What makes an Interesting Exploration game?
polycounter lvl 10
As a gamer one thing that I enjoy in games especially with openworld games and or sandbox games is the exploration part.I could spend tons of hours just roaming around looking at the environment and appreciate what would be the mundane for some people.I know those kind of things doesn't appeal to everyone especially those people who prefer the "gamey" type of games where they have specific goals to achieve,enemies to shoot etc. or more linear experiences like quests or storylines to follow.
Now I can point out a couple of things that I think makes for an enjoyable exploration type of game,things like good aesthetic/art style or an interesting landmark to discover,maybe a secret area or a plant that glows during the night etc.Basically for me I think the world should just have something interesting for me to discover and not just one vast landscape with nothing on it.
I want to know what you guys think,what makes an interesting exploration game or an interesting level to just wander around and discover little things?
And also why do you think there's not much games being made that are purely about exploration?Is it because they don't really have an "end goal" per se?No things to achieve,no skills to level up,no puzzles to solve.Or does it just boils down simply to it not really appealing to everyone?
And if that's the case what things or mechanics do you think can be combined with exploration games to make it more "gamey",gamify it..
Thoughts?
Now I can point out a couple of things that I think makes for an enjoyable exploration type of game,things like good aesthetic/art style or an interesting landmark to discover,maybe a secret area or a plant that glows during the night etc.Basically for me I think the world should just have something interesting for me to discover and not just one vast landscape with nothing on it.
I want to know what you guys think,what makes an interesting exploration game or an interesting level to just wander around and discover little things?
And also why do you think there's not much games being made that are purely about exploration?Is it because they don't really have an "end goal" per se?No things to achieve,no skills to level up,no puzzles to solve.Or does it just boils down simply to it not really appealing to everyone?
And if that's the case what things or mechanics do you think can be combined with exploration games to make it more "gamey",gamify it..
Thoughts?
Replies
By deeper I mean whats really occurring within the player. What you are looking for is "emotional response". Once you find out what triggers an emotional response, then the rest is easy.
One way to trigger an emotional response, and it pretty much works every time... is surprise. Find ways to surprise the player, this can be in the form of unique art assets, it can be in the form of a story (environment that has a story told within it), it can be in the form of a unexpected challenge (goal oriented with a barrier in the way).
One of the problems with exploration in games is that usually environments are just recycled art assets. While we can pretend its "something new", we know in the back of our heads its really not. So the key is to find ways around that, whether its with unique assets or smoke and mirrors (tricking the player into thinking its entirely different).
Technical and visual improvements that they havent seen before can help... for example a realistic ocean shader...this goes back to the element of surprise. I know many of us had that "oh wow" feeling with Crysis/Farcry water when it was kind of new.
Atmospheric sound can have a pretty big impact as well, and this is often over looked in games. It ties into immersion which is a result of an emotional response by playing to not just the visual senses but the audio as well.
Finally interactivity. The environment can show changes based on input from the player. This takes it out of a voyeristic state and gives them that "touch" input. Rather what its really doing is increasing the invested interest via emotional responses. Simple choices, input that causes one or two things to happen, even if pointless, triggers that kind of emotional response. For example, if you see fish swimming around in a pool. Well if you run through the pool and the fish react to that movement by fleeing... they player is seeing the environment react to their actions. An option to pick up the fish and then put it back down is another action that increases the level of immersion.
What to avoid? Anything that would cause a negative emotional response which can lead to alienation, or anything that would break the immersive state. The first could be something messed up... an option to do things the player hates (kill a puppy or kill a kitten). The second could be anything from a horrible animation walk cycle which makes the player realize they are just looking at a game, or bad texture work such as patterns in shared UV space or tiled textures ( i noticed this often in Bioshock Infinite, which often ruined the environment), or something that just seems out of place..something that goes against the tone and setting.
Imagine playing Skyrim and you delve deeper into a dungeon, then you see japanese anime characters dancing to kiddy music. The result is something that would be perceived as jarring, out of place, and thus the immersive state is broken.
Good exploration should revolve entirely around triggering those emotional responses that bring an player in, give them an invested interest in the world and encourage more exploration.
Take Skyrim for example, you could be taking a nice stroll along a path then out of nowhere a pack of wolfs try attacking you or just to making more interesting two dragons.
Also when going through caves/ mines there are traps, which you can disarm/ trigger.
Pretty much just make It interesting and boom all is well.
If they made more of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv9j3-QgRr8
"fantasy" style exploration your pretty much golden with keeping your audience at their seat. This is the type of exploration I enjoy the most, that or space exploration anything outside of the normal "real world", stuff grabs my attention.
An enemy here or there I don't think is bad it sort of breaks the repetition.
1.It doesn't really have to be super realistic and be a one to one representation of what happens in real life.Things should sort of function as they logically would.Have it at least based of reality to make them believable,ground it so to speak.Good examples would be fantasy or sci fi settings where everything seems to be out of this world but somehow familiar in some respect.After all we can't really duplicate real life in all its complexity,not in today's technology that is.The Uncanny valley theory comes to mind.
2.Immersion- Ok so we have a world that is believable,now let the players be immersed into it.Have them affect things around them,have things around them affect each other.Feed the senses visual,audio; let them feel that they're part it.Make them take in everything,Put them in a state of suspended disbelief.
3.Emotional response-Make them Sad,make them happy,surprise them, make them feel something be it what they saw or what they heard.Make them experience something special.Affect them in ways that would make them want to be in this world or would make them want to go back in it.
