We think of games as something people play, but to a designer, a game is also a way to interact with the player. We are thinking about what the player will do and what will happen as a consequence of his actions. We have some idea what we want the player to experience, so we create rules, puzzles, scenarios, environments, characters, and all the elements that make up a game, just so we can influence the player to engage in the game and to have fun.
Getting players to understand the game they are playing and to do the things we want them to do often involves giving them clues or in some way alerting them to what is going on in the game. This is what we think of as communication with the player. Not all games have exactly the same types of interactions, but most games, in one way or another, have ways to communicate information to the people playing them, and it is the designer who determines how to accomplish that communication.
This chapter, then, is dedicated to exploring the ways we let the player know what is going on in the game.
In this chapter:
In any medium of entertainment, part of the job is to convey information in more than one way. Movies commonly use dialog and actors, visual elements (such as lighting, close-ups or panoramic shots, point-of-view shots, filters, and more), sounds, music, and action to communicate meaning, emotion, anticipation, and much more to the viewer. In games, there are also many ways to communicate with the player. In this chapter, I take a look at several ways to communicate with game players:
Clues and Information. This is probably the biggest piece of the communications puzzle in games. It is always necessary to be sure that the player has enough information to continue with the game and to enjoy the experience.
Rules. Rules are part of the information a player needs to play a game, but they are a specific type of information—the core framework that determines how a player interacts with the game.
Story Elements. In addition to the clues and information needed to complete the gameplay aspect of a game, many games also rely on an unfolding story to enhance the more puzzle-oriented nature of gameplay or the more hack/slash elements. In any case, the story aspect of a game is not very different from stories in other media, such as literature and movies.
Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing of coming events isn’t used in all games, but in some games it is a key element in establishing curiosity and/or tension in the player, plus that great sense of “I knew it!” that occurs when the player has caught the subtle hints and figured something out. (Of course, this can also be used in misdirecting the player; see also “Misdirection: Ways to Mislead the Player” later in this chapter.)
Atmosphere. For a game to be truly immersive, it needs to establish its own unique reality. This can be done in simple ways by the basic game mechanics. For instance, Pac-Man sucked players into its world with a simple maze, a few simple rules, and a catchy toon...er, tune. On the other hand, many games made in 3D today go to great lengths to create a compelling and realistic atmosphere through the use of sound, graphics, and interactivity within the environment.
Emotion. Games can trigger all kinds of emotions, from excitement to fear and from frustration to sadness. Although games don’t rely on emotion to the extent that movies and other media do, all games involve our emotions in one way or another, and some games are designed to provoke emotional responses (other than frustration).
Misdirection: Ways to Mislead the Player. Yes, some communication from the designer (or other players or, indirectly, from the NPCs) to the player can be intentionally misleading. Why? And how?
Games are full of information. Some of it is provided through dialog, while much of it is simply in the environment or even in the music that is being played. This section explores various ways that clues and information are conveyed in games.
Clues and information are basic elements of any game. They take many forms, to be sure, but there is always something to let you know how you’re doing, what you need to be doing, or, in some cases, what you have just done. This list contains a few ideas. What ways can you think of to communicate information or clues to the player?
Dialog. Having someone say it (including the player character talking to himself or to someone else).
Chat. Chatting with other players (in a multiplayer game).
Sound. A change in music or a new sound effect can also alert the player.
Force Feedback. Some controllers offer such feedback and can also be used to give the player clues or information.
Secondary Display. Such as the Dreamcast’s VMU, using the GBA with the GameCube, or the Nintendo DS with two screens.
Props. Having the clue or information conveyed through something written (book, scroll, poster, carving, computer screen, tattoo on someone’s body, and so on). Clues can also be conveyed by pictures, signs in the environment, recognizable features and textures, and any number of different types of objects. For instance, a safe set in a wall behind a picture is probably a clue that there’s something valuable inside.
Action. Information may be conveyed by showing some action—for instance, two people fighting. These actions can be part of the gameplay, or they could be displayed in the form of cut-scene movies. The action may or may not include dialog that further conveys information.
Experimentation and Consequences. A lot of game information is learned by trying things and figuring out whether the result was desirable. Good games offer opportunities for players to experiment and discover the best way to operate in different circumstances. Some games provide additional clues when the player is obviously having trouble or going the wrong way. These clues can take any form, from direct feedback to the player to visual effects or even the appearance of some sort of “helper” being.
Heads-Up Display (HUD). General onscreen information, including:
Character Status. One important type of information has to do with the player’s current status. This could include health (HP), available energy (in the form of spell points, bullets, energy charge, and so on), current weapon, facing direction (compass), and much, much more.
Enemy Status. In some games, being able to convey specific information about an enemy is important, and there are various ways to do so.
Maps or Radar. Various means of knowing where you are and what is around you, particularly enemies, friends, group members, and significant landmarks or goal locations.
Text Pop-Up. Something to give you information about a change in game state.
Visual Cues. When a player takes damage, the screen flashes red. An arrow directs you to where your objectives are, an icon blinks on and off or gets a glow effect to call attention to it, the next piece in a puzzle is displayed before being dropped, a bush seems to rustle from an unseen wind to let you know that there’s a secret path off to the right, and so on.
Camera Sweeps. Another sort of visual clue is sometimes given as the player enters a new area and the game camera sweeps around the new area, briefly revealing items, characters, and other specifics of the area. After the sweep, the camera returns to the normal player’s view (usually first- or third-person), and the player can now explore the area. If he was paying good attention, he knows approximately how to get to the items and locations in the area or where enemies are lurking, thanks to the sweep.
Inventory. A special case of game data is inventory—what is the character carrying, and what is equipped and what is not?
