Fatespinner and the Illusion of Choice

I’m a big Hearthstone fan, and I’m excited for the digital card game’s next expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne. With every expansion comes the exhilarating and antagonizing slow drip of released and/or leaked cards. It’s difficult and even foolhardy to try and determine any given card’s full impact before every card in the set is revealed, but that doesn’t stop many people—including me—from trying. One recently released card generated quite a bit of discussion: Fatespinner.

Fatespinner features a brand new take on the common “Deathrattle” game mechanic, which means that something happens when the summoned minion dies. In Fatespinner’s case, the player secretly chooses from one of two effects: making all minions—both you and your opponent’s—stronger or dealing damage to all minions in play. At first glance, this seems to offer a fun choice for whoever plays the minion as well as an intriguing guessing game for the opposing player. Sadly, I doubt that Fatespinner will live up to its promise.

One oft-mentioned aspect of game design is the idea of “illusion of choice.” As renowned designer Sid Meier famously stated, a game is a series of interesting decisions. If a player starts to realize that their choices don’t actually matter that much, the game loses some of its sparkle. The illusion of choice might be hollow narrative decisions that don’t actually affect the story in any way. Illusion of choice can also refer to “cinematic” game moments that remove most of the control of the player, leaving only a shell of actual interactivity. But Fatespinner reminded me of one important example of illusion of choice: when one decision is always (or nearly always) the correct choice.

When the player chooses the secret Deathrattle effect for Fatespinner, the decision really only relies on the current “board state,” the number of minions each player has. If the opponent has more minions they’ll choose to damage all minions, but if the player has more minions they will choose to strengthen all minions. In turn, most opponents will realize what the “secret” is right away because the binary decision requires extremely clear information visible to both players. This card could certainly invoke attempts at bluffing, but in practice I think the downside to a lost bluff is far too great in comparison to the benefit from making the more obvious correct choice.

I might be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. Regardless, I think it’s helpful as a designer to break down any intriguing decision in a game and examine if the choice offered is illusory in nature. If it is, I like to think about how the decision could be improved. I think that the idea of a secret Deathrattle is a wonderful game mechanic to add to Hearthstone, but I’d like to see future cards present choices that aren’t so symmetrically opposed (two decisions with completely opposite effects but in the same vein of gameplay). I believe those types of choices will make the game more interesting for both the player and the opponent. It’s also something I’ll make sure to keep in mind with any binary choices presented in our game, Alkanaur. 

Indie Illuminator – 2 Utah 4 U

Cheesy title? You bet. But I hope you’ll allow a groan-worthy title in exchange for two incredible indie illuminations in this week’s post. I’ll be attending Salt Lake Gaming Con next week as a spectator and gamer, but last year Robby and I had the opportunity to show off Alkanaur as developers. We exhibited our demo alongside several other fantastic indie dev teams in Utah, all belonging to a group called the Utah Games Guild.  I’d like to highlight two games from that group of Utah-based developers, both of which are on Steam and on sale as part of Steam’s annual summer shenanigans.

Screenshot found on We Need to Go Deeper's Steam page

The first game is We Need to Go Deeper by Deli Interactive LLC. Do you like Jules Verne? Do you love odd characters in odder outfits? Do you enjoy yelling at your friends as they fail to keep your submarine from sinking? If you do, I’d take a look at We Need to Go Deeper—currently in Early Access on Steam. The gameplay features cooperative play, procedurally-generated environments for replay value, and a fun, hand-drawn art style. 2-4 players frantically run from one task to another inside a submarine, using tools to fight off monstrous sea creatures and keep the submarine from sinking. My wife and I played a round together at last year’s SLGC and had a great time. You can pick it up for $6.49 right now with the current Steam sale.

Screenshot found on Legacy of the Elder Star's Steam page

The second game is Legacy of the Elder Star by Kickbomb Entertainment LLC. I was able to speak with both Kickbomb Entertainment’s lead designer and artist at length last summer, and they taught me a lot about the local indie games scene. But that wasn’t the first time I encountered Legacy of the Elder Star. I remember walking by a demo exhibition of this game two years ago and being blown away by the fun graphics and superb sound design. Legacy of the Elder Star is a fast-paced SHMUP (Shoot ‘em up) that features a unique, elegant control scheme: everything your character does is controlled by your mouse. If that interests you, checkout their Steam page where you can buy the game on sale until July 5^th for $2.49.

