What do you need to consider when designing a computer game?

• Whats Good about this Game
• Will people like it

The following considerations are important:

Audience: who wants to play your game.

Genre: what type of game is it.

Controls: how is the game played.

Maturity: what is the target rating for the game (kids, adults).

Hook: what makes your game unique from others like it.

Story: what is the flow of events in your game, and what led up to those events.

Difficulty: how difficult should it be to beat your game.

Budget: how much money can you afford to put into the game.

Timeframe: how long before you plan to release your game.

Platform: what systems will run this game.

Hardware: what hardware will the players need (CPU, RAM, etc).

Software: what other software does the user need to run this game (OS, drivers, etc).

Graphics: the style of graphics, such as 2D, 3D, hand-drawn, computer-generated...

Music: the audio background to your game.

Sound Effects: the various actions and their audible feedback.

Characters: whom the story is being told about, or is involved, if any.

Objectives: what is the main objective of the game, and side objectives.

Enemies: whom are the characters facing off against.

You will need to know all this, and probably more, before you even write your first line of code. Generally, the more you know about your game, the better it will be. Start with the overall ideas first, such as story and characters, then work down to details, such as audience, and finally to technical details, such as audio and graphical sections.