from always walking into things . When done properly , the mechanic will guide your participant around car , trees , or rock , regardless of where you ’re guide the joystick . It helps prevent your character from aim stick anywhere , and while it may not seem like a big deal ( “ umm , I just walk around those thing anyway ” ) it create a much smooth gaming experience .
Via Naughty Dog
12. Surgeon Simulator Phone Tricks
This one does n’t technically make the game toy better , but it register the level of particular that some developer put into their game . In the democratic microcomputer gameSurgeon Simulator(later ported over to PS4 and mobile ) , you may dial a practical headphone . There are a few nerveless Easter egg phone number , but one alone one : you’re able to dial your own earpiece number too !
If you do , your phone will telephone ( obviously ) and you ’ll get a line a pre - recorded voicemail substance that will give you clues to unlock a obscure story in the game . It was set up by using a dial - up host , so hopefully Bossa Studios will keep that sister humming so more hoi polloi have a chance to call themselves in a video game .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qeDRRa_SXw Via YouTube
11. Uncharted Enemies Have Zero Aim
TheUnchartedgames are often compared to Hollywood action at law movies , as Nathan Drake regularly expire fullIndiana Jonesbefore weaken into a shootout with regretful guys of some sorting . In the movies , it ’s pretty obvious that every single baddie has terrible aim , as various heroes in various movies in the main deal to bunk intense shootout without taking a bullet .
InUncharted , that common movie scene is recreated with a bit of cagy programming . Whenever you impart cover , the plot is coded so that an enemy ’s first two shots will miss 100 percent of the time . This helps create play consequence fulfil with tension , legal action , and bullets whizzing by your head that you assume were only inches away from hit your character . In reality , there ’s no prospect they will . Other plot , likeRed Faction Guerilla , design their AI to kill you slowly , giving you time adjust and gain the battle . For example , enemy who are close to you suffer from a drastic drop in accuracy . If they do manage to hit you with a slam , the accuracy just shed again .
These tactics ram you to take covering fire , but give you a sense of a naturalistic gun battle without being overtaken too rapidly by swarm of villain .
10. Rubber-Banding A.I.
This design deception one is scarce a arcanum , but it ’s feature in some of the dandy games ever made , so we had to name it . Commonly referred to as “ catchup A.I. ” , rubber stripe means that that games continue competitive , no matter how good one role player may be . If you ’ve ever wonder by it ’s so hard to stay in first place in aMario Kartgame or shut out a quaternary quarter in a sports game ( especiallyNBA Jam ) , the reason is simple — the developer do n’t want anyone be too prevalent because it ruin the playfulness for everyone else .
The next prison term your friend makes an epic comeback in the late variation ofMaddenorFIFA , just remind them it was n’t really their superior skill . Just generous programming .
Via Nintendo
9. Xenomorph With Two Brains
Video game about movies are often fairly bad . Movies about video recording games are typically even worse . But the 2004 gameAlien : Isolationis one of the exception . It did a jolly becoming Book of Job of combining Ridley Scott ’s original sci - fi horror enfranchisement with the pop survival - horror genre of games . One of most critically praise part of the secret plan was the artificial intelligence programmed into the iconic Xenomorph scoundrel .
gambling studio apartment Creative Assembly actually designed the Alien creature with a “ dual A.I. ” , pay it two separate brains . One of them knows exactly where you are at all metre , and another one that pushed the Alien in random management . The real kicker , though , is that the first brainpower sends speck to the second brain to try and track you down . That means any stochasticity you make can be used to detect you . The 2d brain also ascertain from its own former mistake , meaning that if you keep hiding in the same place more than once , the Xenomoprh will find you quicker . The ending result is a fun , shivery plot that relies a lot on outwit the Alien brain(s ) , rather than just overpowering it with brute force .
https://alienisolation.gamepedia.com/Alien:_Isolation_Wiki Via gamepedia.com
8. Speed Effects in Forza
Speed can be hard to depict in picture games . After all , how do you recreate the sense of true real - life f number ? The direction wheel vibrating slightly in your hand and the railway locomotive of your car roaring in front of you . The landscape flying by as the tires screech against the pavement . Those are hard notion to depict for gamer loafed out on their couch , with nothing but a control in their hand .
Games in theForzaseries , along with other high - ending racing game , have elusive thaumaturgy to convince gamers their car is going faster , and we ’re verbalize about more than just an on - screen speed indicator . With a compounding of pulling the tv camera in tightly , zigzag up the locomotive sound effects , and contribute various inflammation core that make a gamer sense like they are entering “ burrow imaginativeness . ” Along with the camera effects , auto get harder to control as velocity increases , which also adds to the feeling that you ’re really driving at 105 mph from the comfort of your living way .
7. Gears of War Noob Buff
Venturing from a solo crusade into a game ’s online multiplayer can be an intimidating project . No matter how impertinent the A.I. enemies are , they will never be as practiced as other humans . It ’s a moderately normal occurrent to chute online and get absolutely dominated at first , peculiarly in games likeCall of Dutythat offer better unlockables the longer you dally . The developers ofGears of Warsaw that players who went through their first on-line match or two without show a kill would frequently never render to multiplayer .
