Don’t Miss: A Game Design Deep Dive into SteamWorld Dig’s digging mechanic
Game Design Deep Dive is a new series from Gamasutra, with the goal of shedding light on specific design features or mechanics within a video game, in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.
Hi there! I’m Olle Hakansson, programmer and designer at Image & Form, a small Gothenburg-based developer in the tropical paradise called Sweden.
Image & Form is a studio with old roots, but with recent dabs into game development. Our most successful titles are Anthill (a mobile strategy game with some cool original mechanics) and the title I’d like to talk about today: SteamWorld Dig.
SteamWorld Dig is a platform mining adventure game where you play as a steam-driven robot called Rusty. The goal of the game is to dig deeper and gather resources, return to the surface and sell your loot, buying upgrades and then repeating the process. The idea was highly influenced by the Xbox Live Indie title Miner Dig Deep, which I enjoyed but felt we could improve upon. We released SteamWorld Dig in August 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, then later to Steam, PS4, PS Vita, and most recently for the Wii U.
Strike the earth!I’d like to describe the process we went through in designing the main mechanic of the game, which (as you may have guessed) is the digging. We wanted to create a set of digging mechanics that made this part of the game fun and exciting in its own right, and I will walk you through our unexpectedly long process of getting there.
“From the very beginning, we had the idea of keeping the player in a constant risk of getting stuck as the main source of tension in the game.”
From the very beginning, we had the idea of keeping the player in a constant risk of getting stuck as the main source of tension in the game. If you would dig too deep without considering your route back to the surface, you would have no way to get out of the mine, and more importantly you would be unable to sell all those hard-earned minerals you had collected. The idea was that you need to consider the process of digging as a puzzle, where natural caves, falling rocks, impassable walls and other natural elements are the main obstacles in your path.
With this in mind, we started hammering out the basic setup of the game. We decided early on to go for a simple square grid of tiles that you can dig through, with tiles about as large as the player. This makes for tunnels that are comfortable to navigate around as the player, avoiding the problem of snagging on small tiles. (I’m looking at you, Terraria!) We could have gone for blocks that are larger than the player, but that would make for an ever blockier-looking game, so in the end we chose the size you can see today.
We experimented a lot with different jumping heights, as this is the main thing that determines what kind of digging patterns you can use when you are descending. For example, going from being able to jump one tile in height to two gives you a ton of extra mobility, as it allows you to build zig-zagging downward tunnels that you can then easily ascend when you need to return to the surface.
Being able to jump two tiles in height makes a huge difference for the prospective miner. Another basic rule we introduced was that you may not swing your pickaxe (and thus dig through the ground) while in the air. Had we allowed it, and had you been able to jump two tiles upwards, you would have been able to dig zig-zagging upward tunnels which would basically have removed the entire danger of getting stuck.
Side Note: At least half of the reason for banning jumping and attacking was to reduce the animation complexity of Rusty. We would have had to make combined jump-and-attack animations for all different types of attacks if we had not forbidden it. I’d say the best design is where the game becomes better from the developers being lazy. ?
It was a fairly sound plan. Our intent was to teach the player the importance of planning ahead and thinking of the tunnel digging as a spatial puzzle. I still believe we could have made a game out of that, albeit for a more niched audience. For anyone who has tried the final version of SteamWorld Dig, you will know that planning ahead isn’t really a requirement. You get plenty of abilities on your journey downwards that helps you from getting stuck. Most importantly, you can wall jump from the very beginning of the game. It’s certainly not impossible to get stuck in the game, but a skilled player can get out of almost all situations.
So, why did we stray from our original idea of requiring careful planning?
“Most playtesters were generally not having a good time with the game.”
Our first test session had only the bare essentials of the game: you could dig in all four directions, walk and jump two tiles. This is all you really need, and we hoped that the necessity of planning ahead would be obvious to our players. If not immediately, then at least after getting stuck once or twice.
It backfired. Most playtesters dug straight downwards, not really exploring the world. More importantly, they were unable to bring back any resources to sell, so they could not buy the upgrades they needed to meet the game’s increasing challenge level. As a result, they were generally not having a good time with the game.
