TH E O TH E R S I DE OF G AM E DEV EL OP M ENT
US $10
#324 APRIL 2012
GAME OF THE YEAR : SKYRIM 1
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Heather Mendonca, Andy McNamara, Mr. Toledano, Sean Baron, Mike Stout, Mike Rose, Leigh Alexander, Paul Tassi, and Gamasutra.com
ART CONTRIBUTORS Thatgamecompany, Zynga, Nintendo, Konami, Valve Software, EA Games, Bethesda Game Studio, Niblebit, Chandelier Quentin, Steven Andrew Photography.
SPECIAL THANKS The makers of Red Bull, Under Eye Concealer, Gamasutra.com, Cloudkid LLC All submission to start magazine are made on the basis of a licence to publish the submission in start magazine and its licensed editions worldwide. Any material submitted is sent at the owner’s risk and although every care is taken, neither Gray Rainbow Press nor its agents shell be liable for loss or damage. All contents © Gray Rainbow Press 2012. While we make every effort possible to ensure that everything we print in start is factually correct, we cannot be held responsible if factual errors occur. Please check any quoted prices and specifications with your supplier before purchase. I’m trying to think of something funny to put here. But people might not even read this, so who knows.
© Gray Rainbow Press 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Start is the registered trademark of Gray Rainbow Press. All rights reserved.
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video killed no radio star APRIL 2012 I often witness first-hand the strange fascination gamers have with defending a game or system with zealous enthusiasm— as if it’s impossible to like both Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. It’s easy to admire the passion and excitement gamers have for the medium, but at the same time these juvenile arguments are no better than “my dad is stronger than your dad.” They are as interesting and engaging as watching a battery recharge. I often put a game developers above such reproach, but as the battle rages between console, PC, handheld, and games on social platforms, I get the feeling that developers themselves are starting to be blinded by their own beliefs and thoughts on the matter and are falling into traps about the delivery system rather than focusing on the ingenuity and innovation of the games themselves. Free-to-play companies claim without hesitation that all games must be free-to-play, and that games that come with a price tag simply can’t exist in the future market. Some industry analysts say no handheld system can ever survive in a world dominated by phones. Social platforms and cloud services claim they will soon make consoles obsolete. Developers can’t survive with used games. Piracy is good. Piracy is bad. Digital eats retail. Nintendo is dying. There is fine in the streets and cats and dogs are living together.
Some prophecies will come true as the world continually evolves, but all these prognostications remind me of the Buggles’ 1979 hit “Video killed the Radio Star.” I love free-to-play games and I love triple-A blockbusters;why must things be either/or? Why do people believe that one fish must always eat the other? If only free-to-play existed and I had to deal with the annoying game concepts designed to milk every dollar one penny at a time from my wallet, I would literally go insane. If the gaming world was composed only of the biggest and loudest blockbusters then video game gaming would truly be a boring hobby. Saying there is only one future is shortsighted. Gamers, game publishers, and developers should realize there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. Then we can let the silly arguments fade away and focus on the important things in life, like how games with entertain people around the world from now till the end of time. Enjoy the issue.
CONTENTS #324 A P R I L 2 0 1 2
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FARES 010 Behind the flOw A behind the scenes look at thatgamecompany’s hit game flOw for browser and Playstation.
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015 Katamari Forever The newest game in the katamari series has just come out and we have the scoop!
018 Game Face Mr. Toledano takes portraits of people during there epic wins.
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022 Cognitive Flow Ever wonder why time flys when your playing a great game?
036 The Boss Battle A detailed walk through on creating an epic boss battle.
048 Journey A look into Thatgamecompany’s newest masterpiece.
054 Zynga’s Evil Copycat Strategy A leaked memo justifies stealing ideas.
026 Understanding Balance in Games Know that imbalance is actually bad.
041 Gamification Dynamics Which ones work and which ones don’t.
050 Skyrim Bethesda Game Studio creates this year’s biggest game.
058 What’s Happening To Kids’ Games How are iPhones, iPads, and Computers affecting them?
033 Masuda on Complexity & Simplicity From the mind behind Pokemon.
045 Building A Fantasy World Tim Coman & 38 Studio’s philosophy toward art direction.
053 Angry Birds Space What a pleasant surprise!
060 The End of Used Games With this be the end?
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GAME WERE PLAYING...
fez
Xbox 360 Online Arcade
An innovative platforming game, Fez allows players to manipulate 2D platforming worlds in three dimensions—with a quick tap, you can spin your flat world around to give you a new perspective and allnew gameplay area. Find hidden items placed on the opposite side of solid walls or bring a platform from miles away to right underneath
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Published by: Polytron Developed by: Polytron / TrapDoor Release Date April 13, 2012 MSRP: $10
your feet with just a simple spin of the world. There’s a mutual awe between people discussing the deep secrets and mystery of Fez. Curiosity, envy, and excitement dominate conversations about bewildering thematic patterns, creative solutions to intelligent puzzles, and unforgettable level design.
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Game’s were dying to play... I was the first on my block to get the Nintendo 3DS, I was also one of the few people to actually be super pumped about the new handheld. And I will say that the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time kept me busy for a while and all of the awesome AR games that came with it and a few of the other games that came out for it. But that was it only a few games were really exciting and ready for the launch of the handheld. Maybe it was because Nintendo wanted the get the jump on Sony’s Vita? But anyway, there finally coming! Well, almost. Titles like Paper Mario, Lugui’s Mansion, and (my personal favorite) Animal Crossing will hopefully be released sometime this year! I know what I’m asking for Christmas!
Paper Mario 3DS Release Date: TBA 2012
Animal Crossing 3DS Release Date: TBA 2012
Luigi’s mansion 2 Release Date: TBA 2012
Not since the Wii first came out some years ago have we gotten to play Paper Mario, I’m looking forward to it!
