Multiplying Your Game Length by Four Hundred

Great Dungeon in the Sky is a fun little indie game that made its rounds online a while back, “little” describing the size of the character on screen and not the depth of the game.  If you haven’t played it, it’s a simple action sidescroller with an expansive world to explore and conquer in rapid fashion.  But in addition to being an enjoyable indie title, Great Dungeon in the Sky stands out as a stellar example of one of the most important lessons in game design: how to cheaply extend game length.

By “cheap” we mean some design that doesn’t require a great deal of work on the part of the programmer or developer.  And for student developers who are busy with school and other pursuits, cheap development is essential.  Sure, you could make your game twice as long by putting twice as many hours into new features and artwork, but if you can get that same amount of length without the effort and without lowering the quality of the experience, that’s a big win.  20% more work for 80% more game?  That’s a trade that every developer should be searching for.

Lengthening a game is an art, however.  Stretch the features too thin and the game becomes stale and boring.  A good developer will be able to pull the game’s design right up to the point of breaking; a fully realized and fully explored system that doesn’t overstay its welcome.  Hours of fun for the player and hours of development time saved for the creator.

Great Dungeon could have easily been a game that took only 10 minutes to complete.  You jump around attacking enemies and advancing through the levels, and you’re done.  But the game doesn’t stop there.  Many games have character select screens, but this game’s character select screen has something…unusual going on…

If you care to count them out, there are no less than 400 characters available for the player to unlock.  By going around and slaying each enemy one by one, the character is unlocked and available for play on the next level.  Put to death a jelly, a tree, or a knight?  You’ll be able to adventure on as a jelly, tree or knight in the next round, complete with new moves, stats, and minimalist pixel artwork.

This single feature absolutely skyrockets the depth of this tiny title, but only because it’s executed correctly and follow three core principles.

A Moment of Clarity

Goals.  Accomplishing goals is an important part not only of games, but also of life.  Self-help gurus of all kinds like to tell us that there is one critical element to attaining a goal: being clear.  If you are clear about your goal, no matter what it is, then you are substantially more likely to succeed in accomplishing it.  It is widely believed that stating a goal increases chances of success, and physically writing down the goal skyrockets it further towards possibility.  Thus, the key to giving energy to the pursuit of a goal is clarity.

In games, players always have a goal.  How conscious they are of the goal varies from game to game, but there is always a reason, a purpose behind why the player is playing.  Well defined, deep games focus on the following:

1. Give players an incredible clarity into their goals
2. Get them excited about their goals
3. Hand them the tools to accomplish their goals

When these three components are present, the player can’t help but continue on through to their goal.  It’s just to tempting and too rewarding!  Correct goal design can make even the most boring tasks exciting as the player looks forward to the achievement of a goal (hopefully the game that they’re trudging through isn’t boring, but this design would multiply the fun regardless).

Great Dungeon in the Sky has this incredible clarity, gets them excited by giving a taste of the early characters, and then lets them loose.  Before the player even starts to play the game, their goal is stated to them.  ”Wow, look at all of those X’s that could soon be characters!  It’s so immense!  There is so much for me to do, so much for me to accomplish!”  They then dive into the game and quickly learn that there is a single, universal requirement for each unlock: every enemy they defeat becomes playable.  At this point the player goes on a pokemon-like collecting spree.

And just like that, what would have been a 5 minute experience is off and running with legs that will carry it for hours over multiple play sessions.

An alternative to the single-requirement is to have achievements, where each unlock has its own individual, differing requirements that are stated to the player as they browse.  This also performs the function of giving the player clarity into what they need to do.  But the important thing to remember is that the player must see the goal, get excited about the goal, and then have the tools handed to them to fly off in pursuit.

Happy multiplying!

Comments

4 Responses to “Multiplying Your Game Length by Four Hundred”

1. Dave says:

   May 21, 2010 at 6:21 am

   Hardly 20% work. The level design is uninspired and most likely designed using a tileset. The entire game is based around the characters so he hardly did it to squeeze out more gameplay.
2. Brice says:

   May 21, 2010 at 5:58 pm

   Hi Dave, while the level design could have been improved, it’s objectively true that the game is longer because of the character collection. If there was only two or three characters, then you would only play through it once and be done, and not only that, you would get bored with the tileset levels. The character collection does a great deal to make each level still entertaining because of the prospect that you’ll find a new character (which are randomly generated). And even after you finish all the levels, there is still more to do.

   So perhaps it isn’t your cup of tea, but there is certainly a lesson in development to be learned here.

   Thanks for the post!
3. MikeAKA says:

   May 22, 2010 at 3:48 am

   While I do believe adding characters with different movement/animations to play as is one way to increase game length I believe more so in games with levels that can be played more than once but have a different goal. For example Super Mario 64 and how it uses stars placed throughout the level that you need to get and each time you play a new “act” the stars are in a different location and have a new way of getting to them. And usually this doesn’t require new level art/enemies/design. Though sometimes new sections are added to the level in order to increase its versatility.

   But I believe a greater example is from a game not many people gave a chance. Banjo and Kazooie Nuts and Bolts reuses levels very well in order to increase play time. The most amazing thing is how well each world is thought out ahead of time in order to encompass over 20 acts, each with mostly unique level designs or rather ways of playing through the level in order to achieve the goal. They can even fill entire levels with water in order to keep things fresh.

   There are 7 worlds in the game each with 4-6 zones and 2-6 acts per zone. Lots of reuses but still keeping it fun without stretching it too thin. Although it can’t be understated that the amount of fun you have in the game is mostly based on whether or not you like to create vehicles in order to solve the games many challenges. Truly emergent gameplay I think.

   That’s all I have to say on that matter and that’s mostly because I don’t wanna write a book here.

   Great site by the way keep up the great work!
4. Brice says:

   May 22, 2010 at 11:08 am

   Mike, great points, Banjo Kazooie and SM64 both do a good job of reusing the same content. Giving players different goals for the same task can often make the same activity feel very different.