Desktop-like games: how NOT to make them

What the talk is about

Andrew Kokhan talks about "desktop-like" games that imitate working in an operating system, and shares five rules drawn from mistakes in his own projects, including a deep-web exploration game and a hacker simulator. First, playability beats realism: FTP hacking was reduced to a single search with an animation, and site load times were simplified. Second, interface adaptability to different resolutions must be planned from day one, or nearly everything has to be rewritten later. Third, don't overestimate players' ingenuity: a missing context menu and copy support, and confusing paths to hidden files, caused trouble, and players should never be pushed into a dead end. Fourth, porting to mobile and consoles remains unsolved because of text input. Fifth, don't make more than two such games in a row. Useful for indie developers and game designers.