Rumors of your being able to edit the town and be the top dog sure is exciting. And you get to swim!
I did not see this coming! The first Luigi’s Mansion was on Gamecube, a million years ago! I’m so pumped!
this just in: Western 3DS development slow to start but catching on says Nintendo president
Nintendo believes Western companies waited longer than Japanese to support 3DS because it took them longer to realize the handheld would be a success in their regions. While many major publishers in Japan, such as Capcom and Square Enix, have released or announced big games for 3DS,
few Western companies have revealed any big titles for the system. Even on the original DS, its Japanese hits seem to outnumber the amount of blockbusters from the West. “There may appear to be fewer commitments from the U.S. and the European software publishers than those of their Japanese counterparts,” admitted Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata during a Q&A session with investors last week. He argued, “This is due to the different timing (between Japan and overseas) when they noticed that the Nintendo 3DS would surely expand widely into their markets and, thus, the different timing when they started the actual development of the Nintendo 3DS software.” 3DS hardware sales didn’t really pick up until the system’s 30% price cut in August— and they exploded in Japan during the holiday as Nintendo rolled out Mario Kart 7,
Super Mario 3D Land, and Capcom shipped Monster Hunter 3G. While 3DS hardware has outsold all other consoles in Japan, it hasn’t had the same runaway success in the West. Iwata told investors that the portable’s sales are “far below the level that it could potentially reach” in the U.S. Despite 3DS’s challenges in Europe and North America, Iwata is confident Western publishers will show their support for the system soon: “You will ... notice a change in this situation when a richer Nintendo 3DS software lineup in the overseas markets is announced around the time of the E3 show.” Strong support from Japanese publishers will continue. “In Japan, we have this solid feeling that the Japanese publishers will continuously support the Nintendo 3DS,” he said. “Accordingly, I have no pessimistic view on the Nintendo 3DS software lineup.”
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Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design BY SEAN BARON
Microsoft Studios user experience researcher Sean Baron takes a look into the often discussed, but rarely concisely defined, concept of Flow, and offers a succinct definition and suggestions for implementing conditions to help players get into the zone.
Good flow in game design is the reason why time flies when you play and you just can’t put it down!
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ou sit down, ready to get in a few minutes of gaming. Hours pass and you suddenly become aware that you’re making ridiculous faces and moving like a contortionist while trying to reach that new high score. You ask yourself: Where did all the time go that I had? When did I sprain my ankle? Maybe you didn’t sprain your ankle, but if you consider yourself a hard-core gamer, you’ve probably ended up in similar situations. They happen because you’ve reached a critical level of engagement with whatever game you’re playing. More often than not, these types of gaming sessions occur when you’re playing a great game. If game developers were able to characterize and add design considerations that facilitate these engaged states they’d create more enjoyable and better selling games. Luckily, these heightened levels of engagement have been studied by psychologist. They even have a name for it: Cognitive Flow.
In what follows, I will introduce Flow and the four characteristics of tasks that promote it and the concept of flow. For each characteristic, I will provide some basic psychological perspectives and relevant recommendations for game developers.
Introduction In the 1970s a psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi experimentally evaluated Flow. He found that a person’s skill and the difficulty of a task interact to result in different cognitive and emotional states. When skill is too low and the task too hard, people become anxious. Alternatively, if the task is too easy and skill too high, people become bored. However, when skill and difficulty are roughly proportional, people enter Flow states (see Figure 1 on the following page).
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While in these states, people experience many things like: Extreme focus on a task, a sense of active control, merging of action and awareness, loss of self-awareness, distortion of the experience of time, the experience of the task being the only necessary justification for continuing it, all this things make them worth continuing. Csikszentmihalyi also outlined four characteristics found in tasks that drive an equilibrium between skill and difficulty, thus increasing the probability of Flow states. Specifically, these are tasks that: have concrete goals with manageable rules, demand actions to achieve goals that fit within the person’s capabilities, have clear and timely feedback on performance and goal accomplishment, and diminish extraneous distraction, thus facilitating concentration. It is these four task characteristics that game developers should consider and strive for in there games if they want to increase the likelihood of causing Flow states in gamers playing their games. I will now go into more detail about each characteristic.
Characteristic 1: Games should have concrete goals with manageable rules. “I’m lost. An NPC just told me what I was supposed to do, but I was distracted by the loot in the middle of the room and the super evil Giant Spiders coming at me from all directions and all over. It doesn’t help that I can’t access the NPC anymore, or that all of the rooms in this dungeon are the same shape and color. Lost. I have no idea where to go or how I’m supposed to get there. Fifteen minutes pass before I find the puzzle I need to complete. But now I have no idea which of the 20 quest items in my inventory I should use to solve it. After a while, I give up in frustration.” Flow breaks down when a player doesn’t know what their goals
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are, how they’re expected to accomplish them, or which new game techniques they’re supposed to use to solve a puzzle. When this happens, gamers disengage and are more likely to stop playing.
