Game, game and game: Alchemy Mini-games

Summary
I'm focusing on designing my game that centers on item creation (synthesis) by trying to solve problems with the world and gameplay design. This is a mixture of notes, thoughts, processes and images that are and aren't coming together to form my prototype. There are some half-formed ideas that could be something if I give them some tender loving care. Things have been haphazard in the workshop so step carefully. Once again the content of this post is a little old so some things may have changed since.

Design Aim
To produce a player experience that allows players to experiment and explore through a fantasy world via item creation.

Premise
After being duped by a fraudulent alchemist, the player is left to deal with requests from a nearby village while learning how to be an alchemist.

World Design
The game environment has to be varied so that the player doesn't get bored and provides them with goals to accomplish. The design of this environment must have something of interest that provides an activity to do or "puzzle" to solve. Puzzles are defined as areas of the environment that the player will require particular tools, items or skills to gain access to. Solving the puzzle grants the player access to additional sources of ingredients, tools, quests and recipes.

I'll be taking inspiration from Last Day of Work's Virtual Villagers series which have small game environments but also interactive sections of map that take time to solve. The following screenshots feature some of the puzzles that can be solved in the more recent games. Solving these puzzles is a eventual process as the player's villagers lack the tools and knowledge to solve the puzzle. The player also has to work out what items and other puzzles that will need to be gathered, made or solved before continuing with another puzzle.

Gameplay

Activities include:
- Ingredient gathering
- Farming
- Synthesis
- Exploration
- Experimentation

Players will need to level up certain skills or tools to explore the entirety of the world and "complete" the game. Tools aid ingredient collection, item production and exploration while improving skills increases the success rate of item creation and item quality during synthesis.

Seasons and the weather will affect the varieties of plants that can be raised, ingredients that can be found, areas that can accessed and some of the activities that can be fulfilled by the player. During rainy days, the player won't need to water plants but may need to repair bridges or other items in the area.

Tools
These are created by the player to assist with item gathering, production and exploration. Better tools can be made which increase the quantity of items gathered or allows the player to harvest higher grade items. Eg. a basic pickaxe gets you 3 pieces of copper but a magical pickaxe gets you 3 pieces of gold. I still need to work on what the upgrade curve will be like.

Farming
The player will be given a portion of land that they can use to grow plants for synthesis or to earn money. The majority of plants grow in particular seasons and have different growth and harvest cycles. Some plants may grow differently depending on their neighbours and environment. Players will need to manage their crops to ensure a successful harvest by watering their plants and learning

Greenhouse
The greenhouse allows players to grow plants under controlled conditions but players will have to devote more care towards the plants The greenhouse is accessed once the player has gained access to it by solving the puzzle of its restoration. All plants require water to grow but some may require additional items to grow and produce crops.

Synthesis
Synthesis are the processes the player undertakes to create items by mixing various items together. The items created can aid the player gather ingredients, explore the environment, supplement income and fulfil quests.

Players will have the option of synthesising using a recipe or by experimenting with various quantities and ingredients.
Recipes can be found, bought or created by the player via any experimenting with the synthesis system. Recipes are used to produce specific items but can also be used as guidelines for experimental synthesis.

Some synthesis processes are interactive which produce items of differing quality based on player's performance. Item quality will determine how much an item can be sold for but also the success of subsequent creations using that item.

The following are interactive processes:
Basic Synthesis
- Involves stirring mixture
Distillation
- Time pressure and heat to create right mixture
Pestle and Motor
- Crush things into powder or pellets, pellets require a liquid to form

I’ve been having some trouble coming up with ways to iterate on Poffin creation and “alchemy” mini-games. I’m starting to worry that any processes I come up with is going to make the game feel like Cooking Mama, which is not what I want. Making a lot of mini-games could be really time consuming and I can’t guarantee that people will think it’s fun unless I do a lot of testing.

I came up 3 basic procedures that I could begin designing and I’m worried that my initial plans are too basic and repetitive while later renditions feel too complex and aren’t cohesive in regards to the overall design.

The 3 initial procedures were:

Stirring (essentially Poffin mixing)

• I hadn’t decided if spillage would be a factor in this

• I was also considering including shaking of the pot

Distillation

• The player adjusts how much pressure is applied by following indications/clues from the heating element
• I hadn’t decided if this would be a flame colour change or build up of steam

Mortar and Pestle

• Crush objects into powder or pellets
• Pellets require the inclusion of liquid to form

As you can see these are pretty rough and aren’t very interesting. I dabbled with the idea of trying to get the player to use the same movements but in varying degrees. For example, a left to right motion would shake the alchemy pot but grind objects using the mortar and pestle. All this is doable but then I realised, this works in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl because there is a stylus to draw with. The average PC user doesn’t have this kind of peripheral.

