We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

The Power Of Research

When you are working on a game or a new feature there will always be unknowns. You can’t be sure how things will work out and how your game will look like at the end. Often the first decisions you make will be the most important because they will give the biggest impact on the direction of your game or feature. So these decisions shouldn’t be too arbitrary. But how can we reduce the arbitrary and improve the basis of your decisions before designing and prototyping?

The answer lays in research.

The following article will try to show why and how you should do game design related research.

Why we should do research

Deleting unknowns as soon as possible

The most important reason why we should do research is because we often don’t know what we don’t know. A lot of people think that they already know a lot about a specific topic when in fact they don’t. We can never be sure if we know enough about a specific topic, but we can raise the chances that we have all important information to make the right decisions by doing good research.

When you do research chances are high that you’ll find out that other companies may did something that you thought would be unique in your game but in fact has already been done by other companies. Now you have a lot more opportunities and information than you did before.

Raise innovation

Research can also be a huge innovation driver. You can jump right to the status quo of the latest games and improve on what is already there. Don’t miss this opportunity, otherwise your may good and innovative game isn't that good and innovative in comparison to games that are already out there and may did better than you. But be warned: Do not copy a feature just because you think it is fun in another game, games are complex systems with a lot of dynamics, so you can’t expect that a copied feature will work in your game as it did in another. Adapt a feature for your specific needs and try to improve it so your players will have the best possible experience.

Keep conventions

Another good reason to do research is due to the fact that a lot of players are used to specific thinks. When you don’t know about specific conventions you may design something that annoys a lot of players because they are constantly confused about the way how things work differently in your game. That doesn’t mean that you are not allowed to break conventions in your game design but you should have better reasons than your lack of knowledge.

More authentic experiences

Good research can give your game a more authentic experience. A lot of information that humans know about specific things are hidden deep in their  subconscious. When you have elements in your game that are related to real existing things that look and behave authentic,  your experience becomes more credible and the immersion will be increased. Players can feel if certain things are just wrong, do not try to fool them just because you didn’t know better. Again, of course you can drop authenticity whenever your desired experience requires it but not because you didn’t know better.

Building confidence and trust

The last good reason in my opinion for research is confidence and trust. The other developers should be able to trust you as a designer. So you should try to know as much as possible about the specific things that are related to your game. A good research can build the confidence you need for a clear and strong communication that is based on knowledge and not personal taste and assumptions. You will never know anything about all games that were made and are related to your game and that’s alright, but the more you know the better it is. A well prepared designer is much more respected than a game designer that makes decisions that seem to have no real foundation. It builds trust and shows that you really care.

When to research

Now that we know that research is important we have to ask ourselves of how we can increase the value that we can get out of our research and make it more efficient. So the next part will try to point out when to research to make it as efficient as possible.

Research soon enough

This may sound like a no brainer but I have seen this way too often to not mention it. Research as long as you can react on the new information. There is no use in research when there is no more time to make use of it. So do it in the beginning when you approach your design problems. For example when you have to design a new feature, make changes on an existing feature or work on a vision for a game.

Research as often as necessary

Things change. You can’t expect that all the information that were legit a few years ago are still work the same way. The market changes, the technology, the users, the platform, almost everything can change. So do your homework whenever you run in danger that your information could maybe outdated. If it’s not the better you just saved a lot of time and maybe refreshed your memories on a specific topic. Well done!

How to research

The next part is on how to research, there are different ways to help on making research more efficient.

Make it a task with a result

Research is something that has a high value in production, so your production plan should handle research as a task that has to be performed and should lead to specific results. Arrange enough time and ask for a result that can be shared with the other designers so you can increase the value of the information you researched. Make a presentation and discuss the results. Maybe some information is interpreted by another designer in a different way than you did. Discuss the results and take appropriate actions on how to involve them in your design in the best way possible.

Playing good games is useful...

Some games can work as a prototype for you. Play the top and most successful games that are related to your game. Try to find out why they are so successful. Check the forum of these games to see the player feedback on specific features. This will not necessary tell you if the feature was successful but it can lead to valuable insights.

Playing bad games too.

Take a look at games that are related to your game and failed. Why did they fail? What kind of risks can you recognise from their failure and do you run in danger to make comparable mistakes? Avoid theír mistakes and find out what you have to do to make it better.

Read Wikis

A lot successful games have some kind of wikipedia. This can save a lot of time when you want to find out about specific parts of the game that would take too much time to get to by playing it by yourself. I’m pretty sure that you will find valuable information there.

Read Blogs

It may sounds crazy but some guys write articles about game design or write analysis about specific games. They work for you for free. Great. If these guys are good it saves a lot of time. They did research and even analysed the information for you. Say thank you and take consequences.

Reflect your information

This is the by far most important aspect. Think about the information you gained.  Even if 10 other guys wrote an analysis with 100 pages about a specific game or game design topic, they could be wrong. So don’t be a lazy designer and think about it. That’s what you get paid for. Do it. But do not question the things I wrote. Don’t do that. Just kidding, do it too. Ask yourself how did a feature work out in the other games? Will your feature be exactly the same or can you think about improvements to the solutions the other games already used. Even when you know that other games did something that you also want to have in your game it may be a good idea to take a closer look to their implementation. You may will realise problems that you didn't think of before and have to make more drastical changes. There can be a lot of dynamics in video games. Research is all about erasing unknowns with the least possible effort. So use your brain and try to gain as much value out of your research. The information may save you some prototypes that would have failed now that you know how a comparable feature worked in another game. Great isn’t it? So use the gained time and go for the prototype that is closer to your final solution and improve on that.

Conclusion

Research is work, has value and can be done well or poorly. It can save you a lot of time and the information should be shared and conclusions should be drawn. Plan time in your production and reflect on the gained information. Start by sharing this article and reflect about it.