1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:06,709 2016 has been an interesting year, all things considered, but nothing has caught me by surprise 2 00:00:06,709 --> 00:00:10,380 quite like the comeback of the "immersive sim". 3 00:00:10,380 --> 00:00:15,200 Deus Ex is getting a fourth game later this month, and Harvey Smith is making another 4 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:19,920 Thief-like stealth game at Arkane Studios. Which is also making a new Prey game which 5 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:23,279 is said to be a spiritual successor to System Shock 2. 6 00:00:23,279 --> 00:00:27,320 Which is getting an actual successor courtesy of Warren Spector, who is also helping Paul 7 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:32,070 Neurath make an unofficial sequel to Ultima Underworld. And the first System Shock is 8 00:00:32,070 --> 00:00:33,670 getting a remake, too. 9 00:00:33,670 --> 00:00:37,380 But if you haven't heard of those games, or haven't heard of those names, or you're wondering 10 00:00:37,380 --> 00:00:41,300 what the hell an immersive sim is and want to know why should we care that it's getting 11 00:00:41,300 --> 00:00:46,720 a huge revival, then... this is Game Maker's Toolkit, I'm Mark Brown, and in this episode 12 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:53,520 we're looking at the rise, fall and return of a truly fascinating game design philosophy. 13 00:00:54,420 --> 00:01:00,100 You can't talk about immersive sims without first talking about 1992's Ultima Underworld: 14 00:01:00,110 --> 00:01:06,109 The Stygian Abyss. A.k.a the most influential game you've never played. Its 3D engine prompted 15 00:01:06,109 --> 00:01:11,460 John Carmack to write a better one and make Wolfenstein 3D, and putting an RPG into that 16 00:01:11,460 --> 00:01:16,230 3D world inspired Bethesda to do the same with the first Elder Scrolls game. 17 00:01:16,230 --> 00:01:21,549 But Underworld's standout feature was using clever systems, artificial intelligence, and 18 00:01:21,549 --> 00:01:26,500 even rudimentary physics to try and simulate a believable space that wasn't completely 19 00:01:26,500 --> 00:01:28,560 predetermined by the developer. 20 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:33,330 The overarching design goal was to give players unique stories, and then let them come up with 21 00:01:33,330 --> 00:01:38,220 personal solutions to quests, much like in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Only, replace 22 00:01:38,220 --> 00:01:42,950 the human dungeon master with a complex nest of intertwining systems. 23 00:01:42,950 --> 00:01:47,979 The game's developer, Looking Glass Studios, would explore this idea of simulated spaces 24 00:01:47,979 --> 00:01:50,819 and player agency in all of its major games. 25 00:01:50,820 --> 00:01:56,320 System Shock took Ultima into outer space, and killed off all the humans to avoid those 26 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:01,880 immersion-breaking conversations. Thief used advanced artificial intelligence and open-plan 27 00:02:01,890 --> 00:02:07,799 design to forge one of the first proper stealth games. And at Ion Storm Austin, ex-Looking 28 00:02:07,799 --> 00:02:13,339 Glass staffers mixed System Shock's shooting with Thief's sneaking for the incredible Deus Ex. 29 00:02:13,340 --> 00:02:18,920 Or Dooz Ex, as you called it in the year 2000. Don't lie. You totally did. 30 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:24,010 So what is an immersive sim? What ties all these games together, and makes them different 31 00:02:24,010 --> 00:02:29,510 from the other first person games being made around the same time? Well here are my, personal, 32 00:02:29,510 --> 00:02:32,460 tenets of what makes these games special. 33 00:02:32,460 --> 00:02:36,070 Immersive sims, for one, offer high levels of agency. 