Solid and Self-centred Design Choices

Good design requires an adequate level of player empathy. Players want to feel understood and not feel abused by the games designers during play. But some developers evidently can't help themselves and have to tease and mock us by neglecting our mindset while trying to enjoy their game. On the other hand, some developers are quite excellent at extending a compassionate hand of fun and joy to enrich the experience.

For example, Ninja Gaiden was quite a challenging game. That was half the fun, methinks. The insurmountable challenge it presented was more of a dare than a taunt. It was really nice though. If you got to one part and you kept dying, it would ask if you would like to try the same section of gameplay on a lower difficulty setting. Waves and waves of love once again filled our hearts. I am indeed understood.

Super Paper Mario was an absolutely brilliant piece of software. Even more brilliant was the macro-choice to interweave a broken fourth wall into the narrative. We're always thinking "dude, if Mario is told to press (A) to use his flip ability, what would he think?" The game capitalizes on this, where the informant character replies "what is this (A) you speak of? Don't worry, the observer gets it, and that's the main thing". The entire game is full of these moments where the player feels completely included in the runnings of the game. Exactly what we've been thinking since Super Mario Bros.

I have no idea who invented it, but I need to shake their hand and buy them a nice present. The autosave. Best. Design. Decision. EVER. Instead of being ruled by the fear of AHHH I DIDN'T REACH THE LAST SAVE POINT AND NOW I HAVE TO PLAY THESE 7 HOURS ALL OVER AGAIN, games like KOTOR will automatically save your game at certain checkpoints. Genius!

Assassin's Creed was a great game. Unfortunately it is in the unsympathetic category, as it forces players to read and hear all dialog... WITHOUT THE OPTION TO SKIP. It was released in 2007 man. That's not right. That's just not right.

If you've been reading my past blogs, you'll know the KOTOR games are quite dear to me. Unforunately, KOTOR2 has a slight error in a small decision which puts it in this category. While you are given the ability to skip almost all passages of dialog, KOTOR 2 has one section where this alien that speaks another language cannot be skipped at all. It goes one up on Assassin's in that the alien makes the same long boring painful sound effect each time. Ouch.

As much as it pains me, even the Metroid Prime series had a design flaw. In Prime 2, the difficulty curve was just perfect. That is, til this boss character appears known as the Boost Guardian. You fight him in the dark world where there are light bubbles that keep you safe from the poisonous atmosphere. All except in this room. It doesn't sound like much, but when you are being attacked in a small room where these light bubbles aren't around for the first time in the game, the difficulty ramps up much faster than most players can adapt to.

Once again, flow seems to be the most critical aspect of enjoyable interaction. One small mishap and it really destroys the experience.