Dev Take Tuesday - Wonder Woman

My wife and I went to see Wonder Woman the week it came out, and we loved the film. I immediately knew I wanted to write a Dev Take post on the movie, but I wasn’t sure about what angle I’d go with. The more I reflect on the film, the more I’m drawn to that pivotal moment when Diana climbs out of the trench and enters No Man’s Land. The filmmakers didn’t hesitate to highlight this scene in multiple ways. (Note: I’ve only seen the movie once, so I apologize in advance if I got any details wrong.)

Image found on Entertainment Weekly

First, the film waits to incorporate Wonder Woman’s forceful, electric cello musical theme—first heard in the Batman vs Superman movie—until this moment, when Diana chooses to truly become Wonder Woman. Second, the lighting and color suddenly change as Diana lifts herself into No Man’s Land. She’s still surrounded by the muted, mostly grey color palette but the color of her uniform is bright, contrasting against the darkness and “moral grey” around her. Last, the narrative choice of her entering a place literally called “No Man’s Land” emphasizes a key theme of the movie: her outsider status as both a woman and a stranger to all of mankind.

Each of those decisions probably merits its own blog post, but the takeaway I ultimately garnered from all this is to do everything I can to boost the pivotal moments in my games and my games’ narratives. I’m sure it’s possible to oversell those moments, but I think it’s much easier to undersell them. As game designers we have a lot of tools at our disposal. We utilize many of the same tools as film, but we also add player interaction and game mechanics to our toolkit. In Alkanaur and any of my future games, I plan on using all those tools to ensure a powerful emotional response to the “No Man’s Land moments” in those games.

Indie Illuminator - Longsword Tabletop Tactics

I’ve likely put more hours into Heroscape than any other board game. And one of my favorite current hobbies—apart from game dev, of course—is painting miniatures.  Longsword Tabletop Tactics incorporates elements from both! You can check out the Kickstarter campaign here.

Gameplay gif found on Longsword's Kickstarter page

While our tactics game Alkanaur shares some design roots with Heroscape, the physical “miniatures” and hex-tiled battlegrounds of Longsword absolutely invoke that feeling of picking out a team from the available units in your collection and watching the battle unfold on the table. Each player summons units or casts spells turn by turn based on their available mana, and units move, use abilities, and attack based on a flexible action point system. Based on what I’ve seen in streams, it looks like units only have a few abilities each, but those abilities vary quite a bit.

Image found on Longsword's Kickstarter Page

Developer Zero Sum Games also includes a nifty unit-painting system that gives you a chance to adjust the hues of your armies and give them a more customized feel. It seems like a fun feature that adds to the collectible nature of the game. I’m excited to follow the development of Longsword and keep tabs on its progress. If you’re interested in the game, go ahead and check out their Kickstarter page to learn more about the game’s features, monetization strategies (they want to go free-to-play), and its crowdfunding backer rewards.

Dev Take Tuesday – Obnoxious Gandhis in Civ 6

Like many gamers, my gaming backlog is so long that I’ll likely never play them all. But recently I have been able to put many hours into one game I had my eye on since its release: Civ 6. The Civilization games are all about taking one small pre-Classical Era settlement and growing in technology, culture, and resources until you’re the top civilization in our current Information Age. You play against several other civilizations, each run by the A.I. and each with their own unique advantages, disadvantages, and tendencies. If you’ve heard anything about the Civilization series, you’ve probably heard about Civ’s greatest meme: Gandhi’s tendency to nuke everyone else out of existence.

Don't let that smile fool you. (Image found on PCGamesN)

What started as a programming error became a staple for every Civ game thereafter. Gandhi eschews war for most stages of the game, but gets nuke happy once the technology is available. As I’ve been playing Civ 6, I’ve seen a different take on this long-running joke in the franchise. In Civ 6, every civilization’s leader has one constant, visible personality quirk (called an agenda). Norway’s viking king Harald Hardrada, for example, loves other civilizations that have a strong navy. England’s Queen Victoria tries to settle on every continent. India’s Gandhi has a fairly unsurprising agenda: He rarely declares wars and generally befriends the more peaceful civilizations. But every leader also has a hidden agenda drawn from a pool of more universal tendencies, such as “explorers” or “money grubbers.” Gandhi was apparently weighted by the developers to get the “nuke happy” hidden agenda most of the time.

