Inspirational and Educational Gameplay

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the joy of being able to plan and improve my gameplay using real world knowledge.

A couple months ago, I decided to take a break from playing Kerbal Space Program (KSP) after having created a let’s play episode on a weekly basis for more than three years. Although I still enjoyed playing the game, I began to notice that I loose interest in the game as it started to become repetitive and did not provided enough challenges nor regions I have not explored, yet. Generally, becoming too repetitive, proving no new challenges or being fully explored are the most common reasons why players start to loose interest in a game. In the end, these reasons indicate that highly motivating gaming flow is drastically reduced and players start to feel bored by the gameplay.

However, although I do not feel the urge to return to playing KSP, yet, I notice how much I miss a game of this complexity that even challenges me outside of the actual gameplay. KSP allows players to construct virtual spacecraft out of a huge variety of different parts of which each has physical properties affecting the spacecraft’s performance. Hence, in order to design an ideal spacecraft, a lot of trial and error or careful planning is needed.

As KSP encodes orbital mechanics and hence realistically simulates space flight, players are able to apply the equations used in orbital mechanics to determine and improve the performance of their spacecraft based on the properties of the used parts before even launching them on a test flight. That way, KSP keeps players also induces gaming flow outside of the game when they set up complicated spreadsheets allowing them to efficiently design and plan their next space mission.

Unfortunately, aside from some flight simulations, not many computer games are accomplishing such a challenging and scientific gameplay. Personally, I would really enjoy it when other games also implement design and planning processes that are based on real world equations which I could use to improve my gameplay. However, as changing between KSP and excel broke the immersion of the gameplay, it is necessary to allow for such a scientific approach directly inside of the game by providing intuitive but also unlimited planning game mechanics.

In the end, those games not only provide a challenging gameplay, they also educate players in a knowledge they potentially are not familiar with, inspire them to research additional information and potentially even motivate them to consider a career in science or engineering.

Persistent Story Elements

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance of persistent story elements that mark important and special events a player experienced during a game’s gameplay and hence remind the player of this moment.

Sentimental aspect often play an important role when we value arbitrary things. A piece of equipment, such as a backpack, despite being pretty beat up, can be of a very high value because it reminds us of specific adventures and experiences we made. Every scratch can tell a different story and be a mark of a special event. Naturally, since we automatically engrave important and unique moments in our memory, we would also remember a specific experience without a trinket. However, as this item was a part of the story, we have also developed a certain connection to it and use it as a token that always reminds us of a great moment.

The same principle applies to virtual items and characters we use and control in a computer game. It can be a sword in a role-playing game that helped a player to overcome a difficult challenge or a virtual character in a turn-based strategy game that survived a very dangerous situation. In the end, we connect great memories with these virtual elements which subsequently become of great value for us and even receive an important meaning.

A RimWorld colony.

Unfortunately, most game mechanics do not receive scratches, scars or other marks that are persistent. Of course, cars can start to accumulate some virtual scratches during a race, but as soon as the race is over and the game is left, all scratches are lost. As a result, these virtual elements, despite being part of a potential epic story, seem to be neutral as they do not continue to show signs of usage.

Despite this lack of persistency, we still continue to develop a certain attachment to those particular elements of a computer game but these attachments are not as close as they could be when a specific moment leaves some marks behind. However, when a game is designed to store those story elements, then we automatically start to grow a very deep attachment to things that played an importan role during our gameplay.

One of the best examples for a game that utilizes persistency very well is the colony simulation RimWorld. Colonists not only have to survive very dangerous situations, but they also change over time as they get older or, in the case of a severe injury, can receive persistent scars that all the time remind us why this character is so important to us.

In the end, it would be very exciting when developers continue to add persistency to the game that helps to tell a story. Of course, it adds another element that has to be balanced, but it also greatly affects a game’s effect on us.

Balancing: A Crucial Phase

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the requirements for a well balanced computer game. The game has to be adjusted according to the targeted playerbase’s needs, all game elements need to be relevant and a challenge’s difficulty should be aligned with the players training process caused by the gameplay.

The balancing of a computer game is a difficult but also very critical phase as it heavily affects a player’s enjoyment. In addition, achieving a good balancing is crucial to satisfy the needs of the targeted playerbase. Lastly, a good balancing ensures that players experience gaming flow and hence are immersed in the gameplay.

Generally, balancing has to achieve two main goals. On the one hand, balancing adjusts the balance between a game’s game mechanics and elements thus ensuring that no element is overpowered. For instance, the balancing of a strategy game needs to achieve that all units have a certain strength and a certain weakness for the purpose of achieving a ‚rock, paper, scissors‘ principle. At the same time, a unit’s efficiency and effectivity has to be balanced and adjusted so that the performance of a unit matches its price and availability. That way, balancing also has to achieve that all game elements feel relevant. Otherwise, players might realize that a few parts of a game are not that well designed which can lead to a lower enjoyment or even a high degree of frustration.

On the other hand, balancing also is required to adjust the game’s general difficulty. A good game always provides players with challenges they can barely overcome. As a result of this, players can experience gaming flow which is a state of mind during which a player is completely immersed in the gameplay and derives fun from it. However, when a game is too difficult or too easy, players might feel overwhelmed or bored, are not experiencing gaming flow and ultimately start to loose interest in the game.

As a result of this, it is critical to analyze the needs and characteristics of the targeted playerbase for the purpose of adjusting the game’s difficulty according to their needs. For instance, a hardcore playerbase needs tough challenges that require a perfect gameplay. At the same time, a hardcore playerbase is very resistent to failures and enjoys to retry a challenge over and over again until the challenge is exhausted. A casual gamer playerbase, on the other hand, enjoys to play games for a short amount of time only and is very interested in fast and good results. Hence, this playerbase demands a constant stream of new challenges that slowly increase in their difficulty and do not require a high amount of time to be solved.

Lastly, a good balancing ensures that a game and/or a challenge always is beatable. This requirement aligns with the balancing requirements for a flow inducing gameplay. It is crucial that a challenge only demands this amount of knowledge that probably has been trained by the player at the point of the gameplay when the challenge is encountered. Otherwise, a challenge might feel overwhelming, unfair or just based on pure luck which can destroy a player’s enjoyment.