Why do people need concrete goals and manageable rules in games? We have limits on our information processing and attentional capabilities. Not all of the information coming from the screen or out of the speakers gets processed. While we are capable of handling a lot of visual and auditory information at one time, we do have limitations. Critical processing restrictions occur when our attention is divided. This can happen when task-relevant information is presented too quickly or when multiple sources of stimulation are competing for our attention. In either case, task performance can drop dramatically. When this happens, people become anxious about accomplishing their goals, thus inhibiting Flow. Another aspect of information processing that can be overlooked is the congruency between directions and task. People are best able to understand and apply relevant information to a task when there is congruency between the task and the information/instructions. Our ability to problem solve and make decisions is directly affected by information processing and attentional issues. When there are breakdowns in information processing, comprehension of task goals and rules also suffers. If people do not understand the nature of a problem and what caused the problem, they can become frustrated attempting to solve it. These peaks in frustration decrease Flow and also affect problem-solving techniques. When overwhelmed with too much stimulation, people will often revert to methods of problem solving that have worked in the past. These reversions may or may not be what the developers had in mind. Concrete goals with manageable rules are achievable. The act
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FIGURE 1
FIGURE 3
(above) Flow, boredom, and anxiety as they relate to task difficulty and user skill level. (upper left) Left for Dead
of achieving goals is rewarding and reinforces actions that allow individuals to continue completing goals. Whether it’s leveling your character or earning points for head-shots, the very act of accomplishing something reinforces your desire to keep accomplishing. This goal-achievement-reward cycle can keep gamers glued to a game and facilitates Flow states. How can game designers fix problems with goals & rules? If designers take into account the psychological factors mentioned above, they can easily address issues with rules and goals. Everything from the user interface to the play screen should clearly direct or cue the gamer to their task. Situational cues, HUD information, NPCs, etc. should make goals plainly comprehensible. Because divided attention hurts comprehension, goals and directions should not be given to a player during high-stimulation times (e.g., while a player is fighting an infestation of the Flood in Halo 2 or fending off Draugr in Skyrim). Provide important information so that congruency between the information and the task/goal is achieved. The directional cues used in Dead Space are a wonderful example of this. By overlaying an illuminating path to the next objective on the player’s immediate surroundings, the developers left no ambiguity regarding where to navigate. Regarding rules, the gamer may be expected to try new variations of gameplay techniques developed throughout the game. However, introducing new mechanics mid-level or mid-game may inhibit Flow. Sometimes this is necessary and leads to increasingly fun and dynamic game-play (e.g., when Gordon Freeman is first given the Zero-point energy field manipulator in Half-Life 2). When this happens care should be taken to train the player on new skills (e.g., when Gordon used the Zero-point energy field manipulator to play catch with Dog). The completion of small goals (e.g., clearing a field of boars) links to larger goals (e.g., getting enough XP to level up), which in turn link to even larger goals (e.g., getting access to level-specific gear). This linkage creates a series of rewarding experiences that can hook gamers to a game and create the goalachievement-reward cycle. If players are readily able to accomplish goals, they are more likely to continue playing. Though, as previously mentioned, there must be a balance between the player’s skill and the difficulty of task, it is very important.
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Characteristic 2: Games should only demand actions that fit within a player’s capabilities. “I know I’m supposed to swipe in the opposite direction of the Fiend’s attack. This should parry his attack, opening him up for my own counter. But I just can’t do it. Whether it is lack of reflexes, or the fact that I just started playing the game, or even that I just suck at this, I’m hopelessly inept. I’m also seriously frustrated.” Understanding the limits of player ability and cultivating player skill is of critical importance. If players are unable to accomplish goals— even if goals and rules are clear—then they will find their gaming experience dissatisfying.
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This means that for some people +7 stress (an arbitrary value) causes them to operate at their highest level of performance, but for a different person +7 stress results in them failing spectacularly. This also means that coarse gradations of game difficulty (e.g., Easy, Normal, Hard) may not lead to an optimal experience for many gamers. Game developers could include AI that are able to dynamically adjust the in-game conditions affecting difficulty, thus positively affecting player performance (e.g., AI Director in the Left4Dead series). One critical consideration for such an AI is the relationship between performance and enjoyment. Some players may perform extremely well when dynamic difficulty is increased; however, they may not enjoy being under such high levels of challenge. In this case, they may feel anxiety (e.g., Fig. 1). Game developers could identify this by marking players who have high performance and high quitrates (i.e. the player quits in response to changes in difficulty, but their performance remains steady). Another consideration is how these AI handle difficulty for multiplayer teams (e.g., four players in a Left4Dead 2 campaign). In these cases it is important to recognize that dynamic changes to difficulty may affect players of varying ability in different ways. Thus, it is crucial to determine how to optimally change difficulty without ruining the game for very good or very bad players on the same team. Certain game-specific skills must be slowly taught to players. If a game does not leverage skills commonly used in gaming (e.g., typical FPS controls and aiming), players must be gradually taught the new game-specific skills.
Why should games only demand actions that fit within a player’s capabilities? Even beyond the obvious answer—“Because players will stop playing!”—there exist many psychologically based considerations worth enumerating. Here are a couple of them: Stress and performance affect Flow. If a player isn’t skilled or capable enough to accomplish game-based goals, they may experience stress-provoking drops in performance. This kills Flow states and drives down the overall enjoyment of the gaming experience. Goal difficulty and player perseverance. As goals become increasingly difficult to accomplish (in relation to player skill), commitment to accomplishing these goals diminishes. If this happens, a gamer will stop playing.
“I did that right, right? Is the axe I just made actually in my inventory? Is this action adding to my enchantment abilities?” Whether the feedback is in the form of sound coming off of a virtual golf club, the omnipresent experience bar in an RPG, or the flash of red simulated blood in the vision of a FPS avatar, players need to know how they’re doing.
How can game designers fix problems related to skill & difficulty? Each gamer has a unique performance-stress curve (see Figure 2).
Why do gamers need timely feedback? Our innate learning and conditioning mechanisms. Feedback that occurs directly after (200 to 400 milliseconds) or midway through the
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Characteristic 3: Games should give clear and timely feedback on player performance.
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completion of an action leads to the formation of the strongest associations between action and outcome. Interestingly, simultaneous timing of feedback with the onset of an action does a poor job of facilitating associations. (See Figure 3, on the right). Back to goals... For medium and long-term goals (completing a level, or the game) feedback on progress can drive further engagement and eventual accomplishment. This means that players who get feedback will want to play more.
FIGURE 3 Examples of good (A and B) and bad (C) timing between player action and game feedback.