34 00:02:36,070 --> 00:02:41,110 Which means you can achieve goals in multiple ways, and pick your own routes, tactics, and 35 00:02:41,110 --> 00:02:46,080 gameplay style. The designers tell you what to do - like, break into Lord Bafford's Manor 36 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:49,390 and swipe his sceptre in Thief - but doesn't tell you how to do it. 37 00:02:49,390 --> 00:02:53,860 The designers provide a large open space, perhaps a handful of predetermined routes 38 00:02:53,860 --> 00:02:58,210 that support different playstyles, and often some suggestions for how you can finish your 39 00:02:58,210 --> 00:03:00,300 mission. But the rest is up to you. 40 00:03:00,300 --> 00:03:05,210 To avoid overwhelming the player with choices, your options are sometimes limited by decisions 41 00:03:05,210 --> 00:03:10,130 you made earlier. In System Shock 2 you can only carry so many items, and you can only 42 00:03:10,130 --> 00:03:14,180 use the powers you've installed and the skills you've developed, so sometimes it's about 43 00:03:14,180 --> 00:03:18,680 finding the path that matches the playstyle you're developing, rather than randomly picking 44 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:20,640 new ones for every moment. 45 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:23,380 Immersive sims are also highly systemic. 46 00:03:23,380 --> 00:03:28,720 Most games are heavily scripted. Crazy stuff happens when you stand on invisible triggers, 47 00:03:28,730 --> 00:03:33,230 characters play one-off animations at specific bits, and obstacles in the game world just 48 00:03:33,230 --> 00:03:36,550 do exactly what they need to do in that moment, and nothing more. 49 00:03:36,550 --> 00:03:41,920 Immersive sims, however, are built from systems. So elements have globally defined characteristics 50 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:46,430 which means every alarm post works the same way, every torch can be extinguished, and 51 00:03:46,430 --> 00:03:50,330 while different doors might have different properties, they're all based off the same 52 00:03:50,330 --> 00:03:52,200 generic door mould. 53 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:56,560 There are also endless rules that the world follows. Enemies can find you based on sight 54 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:01,420 and sound, and will then run off and trigger an alarm. Footsteps sound louder on tiled 55 00:04:01,420 --> 00:04:06,290 floors, turrets shoot who you tell them to shoot, and objects fall when pushed. Remember: 56 00:04:06,290 --> 00:04:08,380 physics were still novel back then. 57 00:04:08,380 --> 00:04:13,310 For a neat example of scripting versus systems, note how in Thief: The Dark Project, you can 58 00:04:13,310 --> 00:04:19,090 attach rope arrows to any wooden surface. Whereas In Thief 2014, which dropped a lot of 59 00:04:19,090 --> 00:04:24,820 the emergent sim stuff you can only plunge your grapple into beams marked with white rope. 60 00:04:24,830 --> 00:04:29,150 The less prescripted stuff means that immersive sims can be emergent. 61 00:04:29,150 --> 00:04:32,780 When two systems talk to each other, interesting new behaviours can emerge. 62 00:04:32,780 --> 00:04:37,360 These interlinking systems give the player opportunities to come up with 63 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:42,270 smart, intentional strategies that exploit the game's rules. Put a gas grenade on an 64 00:04:42,270 --> 00:04:47,919 alarm and then let yourself be spotted, to create a nasty trap. Coax this self-detonating enemy 65 00:04:47,919 --> 00:04:51,419 near a fragile door, and then kill it, to open a passageway. 66 00:04:51,420 --> 00:04:56,740 Emergent gameplay can also lead to a mad chain reaction that you could not possibly predict, 67 00:04:56,750 --> 00:05:01,669 and puzzle solutions that the developer simply didn't foresee. Like using LAM mines - which 68 00:05:01,669 --> 00:05:05,989 the player can safely stand on - as an endless ladder to clamber up walls. 69 00:05:05,989 --> 00:05:11,699 Immersive sims are consistent. They try to avoid special cases and one-offs, and there 70 00:05:11,699 --> 00:05:16,400 are rarely any failure states for anything other than getting killed. You won't find 71 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:20,680 these games telling you to return to the mission area, or making you restart the level because 72 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:24,669 an ally was killed in duty. The simulation just continues. 