The Environment. The entire setting can change from night to day or season to season, informing the player that something has happened. And of course the basic setting tells a lot. Is it a barren snowscape, an idyllic forest glade, a roaring volcanic inferno, a sleepy village, a village burnt to the ground, or a diseased-looking swamp? Is it windy and stormy, balmy and bright, nighttime, foggy or misty, hot and humid? (How would you depict hot and humid? Think about what would tell the player that the environment was hot and humid, such as sweating NPCs, buzzing flies and/or mosquitoes, people dressed in loose, thin clothing and carrying fans to cool themselves, and so on.)
Other Game Data. Sometimes players need information that is always available, and there are lots of ways to create elements within a game that accomplish this. Common ways include journals, mission description pages, and maps of various kinds. Sometimes the data is presented in the form of an item consistent with the game universe (such as a journal), but other times it is simply a dialog box or screen that the player can access to get a status report, perhaps using a menu system or a special button. Another type of data is an indicator system, such as a marker over the head of a specific character or a marker on a map, or perhaps a specific shading, blinking, or coloring of an active versus an inactive character, item, location, and so on.
Just to keep things interesting, here are a few specific examples of clues and information we’ve seen in games. This list could be a lot longer, but we’ve left you some room to think and add your own ideas.
The player’s character turns and looks in the direction of items of interest. Although this is very common in third-person games today, I first saw it in LucasArts’ Grim Fandango.
Discover a letter on a desk.
Read it in a newspaper, in a book, or on a slip of paper hidden in a book. Or find a note written on someone’s hand (the person may be dead or alive) or on a scrap of paper found in the pocket of a coat.
Hear it on radio/television, on a news report, as gossip, from a talking aardvark, psychically from your cat, or in a cartoon.
Hear a clue as a general announcement over a loudspeaker.
Get a clue while visiting a psychic (or having a psychic vision).
See it in a dream.
Get a clue by some remote sensor, such as a security camera.
Get information out of a captive, prisoner, or other enemy (by whatever means necessary).
Read it in a letter, telegram, email, or fax.
Read it on a computer screen or a handheld digital gadget.
Find out by telephone, walkie-talkie, or intercom.
Learn something by listening in on a phone tap.
Hear it using high-tech surveillance equipment, such as one of those laser microphones that bounces a laser off a window and, via the vibrations of the window, can allow you to hear the speech of the people inside. Or via an infrared night scope or using a bionic ear...
Show an icon somewhere on the screen to represent the player’s status (health, energy, other effects).
Use visuals to indicate something significant, such as a locked door, an open window, or perhaps a suspicious torch on the wall. This can often occur during a camera sweep (as discussed in the previous section).
Use visuals to show events that are happening elsewhere (or nearby) that affect the player’s current situation, such as someone about to shut off the power to the building or someone placing a bomb in a nearby location. This might be observed from close by, through a window or skylight, or even on a remote viewing apparatus, such as a security monitor (as mentioned earlier).
Use visuals or scenes to reveal something hidden, such as having a bird land on a mine and detonate it, revealing a minefield.
Give the player multiple instructions and have them repeat them “aloud” when required.
Use obscure but decipherable pictographs and glyphs to indicate functions of an unfamiliar machine or to mark different areas of a landscape, dungeon, building, and so on.
Put in a sign, such as a street sign or road sign (or graffiti), that points the way or offers some useful description.
Have an airplane write a message in the sky.
Overhear a conversation or witness a scene.
Hear a conversation or other sound clue through an open conduit, vent, window, or half-open doorway, and so on.
Listen through a wall (perhaps with some amplifying aid—glass, stethoscope, snoop device, etc.).
Plant bugs in an area and listen in.
Overcome an enemy and find a clue among his belongings.
Have the player’s character talk to himself.
Another character simply states the information or calls it out or tells it to someone else.
Cut to someone else saying what the player needs to know.
Cut to another scene that shows what’s going on from a POV other than the player’s.
Give multiple instructions to the player at once, then have the player vocally recall them when required.
Cut to someone reading important information from a document or screen, then zoom in to let us read the same thing.
Reveal the best path. So if you want to tell the player there are landmines around, have a bird land on one or find the body of someone that triggered one. Keep the central path more worn.
See something through a medium or psychic.
Beat the message out of someone.
Smash the player’s way into an area, then have their vehicle/transport block your exit. Message to the player is “Play here!”
Message is “in” some pill or drug, which the player takes.
Use a street sign indicating an upcoming turn or a street name.
Measurements of certain tunnels/structures/chambers are a message. Okay, this is a bit obscure, but perhaps with other clues, you might learn that a specific chamber in a cave was carved to specific dimensions, and if you pace them off, you’ll discover a code or other clue. Or, perhaps you’ll discover the exact placement of a mirror that will reflect the sunlight onto a specific spot to reveal a long-lost treasure, but only on the first sunrise of the Spring Equinox. Something like that.
The message could be “coded” in the seemingly banal speech of an ally or messenger who “seems” to be saying nothing at all to the player. The player was given the coding system earlier or has been led to discover it.
The player finds a seemingly unimportant object—a cereal box, a matchbook, a children’s book—and the message is there, in a coded or unencoded form.
A bad guy is given a truth serum and confesses information.
A talking parrot has been trained to say the message to the player—or the player trains the parrot to deliver a message.
The message is delivered by a domesticated animal—perhaps attached to the collar of a dog or via a homing pigeon.
A crazy person comes up on the street and talks to the player, but is actually conveying a message in coded form. The player was given the coding system earlier or has been led to discover it.
Just like “African talking drums,” the coded message is embedded in sounds (the pattern of church bells, the drums of a jazz band) or sights (the spacing or color of lights on a distant hill). The player was given the coding system earlier or has been led to discover it.
The player had a message “implanted” in him by various means, such as posthypnotic suggestion, and “remembers” (perhaps hearing the voice of the person who implanted it there) when a certain event occurs.
The message is in a tattoo on the body of another player.
