If there’s one thing you don’t want to mess with, it’s The Laws of the Universe. Going against Mother Nature (or Father Math) can and will end you in serious trouble. For your convenience The Laws of The Universe (for Game Designers) investigates the universal and inescapable laws of The Cosmos, and what they mean for us lowly Game Developers. Endorsed by 8 out of 10 Hermits.
#1 – The Karmic Law
Instant Karma's gonna git ya!
The Karmic Law is the principle that your deeds shape your future, in a cycle of cause and effect. Act evil, and evil will be done to you. Put in another way: “What you send out, you get in return” or “you reap what you sow”.
Put THAT in your pipe an smoke it!
Like it or not, you are tied to your Karma, and you can’t escape it. You can try. But you will fail. And while some may say that “karma’s a funny thing” it shouldn’t be taken lightly!
So what does this seemingly universal law mean for us lowly Game Developers?
Karma for Game Developers:
No surprises here – Simply treat the player like you’d want to be treated yourself while playing games.
Don’t be unfair, just to make your game more “challenging”. Don’t make players redo large chunks if they fail. Don’t add a super nasty enemy, just after the player has completed another hard challenge (unless you give them permission to save first).
The list of evil, karma-wrecking things you can do to the players goes on and on. Here are some more examples:
- Leaving too few coins for the player to buy ANYTHING in the shops he encounter.
- Same as above, but with bullets and enemies!
- Asking the player to do new (previously un-attempted) challenges (like logic/math) while under attack or time pressure.
- Making pitfalls that the player has no living chance to avoid, forcing him to do trial and error – with his life at stake.
- Giving the player a vital resource that drains away (like oxygen, flashlight batteries, themal energy) and forcing him to cross a section where he might not have enough to survice if taking a wrong turn.
… I’m sure you hear a teeny, tiny voice inside, when you’re about to go too far. Listen to that voice! Don’t soil your Karma!
Most player’s hate it when you strip away their hard-earned powers and/or humiliate them (what a surprise!). If you still want to put a player in a situation like that, you better have a damn good reason (aka “payoff”) for the player, other than your artistic fancies.
“My vision is to really make the player feel downtrodden, because that’s just how life is”, shows you’re already getting what you deserve. You are getting pwnd by Karma. Better start being nice, ’cause next step is Buddhist Hell, and it’s not a nice place to be (you have to stay as long as it takes to empty a bag of sesame seeds, taking out one every 100 years).
On the other hand, you shouldn’t lavish the player with gifts, points and unlocks, before they get a chance to prove themselves and earn them. Karma should work both ways, and you get no brownie points by spoiling the player. It all needs to come together, in harmony you know – like Yin & Yan, Dude.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to confess your own bad karma in the comments.
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Tags: game design, karma, laws, universe