I stumble across incorrect opinions about game design on a regular basis. This thread will serve as an index to posts that provide insight into why other people are wrong as well as short diatribes on miscellaneous game design topics.
A TLDR will be included under each topic heading for those who wish to be contrarian without reading, or happen to be professional game designers.
Index:
Topic I. Random rewards are the worst rewards
Topic II. Shortcut keys, chords, and sequences, the forgotten middle child
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J1M's game design blog of correct facts
J1M's game design blog of correct facts
Last edited by J1M on March 31st, 2024, 02:08, edited 7 times in total.
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Topic I. Random rewards are the worst rewards
TLDR: Use a combination of hidden and deterministic rewards instead.
Any time a game designer turns over the player experience to random chance it should be for a good reason. If a designer creates a miserable experience 1% of the time, either through incompetence or ignorance, that translates to failing thousands of times for any reasonably successful game. Consider how many people had a negative experience with Mass Effect because they picked Sentinel before the game started. That was not worth the design symmetry of having 3 pure classes and 3 hybrid ones.
Definitions
The converse is not true. No random reward placement can replicate the replayability benefit of players planning and discussing the order to prioritize rewards. (Classic example: Fallout power armor.) Additionally, once players notice that rewards are random they are less motivated to look for secrets and hidden encounters in a game because they know there will likely be a disappointing reward for doing so.
Deterministic rewards also work well, especially when they are used to supplement hidden rewards. It can give players a sense of partial progress for small victories and control over being able to complete a set of items that synergize with each other. A completely deterministic system is not a good idea, because it has negative side effects: choice paralysis, hoarding currency to buy only the best items, penalizing experimentation, and fewer exciting moments when players are rewarded.
Explaining how this also applies even to roguelikes would dilute the focus of this post so that is left as an exercise for the reader.
TLDR: Use a combination of hidden and deterministic rewards instead.
Any time a game designer turns over the player experience to random chance it should be for a good reason. If a designer creates a miserable experience 1% of the time, either through incompetence or ignorance, that translates to failing thousands of times for any reasonably successful game. Consider how many people had a negative experience with Mass Effect because they picked Sentinel before the game started. That was not worth the design symmetry of having 3 pure classes and 3 hybrid ones.
Definitions
- Random reward: the contents of a treasure chest are determined at the time of the chest being opened/spawned/seeded.
- Hidden reward: the contents of a chest are unknown to a player until they open a chest, but the same for all players.
- Deterministic reward: the contents of a chest are chosen by the player either directly or indirectly by being awarded a form of rare currency.
The converse is not true. No random reward placement can replicate the replayability benefit of players planning and discussing the order to prioritize rewards. (Classic example: Fallout power armor.) Additionally, once players notice that rewards are random they are less motivated to look for secrets and hidden encounters in a game because they know there will likely be a disappointing reward for doing so.
Deterministic rewards also work well, especially when they are used to supplement hidden rewards. It can give players a sense of partial progress for small victories and control over being able to complete a set of items that synergize with each other. A completely deterministic system is not a good idea, because it has negative side effects: choice paralysis, hoarding currency to buy only the best items, penalizing experimentation, and fewer exciting moments when players are rewarded.
Explaining how this also applies even to roguelikes would dilute the focus of this post so that is left as an exercise for the reader.
Topic II. Shortcut keys, chords, and sequences, the forgotten middle child
TLDR: Use key sequences in turn-based games and for other UI where input is not time-sensitive.
Definitions
Shortcut chords are also quite common for games that have more actions than can be comfortably reached without moving your hand. They are harder to memorize (including muscle memory) especially in conjunction with basic shortcut keys. There's a fairly low limit on how many of these can be effectively used by a player at a time.
Shortcut sequences have a drawback in that they do not allow for the same response time as the other methods. For example, one cannot use the KeyDown event to trigger an action instead of KeyUp and pressing more than two keys takes longer than inputting a shortcut chord.
Where they shine though is when a character has numerous actions that can be taken and those actions can be logically grouped (action type, spell school, range, etc). Turn-based games such as RPGs are an example. Instead of binding each spell to a key, all summons can be accessed through a key (eg. 5) and then the type of summon can be cast by pressing another key (eg. 5-2). A sequence can be escaped out of or optionally input with the mouse with a proper UI.
Similar to other shortcut methods, any frequently used abilities will quickly be ingrained in muscle memory. Unlike other methods, sequences with the right UI are self-teaching and support partial input. If the player remembers the first two-of-three inputs for a 3-key sequence the player is presented a toolbar outlining the options for the final key.
While most easily applied to turn-based games or situations where the game state is essentially paused, shortcut sequences still have a place in real-time games too. Consider MMORPGs, where there are commonly more abilities than fit on the visible hotkey bars. Collapsing out of combat abilities that are related to each other into shortcut sequences is an easy win for usability. JRPGs with any sort of menu-based action input are another example.
TODO: Add an image with an example
An aside about Baldur's Gate 3 and the mainstream audience: BG3 has something of a mouse-only implementation of a shortcut sequence UI with the way it handles filtering abilities. So any claim that adding this UI convenience will hurt sales or alienate a meaningful amount of the audience outside of flight simulators can be dismissed.
TLDR: Use key sequences in turn-based games and for other UI where input is not time-sensitive.
Definitions
- Shortcut key: a single key that performs an action when pressed in a certain mode/screen. (Q or X)
- Shortcut chord: two keys, one of which is held while the other is pressed that perform an action. (Shift+Q or Alt+X)
- Shortcut sequence: multiple keys pressed one after another that perform a single action. (Q-W or 1-1-1)
Shortcut chords are also quite common for games that have more actions than can be comfortably reached without moving your hand. They are harder to memorize (including muscle memory) especially in conjunction with basic shortcut keys. There's a fairly low limit on how many of these can be effectively used by a player at a time.
Shortcut sequences have a drawback in that they do not allow for the same response time as the other methods. For example, one cannot use the KeyDown event to trigger an action instead of KeyUp and pressing more than two keys takes longer than inputting a shortcut chord.
Where they shine though is when a character has numerous actions that can be taken and those actions can be logically grouped (action type, spell school, range, etc). Turn-based games such as RPGs are an example. Instead of binding each spell to a key, all summons can be accessed through a key (eg. 5) and then the type of summon can be cast by pressing another key (eg. 5-2). A sequence can be escaped out of or optionally input with the mouse with a proper UI.
Similar to other shortcut methods, any frequently used abilities will quickly be ingrained in muscle memory. Unlike other methods, sequences with the right UI are self-teaching and support partial input. If the player remembers the first two-of-three inputs for a 3-key sequence the player is presented a toolbar outlining the options for the final key.
While most easily applied to turn-based games or situations where the game state is essentially paused, shortcut sequences still have a place in real-time games too. Consider MMORPGs, where there are commonly more abilities than fit on the visible hotkey bars. Collapsing out of combat abilities that are related to each other into shortcut sequences is an easy win for usability. JRPGs with any sort of menu-based action input are another example.
TODO: Add an image with an example
An aside about Baldur's Gate 3 and the mainstream audience: BG3 has something of a mouse-only implementation of a shortcut sequence UI with the way it handles filtering abilities. So any claim that adding this UI convenience will hurt sales or alienate a meaningful amount of the audience outside of flight simulators can be dismissed.
Last edited by J1M on March 31st, 2024, 02:05, edited 1 time in total.