73 00:05:24,669 --> 00:05:28,560 There are limits, though. You can shoot any character you like in Deus Ex, but you can't 74 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:32,120 just kill plot-relevant characters... until you're actually allowed to. 75 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,650 And at that point, you'll find that immersive sims are reactive. 76 00:05:35,650 --> 00:05:39,860 The plot doesn't have to drastically change to reflect your choices, but characters will 77 00:05:39,860 --> 00:05:44,081 act in different ways and say different things to reflect on your decisions. Even if you 78 00:05:44,081 --> 00:05:45,850 thought no one would notice... 79 00:05:45,850 --> 00:05:50,810 MANDERLEY: By the way, Denton, stay out of the ladies restroom. 80 00:05:50,810 --> 00:05:56,340 The games judge your actions during gameplay, not in clearly designated choice sections. 81 00:05:56,340 --> 00:06:02,090 Clint Hocking, who was inspired by immersive sims with Far Cry 2, has said "by creating a 82 00:06:02,090 --> 00:06:07,889 chain of influence that cascaded between the narrative and the WASD keys, Deus Ex allowed 83 00:06:07,889 --> 00:06:12,689 players to experience the repercussions of their immediate input level actions as they 84 00:06:12,689 --> 00:06:17,240 echoed upward into the very plot of the game". 85 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:22,199 So these are the tools that Looking Glass and Ion Storm used to make games that felt 86 00:06:22,199 --> 00:06:27,379 immersive. Not with photorealistic graphics or by getting rid of the HUD, but by letting 87 00:06:27,379 --> 00:06:29,189 go of the player's hand. 88 00:06:29,189 --> 00:06:34,349 Deus Ex, for example, was "designed, from the start, as a game about player expression, 89 00:06:34,349 --> 00:06:39,789 not about how clever we were as designers, programmers, artists, or storytellers" says 90 00:06:39,789 --> 00:06:44,729 director Warren Spector. "The game was conceived with the idea that we'd accept players as 91 00:06:44,729 --> 00:06:49,639 our collaborators, that we'd put power back in their hands, ask them to make choices, 92 00:06:49,639 --> 00:06:53,099 and let them deal with the consequences of those choices". 93 00:06:53,099 --> 00:06:57,211 To those of us who played them, immersive sims felt like the future. They let us do 94 00:06:57,211 --> 00:07:01,830 what we wanted, they reacted to our decisions, and they operated in spaces that acted more 95 00:07:01,830 --> 00:07:06,849 like a simulation of a real place than a phoney video game rollercoaster ride. 96 00:07:06,849 --> 00:07:12,879 But there were, after all, only a few of us. Deus Ex sold like 500,000 copies while Half 97 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:17,430 Life - equally brilliant, but for a very different reason - shifted millions. 98 00:07:17,430 --> 00:07:22,710 Deus Ex was a cult classic, not a landmark title that would start a revolution. 99 00:07:22,710 --> 00:07:27,419 Immersive sims muddled along with the forgettable Deus Ex sequel Invisible War, the contentious 100 00:07:27,419 --> 00:07:32,150 third Thief game Deadly Shadows, and the more well received spiritual successor to Underworld, 101 00:07:32,150 --> 00:07:38,639 Arx Fatalis. But the closure of Looking Glass in 2000 and Ion Storm Austin in 2005, and 102 00:07:38,639 --> 00:07:43,919 the booming blockbuster success of more linear and scripted games, meant the design ethos 103 00:07:43,919 --> 00:07:45,520 kinda went away. 104 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:50,091 It bubbled up here and there, mostly thanks to new Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, as 105 00:07:50,091 --> 00:07:55,300 well as BioShock from System Shock 2 designer Ken Levine, and Eastern European efforts like 106 00:07:55,300 --> 00:07:59,129 Pathologic out of Russia and STALKER out of Ukraine. 107 00:07:59,129 --> 00:08:05,340 But now, the genre seems to be making a triumphant return as games and names and ideas from Looking 108 00:08:05,349 --> 00:08:08,289 Glass and Ion Storm history have returned. 