Alright, so I'm wanting to bring about a project with a couple of my friends, i'm the lead design guy practically. I'm wondering what makes certain games great?

MMOs? I've played 5 or 6, most have an "Area storyline" to follow, Leveling is extensive and a good amount is dealing with Multiplayer, wiether its PvE or PvP

RPGs? I've played like 13-16, and a good portion of modern games are getting parts of the RPG formula.

TPA(Third Person Action) I've played a couple, and I do not mean third person shooters, what I mean is; Assassin's Creed, God of War, Darksiders, etc. I don't know the actual genre to these sort of games.

FPS, From Call of Duty and Battlefield to Bioshock and Half-life. What makes them great?

RTS, Warcraft 3 to Tower Defenses. what makes an RTS so great to play?

Puzzle/Platformer; Mario, Kirby, Most nintendo games, or Portal and some Popcap games (Peggle, Zuma, etc.) what makes you think?

Fighter; from Party fighters like SSB(Super Smash Bros.) and Playstation Allstars battle royale to Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat..?

I'm planning to make a whole bunch of GameMaker or Unity3d games before I get into college,

And I've been wondering what makes these games so great? Is there a basic Template to this sorta thing? (from Level Design to UI Design.)

I do not plan on starting until February.

Cheers,

KingNothing33

High production quality ;D

I don't think there's a snake oil that makes these genres fun. The design focus I think shows real promise is picking a few staples from that genre (things you don't think you could live without when playing that genre) and really polishing them then bring something of your own interests to the table. For example I love RTS games but I'm currently attempting a TPA so I made my win condition that explores strategic gameplay to achieve it. Not to say that this is the way to design, its just the path I'm taking.

But no matter what you'll need to stand on the shoulders of giants to be big and the game will need a part of you, to call the game "yours".

First off,

Additionally, consider how many games there are out there that were built by very small indie teams and succeeded: FTL, Minecraft, Penumbra, Super Meat Boy, Braid, Fez...the list goes on. You don't need AAA funding behind you; indeed, the argument can be made that AAA funding might hold you back in a lot of ways.

http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf

Personally, I recommend the MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics) approach and looking at the 8 Aesthetics( Main Reasons why people play games):

http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf

Personally, I recommend the MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics) approach and looking at the 8 Aesthetics( Main Reasons why people play games):

1. Sensation

Game as sense-pleasure (Hearing/music - Catherine, Sight/art - El Shaddai )

2. Fantasy

as make-believe (Soldier - Call of Duty, Spy - Splinter Cell, Mage/Warrior/Rogue - Skyrim, etc, etc)

3. Narrative

Game as drama (For the story, Most J-RPG's, Spec Ops: The Line, etc)

4. Challenge

Game as obstacle course (Super Meat Boy, Demons Souls, Any game that's hard)

5. Fellowship

Game as social framework (Teamwork with other people. Horde on Gears of War, Co-op mode on any game, etc)

6. Discovery

Game as uncharted territory (Wandering around Skyrim, Fallout 3, Sandbox games)

7. Expression

Game as self-discovery (Allow's a person to express themselves. Through choices, in-game creation - minecraft, music creation in Mabinogi, etc)

8. Submission

Game as pastime (To lose oneself in, mindless past-time. Pokemon, Final Fantasy, etc)

Personally, I have one more:

9. Competition

Game as competition (Multiplayer in Call of Duty)

These are the reasons people play games.

Most games have at least three aesthetics. Although some games have fragments of other aesthetics, Mario having story to rescue princess, nobody plays Mario for the story, thus Narrative isn't an aesthetic in Mario.

I agree with you.. and want to add some more games

Like

9. Competition

Pong shot Reloaded on BB, play multi player game with BBM friends.

10. To complete Game missions and Achievements or to complete goals:

There are many games having specific goals, missions and achievements. Player plays to complete those like Jet pack Joyride, Temple Run etc.

Thank you all for replying.

I will definitely take these tips to heart.