INCALCULABLE SYSTEMS

PROBLEM: When a system is too open and simple, it can be 'solved' by examining its state and mentally calculating all possible outcomes.

SOLUTION:
- Make sure that there are too many outcomes to calculate (see SPATIAL COMPLEXITY, COMBINATORICS, and UNKNOWN OUTCOMES, as-yet undefined patterns)

BEAUTIFUL HEURISTICS

PROBLEM: When a player deals with an INCALCULABLE SYSTEM, they will inevitably rely on heuristics, or 'rules of thumb', in order to navigate the system. These heuristics are emergent and may be derivative, distasteful, or simply boring.

NO SOLUTION IDENTIFIED

(...I need a way to deal with these 'unfinished patterns', but I think this is a great and important one.)

The systems in Rift Wizard are complicated and lush, enough that I need to rely on heuristics in order to hold the system comfortably in mind. The problem is that these heuristics aren't interesting to me... I think this is helping me come to a very interesting conclusion. This is a mindset I've sought out before, but the larger patterns in games like this are just too abstract and not narratively/thematically interesting anymore.

"Lightning chains between enemies"

Also, just on the systems side, the thing that frustrated progress enough that I think I might be done with the game is the SHIELD mechanic... maybe there's a way through it, but it feels like it's just there to counteract certain strategies. With a game that's 24 floors deep, I'm not particularly interested in running into 'just another counter to my current strategy' ten more times, each one taking me twice as long (or longer!) than the last to resolve.

Hmm. So there's a couple patterns here but I guess I'd call them antipatterns so I don't actually want to write them down. what can i learn from this?

The spells and skills are all parameterized. This means... they can be modified. Spatial mechanics are also a sort of 'parameter' (this is not quite right) which increase the interaction- and modification-space. The mathematical complexity. What is the pleasure of interacting with a system like this? I think Jack called it a certain type of play, that of predicting/calculating the outcome.

Oath, Spiritfarer, Pathologic, Etrian Odyssey, System Shock 2...
Unavowed (our card game, not the adventure game)...

Games that evoke something strongly.

SNKRX
Nuclear Throne
Probability 0
Rift Wizard
SERPENTES
31 unmarked games - Dec. 9
Cinco Paus

How can I even describe this?

QuoteThese out of reach places usually just lead to a little side room with a HP/MP/Heart increase item. It reminds me of the Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild. Mechanically, it's not an interesting reward, the point is that it's an acknowledgement that you took the time to explore.

How do these things make you feel? I'm curious if this, in the moment, feels good or bad... here is definitely an acknowledgement of like a problem-solution pair, which differs from a lot of the other content in this post

QuoteCircle of the Moon opens with your character walking really slow. On your way to the item that lets you run, you pass a lot of places that are slightly out of reach, or blocked by something you can't interact with yet.

QuoteInitially, you're dropped into a fairly linear area with some side rooms, some of which you can't progress in without further upgrades. After the first boss, the game opens up massively, and you can discover many new areas, but also many places you can't reach.

This is a pretty common pattern in Metroidvanias... I guess I'll call it UNREACHABLE PLACES for now.

I think it is there to create a feeling of an 'open world', but if that's the case why are they unreachable? These unreachable places serve many purposes... We will need many more patterns than just one.

The funny thing is we're starting from a solution, and need to reverse engineer the problem it is solving.

SOLUTION: The player discovers obstacles which cannot be overcome yet.

SEEMINGLY BRANCHING PATHS

PROBLEM: Exploring a vast world is fun. But (for some reason) if you can go anywhere you want, [it's bad.] (maybe you can lose a sense of purpose too easily?)

SOLUTION: On a screen we can have multiple paths (why have multiple paths? for now let's defer their value to another pattern) where, upon close inspection, only one of them is actually traversable.

(Hmm.)

This definitely opens up new pattern space... what is the value of branching paths? I think these need higher-order patterns in order to understand them, since a branching path is really a relationship between larger pieces of the game.

QuoteI often get disappointed when I realize that a "Metroidvania" has a hidden linear structure like this. Exploring a vast world is fun. But once you realize that this vast world is carefully designed to just guide you through a set sequence of action game levels, that sometimes breaks the feeling of exploration for me. I was okay with it this time though, maybe because I recognized the pattern early enough to not feel let down.

1st draft of PATTERN: NONLINEAR EXPLORATION

PROBLEM: Exploring a vast world is fun. But once you understand the vast world, if its structure is not interesting (linear), it can break the fun feeling of exploration

SOLUTION: Once a vast world is understood, its structure should not appear linear

-

Justification: I've often wondered, what is the value of a non-linear world when someone still only ever experiences it linearly? How do you know if you've designed a world that's satisfyingly non-linear? It's funny that the joy of exploring a non-linear world is something you don't experience until you've completed the game... or at least understood a large part of it. The value of a non-linear world is purely retrospective.

re: sylvie's
- Circle of the Moon
- and part two


I can relate strongly to the above response after attempting to deeply examine a game's design.

QuoteI couldn't get into Hollow Knight. How much of these feelings come from the map design and combat design and degree of non-linearity and level of guidance?  Probably not a lot. It's all about how your mood intersects with the game's vibes.

It can feel futile to study game design when so much of it only comes alive in its intersection with a player's person-state, something which is impossible to pin down. But there is so much in Sylvie's examination of Circle of the Moon (and Castlevanias at large) which can be distilled into patterns or seeds for patterns, which I have written about before on this forum. I think they're very valuable as ways of looking at problems.

I'll sum up here what a 'pattern' is as "a precisely-defined problem & a precisely-defined description which captures all viable answers to the problem". I guess the word 'pattern' is quite bad, but it is the word that I have associated with this particular relationship.

Part of coming up with patterns is finding little places where 'incomplete' or 'bad' patterns seem to repeat themselves. I need to go cook, but I will come back and analyze Sylvie's analysis to try and make game design feel less futile.

As we talk about the movie afterwards and revisit the songs I like this movie more! I kinda want to watch it again.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
300g celery, sliced, with tough strings removed
1 garlic clove, peeled
200g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
500ml vegetable stock
100ml milk
crusty bread, to serve
Method
STEP 1
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, tip in the celery, garlic and potatoes and coat in the oil. Add a splash of water and a big pinch of salt and cook, stirring regularly for 15 mins, adding a little more water if the veg begins to stick.
STEP 2
Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 20 mins further, until the potatoes are falling apart and the celery is soft. Use a stick blender to purée the soup, then pour in the milk and blitz again. Season to taste. Serve with crusty bread.

QuoteIt's the unique ludonarrative experiences we have with [videogames] that make them worthwhile, not the fact that we've spent hundreds of hours playing.

Quotetrick you into thinking you're having fun

Use a different word from fun here

Quote.. and not actually doing anything fulfilling.

Ok, better

That's just gambler's fallacy for cultural artifacts.

QuoteAll the more satisfying because of the work that went into them

I really fucking hate this perspective. The work that goes into something is not what makes it valuable, and nobody should think this way! It's what you get out of it, and you should work on things that you get something out of, and we should strive to make games that accurately signal that working on them is valuable.

Fantasy is valuable. Happiness and joy are valuable. Comfort is valuable. Inspiration is valuable. Anything you value is valuable. But . . . burning time is a fucked metric for that.