Designing for Experience Progression - Devlog #17
The power of the Scrolls-like platform is that there can be many levels of gameplay in a single game, and they fit together because of the world simulation, character customization, and narrative aspects work together to create a lot of possible experiences.
Because I’m building the game as a solo developer, I have the ability and responsibility to put all of the different experiences together into All Hail Temos. Here is how I am looking at the different kinds of experiences I want, and how I am going to introduce them into the game.
First I will just list a sequence of progressions, as to how I design for the player experience to change throughout their playtime. Many of these will start simultaneously on a new game, but other come along later and are not immediately accessible to new players.
My design stack for experience is:
To start with, the world must have a basic level of interactivity. The environments can’t be things you can look at, and stand on but not touch. You need to be able to pick up things in the environment, and either use them or sell them, or learn from them, but the world has things in it that makes it worth exploring.
Things you take must have a purpose. The most basic purpose is that you can sell them, a higher purpose is that you might upgrade your gear with better or different style items, which may effect your playstyle. Other purposes include using things to help with your progression, such as leveling up.
In All Hail Temos, you can sacrifice items which destroys them, but allows you to upgrade your skills. An item that hasn’t been used before is worth less than an item you have used and “charged”, so collecting items, using them, and sacrificing them has an inherent purpose beyond just selling an item you don’t use anymore. Items can be sold for money, or sacrificed for progression.
This gives a reason to move around the world, find things and take or use them. A “Level 1” experience of a Scrolls-like game.
The world must have people and creatures in it that you can interact with. You can talk with, getting near them, or taking your weapon out causes them to react to you. If you steal something in front of them, they call for the guards or demand you return the item.
There should be a sense of your actions having a reaction from the people in the world What happens when you equip your weapon, or take off your clothes, or dress like the enemy?
What happens if you cut down a merchant in a crowded area? Or a character walks into a room where you are standing with a dead body? How do they react?
This interactivity could be considered a “Level 2” experience of a Scrolls-like game. You now have living beings reacting to you, and you can interact with them.
Once you can talk with characters, next you will want to have complete interactions with them, such as solving a problem for them, or unlocking some requirement they had before they would talk more, etc. What is the result of this completed interaction?
Will you be paid in money? Information? Will it open up more adventures?
There should be a payoff for the completed interaction. An adventure has the promise of reward, and the promise should be kept.
In All Hail Temos, I prefer there to always be a reward with more story, and often opening up more adventures. Sometimes money will be paid, if it makes sense for that kind of situation, or an important or sentimental item will be received.
This reward could be considered a “Level 3” experience of a Scrolls-like game. You are getting meaning from your interactions, and they have an arc to them: a beginning, middle and end.
The order of these “levels” is not as important as the fact that they build on each other. The next level I am designing with is combat and other obstacles to exploring, so completing missions should provide reasonable difficulty.
Action and difficulty change up the slower pacing of a Scrolls-like, making an immediate goal of killing an enemy, or solving a puzzle. Scrolls-like games generally have a longer time between making new choices than many other games, because traveling between areas takes time, and there are usually many stacked goals that require resources or completing tasks before they can be worked on.
These sorts of immediate and blocking obstacles allow the player to switch focus from future goals to an immediate problem, and back again. Swapping between different styles of play is one of the things that makes the Scrolls-like platform appealing. You can improve at the action controls, and improve your character’s progression as well.
This can be considered a “Level 4” experience. For many games, this might be level 1, the introduction to the game. Enemies are around you, and you must survive, but for a Scrolls-like game, there are many areas that are safe and don’t require combat. Also, a player can choose to play a character that doesn’t fight, and that is also viable. They can sneak, bribe or talk their way through many situations.
After combat and navigating obstacles, there is the experience of improving your character. Improving stats, skills, learning new skills, getting better gear or improving existing gear, seeing how you are more effective against creatures you fought previously.
As you progress you also personalize your character, choosing the type of gear you like to play with, and the skills you like, which also means you are choosing not to upgrade different skills, making custom outcome. Being able to plan your upgrade path in advance is a big part of RPGs.
One reason games are fun is because you can see progression happen quickly. In real life, it might take 5-10 years or effort to be good at one skill, like playing guitar, or boxing. In an RPG you can start off unskilled and a few hours or days later you have a high level of skill. Making that change happen can be a lot of fun, if it has other supporting experiences to give it meaning.