109 00:08:08,289 --> 00:08:13,419 The new Deus Ex games are made by all new people but are pretty faithful to the original 110 00:08:13,419 --> 00:08:17,970 game, other than the crappy inconsistent boss characters (who were mercifully changed in 111 00:08:17,970 --> 00:08:22,409 the director's cut edition), and slightly less scope for emergent gameplay. You'll get 112 00:08:22,409 --> 00:08:27,199 plenty of that in Dishonored, though, which comes from Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith. 113 00:08:27,199 --> 00:08:32,229 This stealth games lets you juggle loads of magic powers, and lots of interweaving systems, 114 00:08:32,229 --> 00:08:37,279 to come up with unique ways to assassinate your targets. It's also highly reactive to 115 00:08:37,279 --> 00:08:42,849 your playstyle, with rats becoming more plentiful if you choose to murder loads of guards. 116 00:08:42,849 --> 00:08:46,420 And then there are all the upcoming games I mentioned in the opener, which should be 117 00:08:46,420 --> 00:08:51,480 very interesting. "While I've seen some efforts, especially from the guys at Arkane, to sort 118 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:55,649 of extend the design philosophy of Looking Glass - I'd like to go further with that," 119 00:08:55,649 --> 00:08:57,230 says Spector. "It's nice to 120 00:08:57,230 --> 00:09:01,730 see more people trying, but I think there's a ways we could go as well, in terms of empowering 121 00:09:01,730 --> 00:09:06,680 players to tell their own stories. Those are the directions I'm going to try to go in". 122 00:09:06,680 --> 00:09:11,320 What I'm most excited by, is the opportunity to update this old philosophy with the tech 123 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:12,660 and design of today. 124 00:09:12,660 --> 00:09:19,440 Immersive sims really take advantage of, well, sims. Simulations. And games are now much better at 125 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:24,910 simulating crowds, artificial intelligence, fire, weather, and physics. 126 00:09:24,910 --> 00:09:29,420 This genre can also learn from other types of games, and borrow stuff like 127 00:09:29,420 --> 00:09:32,269 stories that dramatically react to your actions like in 128 00:09:32,269 --> 00:09:36,870 Shadow of Mordor. And yes, they can also benefit from the photorealistic stuff to make these 129 00:09:36,870 --> 00:09:38,460 worlds even more believable. 130 00:09:38,460 --> 00:09:44,180 And going forward, there's VR: perhaps immersive sims are the perfect match for virtual reality. 131 00:09:44,180 --> 00:09:49,420 Indeed, even in the earliest days of Looking Glass, the studio thought about future technology. 132 00:09:49,420 --> 00:09:53,620 Major contributor Marc LeBlanc said "everyone was hearing about how virtual reality was 133 00:09:53,620 --> 00:09:57,810 coming and most people thought that virtual reality was a hardware thing. We were kinda 134 00:09:57,810 --> 00:10:01,691 coming at it from the software thing: if there's going to be a virtual reality that you're 135 00:10:01,691 --> 00:10:07,029 interacting with then it's gonna have to have rules and a simulation and stuff like that". 136 00:10:07,900 --> 00:10:12,680 But, ultimately, this a design ethos that just needs to be explored further. Immersive 137 00:10:12,680 --> 00:10:16,300 sims, with their system-driven worlds and consistent behaviour - are never going to 138 00:10:16,300 --> 00:10:21,251 be as flashy (or as profitable) as crazy, scripted, rollercoaster rides. But 139 00:10:21,251 --> 00:10:26,550 sims like Fallout and Deus Ex, and games with similar design goals like Metal Gear Solid 140 00:10:26,550 --> 00:10:29,769 V and Hitman, do something truly unique. 141 00:10:29,769 --> 00:10:34,690 "Simulations allow players to explore not just a space but a 'possibility space'," says 142 00:10:34,690 --> 00:10:39,060 Warren Spector. "They can make their own fun, tell their own stories, solve problems the 143 00:10:39,060 --> 00:10:43,670 way they want, and see the consequences of their choices. That's the thing that games 144 00:10:43,670 --> 00:10:49,490 can do that no other medium in human history has been able to do". 145 00:10:49,490 --> 00:10:54,220 Thank you so much for watching. If you are wondering where Boss Keys is, the episode 146 00:10:54,230 --> 00:11:00,459 on Majora's Mask is up next. As for Game Maker's Toolkit it is funded entirely by people on 147 00:11:00,459 --> 00:11:04,509 Patreon, who are amazing and I want to thank them all right now. But I'm going to give 148 00:11:04,509 --> 00:11:09,349 a special, on screen shoutout to everyone who donates $5 or more.