Signposted #3

Currently Crushing: Diablo 4, Act 5 with my 💀 army

Hey Designer,

Welcome to issue #3 of Signposted!

The results from last week’s poll are in! 60% of you are system designers! Coming in at second we have a tie between level and narrative designers. Thank you everyone for participating, I’ll do my best to dig up more content around these three design aspects in the future.

In this issue we’ll be discussing Zelda Tears of the Kingdom’s durability system and the supporting systems that make it work. In the best of series: Raph Koster has an analysis of NYT’s new puzzle game. We’ll also be chatting about working with thousands of 3d chittering AI actors on screen. We’ll finish up with Jamie Madigan pitching a psychologist supported alternative to Bartle’s Player types when it comes to grinding in games. That last one changed how I think about player motivations and is particularly worth a listen.

Let’s get started!

Bi-Weekly Analysis

Zelda TotK & Weapon Durability

By Scott Fine

Durability systems typically come packaged with 2 others: repairing and crafting. Removing one of these can have disastrous effects, yet Zelda Tears of the Kingdom does exactly that. Arguably, they improve upon the model creating strategic choices and rewarding experiences for players. Let’s dive into why durability in TotK works. As per usual, after the link to the full article, I’ll have a quick breakdown of the more important points.

Quick Takeaway:

• Durability systems typically appear in a loop with a couple other systems: crafting and repair systems

  • Player crafts a weapon, uses the weapon until it runs low on durability, crafts a new weapon or repairs the old weapon, and so on.

• Zelda lacks weapon crafting and repairing, so how does its loop work?

• How Zelda Durability Works

  • Basic Functions

    • All weapons have durability

    • As the weapon is struck against a physical object, it loses durability

      • There are special cases for ranged weapons which lose durability on use

  • Advanced Functions

    • The final strike when it breaks does double damage, and knocks back most enemies

      • If the weapon is thrown at the enemies’ weak points, it doubles the damage again

    • Makeshift weapons are easy to find and upgrade

    • Players can fuse weapons and shields to different objects to increase their strength, or give them an ability

• The Advanced Functions are what set Zelda apart

  • The final strike when it breaks does double damage, and knocks back most enemies

    • Turns a typically frustrating scenario into a strategic rewarding one

    • UI notifies player the weapon is going to break well in advance

    • Player can then strategically decide to use the weapon on an enemy they want to do additional damage to or knock back

  • Makeshift weapons are easy to find and upgrade.

    • Low power weapons are everywhere

    • Player is always flush with various weapons

    • They don’t need to trek back to a specific location to craft, resulting in very little downtime

  • Players can fuse weapons and shields to different objects to increase their strength, or give them an ability

    • All enemies drop some kind of monster part

      • Monster parts are specific to enemy types, so they’re easy to farm if desired

      • Most weapons will kill multiple enemies before breaking

    • This can be used to upgrade a weapon’s power in the field

    • This allows a player to quickly upgrade their weapons again to a similar level or ability like the one which just broke

• After taking all of TotK differences into account, Zelda’s loop looks like this:

The Best of Game Design

The Best of Written

Why NYT’s Connections Makes You Feel Bad

By Raph Koster

As one of the most well known game designers, Raph Koster needs little introduction. In this blog post he dives into puzzles. What makes a good one, what makes a bad one, and why the NYT’s Connections game has bad puzzles. It’s a great read with nuggets of design theory scattered throughout.

The Secret Power of RPG Mechanics

By Stanislav Stankovic

Stanislav runs through how RPGs have overlapping learning/progression curves. The player upgrading various stats or characters creating consistent great feeling progression. He uses The Witcher 3 and Brawl Stars as examples, and honestly his logic is brilliant. It’s going to make me better at creating more engaging progression for my players.

Issue #3 Community Question

The Best of Video

Dev Talk & Tea Narrative Design Crash Course

By Rhianne Murphy

Rhianne is a narrative designer working for Square Enix. In this cozy video she walks through narrative design as a position and what narrative designers do at each stage of production. It’s very informational and is going to help me to understand and work with narrative designers going forward.

A Plague Tale: How The Rats Work

By Tommy Thompson

Because I’m a monster 😈, we’re taking a hard left turn away from the cozy vibes and talking about the technological marvel of thousands of rats on screen at once. Tommy breaks down how the AI, that runs THOUSANDS of rats simultaneously works in A Plague’s Tale. After watching this, you too will be messaging your producer about adding a swarm of enemies in game.

Bonus Video: Why Animal Crossing Music Sounds Nostalgic

By 8-bit Music Theory

This issue’s bonus is a cozy video on the Animal Crossing themes. 8-bit Music Theory dives deep into music theory and breaks down the chords and iconic tones which make the animal Crossing series feel nostalgic. Don’t worry if you can’t read music, you can still hear the differences to get a better understanding of why it works.

The Best of Audio

🏆Issue #3 Scott’s Top Pick!🏆- Episode 83 - Grinding

By Jamie Madigan

Jamie is a psychologist with an interest in video games. In this podcast he looks at player motivations. He discusses why Bartle’s Theory falls short when describing player motivations towards grinding in games. He then pitches a psychologist supported way to re-think about your players’ motivations. Of all the amazing media I’ve seen this week, this is my top pick.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.