Game designers about players or how to program players?

Introduction 1.

I thought a lot and analyzed information on game development. And in order not to lose, as well as share with people, get hints, tips and comments - I decided to issue and post an article. Today, “game design” is increasingly acquiring the shape of some science that requires a special approach and study. Unfortunately, there is very little structured information in the public domain. As for foreign authors who have a lot of experience and a number of successful projects, their works often do not end up on the shelves of domestic stores. And to study them in the original many prevents the language barrier.
In this situation, articles where people share their impressions and personal experience in game development serve as salvation. These articles do not only and not so much convey to readers new information, as they give it in a new light, allowing you to more clearly realize and display it.

Entry 2

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I want to note that the writing of the material was influenced by the performance on Sociality Rocks 2011 Henric Suuronen - the head of the studio Wooga, the developer of Bubble Island and other hits. The article by Andrei Plakhov “Game designers about programmers or how to program programmers” deserves special attention. By analogy with the article, the idea arose that it was possible to program users too. Program their model of behavior in order to entertain them and extract the values ​​we need - payments, retention in the game, attraction of new players. And one of the holding tools is a set of functions in the application, which can be called a game cycle. We will discuss this further

1. What is a game cycle and why is it needed?

The basis of the whole game is content. On the one hand, it determines the capabilities of users and determines the scope of work to create a project on the other. It is he who delays people and is the reason why they return to the game. In this case, most of the actions in the process of obtaining this content is cyclically repeated. I am the smartest and one noticed that everything in these social games is repeated . These replays are game loops.
Game cycle - a sequence of actions performed throughout the game time after time. For example: building construction, waiting, receiving currency, building construction, waiting, etc.

Is it possible to do without gaming cycles? - It is possible, but let's imagine that only linear (not looped) content exists in our project. The player sees all new and new art, animations, mini-games for tens and hundreds of hours, hears constantly new music. How much will such a game weigh? How long will it be developed? How much to install? What for it is necessary? We go into this game and see something similar to the storyline of a long quest, with a large number of unique actions. It is difficult to come up with a long interesting game.
And we are used to: fast games - easy money. To solve these problems, elements of repetition of the same actions with various external manifestations are introduced. The chain of such actions forms a game cycle.

Despite the above, the reader may ask the question “why should we still select game cycles and follow them”. The answer is banal - to create an interesting, understandable and at the same time not too complicated product to develop. Consider the positive effects:

• The user is easier to master the game. 2-3 simple actions are easier for any person to remember and get used to them than to complex long sequences of actions.
  
• It requires less content, less application weight, loads faster. 100 hours of play, each sequence takes 5 minutes, and an average of 30 minutes of product waiting. With such a simple math, you can see that the volume of the application becomes hundreds of times smaller. As a result, we get the game of the greatest length with the least expenditure of resources.
  

Game cycles are in all games. Because all the developers are too lazy to work and want to eat tasty. :

• Shooter: bought a weapon - killed opponents - got the money;
• Quests: solved the puzzle - received the item - found application;
• Casual arcade: menu - level - reward;
• MMORPG: bought a snowmaker, spent a series of fights, received an award;
• Social games: built a house - planted a tree - raised a son - placed - waited - got a profit.

2. Typical game cycles (housing, PvP, PvE)

Housing:

Consider social games. In them we can determine the following actions of the players - digging the beds, building houses, crafting things - these actions refer to gaming cycles like Housing. In this type of game cycles, people can spend a lot of time waiting, which should somehow brighten up.

PvE

Then, sooner or later, some computer-controlled NPCs (NPC) appear in the game, which give quests, attack houses, crops, etc. - is the cycle of interaction with the environment, PvE. This type is more dynamic because you usually do not have to wait, you need to act quickly in response to the behavior of the game character. But since the artificial intelligence of the characters is linear and does not cause difficulties, it simply brings variety into the game.

PvP

The third type of cycles is interaction with other players. In war games, these are attacks and battles — the PvP cycle. In peace games, help from friends, gifts, and competitions. Let's call it Player for player. This kind of cycles is most important. Proper interaction with other players causes the greatest interest among the public.

3. Game cycles in peace and war games

Social games are built on the passage of game cycles to get more points for further competition with real people. In peaceful games - players compete by getting points for building, completing quests, helping a friend. These indicators are usually the level, cost of the city, the number of achievements. Players help each other by increasing the amount of their energy, points, etc. In the same war games - users get points for attacks, increasing their performance and characteristics. These cycles are similar. The only difference is that in peace between both sides win from the interaction, in the military only the victorious.

