Dev Take Tuesday – Stranger Things and MAXimizing Player Choice

Warning! I will be discussing some spoilers for the recently released second season of Stranger Things. If you didn’t binge watch the nine episodes like my wife and I did, you might want to postpone reading this blog post until you finish the whole season.

As mentioned in the warning above, we watched the entire new season of Stranger Things in more or less one sitting. Needless to say, my wife and I are fans. Despite how much we both loved the second season and its new characters, my wife raised a valid gripe about the addition of the skateboard-riding, arcade-record-breaking Max: what’s her role on the team? She has an obvious role in the season’s narrative, breaking up the group dynamics and creating competition between Dustin and Lucas. But it’s unclear until partway through the last episode—when she’s able to drive a car despite her age—how she can help the band of kids fight against the horrors of the Upside Down.

Lucas, Dustin, Mike, and Max in Stranger Things Season 2 (screencap from show found here)

Personally, my concerns were mollified during that car-driving scene. Max was the “zoomer,” as she describes it in an earlier episode. But I think it was a valid question all the way up to that point. When Max was added to the team of demigorgon-defeating kids, viewers expected her to contribute to the team once the supernatural baddies returned. This expectation reminded me of a similar gripe I’ve heard from gamers about leveling in RPGs. When a character gains enough experience to level up in an RPG, the player can often choose a new ability for that character. Usually there is a pool of available abilities to choose from, each offering tantalizing new opportunities for that character to become more powerful and useful.

Various ability choices in the RPG Kingdoms of Amalur (screencap found here)

However, it’s not always clear in the moment which abilities will be useful. Maybe one of the new skills offered to the player says that you get better at hacking robot enemies. Seems cool, right? But if it turns out that not many robot enemies exist in the game, the player might end up with an ability that never ends up fulfilling the expectations he or she had for it. And that’s (obviously) disappointing. Some gamers, worried that they’ll end up making one of these disappointing choices, eschew personal choice entirely for internet guides whenever their character levels up.

I understand the connection might be a bit tenuous here, but my point is that both TV show viewers and RPG gamers have expectations when a new element is introduced to the equation. If a show writer adds a new character to a group of kids known for battling monstrous baddies, viewers will expect the new character to be useful to the group in some way. Likewise, if a game designer provides a new ability for a character, gamers will expect that ability to be useful—just like the other abilities the character already has. Offering a sub-par choice might open up roleplaying decisions for specific types of players, but if the drawbacks of that choice aren’t clear, many players will end up disappointed. Offering carefully balanced abilities every time a player levels up is a tricky task, but a worthwhile one for maximizing player choice and contentment.

Indie Illuminator - Summoners Fate

Usually, I have at least a couple projects I’d like to illuminate on any given Thursday. But today was unusual—I struggled to find any games or streamers to cover. So I hopped on Kickstarter’s games section and started to scroll. I was immediately intrigued by a video game called Summoners Fate that combines tactical combat and CCG (collectible card game) mechanics. To my surprise, I noticed the game’s developers also live in Salt Lake. Guess I picked the right Kickstarter to cover!

Gif found on the Summoners Fate Kickstarter page

Summoners Fate’s unique top-down perspective makes the game feel even more like the physical board and card games it emulates. Like our game Alkanaur, Summoners Fate incorporates both a strategic layer and a tactical layer in its gameplay. In the strategic layer players choose dungeons and manage resources, whereas the tactical layer focuses on snappy turn-based combat. One nice touch I appreciated as a game designer was the simple choice to make the game characters look up when it is their turn to move and attack. Additionally, the gameplay seems to be designed to allow for quick bursts of gameplay (useful for mobile) or in longer sessions.

The game’s developers, D20 Studios, plan to release Summoners Fate in 2018 on iOS, Android, PC and Mac. If you’re interested in the game, they are currently running a small Kickstarter project that is nearly 100% funded as I write this post. You can also catch a Q&A stream with the husband and wife development team tomorrow (November 3^rd) on Kickstarter if you want to know more about the game or the developers.

