piloneconsulting-blog

[piloneconsulting-blog]

We’re Moving!

It doesn’t matter if you’re a new visitor or an old fan, we want you to know that our blog is moving to Medium. All the old stuff will be there as well as all of our future content. Check it out, like it, and share it! https://medium.com/@PiloneConsulting

[piloneconsulting-blog]

Designer Digest: Edmund McMillen

This post is written by our Director of Operations, Chris Germano. All statements and recommendations are his own and do not represent any official views of the company.

Initially, this post was going to focus on big statements about game design and the state of the industry. It was going to boil down the core of what makes particular designers “good” and reduce those thoughts to a setup in order to introduce a specific designer I particularly admire. After days of writing, revising, and deleting, I realized that I had been approaching the subject from the wrong angle entirely, and what makes this designer so unique isn’t that he’s just better than his peers, but that none of his peers [can] do what he does. I inadvertently removed the emotion that drove me to write about this in the first place, creating something as shallow as it was difficult to compose. Like any industry, game designers are constantly studying what their peers create. From Miyamoto to Meier, there is a reason the games we love feel so perfect, and ultimately, it’s thanks to the tireless work of the designer. Everything has to feel right. Everything has to make sense. And everything has to be fun.

Edmund McMillen

And then, there’s Edmund McMillen: a prolific designer and artist who has created dozens of games over the last fifteen years. He has come up with an incredible, signature, way of constructing one-of-a-kind experiences that have deep ties with his personal history and inner thoughts. For much of his work, discovering the inspiration and motivation behind the game is as captivating as the game itself: the more you learn about his work, the more you realize how it’s an extension of himself in a way you just don’t find with other designers. The intense thought he puts into his games and how incredibly quickly he creates them are just two indicators of his talent, but it’s how he designs his games that put him in a league of his own. It’s safe to say he possesses unique and incredible traits that are instrumental to his success.

Aether

When asked about his design decisions, you will rarely see McMillen give a short and straightforward answer. No matter the game’s complexity, he has a specific reason for even the simplest elements. In the late 2000’s, when he began producing his most interesting work before Super Meat Boy, he explored the dark elements of his personal life (Coil touched on the death of his stepdad and McMillen’s thoughts of handling life and death) and his own childhood. Aether was inspired by his young niece, who reminded him of a young version of himself. While very creative and imaginative, McMillen had an isolated childhood, spending much of his time drawing on his own. He’s remarked in the past that his creativity introduced many problems into his life. Attempting to solve people's’ problems would develop obsessions over time, which in turn introduced phobias and stress. To paraphrase his thought from Indie Game: Life After, it’s cool to be creative, but there are dangers with that. You can get obsessed with issues. You can develop phobias. You can do more harm than good thinking you can fix everyone’s problems. McMillen is able to translate elements of his life into video games so effectively it’s staggering, (especially when you learn that Aether was made in 14 days), but his real talent is being able to take that introspection and use it for understanding people; the player. This leads to more interesting storytelling, more effective tutorials, and ultimately greater public reception.

The Binding of Isaac

McMillen is able to recognize his needs as a creative person and address them through his work, either by developing games in rapid succession, switching up themes, ending projects prematurely, or completely pushing the envelope with outlandish concepts. The last point is key. While there are games that are offensive for offensiveness’ sake (Hatred, etc), McMillen’s work has always been so well designed, it doesn’t rely on shock value to keep the player’s attention. He knew this work was an essential part of his creative process, and there are as many times when you need to play it safe as there are when you need to take chances. He created The C Word during one of his busiest years, full of other games that were all completely different from one another. He didn’t rely on any single game to define his style or his success, and as a result went into 2009 with some of his greatest and most memorable work (Coil, Aether, Meat Boy, Grey Matter). The Binding of Isaac was another “I can’t believe I’m doing this” project for him, to the point where he thought he would just have to release it as a free game since nobody would pay for it. This came right after Super Meat Boy’s monumental success, when he could take all the chances he wanted. While The C Word was potentially career suicide, The Binding of Isaac was at most a PR disaster (and knowing McMillen, wouldn’t have been a huge concern to him). For someone known for creating relatively extreme content compared to his peers, it’s impressive to see how much thought and planning went into even the most potentially ostracizing content, and how successful that content became, regardless of subject.