I hadn’t even considered the Apple or PC users in my early designs and that made me do a double take, how could I implement something similar or would I need to come up with something different? I thought about condensing the above processes into 1 that required the player to do different things based on what “procedure” it was doing.

I started with the idea of an oscillating machine and thought about getting the player to “spin” it so it’d combine objects. In my head it looked like a steampunk washing machine crossed with a wooden ship wheel. It work by the player loading it with objects and then spinning it in different directions and angles to make liquids or solids.

I did consider getting the player to pack the machine in particular manner to achieve the best result but I did a bit of Googling and saw video and guides about a Minecraft mod (Equivalent Exchange) that lets you craft items. I ditched the idea as it required players to think like the designer and doesn’t really make experimenting fun.

I then considered making particular movements relate to particular processes:

Rotate

• General synthesis (think “Will it blend?”)

Push Downwards

• Trying to simulating added pressure
• Maybe the machine tries to resist the added weight/build up

Left to Right

• Controls heat

Up and Down

• Releases steam from the machine

I don’t think I got very far from my initial idea and it’s frustrating me because these systems are integral to the concept. I did toy with the idea of a transmutation circle that the player had to create and various symbols and positions would indicate what would happen to the items placed. The player would have to either slot pieces together to form the circle or rotate them until they “fit”. I might scrap it as it doesn’t seem very interesting and it doesn’t fit with the game’s tone.

I remembered using an item creation system that was interesting and involved a level of strategy. It’s from a game called Rogue Galaxy and is best explained via video. The player would collect/buy/find blueprints (recipes) which would set up an equipment template (just lay stuff out to get the player started) in the factory and provide clues (if the recipe was difficult) to what ingredients the recipe needs.

The trick to this process was that the player had to figure out what processes and items to put together into a complex assembly line. All materials/ingredients have to be processed by particular machines and occasionally more than once. Ingredients have to arrive at the same time into machines called assemblers to be fused into the item. Each piece in the assembly line adds time so players may need to install extra pipes to delay items so they reach the assembler on time. A more complex item is created here.

I also like the fact that players had to install power cords to run the machines and that you could watch the whole thing go when ready to see what happens. Since this was an extra, players got a set number of items to discover. If I remember correctly, you could also make upgraded or additional equipment to make processing easier. This system does remind me of The Codex of Alchemical Engineering and similar games.

The ideas I have been working on go back to my one I wrote about earlier the oscillating machine.

Initially I hadn't thought about the player having to wind the machine up and do additional actions like pulling the valve to release the pressure built up as I had originally designed this as an interation to the Poffin creation system. I believe it was one of those moments where one has to step back to see what you've created. That said, there can be something appealing about having to keep a machine running while waiting for the item to be processed. This could get quite complicated if recipes require exact temperatures, general pressure levels and momentum to create their item.

This design does follow the earlier derivative of getting the player to engage with a method that encourages them to practise synthesising items but I have my misgivings about this one has it involves numerous "hot spots" and could be too complicated for casual users, as this machine requires immense co-ordination. I don't think the "chore" like aspects will appeal to casual players as it's not overly engaging and could become very repetitive. I'll be interested in seeing if this machine works at a prototype level, provided I can devise a way from making this mini-game too frantic but also keep it challenging for players.

I also considered having a basic version of the machine that would then add additional parts to its basic layout when required or when the player chose to perform a particular process. It seems less efficient to compartmentalise the synthesis as it would give players too much control over their synthesis and may be problematic if they miss out on particular items because it can only be made using a particular method.

The version was made up based on my original brainstorm and encompasses The main problem with this version is ensuring the "machine" recognises all the different movements within a set area and how to prevent the player cheat their way by just waggling the mouse willy-nilly. This will be difficult to execute and I think the movements won't work too well without getting the player to "draw" using the mouse. This one would work far better with a touch screen to get the machine to register the variations of movement.

I think the transmutation circles work best in a casual game environment as it can become as easy or difficult as I dictate. This design does lack a level of complexity as it doesn't take much tactical thinking from the player and could become a matter of routine motion (read: chore) rather than something fun. I did have some thoughts about the player having to align it under a time limit, complete two or three different circles to transmute stuff, players being given a riddle that explains that certain symbols have to be in certain quadrants to complete the circle and a sliding puzzle variant to make this mini-game a little more interesting.

I'll be working on the first alchemy machine and transmutation circle mini-games while I work on the game's overall design. Hopefully something interesting will come out of the whole thing. I'll be updating this space when new developments arise. So game, game, game and game.

