DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Wonky College
HTML https://adventuregames.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Design
*****************************************************
#Post#: 32--------------------------------------------------
21 Adventure Game Design Tips
DIR By: Pam
Date: May 22, 2021, 3:54 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Bill Tiller with Larry Ahern
LucasStyle Entertainment
HTML http://www.lucasstyle.com/tutorials.htm
Adventure Developers
HTML http://web.archive.org/web/20130406165841/http://adventuredevelopers.com/features.php?start=30
Over the past nine years Larry Ahern and I have worked with many
different adventure game designers and on many adventure games.
We both contributed heavily to the game designs for all those
projects.
Larry even got to co-design The Curse of Monkey Island with
Jonathan Ackley. During those projects we have learned a lot
about the genre including these basic adventure game design
‘rules’, or you could just consider them ‘strong suggestions’.
The word ‘rules’ seem a bit strong for such a flexible genre as
adventure games. Also many of these ‘rules’ can be applied
successfully to other game genres as well.
1. Show the barrier before you show the way to overcome it.
Clearly define the problem before you send the player looking
for solutions. If the goal of the level is to save the princess,
use a cinematic at the beginning showing the villain carrying
her off to his castle. When the section becomes playable, it’s
very clear that the player needs to get into the castle and save
her. The “how” part is the game.
2. Don’t wear out the player character’s shoes.
Keep locations close or make shortcuts to get to those
locations. Edit out the tedium. When films portray characters
doing legwork, they edit it down to key points that convey the
necessary information. Make that interactive via portals or
shortcuts that bypass the uneventful 20-minute walk across town
to the crucial clue. Also, if a player solves a puzzle for one
item in a sequence, don’t make him repeat the same solution for
the remaining items unless there’s some potential for variation
(just cut away to the conclusion).
3. Keep the player entertained even when they are not solving
puzzles.
Make sure there are other things for the player to do and see
when the puzzles have them stumped. This can range from mini-
games, to interactive toys, to interactive dialogues with NPC's,
to exploration, to viewing active elements of your living,
breathing game world.
DaveGilbert: This is key - having lots of "stuff" in the
background really helps in fleshing out the game world. Dialog
is also very important - it can turn a generic stock NPC into a
very memorable and interesting character.
4. Reward the player with animated sequences, new areas, or new
powers for solving major puzzles.
Players want to feel a sense of accomplishment, so don't just
show them the same overused reach animation when the character
finds an object that changes the course of the game. If it's a
big deal, there should be a resulting dramatic animation payoff
and then possibly some new territory, both physically and
interactively, to explore. Other reward ideas include a point
system with bonuses, new playable characters to unlock, bonus
levels, new physical appearances for player characters, or
access to behind-the-scenes or 'making of' materials for viewing
after the game.
5. Show the consequences of the Player Character's actions.
If he foils a villain's plans, show how it affects the villain.
If a player cuts off the power to a building, show how that
affects the people inside. If the player releases a hideous
voodoo curse, leaving a swath of death and destruction in its
wake, by all means let the player visit that swath and suffer at
the hands of the curse's survivors!
6. Provide subtle but entertaining and clear clues to give the
player a fighting chance at solving the puzzles.
Don't try to create any ultimate stumpers. Puzzles in these
games are challenging enough without a little help from the
designer. The path to a solution should be fun, whether the
player rushes down it because the way is immediately clear to
them, or whether they're unsure of the direction and are forced
to search around a bit. There should be fun in the tangents and
detours, and often this is where much of the character and
detail of your world exist. Take advantage of it.
Igor: Agree, one of the hardest parts of game design. If there
are too little clues, players complain the game is too hard...
though, if there's too many of them, players complain again,
that you are practically "giving away" solution. I think a lot
of beta testing is the only way to get it just right.
2ma2: Designing puzzles is a tough task. Since you know them,
you tend to make it even more tricky than it needs cause you
think that's it's to easy and everyone will solve it instantly.
Also, something that one must think at is; is it clear what the
current action will do. One example is Floyd SB, where you had
both a rock and a vase in the inventory. A puzzle was breaking
the vase with the rock, which makes sense but it's not very
likely that you'd come upon unless you, like I, tried every item
on every other item while completely stuck. The solutions could
be a small hint like looking at it, it says "it seems to be
something inside of it" in which your aim is clear: acquire this
something (break it being the solution). This aim is important.