The web game Cookie Clicker showed that just seeing numbers go up and progression occur from clicking on a cookie is interesting to people. But without other progression experience levels, it’s meaning doesn’t have weight.
The goal of improving and seeing the results can be considered a “Level 5” experience. You see the results of your efforts, and can accomplish things you could not do before.
After you have started to progress your character, it would nice to have a home base. Somewhere you can store things, centralize any functions you might want, such as crafting, and personalize it so that it is to your liking.
Having your own base and improving it could be a “Level 6” experience. Now you have somewhere to hang trophies, and can tune it for your playstyle so coming home gives you many crafting or gear options.
Being able to have companions hang out in the home can also add another layer to their interactions giving an option for relaxing conversations or activities.
Now that you have a home, and are progressing your skills, what else can you do? What can you achieve? Can you start a business, hire people, improve your holdings and position in the world?
Creating a system around yourself is possible in a Scrolls-like game, and while the initial release won’t have this content just due to constraints, it has always been in the design to be able to have employees, and set up trade deals for resources, and to use these in the adventures, in the same way as going to dungeons or talking with characters to solve problems.
This is a type of economic simulation, and while All Hail Temos is not a economic strategy game, so this is not the focus, I want to have some levels of this as it can add more play styles, and it makes the higher power levels more interesting.
Often, once you are personally powerful in a Scrolls-like game, many things become less interesting, because you are already the strongest person in the room. Once economics are brought into the picture, just being good with a sword, spell, light fingers or tongue may not get you into a specific adventure, but having a trade route secure for providing wood might.
This can be considered a “Level 7” experience, building on what you have done before, and making your place in the world more connected to the resources and characters of the world.
Having an empire, business or family allows for there to be the idea that “something can be left behind after you are done”. You have created something that moves outside of your own movements, and goes on working without you being directly involved.
This is a more conceptual experience than something like looting, combat or building an empire. This is the ability to think about how the characters you are employing are benefiting from this. Can you see the world working differently because of your actions?
This can be considered a “Level 8” experience, and goes beyond what you can actually do in the game, as there are enough systems in place that you can imagine what will happen with all those things without you.
My last design experience is making a change that lasts. Will you be remembered for something? Have you made your mark?
Did you accomplish something epic that massively changed a situation?
This is similar to bestowing a legacy, but goes in a different direction. Instead of creating something that will last because you made it, this would be seeing change in the world rippling out from the actions you took.
Things that were not directly changed by you have been impacted by your actions and decisions, and now you are seeing people living in a different world.
This can be considered a “Level 9” experience, and one that I think many games build up to with their main quest, but in typical story fashion, it is best to build to a strong climax, and then end quickly.
In a Scrolls-like game, there is no reason to end once an adventure is complete, so you can see how things have changed after the adventure as well. The world and characters tell the story better than a single event can.
At present the game is not complete, and so while I am designing for these experiences, they don’t exist yet. But, if I don’t design for them, I won’t be able to build them, so I feel it’s useful to both know what all the different experiences I want to provide are, and to be able to communicate them.
If I wrote a similar game to Flappy Bird, and then I wanted to add an experience of play like “Bestow a Legacy”, how would I do that?
It is a requirement to build the foundational layers of a game, so that it is possible to have a goal such as “Bestow a Legacy”, which would entail something like creating businesses that hired people that improved their community. Or, having a family that have children that also grow up and live and act in the world.
This is not current functionality, but it is an aspiration I have to build the foundation toward. A feature like that requires a number of ingredients to create, and my purpose now is to put all those ingredients together so that it is possible to start making “Bestow a Legacy” and all the other experiences occur in a satisfying way in All Hail Temos.
I wish I could get all of this into All Hail Temos on the initial release, but it is just too big of a goal to accomplish in one-shot. So instead, I will deliver up to the beginning of “Level 6”, having a place to call home, but there won’t be full base building or decoration until a post-release update, so I can focus on the previous 5 levels more.
If you would like to find out when All Hail Temos releases or get updates, please Wishlist and Follow on Steam.
Because I’m building the game as a solo developer, I have the ability and responsibility to put all of the different experiences together into All Hail Temos. Here is how I am looking at the different kinds of experiences I want, and how I am going to introduce them into the game.
Progression Levels
First I will just list a sequence of progressions, as to how I design for the player experience to change throughout their playtime. Many of these will start simultaneously on a new game, but other come along later and are not immediately accessible to new players.