How can game designers address feedback concerns? If designers want to create lasting connections between a gamer’s actions and the outcomes within the game, they must be sensitive to the timing issues mentioned above (and in Figure 3). If there is a critical disconnect between an action and an outcome the gamer will fail to understand how their action affected their ingame performance. Establish mechanisms and displays of both longterm and short-term goal accomplishment early on, and then maintain these throughout the game.
Characteristic 4: Games should remove any extraneous information that inhibits concentration. “These animated spell and item icons across the bottom and top of my screen sure look cool! See the particle effects on my Ice Storm spell... Wait—is someone attacking me?” As sensory and informational clutter increases, the gamer’s ability to find and evaluate important stimuli diminishes greatly. This means that designers should strive to maintain a level of simplicity across all aspects of their games (from UI to HUDs). Why do gamers need extra information to be removed? Again, there are inherent limitations on how much information we can parse at any moment: As detailed in the discussion about the first characteristics of tasks that invoke Flow, we are limited in how much information we can process. Cluttered visual fields disrupt information processing. These disruptions can then negatively affect goal comprehension and rule learning, which ultimately affects Flow. How can game designers address extraneous information? HUDs and in-game menus should be as simple as possible (e.g., Dead Space or Fallout).
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Game skills or options should only be included if they are relevant to the story of the game or are purposefully being used by the developer to push artistic and technical boundaries.
Conclusion Tasks that induce Flow states tend to have concrete goals with manageable rules, goals that fit player capabilities, clear and timely feedback on performance, and are good at eliminating distractions. If game developers are able to include design considerations that take these characteristics into account they will drastically improve player engagement (and likely game sales). The example design considerations that I provided for each characteristic are just that: examples. The same can be said for the psychologically-based rationales I provided. Depending on the type of game a developer is making, and whether it is high- or low-concept, different ways of addressing these characteristics are eminently possible -- just as there are many more psychological factors driving how each characteristic contributes to Flow. It’s also worth noting that, for the most part, good game designers and good game companies are already explicitly (or implicitly) taking these Flow characteristics into account. In the end, I only hope to provide developers and designers with some food for thought on improving player engagement. It is up to those involved in creating games to decide how best to apply this information given here.
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THE SCIENCE AT WORK... flOw is an indie video game created by thatgamecompany. Originally released as a free Flash game in ‘06, it was reworked into a ‘07 PlayStation 3 game. In flOw, the player navigates a series of two-dimensional planes with an aquatic microorganism that evolves by consuming other microorganisms. The game’s design is based on Chen’s research into dynamic difficulty adjustment at the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media Division, and on psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theoretical concept of mental immersion or flow. The game takes into consideration all of Mihaly’s studies of cognitive flow.
Make sure you have a few hours set aside before playing, this is scientifically proven to be addicting!
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The final battle between Link and Gannon in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for N64, Wii ware and the 3DS.
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THE BOSS BATTLE BY MIKE STOUT
In his latest design feature, Activision and former Insomniac designer Mike Stout breaks down the boss battle into eight different beats, and runs two notable ones—The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s Ganon &Portal’s GladOS—through a thorough analysis to illuminate their designs.
he boss battle is one of the oldest and most beloved traditions in video games. Everyone has fond memories of their favorites. According to Wikipedia, the first boss battle ever featured in a game was the Gold Dragon in the 1975 RPG and the practice has been going strong ever since. Coming up as a designer in this industry, some of my most difficult (but also most interesting) challenges have been boss battle designs. Each time I was assigned one I felt a mixture of excitement and dread. Sure, they’re cool, but where do you start?
Hard-Learned Lessons The first boss battle I ever designed was the “Terror of Talos” fight for Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando. Still a junior designer, I agonized over that design for weeks. I poked and prodded, I added features, and by the time I was done with it I was sure I had the coolest boss battle ever! It was a six-armed Godzilla-esque monster with a robot standing on its head. It stormed around a giant movieset version of a large metropolis, destroying everything it came across. It could fly, walk, breathe fire and shoot missiles and… well pretty much everything. I was so proud of it. And it was bad. Not just bad, in fact, it was it awful! Oh sure, the final product turned out very well—thanks primarily to my talented, patient colleagues—but that first rough-draft design was an absolute disaster. The idea was cool, but I didn’t really think through the gameplay behind it. Since then, I’ve designed a ton of boss battles, and with each one I’ve learned new tips and tricks that have made each go much more smoother.
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Intro to Boss Battles One of the first questions I like to ask myself when beginning a design is this: “What are my goals?” I try to make it clear to myself what my design needs to accomplish so that every decision I make can hearken back to my goals. For boss battles, my goals are like this:
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LUDWIG VON K O O PA
Boss fights can help build & release tension in a satisfying way It’s important for the designer to build & release tension and difficulty. The idea that a boss battle is coming is the time to build intensity over the course of levels. Closer the fight, the more the anticipation grows. (See chart below)
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Fighting the boss, the player can show his mastery of the game A boss battle is a good place for the player to demonstrate the skills he has learned so far by playing the game. In that sense a boss battle is like a test.
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Bosses should feel like milestones Like chapters in a book, players reach a goal when they reach a boss battle. The anticipation leading up to a boss battle and the feeling of having attained a goal when the boss is defeated provides story and some emotional milestones for a player.
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The boss should feel like a reward A boss battle is a reward from the game designer to the player. The player gets to take a break and do something new! Boss battles tend to be intense and feel “larger than life.” Players look forward to boss battles, and getting to them feels good.
