Design
General
Dynamic Difficulty
When we start a new game, we are introduced to its mechanics. But as we progress through the game, it gets harder, but we too get better either through mastery of existing mechanics or introduction of new mechanics. But different players are different so some would not feel satisfied or challenged. If the game allows for a choice for its difficulty, different players may experience the game differently as we intended. We need to create a balance or sometimes called ‘flow channel’.
In Resident Evil, if you are struggling, the enemies will slow down and cause lesser damage. If you are playing better, the enemies will become more aggressive and cause more damage. Sometimes some enemies will vanish to make it easier for the player. But the smartest part of this is that the player never knows, it is not available in the menu. Due to this, the player won’t kill themselves to make it easier for them like what speedrunners may do.
Creating Impactful Choices
In Mass Effect, we are given a choice to either destroy the entire race of Geths or reprogram them without them knowing you did so.
The decision may be simple but on a deeper level, if the game has successfully created tension and emotions, the player is left with a much difficult question, is it better to destroy the beliefs of others or reprogram them to match the rest of the population. The choice you make may not be the correct one, but it reveals what kind of person you are. This creates an impactful moment for the player. Sadly, the game falls short with its ending because it rewards one decision over the other but in real life, both decisions are correct in their own right.
Loading Screens
The player doesn’t like to wait. It takes away from the immersion factor. You can either provide useful tips that can help the player play better, play a mini-game like in Assassin Creed, or use async loading where you load a lightweight scene while the game is loading in the back like squeezing through a hole to load the next portion of the map.
Exploration
In many games, we have areas that are not accessible but later on, in the game, we find a way to access that space using a new mechanic or item. The gameplay feels nonlinear but is actually linear.
In Toki Tori 2, we are rewarded for exploring. This is the true nonlinear experience. If we take a left instead of a right in the game, we might find new solutions to the level if we had taken right. Exploration is organic and rewarded. If we have to find multiple items in order to move on, we can do it in any order making exploration a part of the mission. This is risky if done wrong, since the player might not find a way out and may get frustrated.
Tension
In Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 4, both have similar mechanics and story but Far Cry 2 makes the player feel like he is stuck in a hostile environment while Far Cry 4 seems much more relaxed.
In Far Cry 2, the cars and guns are rusty, we have to spend time fixing them. We can’t fast travel like in Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 2 has more enemy checkpoints.
Another factor is the saving, in Far Cry 4 we can save anytime but in Far Cry 2 we can’t and so if we die, we might lose a lot of progress. This forces the player to become wary.
So, a story is not enough to create emotions in games. Its design sets the tone which help drive the emotion that the story tries to create.
Open World
In Batman 1, we don’t have an open world but later releases introduce an open world that we can free roam. The problem with open world is story, the player is distracted doing side missions that the story loses all its importance. There is no tension the is built as you can start the mission at any time.
The decision to make a game have an open world should make sense to the game. It is better to do less and do it well than to attempt a lot and fail at it.
Choices
Actions are not choices like breathing is an autonomic action. Reactions are pulling your hand away from a flame which is also not a choice. The calculation is something that needs to be thought-about to come to a clear answer. This involves decision but is also not choices
The choice is overcoming internal conflict. Without conflict, there is no choice only decisions.
Example: Super Mario, the long-term goal is to save the princess and defeat the enemy. And the short-term goal is to stay alive. Now design the game such that these two goals are in oppositions
Here, the mushroom moves offscreen, you have to go to the right where you might die but if you get the mushroom you will have 2x life. This is a choice. The mushroom helps keep the long-term goal if you get it. But if you don’t you are risking your short-term goal. This is called the incomplete information problem.
Problem with many games is that the objectives are played out clearly and it’s just a matter of doing it or its one objective and you just have to follow the steps to get it done. One good way to tackle this is to make the longest path the safest to go through and the easiest path the most difficult.
Another choice is called incomparable, it’s the should I get the heaviest weapon with more power damage or the lightest weapon so to walk faster.
No player should mindlessly play the game. It should be about constant choices made by the player.
It’s the game's job to reduce incredibly difficult situations into manageable challenges. But you need to master the game mechanics to pull it off.
There is a myth which states that easy games are sellable. This is false, the more approachable the game, the better.