When all's said and done, McMillen is an excellent game designer. He has crafted impressively refined experiences in a variety of genres and atmospheres, and continues to experiment. He has become one of the greatest designers at burying an emotion or mentality into a mechanic; a rare and difficult skill to obtain. As he’s said in Indie Game: Life After, he writes about his own life and experiences because it’s all he knows. Early in his career it was hard to understand how you can “creatively design gameplay around storytelling”, but he eventually broke through with Triachnid, what I think to be an enormous tipping point in his career. In this casual platformer puzzle game, he designed a mechanical character that not only evoked emotion in the player but governed the game’s pacing as well. Players sympathized with the controllable spider, and during gameplay tried to protect it due to their own emotional influence more so than a competitive one. To enhance this effect, he gave the game a greyish-pink palette to make it feel “maternal yet isolated”, which speaks back to his own childhood to some extent, likely derived from his relationship with his grandmother.

Spewer

A personal favorite that gets relatively little attention is Spewer. Utilizing a simple yet sophisticated vomiting mechanic, Spewer has the player navigate 60 levels filled with puzzles and hazards in order to get the playable blob-worm-thing to the end of a series of lab experiments. At the time of release, Derek Yu, creator of Spelunky, said it was McMillen’s most mature design to date. It goes to show that McMillen’s talent for creating entertaining and captivating games goes far beyond his most financially successful work, and if anything it is a testament to his unrivaled ability to create wildly unique and entertaining experiences.

So why is it worth studying the work of Edmund McMillen? He has an intense understanding of how games work. His creativity and personal life have left him with a massive repertoire of stories to tell and unique ways to tell them. He constantly pushes himself to improve and expand creatively, and no topic is too risque or obscure for him to approach. He doesn’t create games for the spotlight, he creates them for himself. Whether it’s new Binding of Isaac content for his wife or just to explore something that inspires him, his work is strangely intimate for being covered in blood and poop most of the time. And yes, he even has a good explanation for that.

Even if you’re not a designer but just enjoy unique experiences, I urge you to get The Basement Collection on Steam (it’s only four bucks and features eight games, including many of the ones I mentioned above) and explore some of his earlier work. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it, too. You can email me at chris@piloneconsulting.com. Thanks for reading!

Personal recommendations: Aether, Triachnid, Spewer, Coil, Time Fcuk, Super Meat Boy, and The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. And keep an eye on Ouroboros, it’s looking pretty sweet so far.

[piloneconsulting-blog]

20XX

A Pre-Release Design and Product Audit

(Abridged for demo purposes)

Overview

20XX, the roguelike action-platformer by Batterystaple Games and Fire Hose Games, brings together many appealing qualities to construct a well-rounded and ultimately enjoyable experience. Deceptively complex, 20XX is easy to pick up and provides great replay value thanks to all systems running behind the scenes. At the time of writing, 20XX is still under very active development. This audit describes beta version 0.961b in late September 2016. All elements of the game are subject to change at any given time, and based on how active development is, we expect significant changes between now and release day.

20XX initially came to the public as Echoes of Eridu (EoE), which ran a successful Kickstarter in April-May 2014. Despite nearly missing their goal of $20,000, EoE was well received by fans and industry members alike. 20XX is currently on Steam as an Early Access game for $14.99, which was raised from an original $11.99 on August 31, 2016. The current Early Access version of 20XX is being met with almost entirely positive reviews, with only 4.5% of reviews being negative. Ultimately, we believe 20XX’s success will hinge on how effectively the developers address a handful of minor design and creative improvements as well as the game’s marketing. Due to its unique appeal between modern roguelike design and Megaman X nostalgia (and current popular opinion that it is a superior alternative to its modern competition), we believe the right strategies during beta development could have massive impact on release day.

Breakdown

Great experience, excellent at audience building, but finishing touches are key.

