Theory and Principles of Game Design

When the subject of free versus restricted saving comes up , people often end up conflating the issues of players being free to save their progress at any time and games requiring players to replay certain segments upon failure . The assumption is that the proper response to player failure is for the game to reload the latest save state, thus leading to a framing of the issue of loss of player progress in terms of free versus restricted saving. Unrestricted saving mechanisms are essential in modern games in that they allow players to quit the game at any time without losing progress. This does not, however, mean that loss of progress upon failure is an illegitimate mechanic. Countless commercially successful game designs that purposely incorporate just such a mechanic show quite clearly that loss of progress upon failure is a perfectly legitimate mechanic. Ultimately, the answer to the "free save" dilemma is not to design a game such that progress can never be lost, but to d...

Here are some differences between ground-level 3D and top-down 2D environments, and their implications for ease of navigation: The way the shapes of objects change as the player moves around the game environment. In 2D environments, rigid objects retain their projected shape as they change position and orientation due to player motion, while in 3D environments their apparent shape can change significantly. The way the angles between objects change as the player orbits around a particular point or travels along a path 1 , as measured from the camera's perspective. In 3D environments the apparent angles between objects are significantly affected as the player moves around, but remain fixed in 2D views. For these reasons, a 2D view is generally more stable than a 3D view, as it doesn't change quite as radically as the 3D view when the player moves around the game world. Furthermore, since the view in top-down 2D games doesn't usually rotate as it does in 3D, a typical 2D...

Principle: S ometimes a player's mistakes aren't really mistakes . If a player has no good reason to believe a particular action might lead to failure, then failure should not be blamed on the player. F ailure by surprise occurs when the player's actions do not appear as if they should lead to failure, because the relationship between action and outcome is either obscure or counterintuitive, or because the element that makes a particular action lead to failure is presented too late for the player to react to it. King's Quest and Dragon's Lair are known for this kind of failure mechanism, where the wrong move can easily result in unexpected death or failure 1 . A game should generally provide enough clues for players to anticipate danger, and should otherwise give players a fair chance to react to any surprises. Footnotes 1. See Ways to Die/Lose in King's Quest and Let's Fail Dragon's Lair v2.0 ( not safe for work ).

Principle : If a game requires a strategy guide or walkthrough to complete, it's broken. If the game may be completed without one but nevertheless provokes a not insignificant number of players to consult one, it's just as broken as before. Rationale: Completing a game should require no external clues. A player's failure to figure out a particular puzzle without outside help is actually the designer's failure to provide sufficient clues within the game. The game world is missing essential information; the game is broken. Exceptions: If a game mechanic explicitly involves the application of external information, this principle does not apply.

The game: Zelda: The Wind Waker The background: One of the islands in the game, the largest of the Mother and Child Isles , is impossible to reach on foot. A talking fish that's swimming in the area tells the player he may reach the island by taking "a ride on a whirlwind": "They say that inside the ring of rock that makes up the perimeter of that island, there lives an incredibly beautiful fairy! But the thing is, nobody's ever met her. Supposedly, the only way you'll ever meet her is to take a ride on a whilrwind and drop inside that rock perimeter from the sky above. Doesn't sound easy, fry..." The problem: The fish's suggestion is potentially misleading. In certain areas of the game world the player can use his Deku Leaf to glide over cyclones and be lifted high up in the air, extending his gliding range. Recalling these experiences, some players will improperly deduce they're supposed to ride the small cyclone that's found in the i...

The issue : Certain kinds of games require that players keep one or more specific goals in mind as they play. Players who return to a game after a long absence may find it difficult to remember what they're supposed to do next, which may impede their progress. Resolution: Provide some sort of reminder of the player's unfinished tasks. This may assume such different forms as a list of pending and completed goals (Psychonauts), an in-character reminder of pending goals (Dragon Quest VIII), or a video log of significant cutscenes (Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando). If any of the tasks require knowledge of specific details previously revealed in play, the player should likewise be reminded of those details.

Defeating an enemy; overcoming an obstacle; surviving in the face of adversity: success and failure are at the very core of the game-player's experience. Games offer players a number of choices, some of which lead to success and some of which lead to failure or non-success. Together with the challenges presented to the player, the fact that the player might fail lends significance to the player's choices and actions. Although failure can be a negative experience, it is also the very thing that makes success meaningful . There are two kinds of failure in games. One kind of failure concerns the player's inability to satisfy a particular success condition that nevertheless remains satisfiable, and another kind of failure takes place whenever the player encounters a particular failure condition . While the first kind of failure is simply a failure to succeed, the latter kind calls for a particular response to the player's actions. The manner in which a game responds to pl...