A great game starts off simple and then there is so much depth that you get lost in it in which the player has to master the mechanics. A tutorial is the best way to start. It should be approachable and add depth later on. Use obvious scenarios that help reinforce the tutorials, so the players learn the mechanics through gameplay.
Game Feel
A game needs to be alive when played. This is called the game feel.
To test it, take away all the points, story, music, level design, and see if it is still fun to play. The player should enjoy just moving around in the world.
Every animation, impact, input needs to give good and clear feedback. If it does the game will keep the player coming back for more. This is why playing GTA without its mission is still great. Walking around and stealing cars is still fun to do
Lack of Tutorials
In Dead Space, we are given numerous hints, tutorials, audio messages to find out how to kill certain monsters.
In Half-Life, we are taught through gameplay. On a certain level, we see a dead monster with a saw blade in it. Next, we are equipped with the blade. Just then a monster appears and we instinctively use the blade to kill it. We weren’t instructed that the saw blade would be effective, we could understand that from the game world. This way the player feels like he is part of the world and exploration is rewarded.
These are tutorials but hidden so well that feels like the player discovered the solution instead of spoon-feeding it
Play like a Designer
Designers need to understand how certain mechanics can lead to a certain game experience/ Observe while you experience the game. For example, in a rollercoaster, which area was the most exciting. Ask why you were excited and what led to the excitement. How was the situation set up? Answering these questions will help the designer to recreate the same effect in other games.
Then know your biases, why do you like certain genres. Try to understand learned biases which are things that are second hand when you play a game, like how to hold a controller.
Once you know these biases then you will be able to remove them when analyzing game designs. You should play every kind of game and learn from them all.
Playing bad games is easy to analyze because we can see clearly see what things didn’t work. Good games have a lot of parts that work well together which makes it hard to analyze them.
Look at the buttons which were used to make the player control. Then look at the options screens because these show options the designers couldn’t stick by so gave options instead.
Look for breakpoints
Systemic breaks: Fighting monsters give a lot of loot and then you are too rich, so you don’t need to fight anymore.
Technical breaks: UI and graphical bugs, practical solutions to avoid deadlines like camera angles instead of high-quality models
You are playing to learn. So probably play for just an hour. Most of the mechanics are shown in the first few hours so you can learn about a lot of games easily.
Lessen Beginner and Expert Gap
Giving new players a single button big reward action like a final attack that can give an edge when the player is just about to die. This way even veteran players can lose if not careful.
Restart
In Ori, we are tested with all the mechanics learned thus far by escaping the Ginso Tree but if we fail we are restarted without any loading page and the music also doesn’t discontinue. This creates tension and continuity. And when we reach the top, we feel accomplished.
Levels
Escort Missions
These missions can be annoying when the AI for the NPC is faulty. The NPC should be able to keep up with the player, this way the player is not forced to wait for them. It's best to create a simple AI where the NPC stays out of your way so if you get caught it’s your fault and not the NPC. This can take away from the immersion as the NPC might be in clear sight of the enemies but not subject to getting caught like in the Last of Us.
The NPC can be put to use by giving them a task like Elizabeth in Bioshock who gives you ammo or Ellie in the Last of Us who helps you when you are pinned by an enemy.
Another point to keep in mind is that the NPC should never be allowed to die when you are not around them. You should be able to help them if they get caught. You shouldn’t be able to harm the NPC either.
Traversal mechanics like opening doors etc. should be implemented in the NPCs AI so it’s not the player's job to do these simple tasks. Usually, the escort mission itself is tiresome, don’t add multiple new mechanics and tasks for the player to accomplish on top of it.
An escort mission is usually slow and dragging compared to the rest of the game. So, make it meaningful. The player should emotionally be attached to the NPC in some form so after the mission the player feels accomplished escorting the NPC to safety.
Subtle Directional Clues
Light
We are drawn to the lightest area especially when we are in distress like fire, car headlights, flame, sunlight, god rays, etc.
Composition
A window creates a frame, on the roof, the birds fly away in the direction that the player needs to take, this creates motion. Other examples are sparks or banging doors. Separate the ground and the walls of the levels, the steps on a staircase provide a clear path of purpose and indicates which direction to go.
Affordance
A ramp is placed to be jumped off from.
Camera
Moves constantly and keeps the next destination in the center of the frame.
