Gaming has remained popular over the decades, with its popularity exploding with the advent of online gaming platforms. Now, players can enjoy their favourite games on handheld devices, consoles and computers. As gaming has continued to evolve, players have started demanding better experiences. Game developers and studios have implemented some effective strategies that others should take note of and even copy:
Improve Graphics and Visual Effects
Game developers are already doing a great job ensuring their graphics and visual effects are as realistic as possible and lead to a much better user experience than gamers would get ten years ago. However, graphics cards have become much faster and more performant, leaving enough headroom for developers and studios who have not done so to improve their graphs and visual artefacts.
Gaming technologies such as ray tracing, high-resolution textures and advanced lighting systems have been around for the Nvidia graphics card generations and two AMD graphics card generations, so there is no reason for developers not to leverage them in their games.
If you use these newer technologies, optimise and test your game to ensure smooth gameplay. This is vital for more demanding graphics settings that can tax older graphics cards.
Protect Your Servers
Gaming servers not only allow the games players love to run but they also store player information whose loss would be devastating. Gaming companies that provide these services should ensure their servers use the best security and implement the best policies to protect them from attacks.
Of particular concern is DDoS attacks. The people who initiate these attacks do not typically do so to steal data but to disrupt specific services, websites and networks. Gaming servers are a popular target because of how visible and popular their use is. An attack that slows them down or takes them offline catches many people’s attention, giving hackers additional incentive to infiltrate them.
Any company wishing to provide online gaming or streaming should work with a hosting provider that ensures game DDoS protection. These providers ensure this in several ways, including using CDNs, redirects, load balancers, and higher bandwidth that minimises the effects of high-bandwidth attacks. The good news is that servers with game DDoS protection are affordable as they do not cost much more than regular servers.
Improve Controls and Game Mechanics
Players want to feel like they are inside the game when they play out. One of the many things that take out of this experience is lag and unresponsive controls. Players do not want to wait for an action to happen on screen when they press a button, instead preferring it to happen immediately with as little delay as possible.
Game developers have the tools to reduce this lag as much as possible. They also have access to game testers who can check the game controls and report on their lag findings so developers can improve them.
Another thing that can improve gamers’ experiences is better game mechanics. Developers should refine gameplay mechanics to provide a smooth experience. Remember, the goal is to make the player feel like they are part of the game as much as possible.
Developers should also come up with innovative gameplay mechanics. Doing this will help them avoid ones that players are already familiar with and make their games feel fresh and more engaging.
To help with the above, developers can collect feedback from those who love and play their games. Once they have it, they can implement what they can to improve the overall game feel and enjoyment. Understandably, developers might not be able to provide patches or improve mechanics and controls once a game is already released.
However, you can still incorporate this feedback into the next version to give players exactly what they want.
Add Social and Multiplayer Experiences
Multiplayer has been a staple in gaming since around 2000, so it is surprising that some game developers have not incorporated it into their games. Perhaps it is because of how they build their game or how their game functions, but any developer who can should at least provide a multiplayer version of their game.
Multiplayer mode makes games more competitive, increases collaboration where required, and enhances coordination between different team members who push toward the same goal.
Developers can build on this by providing social experiences for players. They can provide tools for communication, social interactions, and matchmaking. Many popular online and streaming games already incorporate these features, so players would welcome other games that incorporate them.
Make the Menus More User-friendly
There is nothing more frustrating than dealing with an unintuitive menu whose developers did not put any thought into the user experience. Game menus should be easy to understand and use. If they are not, they prevent a learning curve that will make many players avoid playing the game or not enjoy their experiences as they do.
Add Difficulty and Accessibility Settings
In addition to intuitive menus, developers should also offer customisable control schemes. Every player sets their controls differently, so it would be best if a developer let them do this. They should also allow players to set their preferred difficulty level and accessibility options.
While there are a lot of seasoned gamers in the world, many people have not been playing games for years like elite players have been doing. Developers can provide less skilled or experienced players a better experience by letting them choose the difficulty level they are comfortable with. The same applies to players who need accessibility settings turned on to navigate a game or use its interface.
Provide Regular and Reasonable Updates
Gamers want to feel like the games they love will continue providing them with new experiences as long as their developers keep providing updates. The problem with this is that game updates have become ridiculously large. It is not uncommon for these updates to be over 50GB in size. This is hugely frustrating for players with a slower internet connection or little storage space.
Developers should consider these players and provide reasonably sized updates that still provide new experiences gamers can enjoy.
Game developers and gaming studios have mostly done a fantastic job of ensuring their games provide excellent user experiences. However, there are areas that some developers should focus on that will take their games and the experiences they get from good to excellent.