My design stack for experience is:
- Explore and loot everything. Touch things that move. Environment interactivity.
- Talk to people. Steal things in front of people. Social interactivity.
- Engage in conversations and see if you can follow up, through going on the related adventures. Creates narrative, theme and meaning.
- Combat and other obstacles to engage and overcome. Action skill building and resource management.
- Progression. Improve at things, and determine new abilities for personalization.
- A place to call home. Getting and improving a home, for utility and personalization.
- Build an empire. Improve your holdings and position in the world. Widen your base.
- A legacy. Do something worth being remembered for. A key event.
- Making a difference. Impact on the world. A change that lasts.
Explore and loot everything
To start with, the world must have a basic level of interactivity. The environments can’t be things you can look at, and stand on but not touch. You need to be able to pick up things in the environment, and either use them or sell them, or learn from them, but the world has things in it that makes it worth exploring.
Things you take must have a purpose. The most basic purpose is that you can sell them, a higher purpose is that you might upgrade your gear with better or different style items, which may effect your playstyle. Other purposes include using things to help with your progression, such as leveling up.
In All Hail Temos, you can sacrifice items which destroys them, but allows you to upgrade your skills. An item that hasn’t been used before is worth less than an item you have used and “charged”, so collecting items, using them, and sacrificing them has an inherent purpose beyond just selling an item you don’t use anymore. Items can be sold for money, or sacrificed for progression.
This gives a reason to move around the world, find things and take or use them. A “Level 1” experience of a Scrolls-like game.
Talk, Bump, Threaten, Steal
The world must have people and creatures in it that you can interact with. You can talk with, getting near them, or taking your weapon out causes them to react to you. If you steal something in front of them, they call for the guards or demand you return the item.
There should be a sense of your actions having a reaction from the people in the world What happens when you equip your weapon, or take off your clothes, or dress like the enemy?
What happens if you cut down a merchant in a crowded area? Or a character walks into a room where you are standing with a dead body? How do they react?
This interactivity could be considered a “Level 2” experience of a Scrolls-like game. You now have living beings reacting to you, and you can interact with them.
Complete Adventures
Once you can talk with characters, next you will want to have complete interactions with them, such as solving a problem for them, or unlocking some requirement they had before they would talk more, etc. What is the result of this completed interaction?
Will you be paid in money? Information? Will it open up more adventures?
There should be a payoff for the completed interaction. An adventure has the promise of reward, and the promise should be kept.
In All Hail Temos, I prefer there to always be a reward with more story, and often opening up more adventures. Sometimes money will be paid, if it makes sense for that kind of situation, or an important or sentimental item will be received.
This reward could be considered a “Level 3” experience of a Scrolls-like game. You are getting meaning from your interactions, and they have an arc to them: a beginning, middle and end.
Combat and Obstacles
The order of these “levels” is not as important as the fact that they build on each other. The next level I am designing with is combat and other obstacles to exploring, so completing missions should provide reasonable difficulty.
Action and difficulty change up the slower pacing of a Scrolls-like, making an immediate goal of killing an enemy, or solving a puzzle. Scrolls-like games generally have a longer time between making new choices than many other games, because traveling between areas takes time, and there are usually many stacked goals that require resources or completing tasks before they can be worked on.
These sorts of immediate and blocking obstacles allow the player to switch focus from future goals to an immediate problem, and back again. Swapping between different styles of play is one of the things that makes the Scrolls-like platform appealing. You can improve at the action controls, and improve your character’s progression as well.
This can be considered a “Level 4” experience. For many games, this might be level 1, the introduction to the game. Enemies are around you, and you must survive, but for a Scrolls-like game, there are many areas that are safe and don’t require combat. Also, a player can choose to play a character that doesn’t fight, and that is also viable. They can sneak, bribe or talk their way through many situations.
Progression
After combat and navigating obstacles, there is the experience of improving your character. Improving stats, skills, learning new skills, getting better gear or improving existing gear, seeing how you are more effective against creatures you fought previously.
As you progress you also personalize your character, choosing the type of gear you like to play with, and the skills you like, which also means you are choosing not to upgrade different skills, making custom outcome. Being able to plan your upgrade path in advance is a big part of RPGs.