A Boss, in a Nutshell When designing a boss, I try to keep all of this in mind, but that’s a lot to remember! Because I like to keep things simple for myself, I like to boil all that information down to two points: 1. A boss is a test. The player can demonstrate mastery of the skills he has learned so far. Like a test at the end of a semester in school, a boss represents a goal— an important milestone for the player to pass. And passing the milestone needs to feel rewarding. 2. A boss is a stor y. In addition to being a goal, a boss battle itself contains a number of smaller goals and milestones, like a traditional narrative. A boss battle is structured to provide a similar to traditional storytelling. By knowing the archetypical “story structure” of a boss battle, and why each beat is important, you can use the beats to create a memorable boss fight.
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A good boss battle is one that gives you this kind of face. You know the face. A boss battle that is designed well and is effective at being an instense boss battle should draw the player into the game.
A Boss is a Test As I mentioned below, one of a boss battle’s primary duties is to test players on the skills they’ve learned, and to allow them to demonstrate mastery of those skills. It’s the designer’s responsibility to administer this test, but figuring out how to do that can be overwhelming at first. 1. Make a list of the skills you want to test the player on At a minimum, all the basic controls of your game should be on this list—but often you’ll want to test the player on something specific. In the Legend of Zelda games, the player will often obtain a weapon during the course of a level. During that level, he will be taught how to use the weapon and use it again and again. When the level is over, the boss at the end tests him on the use of that weapon.
2. Make a list of attacks or challenges that will test that skill The next step is to brainstorm and make a list of attacks that will test those skills. It’s important to brainstorm these attacks independently from any preconceived notions of what the boss can do, or what he is. Think instead only of what the best attacks are that can test the skills you want to test. By keeping this step separate from the next, you can avoid limiting yourself based on your boss’ appearance or theme. Once we know what the attacks are at their basic level, we can them appropriately in the next step.
3. Decide how to theme the attacks you brainstormed Figure out how to theme the boss attacks so that they’re appropriate for the boss character you’re using and that the player is fighting. 4. Decide how the boss defends himself A weakness in many boss battle designs is that the players damage the boss repeatedly. When the player can do that, the battle begins to feel dull and unsatisfying. You need to design the boss with defensive capabilities that will serve as a test.
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A Boss is a Story As I mentioned earlier, boss battles tend to be structured based on a series of “story” beats. I’ve identified eight beats that I like to use when designing boss fights. Below, I’ve stated the nickname I use for each beat, how it works, why it’s a good thing to do, and then cited two examples of each. Beat 1: Build-Up This beat happens before the player even gets into the fight. Just like with pay-per-view wrestling, or MMA fights, a boss fight needs to be promoted. The player needs to be informed how awesome, dangerous, vile, etc the boss is through cutscenes, dialog, or any number of other methods. The player also needs to be trained on the skills he’ll need to beat the boss. Why is it a good idea? A boss fight is a test of the player’s skills. It is, therefore, important to train your players on how to fight the boss. Most often, this is done during the build-up to the fight.
1A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Ocarina of Time has a number of great examples of the “Build-Up” beat. Ganon (the evil wizard behind everything bad in the game) makes a number of appearances in cutscenes, kidnaps princess Zelda, and otherwise makes a nuisance out of himself for most of the game. My very favorite instance of this beat is the “Phantom Ganon” boss battle. The designers of this game are so hardcore that they created another boss battle just to train you on how to eventually defeat Ganon at the end of the game.
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Beat 2: Intro / Reveal At the beginning of the boss fight, the boss needs to do something to introduce himself with a big BANG. In many games a boss will rear back, let out a huge roar, and blow something up. It’s a gaming cliché, but it gets the player’s attention, that’s for sure. This beat is a good idea no matter what you decide to do. Why is it a good idea? It’s important to sell the player on how awesome, quirky, or otherwise interesting the boss is. Following this simple step greatly increases the player’s sense of tension and anticipation, and thus the game’s intensity. At this point you’re still trying to promote the boss—you want the player to desire nothing more than to take him down and win.
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2A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time The player finally encounters Ganon face to face. Ganon casts a horrible spell at him, rises into the air and cackles maniacally. The words “Great King of Evil: Ganondorf” appear on the screen below him. This is an extremely memorible moment for any player. Ever since I first played this game, the part where the Boss’s name appears never fails to give me goose bumps! Out of all the games I’ve played, this is awesome.
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Beat 3: “Business as Usual” “Business as Usual” is when the boss gets to use the most basic attacks you created in the attack design phase earlier. During this phase the player can get used to the pattern and understand how the boss can be defeated. Why is it a good idea? “Business as Usual” sets an intensity baseline for the boss fight. The player knows that from this point on, there’s nowhere to go but up! Further, if you absolutely need to teach your player something new, this is the phase to do it. 3A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time As he learned during the “Phantom Ganon” boss fight I described in Beat 1, the player must use his sword to return Ganon’s yellow energy attacks and then fire an arrow at him while he’s stunned in order to beat him for that round. Even though this kind of boss battle happens in many games, it is a good and classic type of battle. 3B Portal (2007) The player has to take GladOS’ personality core and throw it into the incinerator, just like he was trained to do with the Companion Cube. During this whole episode, the player is under no threat of damage or death. This was a wise decision on the part of the designers. Though they’ve used the incinerator before, the player has never thrown a personality core into one of these before, so they are technically learning something new. Which is a good thing, like what we discussed earlyer in this article. It’s important for a player to have a chance to learn what they are suppost to do in each challenge that comes to them.
Beat 4: Escalation During this beat, the boss will introduce new attacks and complications. The difficulty, intensity, and drama begin to rise here. Choose a few more attacks from the list you made during the attack design prep-work you did earlier—now’s the time to use them! In addition to “ramping up” difficulty over the course of a boss fight, introducing new attacks or complications during this beat helps with the battle’s pacing. As crazy as it gets during this beat, the player knows it will only get crazier, and that anticipation will drive him forward with fervor.
