• As Far As The Eye Can See – How optical illusions are employed in Skyrim to make the gameworld feel vast.
• The Secrets Of Enemy AI In Uncharted 2 – A comprehensive piece on Uncharted 2′s enemies and how their attributes and behaviours were designed and implemented.
• John Cleese on Creativity – YouTube video of John Cleese’s famous speech on fostering playfulness; quite relevant to videogame prototyping and development.

Summary

Description: A game about demolishing small city/rural areas so that a runaway nuke carrier doesn’t run into any obstacles and explode.

Conveniences: A ton of visual indicators that ensure the player is always aware of the level’s layout and goals.

Annoyances: The handling on some of the vehicles is extremely sensitive; camera controls are wonky.

Standouts: A silly yet intuitive excuse for causing lots of destruction with various types of machinery.

Bits

• Each regular stage begins with a fly-over of the area showing a rough path from the start of the level to its finish. The player can also pause the game at any time and move the camera around to get a better view of the surroundings.

• A unique arena is used to introduce each new vehicle. These levels do not contain a carrier but instead focus on destroying various infrastructure under a time limit.
• Every vehicle in the game has a unique function, e.g., the Ramdozer truck can plow straight through buildings and push explosives, the Ballista motorcycle is very quick and can fire a limited amount of missiles, the J-Bomb mech can fly and “butt-stomp” buildings, etc.

• Many levels require the player to utilize various vehicles and industrial machinery. This is necessary as some vehicles have limited ammunition and cannot possibly destroy all the necessary buildings. In other cases, it’s necessary to move trains or operate fork-lifts to properly clear a path for the carrier.
• Switching vehicles and exploring on foot is necessary to find hidden scientists that are tucked away from the main path.

• Grounded beacons function as collectibles, but they’re never picked up and removed from the playing field. Instead, they briefly flash when the player first moves close to them. This can result in a neat, cascading effect as multiple beacons light up in a row, but it’s actually difficult to tell whether a beacon has already been activated.
• Whenever the player gets close to a building that’s in the carrier’s path, arrows pop up and surround the location indicating that it should be destroyed. The colour of the arrows also changes based on the carrier’s proximity to the building, and an additional arrow is placed beside the minimap to indicate the next target.

Extras

• MobyGames Entry

Summary

Description: Top-down action game where firemen are tasked with combating a blaze inside an office building/factory.

Conveniences: Small fires serve as collision obstacles but don’t hurt the avatar; the AI companion is invincible, only attacks fires within the player’s vicinity, and generally stays out of the way.

Annoyances: Long and unskippable text pop-ups; camera doesn’t adjust to the player’s facing direction making it hard to look ahead.

Standouts: Lots of unique gameplay elements (albeit not implemented realistically) that stem from various fire-fighting concepts.

Bits

• The player’s water-cannon has unlimited ammo and can fire a close-range burst at the ground, or a focused, long-range stream into the air. This has various gameplay implications as the player must constantly switch between the two modes in order to properly deal with fire.

• Different types of fire not only cover the environments, but also serve as typical videogame enemies. They possess unique animations, movement patterns, HP values, high and/or low presence (that syncs with the water cannon), and even unique functionality such as spawning other fires or exploding upon death.
• As fires move across the ground, they permanently scorch the areas they touch.

• Each level contains a boss — an out-of-control, borderline-sentient fire monstrosity.
• The player’s goal is to simply progress from one room to the next; putting out fires and rescuing civilians is entirely optional. However, both tasks serve as risk-reward systems.

  Extinguishing fires is akin to obtaining collectibles, and the player’s end-level ranking is based on how many fires were put out. Locating helpless workers is also dangerous and time consuming, but it’s the only way to restore the player’s health.

• Scripted text pop-ups  appear periodically throughout the game and provide the driving narrative. The non-modal ones are particularly nice as they don’t pause the action.
• Each level has a time limit, but nothing seems to happen when it runs out. The only disadvantage is that at about the 85%-gone mark, the player’s health is drained to a sliver.

• Despite the whole game being taking place in just one building, there’s quite a bit of variety in the visuals and mechanics of the environments. Ventilators and conveyor belts affect the player’s movement; boilers, windows, and lamps burst under pressure; heat damage collapses floors and hanging lights; airducts and make-shift tunnels force provide alternative routes; blowback from enclosed infernos explodes out as doors are opened, etc.

  There’s even a section where the two firemen get to ride an elevated platform outside the building itself!

