Aug '24 (edited) • VALUE
Designing backwards from strong hooks
Every game you love has strong hooks. A hook is anything unusual that you either notice from the game's packaging, story, or gameplay elements.
In music, the term usually means something you hear that makes you stop what you're doing and ask "what was THAT?"
Go listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. It's loaded with these little sounds that, to the uninitiated ears of listeners at the time, would have been like something from another dimension. The vocals, the timing of the drums. It's all very unique and highly identifiable. It defined the 90s.
Hooks are tied to the culture and tastes of the era where they originate. Back in the 1980s, there was no such thing as a 2D platformer with a level of sophistication like Super Mario Bros. If you could have made Super Mario Bros before Nintendo did at that time in history, you would have been awarded with an instant hit.
Today, a 2D platformer like Super Mario Bros, even if executed very well, would fly so far under most peoples' radar that it's no longer a hook. Tastes change as people become exposed to increasingly sophisticated forms of art. In other words, we've already played that.
So you, dear indie game developer, have an additional challenge outside of simply making a great game in the right genre. You need strong hooks to stand out.
The only reason I decided to work on the game I'm currently making is because I came up with a bunch of game hooks, put them in a list, and then asked my friends on Discord which sparked the most interest.
Out of a list of ten hooks, my friends kept coming back to the roguelike deckbuilder where you build a sprawling patio and protect it from Karens. They were telling me all their ideas for the game. One friend wanted to make his own version of the game (I gave him permission because I figured whatever he makes won't be anything like what I make so who cares).
Let me see if I can remember some of the other ones:
- A city builder where the city's main attraction is its music scene. You must balance the needs of the working artist population with those of the corporations which profit from the tourism. You're building a city on rock and roll.
- A top down simulation game where you build a working circulatory system, starting with nothing. You have a beating heart at the center of it. You have to branch out to get new resources and fix problems like arterial plaque buildup, blood oxygenation, and valve repairs/replacements.
- An LGBT-themed visual novel where you date a bunch of people who are so obsessed with their sexual identities that they have no other aspirations or interests in life. You date someone who is non-binary, another person who is literally binary code, and so on. It's this endless parade until you finally meet your dream guy/gal, a normal person you find attractive who just wants to enjoy life.
Should all of these games be made? Hell no! The third game, in particular, is very politically charged. It's the kind of thing you make if you want to create a maelstrom of polarizing dissent.
Having said that, you can't deny that each of these has hooks. There's something off, something a little uncanny about them. For better or worse, they're conversation starters.
A good hook can serve as a sort of target for your game. It can define the visual themes, the gameplay, and the genre. All of it works together to create cohesive whole that stands out as something truly unique, something that makes you stop in your tracks and ask, "what was THAT?"
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Designing backwards from strong hooks
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