Valkyria Chronicles is a game that embodies well designed choice.
Choice is often necessary for the deeper emotions of life. Choice are how people express themselves, design their lives, and make mistakes. It is through choices that we build our pasts and shape our present. Choices make life feel alive and real.
Choices can also appear in games, but for some reason, when many developers attempt to create meaningful choice in their games, they miss key components. Oftentimes poorly executed choices in games tend to feel empty, unimportant, or as though there really was no choice at all.
Luckily, when trying to design something like meaningful choice, we are not groping in the dark (as with some other design challenges). Meaningful choice is something that you and I experience every day in our real lives. What can life teach us about game design in this area?
What is meant by meaningful?
Let’s start be defining exactly what our goal here is. I am defining a “meaningful choice” as a choice that the player makes that they actually care about. They deeply considered the choice. They felt the weight of the choice. And after the choice was over, they remember it and feel either satisfaction or regret.
A choice is a reflection of the player. Interactivity is one of the most important aspects of games that sets them apart from all other media. By giving the player a choice, you give them a chance to express themselves and differentiate their gameplay. You give them the chance not just to tell a story, but to show them the meaning of the consequences of their own actions, not just a set of actions that was predetermined. This lifts games above all other forms of storytelling.
According to the Game Design Canvas, meaningful choice is build using the bricks of the game’s Punishment and Reward Systems. There are three essential components. Neglect any one of them and the choice is rendered meaningless. The three ingredients are awareness, consequence, and permanence.
First Ingredient of Choice: Awareness
This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many early developers (including myself in my first games) make this mistake. For a choice to be meaningful, the player must first be aware that they are even being presented with a choice. Failing to recognize a choice is not the fault of the player, it is the fault of the game and the developer. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Hello TGP readers! Based on the success of the Break Into Games e-book, we’re working on a new and more in-depth product for students interested in becoming professional game developers. But I want this product to be as incredible as possible, and so I’m conducting a quick 2-minute survey to get your feedback and thoughts.
In return for filling out the survey, I’m giving away free copies of The Player’s Guide ($11). This deal will only be around until Tuesday!
Click here to take the 2-minute survey and get your free copy! Thanks!
I only recently got around to playing 2009’s most critically acclaimed game title: Uncharted 2 for the PS3. Personally as a player, this isn’t exactly my kind of game; I’m not a huge shooter fan and, like Avatar, the story and premise seemed a bit simple. However, as a game designer, I can’t excuse myself from a game so highly regarded among players and developers alike. Even if it didn’t interest me in the name of my own entertainment, it certainly interested me in the name of my design education.
After sinking a good number of hours into it, I can definitely say that it is worth the ride. The game has a captivating story and interesting characters, but that’s not why it’s a great game. It is a great game because of the only thing that can make a great game: great gameplay. Let’s step through two of the best points of this game’s design and execution.
Don’t Tell Me About It; Let me Do It
Let’s start with Uncharted 2’s biggest selling point: you get to play everything you want to play. You do everything you want to do. Action? You do it. Talking? It’s just a cutscene. This may seem obvious, but it’s more difficult than it sounds. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Avatar recently became the second highest grossing film of all time, bested only by James Cameron’s previous blockbuster, Titanic. I was skeptical at first when I saw the trailer, but the box office numbers pushed me over the edge and finally got me in the theater seats, and I was certainly not disappointed.
A film this successful accomplishes so much; whether you are a western anti-mainstream individualist or not, you must appreciate how difficult it is to make a single film that can touch the hearts of so many millions of viewers around the world. The special effects and artistry put into the world were of course breathtaking and the story…well, we’ll get to that in a minute.
Avatar offers some great lessons to game designers who are looking to reach a broad audience through an magnificent work of art. While there is much to learn from Cameron’s masterpiece, there are two main aspects that struck me as particularly timely to today’s game development landscape. Indie developers are especially encouraged to read on.
[Note that this post is full of spoilers. Proceed at your own risk if you haven't seen the film.]
You Don’t Have to Always Be Original
When I was younger and more foolish, I used to think that in order to create something great, to design a great game, to tell a great story, it had to be original. It had to be made up of things that no one had done before, all my own ideas. If everyone else was making first person shooters, I would make a 2D puzzle-adventure mash up. If the industry was telling stories about love, I would tell a story about existentialism. Go against the grain, as they say. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
The four-day book deal is now over, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who purchased a copy of Break Into Games! It’s great to know that people think the information on this site is valuable; you make it all possible.
For those who were late to the party, the book is still available in The Game Prodigy store.
Thanks again!
Just a heads up that the Break Into Games book deal only lasts until tonight (Thursday, Jan. 14) at 11:59pm PST — 21 hours from this post. If you want to get a job in the game industry, don’t miss out on this 20% discount and a free copy of The Player’s Guide (normally $11) along with your purchase!
A $35.95 value for $19.95 if you order before midnight!
Once again, this deal will only be around for a few more hours! After that, the book will cost $24.95 and will not come with The Player’s Guide.
