Following the Little Dotted Line | Game Maker's Toolkit

Hi, this is Mark Brown with Game Maker's Toolkit,
a series on video game design.

The first thing I did when I emerged from
Vault 111 in Fallout 4 was deactivate the

main quest. And whenever someone gives me
a mission...

BLAKE ABERNATHY: Those raiders that killed Mary, they took her locket too. If you could get it back, it'd mean a lot to us...

I deactivate that too.

I'm doing this, slightly mad thing, because
I had just been playing The Witcher 3, and

felt that the game's helpful, hand-hand-holding
quest information - like the commands on the

side of the screen, the marker on the mini-map,
and the magic GPS trail to my next location

- was kind of... spoiling the experience.

Like, take this chap with the funny hairdo.
He's giving me some directions to my next

quest point and he says...

BOWL CUT BLOKE: Know the small
pond near the village? Path leads off from

it. Follow that 'til you come across a lone
rock. Walk around that and into the woods,

find the old cart, you're there.

Okay, got it. Pond, Boulder, Cart. I'm on
it. But as soon as we leave the conversation,

a dotted line appears on my mini-map. So
I follow it. I end up here, and I guess I have to find

GERALT: a large stone near the pond

ah, god damn
it Geralt! I was about to say that.

The quests in this game are often exciting
and funny and thoughtful, but getting to them

just has you blindly stumbling from waypoint
to waypoint, not fully taking in this incredible

world that CD Projekt Red has established.
It's so hard to be truly immersed in a world

like this when you spend most of your time
operating in this artificial video game layer,

that sits on top of everything else.

Games with nonlinear levels and big open worlds
didn't use to be like this. It's hard to believe

there was once a time before floating arrows
and mini-maps but go back and play Deus Ex

and when Paul Denton says he has map for you,
he just means you now have an aerial photo

in your notes, and you'll have to figure out
where you are, where your objective is, and

where to go by observing and investigating.
Similarly, the maps in the original Thief

were incomplete sketches, covered in doodles
and notes.

And then there's Morrowind. You've got a map
but it only shows you places you've been so

if you need to get somewhere new you need
to ask someone for directions, or consult

your journal, or look at a signpost. You actually
have to be a part of the world, and become

immersed in the landscape. Instead of simply
following a trail of breadcrumbs you make

your own way through Vvardenfell, and often
end up finding secrets and surprises along the way.

A few games are still carrying that torch.
Science-based survival sim Miasmata, for example,

offers you a map, which is pieced together
from places you've been and scraps of paper

you find, but it refuses to show you your current
position unless you get to a good vantage point

and triangulate your location by pointing
to two, known structures. Or weenies, if you

watched the previous episode. Again, simply
moving through the world requires skill and

determination, and there's a huge sense of
reward when you reach your destination.

But okay. Those are arcane retro games and
high concept indies. What about modern triple-A

open worlders, that feel the need to offer
dynamically updated maps and helpful hints

in the name of accessibility?

Well, how about more optional quests that
shun such navigational aids, and encourage

devoted players to really engage with the
world? Like the treasure maps you find in

games like Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim, and
Assassin's Creed Black Flag.

The idea with these is that you get a scrap
of paper which directs you to some hidden

booty. The map might have a crude drawing
of some landmass or a rock or a tree, and

that's about it. You then need to scour the
landscape and find the real-world equivalent

of this drawing. You're left to figure it
out yourself with no hints, no map markers,

no hand-holding.

They're fun because they encourage you to
really study and explore the game's world.

And they also have a nice byproduct in that
they delay the gratification of getting a

reward. Like finding keys, to open lockers
in Yakuza, or hitting goddess stones to unlock

goddess chests in Skyward Sword, putting an
extra step in before finding a reward makes

it all the more sweeter.

Anyway. I always cherished these scraps of
paper in games because they give me a chance

to slow down, take in the environment, and
figure things out for myself.

The other way to encourage proper exploration
is with small scavenger hunts, that don't

actually count as quests. Sometimes they're
called hidden quests or unlisted quests by

the fans.

One of my most memorable moments in Fallout
3 took place in the Anchorage memorial museum.

I hacked into this computer, and found a note
about a hidden stash, behind a busted storage

door near the service entrance. I just needed
to find a floor safe in the clinic.

Which is this room. How do I know it's the
clinic? Well it says clinic on the door which

is a pretty big giveaway but also there's
an operating table and x-rays on the wall

and a changing screen and a scalpel in the
locker. You can see how playing in this fashion

encourages you to read the world in a very
different, but more organic way.

Anyway. Inside the safe is a component, which
lets me open the door. And behind that door

is some goodies, a key, and a note pointing
me to a refrigerator. Which I find and open

to get my prize: a big load of bottle caps
and... A recipe for mirelurk cakes?

Well, turns out the recipe is just an Easter
egg. An inside joke at Bethesda. But I didn't

care. The real reward was the chance to engage
my brain, to study the surroundings, and to

follow clues instead of bread crumbs.

So that's why I'm wandering the wasteland
in Fallout 4 without waypoints and quest markers.

I want to be lead by my own curiosity, and
not by a compass. I want to find interesting

notes and follow scavenger hunts, but using
my own powers of investigation. I want to

see some interesting building over the horizon,
and just go see what fun treasures or stories

can be found inside.

And when I find a note that says...

SHELTER GUARD: Found the mayor in the tub last night. Locked the door before the missus found him

I want to find the right room by finding a sign like

this, instead of just following a waypoint.

I'm not exactly making much meaningful progress
in the game, mind you. I've been playing Fallout 4 for

around 10 hours and finished exactly two quests.
The game simply isn't designed to be played

this way - like how you can also turn off
all the quest helpers in The Witcher 3 but then

some guy will say...

MILAN NORAN: The patrol has been lost, somewhere along the south shore of Lake Wyndemere

and you soon realise there are no signposts
and no place names on your map and you can't

ask for directions. So you try and find it
yourself and you end up in a bandit camp and you

run away and oh god is that a bear? This has
gone very wrong indeed.

But I am having fun. Perhaps in an ideal world,
games like this would be perfectly playable

without map markers, but you could turn them
on if you get really lost, or you just want

to make some fast progress. But, for now,
at least, it'd be cool to see a few more optional

missions in games that don't show up on your
map or your quest log, and let you take a

moment to really soak the world in. To get
around through observation and investigation,

and not blind subservience to that little
dotted line.

Hi guys, it's Mark here. Thank you so much
for watching the episode. If you enjoyed it

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