So… how do I get up again? We know of course that we had failed at communicating the rules of the game to the player. Our first approach was to extend the tutorial in order to better explain the required technique. While we did get a higher percent of players to understand how to dig “properly,” we were never close to reaching 100 percent. In addition, the tutorial became quite long, almost four times as long as the one we finally shipped. We couldn’t space out the tutorial since digging is the main thing you do in the game, so we had to rely on tedious repetition in order to really grind in the message we needed to give them. It was no big surprise that this wasn’t very appreciated by our testers. We needed another plan.
Secondly, we debated about allowing the player to dig while in mid-air. As I mentioned earlier, we had reasons for not allowing this, but it was a tempting alternative. This would solve the problem of getting stuck, as players could just dig themselves a zig-zagging path upwards if they would ever get stuck. Also, several people asked for this when playtesting, so we’d simply give people the thing they wanted, right? The problem is that would have been too effective a solution. We wanted the game to present the player with spontaneous and frequent spatial puzzles, and this feature would have given the player a single boring, tedious way of solving them all. So, this was not the way to go.
Our third attempt was to add run-jumping to the game. The idea was that if you hold in the run button and gain enough speed, you will not only jump far horizontally, but it also increased the vertical jumping height as well. You need about 3-4 tiles of continuous space to be able to build up enough speed to gain that extra tile’s height that you need to get up. While this works and feels really good, we had trouble communicating the feature to our playtesters. Some got it quickly, while some did not; we kept the feature in the final version but did not end the search here because it was not good enough on its own.
“Our playtesters loved it, and we decided to keep it.”
Finally, we arrived at the solution of adding wall-jumping to the game. We discussed a few different variations, for example one that required two opposing walls in order to work. In the end, simplicity won out and we chose the version we have today where you can get up on a single wall surface. Our playtesters loved it, and we decided to keep it. Stuck — or perhaps not? How is wall-jumping different from allowing mid-air attacks, you might ask? Both give you an awesome increase in mobility in a game like this. However, wall-jumping is more limited, in terms of getting yourself out of trouble. While it does allow you to get up quickly and easily from e.g. straight vertical shafts, you can still get into sticky situations if you are careless. If you fall into an open cave, you might still get stuck.
Note that we don’t want the player to get stuck, only to be wary of it. By introducing wall-jumping (and other movement mechanics), we made the state of being stuck from a binary condition into a gray zone, where players can use their wits and tools at their disposal to get out of most situations. We knew that we had hit the sweet spot when testers fell down a hole, sweated a bit, then found a clever way of getting back up again, feeling awesome.
In the end, we spent much more time than we anticipated on the digging mechanics, but I’m very pleased with the end results. My main grievance is that we had to add a lot of movement mechanics to fix our problem of communicating the game rules to the player. However, it was clearly a case of facing reality, as most players didn’t really want to play in the way we originally thought it should have been played. The end result was a game that was much more accessible and fun than what we would have ended up without compromise, and I’m very glad we made the right decision.
When we do get around to creating a sequel for Dig, I’m confident that we will be able to push even more fun out of this mechanic now that we know what we are up against.
Until next time, keep on digging!
Are you a developer interested in contributing to Gamasutra’s Game Design Deep Dive series? Email editor-in-chief Kris Graft: [email protected]
Don’t miss all these insightful interviews with alt.ctrl.GDC 2020 devs!
As you finalize plans for attending the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next month, organizers want to ensure you don’t overlook a very unique part of the show: the alt.ctrl.GDC showcase!
This eclectic array of offbeat, unique, and just plain interesting alternative controllers is open to all GDC 2020 attendees and will make its seventh appearance at the conference Wed-Fri, March 18th through 20th in the Moscone Convention Center.
Each of these one-of-a-kind games has a remarkable origin story, and the Gamasutra team have been publishing a series of interviews with this year’s alt.ctrl.GDC participants that shed light on where their creations come from and how they’re built.
They’ve already covered about half of the 20+ games in this year’s showcase, with more on the way, so make time to check them out before GDC arrives next month. Expect to learn more about what to see at GDC this year, where these remarkable games came from, and how you might apply lessons learned by their creators to your own work!