4A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Ganon gains two extra attacks during this phase: 1. He can slam down into the floor, which causes the blocks that the player is standing on to fall down into the abyss, and 2. He can fire five yellow energy bolts at the player simultaneously. The first tests the player’s basic movement abilities (he needs to move to a safe place before the ground falls away beneath him). Gives the player a choice between executing a dodge-roll to avoid the bolts and attempting to return them, which is very difficult. 4B Portal After the player throws GladOS’ personality core into the incinerator, she goes even crazier. First, she begins to flood the area with nerve toxin (which gives the player only six minutes to defeat her). Then she deploys a missile launcher robot. The player needs to employ the training he received and use the missile robot against GladOS.
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4AWarning!
A Brief Spoiler For the rest of the article, I’m going to draw examples from two of my favorite boss fights: Ganon from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GladOS from Portal. I am going to spoil these fights pretty thoroughly. Proceed to the next page with caution to avoid spoilers.
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Beat 5: Midpoint The midpoint is the “emotional turning point” of the fight. During this beat, the boss simultaneously raises the stakes significantly and gives the player a momentary break in the action. Ideally, this beat will leave the player screaming for the boss’ defeat or questioning whether the boss can be defeated at all. This beat usually takes the form of a false victory or defeat, or transformation and this beat often involves a “death” of some kind.
5A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time This is a huge one for the Ganon boss fight. The player defeats Ganon, his “death” seems to cause his castle to collapse! When he finally arrives at the ground, the castle finally collapses entirely, leaving nothing but rubble. There is a short pause where the player is allowed to take a breath, and then Ganon erupts from the rubble! Not only is he still alive, but as he transforms into a giant monster it’s apparent he’s more powerful than ever!
Beat 6: It’s ON! During this beat, the boss has access to the full range of his attacks. The battle is as intense as it is going to get, and the player is motivated and ready to go. In some ways this is the easiest beat of the boss battle, since you just let the boss go wild.
6A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time To defeat Ganon in his big monster form, the player needs to shoot Ganon in the head with his arrows. Then the player can dodge around behind him and attack the weak spot on his tail, which is a super thrill. The player is being tested on his attacking (both with his primary and alternate attacks), dodging, bow and arrow shooting, identification of weak spots, and basic movement—but under a lot more pressure. Those swords that Ganon is wielding HURT!
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6A
Beat 7: “Kill” Sequence During this beat, you must show the enemy on the ropes. The boss has been struck down! The player gets a moment to bask in his achievements—in his mastery over the game and the skills he’s learned. The boss doesn’t need to actually die during this sequence, but he should be shown as defeated (down on one knee, breathing heavily, complementing the player, etc.) If the boss does die, then make sure he dies spectacularly. Make it worth the player’s while. You want to mark the boss’ defeat (which we know is an important pacing milestone) with a good feeling. This is especially important if the boss is supposed to escape after this beat to be fought again later. If he just runs away before this beat has run its course, the player might feel robbed.
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7A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time The player thrusts his sword into Ganon’s face. Zelda and all the NPCs you’ve rescued band together and cast a spell to bind Ganon into a prison forever. Ganon falls into the prison screaming for revenge, but it’s all over for him. 7B Portal After throwing GladOS’ last personality core into the incinerator, she explodes in a spectacular fireworks show and is pulled out through the roof. Even though the ending eventually makes it clear she survives the explosion, the grandness of her “kill” sequence makes it worthwhile.
7B
Beat 8: Victory Sequence While the “Kill Sequence” beat was explicitly for rubbing salt in the boss’ wounds, this beat is explicitly about rewarding the player for beating the boss. This can come in many forms, from congratulatory cutscenes to heart containers to achievements to literal victory celebrations. No matter what you do for the player, as long as it is rewarding for the player you’ve done your job. The player won, and this is his chance to feel awesome for a moment. By embracing this beat, you solidify the emotional milestone and allow the tension and anticipation you’ve built up to release, which is a good thing.
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Boss battles in video games drive the player to beat the game. And gives them something to brag about! Might as well make it hard for them to beat!
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spotlight
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Journey's rare and magical success B Y L eigh A le x ander
or years, thatgamecompany has been driving at a vision through its unique, often meditative and quietly thoughtful works: To create an emotion in players. Games like flOw and Flower faced the interesting design challenge of providing players engaging gameplay in spaces where the experience was more important than the idea of task or objective. Journey, soon to be released on the PlayStation Network, is the finest achievement yet of the visionary studio—a game where the objective and the emotion are stitched into the same cloth. It is truley a work of art. Journey opens in a vast, rippling desert dotted with mysterious gravestones. In an endless sea of sand, the player intuits that the next object in the distance—a cluster of small, faceless monuments that strongly suggest graves—must be the goal.
