My group is designing a cooperative game in which players each have control over a small part of the instructions/control to prevent the breakdown of a spaceship. For instance, one person can read oxygen levels and knows where there are leaks in the spaceship, but can’t repair them, while another person has the controls for repairing leaks or adjusting valves, but can’t see danger levels.
One mechanic we want to try is having occasional “emergencies” that interrupt the players’ ability to access the controls until they resolve it. Would this mechanic introduce exciting tension, or would it simply be frustrating?
- This is an important question because it determines what mechanics are present in the game. We want every mechanic to work towards keeping players engaged and social.
- We can prototype this by having an analog counterpart, such as asking players to run in a circle when a prompt appears on their screen before using the controls again. If players seem hesitant, frustrated, or complain, it may indicate that it’s not an element that they enjoy
- I feel it would depend on the presentation and on the amount of agency players keep. If they can’t do anything to solve the emergency and need to wait on another player, it may feel like the game is taken from their hands. Also, if the emergency feels non-urgent, like “oh no the pet needs to be fed” it may break their immersion.
Players share the controls. What series of inputs provides a good challenge without being overly frustrating?
- We want to design a game that is both challenging and fun. If the controls are too easy, players will learn the pattern instantly and run out of things to learn, but if the controls are too hard, they’ll also get bored because they feel they have no change.
- We can prototype this using a handful of simple, analog 2 or 3 player challenges. We should try modules that have various demands, such as synchronization, word puzzles, describing similar colors, avoiding
- If the players struggle a bit, but want to keep trying, then we have a good difficulty level.
- To achieve this, I think we need instructions that depend on synchronization instead of just a correct sequence. I also think, to avoid confusion, we should have instructions that are easy to understand, but hard to communicate. This may look like, instead of using color-coded controls, we use combinations of shape and position (like a grid of buttons, or buttons with icons on them)
Should players press spaceship controls directly or should they pilot a character who can use controls?
- This fundamentally changes the way players interact with and feel the game. It may affect their immersion, the kinds of tasks they can execute, and the kinds of obstacles they encounter.
- We can prototype several parts of this. We can test the feel by sketching out two different interfaces and doing a slideshow-like scenario. We can do a paper prototype by having people physically move around coins on a notebook, which has walls/rooms draw on it. We can later on, if necessary, use a digital prototype that uses two different controls.
- I think the simplicity of directly interacting with the spaceship controls would be more immersive, but the introduction of space to navigate can create more interesting challenges.
