Archives for December 2012

Fit Your Audience – Don’t Put Arm Wrestling in Chess

2012.12.31 by Xelnath

I was sitting at home on vacation, when a friend told me to check Facebook to see the greatest sport every devised. I turned away from my kitchen to take a look.

Having been a competitive Go player in college, I had a significant appreciation for competitive board games. Having been a cross-country runner in high school, I had a significant appreciation for athletics.

However, I wasn’t particularly interested. Roger insisted saying: “Look! First they play, then they fight. Isn’t that AWESOME?”

Now, if you stop and think about it, it does make a lot of sense. The same kinds of skills apply to boxing and chess: reading your enemy, drawing him into a weak moment, then delivering a final takedown attack to complete the victory.

In fact, that fact that they need to continue using their brains after taking a pounding has considerable real-life connection to battlefield performance. Smart, strong warriors would be victorious where short sighted or weak ones would not.

The amount of skill required to compete in this sport is immense. A recent reports indicates that the ELO system for chess caps out at around 2800. For chess-boxing, that number is around 3300. Assuming they use the same starting point, what this says is that despite the smaller number of chess-boxing players, the skill gap between the best and worst player is much larger.

Boxing is quite popular. Chess is quite popular. Why then isn’t Chess-Boxing also popular? Clearly there’s a ton of talent and skill involved.

Know Your Audience

As someone who never took the time to learn the strategies of Football, I often found myself hanging out with my aunts while my father, grandmother and uncles watched the Big Game.

One day, while at a friend’s place during the Superbowl, I asked my friend Michelle why she was riveted to the screen.

At first she joked about thinking the Quarterback had a cute butt. When I pressed the issue, she explained:

“Well, my team has been doing pretty well and I’ve been following the linebacker in my Fantasy Football league. I’m pretty sure if he gets a first down, I’ll come back to take 2nd in my league.”

… boy, then I knew why the girls blanked out when I raved about A Link to the Past.

The simple answer is that people are drawn to watch what they know and understand. If someone knows Football, they will feel comfortable watching Football. If they know Soccer, they more easily watch a game of soccer. Something as complicated as Chess Boxing requires double the knowledge base to enjoy.

The overlap between people who are sufficiently experienced with both chess and boxing is rather small. Perhaps that won’t always be the case, but for now it is.

Arm Wrestling is Simple

Let’s say we wanted to create a new evolution in gaming, but we wanted to make it overlap with real sports. Since we’ve decided that boxing was too complex to mix with chess, let’s trying something simple, that everyone knows – like Arm Wrestling.

Let’s consider a possible iteration of our new game, Arm Wrestling chess:

Rules:

Plays just like regular chess
When pieces fight, the opponents arm wrestle to determine if a piece is killed.

Awesome – that should make for a better sport, right?

Well.. no.

Don’t Cross the Streams

The reason that chess and arm wrestling are entertaining on their own is that they are contests in the same space. Two chess players battle over permutations in the mind. Similarly, two arm wrestlers contest their strength and muscle timing tactics head to head.

The reason these games work at all, is that the conditions for success are the same on both sides of the equation. But once we’ve mixed arm-wrestling with chess, the outcomes of any given decision have now become uncertain.

We’ve undermined the ability of the chess player to consistently perform tactics in a way that they can reasonably and consistently expect to perform. Which detracts from the mental appeal that chess brings.

Similarly, we’ve undermined the consistent strength performance of arm wrestling, by suddenly adding in a tactical element that means that where once upon a time, using all of your power to win was the right call, suddenly, the right call might be to lose a few arm wrestles to wear your opponent down for an important play later.

Fit the Theme – Don’t put Aliens in Hamlet

2012.12.29 by Xelnath

During my first year as an associate game designer, I was assigned to work on the “Sunstrider Isles” – later to be known as the Isle of Quel’danas. The project’s scope was ambitious – we were going to make an island with a growing number of quests that would grow and evolve as players quested there – and we had to do it all in under three months.