Game, game, game: Alchemy - Prototype II

Recap
I'm prototyping a game that focuses on item creation and am running through its second iteration. I'm trying out newer and revised systems that encourage more strategic gameplay and developing content that supports what I'm trying to do. This version, entry and future progress owes its existence to some very helpful fellow designers. A gigantic thank you to Jasmine and Inicus qvist for your help and guidance.

I've made some changes to the playable areas and have started testing the inclusion of tools and farming which has led to some developments that are helping me realise the flaws and positives to this particular design.

The World

I've changed areas and tried to design them as areas that aid completion of player's goals by being sources of ingredients and recipes, pathways to different activities and areas and providing instructions and hints.

I had planned that at the start the player would encounter a character that forced them into becoming an alchemist by making the first player objective: learn how to create an item. This mentor character would give players additional instructions once they performed particular tasks and then at the penultimate moment skip out of town; leaving the player with an unfinished education and a stack of requests from townsfolk.

I have no idea how to script this series of events so I've got a less effective way (read: lazy) of trying to set the scene for the player.

It's not as effective as it depends on the player noticing the book and then requires additional coding to include events that encourage you to use the recipes found in the book or including blatantly obvious hints from villagers.

It also harks back to problems from the earlier version where recipes and objects aren't very obvious and demonstrates a lack of player guidance.

The following is a Work In Progress (WIP) shot of an area that the players can source materials but also gain access to various areas by clearing pathways. I think this area needs more work as it has limited interactions and activities and makes ingredient gathering simplistic.

The world is taking shape but I do think that will be getting too big, boring and doesn't encourage exploration. I'm going to be researching and thinking about a better designed world that prompts players to explore and experiment.

Like this space below, it's only use at the moment is to provide the player with chances to find seeds and ingredients but not much else. What it lacks is additional items or activities that are found and completed in this area.

This area (and game) would be more interesting if the player could find seasonal items to sell or synthesise with but also solve problems or puzzles using tools and items. A problem like having to create pathways through areas to gain access to elevated areas or clear trees by using tools or creating items like rope.

The inclusion of seasons and real time changes to the game world would be an interesting dynamic to include and one that I'll be considering for later iterations. These changes would be interesting as they'd offer additional stimulation and incentive for exploration by the player.

Farming is a newer addition that is meant to provide players with extra benefits but the system has some flaws when executed.

Farming
It took me a while to get this coded but players can grow plants in a specified area at their home base. I've added a few variables into the growing system so players have to put more work into growing their plants.
To grow plants players need:
- A hoe
- A watering can
-Seeds or bulbs

I originally was going to have two plots, one for "normal" plants and one for "magic" plants but then decided that the player needs to have more freedom over where and what they plant. At the moment, the harvested crop is a random plant because scripting for additional types of seeds, bulbs and plants takes more time than I'm prepared to allocate at this point.

Having random harvests works at this prototype stage because I don't have any short or long term player goals but I imagine that it would become frustrating and limiting not being able to strategise one's harvest.

Above the piece of script that's called when crops are harvested.
$Items = ["I:019,2|25","I:020,3|25","I:021,2|25","I:022,1|25"]

This is the code that randomises the harvested items for crops. In English it reads: $Items = ["Item: Item ID, quantity | probability (%) of item being called].

I've also encountered some problems with providing the player with seed and bulb sources. The sources in the game are village shops and random drops in the woods. Ideally players should get more seeds and bulbs through harvesting their plants or from digging in the ground. I'll be including this at a later point but I'll be making it a random chance to avoid making farming too easy.

Some problems have cropped up with my current method of planting. Without specialised sprites, it's a little hard to know where you're planting and what the plants' statuses are. I thought coding ploughed land as unpassable would enforce the player to think strategically about their crops but it causes confusion and frustration.

Plants require some work from the player, they will only grow if they are watered. To stop players from constantly watering plants (and get them to do other activities), I've put in a delay factor after each watering. I do want players to work a little for their harvest but not too much so they'd feel like they're performing a chore.
I'd like to add additional areas that allow players to grow different plants based on particular conditions like a greenhouse that can cultivate plants if the "heater" is left on. I'd like to think that this might be an interesting way of implementing experimentation if plants grow with particular traits which develop into interesting items. It's still something for the drawing board.

I'm also trialling rewarding them if they plough a particular number of times against finding an item buried in the ploughable area. I think both options work but the former does function as an achievement while the later would work better as an exploration reward if I made additional areas that can be ploughed.

I've been testing out the process of creating and using tools and my observations have brought up a number of things.

