Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Games also open the shape of resistance to player choice by offering a larger palette of verbs.
At certain points in
Super Mario Bros.
, the player finds blocks that sprout fire flowers; if the
player chooses to touch the flower, suddenly a new verb is available, and pressing the button
which previously allowed Mario to run now
also
shoots a bouncing fireball that can eliminate
enemies. It's up to the player whether she wants to find and accept power-ups like the fire
flower. Furthermore, there are trade-offs in these choices. For example, when Mario becomes
larger after touching a mushroom, he can break bricks with his head, but he can't fit into small
spaces. Like the decision to move toward a more difficult or easier area or level of a game, these
choices often shape what happens next and what kind of resistance the player encounters—
but in these strategic choices, what the player prefers often depends on her way of playing and
how she prefers to use verbs. As small Mario, the player is more vulnerable to dying because
large Mario can run into an enemy and survive without losing a life. However, many expert
players of
Super Mario Bros.
prefer to stay small because it's easier to avoid deadly obstacles and
enemies when you're half the size!
Whenever a player decides to use a verb and pushes into the system, we can see choices being
made—even the fundamental choice to keep engaging with the game to see what happens,
to try to overcome challenges, to accomplish some kind of goal. When the player decides when
to use the verb “jump” in
REDDER
to avoid a dangerous force-field, she's made a certain kind of
choice: jumping at the right time may allow her to continue, while using that verb at the wrong
time could kill her avatar, sending her back to the last checkpoint she passed. Deciding which
direction to explore in, or retreating out of a room because it looks difficult, is a different kind
of choice, much like the choice in
flOw
to dive to deeper, more difficult waters or surface to
easier ones. These kinds of choices affect the resistance that the player encounters, letting her
choose her own pace or avoid encountering certain kinds of resistance altogether.
In
Shadow of the Colossus
(2005), the player explores a huge, mountainous landscape, searching
for crumbling giants of stone and metal that must be conquered to move on to the next chal-
lenge. The player's primary verbs involve “climbing” and “jumping,” “hanging” onto the giant's
enormous body, and “stabbing” it to gradually defeat it. There's another verb that plays a role:
“riding” a horse. Riding can be useful in battles, but the most frequent use of riding in the game
involves traveling between various areas of the world, each containing a different colossus.
After each victory over a colossus, the player returns to the central location where the game
began: a huge tower in the midst of a large, empty plain surrounded by mountains. To find
another colossus, the player must travel across the plain to find another area, and the distances
traversed are long enough that it makes sense to ride. There's not much to see on the central
plain.
Shadow of the Colossus
takes place in an area with no towns or points of interest, just
some crumbling ruins that seem to have been abandoned long ago. Riding across these areas
isn't difficult at all and doesn't involve much strategy or decision-making: you simply get on
your horse and ride in one direction or another, sometimes urging your horse to gallop faster
