The four pillars of a video game

[Ȼħⱥꞥꞥēł8753452]

Gameplay

Graphical Style and Cohesion

Narrative/Story

Stability (as in not a broken mess)


A game can have a terrible or stock story but amazing graphics or gameplay.
Even if your game is a buggy mess or graphically uncohesive/ugly it still can be something worth playing and with a devoted fan base.

Which is your favorite aspect? Are there any that you deliberately look for, even if unconsciously?

[bad_fur_day1]

A combination of all four to support a good game.

[talemore]

Forget soundtrack we don't need that

[St✩rlight]

Gameplay and stability are the 2 pillars. The rest is just barbie dolls.

[bad_fur_day1]

Yeah we may need a fifth pillar, sound.

[Silverlight]

There is only 1 pillar and that's talented coders with a vision.

Game engines are anti-video game for this reason.

[Hobbit XIII]

Diposting pertama kali oleh bad_fur_day1:

Yeah we may need a fifth pillar, sound.

#Sounds suspiciously like the 5th column.

I would say how the code works with the interface is most important as long as their is an actual game in there that we can play.

A simple MAster of Chaos text game would rule if the two were in sync.

Where a Saints Row game would be useless if it crashed or was uncontrollable every minute.

[Insomniac Jack]

You forgot the most important one: Atmosphere.

[Fr4ntic]

Diposting pertama kali oleh bad_fur_day1:

Yeah we may need a fifth pillar, sound.

Sound is indeed not be under estimated. If you put in annoying sounds in a classic mario game you wont play it for long.
There's is a certain tank I like to play in Warthunder because the sound effect of the shell popping out is awesome.

OT gameplay and stabillity are imo the most important , maybe depth or replay abillity as well.

[Fr4ntic]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Insomniac Jack:

You forgot the most important one: Atmosphere.

and this as well , turns out theres alot more then I could imagine at first.

[talemore]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Insomniac Jack:

You forgot the most important one: Atmosphere.

It's part of graphical style and cohersion.
Any visual cohersion is atmosphere.

[Good Night Owl]

Most games pick only one of those. Especially games from the big companies. Usually graphics look great, game play is mundane, story is nonsense, and releases in a broken state.

[The nameless Gamer]

When it comes to 1v1 fighting games, the OST is a lot more important than the narrative, as the overwhelming amount of gameplay takes in training and VS mode.
Roguelite games also don't really depend on the narrative component. They need something to set the premise, but not much more.
Also, beat 'em up games don't seem to need more than a basic premise and they depend a lot more on the game feel which is a combination between gameplay and atmosphere.

[bad_fur_day1]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Good Night Owl:

Most games pick only one of those. Especially games from the big companies. Usually graphics look great, game play is mundane, story is nonsense, and releases in a broken state.

This is a good point.

[Insomniac Jack]

Diposting pertama kali oleh talemore:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Insomniac Jack:

You forgot the most important one: Atmosphere.

It's part of graphical style and cohersion.
Any visual cohersion is atmosphere.

It's not just the art style and direction, but also the sound effects, soundtrack, world design, narrative, etc. It's the sum of all these components that come together to set the tone of the game, and the core that separates good games from great ones.

[Ȼħⱥꞥꞥēł8753452]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Insomniac Jack:

Diposting pertama kali oleh talemore:

It's part of graphical style and cohersion.
Any visual cohersion is atmosphere.

It's not just the art style and direction, but also the sound effects, soundtrack, world design, narrative, etc. It's the sum of all these components that come together to set the tone of the game, and the core that separates good games from great ones.

Perhaps

Gameplay

Style and Cohesion

Narrative/Story

Stability (as in not a broken mess)

I think making the second pillar more broad helps for things like sound/music. Could also be put as aesthetic or atmosphere.
but sound and music can also be a big part of narrative design.