The Sword tasks players with guessing weights to correctly (and heroically) pull a sword from the stone, and Bruce and Box needs them to hide and keep themselves covered up with a box.
Cursed! is a game of competitive magic potion making, with players battling for the spellbook and cauldron in order to cure themselves of some nasty afflictions.
Milk! That! Cow! is a ridiculous cow-milking showdown where players need to pull udders to tap buttons, filling up a bucket which another player must collect the milk in.
Guilty Smells tests players’ sense of smell, having them act as a food-sniffing dog seeking to hunt down those “guilty” of bringing foreign influences into American life.
Ozone puts a pair of players in gas masks, tasking them with communicating problems about their partner’s breathing apparatus without being able to speak.
Kaleida tasks players with shooting down incoming ships, but does so through turning the universe with a crystalline controller that feels right out of an alien starship.
Twined tasks players with working together to jump higher and higher while they’re tied together, using communication and separate sliders to reach new heights.
Each of these interviews offers a unique perspective on a remarkable game, one of which may win the coveted alt.ctrl.GDC Award at the Independent Games Festival ceremony during GDC, with judging taking place on-site!
No matter who wins, all GDC 2020 attendees who stop by the alt.ctrl.GDC exhibit will have the chance to play all of these inventive and innovative games using unique, one-of-a-kind controllers. — and it may be your only chance to do so!
GDC 2020 runs from Monday, March 16th through Friday, March 20th. This will be the 34th edition of GDC, and now that registration is officially open, you’ll want to take a look at the (ever-expanding) session schedule and your GDC pass options — register early to lock in the best price!
The 138th GalaQuiz will be LIVE soon, win up to $100 in GalaCredit!
[www.indiegala.com] The GalaQuiz will take place in less than 15 minutes from this announcement Today's GalaQuiz[www.indiegala.com] hints are up. The theme will be Cartoon Girlfriends. Keeping to the Valentine's theme, today's topic will be all about that special someone in the lives of some of best (or lesser) known cartoon characters.
Verge3D is a toolkit for enabling artists to create web experiences with minimal or no coding using Blender, Max or Maya. Founded by team members from the Blend4Web project Verge3D allows you to create content using your graphics application of choice, then using their (locally installed) web based tools you can add logic using their visual programming language Puzzles.
Verge3D is available in a free fully functional trial version (watermarked) available for download here. Verge3D is available for Windows, Mac and Linux for Blender 3D as well as Windows only for 3DS Max and Windows and Linux for Maya.
Check out Verge 3D for Blender in action in the video below.
How to clean AirPods and the AirPods Charging Case
The cases get scuffed in your pocket or bag, and then there’s the matter of ear wax. Whatever the cause, those gorgeous AirPods of yours —and their charging cases —soon get dirty. Here’s what to do about it.
Keep your AirPods looking as good as the day you bought them.
Maybe you see an iPhone 11 as a working tool, and you’re not that fussed about keeping it looking shiny and new. You’ll live with the finger marks on your iPad as well, because you can only see them when the screen is off, and it’s never off. But you need, and want to keep those AirPods clean.
After all, you’re sticking them in your ears all the time. Those AirPods get mucky, and then you put them in their charging case, so that gets dirty too.
You could buy a case for your AirPods, or indeed one for your AirPods Pro, but that’s chiefly going to protect them from exterior scuff marks. Not ear wax.
Fortunately, cleaning any edition of the AirPods, or their case, is not a long job —even if that’s partly because these things are so small that there’s not to scrub at anyway.
Don’t scrub. In fact, more important than how you do clean these things is what you must not do to them.
How not to clean your AirPods
Never run them under water
Never use a pin to work ear wax detritus loose
Never get any liquid in the speaker grill or microphone
Never put anything at all in the charging ports at the bottom of the AirPods
With that said, here’s what you should do.
How to clean the AirPods Charging Case
Wipe the case with cloth that is soft, dry and lint-free. Apple gear does not get on well with lint, and anything abrasive is as likely to scratch the material as it is to shift that dirt.
