DragonAge

I’d like to start looking at what makes Triple-A games so successful and whether there is a lesson to be learned for designers of flash games and casual games.

I’m going to start with DragonAge Origins, because that’s what I’m playing at the moment. NOTE: Spoilers ahead if you’re not at least a few hours into the game.

It’s just another fantasy game. You know, elves, dwarves, humans, spells, you know the routine. But if it’s just another fantasy game, how come it’s up for RPG of the year?

I’ll pick out three things about this game and the first is pedigree. That’s right, DragonAge is made by Bioware and to Bioware fans, that already means the game is expected to be good. Bioware has developed (note, I didn’t say mastered) the art of crafting an excellent RPG experience. That means finding the right balance between a great combat system, a compelling story and character development. Bioware uses what has worked in previous games to make their current games better and that’s smart.

Speaking of a great story, that’s the second point I like about this game. The story is dark fantasy and takes chances. A standout point for me was becoming a grey warden – you went through the ritual of drinking demon blood with two other apprentices, but none of the other apprentices made it, they died in the ritual. I just thought this was a great twist and brought home the point that a lot of characters are going to die, including ones you have formed a bond with. And you can’t ignore the story and skip through the dialog because you will screw yourself up. DragonAge can be unforgiving.

The last thing and the one I wish to focus on is choice. Bioware obviously figured that giving gamers choice is a large part of what makes their games successful. So in DA:O, they give you a choice from the very beginning. If you haven’t played it yet, there are six different ways to begin the game. The story has a customized feel to it all the way through. Playing as an Elven Mage, I was constantly coming across dialogs and situations that I obviously wouldn’t encounter if I was playing a dwarf or a rogue.

Bioware has always specialized in branching conversations and they’ve taken it a step further here. You’ll find yourself having conversations that last for a good five minutes! And somehow they’ve made it interesting enough that you WANT to engage in a five-minute conversation with a computer-controlled character.

I think I spotted a trick, though. Many of the conversations have only two outcomes (for example, settle the issue amiably or fight) or even one outcome. But there are many pathways to get to these two outcomes. In other words, they are giving you the illusion of choice. Why is this a good thing? Because it lets you play the way you want to play and act the way you want to act. Here’s a made-up example:

Baddie: Are you threatening me?

Option A: That’s right.
Option B: No. Can’t we talk this over?

Then, no matter which option you have chosen:

Baddie: The time for talking is over! *trigger fight scene*

Okay, so my example is lame! But it shows the illusion of choice. If I want to play the good guy and settle it peacefully, I’m still satisfied because I tried that path. In my ‘real job’, I develop e-learning courses, and we use these types of branching dialogs with limited outcomes extensively. It gives the learner or the gamer a sense of control.


So when was the last time you played a Flash game and felt you had a sense of choice? In fact, when was the last time you played a Flash game and engaged in a dialog? An audio dialog is a stretch for an online game, but a text dialog or at least pop-up speech bubbles would help the player have more of a sense of interaction and immersion. Early PC games were full of these things. We’re starting to see more flash games with an actual story. Let’s take it to the next level!

Six Levels Done

The latest iteration of It's Not Toronto: www.flashbynight.com/toronto


There are six playable levels. The finished game will have twenty.

Yet to do:
1 skipcodes so previous players can jump to a certain level
2 enlarge asset library
3 level design 7 - 20
4 smoother jumping movement
5 security check so it can only be played on my own site
6 debugging and testing

Negative Motivation

Tetris for me is probably the greatest game ever made. There is a great story behind the rise of the game, which you can view here.

One of the surprising things for me when I watched the documentary is when they talked about negative motivation in the game. We are usually taught that positivity is king and game design should always feature positive motivation. For example, you should big up the fx when the player levels up or collects a coin. When a player dies, don’t rub his face in it by glorifying the death with OTT special effects and a huge grinning skull.

Yet Tetris does it the other way around.

In Tetris, your failures are right there in your face, taunting you – all those gaps you failed to fill. Yet when you finally succeed, and you line up a row of blocks, your victory is short-lived indeed. The row of blocks disappears in an instant and you are back to your seemingly impossible task. You will never win; the blocks will always keep coming. Faster and faster until they consign you to your doom.

Recently, I was surprised to see my game Drench getting a lot of attention. When I thought about it, Drench is also based on negative motivation. Victory is fleeting – you clear the board and then, an instant later, you have an even harder one to clear. You start with 30 moves and the next level is 29 moves and so on. You can never win – you can never clear the board in 1 move or 0 moves. Maybe this is what makes Drench so popular.

Lesson learned.

Games of 2009

Here are the games I played in 2009:

1 The Force Unleashed
2 Fable 2
3 Medal of Honor: Airborne
4 Fallout 3
5 Gears of War 2
6 Batman: Arkham Asylum
7 Rainbow 6: Las Vegas
8 Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars
9 DragonAge: Origins

All good games! The best for me were Fallout, Gears, Batman, C&C and DragonAge.

What a great year for games and next year there's even more gaming bliss. Borderlands and Assassin's Creed 2 are waiting to be played. Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2 will be out soon.

Toronto

Here's a preview of the game I'm working on:

flashbynight.com/toronto

It's a platformer, yay, I've always wanted to put together a decent platformer. And it's got blocks, of course.