Many times, the player does not know WHAT to do with certain
things, and providing hints, like the character saying "Gee, I
must get into that somehow" gives you the task, and then the
actual game play, figuring out what to do to accomplish this,
can take place. This is a crucial part of the storyline work of
course, but can be of great help when dealing with smaller
things as well, like something mentioned within the context.
7. Vary the puzzle types and styles throughout the game to keep
things fresh.
Repetition is boring and can discourage people from playing your
game. But if the puzzles are unusual and unexpected, players
will be intrigued and stick with your game much longer. Don't be
afraid to use arcade or platform style puzzles too, as long as
they aren't too hard and can be bypassed by those who don't like
this style of puzzle.
8. Make the player care by creating drama and empathy.
We all relate to Luke Skywalker because we hate doing boring
chores for our parents and would rather go off exploring the
world and seeking adventure. We empathize with him and his
dreams vs. the reality of his tedious existence. Then when his
aunt and uncle are killed we really feel bad for him and want
him to have revenge more then ever. In The Secret of Monkey
Island, Guybrush Threepwood just wants to be a pirate. That's
good enough for starters, but the game really gets interesting
when he falls for Elaine and comes into conflict with Fester
Shinetop. The drama kicks in when the villain attempts to drown
Guybrush in order to kidnap and marry Elaine himself.
9. Let players interact with the villain.
Don't have him commit a terrible crime at the beginning, then
sit in his hideout until the end of the game waiting for the
player to come to him. Design multiple confrontations that build
in intensity. The villain should react to the hero's progress,
trying to stop him or slow him down, and their conflict should
evolve. This doesn't necessarily mean that players need to chat
with the bad guy every 5 minutes (too much access destroys the
illusion of threat), but there should be confrontations,
reactions, twists, turns, reversals and the like, as well as
interactions with his lieutenants and cronies.
Ionias: I'm not sure that I agree with this 100% Some stories
are about the "WHO" did the crime and not about the "HOW" to
stop the crime. Giving away too much (i.e. interaction with the
villain.) could ruin all the suspense. On the other hand I can
see where player interaction with the villain, although he's not
aware he's the villain could be very good for the story. Albeit
hard to accomplish.
10. Use interesting situations, NPC's and dialogue to transform
even your most rudimentary puzzles into entertaining gameplay.
If you have a standard lock and key puzzle, at least make the
person with the key unusual and entertaining. For example, the
voodoo villagers in The Secret of Monkey Island took the
cannibal stereotype and turned it on its head-they wanted to eat
you, but had recently become vegetarians in order to limit their
cholesterol intake.
11. Design puzzles and locations to minimize small, single-use
animations.
Animation is expensive, so save your animation budget for
rewards and sequences that the player will see multiple times.
2ma2: I couldn't disagree more. Making unique small animations
makes a game world alive. The only problem is making them slow
and blocking, which will hinder gameplay and delay the progress,
which is highly annoying. Teen agent was a nice example (of
animations, not the horrific puzzle design and pot), whilst
Broken Sword does the opposite and annoys the hell outta me. The
answer instead lies in how you make them. Lesser complex
animations could work just aswell as mega smooth eye candy with
40 frames. Full Throttle is still among the top games
graphics-wise, and it doesn't delay the gameplay
12. Use the language of film.
Edit the game the way a film or TV show is edited. Our visual
language is a familiar style taught to us through TV and film
and perfected over the last 100 years. It is the clearest most
effective way to speak to your audience. For example, if the
player is following an NPC to a certainlocation with no
opportunity to interact en route, then don't show them walking
all the way over there. Watching people walk is boring. Instead,
use a film editing trick called a 'cut', to instantly transport
them to their destination. Players understand what happened and
can fill in the blanks, as well as realize that action's lack of
significance. There are a lot more rules about film language but
it would take another article to list them all. I suggest anyone
who wants to learn these get a book on the subject or take a
class at a local junior college.
13. Listen to everyone's ideas and pick out the good ones that
match your vision.
Despite the fact that many games have one person's name on the
cover, it most certainly doesn't mean that that person came up
with every idea themselves. Nor usually does it mean he wrote
all 7,000 to 10,000 lines of dialogue typical to an adventure
game. Most production staffs include designers, scripters,
writers, artists, and testers that help come up with all the
ideas. It's the team leader's job to elicit, inspire, encourage,
nurture and direct these ideas (along with a healthy dose of his
own), and then keep the ones that fit with his image of the
game, and set aside the ones that don't.