However, soft and gentle wiping may not be enough to restore these cases to their glory. If you have any kind of stain on it, or the wiping just doesn’t shift the problem, you can do one more thing.
You can try wiping the case again, but this time with the same lint-free cloth ever so slightly dampened with isopropyl alcohol.
If you do that, though, take extra special care not to get any of that liquid into any of the charging case’s holes.
Compare your charging case to this one and tell us you don’t need to clean it.
How to clean AirPods or AirPods Pro
The first job is to wipe them, and that’s again —and always —with your stash of soft, dry, lint-free cloths.
That’s typically enough to clean the stem, and the earpiece part, but you do also have both microphone and speaker grills. The microphone one is so small that there’s little you can do, but the speaker grill, the part that goes in your ear, that’s different.
Not only is that a bigger target when you’re cleaning, it’s a bigger area that is the most likely to attract dirt and wax. They’re just also the most delicate parts, so wipe carefully.
If they get more than typical wear and tear grubbiness, if they get exposed to detergent, or sun cream, or if you drop them in your food, you need to do more.
Do not put them back in the charging case. You’re just going to spread the problem to the case if you put the AirPods back in there. So instead, keep them out, both while cleaning, and then as they dry.
That speaker grill is how AirPods sound so good, but they are also what gets clogged up with dirt the most easily
For the stems, the earbuds, and the greater part of the AirPods, do the following.
Very slightly dampen the AirPods using a cloth with fresh water
Dry them immediately with a soft, lint-free cloth
Allow them to dry
Do not use them until they are dried out
This leaves the speaker, and the microphone. Use a dry cotton swab to clean those.
Treat your AirPods gently when you clean them. If you also treat them gently in use, though, you’ll hopefully keep them looking new for longer.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition Gets Rated In South Korea
Although we shouldn’t get too carried away when a game gets rated, it’s always a promising sign when it does happen. In this particular case, we’re talking about a recent classification for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition in South Korea.
The definitive edition of the game – “which chronicles the adventures of Shulk and Fiora” – was announced during a Nintendo Direct last September and since then it’s been listed on the company’s official website for a 2020 release. Now, it’s been rated by the South Korean Ratings Board.
Again, while it’s nothing to get too excited about – it’s always nice to know a game’s development is on track and perhaps even suggests an official release date announcement is on the way.
As pointed out by GameXplain last month, a Danish retailer with a history of listing information ahead of schedule recently updated its Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition page to a May release date. If this is the month of its launch, it would follow on from the release of the Trials of Mana remake in April.
Last week in South Korea, ratings appeared for Switch versions of Catherine: Full Body and the XCOM 2 Collection.
Review: Warface – A Perfectly Competent Free-To-Play Shooter For Your Switch
While most of us – this writer included – have given up any hope of seeing a Call of Duty or a similar triple-A multiplayer shooter on Switch anytime soon, some studios have attempted to fill this void with their own take on asymmetrical gunfights. Some have been a success (Paladins being a fine example), while others have ranged from the passable (Modern Combat Blackout) to the abysmal (Bullet Battle: Evolution). So where does Warface sit? Is this a worthy alternative to the usual shooter fare? And how does an online shooter in the traditional mould translate to Switch’s hardware constraints?
The CryEngine-powered FPS launched on PC in 2013 (a month prior to the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts and the current generation of console hardware) so it’s certainly been knocking around the proverbial battlefield for a while. It was one of a number of shooters looking to undercut the FPS big boys with a free-to-play model, but as with all things, the lack of an initial price does mean you’re not getting a super-polished triple-A experience. What you are getting is a time capsule of a shooter, encased in the amber of ‘the good old days’. It’s a very serviceable and enjoyable experience that looks and plays like a fan-made mod of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and CS:GO.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s certainly a little outdated by modern tastes. Thankfully, many of us still long for the simpler days of loading up a lobby and running around in a game of TDM while a bunch of kids insult your mother. Warface ticks that box, with a simple and no-nonsense formula that features all the things you’d expect a post-COD4 shooter to have. M14s! Environmental mantling! Tactical slides! Gun customisation! Easily abused spawn traps! Warface wasn’t heralded as the second coming when it first launched on PC (or when it hit PS4 and Xbox One last year, for that matter) and it certainly isn’t now, but hours and hours into our playthrough we’re still quite enjoying ourselves.
