Is The Swindle the First Great Heist Game? | Game Mechanics Explained

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

So there's this bit in Uncharted 3 where Nathan
Drake is about to jump between two ships,

and he says...

NATHAN DRAKE: Okay, there's the ladder. Only got one shot at this.

Which might make you think that you will only get, you know, one shot at this.

But if you do mess it up and jump to your
death, then - this being a video game and

everything - you'll respawn right back here
and it's about 10 seconds until Drake is back

to saying...

NATHAN DRAKE: Only gonna get one shot at this.

Video games aren't always that good at raising
the stakes, are they?

Which is perhaps why there are so few truly
great heist games, especially in single player.

Because how can you have a game about pulling
off a big, high-stakes heist if you know that

getting spotted or killed by a security guard
will just whizz you back to the last checkpoint?

Enter: The Swindle.

This is a game where you genuinely feel the
pressure. And you know that screwing up will

be a big set back, so the stakes feel pretty
damn high.

But there's more to a heist than just tension.
You also need to make the robber get greedy,

to take more than they should and put themselves
in risky situations. Because that's where

the best stories come from. And The Swindle
nails this, too.

So let's break it down and figure out exactly how this game encourages you to become a master thief.

The Swindle is a side-scrolling platformer,
with lightweight stealth mechanics. Which

means whacking enemies in the back of the
head, rewiring mines, sneaking past security cameras,

and hacking into terminals.

In each randomly generated stage you'll try
to pinch as much cash as possible, before

choosing to exit the level.

Money earned in
a successful run will let you buy advanced

abilities like triple jumps, bombs, quieter
movement, and a greater field of vision. Plus,

you must buy access to later levels - including
the final caper. The swindle.

There are two secret ingredients, though,
which encourage you to ignore the tiny scraps

of cash - and go for the really big scores.

For starters, there's a 100 day limit. Every
burglary, successful or otherwise, is counted

as one day. And if you haven't finished the
final mission in 100 days, it's game over.

And then there are the bonuses. Getting every
scrap of cash in the building, without being

seen, gives you a ghost bonus. And making
off with most of the money makes your burglar's

experience go up. Keep them alive long enough
and you'll earn huge bonuses for every successful

heist.

These two systems make you feel the pressure,
because if you mess up and fail a level - which

is pretty easy when you get killed in one
hit - you'll get zero money, and you'll have

to play as a new thief, which means you'll
have to start building up experience points

from scratch.

But they also pressure you into taking more money, and taking big risks. You'll want to make every day

count by getting as much money as possible, and you'll want to get the XP and ghost bonuses.

And that's smart, because the game

is at its best when it puts you in those dangerous
situations.

There are essentially three potential outcomes
when you take a big risk. You could pull off

the impossible, and make off with the cash
like a ninja thief. Which is a pretty good experience.

You could mess it up and trip an alarm, but
still make it out the level - sirens wailing

in the background. That's also a good experience.

Or you could fail completely, and lose the
money. Which isn't so great, but it might

actually work out in the long run.

Each failure makes puts you further and further
behind the 100 day deadline, which raises

the tension even higher, which encourages
you to get even more greedy, and take even

more risks - which could lead to more failure,
or it could lead to one of those epic heist

stories.

It's also important that failure isn't too
punitive. There are other games that are about

preparing for one final mission, like space
survival game FTL, and cyberpunk spy thriller

Invisible Inc. but screwing up in those games
is either game over, or it really puts you on

the back foot.

The Swindle is purposefully a little more
lenient, I think, which gives you the encouragement

to take those risks. You can even retry the
final caper if you mess it up, though you

must quickly raise the £400,00 fee to retry
the level. Which, yes, you guessed it, leads

to you taking on more risky heists.

Basically, The Swindle is a brilliant example
of using game design to encourage a certain

type of behavior in a player.

Because without that 100 day deadline, and
the other systems, you'd have a very different

relationship with the game. And we know this
for a fact.

I spoke to The Swindle's designer, Dan Marshall
who told me that at one point in development

there was no 100 day limit. But he showed
this early build to a journalist who figured

out that it was much safer to steal a few
quid, exit the level, and repeat this process

thousands of times, than risk the big scores.

And I don't blame the journalist - this is
a well documented phenomenon in game design

called the dominant strategy. If a player
finds a loophole in a system that they can

exploit for an easy win, they will almost
always opt to use it, over and over again,

regardless of how tedious it is.

So it's not enough to just hope that your
players will do what would be most fun - in

this case, risk everything for a big score.
Without proper motivation or reward, players

might never see your game in the way you intend
it.

As a designer, it's your job to put in the
right pressure points and manufacture the

right systems to encourage the player behave
in a certain way. In The Swindle that's the

difference between feeling like you're nicking
a chocolate bar, and feeling like you're pulling

off the heist of the century.

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