Almost every game you ever play will present you with only two types of challenges:
Logical challenges or reflex challenges. What if there were more?
This episode of Extra Credits is brought to you by Extra Sci-Fi. You heard me right
A little while ago we were lucky enough to have Oculus Rift sponsore two special episodes of Extra Sci-Fi on the history of virtual reality
So please check them out after this episode at the link below
Games are a series of micro-tests
Every pit you jump or puzzle you overcome is a tiny test of how well you can use the systems and mechanics of the game
Almost universally as designers, we create tests that are comprised of two elements:
reflex challenges and logical challenges
Logical challenges ask, "Can you figure out what to do here?"
And a reflex challenges ask, "Are you physically adroit enough to do what you need to do here?"
Most of the in-game tests we create require some combination of the two elements.
Defeating an enemy in a shooter may require realizing you should flank them, the logical part of the test...
...and then actually being able to line up your gun sights and fire before they scramble behind some other piece of cover, the reflex part of the test
In a well-designed game, the tests in it cater to what the player wants to experience, what captures their attention, and feel satisfying to overcome
So in a shooter, a designer may aim to create a test that's 80% reflex and 20% logic...
...while in a turn-based tactics game, they're probably going to want to build out tests that are 99% logic focused
A designer for a DDR or Guitar Hero on the other hand, knows their players are probably looking for things that are 99% reflex focused
After all, knowing what to do and not being able to push the buttons fast enough in a tactics game...
...would be as frustrating as having feet of lightning but not being able to puzzle out what a DDR level was actually asking you to do
And this two axis system is useful
It gives us a tool for rooting out problems in our overall design
Half of the time, when a system mechanic or even level feels off...
...it's because the balance between reflux requirement and logic requirement just isn't right for the game
And good designers know when they can play against type and create differences of kind by putting in a logic puzzle in an action heavy game
Or some fancy stick work in an otherwise logic focused title
But has thinking in this way for so long become restrictive?
Are their whole categories of challenges we're not presenting the player by limiting our tests to logical and reflex based ones?
Probably
Now the rest of this episode may seem a little weird to some of you...
...because much of it runs counter to many of the ways we're currently thinking about games
Heck, much of it runs counter to one of the most deeply rooted ideas of the modern education system and thus modern culture
But we're gonna push against the idea that the only things we can test are reflexes and logical capacity
Imagine an in-game challenge built around an empathetic test
Can you tell that someone is hurting, is in a bad situation, or needs your help without them explicitly saying so
This is something that we do in real life all the time through a series of subconscious clues
The way a person looks, their body language, their word choice can all tell you if they're in a rough place without them ever having to spell it out
Many of you have probably even had that strange experience where you're chatting with someone over IM...
...and you suddenly feel like you should ask them if they're ok, if everything's alright
How did you know?
You probably couldn't even verbalize it
Maybe their responses are shorter than normal
Or maybe it's taking them a little longer than average to respond. It can be that subtle
That's how wired we are for this sort of thing as human beings
Now, many of you are probably going to point out how horribly ham-handed games have tended to be when they've wandered into this territory
And you're absolutely right
But that's because many of the games that have tried to create empathetic challenges have just reduced them to logical challenges
To a group of clues that, if you spot them, pretty definitively can tell you something bad is going on
In part, this is because as designers, we're not used to this sort of design...
...and are afraid of our players missing or getting it wrong
So we reduced them to things we know our players will understand
And partially this is due to the fact our games are nowhere near the level of fidelity we'd need to truly convey all of the clues that we pick up on in real life
And they'll probably never be
But luckily, we don't need all of them
Things like the IM conversation I just mentioned are totally craftable in a game
It's only when we assume we need full-fidelity to deliver on this sort of empathetic challenge that we stumble
But empathy isn't the only thing other than reflexes and logic we can design challenges around
How about an intuitive challenge?
Can you form a gestalt from a group of non logical references to take a guess at what the consequences of an action might be?
Because that's a mechanic right there
But don't worry if that sentence made no sense to you
Try Cultist Simulator
It's a game about taking vague implications and Lovecraftian dreamlike passages and making decisions based on what you feel like they might mean
Now that may seem loose and nebulous, not like something you could actually play with...
...and not something you could make interesting decisions with, but once you get in there and mess around with it a bit...
...you'll see the designers are just utilizing one of humanity's other decision-making faculties besides pure logic for the challenge
Interestingly though, just as we often combine reflex and logic challenges in games...
...this game also shows us that we can combined intuitive and logical challenges as well
But empathy and intuition are just a few of the possibilities for other vectors to craft challenges for our players
The next few decades of game design will be about expanding our tool belt and finding all of the interesting...
...things we can do if we don't make every encounter, puzzle, or test about reflexes or logic
So, what do you think? What other interesting faculties can we use to make challenges in games?
And how would you use them? I'll be lurking in the comments below and can't wait to see what others you come up with
Until next time, everyone
Can you not get enough Extra Credits videos? I do know that feeling
Then check out a special two-part Extra Sci-Fi series on the history of virtual reality
sponsored by Oculus Rift
Personally, I love the topic of VR and I was psyched to get to learn all about where it came from
So click the link and be sure to tell... well... us that we sent you? Eh, that sounds right