I believe it was Chris Crawford who pioneered the ideas of “verbs” in game design. The idea is this, the more verbs in your game design, the more things the player can do. Unfortunately many, many game designs are just “Dodge X and collect Y.” This is especially true of Flash games.

If you hold to the “standard” definition of a game (A system of rules that a player interacts with, creating strategies and making meaningful choices, attempting to reach a defined goal.), this is not a game. There are no strategies to be developed, no choices to make and nothing for the player to discover.

I realize that game development is a great deal of work. Completing a “Dodge X and Collect Y” game can be quite an accomplishment. Developers who do this are going far past most people who say they want to make games. However, this is game development as an exercise; it is not game design. If your goal is game development, you are doing the right thing. If your goal is to be a game designer, you need to go farther.

Here are a couple questions to ask yourself about your designs:

1. When a player encounters a game element (enemy, platform, etc.), what are the choices my player can make? – If there is always 1 choice, you have a problem.
2. Do my weapons/enemies/levels support my player actions? – As a game designer, you are tricking players into thinking they have figured something out. In truth, you should be designing perfect scenarios where things work out perfectly for the player. They just need to find them. For example, does the enemy formation align in just the right way sometimes for a beam shot to take them all out in one shot? Does this hill provide perfect cover if I use this weapon?
3. What is my magic moment? – This is a moment when everything aligns just right and the player can do something amazing. The right action, at the right time, in the right place, against the right enemy creates a fulfilling win for the player.

All of these things (and much more) should be clear before you code, before 1 piece of game art is created, before the GDD is even started.

“Dodge, jump, collect, attack” is a good starting point for many game designs. However if you find your designs consist of only these verbs, dig deeper. Try adding some other verbs to the design: dig, absorb, eat, reflect, phase, dash, inflate, bait, etc. There are loads of these things. There are also endless executions or combinations of verbs to experiment with in your designs.