Color
The carefully chosen color will direct the motion that needs to be taken
Negative space
A negative space like an alleyway creates a clear path to take
Audio
Example: TV speakers that make you go inside a room
Weenies
Example: Walt Disney created the castle in the middle of his theme parks to give you a sense of direction.
Indirect arrows
Example: Tire marks on the road, signs broken, etc.
Testing
Make sure people can see the directions that you put out.
Squint test
A technique used by Naughty Dog. Squint your eyes and see if you can see the dominant parts of the scene If done right, the player will take the right path and when they don’t it creates an opportunity for easter eggs and this makes the world bigger than it is.
Mechanics
Death
Death has been pretty much the same for most games. You lose a life and start again. But death can be used as a mechanics that changes how you look at death.
In Spelunky, the entire level is procedurally changed. In some games, we leave remnants from previous trials like blood marks. In Shadow of Mordor, your death can change enemy leaders and tactics. They will remember you as well.
In Dark Souls, you have to go back and collect your soul to get all the inventory back. In ZombiU, you have to go find the zombie that killed you to get all your inventory back. In this way, death has further consequences.
Many games create a fake sense of an ultimatum where if you lose you lose everything. But it’s just an illusion, if you lose, you restart and try again.
But in Swindle, you are given a 100-day limit to complete a heist. If the player is not able to complete it after the 100-days, you lose the game completely. So, as the days pass the player has to make more risky and daring decisions in order to get the most loot. This is where death acts as a mechanic that makes the player make certain decisions.
Player Input
In older Tomb Raider games, if we had to jump over a ledge we needed to get a running start, then click a button to jump and hold another button to hold on to the ledge and then pull yourself up.
The newer games have an instant acceleration and its a simple one-button action. This makes the movement part less rewarding to the player than the combat.
Assassin's Creed II had a grasp system that lets you hold on to a ledge if it’s too far but without holding the grasp button you will not be able to get there. Newer Assassin Creed games have grappling hooks, and everything is automatic.
In Shadow of the Colossus, they use a meter to give you stamina, if you are out of stamina mid-climb, you fall to your death.
These simple actions need to be engaging just as much as the rest of the game. The player needs constant feedback of accomplishment to keep going. So, changing simple one-button clicks to meaningful multiple combinations keeps the player interested and makes movement a mechanic instead of a mundane task.
Reusing mechanics
In Rayman Legends, you are provided with mechanics and later at the end of the level tested with all of them together.
If you introduce a new enemy out of the blue the player might die and then go through the process of figuring out how to defeat the new enemy but we can reuse old mechanics and create exciting gameplay by testing them all at a new level with more difficult scenarios. Since the player has been using those mechanics before, it would be exciting for them as well to put to the test.
Don't throw away mechanics after one use. Make them interesting later on.
Regain system
Bloodborne, lets you lose heath when you are hit but if you attack the enemy in few seconds you can regain that health back making the player act aggressively and not hiding or running away
Stealth system
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, you can knock out a guard with good stats and send him to the home base. Or you can kill him. It’s a choice for the player and depending on the situation the player has to change tactics.
Mechanics that work together
Splatoon has a gun to shoot paint to create a path, you can swim on this path that refills the paint gun, this 2 mechanics work perfectly together. Using 1 mechanic alone doesn't make sense, both together create a unique experience.
Checkpoints
Ori and the Blind Forest give the control to the player to make checkpoints, this way saving your game is a strategic choice because it takes away some power when you save, and that power can be used to do powerful attacks later on. So, you should plan out the saves. This is different from going to a menu and saving periodically.
Resting in-game time
Life is Strange and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, in combat games, it can get exhausting to constantly be in combat. In emotional games, it can be taxing to be in the game. So, the only way for the player to take a break is to stop playing and come back to it. The other way used in the above games is to let the game character take a break. Sit down. Take a breath of fresh air. Walk a town in silence and thought. Be alone. The rest creates a break for the player as well.
Genres
Horror
Many horror games fall into action adventure with horror as a component instead of it being a purely horror experience.
Horror is a psychological experience, it’s a trait in humans due to evolution that make us feel hopeless and scared. It’s a situation that we can’t get out of and are forced to be in.
In horror, the villain is more interesting that the protagonist. For this we need to create a compelling negative character. The character requires mystery because half of horror is the state of not knowing.
That’s why horror games get ruined when a sequel is made, since now we know the answer. The mystery is already solved.