Indie Illuminator - Scarizard

Once again, I’d like to use this week’s Indie Illuminator post to highlight a wonderful Twitch streamer with a growing viewer count: Scarizard! If you play League of Legends, the name might sound familiar. Scarizard worked for several years with Riot Games and played a big role in communicating with players. He provided plenty of puns in the game’s frequent patch notes, while also participating in design and Q&A streams that gave players deeper insight into Riot’s gameplay decisions.

Image from Scarizard's Twitch page.

This past year, Scarizard left Riot to pursue some personal projects. One of those projects is “the Backlog.” Many gamers start to pile up a backlog of games, hoarding games because they’re on sale or sound interesting. Scarizard put together a list of 50 wildly distinct games that he was unable to play because of work and other constraints. And now he’s been playing those 50 games over the course of 2017 and streaming his progress through the backlog.

Some streamers tend to stick to one or two games, but other streamers—often called variety streamers—play a variety of games for their audience. If you’re looking for a talented variety streamer with a great sense of humor, a strong rapport with his chat audience, and a marvelous beard, Scarizard is definitely your man. He streams most days from around 12-9 PT if you want to check out his stream.

Dev Take Tuesday - Desolation Trail

What’s in a name? Sorry Romeo, but I’m going to have to disagree with you here. My wife and I went on a small outing this weekend to a nearby canyon and stumbled upon a trailhead marker titled “Desolation Trail.” The name certainly caught our attention. I doubt we would have picked that trail from a list of less intimidating names, but since we had some time we took a few minutes to explore the desolation ourselves.

Photo taken by Ryan Malavolta for UtahOutside.com

We met another couple descending from the trail. They explained how they’d avoided the trail for years because of negative things they’d heard about the trail: it was arduous, it was treacherous, it was ugly. About what you’d expect from a trail titled “desolation.” But, after finally checking it out for themselves, they discovered that it wasn’t any of those things. Intrigued, my wife and I followed the trail up. All we saw was sunshine and trees, and we discussed revisiting the trail on a future outing.

As developers, we might overlook how much naming we do. We often do a lot of “proper noun” naming of places and people, but on top of that we frequently need to name enemies, abilities, and game mechanics. It might be easy to simply use the first names that come to mind. (What’s in a name? A fireball by any other name would roast thy feet.) However, if the connotations and implications of a name contradict its purpose, your players might be confused or—like the hiking couple in the story above—avoid the “desolation” all together. As we decide on final names for all of our character abilities in Alkanaur, I’ll definitely have that trailhead marker on my mind.

Oh, and I’ll probably name an ability “desolation.” As long as the name fits.

Dev Take Tuesday - A Bit of Personality

I’m a huge fan of the rebooted XCOM games made by Firaxis. There’s only one series on Steam that I’ve logged more hours into: the Civilizations games (also made by Firaxis). XCOM 2 made a few key changes to the first game’s formula, but the emphasis on a squad of randomly generated soldiers remained largely the same. XCOM’s approach to teambuilding affords it certain benefits. While the characters you play provide little personality of their own, that also means they can act as a tabula rasa for you to inject your own stories into them as the game progresses. The expanded visual and audio customizations added in XCOM 2 build off of this “blank slate” idea.

The Chosen in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen (image from the game's Steam page)

I don’t think the first two XCOM games’ approach to characterization was wrong, but I do love one key change they made in XCOM 2’s huge DLC expansion: the Chosen. Now as you’re fighting the alien enemies, three powerful and unique alien hybrids will disrupt your carefully-laid plans. Each of the three Chosen—called the Assassin, the Hunter, and the Warlock—have highly specialized strengths and weaknesses as well as a unique personality. Those personalities shine in the tactical battles and a few cutscenes, and the Chosen also have voice lines while you plan and prepare in XCOM’s strategic layer. Perhaps taking a page out of Shadow of Mordor’s nemesis system, the Chosen’s constant needling and disruption helped me develop a pretty potent grudge against them. Especially the Assassin. Grr.

