Posted on October 29th, 2010IndieGamePodNo comments
There is an entire side to games that some designers don’t even set out to create, but it’s a major part of video games – role-playing. Yes, the same aspect of Dungeons and Dragons is alive and well in games like Call of Duty. This may not be a complete shock to you, but what might be a surprise to you is how important the aspect is in games.
Role-playing, for those who don’t know, is when someone takes on the role of something else. In video games, you are taking on the role of the character in the game. In books, you become the one going on the journey to destroy the ring and save middle earth. When you close your door, blast your music, and play air guitar while mouthing the words to your favorite song, you are pretending to be the singer of the rock band. This becomes a game in itself – everyone remembers playing house or cops and robbers in kindergarten. It is the same principle.
A lot of what contributes to it is immersion. If you are very immersed in the world around you, the story unfolding before you, you will want to be the protagonist, and will become him/her. The role-playing, through the story, adds extra weight to the game. Your actions have meaning. It becomes a game dynamic, influencing your actions.
Think about a game in which you were not immersed in. You need to rescue the princess to beat the game – to win. Now a game in which you were immersed. You need to rescue the princess. Period. That is all you need to know. You are the protagonist, and his/her agenda becomes yours. Many of the greatest video games include this game dynamic. In Call of Duty, you are the man crouched down in the snow.
When you role-play, the game becomes more fun, because the game becomes more than just a game. You feel tense, hoping to avoid capture. When you are running away from bullets, you are cursing under your breath. This happens when you do not role-play, but when you are role-playing, you are cursing because you are about to die. When you do not role play, you curse because your character is about to die (a pawn in your game).
Even after putting the controller down, you can walk away, still role-playing, coming to a corner and peering your head over, trying to get a glimpse of the other side for any guards. It is a strange phenomenon, humans and pretend, and it is one of the most powerful game dynamics (and one of the most difficult to control). And the game does not even have to be an RPG to inspire role-playing. One of my favorite games that instantly causes me to role-play (it is neither an RPG nor is it in first person) is GTA: San Andreas. I would spend hours in a row, invested in the life of a gangster, doing jobs, making money, participating in drive-bys – all things frowned upon in real life, but perfectly fine in imaginary worlds.
Most games (with the exclusion of some simulation/puzzle/etc. games) involve some degree of role-play in the mind of the player, but the ones that hit this very well always become instant classics. In fact, I believe this is the actual major reason as to why certain genres are popular/unpopular today. Adventure games have dwindled in success, drowned by the profits of action games. Adventure games tend to naturally oppose role-playing. The game tends to be you versus the game – you must use commands and the correct combination of items to solve strangely elaborate, frustratingly unobvious puzzles. I am not shooting down the genre (I love the genre), but I feel that these games cannot offer the dynamic even close to as well as action games.
In action games, it is you versus the enemies. Challenges are more obvious and definitely less subtle (bad guys running at you with machine guns). It is also way easier to put yourself in the character’s shoes, especially in terms of controls and how you solve challenges.
However, some action games like platformers and fighters do not offer as much role-play as others. Platformers, like adventure games, are also more of you versus the game (retrying the same strip of level over and over until you get it right), and fighting games are more of you trying to hit certain strings of buttons and get the timing right. But, wait, these games are still awesome? Yes they are – Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of the best games of the year, and Street Fighter 4 is still being played by millions. I am in no way putting down any genre of gaming.
Having said that, I think that if these genres could better incorporate the dynamic of role-play, they could reach a higher potential. The Fight Night franchise took fighting games and matched them with more of a role-playing element – you are the fighter (the game was really fun too).
What my theory does not explain well yet is the massive wave of social networking games like Farmville. When you play Farmville, you do not pretend you are an actual farmer (at least normal people don’t do that). So why are these social/simulation games so hot? Well, they feature a completely different set of game dynamics involving social aspects to affect the player (however, role-play could match very well with the social network).
So, tying things up, I think the video game has a major push towards role-play in games, and I think it has been for a long time. In the old NES days, with old-school graphics, players could role-play very easily – Metroid comes to mind. As most players got their first taste of role-play in video games, the dynamic became a type of drug – one that the audience would demand more and more of as games would progress.
But think even farther back to the age of the text adventure – the playable book. Role-play and imagination was at an all-time high – allowing you to progress through the story in a believable way, painting the picture and filling the blanks in your own mind.
This adventure type gameplay continued on its evolution through video games, from Zork to Monkey Island to Myst. But, as action type gameplay developed and better kept the gamer involved within the game, adventure games began to phase out (the challenges broke up any immersion – in fact, the puzzles actually pushed the gamer out of the game). So what are we left with? A market dominated by the new age of Dungeons and Dragons games. The spirit of Dungeons and Dragons is within FPS’s, MMO’s, and RPG’s. These games are becoming the face of the industry. Bottom line – people like to pretend.
