Just One More Game…:Learning as Central to Gameplay

Martin C. Martin

www.martincmartin.com

March 19, 2006 2

Why Are Games Fun?

• Many things go into making a game fun:– Beautiful images– Engrossing story, to mention two

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Interaction• But those are shared with movies, TV, books• Yet people play games for hours

– 3 hours is a long movie, but a tiny game

• Tetris: no story, no graphics, yet incredibly absorbing

So what is unique to games? Common answers:• Shaping the story• The thrill of winning• Affecting the world

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• Tic Tac Toe becomes boring once you can play a perfect game

• Choose Your Own Adventure books let you shape the story, but readers quickly lose interest

Only For So Long

• Knocking things over quickly becomes boring on its own

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What Is Unique To Games?

How does interaction make games fun?

Proposal: Figuring out how to improve– Could also call it learning or skill building

Outline: Improving fun in existing games

Game design principles

Practical steps

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Figuring Out How To Improve

• First Person Shooter newbie• Aiming is tricky, so stand to shoot

– Must choose: dodge OR shoot

• Game gets difficult, player gets frustrated• Becomes clear: they could do a lot better if

they could dodge AND shoot• Start to get the hang of it

– Feel they have an edge over other players– Confidence rises: its own reward

March 19, 2006 7

The Learning Cycle

• Player always trying to achieve goals– e.g. Hit enemy; don’t get hit

• Always has a strategy to achieve them– E.g. dodge incoming; grab armor; look for cover– Looks at the world in terms of those goals

• Always trying to improve strategy– E.g. discovers concept of sniping location– Leads to discovery of subgoals

• Thinks “Now I’ve got it! Just one more game!”– Feeling competent is a reward. Makes goals easier.

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Game Design Principles

1a. “What approaches will the player try?”– When confronted with a choice, player

thinks up an approach– Approach could be strategy, hand-eye

coordination, etc.

1b. “How can they tell what to improve?”– The initial approach is often simple; it needs

improvement

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• Who has read a Choose Your Own Adventure?

• Fun until you realize: no way to discover which choice is right

• Once you realize, choose at random. No skill.

1. What’s The Approach?Explains a lot about success/failure of certain games

• Tic Tac Toe: Fun while learning

• Example initial approach: treat as a race, i.e. focus on getting 3 in a row; ignore opponent

• Learn you need to block opponent

• “Ah, now I can play better, just one more game…”

• Once perfect: boring

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2. Combination Puzzles Aren’t Much Fun

• Player finds safe. What’s the approach?

• Just try every possibility until you get the right one

• Surprising how many forms of gameplay amount to the same thing

• Example: defending a base in an RTS, AI rushes player

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2. Combination Puzzles Aren’t Much Fun

• Initial approach: defend evenly gets creamed

• Quickly learns: play game until attacked, revert to saved

– Main skill is saving/restoring game; not much fun!

• Simply asking “What’s the approach?” can cure this

• Knowledge doesn’t transfer to next level

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Game Design Principles

1a. “What approaches will the player try?”

1b. “How can they tell what to improve?”

2. “Guess The Combination” isn’t much fun

3. Players stick with existing approach until it fails

• E.g. once player is in habit of “get attacked/ reload/prepare,” player will stick with it even if later levels allow experimentation

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Introducing New Units

• New unit: artillery– Can attack units at a distance– Shows up in menus without much fanfare

• If player’s strategies have worked in the past, she won’t think to use artillery

• If old strategy works with great struggle– May just think level really hard

• If old strategy fails obviously and quickly– E.g. AI artillery can only be attacked by

player’s artillery– Player will think “What else can I try?”

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Changing Difficulty Levels• Creating easier difficulties seems easy

– Just weaken parts of the game

• May completely change player’s approach• E.g. slow enemies player runs past all

enemies• When player tries a more difficult level,

must learn combat from scratch when opponents are very skilled

– Can be very discouraging

• Creating difficulties is like creating good problems in textbooks: harder than it looks

March 19, 2006 15

Game Design Principles

1a. “What approaches will the player try?”

1b. “How can they tell what to improve?”

2. “Guess The Combination” isn’t much fun

3. Players stick with existing approach until it fails

4. Player must be able to find viable approach

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Only Advanced Maneuvers Succeed

• Realistic combat flight simulators

• If player jumps in without reading manual, ends up turning toward enemy, going in circles

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Only Advanced Maneuvers Succeed

• To do better, players must study manual and practice classic manoevers like Immelman & Split-S

• No wonder these are niche games

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Players Need Feedback• To improve their approach,

players need to understand where it’s working and where it isn’t

• For complex Sim games, they need a lot of feedback

• E.g. why is nobody moving in to my SimCity neighborhood?