That’s because Russian developer Allods Team knows it doesn’t need to do anything particularly revolutionary to justify its own existence. The fact we’ve got a CryEngine-powered game running on Switch is a marvel in itself for those who care for such a detail, running at a relatively stable 30fps/720p in TV mode and 540p in handheld mode. If you’re jumping into this after a few rounds of Battlefield V (or, indeed, the PC or console versions of Warface), you’ll struggle with just how slow it feels at first, but if you’ve been giving Call of Duty Mobile a go recently, you’ll realise there’s still plenty of fun to be had at 30 frames per second.
As you’d expect, this is a multiplayer-focused experience consisting mainly of PvP & PvE modes. The PvP side of things is the most run of the mill, with five modes at launch – TDM (team deathmatch), FFA (free for all), Plant the Bomb, Storm & Blitz – with more modes and content planned for the months to come. Much like Paladins and Fortnite before it, the developer behind the game has brought the Switch version in-line with other iterations so new content updates will go live with full parity. There are even talks of potential cross-play functionality as well. At the moment, the servers are for Switch players only, but with a healthy community building so far (we never struggled to find a match) it’s clearly proving a popular addition to the eShop.
There’s also some PvE modes, which offer up some enjoyable ways to co-op with other players, such as taking on waves of zombies on the streets of Chernobyl and an endless army of robots on the red dunes of Mars. It’s actually a lot more serviceable than the equivalent Zombie modes found in Call of Duty Mobile right now, and with support for in-game voice chat, it becomes one of Warface’s more memorable experiences. Of course, the benefit of being a seven-year-old game is there’s been a lot of content support over that time, so if you’re new to the game you’re getting access to over 50 multiplayer maps and a lot of rolling weapon updates and skins. Some maps are better than others (such as one set in a train station, where a train will periodically pull into the station, connecting both sides of the map) and while a lot of them favour snipers with their long corridors and open channels, there’s enough of them to balance out the quality.
Gunplay is decent and the hitboxes for enemy players are surprisingly precise (especially when compared to the likes of, say, Modern Combat: Blackout). ADS could do with being a little faster, but headshots are relatively rewarding to pull off, even in the standard rifleman class. We found the TTK (time to kill) to be a little too high for our liking, meaning it doesn’t take that many shots on the torso to down an opponent (or be downed yourself). Spawn points don’t cycle either, so it’s possible to find a good spot and farm kills in a spawn trap. The sheer speed of respawns means you’ll be overwhelmed quite quickly, but it’s an odd choice nonetheless. The newly-added SED class (which is effectively a knock-off Terminator) is also a little OP, making it a bit of a super tank at the moment.
So while Warface runs at a pretty solid 30fps in both docked and handheld modes, the visuals themselves can be a mixed bag. There’s a lot of aliasing, so expect plenty of jagged edges and blurred textures all over each map. The lightning model that the CryEngine can support has been mostly torn out of this version to make it fit the Switch, so most maps either feel too dark or have a jarring soft light that really dates the experience. The use of a Battle Pass (it’s currently locked out on Switch, but will no doubt launch in the weeks ahead) smacks of modern shooters, but Warface can never really shake that budget feel, especially when it’s had to be pared-down further to work on handheld.
This is a F2P experience, so you’re not getting a full game with a healthy handful of catches. The big one here is your choice of weapons is very limited. In fact, each of the five classes (the fifth was introduced as part of the recent Titan update) only has one primary and one secondary weapon to choose from as standard. Levelling-up and completing challenges will gain you access to new boomsticks, but these are on a timer and will disappear from your inventory. The same goes for cosmetic items and skins. Like a certain helmet or weapon? You better cough up to unlock it permanently. There are three currencies to do this with, including crowns (earned through co-op play and challenges), Warface dollars (earned through in-game performance) and Kredits (with a ‘K’) which are basically earned through actual dollar.