So, what do I want you to take away from this article? That all games need to include role-play to be good? NO!
Adventure games are fun in their own, mind-wrenching way. I am only trying to explain their sudden plummet in the game industry. For some reason, whether it is in our nature or a result of our times, gamers want to role-play; the challenges and ways you solve them are not the only way people have fun playing games, and we are beginning to realize this more and more. This fact became clear to me back when Half Life 2 came out. The whole story, immersion, and world sucked me in, and I wanted to be Gordan Freeman, but couldn’t. So I pretended, and the game was way more fun. In fact, I think it was this aspect that made it not only a great game, but a legendary peak in the history of games.
I want you to leave with the realization that game dynamics are extremely powerful, and that they should be taken into account before even the challenges are thought of. Can we do anything to make the game anymore immersive, to allow the player to role-play? Can we include something that makes the gamer want to complete these tasks?
I also want you to realize that imagination is very important in games. You may want to consider easing back a little on the details, to let the player fill in the blanks. Because if a player cannot stop thinking about being a space warrior, he/she is finally going to give in and play Halo some more. And that is the sign of a truly great game – when you can’t stop playing after it is already off.
Dylan Woodbury lives with his family in Southern California. He runs http://dtwgames.com, a game design website that posts intriguing new articles every week, both beginner’s tutorials and theoretical ideas. He also has an interest in writing, and is planning his first novel. His primary goal is to change the world through video games.
Posted on October 26th, 2010IndieGamePodNo comments
Hey folks,
Blizzcon happened this past weekend. Blizzard mentioned that they were not going to turn Diablo III into an Electronic Sport (E-Sport)…
For Indie/Experimental game developers…an interesting design question would be…how would you turn your game into an E-Sport?
Here are a couple things mentioned by Blizzard a while back…on what’s needed for a game to become an Electronic Sport…
Replay option
Spectator option…so folks can watch what’s going on
Referee Tools so that games can be moderated, etc…
These are things that Starcraft has…that make it a compelling Electronic Sport…
The question now is…how would you turn mobile/experimental/casual games into Electronic Sports that people like to play.
In a way, the folks at the Game Show Network and their skill-based game designs…probably qualify as an Electronic Sport…but they may not have all the tools to make it a sport that draws in spectators/etc.
What would you do to turn your game into an electronic sport? Do you think casual games can ever become an electronic sport?
Posted on October 20th, 2010IndieGamePodNo comments
Hey folks,
As devs work on their own games, sometimes they can get into a grind where they don’t see the changes needed to make their game a success. We’re going to have a new feature on the show…where we choose one game by a dev and then everyone can give the dev feedback/suggestions on ways to improve the game.
Even if you don’t take the feedback, it usually can be motivating to have other folks check out the game and give you their opinion. If you’re interested, submit a link to your game/app/mobile app below and we’ll let you know if you’re selected 🙂
Posted on October 19th, 2010IndieGamePodNo comments
What are games? This is the sole question to begin to understand how games work. We are going to discuss the very basic design of video games. If you are new to video game design, this is where you should start.
Video games, at their most basic, are divided into two sections based on their design: story and gameplay. In the very best games, these two work together to make a masterpiece. Gameplay should complement story, and story should complement gameplay (you’ll see what I mean in a moment). People discuss story-driven games and gameplay-driven games, but to make a game the best it can be, they should really be the same caliber. It’s time to stop thinking about gameplay and story, and time to start thinking of them as story-gameplay (no, I did not get this idea from Einstein).
Gameplay is, well, you actually playing the game – how you are allowed to interact with the world. This gameplay is also divided into two sections: actions and challenges. In Halo, the actions are running, shooting, jumping, crouching, reloading, etc. These actions are referred to as game mechanics, and you are able to do each one in the virtual world by doing something in the real world with the control. Often, each mechanic has its own button. You use these mechanics to complete challenges.
A challenge in Halo is often a hoard of enemies. Challenges are often interwoven throughout the game. For example, let’s say your challenge is to rescue the princess. To do that, you need to get the sword, a subchallenge. To get the sword though, you need to kill the sword’s guardian, a subchallenge of a subchallenge. You accomplish these challenges throughout the game by using the mechanics. The relationship between the mechanics and challenges is what’s known as gameplay. That is pretty much the outline of every game: a series of challenges, or problems, which the player must complete.
