Saturday, April 23, 2005
Red-Line Analysis in Mainstream Games
In Jamie Fristrom's blog entry entitled "Finish", he notes that an online marketing survey of the Spider-Man 2 game indicates that only 55% of those responding indicated they actually finished the game. And in theory, this could actually be a lot smaller, as online surveys tend to grab more of a hardcore audience.
Based on my previous blog, entry, that would indicate that there's a Red Line drawn somewhere through Spider-Man 2 where players lose interest and quit playing. Now, unlike game demos, a full-game's worth to a player isn't necessarily tied to whether or not they finished it. In fact, there's some anecdotal evidence that players' evaluation of a game may actually DROP when they finish the game. I guess this is because they realize they've now seen pretty much everything the game has to offer, and there's no more prospect of undiscovered riches of fun to be mined as they make further progress.
But ignoring that for a bit - I've been starting to analyze some games that I've never finished but still enjoyed (for a while), trying to fins out why I never finished them. My collection is FULL of unfinished games that I still harbor illusions of going back to some day (Hey, I just recently re-started Ultima 6 with that in mind... it's the third time I've tried). Some common "red-lines" for me include:
* The save points were spread too far apart for my taste. It's not so much a case of restarting when I die, as having the opportunity to shut the dang machine off because I have a life and family and things I've gotta do. I remember one game that offered lots of respawn positions in-between the save points - talk about frustration! Why weren't they all save-points? I ended up leaving the Playstation on overnight so I could pick up where I left off - and finally shut the game off in frustration a little while later. I never went back to it, out of frustration.
* Frustrating boss-encounters: Level-bosses are supposed to represent some level of challenge that requires a bit more effort than normal to beat. I know that if I defeat one of these "gatekeeper" challenges too easily - without getting at least nearly stomped in the process - I feel it was weak. Getting beaten down once and making a comeback feels heroic. Getting beaten down constantly on successive replays just makes you feel like a loser and makes you lose interest in a game.
* Getting Lost: Probably the #1 "Red Line" in RPGs - getting lost in terms of knowing what to do next. This also occurs in action games where you just can't find the exit to the level even after you've explored practically the whole level eight times, or trying to find that last remaining peon or submarine on an older RTS game.
In RPGs, the most common incarnation is when you are told to go retrieve something and you have no idea where to start (or continue) looking. You need to find the brain-dip ectoplasmer from Dr. Strangeglove, but you have no idea who Dr. Strangeglove is, what continent he's on, and nobody else in the entire world has Dr. Strangegl0ve's whereabouts as part of their canned conversation. The assumption, I guess, is that you found out about him in your starting village *if* you happened to trigger that one conversation. But that was eighteen hours of gameplay ago, and probably something that happened three months ago of real-time, so that you don't remember it even if you did happen to trigger that piece of exposition. Few things trigger my dissatisfaction with a game more strongly than wandering about well-explored territory over and over again in search of something new to allow me to make progress again.
It's funny - I'm going back to play Ultima 6 for about the fourth time. I get stuck on this same point every time. I've talked to several people about the game, and they all tell me they gave up at the same point - finding the pieces of the pirate treasure map. Apparently lots of us "got lost" at the same point.
* Game-Halting Bugs - 'nuff said. I've experienced three of these - two of which ruined games which I had LOVED until that point.
* Unyielding Stress Levels: This is a weird one. But I find that there are some games that I just end up feeling too tired to play. While I love the challenge, a lot of times I play games to relax, to take a break. The difficulty level on some games ramps up to the point where playing the game is mentally exhausting, and it just never lets up. I find myself wanting to take frequent breaks from the game - and when the breaks become longer, I find myself jumping in "cold" into high-difficulty scenarios that were tough when I was nicely warmed up. So I quickly go frustrated with the game and quit playing (or if it was REALLY good, I go back to re-enjoy another level).
Games should take a note from Shakespeare's tragedies - they were broken up by 'comic relief' and had several "peaks and valleys." These helped break up the tension - and make the tense, emotional peaks seem all the more powerful. If you want a challenge to feel more difficult, lead up to it with a few 'cakewalk' sections. It serves a dual purpose - it also gives the player a chance to feel good about how his skills have improved, as he sees how easily he can deal with things that challenged him at the beginning of the game.
