Coded Games
Member
One of the most difficult aspects of designing anything is teaching users how to use it. If some tool, game or program does not have effective tutorials, documentation, or other support methods; can it be considered well designed?
If a program is released and there is no way for anyone to learn how to use it, other than guessing, is it the users fault for screwing up or the designers fault for not teaching them?
Programs like FL Studio, or even GMS, are well designed because they have tons of resources to teach users how to use them. In the case of GMS, what does a user do when they run into a problem? First most people would go to the manual, then maybe contact YoYo support. If both of those outlets fail to solve the problem, is it the user's fault or YoYo's? I think that most people would argue that it would be YoYo's fault since it runs and hosts both of those services. Of course there will also be cases where users run into problems that are entirely out of their control, like bugs, and those would always be the fault of the designer.
Of course, like mentioned earlier, there will always be people who don't understand what you are making regardless of what you do. You have to choose a target demographic and focus on that. If a user outside of your focus attempts to use your product and fails is it their fault? Maybe, but ideally your product won't even reach them because they are not meant to have it.
So back onto the topic of the GMC Jam. All of us are basically assigned a target demographic; users of this forum. With that we can make a number of assumptions about how much they know about video games, how they are usually played, and all sorts of other things. Even though controls seem like a simple thing to assume, controls very so greatly that you never can. Do you use arrow keys, WASD, what about people with non-standard keyboard layouts or controllers, do you use the mouse to shoot or keys, what about people using a trackpad instead of a mouse, or touchscreens? You tried to explain your controls through a read me but because you didn't properly submit your game people didn't see it. That is your fault, don't blame everyone else.
If a program is released and there is no way for anyone to learn how to use it, other than guessing, is it the users fault for screwing up or the designers fault for not teaching them?
Programs like FL Studio, or even GMS, are well designed because they have tons of resources to teach users how to use them. In the case of GMS, what does a user do when they run into a problem? First most people would go to the manual, then maybe contact YoYo support. If both of those outlets fail to solve the problem, is it the user's fault or YoYo's? I think that most people would argue that it would be YoYo's fault since it runs and hosts both of those services. Of course there will also be cases where users run into problems that are entirely out of their control, like bugs, and those would always be the fault of the designer.
Of course, like mentioned earlier, there will always be people who don't understand what you are making regardless of what you do. You have to choose a target demographic and focus on that. If a user outside of your focus attempts to use your product and fails is it their fault? Maybe, but ideally your product won't even reach them because they are not meant to have it.
So back onto the topic of the GMC Jam. All of us are basically assigned a target demographic; users of this forum. With that we can make a number of assumptions about how much they know about video games, how they are usually played, and all sorts of other things. Even though controls seem like a simple thing to assume, controls very so greatly that you never can. Do you use arrow keys, WASD, what about people with non-standard keyboard layouts or controllers, do you use the mouse to shoot or keys, what about people using a trackpad instead of a mouse, or touchscreens? You tried to explain your controls through a read me but because you didn't properly submit your game people didn't see it. That is your fault, don't blame everyone else.
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