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See Game. See Game play. Play Game, play.
By Corvus | March 18, 2009
The seeds of this post were planted when I played a short Flash game called Perspectite. If you can, go take a moment to play it and feel free to skip to the next paragraph when you come back. The goal of Perspectite is to move a fuzzy blob of a character from screen to screen by moving the camera frame vertically and horizontally, thereby altering the relationship between foreground and background elements.
The game is short, only four screens long, which feels just about right to me given the relatively simple nature of the mechanic. When I mentioned (on the IRC channel) that I didn’t think the mechanic would support a much longer game, Gianfranco disagreed and asked me what I thought of Coign of Vantage.
Coign of Vantage is an even simpler game, mechanically speaking, than Perspectite. On each level, you rotate a cloud of pixels until they align into an image that matches a small icon in the corner of the screen. The entire game is on a timer and your score reflects how many images you solved (and, I believe, how quickly you solved each) during the time provided. By the third level of this game, I was no longer paying any attention to overt goal of the game–image matching. There’s a much simpler and more expedient method of solving the puzzles than color and shape matching. So, if we’re to make a literary comparison, I found myself casually skimming the game, rather than pouring intently over every word.
So what’s my point? Well, it is not that these games are bad. Or even that longer games with similarly simple mechanics (like the Loco Roco inspired Flash game Blobular) are bad. But I do find myself frustrated when a longer gameplay experience doesn’t offer a deeper narrative space–i.e. more complex mechanics, more meaning, more depth.
Imagine reading a novel the length of Crime and Punishment that was no more complexly written than a Dick & Jane reading primer. It would lose all the depth and emotional complexity that makes it a great novel. It would become completely meaningless and a tedious reading experience.
Each of the games linked to here–Perspectite, Coign of Vantage, Blobular, present an interesting approach to manipulating the relationship between the player, and/or the player avatar, and the storyspace. But alone, that is not enough to support a longer game.
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Have further insight? Let me know in the comments!
Tagged:flash, game mechanics, simple games. | 4 Comments »
March 18th, 2009 at 8:23 am
I agree that not all these games are bad. On the contrary, they’re getting much better with an alarming pace. Everything has it’s place. I’m all for games facilitating a deeper narrative space, but I’m at a quandary these days regarding how people deal with those in itself.
I’ll go check these out now and come back with my thoughts.
~sLs~
March 18th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I’d even risk suggesting that World of Warcraft -is- that Crime and Punishment-sized Dick and Jane novel. Only the narrative is good enough to keep people reading.
Or so I’m told. I didn’t make it very far.
Well, wait, a quintessential freemium MMOG like Silk Road would be more like Dick and Jane. Perhaps WoW is Dr. Seuss?
Not deliberately trolling, but I can see if someone would think so.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I, for one, agree completely.
I’m currently replaying Final Fantasy 9 for some reason. That game along with oh so many RPGs would fit nicely in the category of “games too long for their own good”.
I’m on the second CD, 30 hours in and I can’t stop feeling like this game should have ended 10 hours ago.
To put it shortly: The battle system is simplistic, the story was engaging at first but soon became boring and predictable and the random battles can quickly get on your nerves with extended exposure.
At this point, the only joy I derive from the game is riding the chocobo and exploring the landscape.
I think we don’t see this game design rule too often, so I think it bears repeating:
The length of your game should be dictated by the depth and complexity of your mechanics.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Reading this post reminded me of watching Yahtzee’s review of Peggle.
What it really comes down to, at this point, is personal preference. Most “casual” games nowadays have a simple, if any, story. They’re usually just a puzzle mechanic thrown in with a few dozen levels. Some times, the mechanic is a little bit more complex, such as the prevalence of “tower defense” games, but ultimately, the story has little to no influence on the game.
Yes, some of these mechanics are really inventive, but the games that house them are little more than conduits. If someone’s just looking to waste some time, then these sorts of things are right up their alley.
(Disclaimer: I didn’t play either of the games mentioned, I’m commenting from my phone.)