Extras

• MobyGames Entry
• Hardcore Gaming 101 Article

The videogame equivalent of “show, don’t tell“ is often said to be “do, don’t show.” It’s good advice, and when applied it can make for some very powerful experiences, e.g., Braid’s ending.

Unfortunately, it’s also a difficult guideline.

Gameplay elements are rarely designed with narrative in mind. They’re limited in quantity and tend to be blunt instruments; the mechanics of walking and jumping can only go so far in conveying complex stories. Given this limited scope, it’s not surprising that gameplay is rarely used as the main vehicle for narrative.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar had a pretty good go at it, though.

UIV is the story of the Stranger’s rise to embody eight virtues principal to the game’s setting: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, honor, sacrifice, spirituality, and humility. On the surface, it’s a typical CRPG of the era: there’s exploration, statistical progression, item management, NPC conversations, and combat. The twist is how these elements are cleverly subverted for storytelling purposes.

Fairly common RPG activities such as opening random treasure chests, running away from battle, and being a smart alack to NPC’s can lower various virtue-scores.

Conversely, overpaying for goods (instead of haggling down their prices), letting monsters escape from battle (and losing potential experience points), and destroying the most powerful artifact in the game (which makes combat a breeze), increase virtue. A full list of these virtue-altering actions can be found here.

UIV’s main quest involves traversing the world in order to recover 8 virtue stones and runes, learn the mantras corresponding to each virtue, max-out all 8 virtue-scores, meditate at 8 virtue shrines, obtain the 3-part key, and finally discover the the word of passage.

Once these tasks are complete, the Avatar can descend into the abyss and place the virtue stones at their respective altars. A short quiz follows where the player is questioned about the virtues, and each correct answer displays a part of the codex-symbol. When the codex is fully unveiled, the player (presumably) gets to bask in its glory and return to the real world with newly gained knowledge and experience.

It’s not an overly complex story, and its scant plot-points are almost entirely non-linear, but the narrative is closely coupled with the gameplay. UIV achieves this through various design choices.

First, the game gives a concrete role for the player to embody. It’s all fine and good to “roll” a teetotaler, pyromaniac dwarf, but it’s not nearly as much fun if this persona is restricted to the player’s imagination. Becoming the Avatar is UIV’s sole objective, so the entire gameworld naturally revolves around the player’s ability to fill the Avatar’s shoes. In addition, this is a perpetual task that encourages the player to stay in-character throughout the experience.

Secondly, UIV grafts virtue-fulfillment entirely onto existing systems. This makes the learning curve less harsh and presents interesting handicaps for familiar gameplay, e.g., avoiding hostile wildlife might not yield immediate rewards, but it aids in gradually achieving the larger goal of Avatar-hood. Since these systems are also granular, they encompass numerous ways in which the virtue scores can be affected.

Furthermore, the approach greatly reduces implementation costs. Every virtue-altering instance is not a custom, one-time cutscene, but rather an action that’s optional and repeatable. In turn, the player can actively participate in the story by partially steering where, when, and how the virtues are tested. Since many events in the game also impact more than one virtue, the overall progression is quite open-ended.

Finally, the virtue system allows the player to fail. Hints are still dispensed throughout the game — and can be actively sought out — but it’s not necessary to be aware of all the rules right from the start. There’s no game over screen if virtue is lost; no invisible wall, or awkward text prompt, or an automatic checkpoint reload. The event is simply recorded, and retributions can be made later down the road.

This makes the path to Avatar-hood a potentially bumpy (and a more interesting) tale, and prevents the game from clumsily asserting itself and its limitations.

Lots more could have been done to polish the virtue system and to make it a larger part of the gameworld, but UIV remains notable for the way it allows the player to collaborate with a pre-existing script. This is also done largely through gameplay, and, at least in part, is the reason why so many people keep playing it to this day.

Summary

Description: Indiana Jones meets Gears of War.

Conveniences: Hidden treasures sparkle periodically; when stuck, the player can eventually get a hint by pressing a button to point the camera at the next objective.

Annoyances: Horribly slow and unintuitive boating sections; wonky and excessive combat.

Standouts: A treasure hunting romp that feels like a Hollywood flick.

Bits

• Great variety in animations based on player actions. Drake can land on top of a platform, hit it at waist level, hang off of it with both hands, barely grab its edge with one hand, etc.
• Environment-specific animations and add a nice sense of realism, e.g., Drake gently grabbing the side of a u-boat’s hatchway as he squeezes through it.