The message is in the song of a cabaret singer the player hears. Or it’s delivered by the paperboy, the bank teller, or someone the player has contact with. It can be in coded or unencoded form.
The player does “remote viewing,” leaves his body, and sees the information he needs to see.
The message is in a crossword puzzle or some other seemingly innocuous puzzle recreation. Spell it out in a bowl of alphabet soup, on a Ouija board, in a game of Scrabble....
Have a godlike entity who “speaks” to the player for reasons known only to it. (See also “Misdirection: Ways to Mislead the Player” later in this chapter.)
Force the player into making a difficult choice, such as killing an innocent creature or person, and have the message be delivered as a consequence (within the corpse or from someone who mourns the creature or someone who is grateful it was killed).
Have the message arrive in the mail (sent by someone else, the player in the past, a mysterious person, a friend, and so on). Or even more convoluted, have a key to a lockbox enclosed in the letter. Inside the lockbox, once the player finds it, is a clue.
Hear voices nearby or someone calling for help.
Show a cut-scene movie that conveys the information.
Use attractors, such as a sight or sound that catches the attention and clues the player in that something is there. Anything graphic or audible that is unusual or out of place will generally inspire curiosity. For instance, have a rock move as the player approaches or a branch shaking on a tree or bush, a glint of light off a surface, a ripple in a pond, the sound of a splash or an explosion, or an eerie alien moaning that gets louder as you approach, and so on. Show something mysterious, such as blood leaking down a wall, moving shadows, a foot stepping into view, or something tumbling over. Players know from experience that programmers and designers will rarely put in unique animation effects for no reason.
Another type of attractor is the pick-up object, which often is used to indicate that the player is going the right way. Also, the absence of pick-up objects can be an indication that a) this isn’t a fruitful path or b) the player has already been here and collected the items normally found in this environment.
Enemy units often serve as clues because they are most often present on the path the player is intended to use or near significant locations. Often, the presence of a higher-level type of enemy indicates that the player is close to an important location or resource.
Play the sound of footsteps, a rock falling into water, an unusual bird call, or a wildcat growling, and so on. Use sounds to indicate the presence of something unusual or the occurrence of a significant event (such as leveling up, gaining an ability, picking up a magical item, and so on), and use volume or spatial positioning (with surround or 3D sound) to indicate location and distance from the player’s position.
Play the battle music whenever an enemy is nearby.
Display a tickertape message on the screen.
Put a locked door among many unlocked ones. This generally motivates the player to find a way to open it.
Use unusual textures on objects such as walls, floors, ceilings, and terrain to indicate a special element, such as a false wall, a thin spot to break through, a climbable surface, and so on.
Have an NPC in the party offer information at various times as you travel.
Show alert graphics on a radar or inset map, such as a blinking light or starburst effect.
Use color coding to indicate different types of enemies.
Use color coding to indicate different types of objects (such as magical, unique, set pieces, and so on).
Use consistent enemy body styles and variations to indicate the relative danger level of enemies.
Use information screens when examining NPCs and objects in the environment to provide a variety of information to the player.
Use overhead labels to indicate character and NPC names.
Use thought bubbles.
Leave a roll of film or camera around and have the player develop it.
Show some person or creature hurrying off in some direction that you want the player to follow...like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.
Hit the player over the head with something.
Set traps along the important path. Traps often mean that something important is up ahead.
Put more monsters/enemies along the most important path or around something of value.
Put up barriers to help direct the player.
If there is a puzzle that requires a specific object to solve it, put the object nearby or put something that would remind the player of the necessary object.
Use character mannerisms to indicate something about the character—such as shifty eyes for someone untrustworthy or playing with a knife for someone dangerous.
A dying character gives critical information as he confesses to his priest.
Someone reveals important information while on truth serum (or some other drug that reduces his inhibitions—perhaps even alcohol).
The message is hidden in some electronic storage medium, such as a DVD, CD, or cassette tape, or a non-electronic medium, such as microfilm or a nano storage medium.
Rules are the core element of how a game is played, and they include the various key and button combinations used in the game. However, in addition to keys and buttons, a game may have rules associated with the specific world it’s set in. For instance, as in the rock/paper/scissors game, there are rules that govern the interactions of the three elements, with rock defeating scissors, scissors defeating paper, and paper defeating rock. The underlying rules of a game must be communicated to a player somehow, even if it is only by intuition and trial and error. The following list shows various ways in which the different types of rules for a game are conveyed to the player:
Manuals
In-game help
Pop-up screens
Training levels
Trial and error (with reliable consequences to choices the player makes)
In-game NPC guide
Talking to other players (multiplayer games)
In-game audio
A scripted demonstration of how to do something (a ghost player or a cut scene)
Iconic representations (such as an X over something in a store that a player can’t use and therefore shouldn’t purchase)
Progressing a story can be accomplished by using the basic elements of good plot development, such as:
NPC dialog
Quests or mission instructions
Given by objects (random mission generator)
GUI
From NPCs
Cut scenes or cinematics
Scripted in-game events (Half-Life 2)
General game action
Audio in music or in speech
Reading in-game items (scrolls, books, etc.) to advance the storyline
Visual highlighting
From the environment
Character arcs
Foreshadowing (see the “Foreshadowing” section below)
For more story-related elements, see also Chapter 5, “Game POV and Game Genres,” Chapter 9, “Storytelling Techniques,” and Chapter 12, “Character Design.”
