WEBVTT 00:00:01.469 --> 00:00:03.759 I never finished Doom. 00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:05.410 And I love Doom! 00:00:05.410 --> 00:00:06.410 It’s amazing. 00:00:06.410 --> 00:00:09.210 It’s got some of the best shooter combat in years. 00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:14.290 But I just lost interest at a certain point and never ended up finishing it. 00:00:14.290 --> 00:00:19.019 Whereas other games, games I don’t even like as much as Doom, have kept me utterly 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:21.359 rapt until the very end. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:26.160 And this has left me wondering about how games can do better to keep their players engaged. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:28.999 That’s the word i want to use here, by the way. 00:00:28.999 --> 00:00:34.110 I’m talking about engaging games, not addictive games - which I don’t think responsible 00:00:34.110 --> 00:00:36.620 designers should be trying to craft. 00:00:36.620 --> 00:00:40.550 So I’m not interested in games that are designed in such a way that players can’t 00:00:40.550 --> 00:00:44.650 stop themselves, and I won’t be talking about games that use psychological tricks 00:00:44.650 --> 00:00:50.760 like skinner boxes, daily rewards, resource decay, loss aversion, and the like. 00:00:50.760 --> 00:00:52.130 This isn’t that video. 00:00:52.130 --> 00:00:56.870 Instead, I want to talk about fun things that games can do to make you want to keep playing 00:00:56.870 --> 00:00:59.860 - but without completely hijacking your brain. 00:00:59.860 --> 00:01:04.540 So this is Game Maker’s Toolkit, I’m Mark Brown, and here’s how to keep players engaged 00:01:04.540 --> 00:01:08.220 (without being evil about it). 00:01:08.220 --> 00:01:14.570 A crucial factor is pacing, which describes the rhythm of the gameplay you’ll be experiencing 00:01:14.570 --> 00:01:19.270 and is paramount to making sure a game doesn’t become boring or repetitive. 00:01:19.270 --> 00:01:24.040 So if we take a game like Uncharted we’ll see that it has lots of different types of 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:27.040 gameplay, which are often called pillars. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:33.610 That includes combat, climbing, puzzles, cinematic set-pieces, and even non-interactive stuff 00:01:33.610 --> 00:01:35.500 like cutscenes. 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:40.470 What you’ll notice is that Naughty Dog swaps between these pillars constantly, never lingering 00:01:40.470 --> 00:01:42.490 on one type of gameplay for too long. 00:01:42.490 --> 00:01:47.310 And what that means is as soon as you start to get bored of, say, shooting enemies, the 00:01:47.310 --> 00:01:51.750 game will switch to something else entirel., and hopefully regain your attention. 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:57.580 But you can also consider the intensity of each pillar, as a puzzle is often much calmer 00:01:57.580 --> 00:01:59.100 than a frenzied firefight. 00:01:59.100 --> 00:02:04.250 And it’s important to move fluidly between different intensities, as spending too long 00:02:04.250 --> 00:02:09.060 on calm gameplay can obviously be boring - but, at the same time, trying to keep the game 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:14.240 at max intensity for too long will lead to exhaustion or desensitisation. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.410 So Naughty Dog modulates these moods carefully. 00:02:17.410 --> 00:02:22.340 Look at how we go from calm puzzle solving and climbing, to an intense firefight through 00:02:22.340 --> 00:02:23.340 the city. 00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:28.020 Then a slightly calmer exploration of the train yard, followed by rising intensity as 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:34.920 you fight your way along a train, leading to a very intense cinematic moment. 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:39.510 But that all leads to the calmest section of the entire game as you recover in the Tibetan 00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:44.730 village and explore a puzzle-filled mountain with Tenzin, before it all kicks off again 00:02:44.730 --> 00:02:47.099 with an intense siege back at the village. 00:02:47.099 --> 00:02:51.910 Uncharted 2 has some of the best pacing I’ve ever seen in a game, and personally I found 00:02:51.910 --> 00:02:55.390 it almost impossible to put the game down when I first played it. 00:02:55.390 --> 00:03:00.709 Now, of course, this sort of cinematic pacing is a lot easier in a tightly controlled, linear 00:03:00.709 --> 00:03:04.590 experience, than an open world game where the player can do whatever they want. 00:03:04.590 --> 00:03:08.550 But making sure the player has lots of different types of activities they can do, so they can 00:03:08.550 --> 00:03:12.970 modulate their own fun if they get bored, will certainly help. 00:03:12.970 --> 00:03:17.560 Pacing is not just about how well the developer juggles its gameplay pillars, but also how 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:23.950 often it introduces entirely new ideas - whether that’s areas, mechanics, enemy types, and 00:03:23.950 --> 00:03:25.170 so on. 00:03:25.170 --> 00:03:30.620 The Mario games are wonderful at this, as you never know what to expect from stage to stage. 00:03:30.620 --> 00:03:35.099 So even though there’s not such a diversity in types of gameplay - it’s mostly just 00:03:35.099 --> 00:03:40.080 platforming - by consistently introducing novel new ways to play, the game really keeps 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:44.310 players engaged and keen to see what’s in the next level. 00:03:44.310 --> 00:03:49.710 Novelty can work even better when paired with mystery, anticipation, and foreshadowing, 00:03:49.710 --> 00:03:54.080 which is when you tease a player about something new coming up so they just can’t stop playing 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:55.690 until they see what it is. 00:03:55.690 --> 00:04:00.269 Take a game like The Witness, where you come out of the starting area and, if you’re 00:04:00.269 --> 00:04:04.400 like most players, you’ll quickly stumble upon this door which features a puzzle that 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:07.810 is essentially impossible to solve with your current knowledge. 00:04:07.810 --> 00:04:12.880 It really sticks in your head, though, and you’ll need to know what’s behind that door. 00:04:12.880 --> 00:04:15.640 This sort of stuff can keep you playing for ages. 00:04:15.640 --> 00:04:20.010 Remember when you saw Sen’s Fortress in Dark Souls, and just knew you had to see what 00:04:20.010 --> 00:04:21.810 was behind that giant door? 00:04:21.810 --> 00:04:26.910 The mystery of what’s around the next corner is one key reason that makes the Souls games 00:04:26.910 --> 00:04:29.180 so damn hard to put down. 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:33.500 Metroidvania games do this well, also, as a game like Hollow Knight quickly establishes 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:37.680 that you will be getting interesting new powers, but it doesn’t tell you what they are. 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:42.310 It just teases you with things in the environment that you can’t bypass yet, leaving you to 00:04:42.310 --> 00:04:45.900 anticipate what cool new ability you’ll be getting next. 00:04:45.900 --> 00:04:50.190 The thing about giving players new stuff is that each drop is an exciting motivation to 00:04:50.190 --> 00:04:55.750 stay engaged, but this burns out rather quickly and the player needs another one soon after. 00:04:55.750 --> 00:05:00.030 But if you tease the player, you can get them excited before you’ve even dropped the new 00:05:00.030 --> 00:05:03.550 content, which increases the amount of time you can go before dropping new stuff. 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:05.090 It’s economical! 00:05:05.090 --> 00:05:08.940 Perhaps the most obvious place for mystery, though, is the narrative. 00:05:08.940 --> 00:05:14.210 Traditional media uses cliff hangers and unanswered questions to keep you turning the page or 00:05:14.210 --> 00:05:19.560 watching after the adverts, but it's surprising how few games really nail this. 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:23.660 But every now and again I’ll play something like Firewatch, which is a game about a man 00:05:23.660 --> 00:05:27.830 who works at a fire lookout tower and gets embroiled in a thriller that will keep you 00:05:27.830 --> 00:05:31.060 going until you find out exactly how it ends. 00:05:31.060 --> 00:05:33.479 And yes, the ending is satisfying. 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:36.680 You just didn’t get it. 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:41.260 Now, one of the most compelling things a game can do is let you make progress towards a 00:05:41.260 --> 00:05:43.070 long-term goal. 00:05:43.070 --> 00:05:48.120 Give someone a level cap they can work towards, or a map full of collectibles they can find, 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:49.890 and they can be stuck in for weeks. 00:05:49.890 --> 00:05:52.480 But let’s dig a bit deeper into that. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:57.039 So a game that does this really well is the charming farming sim Stardew Valley which 00:05:57.039 --> 00:06:02.580 comes with an implicit long-term goal - you start with a messy patch of land and no money, 00:06:02.580 --> 00:06:06.690 but in time you’ll have transformed the land into an incredible farm that makes you 00:06:06.690 --> 00:06:08.180 loads of cash. 00:06:08.180 --> 00:06:12.720 And it’s that dream that can sustain many hours of toil, hard work, 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:16.250 and, to be honest, kinda repetitive gameplay. 00:06:16.250 --> 00:06:17.699 So why does it keep us going? 00:06:17.699 --> 00:06:21.500 Well, I think it’s cool that you can make your farm however you like. 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:25.520 You get to express yourself, set your own goals, and build something you are really 00:06:25.520 --> 00:06:26.699 proud of. 00:06:26.699 --> 00:06:29.850 The game has lots of short term goals to keep you going. 00:06:29.850 --> 00:06:35.180 Smaller rewards like the community centre and important milestones like adding buildings 00:06:35.180 --> 00:06:39.570 or improving your house give you something immediate to shoot for on the way towards 00:06:39.570 --> 00:06:41.170 the longer term ambition. 00:06:41.170 --> 00:06:46.380 There’s also a huge element of planning, as you must think long term about decisions 00:06:46.380 --> 00:06:51.260 when it comes to different crops and animals, seasons, romantic partners, and so on. 00:06:51.260 --> 00:06:56.180 You’re not just trudging mindlessly towards the goal, but making strategic choices to 00:06:56.180 --> 00:06:57.520 help you get there faster. 00:06:57.520 --> 00:07:00.639 There’s also the thrill of exponential growth. 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:05.229 In the game you’ll make a bit of money, so you can buy more seeds and better tools. 00:07:05.229 --> 00:07:10.039 This lets you make more money, to buy even more stuff, so you can go on to make loads 00:07:10.039 --> 00:07:11.229 of money. 00:07:11.229 --> 00:07:16.979 This positive feedback loop is at the heart of lots of engaging games, such as looting monsters 00:07:16.979 --> 00:07:19.430 and upgrading your character in Monster Hunter. 00:07:19.430 --> 00:07:24.370 There’s also something really fun about optimising the system in Stardew Valley. 00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:28.919 You start out by watering every crop by hand, but eventually you’ll come to have sprinklers 00:07:28.919 --> 00:07:30.699 that do the hard work for you. 00:07:30.699 --> 00:07:35.960 A game that does this sort of thing wonderfully is Factorio, which tasks you with building 00:07:35.960 --> 00:07:36.960 factories. 00:07:36.960 --> 00:07:41.789 You start out by digging up resources manually, but eventually create machines to do it for 00:07:41.789 --> 00:07:42.789 you. 00:07:42.789 --> 00:07:46.169 And while those machines initially need to be fed fuel, you’ll eventually have them 00:07:46.169 --> 00:07:49.590 powered by natural resources that don’t run out. 00:07:49.590 --> 00:07:54.200 Maybe its just a thing that appeals to programmers, but the desire to create an optimised system 00:07:54.200 --> 00:07:57.150 that works on its own is very potent. 00:07:57.150 --> 00:08:01.889 One final reason we like long term goals is that players can fantasise about what it will 00:08:01.889 --> 00:08:04.300 be like when they finally reach that point. 00:08:04.300 --> 00:08:08.310 An example is a skill tree in a game, where the player isn’t just ticking off these 00:08:08.310 --> 00:08:11.500 skills because it’s something to do - but because they’re looking forward to the day 00:08:11.500 --> 00:08:15.990 when they can use all of these skills, to absolutely wreck shop and make light work 00:08:15.990 --> 00:08:18.810 of stuff they found difficult at the beginning. 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:24.160 Oh, and speaking of difficulty: Another huge motivator is a compelling challenge. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:29.440 A game that is constantly pushing you to show your mastery of the game, in varied and interesting 00:08:29.440 --> 00:08:32.440 situations, can really keep you going. 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:35.409 This requires pitch-perfect difficulty, though. 00:08:35.409 --> 00:08:39.649 As we talked about in the Resident Evil 4 episode, players only get into an engaging 00:08:39.649 --> 00:08:44.180 flow state when they meet a challenge that isn’t so easy as to be boring, but isn’t 00:08:44.180 --> 00:08:46.519 so difficult as to be stressful. 00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:51.779 Resident Evil uses dynamic difficulty to keep players in that sweet spot, but for most games, 00:08:51.779 --> 00:08:56.279 a finely tuned and fiercely play-tested difficulty curve is the way to go. 00:08:56.279 --> 00:09:00.050 Remember, though, that failure isn’t a bad thing. 00:09:00.050 --> 00:09:05.241 Some of the most engaging games like Tetris and Spelunky are filled with failure, but 00:09:05.241 --> 00:09:09.399 people will keep coming back if the runs are relatively short, if they feel a sense of 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:13.749 getting better each time, and if they know the next session will be markedly different 00:09:13.749 --> 00:09:17.870 from the one before - often due to random generation of some kind. 00:09:17.870 --> 00:09:21.939 Also, note that there are different ways to challenge a player, so its not always about 00:09:21.939 --> 00:09:25.989 having a constant stream of reflex and skill checks. 00:09:25.989 --> 00:09:30.519 Consider challenging a player’s problem solving skills, or spatial awareness, or decision 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:35.339 making for a mental stimulation to balance out the more physical challenges. 00:09:35.339 --> 00:09:40.800 So, those are the factors that I’ve found really work on me, and can help explain why 00:09:40.800 --> 00:09:42.730 I’ve found certain games irresistible. 00:09:42.730 --> 00:09:48.429 For me, nothing gets me going quite like a game filled with novel experiences, that are 00:09:48.429 --> 00:09:51.139 teased through mystery and anticipation. 00:09:51.139 --> 00:09:56.290 Games like Dark Souls and Metroid and The Witness are impossible for me to put down. 00:09:56.290 --> 00:10:00.410 But it also helps me understand also why I didn’t stick with other games. 00:10:00.410 --> 00:10:06.089 As good as Doom is, the pacing is way off with long stretches of high intensity combat 00:10:06.089 --> 00:10:11.489 that gets pretty exhausting, and there's just not as much novelty as, say, Titanfall 2. 00:10:11.489 --> 00:10:14.189 But different things will work for different players. 00:10:14.189 --> 00:10:19.350 Maybe you need competition with other real-life gamers or rewards you can show off to other 00:10:19.350 --> 00:10:20.350 people. 00:10:20.350 --> 00:10:21.859 I dunno, I don’t know you. 00:10:21.859 --> 00:10:26.589 So in the comments below, think about the last game that you found totally engrossing 00:10:26.589 --> 00:10:30.100 and tell me why you think you just couldn’t put it down. 00:10:30.100 --> 00:10:31.839 Thanks for watching! 00:10:31.839 --> 00:10:36.839 One of my goals with GMTK is to get you thinking about why you like the games you like, and 00:10:36.839 --> 00:10:39.480 hopefully I’ve given you some food for thought here. 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:44.339 As always, this show is only possible thanks to my incredible Patreon backers. 00:10:44.339 --> 00:10:44.919 Go team!