What do you look for in a game?

[fish-with-feathers]

As a novice game designer I'd like to know what people look for in a game (just in general). Good graphics? Strong narrative? Interesting game-play? Creative mechanics? What sells you on a game?

[Tom]

Personally, I'm in to a lot of sandbox stuff so game-play and mechanics are great for me. A narrative is also very useful but for me is not as important as what the game is actually like to play and what you can do in game.

[Jubal]

Basically a game should yield a reaction from the player.

For me, I tend to like games that make me think, so creative mechanics. Having a strong story is good if you're doing a story-driven game, certainly. Graphics are vastly less important to me.

Also in terms of mechanics;
- Don't fetishise minigames. A good adventure is not one that is repeatedly interrupted by a bunch of random coloured tiles popping up. Minigames can be good, but shouldn't be too core to the mechanics.
- Similarly, sneak mechanics or timing jumps is only fun for so long.
- Being creative with the world around you is the biggest joy in gaming for me.

[Pentagathus]

Eurgh minigames suck. They suck sweaty, hairy ballsacks.

If its narrative based then it's got to be a genuinely compelling story, not some armadilloty generic thing where you can guess how it'l end halfway through playing. And not one where you have to pointlessly grind away at killing things or spend hours treking about featureless armadilloholes for some llama who just happens to need something that apparently only the random stranger that is you can get for them. One of the best games I've ever played was Planescape Torment, its from the 90s, it had fairly dull mechanics (outside of the dialogue system) and graphics were not great. But I was hooked in straight away, it had a pretty unusual start and since the character had some form of amnesia the story was a real mystery. And that mystery was kept up the whole way through, seriously it was amazeballs. I'd even go as far as to say totes amazeballs.

As for sandbox games I usually get bored after a while if there aren't many goals to achieve or only one way of achieving them. Take mount and blade, its gots some pretty awesome mechanics but after playing it for a while its gets boring pretty quickly. The only aim you can set is conquering calradia, and to do that you're going to have to fight a horrendous number of remarkably similar battles (and struggle through the sieges, which are by far the most frustrating and portugaled up part of the game.) I've never bothered to conquer calradia, hell I've only had one game that lasted long enough for a faction to be wiped out.
Actually it turns out two of the best games I've ever played come from the 90s, King of Dragon Pass is a very strange one, its a mix of sandbox strategy and narrative based rpg. Its entirely menu based but the mechanics are still quite interesting and it really does make you think.  It has a sort of random event system that really keeps you on your toes and its so immersive that I could happily spend hours playing it through and completely ignoring the mainline story.

[TTG4]

For me, characters and plotlines are what make a great game. When the characters seem real and not just fetished hard woman or emotionless man with gun.

Gameplay and mechanics help, if a game is difficult to play because of eg. a bad control layout, or one game I played you needed to do overly complicated multi-button presses which was a pain and ruined the game.

Graphics are nice flashy thing, but bad graphics don't kill a game.

[Cuddly Khan]

Good graphics? Strong narrative? Interesting game-play? Creative mechanics?

Varies mixtures of the above. I like Octodad, that was a really good laugh because of the awesome and creative mechanics they used. I love strong narratives but they aren't always the yes or now for me to what I think is a good game. The Dark Souls series for example, that doesn't have the strongest of narratives but I still think it's a good game. Interesting game-play is always good. Something in games that people have never seen before, or things done in way people have never seen can sometimes be good. Good graphics... yes and no. A game with good graphics can be good but it doesn't really matter to me as long as it has some mixture of the other three. But I do like a game with good graphics, games that are pleasing to the eye to look at.

All in all it's never always just the one thing that makes me think, "Wow, this is a good game".

[Othko97]

I personally look for games with a strong narrative or mechanics, preferably a blend of the two. Of the two of these I lean somewhat more towards mechanics, which must be at least functional, if not interesting; I can cope with games which have a poor story if the gameplay is fun enough (e.g. Battlefield). On the flip side story can sell a game to me, like Dear Esther, which I would hesitate to actually call a game . The games which really stand out to me blend these two together, for example Bastion or Portal. I am personally a fan of random environments/story elements, which give a game a unique experience each time.

Graphics to me are slightly more secondary, although a nice art style can sell me on a game. My PC is a little old and cannot be upgraded (Mac running Windows), and therefore fancy graphics are often problematic.

[Flamekebab]

Whilst I enjoy graphics it's more about the art style than what kind of anti-aliasing options are available.

I enjoy what used to be termed "god games" (at least I think that's the genre). They're often management games these days although I feel like there's very few still around. Pretty much any of the Bullfrog games from the late 1990s.

I also like a game that can charm me. British games tend to do that for me with their quaint idiosyncrasies but Dreamfall managed it.

In general though I want a game to be a game - not a mini-game. I don't care how much skill a fighting game takes to master, to me it's essentially a mini-game. It might be beautiful and well made but from my perspective I'm left asking "Where's the rest of the game?"
If it's less complex than Worms or Time Crisis then I'm probably not going to have much fun with it.

I was lucky to be born late enough that there were plenty of "proper" games (by my definition) on the market by the time I was old enough to enjoy such things.

Something I do enjoy is a cinematic journey. I really enjoyed the newest Tomb Raider game for that very reason. It wasn't a movie but I had fun along the ride.

[Jubal]

To be fair, I think by your definition many quite old games are "proper" - my beloved 1980s adventure games, for example, have a lot of game to them.

I agree on the "game not a minigame" thing though.

[Flamekebab]

Adventure games definitely are, Elite definitely is, but Pac-man and Space Invaders aren't. Lemmings on the other hand very much is.

I still don't understand the obsession with Pac-man and things of that ilk. Bejewelled I can understand but the others seem so mindless.

[Pentagathus]

Were Bullfrog the team that produced Populus? If so, good shout sir.

[Clockwork]

Being able to get into a character either with a sense of purpose for a faction or with a great cast of characters, though not necessarily a good main character who can be almost a blank slate.
Customisation within a game.
Great soundtrack fitting for the game.
Great cinematics to set the feel of the game. Check out Cyberpunk 2077 if you haven't freakin siiiiiiiiick

[SaidaiSloth]

More specific, but, movement options.

You have no idea how god damn frustrated I get when I can't jump over a 3 inch wall in COD.
Of course whether or not movement is important depends on the genre, but if you do happen to be doing a genre where movement is something that needs to be done often - shooters, exploration, etc - It should feel fluid - not too "you can jump 2 inches because you're on the ultra high gravity planet, but in something that isnt mario  style floatyness - unless you're making a mario style game.

Next thing I like is H2H combat. Even more specific and perhaps personal then before but god dammit I need a game that's not UFC with a good fist fighting system - fun, and looking cool. Really quite personal I guess but M&B fist fights aren't good enough.

[Flamekebab]

I do enjoy a game that accepts its a game on occasion. Saints Row: The Third was like that. Hold the sprint button and press the "enter vehicle" button and the character leaps through the window into the driving seat. Does it make all that much sense? Not really, no. In the context of that game though it's fine and keeps things from getting bogged down.

I suppose this could be summarised as "not being a slave to game conventions". Just because that's the way other game have done it doesn't make it the best way of doing something.