How To Steal Like a Game Designer

Okay, so during the development of Alien:

Isolation, the game had a 
pretty basic save system.

It would automatically cache your data 
whenever you tripped invisible checkpoints,

which were dotted throughout each level.

It was added because it was easy to 
implement, simple to understand - and,

in truth, because that's how saving 
worked in pretty much every game.

Design director Gary Napper 
said "like any development team,

we all play a lot of games 
and each have our favourites.

Often our decisions and choices 
are coloured by the games we play".

But...

as development went along, 
the team started to question

if this save system was actually the right choice.

You see, because players knew that if they died 
they'd only lose a couple minutes of progress,

they would just waltz around the space 
station without a care in the world.

Not ideal...

in a horror game.

*Alien scream*

So while these checkpoints might 
have worked in Call of Duty and

Bioshock - Napper says it was "not 
the right approach when making a

game that is designed from its core 
to terrify and put people on edge".

Because here's the thing.

It's totally fine to take 
influence from other games.

Many designers borrow mechanics from 
their favourite titles - often evolving,

combining, and remixing them into something new.

But: it’s essential to understand 
why those mechanics work in one game,

before copying and pasting them into yours.

How do you do that? Well, I'm Mark 
Brown, and this is Game Maker's Toolkit.

Alright, so...

way way back in 2004, , three game designers 
got together and wrote an academic paper,

featuring a framework that would prove to be 
perfect for analysing the mechanics in games.

It's called MDA, and it 
breaks games down into three,

neat sections: mechanics, 
dynamics, and aesthetics.

Mechanics describes the actual workings 
of the game: like the rules, the systems,

what the buttons do, and all of 
the individual stats and numbers.

For example, one mechanic could be the 
maximum amount of ammo the player can

hold - and we could set that number really high.

Then, dynamics is how the player acts and 
behaves, in response to those mechanics.

So because the player has tonnes of 
ammo, they may storm into battle,

and shoot wildly in the general 
direction of every enemy they spot.

And, finally, aesthetics - not to be 
confused with the graphics or the art style.

Here, aesthetics is how the player 
feels when acting in that way.

Their emotional response.

So this wild shooting could 
make you feel reckless,

powerful, unstoppable - basically, like this.

*Machine gun fire*

To put it another way - mechanics happen in the 
code, dynamics happen in the player's actions,

and aesthetics happen in the player's feelings.

Now, unfortunately, game
designers can't just go inside the player's head

and directly alter their actions or feelings.

But they can change the code -
and because MDA describes a casual

relationship, these changes will cascade 
down and alter the dynamics and aesthetics.

For example, if we tweak that knob 
the other way, and massively limit

the player's ammo stash, that's definitely 
going to change the player's behaviour.

Now, they will act cautiously before heading 
into battle, or might not engage enemies at all.

Every shot fired will be done 
with careful consideration,

and more time will be spent hunting 
for ammo in the environment.

And this will lead to 
completely different aesthetics:

like disempowerment, fear, and caution.

So, this MDA framework takes mechanics - 
and then puts them into a wider context,

which asks 'how do they make the player 
act, and how do they make the player feel?'

And we can use these questions to analyse 
the mechanics in the games we play.

Like, we could ask 'why do swords 
break in Zelda: Breath of the Wild?'.

Well - how does that change player behaviour? 
Maybe players will rely less on direct attacks,

and so spend more time sneaking past enemies, 
or finding creative ways to ambush foes.

It will certainly encourage players

to use different weapons - and 
constantly seek out new ones.

It can also lead to exciting moments of 
drama in the middle of a fight - (so far

I've used dynamics to refer to player 
actions, but dynamics can also be used

to describe consequences that might 
bubble out of the game's systems).

So how does that feel? Well, it 
could make you feel underpowered,

it could make you feel crafty and creative, and 
it will likely make you feel like an explorer...

in a world that's decaying, and falling apart.

If there's one hard part of this analysis process,

it can be putting words to the subconscious 
feelings that arise when playing games.

We're looking for way more than just "this 
game was fun", - we're looking for strong,

emotive feelings like, this game 
made me feel powerful, creative,

sneaky, tense, intimidated, curious, 
deceitful, cooperative, flustered.

So MDA lets us see game mechanics as powerful 
vessels for delivering emotions to players.

And so when borrowing mechanics from 
other games - or making entirely

new ones - you can pick ones with 
associated dynamics and aesthetics

that will compliment the rest of your 
design - and avoid ones that will clash.

For instance, designer Jenova Chen says that 
the game Flower once had a level-up system,

spells you could cast, resource management,

and time limitations - expected 
features of other video games.

But they all had to go,

because they went against the intended 
emotions of relaxation, calm, and peace.

Chen says "we’ve played so many games 
growing up these bad habits form.

A lot of the time we like to make things very fun,

but fun doesn’t always help the 
emotion you want to deliver".

That's why it's useful to truly understand your

game's vision - the overarching feeling 
or experience you want to give the player.

Because if you know you want to make the player 
feel, say, scared, then you know you'll want

to pick mechanics that induce feelings of 
fear, dread, isolation, and disempowerment.

That vision could be a single 
statement: Subnautica was based

around the phrase "thrill of the unknown", 
and every mechanic had to suit this idea.

Resident Evil Village was built under the 
banner of "struggle to survive" - and so

when playtesters hated the game's messy combat, 
the designers could use that phrase as, like,

a lodestar to rebalance and 
rethink the game's mechanics.