• Without feedback, effects of their actions seem random

• With it, can look at pollution and police coverage, then look at residential vs. industrial zoning, …

• “Ah, my residential is too close to the industrial! Now I’ve got it, just one more game…”

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• Designers of complex games often want to “coach” their players

• One idea is to have an advice, i.e. and NPC that suggests things to do.

Advisors?

• What’s the approach?

• Listen to the advisor, rather than figure it out yourself

• Info screens are essential to Sim games

• Advisors seem to come and go

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Existing Gameplay:Adventure Game Dialog Trees

• What do these principles say about existing games?– Adventure games: What’s the approach?– Choose each item in turn

• No real penalty for wrong answer

– No strategy for recognizing correct one• Each character is different• Answer often non-obvious, to make game more

“difficult”• Result: combination puzzle

March 19, 2006 21

Existing Gameplay: Adventure Game Puzzles

• What about Adventure games outside of dialog trees?

• Sometimes puzzles are easy– E.g. give membership card to bouncer

• Sometimes out of the blue– E.g. use towel to “flick” someone

• Either way:– No way to learn from wrong solutions– Last resort: apply every object to every other– Combination puzzle

March 19, 2006 22

MUDs and MMORPGs• First levels: learn interface & basic game

mechanics• Once you get the hang of that

– You’ve risen a couple levels– Monsters don’t give enough XP, need a party– Learn to work in groups

• Spells, monsters, quests, parts of the world…– As soon as you get the hang of one, you need to

learn others

• These games all learning curve• And they’re some of the most addictive

March 19, 2006 23

Save Anywhere vs. Save Points

• Some people passionately argue for one; others argue just as passionately for the other

• From most design points of view, it’s minor– i.e. just as interactive, doesn’t change units,

gameplay, etc.• Affects learning, sometimes drastically• Save anywhere: even 1 in 10 chance OK• Save points: player must solve challenges

regularly– Differ in how well skills must be learned– Each challenge can’t be as hard

March 19, 2006 24

Practical Steps

Because of too much involvement, [game designers] are unable to objectively comprehend how the actual players would feel when they play the game for the first time.

- Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo

Creator of Donkey Kong, Mario Bros.

and Zelda

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Practical Steps• Put range of approaches in design document

– If nothing else, forces you to ask “what’s the approach?”

• Kleenex Testing: play testing for design– Have players “off the street” play the game once– Team member watches but can’t say anything– Done for Half-Life, settled many design arguments– Sims 2 team swears by it– What might a transcript look like?

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Example: Space Invaders

• Shoot blindly into crowd

• Few shots go between columns

• Slows firing rate think how to avoid

• Pay attention to aiming, align with column

• Aligning difficult, so try for entire column at a time

• Invaders don’t stay still long enough, so move half way through

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Example: Space Invaders• Move back to column after dodging• [Learning fine motor skills to position base]• Soon, leading targets and trading off

shooting vs. dodging• Later: shoot hole through bunker• Take out lower rows first• Take out outside columns first• Infrequent fast missiles: can’t dodge, so

stay covered when not firing

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Design in Space Invaders

• One shot at a time rewards aiming– Worse aim game slows down– Better aim game gets frantic– Unlimited could lead to firing faster, not better

• Then forced to learn accuracy at higher levels, when also trying to dodge & strategize

• Invaders shoot sparingly at first– Player focuses on shooting columns before

dodging, encouraging fine control

March 19, 2006 29

Realism

• A feature’s effect on gameplay:– Not just how it changes the rules– But how it changes approaches & learning

• People agree AI should be fun, not smart– Is a coordinated enemy more fun than

mindless hordes?– Should units have morale?

• Without any further framework, discussion ends up on realism

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Realism

• RTS: Simulate physics of missiles? Defender micromanaging movement Click fest

• AI in FPS: Learning? Shell Shock? Stress? Panic? Morale?– Effect on approach essentially arbitrary

• Strategy games: Alliances?– Must be understandable, not schitzophrenic– AI logic transparent: lots of warning before a pact is

broken, emissary explain why happy/mad– Player must know how to exploit it

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Summary• When confronted with choices:

– Players develop theory of game world– Come up with strategy/approach

• Apply approach– Find strengths/weakness, always thinking how to

improve it• E.g. in FPS: Not hitting enemy? Get closer. Taking too

much damage? Move back

• When it succeeds, they feel rewarded and competent

• Game is a journey: the path is at least as important as the outcome

• www.martincmartin.com