Being the Hero

Being the hero is so compelling that it's not enough to hear stories of great deeds, we desire to enact them. The mantle of the hero who brings order to the world is the cornerstone of storytelling. Within games players can become the hero in a simulated world, and live out that destiny.

Mistake Vectors

Mistake Vectors are the ways that opportunities to make mistakes present themselves.  The more vectors, the more different ways a player can struggle.  It's important that these are clear, so that when a player fails, they can see where to improve and have a clear plan of attack for their next attempt.

Cold Chamber - Rough Core Statement

I sat down to elaborate on the core statement of Cold Chamber.

A Tactical Terrain Based Shooter in the vein of Valkyria Chronicles with Magi-Temp weapons that consume local heat and generate frostbite.

Gnomon Level Design - A Core Statement

Last week I started the Level Design course at Gnomon with Zachary Adams. Our first assignment will involve redesigning the Veldin level in Ratchet and Clank. I'm starting with my core statement:

"magical guns on a war torn battlefield"

Numeric Treadmill

The numeric power up treadmill in games presents as a treadmill because the actions available to the player are essentially the same. Progression in difficulty becomes a counting game of managing your margin of error on perfect executions.

This system is the backbone of many game systems. The numbers go up, while the player's skill also goes up. This type of system is accounts for the wide, wide range of player ability. Players that execute poorly are given and increasingly wide margin of error to work with. While players that execute perfectly are pushed to continue to do so.

But the interesting extension of gameplay comes from the introduction of abilities and talents, which often have a multiplicative effect. They add to the number of options a player has. They change the way a player approaches a problem.

A Rough Take on F2P Time Value

The time value of some popular virtual rewards is set to about 50 hours for $50, or a dollar an hour (at best). Usually, the price would start near 50 cents. When the cost is this low, it's certainly easy to calculate out the time savings and justify a purchase over spending the time in game earning points to redeem the rewards. At this price, players have access to $480 a month with a bit of sleep.

Actions and Choices

Games are based on actions and choices.  Players get a designed set of actions that they may perform and the ability to choose between them, and to power to choose the contexts (where, when, why, how) in which they are performed.

How many actions and how many choices makes a great game?  It really depends on the type of game, and the amount of depth and engagement you want to ask of the player. It's not only important to allow the player to make their best actions but also important to give them the opportunity to refrain from taking actions where not needed.

Dice Games

In an action or rpg game, the player has to manage combat on top of the other meta game progression systems.  In a game of chance, the only thing we have to focus on are the dice and how they are cast.  The abilities we gain can improve our lot if we sequence it right.

Random Roguelikes

Games are really spiced up by randomness. Especially roguelikes, which put players on a ever-changing path to victory. Each step of the way, you can choose to go left or right and even try to take on harder challenges for more impressive rewards. Balancing risk and reward is an engrossing activity for the human mind. And so is pushing oneself to the limit and conquering difficult tasks.

A lot of rogue-like games that center around combat for it's obstacles. "Path of Adventure" is a text RPG where you have to fight monsters. "Hades" is an action game that has you battle the demons of hell. Dota 2's event "Aghanim's Labyrinth" repurposed it's action combat system with a rogue-like metagame.

I wonder what one would look like without combat? What sort of other skill check systems could merge well with with the rogue meta game?