14. Plan ahead when designing your game, and be realistic about
what you can achieve.
Completing a small, solid project is better than having a grand
vision never realized. I've done the latter myself when I was
younger, and have seen many a film student's work go unfinished
after realizing he'd bitten off more than he could chew.
Meanwhile, filmmakers who did work that was short, but
brilliant, were often rewarded with bigger budgets the next time
and went on to create their grand vision.
15. Don't tease the player with things they can't access.
The most interesting place in the game should be right where the
action is, or where it's going. Do not show anything in the
background that is too distracting, confusing, or intriguing
unless you are going to let the player interact with it
eventually.
16. Don't underestimate the importance of music, voice acting,
and sound effects.
Music sets the mood and the emotional state for your game. Sound
effects make your images come to life. Great character voices
are so very important. Be especially careful whom you cast as
your main characters. A miscast lead character with an
irritating or otherwise inappropriate voice can ruin an
otherwise successful game. Great casting choices, on the other
hand, elevate a pretty good game to a higher level.
17. Games are about wish fulfillment, so don't let the gameplay
feel mundane or like work.
The player doesn't want to be reminded of his life, he wants to
do something exciting for the short period of time he is playing
your game, whether it's saving the world or just wearing someone
else's shoes forawhile. Some games let you play the hero, while
others, such as The Sims revolve around more mundane activity,
but players get to be someone else and do things they couldn't
or wouldn't do in real life. That is the aspect of wish
fulfillment. You'll notice that there is no expansion pack
called The Sims: Commute to Work.
18. Make the quests clear, cogent and manageable.
If the player asks at the beginning of the game "what do I do?"
you have a serious problem. Whether it's a mentor sending
players toward the adventure, a character's plea for help, or
putting the player character's butt on the line, something needs
to clearly propel them in the right direction. In the Monkey
Island games there is always the good ole' Voodoo Lady to remind
the player of his goals. Cogency means clear and logical. So, if
I give the old man a sacred root he will tell me about the
secret entrance to the castle. That is pretty straight forward.
But if I have to push him over a log so his arm accidentally
triggers the secret latch to the passageway, then things are
getting a little muddled and confusing. Why can't the player
push the lever himself? How is the player supposed to know that
this is going to happen in order to be motivated to try it in
the first place? Make sure the goal is manageable. In Full
Throttle, in order to escape the town of Mellonweed Ben has to
get three things: gas, new forks for his chopper, and a
blowtorch. This is a manageable quest. But let's say for a
moment that Ben also needed to get grease for his chain, light
bulbs for his head light, spark plugs, a catalytic converter
etc. That might be too much, and too hard to manage. Eventually,
players will start to forget which quest they are actually on
and get bored with the lack of real progress.
19. Don't waste the players' money with multiple solutions to a
single puzzle.
If you animate both solutions the player is probably only going
to see one of those animations, but he paid for both when he
bought the game. However, do provide payoffs for failed
attempts-this is a great chance to build character. If there are
obvious (but incorrect) solutions that most players will try,
make sure there are some entertaining animations of the Player
Character failing. Players will be bored out of their minds if
your character stands there and says, "That won't work" to all
but the correct answer.
Squinkycakes: Or at least have the Player Character say
something humourous about it. For example, when he/she/it tries
to "pick up" another character, "I can't pick that up" can be
replaced with "He's not my type" ;)
Jon Kneller: I kind of disagree here, on 2 points. Firstly, I
support the use of multiple choices, as long as they are well
signposted. In Indy it was even on the game box, and as a result
this feature was very well received. Secondly, for small
puzzles, I would advocate multiple approaches to a solution as a
way of avoiding frustration: "Why the hell do I need to find one
particular drawing pin in order to burst a balloon when I have a
pair of scissors, a knife, a pencil etc. to hand?" The result is
the same whichever you use, you have still managed to work out
the approach required, and you get the small payoff of the
balloon exploding without running around for hours looking for
an item that, due to the law of averages, you missed before. You
probably wouldn't even need a new animation!
20. Never give the player a tool that can too easily be used to
solve a number of puzzles.
Make the items very puzzle specific-unique to that problem.
Also, make sure it seems somewhat reasonable within the fiction
that "forbidden" items would not be available to your character.
21. Have fun.
If you aren't having fun with your game, most likely your
players won't either. If you enjoy what you're doing and like
the work you're producing, it will probably show in the final
product.
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1