The quest team was responsible for the overall vision, but back then quest designers rarely spawned exterior zones. So I was brought on to fill-in the space. I was assigned to work with the handsome and stylish Eric Maloof on the capturable northwest side, while the tough-nosed Luis Barriga handled the Dead Scar.

I saw it was a town and merrily set to work, trying hard to make an early good impression. I had blood elves wandering around, talking to each other, gaily gossiping about the neighbors and doing day to day chores around town.

The next day, Eric came over to my desk.

Eric: “Hey, Alex, I noticed you started working on the Sunstrider City already.”

Me: “Yeah! I figured let’s knock it out quick so you can get your questing done before the deadline.”

Eric: “Well, I appreciate that… but was that a Blood Elf gardening?”

Me: “Yep, right next to the NPC to who takes out the trash and scullery maid who complains about the butler.”

Eric laughed: “Well, I find that incredibly amusing, but these are Blood Elves. They are lazy magic users and incredibly militaristic.”

Me: “Oh. Huh. Let me try that again…”

I respawned the city, over the next week. This time with duelling warriors, soul channeling Warlocks and half-broken robotic automotons which patrolled the perimeter. The eastern side had Infernals falling from the sky and demons escaping from magical gateways.

Eric: “SO much better.”

I still kept the gossiping NPCs, but they gossiped about the bosses inside the raid instance instead. Did you ever hear them?

The Importance of Fit

The mischievous Gnome, the stoic, confident Tauren and the recklessly magical Blood Elves are very important themes. While fun to do the burly Gnome, or the cowardly Tauren character, these characters lose their charm and uniqueness if the original kit hasn’t been well-established.

This is why Fit is such an important concept in lore, game mechanics and life. If not reinforced over and over again, these important backdrops will be overlooked and forgotten.

How many players realized that the Arakkoa were victims of magical genocide or that they were once part of a dark and ancient empire? Very few.

Instead, the theme of “creepy bird people” was constantly reinforced. It’s okay though, they didn’t really matter to the over-arching story of the Burning Crusade.

Theme and Fit

In a nutshell, try to reinforce the appropriate stereotype with every tool at your disposal: Art, Level Design, Combat Mechanics, Story. These “kits” are your palette for telling a consistent story about the world your players live in.

Make it fit, or it takes the pillow to the face!

Next time: fitting the audience…

Fit – Make it Appropriate for your Game

2012.12.22 by Xelnath

Finally… you are ready. Your game mechanics are clear, relevant to the player, evoke strong emotional responses and regularly reward good behaviour. Your publisher is playtesting your title, then turns to you and says, “wow, this is a great game, but recent demographic testing has shown that games with a witty animal companion sell 33% more merchandise.”

Because you’ve budgeted your time well, you’re pretty sure your team can pull it off… but should you?

If your game is light-hearted and whimsical, maybe it will be a memorable addition. If it’s a dark tragedy dealing with the psychological horrors of suicide and adolescent development… maybe not so much.

That decision is what I call Fit.

Fit is a very subjective and nuanced area where two people making the same game can make very different decisions work.

However, there’s three major guidelines in the area of fit that will help keep you on the right path.

Fit the Theme

Deeply understand the theme and direction of your game. A story adventure about exploration and making friends in a magical world lends itself nicely to companionship and charm.

Conversely, a darker world about survival, escape and independently unraveling a long-forgotten empire naturally lend themselves to a solitary experience… but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Dat Potato

Similarly, even in an incredibly dark world, you have constant companionship fit naturally into a game. Dishonored by the incredibly talented Arkane Studios is an excellent example.

So let’s take a moment and consider the differences in the companions chosen:

Pokemon – a warm, whimsical companion who communicates primarily through body language and spontaneous action.
Portal – a cold, cruel and calculating computer program who was your nemesis from the previous game.
Dishonored – the severed heart of your dead lover, reincarnated by an ambivalent god who is only interested in watching what you will do.

In each case, the developers chose the right tool to suit the game mechanics and theme of their world. Do you think they chose wisely?

Next time, I’ll talk in depth about how Fit relates to your audience and your mechanics.