The result is a rather obnoxious Gandhi who gets mad at any war you start—no matter how just—but who also won’t hesitate to build up and utilize a nuclear arsenal. So what’s my game dev takeaway from the new approach to A.I. tendencies in Civ 6? I love it. One aspect of game development I didn’t consider before starting work on my first game is balancing fun design with work efficiency. A.I. coding gets tricky quick, but in a strategy game like Civ you really want to make sure the different factions feel unique. The relatively simple inclusion of two specific agendas per leader (one static and one random and hidden) allows the A.I. to have a personality that changes with each game and adds depth to the player’s strategic choices. We’re planning on a similar approach in Alkanaur. Enemies will have similar A.I. logic, but their roles on the battlefield (support, tank, assassin, etc.) will give them distinct “agendas.” We hope that those agendas will add variety and personality to the player’s enemies without adding an overabundance of work on our end. 

Dev Take Tuesday - Characters and Causes

I recently started watching The Expanse, a SyFy television show adapted from a series of Hugo Award-nominated books. Interestingly, the sci-fi world of The Expanse originated as a backdrop for an MMORPG, and later a tabletop game. Funny how a narrative spark can travel through so many mediums until it finally catches fire. I adore the show so far and especially its worldbuilding. I think there’s one big game dev takeaway from the show for me, and that is the clear and clever distinction between characters and causes.

Before I continue, I should explain that I’ve only seen the first several episodes of the first season so far. My current opinions of the show and its characters could very likely transform as I watch the rest of the first season and move on to the second. That being said, I doubt that the general principles I see at play in The Expanse will disappear, as they seem essential to what makes the series—and the world—tick.

Anyway, the show makes sure to distance its key characters from any of the causes in the show. The near-future world of The Expanse features three principal factions at odds with one another: Earth, Mars, and the “Belters,” people who live in asteroid belts and whose bodies are fundamentally different from a constant low-gravity environment. Each of these factions looks out for itself first, which leads to a lot of moral gray areas. At this point in the series, none of these factions’ causes seem entirely trustworthy or completely just.

Expanse characters Josephus Miller, Chrisjen Avasarala, and Jim Holden (image found on Ars Technica)

However, there are characters to root for. Like each of the major factions, the show’s main characters— Belter detective Josephus Miller, ice hauler Jim Holden, and UN executive Chrisjen Avasarala—also meander through moral ambiguity, but ultimately they act as independent agents from the systems they’ve been placed in. This agency allows them to follow a personal moral compass instead of a dogmatic creed—a premise that seems to drive the show.

As a game dev, I want to make stories that pair well with gameplay mechanics. I think that the narrative principles at the heart of The Expanse also apply well to the main characters in a video game. It’s fine to include powerful factions in your video game narrative—the power of these types of factions creates a potent friction that advances plot in meaningful ways. A random non-essential NPC can represent a fanatic cult. An enemy grunt can characterize a powerful political machine. But key characters, and especially player-controlled characters, should be distinguishable from their causes. If these characters are freed from your game world’s larger forces, you’ll empower your players and allow them to exert their own force in your interactive narrative.

Indie Illuminator - Retro Date Night

Today I’d like to do something a little different with the Indie Illuminator. Instead of spotlighting an indie game, I want to spread the word about a Twitch stream that deserves attention: Retro Date Night. The stream features a married couple playing classic games together, and you can expect wild voiceovers (probably my favorite part), good gameplay, and plenty of jokes.

So far, Retro Date Night has been playing Zelda games.

Retro Date Night started off with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and this Friday (May 25^th) they’ll finish Majora’s Mask, the second playthrough in their series so far. They interact plenty with their audience on Twitch chat, so if you have a few minutes to spare, stop by their stream—they should be starting around 10:00 EST on Friday—give them a follow, and say hi. You can also watch recorded episodes right on their Twitch videos page or their YouTube channel.