4. What should be the game cycle

• the game cycle should simulate the actions of people in real life;
• the game cycle should be easy and simple both in the first and in subsequent times;
• the game cycle should be short so that the sequence can be quickly remembered and repeated time after time;
• the game world must need a player. To do this, it is necessary to remind the player in every way that you need to return;
• gaming opportunities should be provided to the person gradually. This is necessary so that the player has a reason to grow, develop and gain access to new content;
• game cycle should end positively. Congratulations! Here is a pie from the shelf ;
  

5. Examples of gaming cycles in well-known games.

Example 2.1 (Castleville):
1. We select the necessary building, we buy it, we build and we wait for profit. after a fixed time has elapsed, we make a profit, then we build another building, again we wait and again we make a profit.


Fig. 1. - Game cycle: building construction - waiting - profit.

2. In the game we have beds where you can grow plants. We choose a bed, plant a plant on it, wait for the specified time and harvest. And so in a circle.


Fig. 2. - Game cycle: planted a plant - waiting - profit.

Game cycles in Castleville are extremely simple - once you show it, then the player does everything on the machine.

Example 2.2 (Airport city):
1. Choose a building, buy, build, collect profits and build buildings. This cycle is typical for many games.
2. Choose a flight, refuel the aircraft, download, ship, wait for a specified time, collect profits and select the flight again. Although it seems that the action is more - they are all intuitive. And despite this, all the same, at every step the user is surrounded by tips. They can not use. The choice to use / not use is very relevant at the beginning of the game.



Fig. 3. - Game cycle: flight selection - aircraft equipment - waiting - profit



Fig. 4 - Game cycle: building construction - waiting - profit

It can be concluded that the accompanying hints are an alternative to the simplicity of the cycle, but you should not abuse the complexity anyway.

6. How to start the game cycle?

Here you entered the game. Where to begin? The player should not be allowed to understand the game on their own. It quickly bothers and he has a desire to close the application, and since he has no positive emotions, he will not return. In the game you need to enter training, which will teach the player to independently enter into the game cycle and follow it, and also will tell about the main controls. L start the first game cycle will be a button "click me". In the future, the player, taught by positive experience, seeing an empty garden bed or a hungry cow, will do everything himself. Therefore, in order to start a cycle, it is necessary to show with flashing zanaks, sound signals and animations where to click in order to start doing something.

7. How to guide players through the game cycle?

There was such an experiment on rats when electrodes were introduced into their brains. And they gave the button, when pressed, discharges entered the brain and gave the rats pleasant sensations. The animals stopped eating, drinking and sleeping. And they pressed the button until they died. So: the principle of maintaining the player in a cycle is about the same. Throughout the game cycle, the player must know what to do next and where his button is happiness. Get a bonus reward or build something - lead any action. The process shows learning. And then blinking icons, sounds, movements of the characters and small rollers to mark achievements and mark a new goal. Both the intensity and the solemnity of blinking should be calibrated depending on the importance of the achieved goal (the effect of the button of happiness). Or a timer to show the time to the event.

8. How to finish the game cycle

At the end of the game cycle, the user should be left with the impression that everything in his game world is good. All I could, did. Received an award and is ready to do new responsible tasks. A positive mood at the end of the game cycle is necessary for its successful closure.

9. Broken game loops

We looked at simple game loops that are used most often. But in order to entice the player, you need to make the game look like a living creature. So that she missed him and sent notifications so that she waited for him, and the player had, why go back.

Game cycles are short in time - when we build something we wait 5 minutes and get some “cool stuff”. Such cycles occur during one game cycle. There are also cycles that are long in time, when in order to wait for a profit you need to wait a long time. Usually such cycles take 2 or more gaming sessions. Such cycles are called broken game cycles. For example, we planted some mega-pumpkin. In order for it to mature, and we could get a lot of bonuses for it, we just have to wait 100,500 hours. Of course, no one will sit in the game so much and wait. But the player can do all the other things, spend all his energy, visit all his friends and come back the next time he is mature.

If short game cycles give the user to organize the gameplay, then broken cycles are also important - this is the main tool for keeping the user in the game.

10. How to use all this?

After the appearance of the game, the creators have 3 problems:

• how to attract players;
• how to keep them;
• how to make them pay;
• where to put money.

Attracting players and monetizing are topics of other articles. As for the retention of users, this is facilitated by broken game loops. They create the appearance that the game is going on even in the absence of a player, and thus help users to return back after closing the application.

11. To summarize

So how to make such a game that will exactly enthrall the user, and he will play it for a long time. There is no universal answer to this question. Here are the main points, without which a successful game is almost impossible to do:

1. in any game there are game cycles;
2. game cycle - the main part of the game, which should give the player positive emotions from being in the game;
3. the player must be trained in the passage of the game cycle;
4. There must be broken game cycles in the game.