Rules, the guidelines that carry along with the responsibility of everything working without big issues. Even if it’s the society itself or in a board game, everyone understands rules play an important and fundamental role.
During Interactive Design class, we took a look at the different rule classifications in the game world. Some say how it should be played, others speak about risks and tasks, and some others are implied.
Types of Rules:
(Note: if the names seem to be messed up, please forgive me. This names where translated from the ones I was taught.)
-Constituent
-Operational
-Implicit
We where asked to compare to games and that’s the way I’ll use to exemplify this rule types.
Games to Evaluate:
-WinterBells by Ferry Halim
-Avalanche found at The Game Homepage
WinterBells
It’s about a bunny that must jump over bells that fall from the sky. A clean design and quite an enjoyable artwork.
Constituent Rules:
- Every jump over a bell equals +10 points.
- Game ends when you fail to jump over a bell and fall. Final score equals the points you got.
Operative Rules:
-Bunny follows your mouse ‘x’ movements (left and right).
-Click to jump.
-Jumping over a bell produces a new jump.
-Jumping over a bird duplicates your current score..
-Bunny obeys gravity.
Implicit Rules:
-Falling means Game Over.
- Jumping over a bell equals a new jump.
-Birds are scarce, they are a bonus.
-The higher you go, the less bells you find and the smaller they are.
-The bells you failed to jump over dissapear. If you fall you’re not able to fall on them and save your bunny life.
Avalanche Game
It’s about a chewing gum, in a scenario where giant cubes are falling from the skies and acid-like raises from the ground. The player must keep the gum alive. Medium Artwork but it’s a fun game.
Constituent Rules:
-The higher you go, the higher your score is.
-Difficulty is directly proportional to height.
-The gum may stick temporarily to the bricks in order to make a new jump and reach higher spots.
Operative Rules:
-Use arrows to move right/left and jump.
-Hitting ‘P’ pauses the game.
-Red water plus gum means Game Over.
-Getting yourself squeezed between blocks means Game Over.
Implicit Rules.
-You can’t make a second jump over the air, you need a support surface.
-The sky level turns red and then darkens as you jump higher.
-There are many cube sizes but they will all crush or lock you in the same way.
-The final score is proportional to the maximum height you reached.
-The minimum height is 21ft.
-You may see two scores during the game play, your actual height and the higher spot you’ve reached.
Game Similarities.
Both game’s objective is to move go the highest you can, the challenge works either beating yourself or known friends (as there is no general high score). The operative rules are similar and logic, nothing seems to be done randomly.
They both increase in difficulty as you jump highe. I suppose that works with a mathematic function, instead of designing different levels (I also think this because they are small games, quick to load. Instead of loading a whole bunch of graphics), this way they achieve an infinite game, using this inverse proportion between height and bell size or element quantity, even speed of the object’s fall. This could also explain the way the sky in ‘Avalanche’ changes color as you move up.
The game experience keeps changing in both games without nasty surprises that could make you loose the game and start all over again. As there is no other goal but to get a higher score, the player is confident he/she will be able to win. This way you also avoid the frustration that could lead to not playing the game anymore.
The movement restriction rules are reasonable, making both games something calm and enjoyable; even when both games may require a bit of practice before getting to be good at them.
Conclusions.
This are two of the mini games with bigger fame I could find around my relatives, friends and classmates, they are included in the mass mini games which’ objective is to beat the previous high score. Lately, I’ve seen tons of this games, probably because the designer isn’t in the need to create a complicated story nor to think on more clever challenges per level; he/she just needs to develop variable formulas that will lead the player to work up his own difficulty, giving a different game experience for every different player.
The game’s operative is simple and logic, just as most of the existing games, you’re not required to jump with ‘R’, move with ‘F2′ and Enter, nor to shoot with a 5 letter combo written in an specific order. We can say the game play is intuitive, we do not necessarily need to read the rules to play this games, just as the famous quote says: “If nothing else works, read the instructions”.
The rules that determine this games where planned as simple (This doesn’t mean they spent small time developing them) and probably thought for a user who just wants to relax with a short game rather than involving in a Mist RPG, ambiance.
Moral: A good game is born under a good conception, the idea my be simple just as the game. There’s no need to develop a full God of War version for every game.
The main idea in both games is the same, but it’s developed in a different way, if the operational commands where the same we would probably see it as the same game with a different artwork.
Ok, this one’s the Moral: To create a good game you do not need the latest technology, but a stable design and well planned rules. Even a board game with new structured rules can turn out as a great game.