The second part of a video game is the story, which includes the story (the events that occur in the game), atmosphere, sounds, characters, and all things that either make the virtual world more immersive or gives weight to the challenges. Let’s say we’re designing a video game, and the player’s overlying challenge is to save the princess. But how does the designer make that the challenge? Do we just say in text, “You’re challenge is to save the princess.”? No! We let the story give you that objective organically. We can show a cutscene of you and the princess, when she is kidnapped and you are knocked unconscious. Characters of the village can be sobbing about their loss to you; the town may go into disarray, etc. The point is, you, through the character you play in the game, know that you have save the princess. If we just told you in text what your challenge was, you would feel no obligation to complete the challenge. The game wouldn’t be fun, because the game of interweaved challenges has turned into a list of things you have to do. Go from point A to point B, and you win the game. Nobody would ever go to point B just because you told them to. Through story, challenges should be organically produced and given to the player, who now has a reason to complete the challenges. He/she now wants to complete to the challenge because of the story – you’ve become attached to the characters, you want to save this interesting new world, you want to know what happens next or the answers to your questions about the story or world. The feelings the game gives you is also important – you want to continue to feel the power, achievement, etc. You also want to keep playing because the gameplay and process your mind plays in completing challenges, but the story on top of fun gameplay takes the game to a whole new level (no pun intended).
So now about how gameplay and story complement each other. Basically, gameplay should progress the story. By accomplishing your goal, you are rewarded with story. By using the game mechanics to accomplish the challenge of saving the mayor who is inside a burning building, he may reward you, in the story, with a weapon, information, or something to get you closer to your larger challenges, like saving the princess. The weapons means new, fresh gameplay for you to enjoy, completion of the challenge makes you feel great, and you get to progress through the story which you’ve been immersed into.
So, wrapping up, story and gameplay make up video games. Gameplay is the actions, goals, and how the two go together, and story is what gives weight to the goals. Gameplay opens up story, as story serves as a reward for gameplay. Story also gives reason for the games, so without story, the gameplay is not as fun or logical.
I could go on forever, but I’ll stop there. It is a lot to process if you are new to game design, so for practice, go play your favorite game (action, action-adventure, or adventure game, although there are many more which use this formula), and examine the challenge structure at any point (know your main goal and all of the subgoals at any point in the game after the introduction). Also figure out what the mechanics are. Also, if you’re in for a challenge, try to figure out why you are playing the game and completing the challenges. What is it about the game that makes playing it so much fun? We’ll cover that someday.
Have fun, and come back later for part 2.
Dylan Woodbury lives with his family in Southern California. He runs http://dtwgames.com, a game design website that posts intriguing new articles every week, both beginner’s tutorials and theoretical ideas. He also has an interest in writing, and is planning his first novel. His primary goal is to change the world through video games.
Posted on October 11th, 2010IndieGamePodNo comments
Introduction
My studio’s latest game, Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare, recently earned a Best Design award in indiePub’s 3rd Independent Game Developers Contest. Our team believes that the graceful usability of Vanessa was a contributing factor to our success. This brief article outlines some of the best practices from our development process.
Before diving into the lessons we learned, an explanation of our game is in order. Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare is a 2D puzzle and platform game mapped to a 3D cube. In each level, players must guide the titular character to an exit. In order to do so, they must use Vanessa’s ability to rotate any face of the cube she occupies. In a way, Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare borrows from the best parts of Super Mario Bros. and Rubik’s Cube.
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Why does Vanessa play so effortlessly? I have identified three key components of the game’s design which I believe contribute to its usability. They are: a subtractive approach, polished difficulty, and a focus on early testing.
A Subtractive Approach
In The Elements of Style, E. B. White writes, “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” This philosophy applies to game design. Vanessa works well in part due to the subtractive approach taken during development. Any element out of place was cut. Those that remained created a strong, central core for players to enjoy; they are unburdened by clutter.
For example, early versions of Vanessa included functionality for manually rotating the game’s camera. By controlling the camera, players could adjust Vanessa’s puzzle cube to see each face. As a result, our testers became fixated on trying to solve every puzzle before making any moves. They grew frustrated, and for good reason: studying isn’t fun. So, the manual camera was cut, forcing players to explore the cube in order to find a solution. Exploration is far more satisfying than planning, and it better reflects the nature of our game.
Subtractive design provides developers with an added benefit: it simplifies a game’s controls. As I write, an Xbox 360 gamepad sits in front of me. It has thirteen buttons and three different ways of indicating direction. Feel free to use as few of these options as possible when designing your games. Your users will appreciate the ease with which your project operates.
Vanessa requires five buttons and one thumbstick – the bare minimum specified by the game’s mechanics. Overwhelmingly, players have noted that Vanessa is an easy game to pick up and play. A manual camera, weapons system, or any other unnecessary mechanic would have required more buttons, more training, and more cognitive resources. In short, it would have been less usable.
Difficulty
Most players (and many developers) view difficulty as a linear path from easy to hard. This model is incomplete, and incompatible with good design. In general, difficulty should increase slowly at the beginning of a game, rise significantly once the mechanics have been established, and taper off towards the end (well before challenges become punishing). Along the way, modest dips in difficulty should be included, to allow the player time to demonstrate their mastery of the system.