Tools
The main problems that I've come across with implementing tools have been:
- Rates of accessibility by the player
- Finding the problems solved by the player possessing the tools

I noticed during my playtests that I was able to create tools rather quickly and made me wonder if I had to do some scaling to make the game harder. Here's some of the solutions that I came up with to try to solve this problem.

Solutions
- Increase quantities needed to make tools
- Reduce quantity gathered
- No tool, player receives lower quantity
- Tool, player harvests a higher quantity
- Add additional step to creation of item
- Player creates metal and then creates tool+

I didn't implement the first solution but I did try the second and also included a delay factor because I was worried that players would easily spam the system. The delay involved delaying the resource's respawn and disallowing the player to use that particular source until it had "recovered". As more playtesting and discussion discovered, my anti-spam decision was deliberating gameplay.

One of my fellow designers suggested a far better solution, tools can be upgraded or the player can create higher level tools which when used increase the quantity of the item harvested or reward the player with a higher quality item. This method encourages players to use the tools to gather ingredients for synthesis of items but also gives them additional goals to work towards.

It'll take some time to work out a smooth curve for the tool levels/upgrades but it will be happening. I haven't implemented the inclusion of an additional synthesis step where the player creates metal and then uses that with other ingredients to create their tool but it will be happening at later stages.

This brings me to my other problem, what advantages do tools give the player and what can the player do while they're aiming to get tools? Not a lot as my playtests showed. In their current state, tools only offer two advantages. They can clear pathways to additional areas that have more ingredient sources and they increase the quantity of items gathered. Some tools like the hoe and watering can grant access to the farming feature.

As outlined before, tools may need some additional uses like helping the player solve problems like gaining access to different areas. I think the main problem with tools is the way they are earned in the prototype. The prototype requires players to create tools in order to earn enough money to buy recipes to further their progress. I had removed the free delivery of tool recipes for the player and now they must purchase them.

I did this as I spent a lot of time thinking about tools and what players could do without them. When I realised that they couldn't do much, I tried to come up with solutions to fill in the gap. I think players need some encouragement and guidance to realise that tools do have benefits. This could be something as simple as scripting an event where they see a character use tools to get an item or even a NPC commenting on the ease a tool brings into his life.

My current planned solution is to provide the player with ways of making money, getting recipes and rewards play by appealing to a sense of achievement. One of the problems with this prototype is that it doesn't encourage players to do anything and I need to find a way to encourage them to play the game but also help them discover what can be done. I'm still working on viable methods for this but I'm hoping that quests might provide some answers.

Quests
I realised that the player does have a limited range of materials available to them so I'll be coming up with recipes that allow them to make use of these ingredients. The items produced by these recipes aren't worth much in terms of cash so to integrate these simple recipes, I'm considering using quests that act as tutorials but also require the player to synthesise these early items to get rewards.

Rewards are likely to be a mix of money, items and recipes. I'll need to start planning a difficulty curve and a scale for rewards. I imagine that quests would be better integrated if I included the scenario with the player being duped by the mentor character as players can make the decision to complete their training.

One of my planned scenarios involved players accepting a quest to supply the Library with paper and ink which would allow them access into it and then eventually reach the Catacombs. The Library is still in progress but I'd like to use it as a place where the player can research recipes, create ideas and discover additional information to help progress.
I'd envisioned the Alchemy Guild to be a place where players could find jobs but also as additional source for recipes and ingredients.

I'm still considering the usefulness of the Library and Alchemy Guild as sources of recipes and quests as I've yet to include a quest system and I'd like to design and implement a slightly different synthesis system I have place holder events associated with these places but I'd like to do more with these places in later iterations.

Synthesis
I'm still having problems working out how to deliver recipes to the player. Leaving them lying around for the player to find is rather lazy method and doesn't guarantee the player will find it. Shopping for recipes isn't too bad but I have to ensure the player will want to earn enough money to purchase said recipe.

I could script additional events where players get clues from characters and then "find" the recipe in a location but that's rather boring and doesn't achieve much. Quests are a better solution as it involves getting the player to play and gives them a goal to work towards.

Recipes and item creation taps into a need to create and collect everything but it doesn't encourage experimentation or exploration as well as intended. I'd like to develop a synthesis system that encourages players to experiment with item creation by just combining items together and coming up with interesting and strange combinations.

Rather than punishing the player for experimenting, I'd like all combinations to return a result even if it's just something like: "You made a strange gelatinous mess...." which the player could then use to make glue or some other product. Finding uses for all these items may take some time but it could be done with careful planning.

I'd still like to incorporate recipes and ideas into the system which would lead to players having an understanding of what items can be made, the possibility to make recipe variants and the development of clues that would lead to expanding their knowledge base.

