VERBS AND OBJECTS - A Game Design Vocabulary - page 19

Here's an example from my own work. In 2009, I made a game called To mb ed about an archae-

ologist named Danger Jane. Investigating a deep crypt, she's pursued downward, through
layers of fragile earth, by a descending spike wall—the quintessential tomb trap. She's armed
with a shovel, which she can use to dig through the soft clay blocks that she finds underfoot.
“Digging” is a critical verb, established as such as early as the title screen, which shows Jane on
diggable ground with a shovel in her hand and the instruction “Press Shift to Start.” When the
player does so, Jane digs through the floor—every touching, like-colored block (there are three

colors) is considered the same piece of clay for purposes of digging—and plummets off the title
screen and into the game.

So the player now knows what Jane's important verb is (“dig”), what key to press to trigger that
verb (Shift), and the effect of digging on soft clay blocks, many of which she will encounter in
the game. Jane's other verbs are “walking” left or right when on stable ground. When she has
no ground beneath her feet, she falls until she lands on some.

In addition to the diggable clay blocks, though, there are solid, metal blocks that Jane can't dig
through. These are used to constrain Jane's movement: to create choices for the player. Maybe
she has to run around a metal obstacle instead of digging through it, allowing the spike ceiling
to close in on her. Maybe she has to wait for the spike ceiling to drop far enough to destroy the
metal blocks for her. That's another rule: the spikes destroy any blocks they touch—even metal
ones. So here the metal blocks work as a pacing mechanism, a solution to Jane getting so far

ahead of the spikes that she's off-screen, where the player can't see and make decisions for her.

But how does the player know this? How does she learn that Jane's shovel—which she has been
taught can destroy obstacles—can't break through metal? I'll tell you how. She strikes that
first metal obstacle with her shovel, and the game provides her with feedback to show what
happens.

Here's what happens when Jane's shovel hits an unbreakable metal block: it bounces off with
a metal “ting” ). Even when the player is unable to use a verb to break

through an obstacle, there's still an observable effect that gives the player information about
the relationship between the verb and the obstacle. The rule “Jane can't dig through this” is
taught or reinforced when the player uses her verb.

sound (see Figure 2.4

Figure 2.4 Jane attempting to dig through clay and through metal.