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'Skinning' Games: Some Thematic Problems
Posted by Maggie Greene at 2:30 AM on October 12, 2008
Danc at Lost Garden has an interesting post up on themes in games and the effect on game design: while there are definite reasons for the same types of themes and aesthetics popping up in games over and over again, a careful balance needs to be struck between 'skinning' themes and mechanics and putting coherent game play above it all. It's better that a game 'reads' badly from a literary (narrative) standpoint, but makes sense in terms of game play:
In fact, the final theme may be semi-incoherent if you attempt to analyse it as a literary work. However, that doesn't matter because it provides the moment-by-moment scaffolding of feedback that helps the player learn their way through the game. As long as the game is fun and delivers value to the customer we can often toss the literary definition of theme out the window.
In fact, you start getting into trouble when you make the theme so rigidly defined that you can't adjust the feedback for specific game mechanics .... The hundreds of little trade offs that occur when theme coherence wins and gameplay loses diminishes the effectiveness of the game.
So you can't just 'skin' a set of game mechanics. When you do makes the attempt, a well executed iterative process of game design will often result in a game that is quite different than its source material. A poorly executed process results in a game that plays poorly.
He suggests that designers start working on 'vertical' slices early in the design process, so that they can work on merging themes and mechanics in a way that will make sense over the course of a game. As always, a thoughtful entry from Lost Garden and worth reading.
Theme and game design [Lost Garden]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Shin-san
Posted 3:43 AM 12/10/08
I agree. Sometimes I play a game and see a game mechanic in the game that seems to be in there for no apparent reason, or to make it "cool", "realistic", or it's in there for reasons like "GTA3 had it". Those can decrease the entertainment value.
Shin-san
Qalbert
Posted 3:37 AM 12/10/08
I agree to some extent, I don't think a story should be completely eschewed in favor of gameplay, but some of the best stories have poor gameplay, IMO. For example Advent Rising, with a story by one of my favorite authors Orson Scott Card, had lackluster gameplay, keeping it from getting the sequels it needed.
Qalbert
90sKid
Posted 4:17 AM 12/10/08
@Shin-san: Ugh, that reminds me of Niko in GTAIV - why would he take about 2 or 3 steps with a slight movement of the stick? It bothered me to no end, especially when trying to use a ladder.
90sKid
Lessthan_tom
Posted 4:30 AM 12/10/08
This is just a vague set of comments on something extremely subjective and based on the different contexts in which the game is set. I really don't see the point in this.
Lessthan_tom
AstralSymphony
Posted 11:56 AM 12/10/08
@Lessthan_tom: I do. He's saying developers should do random, nonsensical crap to make games fun, rather than sacrifice features for the sake of narrative coherence. It would be better to just have the foresight to create feasible explanations for any features that may or may not end up in the final game.
AstralSymphony
1Grand_Marquis
Posted 1:47 PM 12/10/08
@Qalbert: But the truth is, a game's first and perhaps only job is to be fun. Having a compelling narrative is almost irrelevant. So what if such-and-such game is the greatest story ever told? If it sucks to play, then it sucks.
1Grand_Marquis
brakiri47
Posted 7:16 PM 12/10/08
This may sound pedantic, but IS a game's first job to be "fun?" If that's the only end goal games can achieve, they seem extremely limited as a medium. I think that theme and mechanics really have to be developed (and iterated--it's not like authors suddenly have every element of a story established as soon as they begin writing; books/films/etc. change during development, too) together. If either is lacking, both are weakened for most modern, complex games.
brakiri47