Video Game Design: The Invisibility Manifesto

Invisibility pictures: unsurprisingly HARD TO FIND.

And with that INCREDIBLE Invisibility joke (First of many more to come)  i welcome you to the second Unplugged Controllers article on Video Game Design, "The Invisibility Manifesto". 

 

Last time, we looked at how Core and Individual Mechanics can shape a game's Identity using the Super Mario and God of War games as an example of this; Today we are taking a deeper look into Gameplay mechanics, mainly focusing on how to add meaningful variety and how this can change the flow of the game. There's a lot to cover, and not a whole lot of time, so let's dive right in.

 
On Gameplay Mechanics...

As we discussed previously, one of the most important things to take into account when creating Mechanics is considering how they shape the identity of the Game, but one thing we didn't talk about is looking at how they can control both the Player's behavior and the flow of the Gameplay.
 

When you give a Player a tool/ability/weapon, they usually have an idea of how it works and how they can use it based on their experience in other games, so unless your mechanic is an entirely new idea never seen before in any kind of media (Let's say... an Explosive-Ninja-Sheep Axe-Launcher), chances are players have already decided what to do with it. 

 

Explosive-Ninja-Sheep Axe-Launcher: You can have either Efficient or Awesome, and I've already made my choice

 

One example of this is Invisibility, when you give this ability to a player you can predict, for the most part, what they'll do with it (You could say that you "Can SEE it coming", BOOM!). They'll usually use it to surprise their enemies, escape from them or perform certain actions, like stealing or hacking, completely undetected.

This Impact on player Behavior is a great tool for Developers, since they can put players into a desired mindset, give them a big weapon and you can make them behave more aggressively, grant them the ability to jump really high and you'll see them exploring every corner of the environment, make them invisible and they'll become more cautious, planning every move.
  

 Or they'll become total D*cks (Hint: skip to 1:00)

How Mechanics impact the player's actions is something you should always consider when designing Games, but something else that you should consider is how they impact OTHER PLAYERS. Sure, this is something that matters only in Multiplayer games, either Competitive or Co-op, but it's something that is often overlooked by designers.

When you insert a new Element (Ex: Item, ability, weapon.) into the game you should think about how players will be able to deal with it, when creating a Shotgun you have to not only think about how they player will use it, but also how the player will confront it (Besides from NOT getting shot) let's look at this situation a little closer from BOTH points of view (or POV's).

Illustrated: Point of view #2, also know as the "HOLY SH..." p.o.v, "BOOM!" p.o.v, "SPLAT!" p.o.v and "BLARGHARRRG" p.o.v.

Using the Weapon:

• You find a Shotgun.
• You feel AWESOME.
• You know it is a powerful short-range weapon.
• You modify your behavior by taking different routes in order to get closer to the enemy.
• You stop looking for direct confrontations and start trying to flank the enemy.

Dealing with the Weapon:

• You get shot with a Shotgun.
• The walls are painted with your guts and blood.
• You now know someone is using a Shotgun.
• You modify your behavior by staying in open areas where you can't be flanked.
• You stop being aggressive to avoid being surprised around the corner.

 
Both Players have modified their behavior in different ways in response to the SAME Element, this creates multiple scenarios of gameplay and adds variety to the experience, even better, those are not the only possible scenarios, the defending player could choose to start planting explosive traps to deal with the shotgun user, the Shotgun player could then start laying ambushes instead of trying to flank the other player, etc.

The thing is, you can't just go around adding 100 different weapons to the game expecting the same results, because this would just create an Over-Complex Game, instead what you can do is add small variations to the same Mechanic to create the desired effect, let's look at a more specific example for this.
 

Dota 2 is a game where two teams of 5 players try to destroy each other's base, each player selects a different character that has certain abilities, some of this abilities grant invisibility, which is a very powerful tool, to balance the power of this ability the game provides players with Items, that they can buy, which let him/her see invisible players.

The problem that arises with this is that players will always react the same way when faced with invisibility, "Is the enemy invisible? let's buy vision items!" the nature of the Mechanic itself limits the players in their response, and in turn this limits the experience because of a lack of variety, if the Players adopt the same behavior 100% of the time when faced with an especific situation then Gameplay will not change and evolve, which is the opposite of what we want on a Multiplayer game.
 
The way Dota 2 deals with this problem is by adding a twist to every Invisibility-granting ability, let's LOOK (Puntastic!) at a couple of them from both POV's (Double Pun!):
 

 

Templar Assassin - Meld: TA's invisibility comes at the price of movement, when this character becomes invisible she becomes immobile, any movement will cancel out her invisibility, but if she breaks her invisibility by attacking she'll deal increased damage. 

• For the player using it this means they cant chase or flank enemies with this ability, instead it encourages them to set up ambushes to surprise the enemies, this also means they cannot use it to escape since the enemy will know where they are, so instead they should look to use the environment to their advantage, breaking line of sight before going invisible to confuse the enemy.

• For the player facing TA this means they are not limited to using Vision items, since she cant move they can just use Area of Effect spells (AOE spells) to defeat her, or use her own confidence against her by ambushing her inside her own ambush. 

 
 

Weaver - Shukuchi: The invisibility granted by this ability lasts only 4 seconds, but to balance this it increases movement speed, deals damage by touching the enemy and can be used frequently.

• For the player using it this means they must play aggressively, using it to constantly change positions and harass the enemy to wear them down, it also means that they can easily escape with it since they'll also run faster, but they must consider the intervals in which they are visible, since they are frequent, to not get caught.

• For the player facing Weaver it means they can fight him by planning ahead of what he'll do, by taking into account the timing of his invisibility they can position themselves accordingly and maximize the damage done in the small windows of opportunity, they only need to stop him once to defeat him.

 
These two abilities are based on the same Mechanic, Invisibility, but by changing one or two of their characteristics they create entirely different scenarios for all players involved. This method of implementing small variations creates meaningful variety that has a purpose, without adding too much complexity to the game, since they are working under the same basic concepts. And this... this is what "The Invisibility Manifesto" is all about.

"The Invisibility Manifesto is an analysis of the different ways Invisibility Mechanics are implemented in the game of Dota 2, by modifying small things about each implementation of the Mechanic they add meaningful variety to the experience.

The idea is that different Elements (Ex: Abilities, Characters, Weapons, etc.) that share the same Core concept but differ in some minor aspects can expand the amount and type of scenarios that can occur inside the game.

The main concern is adding variety that impacts the game, variety for the sake of variety will only increase the repetition and lead to the same reactions and behaviors from players, while carefully thought variations can lead to an evolving experience that can surprise even the Game's Creators"

That's The Invisibility Manifesto, it's a way of thinking about Gameplay Mechanics that emphasizes the effect they have on player's behavior and the overall experience, by considering both sides of the coin we can design better experiences that engage the player on both sides of the Shotgun, it's not enough to make Invisibility fun, the experience of fighting an invisible opponent and overcoming his advantage must be just as enjoyable and rewarding.

- The End.

I Hope you enjoyed this little analysis of Gameplay Mechanics as much as i enjoyed writing bad Invisibility Puns, thanks for reading, and I'll SEE you next time (Ok, that was the last one... for now) when we'll AIM to explain the idea behind "Run or Shoot?", see you then.

Choose wisely.