Category Archives: Game Design Tricks

Hey, I'm Simon and I made a game!! :)
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Therapist
“Good Morning Mr. Tawodi, how can i help you? What’s your problem?”
“When i see a button…i have to…push it!”
“And…this is a huge problem for you?”
“Oh, it wasn’t all the time! Everyone did it! Freeman, that Doom guy…sometimes we even shot at buttons!”
“So, where’s the problem? Seems to work pretty well for you guys!”
“I…i…don’t know! Suddenly buttons became evil…i prey to god that this stops…”
“Ok Mr. Tawodi, we’ll continue at this point the next time. This session was without charge like always, but feel free to push this button if you want to support us with a donation of 500$.”

During my gaming carrier i pushed, shot and jumped at every button i saw in a game. It always opened me a way to a new level, an item or a princess. But then I’ve played Prey and all suddenly changed (if you don’t know the game: buy it!).

1st Example
Prehistory: Someone was just killed by a big machine, someone stopped the machine (but too late) and then you get this scene…

Source: Prey








A Button !

Our typical gamer-reaction would be to push it. But let’s see what actually happens in the game:

Warning! The video below contains gore, blood and torture!

I didn’t embed the video directly to avoid any tracking from Google and complications with the DSGVO.

Thanks genius, you activated the killing-machine again! It’s hard to see, but there’s an unlucky guy hanging in the back of the scene. I really like that my character comments the scene. But this isn’t the only part where the game fools you.

2nd Example
Here the game shows you another appetizing button…

I didn’t embed the video directly to avoid any tracking from Google and complications with the DSGVO.

…which calls the alarm! I really like when games showing me, that sometimes my in-game behavior is a bit stupid. In real world i never would run into houses and loot all the boxes, destroy a locked door or push every button in range. But since you don’t have any disadvantages in most games, we all just do it.

So sometimes it’s good to be remembered that some of those action can end up kind of messy. Even in-game.