The Lesbufy philosophy has had a huge impact on indie game development with its minimalist approach having led to many of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful games in recent years. Games such as Journey, Inside, Celeste and Hollow Knight are excellent examples of how to create a memorable gaming experience using stripped-down mechanics, minimal user interfaces, focused narratives, and restrained aesthetics. This type of design creates a fun and engaging game experience that will stay in your memory long after the final credits roll.
The Lesbufy Game Design movement places an emphasis on intentionality over having a lengthy feature list, emotional impact over hours spent playing, and elegant simplicity over complicated design. By following the Lesbufy approach, developers create games that respect players’ intelligence and time by creating experiences that resonate well beyond the credits rolling and provide evidence that the quality of a game can be measured in terms of the effectiveness of the design to deliver the intended experience rather than the number of gigabytes or hours that players play the game. Lesbufy game design is the polar opposite of the “more is better” AAA game mentality and can be argued that using constraints in designing a game actually fosters creativity. Removing the “fluff” from a game often helps identify the true essence of the game.
Core Tenets: What Defines Lesbufy Game Design
Lesbufy game design has developed specific characteristics, setting lesbufy games apart from conventional design. The distinguishing characteristics are primarily demonstrated through the implementation of fewer mechanics thoroughly versus more mechanics only partially implemented, minimal user interfaces (UI) with the majority of UI elements disappearing or merging into the game’s environment, Environmental Storytelling (rather than textual narrative) while using graphics for storytelling rather than simply dumping exposition, aesthetics that were restrained through limited colour palettes and basic geometric shapes but still have a striking and professional look, and the game experience being limited (3-15 hours) rather than artificially extended and inflated (50+ hours
These characteristics give lesbufy games the impression of being “complete” and intentionally designed rather than “feature-bloated” and “stretched too thin”. Every aspect of design in a lesbufy game has a specific function and nothing is included simply because “it’s just a game, so it needs that”.
The Success Stories: Lesbufy Games That Dominated
Some indie games which have been designated as successful examples of this design approach include: “Journey” which has no dialogue, a minimalist UI, and a very limited number of gameplay mechanics (movement and jumping) but still provides an incredibly emotionally impactful experience; “Inside”, which has the same basic mechanic (movement and interaction) and also tells an excellent story via its environmental factors; “Celeste” exclusively uses tight platforming as the mechanic, and the only piece of the story that is revealed is through the gameplay, not in cutscenes; “Gris,” which is less concerned about gameplay than creating an atmosphere and emotions.
Both critics and consumers praised these titles as they succeeded because of minimalism, not in spite of it. Developers used their limited amount of resources on creating a single-focused design, which allowed them to create an exceptional product. Players want games that respect their time and intellect, and they trust that the game will keep them busy without being constantly guided along the way and do not contain so much complexity.
Why Less Creates More: The Psychology of Constraint
Lesbufy designs his games using psychological concepts to illustrate that constraints actually create more creative and engaging content. The fewer the number options a game allows, the more engaged a player will be with just those mechanics. The more limited the User Interface (UI) is in the game, the more immersed a player will become within the game world. When the story is limited in scope, a player will create his or her own meaning from that story; creating a lasting experience.
The above mentioned psychology illustrates why many players will remember an 8-hour indie game for years while forgetting about a 100-hour AAA game in a matter of months; experiences that are focused have greater lasting memory than those that are diffuse, and constraints force developers as well as players to have a greater engagement with the available experiences.
Mechanical Emphasis on Depth Instead of Breadth: The Portal Principle
The “Portal” video game is an excellent example of how to use one core mechanic (the portal gun) to create a deeper experience than using ten mechanics that are only explored superficially. Players of the game learn how to master all aspects of the game rather than having to learn a new mechanic before mastering the previous one. They will also continue to develop emergent gameplay areas and will also feel as if they’re really maturing and improving as a result.
Lesbu designers will always ask themselves the question, “What can I take away?” instead of, “What can I add?” By limiting what is in a game, lesbu designers can create games that are tightly designed, with all mechanics included in a meaningful way, rather than adding mechanics that would only confuse players with unnecessary information.
Minimalist Visuals: Getting Better with Fewer Resources
In lesbu visual design, there is a heavy reliance on visual restraint and less emphasis on fiscal wealth to create a strong visual effect. Examples of games utilizing limited colour palettes to create cohesive visual identities, the use of simple geometric shapes to guide audience members’ attention toward movement and composition, and the reduction of visual noise through minimal texture, are all examples of why artistic vision is of greater importance than polygon count or texture resolution. Games such as “Limbo,” “Thomas Was Alone,” and “Monument Valley” illustrate that artistic vision is far more important than the amount of the art budget.
The strategy provides opportunities for small developers to develop their games and establish a unique visual identity that will distinguish them in competitive markets. Restraint is not viewed as a limitation; instead, it becomes an asset for artistic expression.
