Breaking Open the Black Box

The Secrets and Stories of Game Design

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Archives for 2012.06.30

The Simplest Thing First

by

My first major lesson on the importance of simple things occurred shortly after I was reassigned to work on the outdoor world with Mike Heiberg, the legend that inspired the High Bergg Helm and my first official Blizzard mentor.

I was sitting in a cheap, plastic chair, leaning in to a 14″ monitor one day when Mike turned to me and asked, “What’s the simplest thing in WoW?”

It seemed like a trick question, but I said the first thing that came to mind: “Well, a wolf, I suppose. It runs up and does its thing, but it’s not very interesting.”

Mike grinned and said, “that’s right, wolves are incredibly boring, yet they still do their job – why?”

“I dunno, you kill enough of ’em, you complete a quest and you get some stuff. That’s most of the game, right?”

Mike frowned for a split second, shook his head and said, “that’s not quite it – you’re missing the whole step before it. How’d you kill those wolves?”

“Well, I threw a Fireball at it.”

“Aaaaahhhhhh,” spoke Mike with a sagely tone, “tell me a little more about that.”

“I stood back, cast it, cast it a few more times, then it died.”

“So what was engaging about it?”

“Er… well, what? I dunno, using my abilities on it was kinda fun, if simple.”

“Yup, that’s it. Using your abilities is fun. That’s true. A lot of games can miss that – and spend too much time making interesting monsters. If your own abilities are fun, even the most boring of monsters can be interesting. People spent hundreds of hours right clicking in Diablo 2, but it was those moments when they leaped in and pushed whirlwind that they remembers.”

“Sure, Mike, but that’s all so basic.”

“Tell, you what, let’s stop here for the day. Tomorrow, I want you to come back and tell me why a Fireball is fun.”

“What?”

“Do you already have an answer?”

“Well… no, not really.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The Importance of Thinking Basics Through

I honestly didn’t have an answer for him. A fireball? God, those are so overdone. Every game has them, even Mario 1 had them. Plus, what distinguished them in WoW, anyways? Fireball was about as simple as you get. 
You didn’t get to avoid it, you couldn’t even roll out of the way. It’s just a fiery load in your face. Fine. Maybe that’s it, I told myself.  So I did what any well-equipped and professional person would do – I cheated.  
I rang up my friend and mentor, Tom and asked, “Tom, what the hell makes a Fireball interesting?”  Tom pretty much laughed me off the phone. “Mike’s training you, isn’t he?” 
Caught!
“Yep… and I have no clue what the hell he’s looking for.” 
“Well, he can explain the answer better than I can – he’s so old he was there when the first ones were made. But here’s a tip to get you started: What are the limits of a Fireball?” 

Limitations

Games are about rules, rule bending and sometimes rule breaking.  Rules define the limits of what you can do – and those limits often point to the power hidden behind a given ability.  In fact, the ability to read between the lines of an ability’s limits is so powerful, that players frequently read too far into them and mistake a minor bug cleanup with a deeper grand purpose. 
After a certain point, you play so many games, you forget the steps you took to learn the original rules and how you used that ability. In a way, the ability to forget what you know is the most powerful skill a designer can have. 
What did you see when you first saw a Fireball? Here was my list:
  • I can attack without getting close
  • Monsters will attack me after they get hit
  • The cast time for Fireball wasn’t very long so…
  • If I throw one from far enough away, I can hit them with another one before they hit me
This seemed like enough. 

Dream On

I recited my list to Mike, who politely listened as we worked, then thought for a moment and replied: “That’s a good list. All of those things are true. However, there’s more to a Fireball than its mechanics. What else?”
“I’m doing the impossible, hurling a giant ball of burning death, and then BAM”, slamming my hand onto the desk for emphasis, “the target dies in a fiery explosion!” 
 “Yep,” Mike said matter-of-factly, “there’s a lot of wish fulfillment in there too – and the sound of the Fireball reinforces that a lot. Since we could spend a month – and we did – trying to come up with everything that makes a Fireball feel right, I’m going to skip ahead a bit.”

The Simplest Thing

“There’s far more happening on screen than just what you’ve described. Look at the way the game visibly lets you know the fireball is coming: the sound is different than when the fireball is unleashed, the character stops moving, its hands light up, the animations change, a bar begins filling up.
“Each detail is woven together to create a tapestry of telegraphing – to let you know what’s about to happen… and most importantly… how much time you have before it occurs.”
I frowned slightly, “You really know how to make basic things seem very ornate. You know, when I saw a monster cast a Fireball, that was the first time I thought they were ever doing something interesting. ”  
“Basic things are ornate, we just rarely take the time to see them. For example, the time a Fireball takes to complete is very important. It changes what decisions you make, and opens up opportunities for the ability to be countered with a kick.”
I agreed. “Sometimes I think too many times abilities get made without thinking about the other side of things – what it’s like to be the victim. Like Strike for example – absolutely no telegraphing its coming, just bonus damage and no gameplay.”
“Then let’s try to minimize that where we can. We’ve got to think about the kids, you know!”
He meant the players, but Mike’s wife had just become pregnant, so I replied, “You’re either going to be an amazing or a horribly annoying father someday.”
Mike replied with a toothy grin, “don’t be silly – I’m a scrawny, Asian gamer. I’m going definitely be both.”

Lessons

There’s more to a Fireball than just the things I’ve described here. I leave it to the reader to ponder the rest. Taking the time to think through what you take for granted is incredibly difficult. I attribute most of the failures of the past few years of MMOs to this flaw. 
If you ask any player what they want out of an attack: instant, powerful and unstoppable are words that quickly come to mind. However, they all miss out on the deeper lessons of a Fireball – that sometimes what makes a game fun is actually the same thing that’s holding you back. 
Next time, I’ll start to move onto a juicier topic… the first of my five steps to improve any design.