Another way that information is given to a player is through foreshadowing of coming events or dangers ahead. Foreshadowing is used in storytelling to make a subtle suggestion about something that is going to happen in the future, not generally something that is going to happen immediately. Foreshadowing sets ideas into the player’s head so that later, as the plot unfolds, everything seems to make sense. For instance, seeing one enemy may be an indication of more enemies nearby, but it’s a weak form of foreshadowing coming events. On the other hand, a black raven flying through a scene might foreshadow a death. Add on a dark background musical chord, and you have a sure message to the player that something sinister is going on. Examples of foreshadowing in games may be subtle or not so subtle:
People often make innocent-sounding statements, but within them is something that foreshadows the future. For instance, an old farmer might say, “I reckon it’s been a bit hot this past summer. Unseasonable, it is....” What he may be foreshadowing is that some evil dude is messing with the weather, a great cataclysm is about to happen, or it is the early signs of global warming.
An NPC or item reveals a myth or prophecy (or part of one), then the details of the myth or prophecy begin to come true as the player explores the game.
The game might show a glimpse of a mysterious person or event without explaining it. The image might be repeated a few times during the game.
The main character might dream or have a vision of something prophetic.
Cut scenes can be used to foreshadow what’s coming up, though this can take the form of very obvious exposition or of subtle clues. The subtle method is more like foreshadowing than the obvious exposition. For instance, to show what someone else is doing elsewhere in the story is not foreshadowing. But to show a bank of clouds swirling and growing into a great storm front could be foreshadowing some wild weather in the player’s future.
In another context, a change in sound or music can foreshadow something about to happen. This is often done by creating a low, subsonic undertone when approaching a dangerous situation or place or by using high string sounds or other tension-inducing music. This is one of the most commonly used types of foreshadowing in films.
Another type of foreshadowing is changing the perspective of the camera to be in the first person of a watcher, which is generally a sinister sort of effect but less useful in games.
Atmosphere is what I call those touches of detail that make a game or a game’s world real and absorbing. Creating atmosphere is another way both to communicate with a player and to immerse the player more fully into the experience—although as a communication method it is more subtle than the normal clues and information used to further the game and plot. Still, atmosphere can convey a lot of useful information to the player while making the surroundings seem more real and complete. Think how you might use these atmospheric effects.
Note
This section deals specifically with the ways that elements of a game provide clues and information to the player. For more information about some of the elements in this section, see also Chapter 17, “Game Worlds” and Chapter 20, “Music and Sound.”
Sounds in games are often used simply to create ambience, but they are just as often used as clues. For instance, just the change in volume as you get nearer or farther from a location is a clue. Sometimes you hear a voice in the distance, before you blunder into a scene that would get you into trouble. Or you hear the distant sound of a machine, which is a clue that you are getting close to your goal. You might have a talisman (as in The Witcher) that vibrates and creates a specific sound when enemies are nearby. In the following list, think how each of these items might be used as a clue to the player. What situations would you create to use them? (For more on sounds in games, see Chapter 20, “Music and Sound.”)
Birds singing
Water running
Water dripping
Water splashing
Water roaring
Animals roaring
Strange alien sound effects
Low subsonic tones
High, almost ultrasonic sounds
Rumbling
Creaking (as in doors with rusty hinges or twisting metal)
Crashes in the distance or nearby
Machinery running in the distance or nearby
Wind whistling
A person whistling
Repetitive sounds, such as chopping wood or an animal calling
Rhythmic sounds, such as a clanking machine, a helicopter’s blades, dripping water, waves on the seashore, a repetitive and rhythmic bird call, and so on
Sudden musical chords (without any regular music)
Interactivity with the environment, making it come alive
Music is often used to affect a player’s emotions, to make the scene feel ominous or light-hearted, sad and gloomy, or romantic. Here are a few ideas for how to use music as a way of communicating with the player. For more on music in games, see Chapter 20, “Music and Sound.”
Signaling a shift from peace to battle mode
Creepy music to enhance tension and anticipation
Sad music to enhance emotional response
Heroic music
Crescendos, which can be used to heighten excitement or to surprise a player
Themes that signal the entrance of a hero, heroine, or villain
Exciting music to accompany a chase
General background music used to set a basic theme within a game (such as in Super Mario Bros. or Pac-Man, for instance)
Like music, light effects can affect mood and help set a scene in various ways, such as:
Dark and oppressive, as on a stormy day
Even darker and more oppressive, as in a dungeon
Mostly dark with only a little circle or cone of light, to enhance the sense of danger and vulnerability
Bright and sunny, as in a meadow on a spring day
Too bright, as in a desert
Fiery glowing red, as in a lava pit or the den of a fire creature
Sunset or sunrise to create a romantic or visually appealing atmosphere
Underwater, murky—to set a feeling of danger
Remarkable colors, out of the ordinary, to establish an alien atmosphere
Bright colors to set a cheery atmosphere
See also Chapter 17, “Game Worlds”—specifically, the “Lighting” section.
The features of a world also affect both the player’s mood and, to some extent, the gameplay options appropriate to the scene. For instance, desolate regions may be more depressing overall, whereas lush jungles may seem intriguing and a little dangerous. A sleepy country village may seem peaceful and relatively safe, whereas an inner-city ghetto may be loaded with dangers. Flowers may soothe the mind, while a hospital full of sick people (or zombies) may evoke less soothing feelings. Ruins may spark the imagination—are there treasures to be found or mysteries to be solved? Examples of natural terrains include:
Forests
Dark and menacing
Light and inviting
Dense
Sparse
Jungle
Water
Rivers
Streams/creeks/babbling brooks
Lakes
Oceans
Ponds
Swamps
Hills
Grassy
Forested
Rocky
Pathless or pathed
Special features, such a flat top, craters or caves, etc.
