Trade Offs in Game Design

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Trade Offs in Game Design
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Trade Offs in Game Design

• Quite often in game design, there are conflicts
  between different design goals.
• One design goal can be achieved only through
  sacrificing others.
• Sometimes, these conflicts are obvious, but they
  can quite be subtle as well.
• These conflicts often put the designer in an
  unfavorable position.
• Which element or elements should be sacrificed to
  produced the best overall game?

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Balance vs. Enjoyment

• What seems like the perfect balance to you will
  not likely be the perfect balance to each and
  every game player.
• Some will want it easier.
• Others will want it much more difficult.
• It becomes important to study the core target
  audience for the game.
• Both their skills and preferences.
• Balance the game to provide this core with the
  suitable amount of challenge.
• Simpler tweaks to satisfy other players will
  likely be sufficient, so do not spend too much
  time on this.

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Balance vs. Enjoyment
Screen shot from Warcraft III. Balance is
critical in a game like this, but ultimately, the
game must still be enjoyable to the target
audience.
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Realism vs. Understandability

• Sometimes, finding a balance between accuracy and
  abstraction is difficult.
• Too little realism might make it difficult for
  the player to know what to expect.
• Too much realism might clutter gameplay or the
  user interface, and make the game harder to
  understand and play effectively.
• Ultimately, a certain level of realism
  appropriate to a games setting is required to
  help immerse the player.
• A line should be drawn, however, when adding this
  realism impairs the players ability to play.

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Realism vs. Understandability
Screen shot from Project Gotham Racing 3. Having
realistic physics to a point makes the game more
understandable.
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Realism vs. Fun

• When adding realism to an entertainment game, it
  is important to still ensure the game is
  enjoyable and fun to play.
• There are many aspects to reality that are simply
  not fun and actually quite boring.
• These aspects should be left out.
• If adding a feature to enhance realism makes the
  game less fun, it is not worth it in the long run.

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Realism vs. Fun
Screen shot from the Sims Online. Many players
feel too much of reality has been pushed in to
the point where it isn't just dumb or boring,
it's sadistic.
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Realism vs. Fun

• As discussed earlier, however, this trade off
  usually works the other way for serious games.
• If adding fun to a serious game sacrifices
  reality in an important way, then it is likely
  not worth it in the long run.
• If too much reality is sacrificed in creating the
  experience, the player might not get out of the
  game what they need to, with potentially dire
  consequences.

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Realism vs. Fun
Screen shot from Hazmat Hotzone. In a serious
game like this, you wantreality over fun, or
else you could have dire consequences in the real
world.
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Structure vs. Freedom

• This is often a very big question
• Should the player be free to do anything at the
  risk of getting hopelessly lost?
• Or, should they be led through the game with no
  choices, stifling their creativity?
• A game designer must balance the structure of
  linearity with the freedom of nonlinear gameplay.
• Different games have different needs in terms of
  structure and freedom.
• God games, for example, should have nearly total
  freedom with few goals, whereas adventure games
  require much more direction and structure.

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Structure vs. Freedom
Two extremes on the structure-freedom spectrum.
On the left is Zork I, an adventure with a well
structured story. On the right is Black White,
a God game with significant freedom. Both
structure and freedom can be successful, if
applied in the right measure in the right kind of
game.
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Mood vs. Playability

• Some experiences cannot be expressed accurately
  in a video game without making the game virtually
  unplayable.
• For example, a game is made so dark to invoke
  fear and anxiety that it is nearly impossible to
  play.
• Or, the colour scheme is made so drab and brown
  that it is difficult to pick out important items
  from the dreary background.
• Essentially, avoid giving the player intractable
  problems just for the sake of ambience.
• Ambience is important, but ensure playability.

