Anyone who is starting out in game design knows that choosing your first genre isn't quite as easy as it would seem, for some it takes a few minutes and for some it can take a couple minutes or even a few hours. Well here is what I have seen so far.
When you choose a genre, it is important not to lock yourself into the thought of what you want to do. Now I am sure some of you are saying, 'Well that's stupid. Shouldn't I be focusing on my final idea?' Well my answer to that is no, especially for the early designers, getting an idea for a game and trying to make that straight out can be counter productive in that you are restricting yourself and your future projects to very specific ideas. You need to find out what you are good with, start out with something really small, like perhaps a sliding jumping block and see what you can do with it. What comes to mind? Do you imagine creating a game where you get multiple blocks and stacking them one by one, creating buildings and structures or maybe you see a dark forest with your little block wandering through it, perhaps even hiding from something, or just maybe you think of the block running and gunning(or sliding and gunning for this scenario). Basically what I am trying to say is this, start with something really simple and small and find a way to make it interesting and fun, think of a mechanic aspect instead of a genre right out, then use the mechanic to try and slowly mold something you can play with and from there you can determine what genre the mechanic would work best with and whether or not you are capable of creating a game with that genre.
A big mistake that people make is trying to straight out make an awesome game with a genre they have never used before, this just can't happen, why you may ask, I will tell you why, you need experience, for horror you need to find out which of your skills can be used to scare people, for action its can you make a game where you are shooting people fun and do you know how to do that and for puzzle its can you make a puzzle game that is fun and not purely annoying. Most of the skills to do this require trial and error, making many games and watching the community closely to see how they respond, especially if you are trying your hand at a multiplayer game! Another mistake that people make is not trying new genres at all out of fear of failing, I will tell you right now that you will fail, it sounds harsh but that is what game design is, failure, lots of it, that will eventually with enough effort and persistence lead to success. Don't be afraid to try new genres, if you have only ever made action FPS games, maybe try a puzzle based horror game, you never know what hidden talents you might find! Heck I am not exactly the best game designer ever, I wouldn't even call my self really good, but I know how much determination is required.
Thank you very very much for taking the time to read this! I sincerely do hope it helped, if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments. Remember, it takes some failure to create success so don't be afraid to try new things (genres)! Good lucky and happy designing!