Of course, these aren't nearly as important as discovering why players get tired of a game within the first hour of a game demo --- if players have stuck with you far enough into a game, they often have enough of an investment to plow through a few goofs later on. I remember I wasted HOURS of Ultima 7 part 2 trying to get a critical event to trigger that never happened - because of some obscure bug that only seemed to occur on my particular brand of CPU (according to the customer support person I talked to). But players of course shouldn't HAVE to. So I am trying to compile a list of these "red-line" factors to create something of a checklist for the games I develop. A lot of these are hard to notice as a developer, but I'm hoping that if I go through a game looking specifically for these cases, I might find and fix a lot of the "low-hanging fruit" so testers can focus on trickier problems.
Labels: Game Design
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:47 AM (Permalink)
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Nice analysis. I think back on the games I've played and not finished (frankly, this is true for almost all of the games I've bought in the last 5 years. I have a nasty habit of buying a game and getting bored a few days later) and it's pretty easy to classify the reason I stopped playing each game into your categories.
It would be interesting to find out if people finished Outpost Kaloki, and if not, where they got stuck. We rebalanced a couple of tough levels after the first release based on player feedback. And while I think the game has plenty of content, I don't think it's super hard to get through all the story levels, so I would guess there are a bunch of people who "finished" it.
One thing that I suspect combats the "no more prospect of undiscovered riches" factor is to have a large variety of bonus levels, free-play levels, secret ways to replay an existing level, etc. I've heard this is a pretty cool thing about the new Lego Star Wars game. I've been playing Railroad Tycoon II for about 6 years, now, and I keep playing it, even though I finished all the "campaigns", because I keep getting higher ratings and I want to unlock new hidden levels. My point is that this way you can give the player the sense of accomplishment of having finished the main flow of the game without taking away that sense of undiscovered riches.
-- stay
It would be interesting to find out if people finished Outpost Kaloki, and if not, where they got stuck. We rebalanced a couple of tough levels after the first release based on player feedback. And while I think the game has plenty of content, I don't think it's super hard to get through all the story levels, so I would guess there are a bunch of people who "finished" it.
One thing that I suspect combats the "no more prospect of undiscovered riches" factor is to have a large variety of bonus levels, free-play levels, secret ways to replay an existing level, etc. I've heard this is a pretty cool thing about the new Lego Star Wars game. I've been playing Railroad Tycoon II for about 6 years, now, and I keep playing it, even though I finished all the "campaigns", because I keep getting higher ratings and I want to unlock new hidden levels. My point is that this way you can give the player the sense of accomplishment of having finished the main flow of the game without taking away that sense of undiscovered riches.
-- stay
# posted by 
: April 23, 2005 1:34 PM
: April 23, 2005 1:34 PM
I actually haven't finished Outpost Kaloki yet, either. I think it's something of that stress level factor - you have to be at the top of your game pretty well at the later levels to make it work, or you are back to the beginning of the mission.
Void War is at least broken up into small missions, but it suffers from having the really steep ramp-up of difficulty - in fact, some people say the bosses are actually EASIER than the levels leading up to them. Well, uh, I guess that counts as varying the difficulty level a little...
The hidden level idea, for me, isn't such a big deal. Not unless you can go back to them immediately after "winning" the game... like have a menu option that lets you jump immediately to secret levels you've now unlocked (or maybe jump to any level you previously completed).
But if it requires me to re-play the game from the beginning to take advantage of them, I usually won't bother. There are only a few games I go back and play through again after winning them. And if I never uncovered the secret levels in the first place, they may as well not have been part of the game at all.
Void War is at least broken up into small missions, but it suffers from having the really steep ramp-up of difficulty - in fact, some people say the bosses are actually EASIER than the levels leading up to them. Well, uh, I guess that counts as varying the difficulty level a little...
The hidden level idea, for me, isn't such a big deal. Not unless you can go back to them immediately after "winning" the game... like have a menu option that lets you jump immediately to secret levels you've now unlocked (or maybe jump to any level you previously completed).