Conclusion
Nintendo Switch is really racking up a decent selection of shooters. Warface isn’t particularly pretty, and its approach to content access means you’ll likely spend most of your time playing with rented items and weapons, but it’s still brought solid asymmetrical online FPS action to Switch in a way no other shooter has managed thus far. It might not have the slickness of the bigger boys in the genre, but with stable performance in both modes and a huge amount of content (both now and in the future) the likes of Payday 2, Paladins, Fortnite and Warframe now have another rival for your online hours.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 02-24-2020, 06:14 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Star Citizen Dev Reaches Lawsuit Settlement With Crytek
Crytek's lawsuit against Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has been settled. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2017, with the German developer and publisher suing the Star Citizen creators over breach of contract and copyright infringement claims.
Both companies previously discussed a dismissal of the suit but could not come to an agreement. It would now appear that they have. Terms of the arrangement were not disclosed, but both parties will move to jointly file to have the case dismissed within 30 days of the settlement agreement, as reported by Gamasutra.
Back in January, a filing suggested that Crytek wanted to temporarily dismiss the case and refile it when CIG released Squadron 42, the Star Citizen spin-off single-player campaign that kicked off the dispute. CIG shot back at this motion, stating that Crytek's claim "is and has always been meritless."
Members of Team Nintendo Life have shared our plans down below, and we’d love for you to get involved via our poll and comment sections. Enjoy!
Ryan Craddock, staff writer
With March just around the corner, I already have my pre-orders in for both Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It’s about to be an absolute cuteness overload on the Switch front, so I’m actually spending these next couple of weeks getting prepared by playing something that’s the complete opposite.
I’ve been revisiting The Last of Us Remastered on PS4 over the last few days – sacrilege on this site, I know – in preparation for the sequel coming out in a few months’ time. I’m hoping that after all the blood, zombies, swearing, and shooty-shooty bang-bangs, I’ll be even more appreciative of the colour and charm from the two titles mentioned above. Is it weird that I love all three of these entirely different series?
Ollie Reynolds, reviewer
I’ve not yet seen the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, but just witnessing the sheer hype around it has got me booting up the wonderful Sonic Mania again. I still find it staggering just how darn good this game is! I’ve also picked up the Sega Ages release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, so hopefully I’ll get around to giving that a go, too.
My game of the week is – to the surprise of no one – Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle. We have met many times before but this marks the first time we have official translations for several of Kunio’s finest Famicom outings. “Barf” indeed!
Gavin Lane, staff writer
Having started Hyper Light Drifter last weekend, any stolen hours I can manage this Saturday and Sunday will be spent playing that. The game didn’t grab me immediately, but after 30 minutes or so I got into its groove and I’m looking forward to ticking it off. Once that is done my latest acquisition awaits: The Witcher 3. I hear it’s pretty good? After seeing the improvements that the latest update brought to the table, I decided to nab it in the eShop sale and I’m very much looking forward to spending several uninterrupted hours in its company.
As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a vote in the poll above and a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…
Where Is Xur Today? Destiny 2 Exotic Vendor Location & Items (February 21-25)
We only have a few weeks of Destiny 2's Season of Dawn left, which means new content will soon be on the way. That makes this a good opportunity to start messing around with some new Exotics to find new guns and armor builds you might like, especially since Bungie has announced a whole bunch of weapon nerfs coming next season. Xur has arrived in the solar system with another opportunity for you to get the Exotics you're missing--here's where to find him and everything he's carrying.
Xur is located on Earth in the EDZ right now, in Winding Cove. His Exotic weapon this week is The Colony. Hunters can get Raiden Flux chest armor; Titans have the Mask of the Quiet One helmet on offer; and Warlocks can purchase the Crown of Tempests helmet.
Xur Location
You'll find Xur on a cliff in Winding Cove. Drop into the transmat zone and head north to the edge of the area. Climb the cliffside up toward a crashed Fallen dropship--Xur is standing at the edge of the cliff beside it, but watch out for the Fallen hanging out in the area.
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