In my head, ideas would take on the form of notes. For example: if the player reads a book on herbs, they could then choose to research an idea for a healing balm and then experiment with that idea.

I'd also like to incorporate interactive process into the synthesis system much like the support systems for Pokemon contests found in more recent Pokemon games. For those unfamiliar, players can create items that increase particular stats of their Pokemon. To create these items requires work from the player, you can see the creation of Pokeblocks and Poffins to get an idea.

The creation of these items is rather challenging and your performance affects the quality of your produced item. I think processes like this would inject additional gameplay into this design and induce the player to become more involved. It's also a gameplay feature that involves the player's developing strategies to maximise their result and experimenting with ingredients.

Capping Off
I've learnt that I am still making similar mistakes across the two prototypes but there's still a few more ideas up my sleeves. I'll be taking a step back and going over both my prototypes, ideas and trying to work out a cohesive design that is more interesting to me and utilises some of the changes I've outlined in this post.

I'll be discussing these changes and a good deal more with my fellow designer Jasmine so watch this space as we game, game, game.

Action Hero Explosion

Here's a blast from the past, week 2(?) of Critical Games Studies where we had to redesign Snakes and Ladders.

After much brain storming (super fast brain action), we came up with an Action Hero themed board that depicts the "typical" tropes associated with being an Action Hero. It's capitalised because it's just that cool.

Below is an incomplete list of action heroes, it's all very spur of the moment.

Based off the works of:
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Steven Seagal
- Bruce Willis
- Chuck Norris
- Jean-Claude Van Damme
- Sylvester Stallone
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Hulk Hogan
- Mel Gibson
- Will Smith
- Tom Cruise
- Keanu Reeves
- Harrisson Ford
- Steve McQueen
- Richard Dean Anderson aka MacGyver

Hilarity by: Cassandra, Natalie, Jasmine, Jeanny and I.
Board Additions by Jeanny.

Players: 2 + (it gets better with more people)
Aim: Live the life of an action hero, will you get out of unscathed?

The Wizard of Oz - Remixed

This week's prototyping exercise was to take L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz and turn it into a game. The catch is that the game must be based on 1 of 5 game theories:

- Play as Darwinian influence (survival of the fittest)
- Play as active performance (player works to create work via action)
- Play as work (where the game exists because the player plays it)
- Play as (learning) fun ("teach" the player a satisfying pattern)
- Play as social imperative (playing provides social opportunities)

Ideas generated by: Max, Natalie, Jasmine and I.

The Wizard of Oz as Survival of the Fittest:
Feel free to add dystopian future to any of these.

- Wizard of Oz as Survivor (TV show)
- Battle Royale: Oz
- Wizard of Oz fighting game
- MMO (offers survival but also social opportunities, why kill when you can befriend?)
- RTS (pick a faction of Oz and try to assimilate as many hosts to bred a batch of super solders)

Return to Oz: Teaching the player:
Genre: Action/Adventure with puzzle elements (up for discussion)
Play: Non linear

Inspired by the movie Return to Oz and The Wizard of Oz series, the game has the player moving between the real world and memories set in the land of Oz.

The real world is filled with problems but the solutions to these problems can be found in Oz. The player is given a portal to be transported to a memory bank where they can choose which memory to play.

The game is comprised of small events that culminate into a larger goal, the puzzles that the player solves help fix the real world and progress the game.

Potential Puzzles:
- Freeing cursed characters from the Nome King's spell
- Finding treasure in Mombi the Witch's Hall of Heads

D&D Griffith Style

This week we were asked to make a prototype of a game that is played on a map. After some thought, it came down to a D&D style game set in Griffith University.

D&D Griffith Uni
Concept by: Jasmine, Jeanny, Cassandra, Natalie and myself



Number of Players: 4 +
Dungeon Master is required to set tasks, enemies and adjudicate player fights

Goal:
Players are to start at the pub and must enter the university grounds to retrieve or deliver an item from a specific location. When they have completed this task, they must return to the pub. The first to return is the victor.

Challenges:
Players must face obstacles and enemies (teachers or other players). Players can attack each other when they are on adjacent squares or land on the same square as another. The attacker will be given the first roll.

Victory is given to the player with the most inventive attack and the highest roll. The loser will be sent back an allocated number of spaces. The DM will roll for NPCs.

Preparation:
Players will need to determine their weapon of choice however the DM will set the limits of this weapon. eg. Range, number of uses and attack.

For consideration:
- The use of cards will make battles, tasks and inventories easier to manage.
- Player vs Player combat will need to be adjusted so that opponents are more of an obstacle.