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The character, a gracefully stylized and genderless figure draped in sense of loss and loneliness that might make players long to seek one paprika robes, glides fluidly over the rippling desert until a mountain, another out and collaborate, even in a silent world where interaction cleft with a beacon of light, appears far in the distance. With no is limited to musical “shouts.” sound and no word, no clue but the elegant expanse, you know “Looking two people in a desert, I already [experience] a feeling what you need to do: Make the journey. of longing,” says Chen. “But if eventually [players have] to go to the The desert land is populated by shreds of windswept fabric and mountains, then a different terrain would happen.” glowing signals that bestow the ability to glide, swathed in a magical Thus one of the game’s most fascinating achievements becomes scarf that grows longer with each discovery. the subtle transformation of desert land into so many visually distinct All of TGC’s games are aesthetically lovely in their own way; and often stunning arenas, using only color, light and the shapes of many players found a kind of zen in flOw’s simple palette of glowing the crimson fabric that populates the world. “We’re a very small silver organisms in fluid blue, or in Flower’s breezy landscapes dotted team, so if we spend all this time on the sand, we have to apply it with chiming blossoms. Journey is an entirely new level of beauty, to the rest of the game,” notes Chen. the kind of awe-inspiring that makes you sigh. It’s pragmatic minimalism; if players don’t know what they are The sandscape evolves subtly as you explore on your way meant to do within the game, the direction is in the title itself. And to the mysterious, distant goal; sometimes the although the game is sparse at best in terms phosphorescence of a cavern gives it a distinct of direction and instruction, the process of “We see emotion subterranean feel, and other times, radiant really learning the world and experimenting sunsets and the stark shadows of stony ruins is naturally intuitive. as nutrition, & make it gleam like fire. “We see emotion as nutrition, and a “It’s a choice, and also basically a forced healthy human should have a wide variety,” a healthy human choice, because of constraint,” TGC cofounder reflects Chen. He says Journey is something should have a Jenova Chen tells us. What’s most fascinating of a response to an age in which pursuit of about the studio is that although its work can accessibility has meant that any information wide variety” feel sentimental, even esoteric to those skeptiis Google-able, hints abound, and goals cal about the power of emotion and storytelling and sub-objectives are stamped with flashing in games, it makes all of its decisions based on very practical, even beacons. “The problem with entertainment at large today is that I traditional game design considerations. think there’s a lack of wonder,” he adds. The decision to set the game in the chameleonic desert ultimately But Santiago says accessibility is still a key goal of the studio, came down to Journey’s primary directive: To create an online game hence Journey’s simplicity, its cues from theme park design, and the where people could share the experience with one another. Although fact it’s nearly impossible for players to feel actually lost. Most key to players can experience Journey effectively totally alone, ultimately the the experience of this game, however, is its universally-relatable narrastudio hopes that the multiplayer experience will be truly meaningful. tive of a pilgrimage through the unknown, where power and pleasure It’s the great age of connectivity, yet most online games are more can be gained and then lost, and the hero is tempered by adversity. like team sports, and TGC was intrigued by the idea of an online It’s the universal archetype of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, or game that was not a traditional empowerment fantasy, that wasn’t monomyth, which is essentially based on the concept of a protagonist about players using weapons. That singular goal drove all of the leaving home to endure challenge and return with a new power. As game’s design decisions; the smooth backdrop of a desert would Chen explains: “It’s a narrative structure found among all of these make it easier for players to focus on their fellows, rather than to mythical or religious stories and folktales whether in Eastern or Westbecome distracted by a visually-busy environment. ern culture... the Hero’s Journey is a common film script concept.” What the team wanted most was to create the sense of awe that “I thought, we know we want to make a game that makes two comes with adventuring toward the unknown and to enhance the people connect... in a big company people like to do these trust
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exercises, send people out to do physical, dangerous activities and afterward, people will have a bond,” Chen says. “But I felt, if it’s just a difficult situation, the emotion wouldn’t really reach a high moment. So we were thinking what if we actually put two players going through the entire hero’s journey arc?” “The hero’s journey essentially is a narrative structure of any life transformation,” says Chen. “[Journey] is very much a classic parable of life... that was totally intentional.” That sentiment is clear in Journey’s narrative, the spectrum of emotions involved in personal evolution enforced by the unexplained game world and its gold-lit artifacts and mysterious relics, open to puzzle and interpret. But might the climate that birthed what Chen sees as a teenage empowerment fantasy also make a non-traditional game like Journey hard for modern gamers to understand and relate to? “Our hope was, like making a Pixar movie, it needs to be magical, imaginative and fun for the younger generation, but it needs to have some relevance, some deeper meaning for the adults,” he says. “When we approached this game we were working to two particular extremes... for the mature adults about the meaning of life, and then for the younger generation we wanted to make it like a very magical work that is exciting and filled with adventure. “I think a lot of players will stop a game [when they wonder] what they are supposed to do, but hopefully they will start to journey into the adventure and get carried on by the feeling,” Chen adds. On the inevitable discussions about “what it all means”, Santiago is positive: “Hopefully, if they are asking those questions, then shortly after, the answer can be, ‘I don’t know, but that’s okay.’ We definitely had moments where we wanted to tell the story, but also to leave it open for interpretation for different types of people,” she says. In the three years from idea genesis to launching Journey, Chen and Santiago say they experienced their own version of the Hero’s Journey through the game’s often-challenging development. “I feel proud,” Santiago says of the long-awaited launch, “because I remember through the last three years, all of the questions and the doubt and the fears that we had about making this game... it’s really scary to make a game that is different, and I really think Journey as an experience puts a lot of faith into its players, that the players are going to determine their own experience.” “I’m just glad we pulled through, to present Journey as it is today, which I think is a very pure expression... it’s the most I’ve ever hoped for, because we get to find out how people feel about it,” she adds.
In that regard, thatgamecompany sees its games as experiment— not in that they are unsure or unplanned, but in that the studio creates without necessarily knowing how players will react or receive its work, whether its ideas will be affirmed or whether the team will be surprised, and in what ways. But Journey must be viewed as an inarguable success. It’s a symphony of the very emotions its creators intended, it’s a shining example of innovating and creating beauty within design constraint, and it’s that rare breed of game storytelling that strikes the ideal balance between guiding you and allowing you to discover your own story.
Thatgamecompany has constantly fought to push the idea that video games are a form of art. For those of you don’t think video games can be a true artform you have to check out this game, it will change your mind for sure. What do you think!
