Posts Tagged mechanic
Small Worlds Bits
Posted by The Management in games on March 14, 2010
When I first heard about Small Worlds, I couldn’t wait to try it out. Its core concept of zooming out to show more and more of the map was something I had previously wanted to do, but gameplay-wise just couldn’t quite figure out.
Three sections of the first level: the tight starting room, a larger portion revealed, and the full picture.
Here are some of the bits that make Small Worlds work:
- The rule of thumb for when the world zooms out is quite simple: whenever the player reaches the edge of the screen and can keep going, i.e., he doesn’t hit a collidable wall, the world starts zooming out (this is usually when similar games starts to scroll the map). When the player is no longer pushing at the boundaries of the screen, the zooming stops.
- The main character is just a few pixels tall and 1 pixel wide, with a red body and a pink head. Nothing else really uses these colours, which makes it easy to spot him even when the levels are zoomed out all the way.
- The player’s avatar automatically scales small obstacles, which really helps to prevent the controls from getting frustrating in the zoomed out portions of the game.
- There’s a clear separation of backgrounds and foregrounds via colour schemes. The backgrounds are darker and more faded out, while the foregrounds are more vibrant and clearly visible. This contrast helps to discern where the player can and cannot go.
Even without the winter theme, most levels resemble a snowglobe that requires horizontal and vertical traversal. I'm guessing this was done to maximize the zoomed out real estate.
- There are no enemies or hazardous obstacles to create a sense of danger — the goal is simply to find the exit. This goes hand in hand with the two interlocking mechanics: the zooming out and the fog of war.All the levels are covered by a fog of war that obscures the map. The fog of war is only dispelled when the player physically approached it with his avatar. Conversely, the levels zoom out whenever the player approaches the edge of the screen. This means that as the player uncovers more of the fog of war, he periodically zooms out the map, revealing even more portions of the level that are obscured by said fog of war. This gives the game a constant sense of progression and clearly indicates the next possible routes for exploration.
Additionally, the levels themselves represent aesthetically pleasing vistas that are a reward in themselves. This encourages the player to explore every nook and cranny not only to zoom out the map (which takes him ever closer to the exit point), but also to see more of the big-picture itself.
Although I wish the game had more interactive components and more varied level structure, it’s still quite a neat title that you’re free to try out for yourself.
Time4Cat and Indie Tech Demos
Posted by The Management in games on February 22, 2009
I think the first time I saw time-rewinding in a videogame was in one of EA’s NHL titles back in the 16-bit era. Granted it wasn’t a vital part of the game — just a way to view replays — but it’s worth mentioning. No one really thought of tying it deeper into gameplay until Prince of Persia: Sands of Time rolled around. SoT not only presented the concept in an attractive wrapping, but also made it a crucial part of its gameplay and storytelling.
Then, of course, there was Braid.
I was a bit sceptical about Braid at first. It was getting lots of attention from the indie community after only a short demo that showcased a rewinding mechanic very similar to that of SoT. In the end, though, Braid turned out to be so much more. It tied numerous time-manipulation concepts into one of the most interesting and unique games to be released in the last couple of years.
As a result, it’s not too surprising that smaller-scale games have begun to pop up and try to experiment with similar concepts. Which brings us to Time4Cat.
Time4Cat and his magical time-controlling collar.
It’s a relatively simple, single-screen game where the player’s mouse cursor is a cat. Moving the cat around sets random pedestrians in motion, while holding the mouse still stops them in their tracks. The main point of the game is to gather up leftovers that spawn on the playing field but don’t follow the cat-moving time mechanic; wait too long, and the leftovers disappear. Power-ups also sporadically show up and can aid you in not touching any of the pedestrians (which results in a game over screen).
It’s a casual experience reminiscent of Braid’s fourth world, but it’s not nearly as well executed. The reason for this is that it’s simply not tied into much of a game.
In Braid, the Time and Place world was a theme in a larger story, and its time mechanic was central to solving its puzzles. In addition, really good audio and visual effects accompanied the time manipulation (a particularly nice touch was the music playing normally when walking right, rewinding when walking left, and nothing playing while the player stood still). Being part of a larger game also meant that it had a role in its pacing and could be used to reference other parts of a larger experience, i.e., reusing the by-then familiar Donkey Kong level with an all new toolset.
Now Time4Cat and similar titles don’t have to shoot for the scope of Braid, but they’d benefit from being more complete games. After all, proof-of-concept tech demos tend to be forgettable (Tower of Goo), but well executed games are not (World of Goo).
About
Hi, my name’s Radek Koncewicz, and I'm the Creative Lead of Incubator Games, a small development studio I started with a few former coworkers.
I think a lot about videogames, and when I find the time, I post those thoughts here on this blog.
