One of the things that you’ll have to think about when designing based on genre is how you want the UI to look. Different types of games will have the UI more or less visible, depending usually upon the complexity of controls. Another consideration is that while some genres lack it almost entirely, other game genres have become synonymous with dialogue. Will your dialogue need to be recorded? Will you do it text based? How interactive will it be? Planning ahead for dialogue is important, as you’ll have to not only design the system itself but also the dialogue trees. You’ll need to decided on a combat system for many types of games, or find the equivalent if your game does not have combat. Think of this as the “game” part of the game. It is arguably one of the most important parts of design and having a model to work from is very helpful.
Some games give the appearance of having choice, for example, but actually have very little choice involved. This can be done well or it can be done poorly. An example of choice done well would be the Bioshock series or Witcher 2. An example of choices done poorly would be something like Old Republic.
Act structures are commonly used in plays, movies, and books to help get the pacing correct. Look up act structures if you’re feeling unsure about your pacing. Monomyth or the Hero’s Journey is one of the most common story-telling philosophies, arguing that most stories conform to an overall pattern. You can exploit this pattern to help it play on inherent human psychology. Journey is one of the best examples of the use of monomyth in games, but it can be found in most of them.