I recommend introducing new mechanics or challenges individually. Give the player time to acclimate. Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare features thirty-six levels, and new mechanics are launched in levels 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 12, 15, 19, and 26. Notice how, after the initial tutorial levels (1-3) play out, there is increasingly ample space between additions to the game’s complexity. In those levels, difficulty increases modestly, and occasionally drops.
Why should difficulty decrease every once in a while? The idea is simple: games should be fun. Once players have figured out how a mechanic works, they need opportunities to revel in their mastery of the system. So, if your game is about destroying vampires, introduce your player to a single vampire, then force them to battle two vampires at once, then three. After that, let them go to town on a single vampire again. After the challenge of defeating three bloodsuckers at once, the slight reprieve will be a welcome break for the player. Likewise, the player will compare and contrast their first encounter with a single vampire to their most recent encounter. How will they measure up? A good designer will want their players to feel satisfied and empowered, not unfairly punished.
Of course, what works on paper rarely works in practice. There is no substitute for thorough testing. Developers should listen carefully to feedback from players, and – here’s the kicker – suppress their egos. When someone criticizes your work, it’s easy to dismiss that point of view as uninformed, incomplete, or just plain wrong. But by protecting your ego and clinging to your own opinions, you may be dismissing information that could improve your game.
Developer as Tester
I firmly believe that a game’s developer should be its first and best tester. During production, no one will play your game more than you will. This has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, you will become intimately familiar with every facet of your game. On the other hand, you may fall into testing patterns or become comfortable with certain idiosyncrasies. Remember, just because you know the critical path through a level doesn’t mean you should take it every time. Be thorough, and make every effort to break your game.
I never release a game for testing unless I have exhausted my bug list. If I can no longer find errors, then I need more people looking for them. After submitting the Beta version of Vanessa to indiePub’s 3rd Independent Game Developers Contest, only one critical bug surfaced: in some countries, decimals are stored as commas instead of periods. This formatting issue prevented some foreign gamers from fully enjoying our game. The bug itself was easy to fix, but it demonstrates the need to conduct deep and thorough tests of your game.
Final Notes
If you are unfamiliar with interface design, I highly recommend studying Jakob Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics, available from his website, useit.com. These ten practical suggestions will help ensure that your game offers a more satisfying experience for players. For example, Nielsen suggests that “every extra unit of information… competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.” For this reason, Vanessa’s in-game interface consists of only the most important information: a level number, the number of rotations the player has triggered, and the amount of time that has elapsed since the level began.
Conclusion
The ideas expressed in this article worked for Vanessa. However, every game is different, and independent developers should never cling too tightly to a single design philosophy. However, by carefully considering these concepts, you are bound to think more critically about your own games, and arrive at an approach that best suits the project at hand.
David J. Sushil is a professor of Game and Simulation Programming at DeVry University. He is also the owner of Bad Pilcrow, an independent game studio in Orlando, Florida. His most recent game, Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare, was awarded Best Design in indiePub’s 3rd Independent Game Developers Competition.
world. This gameplay is also divided into two sections: actions and challenges. In Halo, the actions are running, shooting, jumping, crouching, reloading, etc. These actions are referred to as game mechanics, and you are able to do each one in the virtual world by doing something in the real world with the control. Often, each mechanic has its own button. You use these mechanics to complete challenges.
story give you that objective organically. We can show a cutscene of you and the princess, when she is kidnapped and you are knocked unconscious. Characters of the village can be sobbing about their loss to you; the town may go into disarray, etc. The point is, you, through the character you play in the game, know that you have save the princess. If we just told you in text what your challenge was, you would feel no obligation to complete the challenge. The game wouldn’t be fun, because the game of interweaved challenges has turned into a list of things you have to do. Go from point A to point B, and you win the game. Nobody would ever go to point B just because you told them to. Through story, challenges should be organically produced and given to the player, who now has a reason to complete the challenges. He/she now wants to complete to the challenge because of the story – you’ve become attached to the characters, you want to save this interesting new world, you want to know what happens next or the answers to your questions about the story or world. The feelings the game gives you is also important – you want to continue to feel the power, achievement, etc. You also want to keep playing because the gameplay and process your mind plays in completing challenges, but the story on top of fun gameplay takes the game to a whole new level (no pun intended).
mechanics to accomplish the challenge of saving the mayor who is inside a burning building, he may reward you, in the story, with a weapon, information, or something to get you closer to your larger challenges, like saving the princess. The weapons means new, fresh gameplay for you to enjoy, completion of the challenge makes you feel great, and you get to progress through the story which you’ve been immersed into.