This got me cogitating on the walk home: there's a game in this.
Yes, and it's already been made. Tetris.
Tetris gives the appearance of elegant simplicity -- yet it consists of a masterful and complex balance of design decisions which give optimal flow and incredibly intuitive game mechanics.
Pace & challenge
Joe Hilgard, a psychologist specialising in the effects of video gaming, presents a fascinating case study on his blog, examining the factors that make Tetris addictive.His analysis identifies the staple mechanic of increasing pace (one of the easiest ways to maintain flow) and the inevitability that a player will reach optimum challenge while playing. This second factor is a consequence of the first, and is easy to achieve but hard to control.
So how do you control flow? Hilgard identifies two ways that Tetris achieves this.
- Jump-in at a higher level. A more confident player may set the initial difficulty level higher, avoiding the tedium of working up to a challenge that matches their skill level. (This is also the reason why many games allow players to save their progress rather than returning back to the start every time they play.)
- Quick death. When the challenge bypasses the player's skill level, the game does not last much longer. This allows a fast re-start to get another 'fix'.
For the game designer, there is -- thankfully -- a margin of error in setting the rate at which the pace increases. I imagine that many days of QA testing were required to polish this and tune it in like a radio. (I'm always impressed at how brilliantly pace is set in Nintendo EAD-developed games, and their input in the definitive Game Boy version undoubtedly added some refinement in this area.)
In addition to jump-in, another way that players set their own increased challenge is by attempting a stunt -- the satisfaction of doing something clever like destroying the maximum four rows at once, or letting the wall build to a certain level with the aim of bringing it back down to ground.
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| Oh, that's sooooo satisfying! |
Peril & Redemption
One of the biggest features of Tetris for me is redemption: the possibility of earning your way back from the brink of losing to a position of relative victory.
This is an incredibly powerful tool, exploited mercilessly by Hollywood movie-makers. Blake Snyder's highly influential screenwriting guide "Save the Cat!" set a template formula which is employed in nearly every major film of the last 9 years:
“We got rules around here, smartass,” the chief growls. “Do yourself a favor. Learn ’em.” That’s Snyder’s second beat, theme stated. And it’s right at the seven-minute mark, almost exactly when it’s supposed to happen in a 110-minute movie. The rest of the Snyder playbook is there, too: a story-starting catalyst midway through the first act, a shootout at the midpoint that ups the ante, an all-is-lost moment — including a death — between the 75- and 80-minute mark, and a concluding final act in which the baddies are dispatched in ranking order, just as Snyder instructs. -- Peter Suderman, Slate.comThe peril of the all-is-lost moment is followed by victory, snatched from the jaws of defeat (surely the most satisfying type of victory) -- these generate an strong emotional affect in the audience, stronger than that which a simple inevitable conclusion would give. A bit of "will-they? won't-they?" tension helps too.
It's not just movies. TV game shows are built on this premise, too. One contestant is winning at the halfway point, so logic dictates that they will extend their lead further. Hence the "double money round" which gives the underdog the opportunity to catch up.
To me, this is the main thing that makes the game so enjoyable. The flow does not just build in a linear fashion to an inevitable conclusion but actually ebbs before rushing forward again.
Variables
It's easy to miss how carefully this game has been crafted. The well's width & depth each have an effect on the speed at which the player must respond.
Another subtle design variable is highlighted in the Tetris Strategy blog, which introduced me to a term I'd never encountered before: are ("ah-ray"). It's a Japanese word that refers to the delay in spawning a new piece. By setting this to just the right period, the player can start to plan the movement required for the next piece. Too short and the player has less control; too long and the game becomes frustratingly easy.
Potential
Tetris is not the only game to make use of many of these concepts. Bejeweled and Missile Command are other games which combine pace with peril & redemption to create addictive gameplay.
With this in mind, meandering away from my core nostalgia theme, I'm currently considering some kind of game mechanic based on the idea of trying to catch things as they come at you, but with the ability to pick items up from the floor between catches as a means of redemption. Could be interesting.