(Quick post tonight, it’s freezing in my apartment so I’m not going to stay at the computer very long.)
Re: Minigames.
Minigames can be great. They can break up a lot of the same gameplay and add interest and re-playability to a title. However, when you want to add a minigame, consider whether the minigame you are adding uses any of the skills that your player will have built up over the course of the game, or whether it uses the skills that would be built up in a completely different title. Maybe don’t add minigames with gameplay elements completely alien to the title you’re working on.
An example: My boyfriend is currently playing Blue Dragon, a JRPG of the old guard. Turn-based, with fighters, healers, black mages, and monks. Occasionally, though, the designers decided to break up the gameplay with minigames. Some of these build off skills you already have (like the escort mission–probably the least annoying escort mission ever). Others require something that is pretty much never required in a JRPG–reflexes. I don’t know about other people, but I play JRPGs partially because they don’t require me to aim at anything or have hairtrigger reflexes. At one point in Blue Dragon, you are required to pass a punishingly hard shooting gallery minigame in order to progress through the game. My boyfriend has much better reflexes than I do, but it still took him three tries and a whole lot of swearing. It was very nearly a ragequit moment. I was just sitting there going, “Who thought this was a good idea? People who play JRPGs don’t expect this kind of shit! What the hell is this shooting game doing in my JRPG?”
So, to sum up: Consider the kind of people who will be playing your game, and ask yourself, “Will these people like this minigame? Or will they wish death upon my family when they encounter it?” Please, don’t make me wish death upon your family. It takes so much energy.