The key to depth: simplicity

In Gamasutra's latest feature, a postmortem of Gun Godz, Super Crate Box developer Vlambeer's first FPS, the developer explains its penchant for "minimalist game design." As the game was developed as a bonus for Kickstarter backers of forthcoming website Venus Patrol, Vlambeer's Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman admit that they had "limited resources, as this was a free project." However, they write, "we also believe in minimalist game design." "The fewer rules your ruleset has, the more responsibility you can give every single one of those rules, and the easier it is to make small, incremental improvements," the pair explains. The two then shoot down a common fallacy of contemporary game development. "Simplicity does not exclude depth, as a strong combination of simple rules can make for incredibly deep gameplay." "We've applied this philosophy to most of our games, with the most obvious example being Super Crate Box. The thing is, this simple game could solely be about really good shooting," they write. The full feature, a postmortem of the title with five points about what went right with the project and five about what went wrong, is live now on Gamasutra.