• Lots of fun environment-traversal such as swinging from ropes and shimmying across ledges. Some outcroppings crumble, leading to instant deaths, but also provide an extra bit of tension.
• Traps are only used in one area, and feel rather clunky due to their large quantity, the difficulty in discerning whether they’ve been triggered or not (the tripwires seem to stay taut), and their unforgiving quick-time events.
• A few interactions require unique input, and are somewhat hit and miss. Twisting the analog stick to rotate an emblem on a statue makes sense, but using the Sixaxis’ motion controls to balance on a log happens only twice (in quick succession) and seems hastily thrown in.

• Drake’s journal serves as a nice hint-dispensing device that’s consistent with the game world. Unfortunately, bringing it up tends to zoom in on muddy floor textures rather than displaying it side-by-side with the environment (a la L.A. Noire’s case notebook).
• Combat and puzzle solving are done in entirely separate segments, although it’s possible for the two to bleed into each other. This works well when hanging off ledges while firing at enemies, but can also cause awkwardness when the camera pans away during a firefight to help showcase a puzzle.

• The overall combat is not quite up to bar with Uncharted’s contemporaries. Enemies tend to awkwardly crab-walk exasperating the slow aiming, defeated foes rarely drop the cool weapons they use, the targeting reticle is circular and makes it tough to line up precise shots, hand-to-hand combat lacks proper cues and impact, and the battlefields are so big (and the aim-zoom so minuscule) that targets are often only a few pixels in size.
• Random treasures are strewn about the game and provide bonuses when collected. Although their 3D models are often reused, they provide tangible rewards for exploration while staying true to the theme of the game.

Extras

• MobyGames Entry
• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Wiki

Summary

Description: A refreshingly unique CRPG.

Conveniences: Very thorough log that records every step of every quest; numerous auto-save slots.

Annoyances: Occasional crashes.

Standouts: A fantastic sense of verisimilitude.

Bits

• The universe of The Witcher borrows heavily from Slavic mythology incorporating such entities as Drowners, Strzygas, and The Wild Hunt.

• Player choices eschew morality quandaries in favour of focusing on actual actions and their consequences.

  The first dilemma forces the player to pick between helping a sorceress chase down a mage trying to steal the Witchers’ alchemical secrets, or aid a group of Witchers fighting off an invading monstrosity. Neither side is slaughtered if the player lets them fend for themselves, but the decision dictates what loot is received and what kind of enemies are encountered later in the game.

• NPCs follow a day-night cycle and some even have unique schedules, e.g., the shady fence sleeps during the day but is out and about at nighttime.
• People speak in varied dialects and focus on different topics: young children pretend-play to be monsters, the elderly ponder where they’ll be buried, lowly peasants espouse the church, criminals flaunt their sexual conquests, nobles discuss the flow of politics, etc.

• Geese, rats, chickens, and other wildlife populate the world and scatter as Geralt approaches. Some even rest in bushes and only appear as herbs are gathered.
• Human NPCs can perform some vicinity-triggered actions in addition to the general barks, e.g., the Hierophant automatically heals Geralt.

• Casting spells in dungeons can temporarily dim the lights, a nice effect that seems to hint at magic draining power from its surroundings.

• Whenever it rains, people run for cover and congregate under eaves and various other safe havens.

• The visual ambiance is accompanied by a Celtic-themed soundtrack and a plethora of sound effects: soft footsteps, hooting owls, scraping metal, crackling fires, chirping crickets, splashing water, croaking frogs, growling monsters, etc.

• Signet rings are one of the special icons that appear during conversations (such as sleep or shop or gamble), and work to prove Geralt’s affiliation with certain factions or characters.

  Some NPCs won’t initiate quests or even sell items to Geralt if he’s not aligned with their views and beliefs.

• There’s a real sense of progression as the areas Geralt visits change over time: Kikimore monsters invade the swamp, an eccentric Dwarven dentist moves into a killed NPC’s home, the brickmakers return to their clay pits once the drowners are banished, etc.

• The game world avoids feeling static with numerous types of interactive elements:
  • Chests, baskets, corpses, and miscellaneous furniture can be looted.
  • Individual pieces of food can be snatched from tables.
  • Bodies of defeated creatures can be skinned.
  • Plants can be gathered for potion ingredients.
  • Places of power allow various restorative rituals to be performed.
  • Magic shrines can teach new spells and power up old ones.
  • Bulletin boards provide contracts for optional fetch-quests.
  • Obelisks and other receptacles are activated by placing specific items inside them.
  • Collapsible terrain can be destroyed with the Ard spell.
  • Occasional teleporters facilitate fast travel.
  • Wayfarer stones respond to magic and provide optional puzzles.