Their solution was elementary and smart , although also a fleck unfair . Brand new online players would get a huge price increase in their weapon , at least for the first few kills . The satisfaction of not catch entirely rekt in your first multiplayer match was often enough to keep gamers coming back for more . Before long , they would have the same unlockables as everyone else , eventide up the acting field of operations .
https://www.heypoorplayer.com/2025-04-12/gears-of-war-ultimate-edition-review/ Via heypoorplayer.com
6. Tutorial Decides Settings
Here ’s a very simple one . Have you ever had to go into a game ’s options menu to switch the X - Axis controls from even to inverted , or frailty - versa ? Or , in layman ’s terms , whether you have to contract up or down on the stick so as to look up . Everyone has their own presence , and some gamers will even trade depending on the eccentric of game being play ( flight fight simulator vs. first - person - shooter , for example ) .
plot developer realized that pausing to change the place setting is a needless break from the immersion of their games . So almost every first - individual game now includes a quick tutorial at the very scratch that asks the gamer to move left and right , jump , and look up . That last part is of import , because whichever direction you move the stick to appear up change the X - axis controls background . It ’s so childlike , yet so brilliant .
https://www.windowscentral.com/minecraft-xbox-one-edition-review Via windowscentral.com
5. Pac-Man’s Ghost Settings
Pac - Manwas one of the first material make video game , becoming an colonnade sensation before being port over to house consoles like the Atari and the NES . The quest for a in high spirits account actually became one of the early representative of competitive gaming . The most serious role player eventually noticed that the touch do n’t move randomly around the snarl , but follow a sure formula .
Namco eventually give away that Blinky ( bolshie ) is programmed to surveil Pac - Man . Pinky ( pink ) is always trying to get in front of Pac - Man , cut him off . Inky ( blue ) does a bit of both , and sometimes moves completely at random . Clyde ( orange ) starts by mime the moves of Blinky , but wanders off into a recession if he gets too near to the yellow dot eater . This programming may seem irrelevant , but it actually created an extremely addicting biz , with the right combination of randomness and predictability to please both casual and hardcore gamers .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzCTMHFlxg Via YouTube
4. Skyrim Places Quests to Force Exploration
As engineering drive better , games get crowing . We ’re not only talking about filesize , either , although that ’s definitely encounter too . We are referring to the in - game maps , which are regularly massive open worlds with thousands of practical acres to search . One notable epic map is inSkyrim , and it ’s so large that you ’d probably never see it all except for the fact that the biz developers have a john up their sleeves .
Using a system of rules they called “ Radiant Quests , ” plot devs Bethesda cypher quests to force the player into random , unexplored locations of the map . Even better , was that the game still used NPC interpreter acting for many of these “ random ” quests , with only the locating or the needed point changing . That intend the quest still felt like a natural part of the story progress , even though they were located at random to show off the heroic landscape painting that Bethesda created .
https://www.windowscentral.com/where-find-best-main-and-side-quests-skyrim Via windowscentral.com
3. Only Render What’s in Sight
As demo in the GIF below , many game ( especially large scale I likeSkyrimorHorizon Zero Dawn ) will only render what ’s in front of you . Even then , the stuff and nonsense around the border might not be quite as sharp as the environment right away in the center of your purview . This is one of the tricks that helps game look sharper and more elaborated , even on home console that typically do n’t have raise specs . Why did later N64 game face effective than other ones ? Because developer figured out trick like this to maximize processing efficiency .
2. Off-Screen Enemies Are Nerfed
This is a trick used in sight of games , but perhaps most illustrious in classics likeThe Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Timeand more recent hit likeDevil May holler . Whenever you are approached by a large chemical group of foe , it can feel overwhelming . Surely , you would die a fleet and violent death if they simply all set on at once . But they do n’t , and there ’s a technical rationality for that .
The enemies inOcarinawould allow fire if you specifically targeted them , while the rest simply waited their bout . Devil May Crytook that organization one step further and actually used the camera to nerf off - screen enemies . In curt , if an enemy was n’t actually in your field of sight , it fundamentally move in tiresome motion . As soon as you turn around , the foeman would be there almost ready to lash out . It make a signified of frantic scrap , but did n’t lead in a chain of frustrative deaths . That ’s the enjoyment sweet point .
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/devil-may-cry-4-special-edition-offers-5-playable-/1100-6426099/ Via GameSpot.com
1. Coyote Time in Platformers
This piffling conception cab has in all likelihood ensue in more saved gamer lives than anything else on this list . Many of the most popular games in the early day of play were platformers — opine theSuper Mario Bros. ,Sonic the Hedgehog , andCrash Bandicootsof the earth . Many of these games call for pinpoint jumping truth to make it from one chopine to the next , and finally any platformer worth its salt added “ Coyote Time ” to its steganography .
essentially , Coyote Time was a invisible feature film that give gamers a teeeeeny bit of an extra window to make crucial jump , both for taking off and landing . It was comically named after cartoon character Wile E. Coyote , who routinely had emergence with the laws of physics while trying to catch up with the Road Runner . game without Coyote Time were often dismissed as “ too hard ” or “ not fun . ” developer who wield to get it right would end up with game that are still beloved today .
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/2025-02-22-crash-bandicoot-ps4-nsane-trilogy-boss-guides-how-to-beat-every-boss Via sgamer.net
