Practical Game Design

Building on common knowledge

Anchoring your game to another popular product can be handy, but creating a strong reference to the world outside of video games can be even more helpful. This includes popular culture, history, sports, traditions, activities, hobbies, and even the physical properties of the world around us.

Ice is slippery, wood catches fire, diamonds are expensive, and Rocket League is kind of like soccer played with cars. The easier it is to draw a parallel between the game world and real world, the less knowledge you'll need to put into player's heads yourself. That said, while removing rules is fine, breaking them in unexpected places can make things very confusing. For example, it's okay if your character doesn't need food ...