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industry
Leaked Zynga Memo Justifies Copycat Strategy B Y P aul T assi
or years now, social games giant Zynga has taken a lot of heat for copying its competitors’ popular titles and releasing almost identical games under their own brand. What drew the most ire recently was the release of Zynga’s Dream Heights, a clone of Nimblebit’s Tiny Tower, which also happened to be last year’s iPhone Game of the Year. The company released a sarcastic congratulatory message, with side-by-side images showing just how insanely similar the two games were. I picked up the story, as did countless other news outlets, and though normally Zynga pays no mind to such accusations, as it’s almost their entire business model, CEO Mark Pincus wrote an internal memo that has now been leaked to the web. Pincus once famously said “I don’t f***ing want innovation. “You’re not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.” This memo isn’t quite as brazen, but echoes a similar sentiment. Read the full text here: “Everyone, there’s press today about one of our mobile games, Dream Heights, that just launched. As Zynga grows by further innovating on best of breed social mechan-
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ics, we should expect the industry to sit up erated the game industry, its 30 year body and take notice of our growing portfolio. I’m of work has inspired us too. proud of the mobile team’s hard work and And, this has always been the case for the industry has taken notice. the company and the rest of the industry. Google didn’t create the first search Zynga Poker, FarmVille, CityVille and Words engine. Apple didn’t create the first mp3 with Friends, none of these games were the player or tablet. And, Facebook didn’t first to market in their category but we made create the first social network. But these them the most fun and social, and the most companies have evolved products and popular. Our teams continue to improve categories in revolutionary ways. these games every week which has been an We don’t need to be first to market. We important part of our success model. need to be the best in market. There are As I’ve said, our strategy since the begingenres that we’re going to enter because ning has been to develop the best game— we know our players are interested in them most fun & social—for every category. We and because we want and need to be are rarely first since categories in games go where players are. We evolve genres by back decades, but we aim to be the best. making games free, A few of you social, accessible and have asked how “We don’t need to highest quality. our approach to With regard to genres relates to the be first to market. Dream Heights and situation we faced We need to be the the tower genre, it’s with Vostu. There important to note that are rules of engagebest in market. ” this category has exment in our industry. isted since 1994 with Companies have to games like Sim Tower and Tower of Babel respect each other’s legal and IP ownership in 2009 which achieved 15 million DAUs. rights in the form of copyrights and tradeOn iOS there has been Yoot Tower, Tower marks. In the case of Vostu, you can see Up, Tower Town, Tower Blocks and Tiny for yourself that Vostu crossed the line and Tower. Just as our games, mechanics and chose to use our copyrighted IP and artwork. social innovations have inspired and accela Play in the form of social and mobile gam-
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ing has become a mainstream activity, but it has the potential to be so much more. It can be one of the primary ways we connect with other people. It can surpass TV as the most popular and engaging medium of the 21st century. In order to make this vision real, we need to work as a company and an industry to continue innovating, improving and hopefully revolutionizing every major genre of games for social play. Every successful game from developers big and small has pioneered some important new facet of this experience. We are proud of the mechanics we have pioneered that are now industry standards. Part of what makes our industry cool and dynamic is the idea that small teams can build successful games. But at Zynga we will continue to innovate and expand our possibility space in order to delight our player base too. Finally, I want to thank everyone who emailed me. Part of what makes our company special is the open transparent dialog we can all have, and it’s your passion that is shaping our future. —Mark” That’s a much more eloquent statement of purpose than “I don’t want f***ing innovation,” I suppose, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was meant to be leaked showing “nice guy” Mark motivating behind the scenes. But I don’t buy it. As I’ve said before to Zynga defenders who happen upon my articles (many of which turn out to be employees), this is not a case of “inspiration.” Even though every product and IP on the market is generally a derivative of some other concept in almost all cases, but what Zynga’s doing is a shocking step beyond.
future ones, but there’s something different with Zynga. Something wrong. And to have a brand that is this creatively bankrupt does not bode well for its long term prospects.
Continue to the next page for a timeline of Zynga and thoughts from Nathan about the morals behind the company
The company scavenges through the most popular titles on the social market and harvests them for their own. To use an analogy I’ve drawn on before, the gap between Tiny Tower and Sim Tower might be the difference between James Cameron‘s sci-fi Avatar and the similarly themed Dances with Wolves. The space between Tiny Tower and Zynga’s Dream Heights would be the difference between Dances with Wolves and another film set in 1800s about Native Americans with the exact same plot, lookalike actors and titled “Cavorting with Bears.” You can repeat that idea for tons of Zynga titles, Farmville with Farmtown, Hidden Chronicles with Gardens of Time, Zynga Bingo with Bingo Blitz, Words with Friends with Scrabble. There’s no “inspiration” here, only thievery. Yes, they change the code and draw up new artwork to avoid any legal trouble (after getting in hot water for not doing that when they stole Farmville), but it’s the bare minimum to avoid legal retribution. And if someone did sue them? The powerful company (now with a billion dollar IPO) would crush them with a dogpile of lawyers. Pincus would have us believe he’s just continuing in the great tradition of all tech pioneers, drawing on past products to make
(left) Mark Pinicus smiling like an idiot (right) A side by side comparasion of Tiny Tower and Dream Heights, you can see they are pretty much the same.
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HISTORY OF ZYNGA Hopefully it ends soon..
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INDUSTRY
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pure evil... Now, is it fair to say Zynga is in the wrong it has better luck and business sense than these other game developers? Maybe, but Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has a definite answer. When asked about what innovations Zynga was bringing to the virtual battlefield, Pincus responded, ”I don’t f***ing want innovation. You’re not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.” This quote brings me to the heart of my argument: while immoral to say the least, should this practice of game copying even be legal? Should there be laws to prevent this virtual “survival of the fittest?” While one could cite the numerous cut and paste first person shooters of video gaming today as evidence that the practice of game copying is harmless, these games are produced by large, multibillion dollar companies who could stand
to take a slight revenues dip if their game gets outsold by their competitors. In the case of Zynga, however, Mark Pincus effectively preyed on smaller gaming startups to claw his way to the top of the social gaming world, and real damage was done. Have you ever heard of Slashkey before this article? I’m guessing not. This isn’t survival of the fittest; this is Zynga terrorizing the social gaming universe.
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