But if it requires me to re-play the game from the beginning to take advantage of them, I usually won't bother. There are only a few games I go back and play through again after winning them. And if I never uncovered the secret levels in the first place, they may as well not have been part of the game at all.
The original Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Dragon Warrior games are counted among games that I haven't finished. Wizardy, Breath of Fire, Diablo 2, and many more are included.
Sometimes, I can't figure out where to go next. Zelda and Breath of Fire did that to me. I am sure I was just missing out on some obvious thing, like a doorway that I just didn't see, but I stopped playing for a bit, then wanted to start over with a new party when I did pick it up again.
Sometimes I don't want to spend an hour building up experience, like in Final Fantasy or Wizardry. I'd like to progress, but my party is too weak. Then, I once again want to start over because I don't feel the connection with my party after weeks or months or even years of non-play.
Oddly enough, I can see myself playing these games again in the future, but I might pass on the games I have completed. I didn't consider Super Mario 64 completed until I got all of the stars, so even when I "beat" Bowser in the end, I kept playing until I hit 120. But I haven't touched it much since then. And Zelda: Ocarina of Time had mini-games and items I was probably missing out on , but I didn't much care for them once I beat the game.
It's probably why classic games like Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Space Invaders, etc are so popular. If they had a proper ending, who would continue to play them?
Sometimes, I can't figure out where to go next. Zelda and Breath of Fire did that to me. I am sure I was just missing out on some obvious thing, like a doorway that I just didn't see, but I stopped playing for a bit, then wanted to start over with a new party when I did pick it up again.
Sometimes I don't want to spend an hour building up experience, like in Final Fantasy or Wizardry. I'd like to progress, but my party is too weak. Then, I once again want to start over because I don't feel the connection with my party after weeks or months or even years of non-play.
Oddly enough, I can see myself playing these games again in the future, but I might pass on the games I have completed. I didn't consider Super Mario 64 completed until I got all of the stars, so even when I "beat" Bowser in the end, I kept playing until I hit 120. But I haven't touched it much since then. And Zelda: Ocarina of Time had mini-games and items I was probably missing out on , but I didn't much care for them once I beat the game.
It's probably why classic games like Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Space Invaders, etc are so popular. If they had a proper ending, who would continue to play them?
Hmmm... maybe. I kept pumping the quarters into Shinobi long after I beat it. But it was a highly replayable game.
After all, in Donkey Kong, you COULD rescue the girl. But you just rescued her again and again. So it really wasn't much of an ending. The game didn't end.
I have gone through and repeated games that I have finished. The best games, in fact, leave you wanting more when they come to a conclusion. I played Wing Commander I - IV at least twice each (WC1 I think I kept playing until I won the Confederate Medal of Honor). I recently played Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines a second time so I could try out the game with a different clan and a few different choices in character specialization.
It's tougher to play through, say, a Final Fantasy game a second time through (unless a LONG time has passed) - because there's not much variation you could take advantage of.
After all, in Donkey Kong, you COULD rescue the girl. But you just rescued her again and again. So it really wasn't much of an ending. The game didn't end.
I have gone through and repeated games that I have finished. The best games, in fact, leave you wanting more when they come to a conclusion. I played Wing Commander I - IV at least twice each (WC1 I think I kept playing until I won the Confederate Medal of Honor). I recently played Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines a second time so I could try out the game with a different clan and a few different choices in character specialization.
It's tougher to play through, say, a Final Fantasy game a second time through (unless a LONG time has passed) - because there's not much variation you could take advantage of.
Heh, so basically you continued to play games you've beaten because of the Pokemon phenomenon: you had to catch 'em all!
Beat the hiscore.
Get the medal.
See the alternate ending.
So I guess even beatable games can get replay value if you provide compelling reasons for it. I didn't much care to find every secret in Donkey Kong Country, but I did want to make sure I found everything in Super Mario 64.
Well, I guess we're back to no conclusion again. B-)
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Beat the hiscore.
Get the medal.
See the alternate ending.
So I guess even beatable games can get replay value if you provide compelling reasons for it. I didn't much care to find every secret in Donkey Kong Country, but I did want to make sure I found everything in Super Mario 64.
Well, I guess we're back to no conclusion again. B-)
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