Mountains (passable or impassable)
High and steep
Snowcapped
Pathed or pathless
Caves and crevasses
Loose stones
Danger of avalanche
Changeable weather and conditions
Ice/snow fields
Glaring light
Thin ice
Moguls
Treacherous crevasses
Deep snow
Dangerous footing
Meadows
Deserts
Oases
Sandstorms
Dunes
Rock formations
Sagebrush and other dry shrubbery
Underground
Mine
Lair
Cave-in (trapped)
Dripping and dank
Dry and hot
Lava
Dark
Well lit
Civilization/city
Warren (crowded)
Urban settings of various sizes affect a game in many ways, such as by providing opportunities for shopping, rest, and NPC interactions. Each type of town setting can appear in various different guises. Note that larger cities can also have specific regions, “hoods,” or districts, such as financial districts, shopping areas, ghettos, wharves, and so on. In smaller towns, such as towns and villages, it is not as common for areas to be as distinctly defined.
City character
Ancient (historical)
Fantasy
Rustic
Modern
Gothic
Futuristic
City sizes
Way station
Small village
Small town
Big city
Metropolis
Views are generally panoramic moments, often encountered suddenly and unexpectedly, that can be used as rewards, such as:
A spectacular valley seen from the top of a mountain pass
A mountain seen in the distance through a light haze, with the sun rising behind it
An erupting volcano
A green expanse of rolling hills dotted with wildflowers
A deep chasm
A colorful and dramatic underground chamber
Lightning flashing over the landscape
The view of a forest from the top of a tree
A city at night as seen from the rooftops
A huge gas planet suddenly coming into view as your ship (or planet) rotates to face it
A dramatic waterfall
A windswept desert landscape
Coming over a rise and seeing a city spread out in a valley below
Discovering a river delta and viewing it from above
Weather effects are most often used cosmetically in games, meaning that when it rains or there’s wind in the game, it doesn’t really affect the player character’s abilities or the plot. However, even if the player’s character is seemingly unaffected, the atmosphere feels different, and in some cases visibility is affected. Of course, weather can be used as clues. An impending storm may signify the arrival of an evil force. A moving cloud might be hiding a UFO. A heavy wind might allow the player to fly a kite or even fly on the breezes, go sailing (or batten the hatches), throw something into the wind so that it lands in another place, and so forth. Look at weather effects as ways to bring a sense of realism and life to your games, but also as opportunities to create new kinds of interactions, puzzles, and special gameplay moments.
Other living creatures can add a lot to the atmosphere of a game. For instance, walking through a forest and seeing little fawns and bunnies creates one sort of image. Seeing slithering creatures and strange beasts with sharp teeth would probably convey a different image. The range of creatures is limitless. Once you have exhausted the ones we know about, you can start making up your own.
Note that these creatures are often just part of the scenery, meaning that you can’t interact with them directly. However, in other cases they also play direct roles in the game; for instance, as something to hunt, something to endanger the player, or something to provide collectible objects (such as skins, horns, or other parts used for trade or in the preparation of items in the game).
Dungeons are a very specific part of many games, especially first-person and third-person adventures, Role-Playing Games, and shooters. As such, they have their own lexicon of atmospheric imagery, such as:
Dark tunnels
Bright tunnels
Rock-face walls
Brick-face walls
Walls with carvings
Archways
Smooth walls
Uneven terrain (sometimes requiring climbing and jumping)
Vault-like doors
Dilapidated wooden doors
Invisible or secret doors and entrances
Ledges
Caverns
Natural
Made by sentient beings (human or otherwise)
Mysterious altars
Dark pits
Lava pits
Water
Flowing
Pond/lake
Waterfall
Stagnant
Murky
Clear
Inhabited by creatures
Can be fished?
Player can swim?
Slippery slides
Traps
Falling rocks
Breaking foundations
Various manmade traps
Unstable cliffs
Dangerous creatures or plants
Flash floods
Flowing lava
Unstable handholds or footholds while climbing
See also Chapter 26, “Traps and Counter Traps.”
Game designers have total control over the game world’s reality, and there are quite a few less common ways to change the atmosphere and often the gameplay opportunities as well. After reading the most common ways, think of some new ones, such as:
Psychedelic graphics in a scene
Distortion of vision (perhaps the character is drunk or drugged)
Going to black (a light went out or the character is temporarily blind)
Having everything in black and white or other monochrome technique to indicate a dream sequence, memory sequence, or some other change in the character’s perceptive state
Changing size—making the character very small or very large
Changing form—from a man to a cockroach, for instance
Putting everything upside down or sideways
Changing colors around to something unnatural and weird
Deformation of any character or object in the world.
Changing from realism to cartoon shading (Cel shading)
Game developers use the principles of physics all the time in today’s games. The handling of a car, the friction of your tires, the rate at which something drops, how an object deforms when struck, the trajectory of an artillery shell—these are all calculated by using physics. However, you can also use physics more directly, as challenges to your players. Give them puzzles that require them to figure out physical laws, such as the displacement of water (which was used in Half-Life 2) or the refraction of light into different colors. Play with gravity. What if your characters started a journey on Earth but visited several planets, all of different sizes and masses? How would the changing force of gravity affect them and the way the game plays?
Give a little thought to different laws of physics, and you can probably come up with some interesting puzzles for your games.
Emotional response in games is also covered in Chapter 9, “Storytelling Techniques.” This section describes some other ways to use emotion to affect the player’s experience.
Emotion is one aspect of a game that can make it unforgettable. If you can cause the player to feel some emotions while playing, whether it is fear, surprise, excitement, sadness, joy and laughter, or any other memorable feeling, you will have enhanced that player’s experience. One way to cause or strengthen emotional responses is through the use of music and sound, which is listed under “Atmosphere” earlier in this chapter and dealt with in some detail in Chapter 20, “Music and Sound.” Lighting effects can also affect emotions, as listed earlier in this chapter. But there are other ways to elicit emotions from players, including:
Moral Dilemmas. Put the player in a position of making a tough choice.
Untimely Death. Cause a beloved character and/or a protector to die (such as Gandalf in the Mines of Moria).
Hopeless. Put the character in a seemingly hopeless situation. If he loses, he feels sad. If he wins, he feels elated.
