Hey guys, wanted to make a quick post on the game design process with a specific example - our good friend Goblin Catch. Also, playtesting OP.
First, you might want to check out the current version here (currently in version 2.5).
Version 1.0, as I discussed in an earlier post, was heavily effected by randomization. Players would simply hit 'reset' until the first goblin that appeared was a purple, and then hope the next two goblins to appear were also purple - that was the optimal strategy, and, when lady luck was smiling upon them, it would yield a fast time. With v2.0 came the advent of the high score board, and now the competition grew even more fierce! Which was a good thing, actually; but with the gate into the high score board simply being randomization (and how much time you put in so you could see the ideal random cases), things were a little frustrating.
One day, I showed Goblin Catch to a couple people. After playing the game, they saw the high score board - and were immediately discouraged. Obtaining a spot on the leaderboard seemed out of reach, or more likely (as I believe they implicitly felt), out of their control. Getting a high score was only feasible if you spent hours on the game hoping for 3 purples in a row all within close proximity to each other.
Seeing some of my players a tad disgruntled, I wanted to change the gameplay a bit. Thus, I implemented 2 changes: 1. Changing the value of the purple goblin to 2 instead of 5, and 2. Decreasing the probability of the rare goblin showing up form 1/5 to 1/6.
The goal of these changes were to shift game away from its reliance on randomization and more towards twitch-skill reaction time (quickly moving the hero character towards the newly spawned goblins). After another day of testing, the high score board has been filled again with extremely fast times - I'm thinking that once again the probability of a rare goblin appearing must be lowered.
So what's the whole point of this post? I suppose it'd have to be the importance of getting people to playtest the game and give their feedback. I had originally thought that Goblin Catch was a completed project. But showing the game to other people allowed me to see the (numerous, *cough*) flaws in the game; without opening the game up for people to play, experiment with, and give comments on, Goblin Catch would've remained an unfun game (games with an element of luck can be fun, but too much reliance on the mechanic leads to frustration >___>).
Anyway, iteration on the game will continue (based on player feedback!). Next post should be the regularly scheduled League post I mentioned. Also, feel free to comment on this blog post with any feedback on Goblin Catch, I'll certainly take a look.
That's all for now - Peace,
Kannan
First, you might want to check out the current version here (currently in version 2.5).
Version 1.0, as I discussed in an earlier post, was heavily effected by randomization. Players would simply hit 'reset' until the first goblin that appeared was a purple, and then hope the next two goblins to appear were also purple - that was the optimal strategy, and, when lady luck was smiling upon them, it would yield a fast time. With v2.0 came the advent of the high score board, and now the competition grew even more fierce! Which was a good thing, actually; but with the gate into the high score board simply being randomization (and how much time you put in so you could see the ideal random cases), things were a little frustrating.
One day, I showed Goblin Catch to a couple people. After playing the game, they saw the high score board - and were immediately discouraged. Obtaining a spot on the leaderboard seemed out of reach, or more likely (as I believe they implicitly felt), out of their control. Getting a high score was only feasible if you spent hours on the game hoping for 3 purples in a row all within close proximity to each other.
Seeing some of my players a tad disgruntled, I wanted to change the gameplay a bit. Thus, I implemented 2 changes: 1. Changing the value of the purple goblin to 2 instead of 5, and 2. Decreasing the probability of the rare goblin showing up form 1/5 to 1/6.
The goal of these changes were to shift game away from its reliance on randomization and more towards twitch-skill reaction time (quickly moving the hero character towards the newly spawned goblins). After another day of testing, the high score board has been filled again with extremely fast times - I'm thinking that once again the probability of a rare goblin appearing must be lowered.
So what's the whole point of this post? I suppose it'd have to be the importance of getting people to playtest the game and give their feedback. I had originally thought that Goblin Catch was a completed project. But showing the game to other people allowed me to see the (numerous, *cough*) flaws in the game; without opening the game up for people to play, experiment with, and give comments on, Goblin Catch would've remained an unfun game (games with an element of luck can be fun, but too much reliance on the mechanic leads to frustration >___>).
Anyway, iteration on the game will continue (based on player feedback!). Next post should be the regularly scheduled League post I mentioned. Also, feel free to comment on this blog post with any feedback on Goblin Catch, I'll certainly take a look.
That's all for now - Peace,
Kannan
Let's be clear about something here - while forcing the game to be "slower" by increasing the minimum necessary number of goblins does increase the impact of reaction time, this game is still dominated by chance. The average time for a game has increased and the variance in scores has decreased, but that for the most part means you're competing for hundredths of a second instead of tenths of a second, and the high score will still be a result of getting lucky, just this time by getting like 5 purple goblins out of 10, with all of them being clustered together.
ReplyDeleteJK it's skill that's why I still have the high score.
The question that I, as a developer, have to ask myself is: do the random elements and overall gameplay structure make the game fun for players, or are they simply a source of frustration and add little excitement while playing.
DeleteIt does seem to me that things are still a little too random. Look for the next version decreasing the probability of the rare goblins appearing. But still, as you mentioned, this is inherently a game of luck - the person who finds 7 rares in a row and then 1 green will most likely get the high score. There's still more playtesting to be done to see whether the random system is (or can be) fun, or that maybe a different gameplay system would make the game better!
How to win Goblin Catch and troll Kannan:
ReplyDelete1. Start the game running in one direction. This minimizes the amount of time to get the first goblin. Reset if the first goblin is not in the direction you are running. You can reset until you get a purple goblin, but this is less relevant in the latest version because the difference is only 1 point.
2. There is a more or less equal chance of the goblin spawning anywhere on the map, so when you get the current goblin, keep going forward if there is more area in front of you and turn around if there is more area behind you, and do the same for left and right. This will result in the best expected time, but you need to get lucky to lower your time even further. That means continuing forward sometimes even when there is more area behind you in the hopes that the goblin will spawn in front of you. As such, keep going forward if there is at least 1/3 to 1/4 of the area still in front of you. (Technically you have the same chance of having the goblin spawn in front of you regardless of which way you go, but maintaining the forward path makes it easier to react)
3. It takes about a second to travel across the map, and the best time is around 4.5s. This means that if you need to go across the map to get the next goblin, you should reset. Assuming you get lucky and get 5 purple goblins and have perfect reaction time, the average spawn distance will still need to be less than half the map. For fewer purple goblins, the average spawn distance will need to be even shorter. Reset if more than a few have spawned at a half map distance.
O_O This is...pretty much the method to success in Goblin Catch. Extremely well written and explained...some of these points I didn't even think of myself when developing it xD
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