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Mood vs. Playability
Screen shot from Alone in the Dark The New
Nightmare. Maybe it should have been called
Alone in the too Dark to Play?
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Mood vs. Playability
Screen shot from Thief Deadly Shadows. This
level, the Cradle, was ableto establish a
terrifying mood without casting the player into
pitchblackness. Heck, they even let you fire up
a generator and turn on thelights. Trust me
it didnt make it any less scary
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Mood vs. Playability
Screen shot from Doom 3. A very dark game. So
dark that they gave youa flashlight which you
couldnt hold and use a weapon at the sametime!
So totally unfair!
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Mood vs. Playability
Screen shot of Aliens vs. Predator II. When
playing human marines, the game is quite dark
and scary. The motion tracker, night vision, and
flares help.
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Mood vs. Playability
Screen shot of Shadow Man. At times, its bleak
all-brown themes could actually cause players to
strain their eyes too much.
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Completeness vs. Manageability

• In the quest for more functionality and more
  features for players, games are often made
  unmanageable.
• If the addition of a non-core feature makes the
  game harder to play, chances are it is not worth
  it.
• On the other hand, if too much functionality is
  removed from the game to make it more manageable,
  it will seem empty.
• A careful balance must be struck to ensure there
  is enough features for the player, yet this
  functionality is still easily accessible.

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Completeness vs.Manageability
Screenshot from Steel Battalion (left) and the
controller needed to play the game (right), minus
the three pedal base. There is a total of
around 40 buttons on the controller. Looks
great, but is it manageable?
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Innovation vs. Familiarity

• Innovation is often called for, but familiarity
  is also a good thing.
• Everyone likes things that are new and exciting,
  but safety is a comfortable feeling too!
• Often it is wise to keep some familiarity.
• Common concepts, functionality, and conventions
  in game genres can make games more accessible to
  new players.
• However, each game must contain something new,
  fresh, and innovative to some extent.
• Otherwise, why would people give up existing
  games to buy and play new titles?

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Innovation vs. Familiarity
Screen shot of SimCity 4. The gameplay is now
familiar with most players, but it took Will
Wright four years to get the original SimCity to
market because it was too new and different.
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Scope vs. Focus

• Some games strive for an elaborate sprawling
  world with lots of different activities for the
  player to participate in.
• If the scope of the game gets too large, it loses
  focus, and the player can become easily lost or
  disoriented.
• With no focus, it is easy to lose sight of the
  goals to be achieved throughout the game.
• On the other hand, games with too narrow a focus
  are not appealing either.
• There is either not enough to do, or what is to
  be done caters to only a small number of players.

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Scope vs. Focus
Screen shot from the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of
Time. This game had a huge scope across a large
world AND across time. While this made for lots
to do, sometimes it was hard to tell what to do
next (and when).
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Violence vs. Isolation

• Artificial intelligence has yet to advance to the
  point where there can be meaningful interactions
  between the player and non player characters.
• Contact with non player characters tends to be
  scripted, with little chance of variations.
• Unscripted or spontaneous actions are more
  realistic and more engaging to the player.
• Unfortunately, the only unscripted interactions
  that have been successful to date are in the form
  of combat between the player and other
  characters.
• Often, you have the choice between violence or
  effective isolation of the player.

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Violence vs. Isolation
Screen shot from SOCOM US Navy Seals. A good
attempt to provide non-violent interactions, with
your computer controlled teammates.
(You generally end up fighting all the other non
player characters though!)
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Breadth vs. Depth vs. Pace

• The three desirable qualities of breadth, depth,
  and pace cannot all be had at the same time.
• Breadth describes the variety of actions that the
  player can perform.
• Depth describes the level of detail with which an
  activity is portrayed in a game.
• Pace describes the rate at which action unfolds
  in a game. If you have a lot to do and little
  time, the pace is quick. If there is not a lot
  to do in a long period of time, the pace is
  relatively slow.

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Breadth vs. Depth vs. Pace

• At most you would be able to have two of these
  characteristics at any time.
• A broad, deep, and fast-paced game would
  overwhelm any player.
• There is only so much the human brain can handle
  at a time.
• Examples
• Broad and deep A God game like SimCity 4.
• Deep and fast-paced A first person shooter like
  Counter Strike.
• Broad and fast-paced A real-time strategy game
  like Warcraft III.

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Breadth vs. Depth vs. Pace
Screen shots from SimCity 4, Warcraft III, and
Counter Strike. Each game has a different
balance of breadth, depth, and pace, and delivers
it successfully.
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Breadth vs. Depth vs. Pace
Screen shot from Grand Theft Auto III. It is an
example of an interesting newkind of game that
offers breadth, depth, and pace. The trick is
that it does not offer all three at the same
time. The game is quite broad, but onlylets the
user partake in a certain slice of that breadth
at a time, for example.