Creepy. Put the character in an increasingly dangerous or creepy situation to cause him to get nervous. Reinforce it with music and throw more challenges at him. The more tense and threatening the situation, the better—such as in Resident Evil, when enemies might spring at you at any time, and you are constantly anticipating their appearance.
Surprise! Use surprise to scare or amuse the player. This can be combined with sounds/music and atmosphere to create a really unexpected event. The key to surprise is that it must be something quite unanticipated. If you repeat the same trick more than once, the surprise is lost.
Funny. Use humor—carefully—to provide comic relief. (For more on humor, see “Creating Comedy” in Chapter 9, “Storytelling Techniques.”)
Outrageous. Let the bad guys get away with a lot of bad actions, causing the player to become angry and morally outraged. Let the bad actions be really bad.... Let the bad guys’ final comeuppance take a long time to come up.
Losing Someone Good. Have a really powerful, useful character decide to leave the party and either go his own way or even join the other side.
Betrayal. Have someone who the player trusts betray him.
Tragedy. Create tragic events, such as having a madman blocking a bridge. One of your party steps up and fights him. She dies, but then the madman realizes that he has killed his own daughter and collapses in remorse. (This is something that happened in the original Phantasy Star on the Sega Genesis—a memorable moment. Not only was this a surprising plot turn and somewhat tragic, but it also caused you to lose a really good party member on whom you had come to rely.)
Turn Things Around. Cause the player’s perceptions of reality to shift. For instance, have the player fighting a sinister race of creatures, then have it turn out that they are really righteous beings defending themselves against the real bad guys—who you thought were your friends! (This was done by Richard Garriott between Ultimas V and VII with the gargoyle race.)
A Glimpse of What’s to Come. Let the player see or suspect a trap or impending battle. Perhaps you give the player a glimpse of a rifle barrel peeking out from behind a barrier. Build the anticipation. (This is similar to foreshadowing.)
The Hunted. Strip your main character of weapons, abilities, or other elements that make him effective, then turn the character into the bad guys’ prey.
Sweetness. Have someone (a potential love interest, perhaps) do something really nice.
Sex. Create a really sexy character for the young boys (or girls...or anyone, for that matter) who play the game to get excited over.
Personalization. Let players assign personal traits, such as names, looks, custom items, and so on to the characters. The more they invest in making the character their own, the more they’ll identify with that character and react emotionally to the game situations. (For more on this, see Chapter 12, “Character Design.”)
Challenge. Make the game hard enough to be a challenge, but not so hard that most players can’t find a way to succeed. There’s nothing like mastering a good challenge to fill a player with pride and a satisfying sense of accomplishment.
Other emotions to play with include:
Embarrassment
Accomplishment
Caution/wariness
Suspense (see also “Making Things Scary” in Chapter 9, “Storytelling Techniques”)
To ensure that games do not become stale and predictable, game designers must always work to provide fresh experiences for players. One way to do so is to borrow from mystery stories and fool the player in various ways—what we call misdirection. However, in interactive media, there are ways to mislead and misdirect that aren’t available in linear media, such as books, plays, and movies. Some of the tricks you can play on players can be quite nasty and mean. It may be advisable when using some of these tricks to make sure the player knows you are messing with him and that it is consistent in some way with the overall game design and purpose. Humor is one good way to do this. If you can do something really tricky and strange to mislead the player, but the result is funny rather than tragic, the player will be more likely to forgive you. The other way is to be sure that what you have done enhances the gameplay and is somehow consistent with what players have a right to expect. For instance, using some very complex story-level misdirection would be perfectly acceptable in a game such as Deus Ex, but perhaps not so acceptable in Doom 3, where some other kind of misdirection might work better.
Here are several ways to mislead or misdirect the player in games:
Play with Clichés. Games over the years have created their own clichés, such that players have become accustomed to certain cause-and-effect relationships. (See also Chapter 22, “Game Conventions and Cliches.”) By recognizing clichés and anticipating a player’s response, you can mislead the player into predictable actions, with unpredictable results.
Foreshadow Falsely. Foreshadowing is used not only in some games, but throughout literature, theater, and movies. We have become accustomed to such techniques as playing ominous music as a hero approaches a dangerous situation or having seemingly innocent or offhand statements turn out to be far truer than they seemed at the time. However, using these same techniques, you can mislead the player into expecting some event that either never happens or that happens quite differently from what is expected. For instance, playing an ominous theme can create the expectation of danger, and the player will be in a highly anticipatory mode. But then having something harmless jump onto the screen, such as a frog or a rabbit, can keep the player wondering...or laughing. Having the seemingly wise old villager predict the coming of a monster, only to have it never come to pass, would also create a misleading sense of impending danger or doom since often in stories it is just such a bit player who provides the foreshadowing of the plot.
The Truth Changes Everything. Let the player draw his own false conclusions about a situation, based on carefully laid clues and misleading but convincing evidence. Or downright lie to the player and have him get all worked up over some quest, task, or earthshaking event. Then, after the player has gone to considerable trouble to resolve the situation, have the whole story shift as he learns a significant bit of information he didn’t have before. This can be a frustrating device, but it can also make a game far more interesting if the player can be convinced that the false assumption was justified and the new information clarifies the situation far better or makes the game even more interesting by presenting new challenges and rewards. But it is important that the player not feel his time was wasted. The effort of following the false goal should have had some beneficial results—more experience, better equipment, more money, new clues or contacts, a new party member, some secrets revealed or uncovered, and so on.
False Appearances. Make something that looks innocent actually be dangerous. An old, toothless grandma could be a wicked shot with a derringer or even a tommy gun. An ordinary-looking chest of drawers could be the casing for a devastating bomb. A gerbil could be the wisest creature in the universe. It’s unlikely, but anything is possible in a game. Another kind of false appearance is the false wall that opens to a secret passage or chamber, or another ordinary item or element of the environment that actually is something out of the ordinary.
