The DO's, and DONT's, of Game Making, A list of things to add or avoid 4 games

Well, I wasn't sure about the new group, but I guess planning is an important aspect, of course. Okay, hold on a sec...

DO for level disign:

Always try to make challenging ways to finish the level. If in the first level, a sign told you how to fly over a cave of koopas, try using that throughout that world of levels. One trick ponies should be avoided, especially if they are challenging or fun enough for the player to enjoy.

DON'T for level disign:

Do not make areas with billions of objects that harm your charector, like a pit surrounded by enemies and spikes. Also, do not make incredibly long pits with just a small, cruddy bridge to go across.

Don't for Level Design:
NEVER make the level too short or too long. If your game has too many long levels, it may become a bit tiring and boring.

Do for RPG:
Make a wide range of personalities among the main characters.
Example
Stella, the main character, looks sad and traumatized.

Kaeyen, the first partner, is her childhood friend who sympathizes with her, and is very outgoing.

Jill, the 2nd partner, is so focused on responsibility, and duty.

Don't for RPG:
Give personalities that are too similar to an already existing person.
Ex.
Tayler, main, is some badass spiky haired sword weilder
Gatle, second, is a very huge man who uses the gun attached to his busted hand
Kayla, third, is an outgoing girl who uses her fists, and has big boobs :P

That's similar to Final Fantasy 7 Cloud, Barret, and Tifa. NO GOOD!

Don't for sound:

1. Do not use corny sound effects that don't match the character, sprites or game in general.
2. Don't use sound effects that make your ears bleed...

Maybe you should put a PHYSICS section

dos
-Make collisions nice and clean (no getting stuck in a wall or being able stand on it)
-Use variable jumping. This makes reaching both high and low places generally easy.
-USE MASKS. This ensures that collisions are nice and smooth.
-Have a maximum horizontal/vertical speed. No body wants to fall so fast that they cant see anything clearly
-For slopes, many games have horrible collisions. Make sure that they player can move up and down the slope without trouble.

dont

-dont use slidey physics. if a player releases the left or right key, the character should have a hspeed of 0 within the next 1.5-4 seconds.

-dont use slow acceleration. if a boulder is heading at you, you'd like to be able to move quickly

-dont Give many different things the same physics.(ex a SHOULD koopa moves 8 pix in 1.5 secs while a goomba only moves 4 rather than both moving at 8)

This post has been edited by Titan dweevil on May 4 2008, 12:32 PM

I agree with the DOs, but the DON'Ts are somewhat your opinion, plus it might be intended to have slippery physics (ice?) or enemies moving at same speeds (a koopa and a goomba move in the same speed btw. when you compare them in official SMB games).

I guess the donts mostly apply to mario games, but I jut ussed the goom and koop as ex

Graphics don'ts:

-Don't use a standing sprite in a running animation unless the standing sprite doubles as part of the running animation (example: Super Mario Bros. 3 Mario sprites)

-Don't strech sprites, resize them properly (for example, to double a sprite's size, right-click and select "stretch/skew" then select height and width to 200% in game maker, set the sprite's quality to it's lowest setting before resizing.)

Fangame don't:

-NEVER use M&L sprites in a Mario Platformer, it's sprite clashing at it's worst.

Level Design do:

-Use map screens if you know how to use them, otherwise find a simpler alternative.

I added a few of these, but I didn't add some of them because they didn't realy follow the idea.
This isn't just for Mario games, this can be for any games, no specific characters or series.

So your not gonna add the physics section I made?

Don'ts for Level Design: Don't put an environment that doesn't go with each other. I.e. Having an ice level in a desert area.

Don't know if mine wasn't added because it wasn't in the right category, but by Replay Value I meant Replayability.

Oh heck I didn't see yours before.
Hold on a second, adding yours...

Physics goes under scripting, I'd expect.

I have a "Do" for the Sounds Category:

Have varitey in the songs that you choose for each level. Even though your fangame may be Mario based, using Mario tunes frequently may become annoying over time. In short, even though it's a Mario fangame, it doesn't mean that the music has to be from a Mario game itself for most of the game.

This post has been edited by M. C. Productions on May 15 2008, 07:13 PM

Okay, another "Do" for the Fan Games category:

(1) Make sure to put your "legal info" at the very beginning of a fangame, since in most cases the materials that you use are copyrighted by the original publishers/developers. In the case of if you use Mario series materials, you would have to credit Nintendo and related developers.

And another "Do" for the Script Category:

(1) If your fangame has a planned intro, make sure that you have a function that allows the player to skip it. The only exception is if PART of that intro includes legal details (in which after that, you can implement the function to skip the rest of the intro after that).

This post has been edited by M. C. Productions on May 15 2008, 07:16 PM

Fine, I'll revise it.

Fangame Don't

- NEVER use sprites from an isometric game in a platformer.

A "Do" for original games that are story-driven:

Make sure everyone knows what's going on! Original games don't tend to feature many well known characters unless you're working on a game for a comic or webshow you write that Le Internet knows very well. If you doubt anyone will know the backstory, then you should probably include introductory levels and really make the story drip with quality in the beginning so people can get to know the characters.

Here is a DO:
When you have a variety of characters, make sure each one of them are useful and have their advantages and disadvantages. No one wants to unlock a character that is noticably worse than most of the cast or can't reach a goal because his jump height is cut for his mega high speed for example.