There are millions of computer games on the market, how can you make your game the best seller? What features should be included? I’ve taken a look at past best sellers to try and determine what makes a great game.

Put the player in focus

The player wants to be focused on the game, he wants to feel that he can control the outcome of the game. It doesn’t have to be easy, or it shouldn’t be. The more difficult the game, the better the player will feel when they have completed the game and won.

For example, in Sid Meiers Civilization, the player is focused and can affect the outcome of the game. She knows that it is up to her whether she wins or loses. This concept is seen in practically all the best sellers, Doom, Civilization, The Sims, Sim City, Warcraft, Command & Conquer, to name a few.

This can also be done in games that are largely based on a story. For example, in various Lucas Arts adventure games the concept that the player can control their destiny is frequently used. Developers must be careful not to base the game too much on what the computer does or other factors.

Simplicity

Never underestimate simplicity; a gamer generally does not like to read hundreds of pages in order to play a game. Sure, advanced features could be included, but still, the player should be able to understand in ten minutes what the game is about and how it is played. If the player doesn’t, the game is likely to become a basement dust collector.

This is where the design of the menus and the interface comes into play. Avoid having weird controls, like the shutter button set to F, for example. If you were making a third person shooter game, you would want to use the same set of controls that other games in the industry do.

Menus should be easy to understand, I have reviewed many games where menus are made of symbols without text. This is not recommended as the interpretation of a symbol is very subjective; try mixing symbols with text.

Action

By action I don’t necessarily mean violence. However, there should be something going on in the game, and when it does happen, the player should really notice. For example, killing an enemy in a third person shooter should generate blood, building a police station in Sim City should reduce crime, killing the last enemy in Warcraft should generate victory. This may sound pretty basic, and it is, but still some developers don’t think in these terms.

Story

Never underestimate the history of a game. If you read any gaming magazines today, you will notice that there is a lot of focus on graphics. Graphics are important but they mean nothing if the backstory sucks. Of course, this is not true if a game is innovative. Doom didn’t have a very well developed story, but it was still groundbreaking because people had never seen anything like it before.

But in general the story is important, sometimes a player wants to feel part of something bigger.

To name a few examples, we could start with practically all RPGs. However, don’t make the mistake of writing the story too complicated. A simple story or a shorter story should work fine as long as the story is good.

Graphics

Yes, well, I have to mention it. Graphics have a purpose as I see it; they improve the game and all the other factors that I mentioned. They are important in the sense that they communicate the game to the player. They don’t have to be impressive, but they do have to be purposeful.

A recent example of this is Command & Conquer Generals, the graphics are good, they serve a purpose, and they enhance the gaming experience. However, the game in question was not as durable for various other reasons.

There are several games with bad graphics that are still fun to play, for example Warcraft 2 or the old Sid Meiers classic Pirates.

Things people can relate to

A best-selling game should include something that the player can relate to in some way. The Sims, which is the best-selling game in the world right now, has several factors that people can relate to in real life. However, remember that different people relate to different things.

Suppose a person has just watched a science fiction movie and thinks “I really want to fly a spaceship like in that movie,” so the person in question starts looking for that game. This is also one of the reasons why the Warcraft series became very popular, the Orcs and other characters in the game that people remember from reading Tolkien’s book.

Developing a game about solving equations will probably not be a success, since very few people interact with it. These are the main factors that create a good game, if you follow these factors you will probably have a pretty good game. Of course, there are other elements that make a difference; Marketing is one of them that will become more important as the gaming scene grows.