The Trusted Advisor. Here’s a really nasty one. Have someone—either an NPC or even a godlike disembodied voice—consistently give the player accurate and timely warnings about upcoming danger or useful advice on how to complete his quest, always seeming to be a far-seeing friend. Imagine Gandalf. Now, unbeknownst to the player, this person is actually a devious fiend who has systematically gained the player’s trust in order to betray him at the most crucial moment. And even then, this “advisor” may be able to claim a simple error—an honest mistake—and keep the player’s trust a little longer.
Bigger Isn’t Always Better. Most players expect that a bigger enemy is a stronger one or a bigger weapon is more powerful than a small one. Without giving a lot of explanation, simply make some enemies tiny and extremely dangerous. Make some small weapons that pack a wallop. Make a smaller gemstone that is worth far more than a more garish large one. Make a huge hammer do minimal damage. And so forth.
Play with Color. There are many expectations with regard to color—for instance, red means stop, danger, fire. Blue means water, cool, soothing, and mana in many games. Green can mean healing, but it can also mean poison, nature, and so on. To mislead a player, use colors differently from the expected way. Make blue things hot and red things cool, for instance. But do so for some specific reason or effect. There should be a payoff or logical consistency within the game to justify such differences. Just deciding to create a game where blue means hot and red means cool makes no sense and is simply irritating. But, suppose the player must choose between two unknown alternatives, and it turns out that the colors represent something other than what the player expects. And suppose that there is a malevolent force that has presented this challenge to the player. Now it makes sense why the player’s assumptions were wrong.
It Costs What? Usually in games, if you have to pay more for something, it’s better. Occasionally throw in some stealth item that is especially valuable but appears ordinary on the outside and does not command a very high price. If this is done randomly or occasionally, it could be used to fool players and have them testing every item to be sure they don’t miss something good.
Distraction and Misdirection. Like a good magician, you can create situations in which players’ attention is drawn to something while you spring a trap from another direction. For instance, put a sign for them to read or some writing on a wall, then ambush them while they are reading it. Or put a gun in the middle of a room. Most players will go after the gun, but it could be a trap—even a bomb. The concept is to get the player to do something predictable and then punish him for it—or at least present an unexpected challenge or result. Other examples involve movement, which always draws a player’s attention and can distract him from something more dangerous that doesn’t move, such as a trapdoor. Or, have the sounds of battle coming from over a hill. The player goes to investigate and finds no battle, only a speaker. The enemy then descends on the player from behind. Some of these types of misdirection can also be used by players against other players, if the tools are available for them to do so.
Decoys. Like distraction and misdirection, decoys can be used to make a player focus on something and not notice or understand what’s really going on. This can be used by NPCs and directly by designers, or it can be used as a strategy by players against other players. For instance, sending a small force within sight of an enemy army might cause that army to change its direction—either preserving a location that is in danger or leading the army into a trap.
Use Repetition to Spring a Trap. In many games players must perform highly repetitive acts, so they begin to follow patterns of behavior and action. Use the repetitive nature of gameplay to throw a curveball or change-up at some point in the game. A great example was Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner’s first game, Karateka. In Karateka, you played a young adventurer out to save the princess. The game was linear, and you ran from room to room and fought against enemies of increasing strength. By the end of the game, running into the next screen, fighting, and running again was completely ingrained behavior. When you reached the room where the princess was held captive, you naturally rushed up to save her, only to receive a sharp kick to the head that took you out in one blow! As a player, you were conditioned to certain actions and fell into Mechner’s trap. But there was a defensible logic to it. If you walked politely up to the princess, you won and saved her. It was running toward her that rewarded you with the kick in the head. This makes the trap far better because it isn’t entirely arbitrary. Some players might have been annoyed by having to go back to the beginning of the game, but I thought it was hilarious.
Cheap Tricks. There are some nasty tricks you can play that mess with the player in various ways. For instance, you can put random teleporters in places—this is especially effective in mazes and dungeons. Likewise, you can put spinners that change the direction players are facing without their realizing it—which is especially effective if a) there is no compass to orient them, and b) the view in each direction is the same.
Doppelgangers. Another way to mislead players is to present a character who is known to the player, but have it be that character’s double or impersonator. Let the player figure out that he is no longer dealing with someone familiar, but with an enemy in disguise.
Time Pressures. One all-too-common cliché in games is to urge the player to complete a task or set of tasks “before it’s too late.” The truth is, in many games this time pressure is entirely fictional. The player has all the time in the world to complete the tasks. It’s a sequence of events that controls the situation—not time in a literal sense. However, this is something that can be misleading to players. Or, in a case where the player is aware of how this cliché is usually employed, you could really fool players by making the time pressure real for a change!
Change the Rules. In some games, a particular event or moving to a particular area can cause basic rules to change—such as gravity, time, colors, and other generally accepted norms. Judicious use of such shifts of the laws of physics can temporarily fool players. This won’t last long, however, because most players will quickly adapt to the changes. However, it’s also possible to create a system that changes the environment seemingly randomly or based on a consistent but obscure system. It would be up to the player, then, to discover what triggers the change and how to advance in the game despite the changes—or to put a stop to them by disabling the mechanism that causes conditions to change.
Repeated Lies Become Truth. Continually provide players with information that contradicts their senses. Keep telling them the wrong information until they believe it, even despite evidence to the contrary. You can do this by using any of the methods found earlier in this chapter.
The Soft Start. In some games the beginning is very easy, but almost immediately it becomes more difficult. For instance, in one Final Fantasy game, you began as a fully armored, advanced character. It seemed too easy...and it was. Within a short time, you had lost all your armor, your position, and everything that made you special. You were then at the real start of the game. But, for just a while, you were as strong as you could hope. This kind of technique can really piss off players if the transition is too rough. It’s not particularly popular to give bunny missions and easy gameplay, only to amplify the difficulty suddenly and without reasonable transitions. But it does fool people. Some games make the ordinary enemies and situations relatively easy but the bosses impossibly hard. Others do the opposite. Balance is important, but you can play with it sometimes to create variety.
