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Game Design 101 #4
By Benson Russell - Game Designer
So it's been a little more than a week, but hey, we're in the process of finalizing the game to submit to CQC (that's quality control). This means that we're almost gold and that much closer to getting our lives back. I can finally do some laundry and play the mountain of unopened games from the past 6 months (Pandora Tomorrow, Tiger Woods '05, and Pac Man... oh wait, it hasn't been THAT long)!
Last time I talked about the theory of 'the carrot' and how it pertains to game design. I mentioned the three factors of 'the carrot' that are pretty consistent across all game types: challenge, involvement, and reward. This time I would like to go into more detail on each of those three factors it seemed like I had written a War and Peace on just the beginnings of the subject.
Challenge Everything: I can't believe I just fit that in
OK, so the last time I said the challenge is the act of learning a set of rules, and solving scenarios by those rules under evolving circumstances. There's a macro and a micro level to this concept. The macro level would be the general, basic top-level rules to the game. As an example, the basic rules in MOHPA are to complete the objectives and to stay alive while doing it (i.e. what the player has to do to progress to the next level).
The micro level would be the lower level specifics in the game world. These are the rules that the player must learn and use to solve scenarios in the game. These are the raw tools used by the designer to sculpt the gameplay. A simple example of this in MOHPA would be the infamous red barrel. Red barrels blow up when shot, causing a lot of damage in a radius around the explosion. The player can then use this knowledge to take advantage of it (such as when several AI happen to cluster around one), and to know its consequences (such as the player taking cover behind one).
There are also two very important caveats with regards to the rules: training and consistency. Before you can put the player into a situation where they are expected to use a rule to solve a key scenario, you should train the player on that rule so they can understand it. Once you have established a rule, make sure it is consistent throughout the game. You can modify rules over the course of the game to evolve and change the gameplay, just be sure to train the player on these modifications.
This is the meat of your gameplay. Some games are more reflex intensive, some are more thought intensive, some are put-the-monkey-on-the-cattle-prod intensive, but regardless of the game type and style, this will always be the meat of your gameplay. You also want to progressively increase the challenge and experience over the course of the game. If the game is on the same level all the way through, most people will become pretty bored and feel that there's nothing left to experience after only a few levels. Hence the original question, 'Why am I choosing to continue to play this?'
Involvement Everything: doesn't have the same ring to it? :
Ok, now onto the involvement or immersion factor of the game. Regardless of the game type or style, there's always a level of immersion that exists. This isn't necessarily how much the player feels that they're actually a character or object 'in the game,' but rather how connected with the game they are. Sounds similar, I know, but it's not. To explain, having a player being connected with a game means the player gets into their 'zone' where their interaction with the game becomes an extension of their will. This can happen with any type of game, from Madden to MOHPA to Tetris Attack. Sometimes one of the goals of a game is to fully immerse the player and make them feel as if they've become the character they're controlling. Sometimes it's fluidity of action and control such as with a fighting game like the Street Fighter series. In either case, this can only be fully achieved is if the player can connect with the game.
The involvement factor really comes down to the layers of interaction the player has with the game world. The top most layer is the actual human interface with the game (i.e. the controls). This needs to be solid, logical, and intuitive. This is how the player communicates their actions upon the game world. If the controls are bad, then the player will never be able to fully connect with the game, thus resulting in a lack of desire to play the game (i.e. coaster award). Below that, the layers of interaction depend upon the game type and style, and what it's trying to accomplish. On MOPHA for example, I said last time that the primary involvement the player has with the game world is their weapon and this provides the most feedback to the player. How do the weapons 'feel' when the player uses them? How does the world react to the weapons? Identifying this primary involvement factor of your game is important, because it's one of the things you're going to want to spend time on getting right. If this part feels sloppy or frustrating, chances are people are not going to enjoy your game (i.e. coaster award... again).
It's actually amazing from a developer's standpoint to see so many games where tons of development time and money has been spent on rich, vibrant worlds, top-notch voice acting talent, professional screenplay writers for the story, the newest bands or biggest orchestras for music, awesome new innovative gameplay concepts that are so out there you need to be in Yankee stadium to catch them (like the grand slam that was just scored in the top of the second of the seventh game), and yet they neglect probably the single most important thing you need to get right in a game, the player's involvement with the world. All that other stuff that makes for great bullet points on a box isn't worth squat if the player can't stand to play the game because the interface is so counter-intuitive and frustrating.
Now some of the involvement factor does relate to the challenge factor. Remember those micro rules I talked about that govern the game world? Obviously some of those rules will relate to the player's involvement with the world. This is one of the reasons why consistency and training are so important.
Reward Everything: now I like that one
As I talked about last time, there are two aspects to the reward:
1) The satisfaction of figuring out the rules and then using that knowledge to overcome the challenge or the out-of-game reward that the player feels.
2) A new element of the game is made available or the in-game reward that the player receives.
For the out-of-game reward, the satisfaction the player feels in figuring out gameplay scenarios is probably the biggest draw in playing the game. This can come from out-thinking the scenario, to raw reflexive skill, to sometimes exploiting an unfound bug (yeah... keep snickering). Regardless of how the player derives this reward, it is a big factor in wanting to continue playing the game. This can also be strongly tied to the involvement factor with regards to how well the player connects with the game. Are you seeing this pattern that each of these factors ties into each other? The better they connect; the more fun and reward they'll get.
There are many different types of in-game rewards. As I mentioned before, making a new reward element available is a common one (new weapon, level, power up, etc). These rewards are great to give away a secret, or hide in a corner for the explorative player who likes to look around. Another type of in-game reward is giving out more of a standard item that's used normally throughout gameplay. In MOHPA for example this would be health and ammo. These are good to give out for the explorative player, or after a big encounter. This is also a great way to make the player feel they've earned something, which also helps with the out-of-game rewards.
Another interesting point regarding rewards is how they can be used to encourage certain styles of play. For example, if 'goodies' are consistently placed in off-the-main-path areas, you encourage the player to scour every inch of a level. An excellent example of this is in the game NOLF2 (No One Lives Forever 2). The designers added a RPG-light system to a FPS game where the player gets a certain amount of points to enhance the main character's abilities (damage, accuracy, speed, etc). Each time the player finds a secret, they earn points to apply towards these abilities. This really encourages players to scrape through every inch of the level looking for secrets as they really give something back to the player and the gameplay. This also shows how consistency and training can come into play with the reward factor as well (again, that whole 'it all ties together' thing).
Well, that pretty much covers most of 'the carrot.' There are still a few smaller items that I would have liked to have covered, but this has turned into another War and Peace article. This also pretty much closes up my Game Design 101 series for MOHPA as the game is almost done (we'll be in CQC very soon). I'd like to thank the guys here for allowing me to put some of my babble up for you all to read (even though it was more than late on a few occasions... my bad). I'd also like to thank you guys for reading it; I hope you found it interesting. Take care, and I hope you all enjoy the game.
-- Benson
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Past Developer Diaries:
Multiplayer Design
Ed Moore
Entry #1
Entry #2
Entry #3
Entry #4
Entry #5
Entry #6
Single Player Design
Tom Hess
Entry #1
Mike Roloson
Entry #1
Game Design 101
Benson Russell
Entry #1
Entry #2
Entry #3
Entry #4
Software Engineering
Keith Schaefer
Entry #1
Entry #2
Entry #3
Jason Gregory
Entry #1
Entry #2
Entry #3
Special Editions
Jeff Zaring -
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault at the CPL Event
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