10 Must-Have Features for Games

Ever wonder why you can't just press any key to start your game? Or why your character's first-person "camera" just slid into the ceiling? You're not alone.

Gaming site Next Generation (via BusinessWeek) just published a top-10 list of features every game should have—not to mention pitfalls to be avoided. In practical terms, this is really more a list for game developers than for us gamers, but it's still an interesting litany of usability tips and head-slappers. Among the items:

• Never ask a player if they want to save the game: This one seems so obvious, yet it happens constantly. I've often made the mistake of finishing a game and then jumping to the Xbox 360 Dashboard—only to lose all my progress, without warning (Madden '08, anyone)? As BusinessWeek points out, games like Halo 3 do a decent job of saving your place automatically, but auto-saving really ought to be a ubiquitous feature.
• Press any button to start the game: Why force players to press "A," "X." "Start," or "Esc" to start a game, when simply pressing any key would work just as well? Duh!
• Let players skip cut scenes: Hear, hear—and while we're at it, why not keep cap the length of cut scenes (the animated interludes that bridge action sequences, advance the story, and often bring your fun to a grinding halt) to, say, no more than 30 seconds? Here's a rule that would make gamers sigh with relief.
• Don't let the camera bump into walls: Or slide into a wall (or ceiling), for that matter. I've seen this happen in even the most sophisticated games; in Halo 3, for example, if you're manning the warthog turret and you're driven into a tunnel, you'll often find yourself starting at...well, nothing, because the "camera" is smack up against the ceiling. Not cool, especially when you're being chased by the bad guys.
• Don't use every controller button because you can: As a relative console-gaming noob, I've found it hard enough to control my players with twin analog joysticks, much less mastering all the triggers, clickable sticks, D-pads, and buttons on the controller. (Next-Gen writer Blake Snow points out that the PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers each have 17 separate "depressible" buttons, once you count the D-pads, triggers and joysticks.) So please, you game developers out there, keep it simple; just because you can use all these controls doesn't mean you should. Oh, and another thing: why not stick to a uniform configuration for, say, first-person shooters and the like, rather than reinventing the wheel for each game (and forcing us gamers to re-learn the most basic controls)?

Want to read the complete list? Click on through for more.

Related:
Gaming Usability 101 [Next Generation, as republished by BusinessWeek]