The vision could also be a fantasy 
that you're trying to deliver.

Perhaps you want the player to feel like 
Batman, or an assassin, or a world leader.

It could be a feeling - like how 
Flower tried to make you feel relaxed.

Or it could be a specific experience 
- when making FTL, the devs said their

starting point was "we wanted to recreate 
the atmosphere of commanding a starship".

With a strong vision in mind, 
it becomes easier to evaluate

whether game mechanics are the right 
choice for the game you're making.

And, of course, it goes beyond game mechanics.

All the other elements in the game, like 
visual style, music, animation, story,

colour, camera framing, 
and so on - those all create aesthetics too.

(Just, without the dynamics bit).

For example, Dead Space composer Jason 
Graves said that EA originally requested

a predictable sci-fi soundtrack for the 
game - full of electronics and drums.

"After we did that first little 
piece of gameplay," says Graves,

"EA came back and said that 
it wasn’t scary enough.

The music made players feel heroic, 
and they wanted them [to feel] scared."

And ultimately I think games are most clear and

coherent when absolutely everything 
is pointing in the same direction.

Jenova Chen says "all the elements have to 
sing the same notes to make the impact strong".

Perhaps the best example of this 
- for me - is DOOM, from 2016.

It also had a strong vision statement 
- in this case, "push forward combat".

And pretty much everything in 
the game supports this statement.

You can see it in the game mechanics 
- from the rapid movement speed,

to the way you pounce on enemies to get health, 
to the way certain demons are told to run away

from you - every feature pushes you to race 
towards enemies like an unstoppable predator.

And that's supported by the non-game 
elements, like the heavy metal soundtrack,

the violent animations, and the Doom 
Slayer's visual design and personality.

Of course, none of this as easy as 
I'm making it sound - and there are

so many other considerations 
to make when designing a game.

For starters, a game isn't just one mechanic - but

hundreds, perhaps thousands if 
you want to go super granular.

My interactive video essay, Platformer Toolkit,

shows how a single character can be defined by 
dozens of distinct stats - which could change

the game from feeling like Inside, 
to feeling like Super Meat Boy.

And these mechanics interact, overlap, 
and can even undermine each other.

In The Callisto Protocol, 
you have very limited ammo,

which is intended to make the player 
feel underpowered and fearful.

Buuut, you also have a one-button, 
insta-kill stealth attack with a

slick animation - which can make 
you feel powerful and unstoppable.

Also, while you can make best guesses about how 
a player will act in response to a mechanic,

you can't know for sure until 
you do a lot of play-testing.

Players might misunderstand or ignore a mechanic 
- or do something completely unexpected.

Sometimes that's a fun, emergent behaviour 
- like the flying cars in Rocket League,

which suited the vision just fine, 
and so could be kept in the game.

But at other times it can create degenerate 
strategies that undermine your emotional goals.

Going back to Alien: Isolation, the 
automatic checkpoints meant that if

you got jumped by the Xenomorph, a 
smart strategy was to just beeline

it towards to the next checkpoint, 
get killed, and respawn in safety.

Furthermore, sometimes you want to have different 
emotions, at different times in the game.

And so will need to change 
the mechanics accordingly.

If the story depicts a character who 
starts out weak and naive - but ends the

game feeling competent and powerful, how could 
you reflect that growth in the game mechanics?

And finally - and perhaps most importantly 
- aesthetics are, ultimately, subjective.

A scoring system might make one player feel 
competitive - and eager to replay every level.

But it could make another player feel 
judged - and eager to get a Steam refund.

Time pressure might feel fun and exhilarating 
to one person - but anxiety-inducing to another.

And this is often related to skill and ability.

Take the new Tango game, Hi-Fi Rush: 
it clearly wants you to feel like a

rockstar as you brawl along to the beat - 
but as someone with zero musical ability,

I just felt like a bumbling idiot.

At the end, I’ll recommend a video about 
balancing a fantasy with differing player skills.

So, going back to Alien: Isolation - the team 
eventually tried a different save system.

Something closer to older games.

Now the game features a small number of save 
points that you have to operate manually.

And - to make things worse - it takes 
a while for the save point to turn on,

and for your game to actually save...

giving the alien a chance 
to sneak up and kill you.

And this new mechanic changed 
everything - completely altering

the player's behaviours and emotions.

"We were afraid," says Napper.

"If we didn’t make it to the save point and 
successfully save, we would lose our progress.

Saving became tense.

Looking for a save became tense. The simple act of

saving had become supportive to the game's 
driving factors of terror and isolation".

So - it's fine to borrow game mechanics - 
but you need to understand why they work.

MDA is a powerful tool for this because 
it helps us predict how a game mechanic

will make players act, and make players feel.

If those feelings compliment the 
vision for your game - then awesome.

If they clash, then they probably need to go.

Because, when it comes to picking, pinching, or 
producing game mechanics - you should listen to

Shovel Knight studio Yacht Club Games, who says 
"it depends on the game you are trying to create,

the emotions you’re trying to evoke, and the 
experience you want your players to have".

Hey, thanks so much for watching! This 
video was originally given as a lecture

at universities in London, 
Breda, Boden, and Skellefteå.

If you'd like me to visit your school,

please get in touch - you can find 
my email in YouTube's about section.

I'm also going to GDC next month, so if you 
see me - say hi! For now, though, click here

to watch that video about delivering a specific 
fantasy, to players of different abilities.