Tag: game design

When developing games there are multiple factors that play into the decision of which game engine to use.

• What kind of game is being developed? (2d, 3d, performance heavy, art focus, etc.)
• How much support is there around those engines?
• What resources are available?

A game engine can support developers in the progress of making games by providing them with a graphical user interface, libraries for multiple programming languages and predefined tools for enabling a quick way of implementing logic of the game. Tasks like rendering a 3d model are made easy through the options of calculating physics, handling collision detections, playing animations and sounds and compiling code.

Unity:

Unity is considered one of the best game engines considering the balance of learnability and support of functionality. It is great for 2D and 3D games, as well as VR and mobile games while still being free for game developers earning less than $100.000. However, once a game is very performance draining, Unity can run into issues handling performance.

Unreal:

Unreal has similar strengths as Unity but excels in its graphical capabilities, which makes it a good choice for high quality graphical focused games. Many developers prefer Unity over Unreal as Unreal requires more knowledge to be able to use efficiently.

Godot:

A selling point of the Godot engine is that it is completely free and open-source with a large community for support.

Phaser:

Phaser focuses on the development of mobile and browser  2D games.

References:

• https://gamedevacademy.org/best-game-engines/

Game Design is an essential aspect for the development of every game, independently of the genre or whether its online or offline. While MMORPGs require thorough planning of many different aspects such as keeping the game interesting even after the main story is completed, managing a fair skills and levelling system or managing performance one of the most important aspects is enabling controlled communication that doesn’t restrict the players in their interactions with each other. For this reason, this blog entry will take a closer look to what it needs to design a successful MMORPG.

As explained in a previous blog entry, the flow state can be achieved if the player is challenged enough to be entertained without getting frustrated. While the flow state can be achieved in traditional games if certain rules are followed, achieving the flow state in MMORPGs where there is usually no clear path to follow and a major part of the play time is spontaneous interactions with others player, it is more difficult to guide the player to the flow state.

There are three conditions that need to be met in order to achieve the flow state:

• There need to be clear goals defined that the player must know of
• The balance between challenges and skill needs to be so that the player is neither frustrated nor bored
• The progress on the goals need to be made clear to the player in form of feedback

These conditions can be met by clear directions given to the player, but they can also be goals that the player themselves creates. For example, a player can decide to craft a special item that requires a lot of material and experience, for one of their friends. If the players are given options, they will naturally come up with challenges themselves. This way every player type has their own goals:

• Killers: Want to become the best and compete with others
• Socializers: Want to communicate with other players
• Achievers: Want to progress within the game and level up
• Explorers: Want to learn about different systems (e.g., different skill trees) integrated into the game and explore the world

References:

• https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:407054/FULLTEXT01.pdf
• https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/gamedesigndevelopmenttextbook/chapter/a-look-at-mmorpgs/#:~:text=A%20Massively%20Multiplayer%20Online%20Role,or%20converse%20with%20one%20another.

In my previous post I described the different kinds of players and elaborate their behaviour in games. In this blog entry I want to dig deeper into what game types there are and which player types work best within those games.

Before going into detail it is important to know the difference between different kinds of interactions within games:

• PvE: player versus environment defines the fighting interactions with the non-playable objects (NPCs) in a game. They are not other players but are objects within the game.
• PvP: player versus player defines the combat of one individual player fighting another or a group of players fighting another.

First person shooter:
First person shooter, also called FPS games, are mainly played by the killer and the achiever type as the whole purpose is to compete against other players or NPCs and win through the highest score, eliminating the threat or opposing team, or surviving for a certain time span.

Real time strategy:
Real time strategy games, also called RTS games, focus on complex sequences or extensive planning in order to succeed. Games like Age of Empires or Warhammer are popular examples of online RTS games. Usually, competitive and persistent players such as achievers or killers are found within these types of games.

Massively multiplayer online games:
Games that constantly grow in popularity due to better internet access and technology are MMO games of all sorts. While explorers and socializers are usually found among MMORPGS (role playing games), killers and achievers will prefer MMORTS (real time strategy) and MMOFPS (first person shooter)

Battle royale:
battle royale games can be connected to FPS games but they do not need to. They focus on a special kind of competitive style of deathmatch where many players will be sent to an arena and need to fight to be the last man standing. Common examples of this popular genre are Apex Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUPG). Just like among other killing focused games the killer and achiever player type value these games, however as some of them are played in teams the socializer plays an important role to keeping the team together.

Sandbox:
Sandbox games are one of the few games that do not have a focus on competitive aspects. The majority of the players will be explorers as the goal of these games is to be creative and spend a lot of time exploring possibilities and opportunities within the games. Some of the games can be played online as well as offline such as Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto. Another important aspect of sandbox games is the social activities. For this reason socializers feel comfortable within these games as well.

References:

• https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/video-game-genres
• https://www.pcgamer.com/how-battle-royale-changed-the-last-decade-of-games-and-the-next-one/
• https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/hero-shooters-charting-the-re-birth-of-a-genre
• https://www.gamegrin.com/articles/different-types-of-online-games/

As games are a huge genre that cannot be describes and analysed as a whole it is important to split certain aspects of games and analyse them individually. The most important aspect that plays into the player behaviour and their choices to why they prefer certain games over others is the player type that they identify as. Bartle defined 4 main player types in 1996 that can still be mapped to players of modern games.

• Achievers
• Socializers
• Explorers
• Killers

These four types excel in two out of 4 characteristics that are unique to the group. While achievers are often very aware of their environment, they also enjoy acting and immersing into the story. Explorers share the interesting in the environment but focus more on the interaction with their surroundings to learn every detail about the story, the world and the connected challenges. Socializers prefer people over environment and love interacting with them, generally NPCs and also real players, however, they prefer bonding and making new friends with real players. Killers are in some way opposite of socialiser but they both share their interests in people. But while socializers enjoy interacting, killers do not care about that but rather act based on their own goals. They are usually very competitive and prefer playing against people rather with them.

Realistically most players do not identify as one type only. In reality an average player classifies as 80 percent of a socializer, up to 50 percent explorer, 40 percent achiever and around 20 percent killer.

The player types are important to understand as they explain what gets people interested in games, but the next question is what keeps them playing. The main reason why people keep playing games is the flow state. Once a player reaches the flow, they have a balance between a difficulty that keeps them challenges but does not demotivate them. The flow theory is based on positive psychology and is reached when a person is fully committed to a single task. It does not only appear in games but also in normal day to day tasks or work. However, it can be very exhausting as the full focus is on one activity.

Game designers are trying to balance the player between getting bored and experiencing a certain level of anxiety that stops them from playing as it stresses them too much or makes them frustrated with the game. Usually, the difficulty increases over time as the players become more skilled and experienced, however it should not be too difficult for them to get back into the game once they start playing for some while. A common example of generally good games that fail to keep players in the flow state is The Witcher 3. The story and the character are well made, however the players don’t really get into the flow state as the difficulty is to high due to a difficult fighting system that is not well introduced and then not increasing the difficulty as the player learns the controls.

References:

• Bartle, R. (1996). Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: Players who suit MUDs. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247190693_Hearts_clubs_diamonds_spades_Players_who_ suit_MUDs
• Bartle, R. A. (2006). Designing virtual worlds ([Nachdr.]). Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
• Zichermann, G., & Cunningham, C. (impr. 2011). Gamification by design: Implementing game mechanics in web and mobile apps. Sebastopol (Calif.), Beijing, Cambridge: O’Reilly.
• Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (2005). Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=140528
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper and Row.