Ugh, it's just so hard to put my finger on what makes a great game, but I must mention one more thought that really makes a game stand out in excellence, I think. If you're after that, I suggest trying to really take the player into another world and another mood. It might be risky to try to do that for a whole game, but I think it can be effective even if only for part of the game.
So how to do it? Well, I think a big part of it is the music. If you are expert or lucky enough to dabble successfully in experimental music, you should be able to find something that really is unique and music has a way of setting the mood. Ambient music, if used correctly and combined with the game in a way where the player's attention isn't all wrapped up in playing (they have a chance to appreciate the music too) can really pull the player in.
But there's more to it than music. Just put some really out-of-this-world elements in your game. Don't base your game on the usual model or on common real-world tasks. Have you heard of "Katamary Damacy" or "We Heart Katamari"? I think part of the attraction of this game is just the truly odd style and goals of this game, and the strange dialog leaving you wondering what world this game is from and just how crazy those Japanese are, but what a wonderful game world they can create
. Another thing in particular that comes to mind is Princess Mononoke... those tree spirits with the strange sideways heads that kind of vibrate or rattle on top of their bodies. It's something completely beyond explanation, but mesmerizing in the slow-paced environment in which it is set.
I think one way to try applying this idea in GameDev is to start breaking "rules". Since so many GameDev games are bound by a pretty strict standard of behavior since they all use the same engine with similar default behavior, it should be pretty easy to break these expecations and make a game stand out. For example, most games are all about moving a character around on a scrolling tile map, but what if you shatter the player's expectations with a small section of the game where the player finds himself sitting at a terminal able to type commands at a command prompt. You touch a computer and suddenly you're looking at a command prompt with instructions on what kind of things you can type to progress to the next step. The player will think "What's this? This is not the same game I was playing a moment ago; it doesn't even look like the same engine; how is this possible?" And yet when they type they realize just how diverse the game can be. (This would require some extensive scripting, but some of it has already been done -- there are scripts to prompt for user input strings.)
Like I say, it's so hard to put my finger on it, but this is just an example to try to outline where you might explore for further ways to improve your game beyond the boundaries of expectation. We all want a game that "exceeds expectations"
. The trick is to find ways to make the game unique, but still make it coherent enough that it's not just complete nonsense. The elements of the game should relate to each other in their own unique world, and not just be unrelated and completely random elements. Ooh... one more title -- Abe's Oddyssey.
Not sure if this is helpful or practical, but I figured it was worth at least one more try to help nail down what makes a spectacular game.