• Monsters often clash with regular townspeople, especially at night and on the edges of habitation.
• In addition to generic weapons, Geralt can use steel and silver swords in three different stances: “strong” for bulky enemies, “fast” for agile opponents, and “group” for any combination of mobs. The steel sword is effective against humans, while silver against monsters, and attacks with these weapons can be chained together via a timing mechanic.

  A lot of the leveling-up progression is also tied into the specific swords increasing their power and duration of their combos.

• Specific information on monsters, minerals, recipes, and plants can be learned from scrolls and books. This in turn works really well at making Geralt feel like a badass bounty hunter. An area and its enemies are researched; the proper weapons, potions, and spells are prepared; and following the combat, more resources are gathered to continue the loop.

• When ingested, potions increase Geralt’s toxicity level, naturally limiting the amount of simultaneous buffs. Interestingly, the toxicity takes longer to wear off than the potion’s boosting effects, although sleeping, ingesting cleansing potions, and performing a ritual at a place of power can remove the handicap.
• All potion ingredients have a base component, but some also contain a secondary element. If the secondary elements of all the ingredients match up, extra bonuses can be obtained from the brewed potion, e.g., longer duration or lessened toxicity.

• Body parts of bosses can be used to brew one-time potions that provide permanent boosts.
• The Witcher’s medallion is an ever-present HUD element that can be “attuned” to detect either monsters or magic. Although this has very little impact on gameplay, it does a great job of foreshadowing certain events by vibrating around NPCs that are not quite what they appear to be.

• A substantial amount of the game’s quests revolve around unique events that are much more interesting than typical monster-slaying. For example, Geralt must join forces with a private detective to investigate an underground syndicate, setup an autopsy, hobnob with Vizima’s elite at a posh banquet, and help perform a ballad to soothe a distraught noonwraith.

• Alcohol plays a very big part in the game. Aside from serving as a base for all potions and being used to outdrink various NPCs (many of which only accept their preferred brews!), it’s also the focus of a few optional quests, e.g., retrieving a specific cask of wine or loosening the lips of a knight who has taken a vow of silence.

  Alcohol is also outlawed in some districts of Vizima, and Geralt even has one specific option on his talent-tree that boosts his fighting prowess while intoxicated!

Extras

• MobyGames Entry
• The Witcher Wiki

• Super Metroid – An In Depth Level Design Analysis – Exactly what the title says.
• Redesigning Wild Ones – Overview of a design reboot for a popular social game.
• The Science of Sonic – A work-in-progress wiki that tries to tackle numerous facets of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

The Witcher treads a lot of common ground when it comes to RPGs, but it does so with a distinct swagger. To illustrate this, here’s a quick story.

Early on in the game, the protagonist Gerlat can accept a quest to deliver a package into a quarantined city. When he finally makes his way in, he’s arrested and his possessions confiscated.

He eventually recovers them all, except for one: the mysterious bundle he was asked to smuggle.

Jethro, the city jailer, non-chalantly informs Geralt that he’s lucky not to be in more trouble. The package contained fisstech, an illegal drug similar in properties to cocaine. It quickly becomes obvious that Jethro himself is an addict and the confiscation wasn’t exactly legal.

Geralt can get his hands on more fisstech by dispatching Salamander troops, henchmen of main antagonist who tend to carry the illegal substance. The drug can then be used to bribe more information out of Jethro, shedding some light on the local crime syndicates.

Eventually it’s revealed that the Salamanders were trying to squeeze out their competition by framing Ramsmeat, a local crime boss, in hopes of Geralt going after him and the two sides weakening or eliminating each other.

Following a clash between the religious Order of the Flaming Rose and the Scoia’tael, a terrorist group (or a freedom-fighter one, depending on how you look at it), the Salamanders expand their operation into the swamps.

Various factions Geralt had dealt with in the past are affected by this: the woodcutters are slaughtered, numerous brickmakers are kidnapped and put into slave labour, and a large Salamander band move into the former Scoia’tael encampment.

When Geralt rescues the brickmakers, he discovers they were made to gather plants for fisstech production. The Salamander’s treasures even contain a book on swamp plants, the very same book Geralt had to have read in order to loot local flora.

