In hopes to improve the situation when the next voting stages come, thought I'd write about my Theme Slaughter Experience™.
Most themes are really, really bad. The biggest issue I've seen is that they're just not inclusive and welcoming to all kinds of game concepts. Which I think is quite sad because variety of games is what makes playing them much more interesting. And it makes development much easier too.
Before I go into detail, here's a summary of my Slaughter Experience™:
Now, let's start with all the reasons why I'd slaughter a theme:
If a theme describes an object or a place, I will slaughter it.
Reasons:
- I do not want to see 1000 programmer art versions of said object or place.
- It probably took a lot of time just to do the art for that thing/place for most developers.
- This isn't an Etch A Sketch competition, it's a gamedev competition - the focus should be on the game.
- Many people probably hate that thing/place. Examples for me: water/space (both very common in theme list).
If a theme describes a genre or an existing game, I will slaughter it.
I get it that someone loves a game or genre enough to request more such games. I also get that it's purely selfish and shuts out tons of people who aren't into making such games.
If a theme tries to be clever or contains a gimmick, I will slaughter it.
It gets old fast. Revelation can only work once, so it's not a foundation for any kind of gameplay.
If a theme mentions a specific action, I will slaughter it.
This usually limits genre options, which may put people off for having no experience developing such games.
If a theme requires some kind of repetition, I will slaughter it.
Since the core gameplay is always some kind of loop, such a theme would require to overcompensate on the repetition part, basically demanding a boring and (you guessed it) overly repetitive process.
If a theme requires a specific control scheme, I will slaughter it.
It's no more helpful to game design than choosing cutlery is to decide what to eat for lunch.
Also, developers should not be stuck with bad controls just because the rules say so. Controls generally change as design evolves so it's really hard to commit to a specific scheme up front, so the design is likely to suffer.
If a theme suggests the presence of characters or story, I will slaughter it.
This is similar to the very first issue - themes with object/place.
The time to develop the prerequisites takes time away from developing the most important parts of the game. Some people are good at, say, drawing characters, some are not (like me), hence it's not very inclusive.
If a theme contains a reference to a social cause, I will slaughter it.
I believe jams and competitions such as this one should be light-hearted and thus keep politics and heavy discussions out of the process. It should be a choice of each developer if they wish to tackle a heavier theme in their creation.
If a theme contains an era (like 80s) or a reference to other artwork (movie, song), or a catchphrase, I will slaughter it.
I get it that whoever picked that theme liked that thing. Most people probably would. And yet it doesn't get anyone closer to figuring out what the game should be about. Do you make a game about the specific situation, about the lyrics of a song or the story of the movie? Do you interpret it literally? Not a lot of options, all very restrictive.
If a theme is a meta-theme ("pick random from [url]" and "juxtaposition" come to mind), it's just lazy and I will slaughter it.
Bonus points for trying to be inclusive though.
If a theme takes time to understand, makes no sense or requires googling just to read, I will slaughter it.
Someone has probably tried to be clever again. Unfortunately, this means that more time is spent on trying to understand the theme than on making the game.
And even then, chances are someone might disagree with your interpretation, or find it hard to rate how well the theme is used.
If a theme could describe practically everything, I will slaughter it.
There can be themes that are too specific, as well as ones that are too vague. If it's not limiting the creative choices somehow, it's just not doing its job.
So, all these rules for what a theme shouldn't be -- what should it be then, you ask? Well, it's quite simple. Even if coming up with one is hard. Here's my attempt to define it:
- A theme should be frictionless. Easy to read and understand, even reason about.
- A theme should be a concept. Not something concrete, but an idea of an abstract structure.
- A theme should carry no weight. No prerequisites that take time to develop.
- A theme should have room for a conflict. Something that invites a collision of different opinions.
To conclude, I have two examples from the last Slaughter Experience™ that I still remember. Having seen 3000 themes, it's hard to remember all the good ones, and I forgot to write them down.
Example 1: Big Evil Corporation
The reason why I like this one is because you can make just about everything with it, and still keep things exciting.
The player character (if there is one) can either work for such a corporation, possibly as a double agent, trying to destroy it from within, or fight against it from the outside.
This idea can also support tycoon/strategy/clicker games and even puzzles.
Location is also unrestricted, giving people the ability to make games set in space, ocean or both (whatever floats your ship).
Example 2: Unusual environment interactions
Instead of the theme trying to be clever like some others do, it's letting developers be creative about interaction design themselves. I couldn't wait to think what other people can come up with.
I hope my little post has inspired someone to be more inclusive with their choice of themes. I'm leading by example and I've slaughtered every single theme that was a game genre/object/situation that I like.
This is the end of what I have to say, so - thanks for reading!
If you want to know what I think about your theme, or if you disagree with me, please let me know in the comment section.
