Use all the Game Mechanics

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 necessity to periodically require all available game mechanics during the gameplay to remind a player of the own capabilities and to make all game mechanics feel more relevant.

Computer games provide players with abilities inside of the virtual environments in form of game mechanics. Game mechanics encode a game’s underlying principles, hence define the game rules and a player’s capabilities. Often, computer games implement a core set of game mechanics that are frequently used during the gameplay.

For instance, being able to navigate and to interact with the virtual environment are essential tasks. However, the frequency of using advanced locomotion, such as jumping or climbing, highly depends on the overall gameplay of a computer games. As a result, players of a particular game might be less trained in using certain game mechanics when they are not a part of the regular gameplay. This can result in frustrating moments when a challenge suddenly requires a rarely used game mechanic. In such a case, players have to recall how exactly the game mechanic is defined and how they can properly use it. This might even end up in a trail and error scenario.

Things are even more difficult, when a game mechanic is introduced once at the beginning of a game and never required again until the late end-game. In such a case, players might already have forgotten that the required game mechanic exist. This leads to the player being stuck in the middle of the gameplay as they do not know how to overcome the current challenge.

For instance, in the hacking simulation Hacknet a player learns how to search for connected mobile devices in one particular mission. Since this mission, this approach is not needed again until the player reaches a specific mission in the later stages of the game. Even though the game provides a hint that might remind the player of this function, the hint does not inform the player how exactly they can scan for and unlock mobile devices. As a result, the player might get stuck and needs to search for information given at the start of the game or even use the internet to find a solution.

Therefore, it is important to either periodically require all game mechanics to avoid that a player forgets about it or to provide enough hints so that the player can proceed without being required to do tedious research. Also, the former approach would make rarely used game mechanics feel more relevant as they start to play a more integral role in the overall gameplay.