If you enjoy the free articles and content here on The Game Prodigy, please support the site by purchasing the book! And thank you so much to everyone who has already purchased a copy this week; your support makes this site possible!
Click here to order!
Comments:
Filed Under: Store
I still remember back in 2005 when the Wii was announced at E3, and the entire games industry just gasped. “What IS that?” It just didn’t make any sense at all. The words were coming out of their mouths and the demos were on the screen, but it just sounded like complete madness. A revolution indeed.
While motion control seems obvious now, you’ll have to take a moment to appreciate how impossibly innovative and creative it was at the time. No one else was anywhere near thinking something like controlling a game some way other than buttons was possible. And thus you have the makings of a fascinating story, of a company going from just about out of business in the console world to being #1, with sales that are unmatched by any other platform, and its leaders being named the top CEO’s among all industries, not just games. The Wii is certainly a lot of fun. Everyone remembers their first time playing Wii tennis, hearing about it, and trying it out. Everyone remembers being amazed that aunts, uncles, and grandparents were suddenly interested in games when they had displayed not a shred of curiosity before. If nothing else, it makes a great first impression, and that first impression has led it to over 50 million units and the best selling single game title of all time.
But there’s something wrong, isn’t there?
Isn’t it odd, that though so many Wii’s have been sold, they are actually played significantly less than other consoles? Isn’t it strange that despite how much fun everyone has swinging their arms wildly during Wii Sports tennis, eventually they are reduced to simply flicking their wrists? Doesn’t it seem unusual that while there are seemingly hundreds of Wii games on the market, you could count the ones worth playing on one hand? WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
I’ve given lectures on game development and getting into the games industry at libraries, college, and universities in the U.S. and abroad. Many students ask me what they can do to get into a video game career, and I always tell them the same points that have worked for me and many of my peers who are now in the industry, the same things that I cover in my book, Break Into Games.
This week I’m making Break Into Games (114 pages) available here at The Game Prodigy, and we’re kicking things off with a deal for early customers! Anyone who orders in the next four days (before Friday, Jan. 15) will receive a 20% discount and a free copy of The Player’s Guide (normally $11) along with their purchase.
A $35.95 value for $19.95 if you order before Friday Jan. 15!
This deal will only be around for 4 more days. After that, the book will cost $24.95 and will not come with The Player’s Guide.
If you enjoy the free articles and content here on The Game Prodigy, please support the site by purchasing the book! Thanks!
Click here to order!
Comments:
Filed Under: Store
In our final article detailing the Game Design Canvas, we talked about the Aesthetic Layout, the icing on the cake, the visuals and sounds and interaction methods that give games their artistic spark. Many games are revered for their gameplay, but not as many games nowadays are praised for fun Aesthetic Layouts.
However, this is still an area ripe for innovation. Playing with visuals, sound, or interaction in a way that hasn’t been done before is a highly underestimated way to add originality and memorable moments to games. Some of my all time favorite anecdotes from childhood game experiences come from these little Aesthetic surprises, that are built not from the Base Mechanics or the P&R Systems, but from the developer’s fun ideas about making it more than a game and bringing it into a real world experience.
To illustrate, I’d like to highlight three of my favorite Aesthetic surprises, all of which made me practically jump out of my seat and say, “Wow! This is so fun!” With an open mind centered around a game’s Core Experience, developers can easily create these kinds of moments in their own games. Thinking outside the box in this area also makes your game very noteworthy; it’s definitely the kind of moment that would be shared online or in person with fellow players.
Note that this post contains spoilers for all three of these titles. So if you’re ready, my three picks for the best jump-out-of-your-seat-moments:
Star Tropics’ Secret Letter
This one goes waaaaaaay back. In this tidy little action adventure title for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the player sailed and yo-yo’d all over the world in search of their lost uncle. The puzzles were simple, consisting mostly of Zelda-style button and switch challenges. The battle system was fun and the music was snappy; not a bad title in my book. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Who cares if the main character is wearing silver armor or an orange cloak? Does it really matter if your military troop is fighting in Europe or Asia? There can’t be any difference between a game about saving the world, and one your one true love, right?
It does matter. In fact it matters a great deal. The sights and sounds and feeling contribute to the Core Experience of a game like no other part of the game can. They are what make games a true art form instead of pure science, they are what make games closer to theater than arithmetic, painting than to geometry. These artistic strokes are the skin that the world will see view the game, its face, its exterior.
Welcome to the fifth and final component of the Game Design Canvas: the Aesthetic Layout.
The Bells and Whistles
Hardcore gamers, and even some game developers, often tend to think of games exclusively as mechanical systems. This is expected, because these types of people have typically played so many games that they’ve become experts. Trained to analyze and dissect, they see through the smoke and boil the game down from bells and whistles to gears and oil. All of the other systems we’ve talked about within the Game Design Canvas, the Base Mechanics, the Punishment and Reward Systems, and the Long Term Incentive, are all of these gears. And once they see under the hood, they manipulate the gears as much as possible to get what they want. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »