Designing Power-Ups for Action Games

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Designing Power-Upsfor Action Games

• Randy Smith
• rsmith_at_ionstorm.com

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Takeaways

• A structured design process which can help
• Tailor your power-ups to your game and
  development environment
• Improve communication and documentation
• Design analysis that you can apply to improve
  your power-up designs

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Scope of this Presentation

• We are going to talk about
• Generating ideas
• Refining
• Documenting
• We are not going to talk about
• Implementing
• Tuning

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Action Games Only

• Action games, such as
• First Person Shooters
• Platform
• Fighting
• Racing
• Etc.
• But not
• RPGs
• Adventure games
• Etc.

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What do I mean by Designer?

• Not (necessarily) a
• Manager
• Producer
• Project Director
• Level Builder
• A game systems designer.
• Or a group of game systems designers.

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Collaboration

• Other disciplines
• Programmer
• Artist
• Producer
• Audio
• Director

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Outline of this Presentation

1. Deconstructing Power-ups
2. Brainstorming
3. Culling and Refining
4. Goals and Constraints
5. Documenting

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DeconstructingPower-Ups
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Questions About Power-Ups

• What are the components of a power-up?
• What categories of power-ups are there?
• Why are power-ups in games?
• Whats the definition?
• lets look at some examples to think about these
  questions.

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Armor
Ammo
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Cross
Holy Water
Stop Watch
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Energy Tank
Morph Ball
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Vision Enhancement
Run Silent
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Mushroom
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Hammer
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Components of Power-Ups

• Acquisition Method
• Storage
• Activation Method
• Delivery method
• Payload / Utility
• Deactivation method
• Resource Cost

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Doom Armor

• Acquisition Collide with it
• Storage N/A
• Activation Upon pick-up
• Delivery N/A
• Payload Sets Armor100
• Deactivation N/A
• Resource cost N/A

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Castlevania Holy Water

• Acquisition Collide with it
• Storage Special Item Slot
• Activation Up and Attack
• Delivery Short range arc
• Payload Holy water puddle
• Deactivation Time out
• Resource cost Hearts, Slot

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Deus Ex Vision Enhancement

• Acquisition Augmentation Installment Process
• Storage Eye Aug Slot
• (De-)Activation F5 or Inventory Screen
• Payload Vision mode
• Resource cost Aug Power

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Categories of Power-Ups

• By Payload
• Unlock Player Powers
• Resource Change
• Environment Manipulation
• AI Manipulation
• Character Manipulation
• By Storage
• Inventory
• Hands
• Special Item Slot

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Why are Power-Ups in Games?

• Player Agency
• Player Reward
• Player Motivation
• Manage Challenge Level / Character Power Curve
• Player Learning Curve
• Unlock New Content
• Reinvent Gameplay

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Why are Power-Ups in Games?

• Maintain Player Interest
• Player Agency
• Player Reward
• Player Motivation
• Manage Challenge Level / Character Power Curve
• Player Learning Curve
• Unlock New Content
• Reinvent Gameplay

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Definition of a Power-Up

• A Power-Up An Acquired Character Benefit
• Acquired Dont have it at the beginning of the
  game
• Character The player character
• Benefit Resource, Power, etc..

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The development process2) Brainstorming
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Goal of Brainstorming

• Generate a big document full of ideas.
• Collect lots of creative energy, dont let it get
  away.
• Sometimes its OK to smoke crack.
• Get early feedback and info from other
  disciplines.

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Documenting Brainstorms
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Generating Ideas

• Ideas can come from
• Core Fantasy
• Fiction
• Other Games
• Understanding of Goals and Constraints
• Design Philosophy

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The development process3) Culling and Refining
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Goal of Culling and Refining

• Eliminate ideas from the brainstorm list.
• In the process, refine your sense of your
• Design Goals
• Development Constraints.
• Grow your ability to make informed, deliberate
  design decisions

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Cull an Idea from the Brainstorm List

• Someone pick an idea they dont like
• Someone else flesh it out, explain it
• Cull the idea for any reason

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Culling Deconstruction

• Ok, now why did you cull that idea?
• Categorize your reason
• Development Constraints
• Design Goals
• Ratio of the two
• Keep track of this data

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Goals and Constraints

• Development Constraints
• Schedule / Budget
• Technology
• Controller Hardware
• Target Player
• Etc.
• Design Goals
• What gameplay are you trying to create?

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Refining

• Use what youve learned to improve the idea.
• How can this idea better meet the Design Goals?
• How can this idea fit within the Development
  Constraints?
• If improved, send the idea back to the brainstorm
  list.
• If not, just throw it out.

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A Feedback-Intensive Process
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When do you stop?

• When youve considered every idea in the
  brainstorm list?
• When enough of the ideas make the cut.
• Whats the right number of power-ups for your
  game?
• Answer Constraints and goals.

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The development process4) Goals and
Constraintsexamples from Thief 3
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Ideas from Thief Thief 2
Fire Arrow

• Not stealthy enough
• Something more utilitarian?

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Mine

• Also not stealthy, but
• Its a trap for enemies

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Flashbomb

• Too useful for attack
• Should be an escape tool blinding and stunning

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New Ideas
Lead Arrow, Laughing Gas

• Too redundant with existing tools

Dog Whistle

• Not broadly applicable enough

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Climbing Gloves

• Expensive but worth it
• There are vertical stone walls everywhere

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Cloak of Flattening

• Expensive and not worth it
• Not enough systemic applicability

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Thief 3 Power-Up Design Goals

• Reinforce core stealth gameplay
• Empower interesting ways for player to thwart
  enemies
• Make getting caught more fun
• Empower player expression via systemic
  interactions

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Thief 3 Power-Up Constraints

• Budget and Schedule
• Reuse UI Infrastructure for Activation and
  Delivery Arrows and Bombs
• Avoid implementation work with little reuse (new
  player movement modes)
• Work with existing systems instead of inventing
  new ones

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Thief 3 Power-Up Constraints

• Simple Interface
• Reuse UI Infrastructure for Activation and
  Delivery Arrows and Bombs
• Keep overall number of power-ups small
• Keep Payloads/Utilities orthogonal

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Noise Suppressor

• Interesting and cheap
• Makes simple, systemic use of existing tech

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The development process5) Documentation
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Goals of Documentation

• Formalize ideas, Write a spec
• Think it through
• Communicate with the other disciplines
• What the plan is
• What they need to do to implement your power-up
  ideas
• How theyll know when the work is finished

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Principles for good design documentation

• Overall
• Clarity
• Efficiency
• Use fewer words
• Use more visuals
• Target your audience(s) hint it isnt you.

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Donts

• Defend your ideas.
• Emphasize fiction or design philosophy
  unnecessarily. Dont ramble.
• Feel the need to have excruciating level of
  detail.
• Leave stuff up to the other disciplines.
• Theyre in the same building as you, right? They
  can come talk to you.

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Example Documentation

• ltsee documentgt
• ltsee templategt

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Why use a template?

• For Document Writers
• Enforce completeness
• Provide direction
• For Document Readers
• Provide consistency

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Conclusion
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What This Process Can Get You

• A well-documented set of power-up ideas tailored
  to your game
• A better understanding of your Design Goals and
  Development Constraints

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Broader Applicability

• With some simple translation, this can also be
  applied to
• Other genres
• Other types of game elements (such as enemies)

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What is game design about?

• Making informed, deliberate decisions.
• Working within Constraints to meet Goals.
  Maximizing the ratio.
• Communicating with other disciplines.

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What are power-ups about?

• Empowering the player
• Maintaining player interest
• Opening up the games boundaries
• Reinventing gameplay

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Q A
Randy Smith rsmith_at_ionstorm.com