Three Other Approaches to Turn Timers | GMTK Extra

Earlier this week I released an episode of
Game Maker’s Toolkit about how designers

push you to try more interesting gameplay
styles - and how those decisions can be met

with controversy when the game forces you
to play in a specific way, or punishes you

for not meeting the creator’s vision.

I got loads of great comments on that video, with many of them focused on XCOM 2’s design choices.

A quick reminder to get everyone up to speed.
XCOM Enemy Unknown was awesome, but Firaxis

wasn’t happy with the fact that players
were approaching the game slowly and cautiously.

They thought the game was more interesting
when the player was faster and took more risks.

So, for the sequel, XCOM 2, the studio put
a timer on many of the missions, so if you

take too many turns, you’ll fail the main
objective. This certainly did the job, but

it was met with no small amount of controversy.
Lots of players just didn’t like being rushed

by the game.

Anyway. Lots of people in the comments pointed
out that there’s actually a number of tactical

games out there that have found clever ways
to encourage players into speeding up, without

completely annoying them.

And so, in this cheeky bonus video, I want
to give a shoutout to these games and take

a look at their unique solution to this tricky
design problem.

Let’s start with Invisible Inc, which is
by Klei Entertainment - the same studio as

Mark of the Ninja. This game is heavily inspired
by XCOM but has more of a focus on stealth

and espionage. So in each mission you’ll
be sneaking past guards, hacking into cameras,

and pinching valuable secrets.

Technical Designer James Lantz told Gamasutra,
“We knew we needed [a] sense of time pressure

for Invisible, not only because it fit the
game’s theme but also because we wanted

players to be making interesting tradeoffs
with every move, and keeping busywork to a

minimum”.

Basically, the studio was looking for high
stakes break-ins, where you’d have to make

the tough choice between robbing a few more
safes or booking it towards the exit.

The solution was a security system. Every
single turn, the system ticks up one notch.

And every five notches, a new level of security
is introduced. Maybe new cameras come online,

or it becomes more expensive to hack things,
or additional guards are introduced.

So it’s still a turn timer, just like XCOM
2, but the consequences for taking too long

are nowhere near as severe. It’s not a fail
state - it just ramps up the challenge. In

fact, it can be kind of fun, because these
extra security measures can add surprising

new wrinkles to mess up your plan.

The alarm system still was met with some resistance,
but Lantz says “we were able to ameliorate

the issue by providing lots of in-world fiction
for the alarm and making it very clear and

predictable to players with extra UI and tutorialization,
including the small but incredibly effective

change of renaming it from ‘Alarm’ to
‘Security Level’.”

Okay, so the next example comes from Mario
+ Rabbids Kingdom Battle. This is another

XCOM-style game, only this time with the surprising
inclusion of, uh, Super Mario and those annoying

Rabbids from the Rayman games.

So in this game, you’re basically just graded
on your performance in each battle - with

the game noting down how many team members
made it out alive, and how many turns you

took compared to a par time.

And then, at the end of the chapter, you’ll
be rewarded with a trophy and - more importantly

- coins based on your performance. So finishing
missions within a smaller number of turns

rewards you with handy goodies. Which is cool.

It certainly doesn’t put any pressure on
the player, though. And that’s maybe something

I should have addressed in my original video.
Rewarding players for being fast is one way

of doing things, but it’s fundamentally
a different experience to feeling the pressure

of death looming over your head if you don’t
speed up - which is why systems like the rebel

fleet following you in FTL are still extremely
worthwhile.

But stress is not really the aim of a game
like Mario and Rabbids. The game does want

you to be fast and mobile, but it achieves
this just by giving you lots of fun and powerful

tools for zipping around the battlefield,
like how you can get big damage from sliding

into enemies, or cover huge amounts of ground
by bouncing off other team members.

The coin reward for finishing within fewer turns
is just an extra incentive for playing in

a bouncy, zippy Mario-like way.

Okay, so the final example comes from another
very XCOM-like game... uh, XCOM! Enemy Within,

that is, which is the expansion pack for the
original Enemy Unknown.

Not the original original. You know what I mean.

So, Firaxis was thinking about encouraging
speed back during the development of this

DLC. Enemy Within lead designer Ananda Gupta
told Eurogamer, "We really felt players were

having fun with the tactical game, but we
felt like, especially on the harder difficulty

levels, heavily conservative play was being
rewarded. There's nothing wrong with heavily

conservative play - that's fine - but we wanted
to make it so that it wasn't a no-brainer”.

So in this expansion, you’ve got all these
cool new toys to play with like mech walkers

and genetic upgrades to create ridiculous
super soldiers. And this useful junk is all

purchased with a new currency, called Meld.

Now this stuff is found on the battlefield
of many of the game’s missions, in Meld

Canisters. And this is where the time pressure
comes in. As soon as you spot one of these

things, they start a self destruct sequence.
If you get to the canister in time you can

take the currency home with you. If not, the
meld is lost.

These meld containers provide a reward for
taking risks, and a certain level of pressure

as the timer ticks down, but speeding up is
optional and the punishment for running out

of time is a missed opportunity - not a completely
failed mission.

I think this is a pretty great piece of design,
but I’m not trying to say that these games

are necessarily better than XCOM 2, or that these designs are “right” and the more simple turn timers

are “wrong”. But it’s just interesting
to look at some other ways that designers

have attempted the same idea - but in a unique
way.

And, often, with less backlash. But not zero
backlash - Invisible Inc’s James Lantz admits

“there are definitely players we lost
along the way with the alarm system”. Though

Klei does let you turn the whole system off, from
a generous menu of options and modifiers.

But, that’s a whole ‘nother topic.

For now, thank you so much watching and thank you for your comments. I try to read as many as

I can, and all your feedback helps make the
show better and more informative. Without

you, a bonus episode like this just wouldn’t
exist. See you soon.