On Progress and Padlocks

Progress is a difficult issue in games. You want the player to feel like they are improving, but you also want to make sure that they are being challenged. I enjoy returning to an area to explore new territory, as long as it was because I was stronger or had new abilities, and not because I got the freaking blue key. 

I suppose a good way to go about this is to build elaborate, bending, stretchy, convoluted, intertwining, tiered, crunchy, complicated environments. Expand the vertical field with elements that compliment the environment from different angles. Seeing how different the environment looks when venturing to another side of a monument will beckon the act of exploring, and if there exists a path plethora, backtracking will not be so much that as it is adventuring- and if there must be a "locked door" situation, its a better idea to make it hold hands with the scenery than to plop an iron door.

I think player society could agree that a fire pit is more comforting than a padlock, a high cliff more endearing than a mahogany panel and a brass handle, and a tough cookie of a character looking you in the eye more of an important event than a cleverly disguised card key swipe.

I passed a locked door. God dammit. 

I suppose a split path situation is best solved by destroying the act of backtracking or making it relatively painless. Allowing 

multiple instances of subjective decision making in an alternatively rigid game play track tempts the player to return to an area. Forcing them to walk the trampled path is not a bad choice if they are aware of the options around them. 

oh- my GOD! I can go IN the tree as well as AROUND it! Genius! Bloody genius!

Now, don't confuse amoeba like and placid environments as a million paths. The FF12 route does not entice exploration so much as it urges boredom. 

<-- This game really neglected the Y axis... Not to mention the FUN axis.

There are a lot of complaints in the air about linearity, and personally, I don't think linear gameplay is all that crummy. Having a game go from level to level is a much better alternative than mindless backtracking. To make linear gameplay more exciting, there should be options about how the player can go about things. In Metal Gear Solid 4, there are a good 30 ways to go about each situation, so linearity and punishment are hardly an issue.

And now there's that damned key.

Now backtracking sucks, but as long as I have a way to find out where I'm going and there isn't a Cave Story Sand Zone effect going on, then I am perfectly happy to visit a land I've already trekked.

Reward and Punishment

I've always questioned how much I should be punishing and rewarding in the games I make. Often times I like to punish the players when they screw up because it puts them on the edge. However, over-punishment can cause people to not invest as much time in a game due to constant negative feedback.

One thing I've never felt comfortable with was the power to save whenever the hell you wanted. While playing Half-Life 2 I was tapping the F6 quick save key after every little advancement, like getting health packs or single kills.

How did it feel? It felt dirty, that's how it felt. It felt like I was abusing the privilege that the game lent to me. But did I stop? No. It was so handy to just tap F6. About once or twice I saved in a bad position, but by retrying a few times I could get myself out of sticky situations.

I'm not sure this would be a problem if the game forced me to only save by pausing, clicking save, choosing a window, then saving, then exiting. If this was the case I definitely would not have abused the power of the omnipresent save ability.
But Valve is not like that. Valve trusts you not to be a dick.


What I'm talking about here is how much should we punish the player for dying? I'm sure you wished that the ending boss line in cave story had save points in-between each fight, but I bet you would have felt a lot less awesome after beating the core had there been a save point right before it.

Where are the effing save points now, Lara!?

I believe that punishment is important to add tension to your game, but the amount of what you take away from the player should be relative to the immediate challenges ahead. Frequent save points can make a player careless, but infrequent ones can make them impatient with your game.

I was hoping to come to a more absolute conclusion with this... But I guess it really just depends on the demographic you are aiming for.




Man. What a shitty conclusion. What do you (3) chaps think?