Today I decided to take into account what one of the
comments said on my previous post (Thanks Pete!) and take a look at mechanics
before looking more into the levels layout/design.
My first stop was the Psychology behind games design. What i
read was actually really interesting to see and has really helped me in
thinking of things to add to the levels I’ll be creating.
I found that there are 5 things within the psychology of
games design:
Novelty
Challenge
Stimulation
Harmony
Threat
Each obviously corresponds to the player’s reaction to
the games levels/mechanics/Narrative.
There are also 6 sub categories within Novelty - World, Predictability, Melodrama,
Artistry, Puzzle and message. Looking at these I think there are two main things
i wish to focus on and that is the World and Predictability.
My reasoning behind this is that I feel that creating a world that the player can escape into
and let their imagination run wild with what might be going on outside where
their character is, is just as important as the gameplay. Take the Warcraft franchise
for instance (yes I had to get that in there ;P), there is a multitude of lore
and extra’s that not only Blizzard have written but also fans. To me fan
fiction and fan discussions about what is happening in a fictional world adds
to how fun the game can be.
Predictability
for example, means that the player could either explore the games mechanics or
is given ‘base building’ mechanics for the game straight away. Looking at this
I think a great way to design a level would be for the player to discover the
mechanics as they go along. Maybe they are only told a few things as the start?
But seeing as I would be aiming the game at a more hard-core audience, trial
and error is always a nice mechanic to add to the game to make it a bit more
difficult. This would also give the player a greater sense of achievement when
figuring out a mechanic for the first time themselves, rather than being told
about it by the game.
Challenge,
includes Difficulty, Achievement, Order, Obligation, Work and cautiousness. The
main things i want to focus on out of this category are – Difficulty, this is pretty self-explanatory how hard i want the
game to be etc. and again thanks to a previous comment (Thank you Mariana! =P) I
think a good way to go about the design, Especially for a more hardcore audience
is to actually have difficult areas near the start as well as the easy areas.
Mainly because I think holding the players hand and leading them through the
areas going from easy to hard, would make the game feel more linear, rather than
the free roam I am trying to create.
Achievement, I
explained this a bit above with the players being able to discover the
mechanics on their own. Of course some of the mechanics would have to be
explained to begin with, but if the player is given a slight knowledge of what
to do, for example – ‘You can mix spells together’ rather than ‘mix this and
this to make that’ – When they mix a spell THEY want to mix, that would give
a greater sense of achievement than the game telling them what to mix. Order, this is
the offer of set completion mechanics to free play, this is definitely one of
the main things I wish to focus on. I possibly want to have the game in no
particularly set order, so the player can choose how they complete it; however when
on missions within the ‘Domes’ mentioned in the previous post, there will be a
sense of order.
Finally Cautiousness,
this is how a player would react to certain situations, from running and gunning
to tactically thinking of how to progress. Now with this I would like to take
both major points and create a game with running and gunning to tactically
things, as we all love to just shoot something for the hell of shooting
something every now and then…Plus this could help create some pretty cool
scenes. However I think to expand on the difficulty factor, a more tactical way
to kill an enemy is essential. I’m going to go onto Warcraft again, but to me
although the mechanics are simple
some of the bosses in the game are extremely difficult
if approached in the wrong way and require 20+ people to take them down. To me that’s
brilliant... as all those 20+ people need a leader to keep them all in check to
make sure they’re all doing the right thing etc. So adding something similar to
that (of course not to as grand a scale as 20 people) within this game is
something i would definitely like to do.
Stimulation,
this includes Expression, Crowd, Role, Pace, Thrill and Joy. Pace and Thrill often come under the same meaning to me, because if I’m ramping
up the pace of a level I’m also adding to the thrill of the section. These are
two things that should always be considered when making a level as if the pace
isn’t done correctly, then the player can easily become bored. This is one
problem i found i had last year when creating my honours level, as because it
took so long to figure out some of the puzzles, people lost interest and
instantly went to the PC with the Xbox controller next to mine! Thrill will
allow me to add some higher action areas around the map, but this can also come
from the difficulty of the game as if it’s, a hardcore gamer would probably get
more of a thrill out of it, especially when completing said task. This is where
Joy would come into it as this means
giving the player positive emotions such as happiness and delight, which they
would get from completing a difficult task.
Harmony, this
includes Trust, Integrity, Help, Cooperativeness, Glory and Compassion. Trust is one of the main things I’m
trying to break. This is where the player will feel whether or not they will be
betrayed (not just via storyline, but gameplay wise also.) I want to try and
make them question if what they are doing is correct, but at the same time make
them feel that it’s their choice to be doing what they’re doing, therefore
breaking the rules! I’m such a rebel… Help
is another one i wish to add to the game, due to this being about the player
interaction as a support role. Mainly because the game will be having 3
characters, how are they going to help each other? Will one be needed for
certain tasks? One mechanic that will be added is that they can power each
other up, which is definitely adding to the support side.
Threat, this
includes Tension, Provocation, Despair, Humiliation, Compulsion and Danger. Humiliation and Compulsion are the main things I want to take from this. Humiliation
is about making the player feel self-conscious. Now of course i don’t want to
make them self-conscious themselves to an extent that it affects their life. But
enough to make them feel like it’s their fault that they’re not being able to
complete a certain puzzle. Compulsion would then come into play with these
types of tasks, as they would then try and try again and be compelled to
complete it.
Of course I’m not going to be able to predict all players’
reactions unless I test what I want to do, but looking at some of the posts by
William Davies who is also doing the MA (but is a year ahead of me) players
actually react differently to how we think they will react. For example, when
given the choice between a rickety old wooden bridge and a sturdy metal bridge
with hand rails and supports, players didn’t actually approach them any
differently. This is definitely something to take into account when creating my
level.
Next time I will be looking into the Narrative!
So far so good! =P
Laters taters!
