Side Note:
I’m pretty sure @LxmasHaxTakis will also be creating a guide like this soon, and we both came up with the idea at the same time, so neither one is a copy. Thanks!
Introduction:
We all create Gimkit games that we think are the best. We design them, create good device systems, and do a lot of things with them. Unfortunately, sometimes our ideas can be a bit, “off” to say the least.
@LxmasHaxTakis and I have compiled a list of 10 things to avoid doing in Gimkit Creative when creating your maps. I hope you enjoy this informative PSA!
#10: Prop Spam
Although it is good to use props to decorate your maps, you cannot call spamming a ton of the same props as “decoration”. Sometimes I see games that are packed with props, but almost all of them are the same.
You honestly can’t shove a ton of props into your map and call it decoration. It isn’t decoration. It’s a hostage situation that could’ve been avoided if you just had the time to look at some more props. In a fishing game, I don’t want to see 7 stacks of fish, 5 green shovels, and 10 of the same coral everywhere.
Instead, I could use a variety of corals and different shovels. I could add some tables and some fish stacks along with some shells.
Overall, this is very easy to fix, so if you think you have this issue, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to get rid of.
#9: Unrelated Systems
The Gimkit fishing system is a really cool system, and I can see why so many people like it and enjoy implementing it into their games.
However, sometimes it is completely unrelated and feels too forced to be included in a game.
Why would a space-themed game have a fishing system? Why would a mining game have a farming system?
These systems are cool, but sometimes you don’t need to put them into your game.
Instead, since fishing has to do with loot tables, a dungeon crawler game could have crates you have to break to get items. A space-themed game could have you craft weapons just like a farming system.
Or, you can just very sneakily find a way to implement these systems, which is risky but can be rewarding.
#8: Too Easy
In a battle royale, do you want everyone to start with legendary weapons?
In some cases, maybe that is the case. But I would personally prefer if everyone starts with a common zapper or something and then work their way up to the best of the best (legendary slingshot and snowball launcher).
This kind of makes the game feel more rewarding, when during the endgame phase everyone is starting to become better, and the game goes quicker.
Too easy can also just mean a game is too easy. It reminds me of One Way Out beginner mode, where the sentries are one-tappable. I mean, its meant to be that way in One Way Out, but if you purposely have your game feel like a breeze, people won’t want to play it.
#7: Too Hard
On the other hand, if your game feels too hard or challenging, players may not want to play it. Maybe the levels are frustrating, or a certain group gets an advantage that is really annoying.
Games should be challenging, but there’s a fine line between challenging and annoyingly hard.
#6: No Instructions
When you create a game, you have to think of yourself as someone who doesn’t know how to play it. Imagine a team vs team game where you don’t know, anything. That wouldn’t be very fun.
Now, imagine you know the basics and goal of the game. That would be pretty fun, because there could be secrets in the game, but not anything that restricts you from playing well.
#5: Everything is obvious
Let’s take the team vs team game from #6. Imagine if you knew all the overpowered areas, the secret shops, and how to do everything extremely efficiently by only playing the game once, or even on your first run of it.
That wouldn’t be fun! You need to let the player find out about these things but give them a good idea about how the game works. You can’t just make a waypoint that goes “Secret Shop”. That doesn’t sound very secret to me.
Maybe if you scattered hints around the game of the secret shop’s location, the game would be more fun. Even better, just don’t create a secret overpowered shop.
Please don’t do this. It honestly just makes the game worse.
#4: Ammo Balance
This one is kind of a short one, but you need to make sure that when purchasing ammo in a game, you get the appropriate amount of ammo.
We all know that the amount of ammo used the most is Light Shards and Snowballs, because the weapons they fill fire very fast.
We know that medium-shard weapons have longer fire rates, and therefore use a lot less ammo.
We know that heavy-shard weapons have very long reloading times and fire rates, and therefore use a lot less ammo.
So, if you could purchase 16 light shards, 16 medium shards, and 16 heavy shards, that would be really frustrating!
Since we use light shards more often, you should make it so you can purchase 96 light shards, 64 snowballs, 32 medium shards, and 16 heavy shards to balance out the ammo usage.
#3: No Decoration
I get that the purpose of some themes is to have no decoration, but it would be a travesty to not use decoration in a fishing game and fish on… grass?
Maybe that’s too extreme. Maybe we have water and sand terrain, but no props! That’s boring! We need to have props!
Think of One Way Out without props. Not very fun is it?
Paint a picture. Make sure the player knows the theme of the game if you want them to know.
#2: Not Utilizing Terrain
Short one, but there are layers to the terrain, and these can make your game look a lot better.
Please use them! They can make water and sand not look horrible.
The terrain has layers. You can use it for stairs, themes, settings, and other things. Don’t not take advantage of the terrain layers.
Next, I want to talk about how people just spam walls everywhere. That is such a horrible idea. There is a wall limit, and therefore ALL you have to do is trace the area with walls, add some camera views, or use floor terrain after that because the player can’t get to the floor terrain anyways. You can also just use barriers.
Also, just use space (moving) instead of space. I don’t know why someone wouldn’t want the moving version.
#1: No Immersing
What I mean is that you have to immerse the player into the game. You HAVE to use camera views to hide grass terrain, you can’t just have the player be able to walk out of bounds, etc.
A half-baked game really isn’t worth playing. Don’t put your player through torture.
Also, don’t soft lock players with questioners. Just don’t.
Not Immersing players into your game is basically committing all the sins (joke) on this list. Please do it.
Conclusion:
That’s kind of it. I hope you enjoyed this PSA, and happy gimkitting!
-@mysz
