It can be tough to be unique. When trying to make a product or idea stand out, you have to not only find a way of making it good, but also be different from everything else. You won’t get far if all you present is something that is similar to other things available.
This is important with video games as there are so many released and often in the same genres, so to make people take notice, you have to have a gimmick, a hook, something that makes your game stand on its own. There are several ways people have gone about this and these are some of the games that are doing it.
One of these easiest ways to get noticed is if your game has a unique peripheral or the experience can be enhanced by using certain controllers or equipment. The most classic of all of these is using a steering wheel controller for racing games.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band stood out for using their instrument controllers, allowing a more accurate and enjoyable way of playing the game, rather than just pressing buttons on a standard controller. These gadgets encouraged many more people to play the game, showing how important a gimmick can be.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band
Multiplayer can always add more dimensions and attraction to a game. The ability to play against or with other people being added can make a standard game more appealing.
Any sort of competitive game, whether it’s a shooter, fighting game or whatever, is made infinitely more interesting by being able to play with other people, whether locally or online. Super Mario 3D World is great example of this.
While it’s a traditional Mario game, having multiple people play at once makes the game more chaotic and fun, but it’s the fighting for the crown that adds new layers to the gameplay, as friends can get competitive very quickly in order to be number one.
Super Mario Games
Live Casino Hold’em from Betway also adds new layers and gimmicks using multiplayer. Playing against real people is the true art of card games and this online casino extends this by having the other plays on screen. This lets your strategies come alive and become more authentic, allowing you to put your skills to the test at Hold’em.
Dark Souls’ multiplayer elements have been adapted by other games as they did things differently. Being able to call in another player for help was one thing, but being invaded when in the middle of the story by real players added whole new dimensions to the game, as did the ability to leave messages that appear in other players’ games.
Other game gimmicks include the story heavy games that have become popular over the last few years. Firewatch and Until Dawn have the player interact with the world and characters more than performing feats, battling and so on.
This allows the player to dictate a story naturally, without it being split apart by the gameplay, intertwining them both. Undertale also incorporated story more into its gameplay by adding extra elements into battles.
Rather than just attacking enemies you get different options unique to each enemy and have to pay attention to the tells that give you tips on how to win without harming your opponents, which also created the unique idea of pacifist adventure RPG.
These unique ideas are just some of the ways companies are innovating and attracting customers, and what new ideas we could soon see in gaming you could be what draws you to them.