Back in Vizima, Jethro requests that Geralt follow a lead on a fisstech pusher under the guise of cleaning up the streets. In reality, the jailer simply wants to secure the source of his addiction by cracking down on its suppliers.

The trail eventually leads Geralt to the sewers and an abandoned crypt where the Salamanders produce fisstech. Among their servants he finds a frightened alchemist who rewards Geralt with a potion-recipe if he promises not to report his slacking.

When the hideout is cleaned out, the crooked jailer and the city guard storm the area in order to secure the contraband. It’s at this time that Geralt bluntly tells Jethro that all the drugs better stay confiscated or he’ll come after the jailer next.

Finally, the documents Geralt retrieves from both the Salamander cells point him to the ultimate stronghold. As Geralt storms the base, a cutscene plays out showing a Salamander leader requesting more money following the group’s recent failures.

All these events make perfect sense from gameplay, plot, and setting perspectives. The slaves need proper skills and instructions, the bad guys require funding for their operations, and powerful factions constantly vie for supremacy.

Every element serves as a gear snugly connected to another, and when the switch is pulled, the machine doesn’t grind to a halt.

What’s more, the game itself is not homogenized. Fisstech doesn’t come across as a bullet point on a worldbuilding checklist that needs to be adhered to at every turn. It’s just part of the tapestry, and there’s a lot more of it to experience.

“An ancient sapphire ring.
It subdues your presence, making it difficult to be detected by enemies.”

The description for the Thief’s Ring in Demon’s Souls is innocuous enough, but it’s one of the most useful items in the game.

When I first obtained it, I scoffed at its effects. I generally tend to be underwhelmed by “ancient and powerful artifacts” that serve as nothing more than marginal stat modifiers. I also wasn’t playing a stealthy character, so it seemed like a fairly useless trinket.

Demon’s Souls is a game where a small boost can have an enormous effect, though, and a few deaths later I quickly discovered the benefits of donning the Thief’s Ring.

There’s nothing magical about it, really — it simply does what it says — but its effects are very deliberately tied into the game world and its design.

Here a few examples:

Isolating Enemies

Unlike many 3rd person brawlers, the enemies in Demon’s Souls do not patiently wait for their turn to attack the player. As a result, it’s often important to draw away individuals from a group to take them on one-on-one.

The Thief’s Ring facilitates luring enemies by preventing the player from being pelted with projectiles during the approach. What’s more, the combat in Demon’s Souls requires a lot of movement, and the Thief’s Ring makes it less likely to draw the attention of more enemies while battling a solitary opponent.

Avoiding the Dragons

The ramparts of Castle Boletaria are patrolled by hostile dragons that roast anything in their sights. These sections are quite unforgiving, but the Thief’s Ring expands the window of safety between the dragons’ fiery onslaughts.

Slaying the Geckos

Crystal Geckos are timid creatures that are almost impossible to catch with a melee attack. They can spot the player from very far away, and if they do, they skitter back and fade out of existence. The Thief’s Ring slightly dulls their awareness, making it easier to catch them and the large quantities of minerals (used to upgrade armour and weapons) that they drop.

Boss Runs

Chances are that during most everyone’s first playthrough at least a few of the boss battles will not end in victory, but the Thief’s Ring makes it easier to give ‘em another shot. Simply running past enemies is often a valid option, and equipping the ring lowers the duration/distance they’ll take into account when chasing the player.

Backtrack-Farming

Upon defeating a boss, the player can warp back to the boss’ lair from the Nexus hub. This not only provides a shortcut going forward, but it also allows the player to go back through a completed area in order to obtain more items and souls (the game’s equivalent of gold and experience).

What makes this backtracking different from playing through the same area from the start is that enemies tend to face only one direction. Combined with the Thief’s Ring, this makes it quite easy to sneak up on them and unleash a backstab, a special attack that deals extra damage and yields more souls.

Scaling the Shrine of Storms

Equipping the Thief’s Ring is practically the only way to travel up narrow mountain paths without being shredded by flying Storm Beasts.

Defeating the Old Hero

The blind boss of the Adjudicator Archstone is quite a fearsome opponent, but it’s actually quite easy to stay out of his reach with the Thief’s Ring equipped.

Invading Other Worlds

Player vs. Player combat is not greatly affected by the Thief’s Ring, but it does partially obscure the invader. This makes it more likely that the battle might begin with a sneaky backstab.

Even without any significant gameplay mutators, though, it’s still quite unsettling to see a swirling, red aura make a beeline for the player’s character.