This chapter deals with ways to communicate with the player, but what is the purpose of this communication? In essence, everything that a game designer does in a game is meant to affect the player’s experience. Clues spark curiosity and provide a sense of empowerment or satisfaction when they are obtained. Other information may bring sense to a story, and even the subtle emotional effects make the game more enjoyable. Misdirection adds to the intrigue of a game and often supplies an element of surprise, which keeps a game fresh and unpredictable. Therefore, communication with the player is meaningful, often in more than one way.
Similarly, some sorts of communication with players are used to herd or control the player’s movement and actions. It is, therefore, directive. This sort of directive action is sometimes used to lead a player toward some area of the game where important events or opportunities can be found. However, sometimes these examples are used to distract a player and cause him to stay on a path while possibly missing less obvious paths that lead to special rewards. This is often the case with Easter Eggs and side quests, where the “main” path is well marked and has many obvious enticements, while other paths are more obscure and easy to miss. In fact, the alternate paths may even be quite visible and substantial, but the player will often follow the more obviously lucrative or enticing path, ignoring the other. This is especially true in games where there are frequent enemy groups to fight, as players will tend to go from one group to the next, often passing obvious paths in the heat of battle, then forgetting that those paths existed.
Trail of Breadcrumbs. There are several ways to implement this type of herding communication—for instance, by leaving power-ups and other objects along a specific path. Another way to accomplish this is to set enemy spawn points along a specific route, which will encourage the player to go in the direction of the next enemy, since one of the many game clichés is that the more enemies you encounter in an area, the more likely it is that you’re headed toward something important or desirable. In addition, players often get caught up in battle and simply go from one enemy group to the next without pausing to notice other potential paths and features of their surroundings. In any case, the Trail of Breadcrumbs is a way to entice the player to go in a certain direction.
The Distant Attraction. In a 3D world, you can place something off in the distance that is obviously unique and interesting. Players will want to investigate this feature of the landscape, so naturally they will head in that direction.
Hit and Run. Having enemies attack and then run away is a typical way to lead someone into a trap, and it can work with players who decide to pursue the enemy when they run away. This might be to lead the player into a trap, or it might simply be a way to get them to follow a particular path.
Clues. Sometimes the player will discover clues that lead in a certain direction. These clues can be traditional information, such as something they learned from an NPC or from a book or other typical method. Or they can be clues gained by observation, such as a discarded item, a broken branch, footsteps in a muddy track, a special mark on a wall or on a rock, and so on. In any case, discovering a clue tells the player he is on the right track (or at least on some interesting track), so he will continue in the same direction.
No Clues. In circumstances where some clue or indication is expected, the lack of clues can cause uneasiness in a player, sometimes resulting in his turning back and retracing his steps. So even the lack of information can serve to control the player’s movement in appropriate cases.
Enemy Difficulty. Especially in Role-Playing Games, adventures, and persistent worlds, but also in some action games, the difficulty of a specific challenge can help control the player’s movement. For instance, in many games the enemies get more difficult as you move farther from the game’s starting point. This is a way to control the learning curve of the game and add difficulty in a logical and predictable way. It also serves to keep players within areas where they are competent and prevent them from exploring other areas until they are ready. One main purpose of this is to allow the player’s game experience to continue to expand over time and keep the illusion of freedom while actually controlling and limiting the player’s options. Another important purpose is to allow the game to expand over time, enhancing the player’s feeling of expansion and reward. Seeing the whole game at once takes away from the sense of exploration and anticipation and the overall impression of the game’s scope.
Skills. Often in adventure, Role-Playing, and action games, skills (or the lack of skills) can help determine the player’s direction or the paths available. For instance, in an action game, one path may lead to a cliff and a long jump across a chasm. Until the player has obtained the ability to jump long distances, this path will be impassable, so players will have to choose other paths. In a Role-Playing Game, it could be as simple as a situation where a door is too heavy to be opened until the player has gotten stronger (increased the STR stat).
Barriers and Obstacles. (See Chapter 25, “Barriers, Obstacles, and Detectors.”) Barriers and obstacles can also be used as elements of control to force a player along an easier or more accessible path. A lake of lava is a serious impediment to the player’s progress, particularly when a perfectly inviting path leads elsewhere. Of course, discerning and persistent players may find a way across the lake, particularly if they have reason to believe it’s passable or if they can tell there’s something (a path, object, enemy, reward, door, and so on) on the other side, but the other route will seem immediately more attractive. In another example, a tunnel may be blocked by a landslide, and the only way to get through is to find some dynamite to clear the passage. Of course, the designers can control how and when that dynamite will become available to the player.
Redirection or Relocation Traps. Another way to control a player’s movement is to place traps that force a change of direction or location. Much like the game Snakes and Ladders, an unexpected event or trap can relocate a player’s character and force him along a different path. This can be in the form of intentional traps or even natural events, such as the tornado that sent Dorothy to Oz.
Design Challenge
Take any of your favorite games and list every way that the designers have communicated with you as a player.
Where have you seen foreshadowing in games? How could you use in it your own game(s)?
Think of games where the designers have misdirected or misled you on purpose.
In each of the following locations, list at least five ways you could communicate with the player and what kind of information you would convey. Extra credit if you can come up with something not already listed in this book or if you can create an original combination of methods:
In a bar or nightclub
In a forest
On a boat
On a train
In an office building
In a prison or jail cell
On a battlefield
In a sewer or cavern
Take your own game ideas and use this chapter to come up with fresh and interesting ways to communicate with your players.