7 Game Design Mistakes to Avoid!

Main ideas / lessons (7 game design mistakes to avoid)

1. Start too big

Having a grand vision is good, but designing too many features at once limits your ability to pivot. If early features fail, they can invalidate or complicate the rest.

Better approach: build confidence in the foundation first, then expand.

Method / checklist:

• Define the game’s core.
• Tune the core until it works and you’re confident.
• Only then layer additional features/mechanics on top.
• Follow the “ASK rule” as stated: Avoid Starting Kingdoms
  • Start with a house, then grow.

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2. Not considering how to onboard the player

Complex systems and mechanics must still be learnable by new players. If players don’t understand the game, it’s usually a design/onboarding problem—not the players’ fault. Designers won’t always be present to explain, so learning must be built into the experience.

Ways to help players learn:

• Use solid tutorials with clearly explained concepts.
• Add feedback loops and teach through difficulty ramping.
• Make the design intuitive (validated via playtesting).
• Build onboarding into gameplay itself:
  • Example: in platformers, structure levels to “compartmentalize” learning step-by-step.
  • Example analogy: Mega Man intro level teaches basics before players choose Robot Masters.

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3. Being too committed to an idea

A design can look great in theory but may not be fun once prototyped. If it’s not working after prototyping and feedback, be willing to iterate, adapt, or discard it.

Don’t be overly attached—even if pitching/selling ideas is important.

Example pivot:

• Fortnite was originally envisioned as “Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead” (a co-op sandbox shooter).
• After PUBG succeeded, Epic pivoted and added Battle Royale.

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4. Creating an overly rigid design

Games should create an experience, not just enforce one “correct” way to play. If the player only follows instructions exactly as designed, it can become “painting by numbers” and less fun.

Ways to make designs less rigid:

• Add open-world elements to environments.
• Provide secondary/tertiary paths through gameplay.
• Use real-world physics.
• Allow destructible environments so players choose how to advance.

Example:

• Broforce uses destructible levels and characters (“Bro’s”) with unique skills to enable multiple ways to play—tunnel, sneak, or take down enemies.

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5. Focusing on story too much up front

Unless making a visual novel, don’t invest heavily in plot before you know how the gameplay will feel. Overcommitting to story early reduces flexibility to pivot or redesign mechanics later.

Example contrast:

• Classic Mario games keep a simple premise (Bowser kidnaps Peach; Mario rescues Peach) yet stay exciting due to gameplay innovation and charm.

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6. Underestimating polish

Polish/tuning is crucial and takes much longer than expected. The “80% done” feeling often means you’re only about halfway finished. Rushing or skipping polish can lead to unstable launches.

Guidance:

• Allocate sufficient schedule time specifically for tuning and polish.
• Quote attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto:

  “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”

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7. Arbitrarily adding things (feature creep)

Don’t add features just because they sound cool (“Wouldn’t it be cool if…?”). Every addition should be purposeful and justified.

Unnecessary features can:

• waste time better spent on polishing,
• dilute or harm strong existing systems.

Example:

• Thomas Was Alone succeeds with minimal core elements (colored rectangles) by combining strong writing, excellent level design, and finely tuned gamefeel.

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Other content included (not part of the 7 mistakes, but present in the subtitles)

• Recommended additional video: “8 mistakes to avoid when making your first game” (for protecting freshly authored game code).

• Community “Game of the Week”:

  • Chromasia - Rock Paper Tactics by Nexus Games
  • Described as a turn-based tactical RPG with Rock/Paper/Scissors gameplay, exploration, a dark/comical story, and 8 possible endings
  • Built by a team of two using a custom engine with LIBGDX
  • Available on Steam

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Speakers / sources featured

• Ask GameDev (video channel/persona; also referred to as Handsome Boy Programming School, I saw De-sign, and The Ace of Base of Camel Case in the intro)
• Shigeru Miyamoto (quoted regarding delays vs rushing)
• Epic Games (Fortnite example source)
• Nexus Games (Chromasia development team in the community pick)
• Sharky (submitted the Game of the Week on their Discord/for the community)