My favorite finding like this is in Skyrim, where I found a charred corpse, kneeling in the middle of nowhere. Turns out the corpse was carrying the spell tome for "Flame Cloak" which covers your character in fire. It's supposed to be defensive, but evidently it backfired on the poor guy.
Another of my favorite exploration games was Brutal Legend, where there wasn't necessarily an explanation for every little set piece, but the environment was bizarre and carried the metal theme so well that it didn't matter.
1.Maybe make the world really huge to begin with so that you have to play it multiple times to see everything.
2.Have some random events to make every playthrough different and fresh.Procedural stuff maybe?But the problem I see with proc content is that they usually tend to be "bland" or boring in comparison to say a level that was designed by an artist.The tradeoff however is that it only mean more work putting every asset by hand.Perhaps a combination of both proc stuff and designed.
Questions-
What are the current trends in procedural generation with regards to creating interesting environments to explore?Are we close into having believable and randomly generated worlds to explore?
Do you guys think a hand designed environment is still better since everything is practically placed with a purpose?
There's different levels of how procedural you want to be. Minecraft and Corneroids are pretty much as procedural as you get, I think.
Then Diablo 3 has difference styles of randomization. Most of their dungeons are a set of hand designed rooms that are randomly linked. While their outside environments are a couple of variating puzzles with missing parts that can be filled with random hand designed chunks, I think.
I don't know though. If you're thinking about making a game, you really need to ask yourself what the generation is there for.
For replayability? Why? Does it really need to be replayable?
Is the world so vast that it would be faster to program a system instead of hand placing?
I don't know, just throwing out some ideas.
What I love the most about exploration in games is when I'm not exploring. When I'm not activly thinking " Lets explore this area. " But when I stumble down a hole and there's some awesome looking area or something.
I find that when I'm activly exploring there's often a dead end or just an invisible wall because I of a "you weren't supposed to be here "
- kind of thing.
Love the thread
Something that I think would be interesting for an exploration-oriented game is an open-ended story. The story begins when you find the first piece, through exploration, that indicates a question must be answered and then you must explore to find clues to complete the story on your own.
To me the strongest thing you can do with exploration is to draw out a players curiosity so that they will want to explore. For games that simply tell you to do X by going from A to B I normally got pretty bored.
Two Worlds is a good example of an open world game with practically no interesting landmarks, which made traveling extremely tedious. And I do like that idea of quests that are activated by finding areas. I was never fond of how some sandbox games simply make some areas accessible, but void of any interest because you didn't do 100 quests in the first areas beforehand.
im about the same. fallout3 and skyrim are nice. you can run around and find all kinds of interesting stuff.
one thing is music. if they can get the music to really match the environment then it really draws you into the world.
also if they have quests that are scattered over long distances then you can spend a lot of time just takeing new routs around the map and still know that "your getting somewhere" and you have an ultimate goal.
if the symbols and structures in the environment actually mean something in the game it makes environments much more interesting.
lots of mountains to climb with no trails
i think most people have a hard time entertaining them selves. artist seem to never get board and can always find things to do most people just seem to want to be entertained. or solve a puzzle or finish the mission etc.
Thinking about it,guess bottomline is it has to be fun as all games should be otherwise why play it,why explore.Now what may be fun to someone might not be true to other people so its subjective.Here's an article I found--The Joys of Gaming that may sum it up..http://www.whatgamesare.com/2012/05/the-joys-of-gaming-game-design.html
Minecraft is probably the best example.. I love just exploring and finding interesting sites and landmarks. Going down into caves and finding a really cool waterfall dropping right down to the bottom of the world.. Amazing stuff. There is something very unique about games like that, an experience that no linear game can replicate because you know it has been hand-crafted for to experience things in a certain way, and you know millions of people are experiencing the same thing as you. In Minecraft, it is just you and maybe a few friends experiencing that one thing.
I guess you actually feel like a proper explorer of ye olde times, experiencing and finding things for the first time.
In it's essence, exploration is about figuring things out that are not pointed out, or at least don't feel like they're pointed out.
What this means is that even a very linear game (Journey) can feel like an exploration if they properly use level design and mis-en-scene, while a more open game (RAGE, GTA when playing just the storyline) can feel linear because they guide you from place to place.
A lot of people probably disagree with my description, but it isn't intended as the definition, but rather as a lens or perspective to be used when thinking/talking about exploration in games.
I think it's a fine line to ride between making something believable but also curious enough to encourage exploration. You want things to be out of the ordinary, interesting...but not so that they seem placed, or completely unrealistic (so far as the established rules and vibe of the game are concerned).
One of the main reasons I like survival/horror games is because they get exploration right, it's integral to gameplay. They often don't give you much information - they leave you with little else but questions. You find answers through exploration, and it's really fun!
I agree with that,its the joy of discovery that makes exploration based games very appealing and fun for me.Its doesn't matter if its linear or open world,what matters is what's inside of those worlds,the experiences I have.Games like Botanicula or Machinarium though a generally linear experience is just fun for me to explore.Or Proteus.Heck sometimes playing again levels or games that you already beat can provide new experiences the second time around,its just a matter of seeing things on a new pair of eyes so to speak.Having said that I'm actually revisiting Shadow of the Colossus,I remember the first colossus fight.Oh man I was at awe back then though the feeling isn't the same now its amazing how an old PS2 game could invoke a certain feel ,nostalgia even,the setting is just inspiring the experience even magical.
*Coincidence or not its funny you linked The Art of Game Design book,I'm actually taking a read at it right at this very moment