One reason games are fun is because you can see progression happen quickly. In real life, it might take 5-10 years or effort to be good at one skill, like playing guitar, or boxing. In an RPG you can start off unskilled and a few hours or days later you have a high level of skill. Making that change happen can be a lot of fun, if it has other supporting experiences to give it meaning.
The web game Cookie Clicker showed that just seeing numbers go up and progression occur from clicking on a cookie is interesting to people. But without other progression experience levels, it’s meaning doesn’t have weight.
The goal of improving and seeing the results can be considered a “Level 5” experience. You see the results of your efforts, and can accomplish things you could not do before.
A Place to Call Home
After you have started to progress your character, it would nice to have a home base. Somewhere you can store things, centralize any functions you might want, such as crafting, and personalize it so that it is to your liking.
Having your own base and improving it could be a “Level 6” experience. Now you have somewhere to hang trophies, and can tune it for your playstyle so coming home gives you many crafting or gear options.
Being able to have companions hang out in the home can also add another layer to their interactions giving an option for relaxing conversations or activities.
Build an Empire
Now that you have a home, and are progressing your skills, what else can you do? What can you achieve? Can you start a business, hire people, improve your holdings and position in the world?
Creating a system around yourself is possible in a Scrolls-like game, and while the initial release won’t have this content just due to constraints, it has always been in the design to be able to have employees, and set up trade deals for resources, and to use these in the adventures, in the same way as going to dungeons or talking with characters to solve problems.
This is a type of economic simulation, and while All Hail Temos is not a economic strategy game, so this is not the focus, I want to have some levels of this as it can add more play styles, and it makes the higher power levels more interesting.
Often, once you are personally powerful in a Scrolls-like game, many things become less interesting, because you are already the strongest person in the room. Once economics are brought into the picture, just being good with a sword, spell, light fingers or tongue may not get you into a specific adventure, but having a trade route secure for providing wood might.
This can be considered a “Level 7” experience, building on what you have done before, and making your place in the world more connected to the resources and characters of the world.
Bestow A Legacy
Having an empire, business or family allows for there to be the idea that “something can be left behind after you are done”. You have created something that moves outside of your own movements, and goes on working without you being directly involved.
This is a more conceptual experience than something like looting, combat or building an empire. This is the ability to think about how the characters you are employing are benefiting from this. Can you see the world working differently because of your actions?
This can be considered a “Level 8” experience, and goes beyond what you can actually do in the game, as there are enough systems in place that you can imagine what will happen with all those things without you.
Make a Change That Lasts
My last design experience is making a change that lasts. Will you be remembered for something? Have you made your mark?
Did you accomplish something epic that massively changed a situation?
This is similar to bestowing a legacy, but goes in a different direction. Instead of creating something that will last because you made it, this would be seeing change in the world rippling out from the actions you took.
Things that were not directly changed by you have been impacted by your actions and decisions, and now you are seeing people living in a different world.
This can be considered a “Level 9” experience, and one that I think many games build up to with their main quest, but in typical story fashion, it is best to build to a strong climax, and then end quickly.
In a Scrolls-like game, there is no reason to end once an adventure is complete, so you can see how things have changed after the adventure as well. The world and characters tell the story better than a single event can.
How will this affect gameplay?
At present the game is not complete, and so while I am designing for these experiences, they don’t exist yet. But, if I don’t design for them, I won’t be able to build them, so I feel it’s useful to both know what all the different experiences I want to provide are, and to be able to communicate them.
If I wrote a similar game to Flappy Bird, and then I wanted to add an experience of play like “Bestow a Legacy”, how would I do that?
It is a requirement to build the foundational layers of a game, so that it is possible to have a goal such as “Bestow a Legacy”, which would entail something like creating businesses that hired people that improved their community. Or, having a family that have children that also grow up and live and act in the world.
This is not current functionality, but it is an aspiration I have to build the foundation toward. A feature like that requires a number of ingredients to create, and my purpose now is to put all those ingredients together so that it is possible to start making “Bestow a Legacy” and all the other experiences occur in a satisfying way in All Hail Temos.
Conclusion
I wish I could get all of this into All Hail Temos on the initial release, but it is just too big of a goal to accomplish in one-shot. So instead, I will deliver up to the beginning of “Level 6”, having a place to call home, but there won’t be full base building or decoration until a post-release update, so I can focus on the previous 5 levels more.
If you would like to find out when All Hail Temos releases or get updates, please Wishlist and Follow on Steam.