07.31.08

Fixing the Sewers

Posted in Game design, The Nameless Mod at 20:26 by Jonas

I reckon that every game project will once in a while present a few interesting design challenges. That’s one of the reasons game design is fun: Solving creative challenges can be just as much fun as actually playing a game, especially when it evolves into a collaborative discussion about possible solutions. Recently, one of our levels in TNM has provided us with a new and interesting design problem.

The Concept
The map in question is a vast sewer system designed as a labyrinth, inspired by the Hong Kong canals level in Deus Ex. Like the Hong Kong canals, there’s nothing strictly plot-critical in the sewers, the player will never need to visit them, and indeed the first two playthroughs of TNM (both by Gelo) skipped the sewers entirely to make it through the game faster. Instead, the sewers are a vessel for exploration, a recontextualization of the good old dungeon to be delved into and investigated for the sake of adventure.

The sewer level is the only map created from scratch by me, so it holds a special place in my heart. But it’s a bold design, and it’s not meant to appeal to everyone. When I originally visited Hong Kong, I was immensely thrilled by the way entire parts of the map were hidden simply by virtue of the map being so big and intricately structured. I believe I’ve mentioned it before, the sense of a “secret” that’s grounded in the fiction of the world, rather than being some sort of invisible door that disrupts your immersion in the game’s world. The sewers were designed to be so enormous and labyrinthine that things could be hidden simply by placing them slightly off the beaten path.

The Problem
The problem with the map became apparent during testing. In the alpha, a few testers expressed slight annoyance and frustration with how confusing and hostile the sewers are. Since we released the beta to more people, I’m not sure we’ve received any positive feedback to the sewers yet - the testers I’ve heard from have wanted to spend as little time as possible in the map, and some have gotten outright stuck in the level for several hours.

Which raises an interesting question: How do you get stuck in a map with seven exits? There are very few dead ends in this map - you usually just have to keep walking, and eventually you’ll find a way out. What exactly is the problem with the sewers? Why are people not liking it?

I talked it over with some of my fellow game design obsessives, and between us, I think we’ve figured out what the underlying problem is. It’s a discrepancy between what you expect and what you get: The map is designed to be explored without purpose - to get yourself willfully lost in and just poke around to satisfy your own curiosity and see what you’ll come across. If you don’t have any desire for aimless exploration, you shouldn’t enter the level in the first place. The problem arises when our players enter the level looking for something. Usually the entrance to the hidden basement of a building they’ve been given a side-mission in.

If you enter the sewers actively searching for something, it will immediately be a frustrating and terrifyingly hostile map. It’s a map designed to obfuscate, not direct - if you’re looking for something down there, the environment will be working against you at every turn. How to solve this?

The Possible Solution
Well there are a couple of solutions. One is to remove or completely redesign the map. This is not going to happen at this stage, the map took months to create, and I’m not yet ready to give up on the concept of the level. Another solution is to inform the player better. We already have messages in place when you enter the level, ensuring you understand that it’s easy to get lost down there, but players will still expect that they’ll be able to find the entrance to that hidden basement. This, I think, can also be changed through the power of More Information®: There’s a far more direct and easy entrance to it from another map, maybe all we need to do is make sure the players understand that the sewer entrance is just an alternative, and a harder one at that.

By changing one or two lines in the script, we could considerably improve the player’s experience with this level. Instead of changing the map itself, we’re going to try to change your expectations towards the map. We haven’t tried it yet, so I’ve no idea if it’ll work, or if it’ll be enough, but I’m hoping we can make the player understand that the map is completely optional and should be played at your own leisure. If it turns out to work, I think that’ll be an exceedingly valuable design lesson.

Warning: The comments contain minor TNM spoilers.

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