7 Mistakes to Avoid When Learning Game Design

From the outside, learning game design looks very exciting – thinking up characters, designing levels, imagining worlds. But once you get started, you’ll find that there are plenty of challenges to keep you from progressing.

Luckily for you, you don’t need to click every pothole yourself. Many of us, both amateur and professional designers, have already made mistakes in games we all know and love.

Mistake 1: Building Without Prototyping

When BioWare released Anthem in 2019, the visuals were jaw-dropping. Flying around an alien planet in a customizable exosuit looked like it could be the next big thing.

But no one ever asked the simple question, “Is this fun?” Because a prototype that explored the game’s core loop was never made, the design became locked around beautiful assets instead of fun mechanics.

By the time the team tried to figure out how to “fix the fun,” it was too late.

Beginners often do this exact thing, pouring weeks into polished art or complex systems without testing whether the base mechanic actually works.

A 2D sketch, a cardboard model, or a scrappy Unity prototype could potentially save you months of work. Think of prototyping like a test drive before you build the car.

Mistake 2: Designing for the Trend, not the Player

Following the rise of PUBG and Fortnite, suddenly every publisher wanted a battle royale game. A trend emerged, and then every publisher got drunk off it, forgetting that Fortnite and PUBG also started out as clones when they rolled out their battle royals.

The passion for the genre was so overwhelming that smaller studios even tried their own clones, like Radical Heights.

Instead, publishers delivered very little in terms of uniqueness, mechanics, or incentives for players to stay engaged for any meaningful period of time.

This is also true for new developers who stampede on whatever is trending on Reddit, or Steam, etc. Initially, designing for trends was very empowering – “this is what everyone wants to play!” – until you get tired and have little left to create. 

Then all of a sudden, you have wasted so much time designing something that you actually do not enjoy. Trends, on the other hand, come and go, while a time limit does not bind genuine curiosity.

Mistake 3: Making a Game “for Everyone”

One of the most significant projects over the last decade or two was a game called Spore, made by Will Wright. Spore had the nerve to offer everything for players; start as a microbe, develop into a species, create a civilisation, and explore the galaxy. 

The scope of Spore was massive, and the audience it attempted to reach was too. In the end, it satisfied casual and hardcore gamers, which made the game too light for some audiences and too heavy for others.

Like Will Wright, new designers fall prey to trying to avoid making the tough design decisions concerning the audience of the work. When you try to make something known as ‘for everyone,’ you make it uniquely unforgettable for no one. 

Games resonate with ours when they lean into specific and unique areas of desired player and purposeful experience.

Mistake 4: Assuming Realism Will Also Give You Fun

Some military simulators like Arma have an audience that appreciates the hyper-realistic ballistics, tactics, and squad coordination that go into those experiences.

The issue the average gamers have is that although they may enjoy the game, it is clear to them that the realism belongs as a concept in the shortfall of an expandable world, usually increasing the disengagement of an expanding audience who merely wish to have fun. 

For contrast, Overwatch is a commercially successful game that uses stylised physics and abilities that ignore reality altogether.

Nobody in the Overwatch fanbase marched into Blizzard’s offices to complain that Reinhardt’s hammer violates all laws of gravity.

Realism also provides emerging designers with a false sense of security- “I am safe designing something that looks like real life, that must be good” – fun does not exist in the accuracy of a physics model, or the number of polygons in that model.

Fun exists in balance, flow, and in the transcendent experience of play.

Mistake 5: Prioritizing Graphics Over Gameplay

Few titles approached the technical display of The Order: 1886. Beautiful cinematic lighting, excellent digital likenesses of actual actors, and aesthetically stunning Victorian steampunk styling, from a purely visual perspective. 

However, players eventually started fully immersing as the only goal was an expository walk down the hallways, with really no outro to push buttons to learn next.

The anticipation began to subside, since it was clear the gameplay was both shallow AND repetitive and soon began to fade from memory.

Now look at the 2010 indie title Minecraft. The graphics are blocky and primitive to the standards that were set by developer The Order: 1886, but the systems and mechanics still engage players endlessly.

One sparked a cult curiosity, the other ultimately inspired and helped reshape the gaming paradigm forever.

Mistake 6: Forgetting the Importance of Audio

If you remove audio from something like Dead Space, you already have half the horror of the full experience. The whispers in the empty corridors, the scraping just out of earshot, and even the silence are providing the tension leading up to the jump scare from the necromorph. 

Audio isn’t just present to improve the experience; it’s gameplay. New designers often treat audio as a secondary thought.

They’ll spend days relaxing the textures on the knuckles of a character, but leave all the sound effects to an intern. You’re left with a flat and forgettable experience. 

A horror game without creaking floors would be absurd. How about a racing game without an engine roar? Imagine life without sound.

If visuals are the stage, audio is the atmosphere. Audio generates feelings out of player actions.

Mistake 7: Ignoring UX and UI

Destiny has some of the best shooting mechanics in gaming, but if you ask any player about the menus, they will make some sort of displeased sound.

Navigation is frustrating, progression systems are convoluted, and relevant or new information is buried under a billion clicks. That’s pretty poor for a game that is powerfully based on grinding and loot. They have worn poor UX as a constant friction point.

Newbies could easily fall into this trap. After all, all that matters with (the first pass at) audio is the character models and level design, right? No, bad interfaces have the ability to bury good games. 

If your players are struggling with all your menus, they won’t be sticking around long enough to appreciate your game mechanics.

Closing Thoughts

Every one of these mistakes — from not prototyping to not valuing audio — comes from a failure to remember that players do not judge games on how much effort was put into creating them. Players judge games on how they feel when they play them.

When you begin your journey, please remember that learning game design is not about mastery of tools; it is about avoiding the traps so many designers have already fallen into. That’s where MAGES Institute’s experts can guide you.

If you’re interested in the big picture – career pathways, the skills to master, and why 2026 is a great year to jump in, then take a look at our complete guide: Ready to Learn Game Design? The Industry is Ready for You.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: How long does it take to learn C++ to make a game?

Generally, it takes 6-12 months of regular learning to become comfortable enough with C++ to make a small game. Mastery can take years, but you don’t need to be a master in order to start prototyping.

Many beginners create their first playable project in under a year, combining the basics of C++ with an engine like Unreal.

Q2: Will AI replace game devs?

No, AI will not replace game developers, but it is changing the way they work. AI can already produce assets, procedural levels, and even dialogue; however, designers are still required to put together existing assets into a cohesive vision, make it engaging to players emotionally, balance gameplay, etc. Think of AI as another tool in the toolbox, not a replacement for the craftsman.

Q3: Is 40 too old for gaming?

Not at all. Gaming knows no age group, and there are plenty of players in their 40s, 50s, and beyond, still active in both casual and competitive gaming communities.

There is no barrier to participating in and enjoying games or learning how to design them, simply because of age.

Q4: Should I learn game development in 2025?

Absolutely. The industry is growing rapidly, with global revenues expected to steadily increase through to 2028.

2025 is a perfect time to start learning, with ninth-generation consoles and AI-led design tools not only opening up creative options for game designers but also increasing them as well.