While I don’t think future XCOM titles will switch to only fleshed-out, pre-written story characters, I would be surprised if they didn’t at least include some fixed characters in their next game as well. By pumping in just a bit of personality, I found myself even more invested in the game. Much like Civilization 6’s “obnoxious Gandhis,” which I mentioned in another blog post, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen’s combination of game mechanics and dialogue breathes life into the enemy A.I. you compete against. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s about time I take out another one of the Chosen. Warlock, I’m coming for you.

Indie Illuminator - Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

Today I’d like to illuminate another Kickstarter campaign. Much like our current project Alkanaur, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is an indie tactical RPG inspired by classics of the genre like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. One of the aspects of the game that sticks out right away is the unique hand-drawn sprites and environments.

Screenshots found here on the game's official site.

From what I’ve seen of the game so far, Fell Seal seems to follow the FFT path closely, with a similar experience system and a familiar dual-class progression structure. Some of the more unique features they have planned include the ability to change your non-essential characters’ appearance, as well as secret classes that the player can unlock.

Just as we plan to do with our own Kickstarter, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is currently offering a small, free demo of the game. So if you’re interested, I’d suggest checking out the demo. You can glimpse a tiny section of the story and get your hands dirty with two campaign missions. (Pro tip: Protect your mage and use him well.)

Design Deep Dive - So What's a Game Designer Anyway? (Part 2)

In yesterday’s blog post I explained how a good game designer is always looking for interesting questions to ask the player. When a game designer stays focused on the players, the game usually turns out better. I shared examples of games I made when I was younger to illustrate how games that don’t challenge players with interesting decisions get boring quickly. And finally I hastily hammered out some examples of the challenging questions that great games of various genres ask their players. But as I stated in part one of this Design Deep Dive, a designer is not only responsible for asking consumers interesting questions but also needs to have all the answers during development.

Game designer Liz England provides a helpful depiction of game design in her article called “The Door Problem.” I highly encourage you to read through it when you have some time—it’s not a long read. The super-condensed takeaway from this “Door Problem” is that even the most mundane element of a game—such as doors—actually requires a ton of answers and explanation during development. A game designer is there to solve these issues and move development forward.

Image found here on Wikipedia

In addition to keeping development running smoothly and quickly, a competent designer also keeps the game cohesive and coherent. Some of the “door problems” that Liz England mentions could likely be solved by the artists, programmers, or level designers as they encounter them. However, when one door problem is closed in such a way, a new door problem will very likely be opened up. Then you have revolving door problems—not good. With one person (or a design team in larger companies) answering all the design questions, the answers that make it into the game will all fit together better.

I’m not sure we’ll have many doors in Alkanaur, actually. But I thought I’d give you some examples of the kinds of answers I’d need to provide during our game’s development. For an equally mundane example, let’s talk about rocks.

•         Are there going to be rocks in this game?
•         How big can rocks be?
•         If we want big rocks, how will players see characters behind the rocks?
•         Can players interact with the rocks or are they simply visual details?
•         If the answer is both, how would we distinguish between rocks that can roll and rocks that can’t?
•         Can computer-controlled enemies “see” players behind rocks?
•         Can they fire ranged weapons or spells at players behind rocks?
•         How many rocks should be in any given level?
•         What happens if a player tries to target a rock with an attack?
•         If a character can tunnel underground, can they pop up in a space occupied by a rock?
•         If a character can fly, can they go over a space occupied by a rock?
•         What happens to a rock if a character uses an ability that alters terrain on that space, such as creating impassable walls or rivers?
•         Should our rocks blend in with the spaces they rest on, or should they “pop out” like our characters do?
•         Should characters get any type of bonus for being in a space adjacent to a rock?

As a tactics RPG, Alkanaur is a fairly complex game. But even the simplest games will still need a designer to step in and answer those questions. I think that’s part of the reason why I’ve always been drawn to game design in the first place. Design blends artistry and problem solving. I love posing fun challenges for players, and I also love the challenge of solving complex design issues in an elegant way. Hopefully these two blog posts cleared up any questions you might have about game design, but if you’re still puzzled or just want more info about game design feel free to reach out to me through our Facebook page or Twitter.