Verb Directions in Game Design
Verb Directions in Game Design
Verb Directions in Game Design
By Nathan Savant
July 23, 2021
Summary
So far we've been talking about combat damage being dealt in a standard means, but deck damage, also known as "Milling" is usually done in other ways.
If you try and deal damage to an object which is important to me, I may use these same abilities to prevent that damage as well, I don't necessarily have to be the target myself.
If you want a character in Magic to come across as thuggish, you have it deal a lot of damage, and focus only on damage to health.
If you make a thuggish character that deals deck damage instead of health damage, then that character becomes someone who would flay another's mind for personal gain, a very different type of thug.
In a shooter game all you get are various forms of outwards action with next to nothing that can be done to alter the attack.
There's no "1d6 damage plus 2d4 fire damage" type of interactions, every source of damage deals a simple, set amount, and all damage is identical.
You WANT video game damage to be more complicated, otherwise it gets predictable and boring.
Reference
Savant, N. (2021, July 23). Verb directions in game design. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/verb-directions-in-game-design