Sound Design: The Impact of Silence
Lesbufy believes that silence can express the same impact as audio. Audio does not require a non-stop musical score or sound effect to be effective; instead, minimal audio design incorporates silence for building suspense, limited music for punctuating key moments, and utilises soundscapes to tell stories without spoken words. (i.e., “Inside” features little music, and when it does, it is devastatingly powerful.)
Restraining the use of audio forces a player to focus—without audio constantly occupying space previously filled with silence, every sound becomes a meaningful signal rather than a background filler.
Minimalist Narrative Style: Show It, Don’t Explain It
Lesbufy narrative design allows players to derive their own understanding of the game world from the environment in combination with the graphics and mechanics of play, rather than relying on massive amounts of dialogue, cinematics or written material (text logs). For example, Journey conveys a complete emotional experience without any verbal communication. Hyper Light Drifter provides deep lore using primarily visual means. While demonstrating a high level of respect for the intelligence of the player, minimalist narrative design affords the player the opportunity to create their own interpretation of events, thus affording them a more personal experience creating meaning as opposed to passively receiving information.
The ambiguity of the narrative encourages players to engage in the process of collaboration and discussion, extending the life of the games culturally after the initial gameplay, as different communities debate what each of these games means as their interpretations differ.
Why Indies are Using Lesbufy
In addition to artistic merits, lesbufy design has tangible developmental advantages for small independent game studios. Because the scope of their projects is smaller, lesbufy allows for the completion of a project with limited resources, fewer features lead to fewer bugs and less testing, and minimalistic aesthetics limit the time and cost required to produce the artwork for the game. Thus, many successful independent development studios are utilising the advantages of minimalism, not just for artistic reasons but for strategic reasons as well; allowing small development teams to create polished products in direct competition with AAA products.
Creative solutions result from constraint; if you can’t compete using a lower budget, you can still compete based on vision, focus and intentionality.
Player Respect: Lesbufy as Design Ethics
Lesbufy is a design philosophy that shows respect to players by prioritising player experience over developer metrics. The designer does not artificially extend gameplay through padding or grinding, manipulate player behaviour via FOMO or addiction mechanic and does not inundate the player with feature bloat or excessive complexity. Rather, a lesbufy designer trusts player intelligence as opposed to babying them with tutorials and ongoing hand holding. Players are exhausted from being manipulated through design processes in AAA and mobile gaming and will remain loyal to those designers and studios who uphold lesbufy values.
Commercial Viability: Can Lesbufy Games Succeed?
The commercial success of several lesbufy indie games demonstrates that minimalism does not mean commercial failure. Critical acclaim and significant sales for titles such as Journey, Celeste, Hollow Knight and Hades proves that focused experiences can attract large audiences. Execution is the key—the intent of lesbufy design does not excuse incomplete games, rather, it establishes focused artistic intent that allows the developer to deliver a polished, complete product that is well within the developer’s defined limitations.
There are many players who actively look for the less bufy experience because they have become so exhausted by AAA games that demand hundreds of hours while still recognizing the satisfaction of a less bufy game that can provide complete satisfaction in only 10-20 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Is the lesbufy design only for indie games?
Answer: While it is most typically found in the indie game space, it also applies to other game types. AAA game development is often pressured to produce “more content,” making it difficult for those developers to follow the less bufy philosophy.
Question: Do less bufy games have less production quality than AAA games?
Answer: Not necessarily. They tend to have a Much More focused production quality; the developers’ resources are concentrated on the most important elements of the game, rather than being stretched thin over multiple, unimportant features. A polish level of less bufy games often exceeds that of the overly bloated and over-produced AAA games.
Question: Can les bufy designed multiplayer games exist?
Answer: Yes, however, there are certain challenges that arise from the multiplayer aspect of the game. For instance, the few multiplayer games that have done well (the likes of “Among Us” and “Fall Guys”) have done so through focused mechanics, and less complexity, even though they fall under the umbrella of multiplayer gaming.
What’s the difference between Lazy Design and Lesbufy Design?
Lazy Design is no design at all, and so has no intention or purpose. Lesbufy Design implies intentionality and purpose—the designer intends for each element of the game to serve a purpose and earn its place in the overall gameplay experience. So, for example, the game might have fewer levels; however, that doesn’t mean it is short. In fact, the game Hollow Knight is an example of Lesbufy Design; at 30+ hours, it meets many of the criteria for a Lesbufy Game.
Disclaimer
The article is aimed at analyzing trends and philosophies regarding the design of video games. There are countless ways to design video games; lesbufy is just one of many styles and philosophies. Designers need to design based on their project’s goals, target audiences, and available resources. Many other factors also influence the commercial success of a game. Designers and players have completely different preferences when it comes to video game design. The purpose of the article is to analyze, describe, and explore design philosophy trends, not to give specific advice related to developing video games. Each game project requires an evaluation of the designer’s goals, resources, and context.