At its core, 20XX is a well-executed modern homage to classic futuristic action platformers, most notably Megaman X. While 20XX offers a minor backstory to the game, the characters you encounter (and play as) are hollow, providing little more than dialogue or brief cameos. During every playthrough, the player navigates through a variety of unique environments that feature enemies and natural hazards such as pitfalls, damaging surfaces, and projectiles. While there is no introductory or tutorial sequence, enemy and environment behavior is designed to be predictable yet challenging, allowing the player to freely progress without feeling stuck or confused.

Alongside a regular playthrough, 20XX offers casual (start by choosing free power-ups) and challenging (start by choosing stackable difficulty modifiers) modes that can significantly alter gameplay. Additionally, there are daily and weekly challenges that give experienced players a chance to stand out against their friends and the entire Steam community. Lastly, players are able to pre-purchase items for their next game (or unlock items to spawn in-game) based on the credits received from their most recent playthrough, which encourages players to stick around, as they’re given an extra boost to help surpass their previous performance.

Gameplay is 20XX’s double edged sword. The complexity that goes into roguelike gameplay paired with the nostalgic simplicity of combat creates a very modern and appealing experience, but the technical and design issues in that system introduce a lot of points of frustration. For instance, the random level generation for Arctic Datacore creates small icy platforms that are frustratingly easy to fall off of, and there have been observed sequences in Jungle Station that set the player up for unavoidable damage. While defeating enemies is satisfying, the randomized placement sometimes leads to surprisingly frustrating or dull areas, which can break play flow and even increase likelihood of ending the play session early.

The boss battles are varied and have fun retro feel to them, enhanced by the introductory splash screen and the slow build-up to the encounter, but ultimately suffer due to the lack of difficulty or sophistication before the player makes significant progress in the game. While bosses get noticeably more difficult later on (and by no means are they easy enough to cruise through the entire game), early battles consist entirely of getting to the boss as quickly as possible and dealing as much damage as you can with complete disregard for strategy or avoiding damage.

Accessibility is handled well in 20XX, as gameplay works well with either a controller or mouse and keyboard, and controls can be customized uniquely for all local players. The game is currently only in English, but because none of the characters require voice acting, support for future language packs is a definite possibility. Currently there is only a Windows build, which slightly reduces potential audience size but to a negligible degree.

Polish is one of the main issues we’ve found in our time with 20XX so far. While there are subtle animations, special effects and aesthetically pleasing backgrounds, there’s a decent oversight in the composition department: comparing 20XX’s graphics and aesthetics against Megaman X’s for any given level demonstrates just how difficult it can be to differentiate foreground from background, or just different foreground objects. In many familiar chunks, there are platforms that match the surrounding area too closely, making it difficult to smoothly progress through the level. Additionally, in several levels there are square platforms that spawn and disappear, requiring the player to jump strategically from block to block in order to avoid falling off the map. While this mechanic works well horizontally, it’s rarely successful vertically: if a player enters the block area as it’s spawning they get instantly pushed to the top or side once it appears. This inconsistent behavior makes the mechanic look unfinished and can detract from the player experience.

Visibility is important for any game in active development, and 20XX is no exception. Thankfully, 20XX does quite well in this regard: other than ranking well for explicit Google searches (20XX, 20XX game, etc), it ranks well with more distanced search terms as well (Megaman X homage, modern Megaman X, etc). 20XX is easy to find on major social networks and has a dedicated subreddit, which is a large plus for Sociability as well. Active developer input on social media lets fans feel better connected during development, and will greatly benefit the game in the long run, both in game quality and established audience size.

Sociability is one of 20XX’s particularly strong suits. From the main menu, players can easily access the Steam community, see the leaderboards (of which there are many, building more diverse competition instead of a single list that’s nearly impossible to top), and find out how to contact the team or find additional online resources. The multiplayer support is also a great addition, as it allows opportunity to connect with others through the game. While there are minor design issues worth investigating with co-op, the fact that it exists is a big selling point and a great addition to the product. 20XX also has a dedicated Facebook page and subreddit to promote discussions, sharing thoughts and achievements, and more. Almost 500 Reddit subscribers, about 250 Facebook page likes. There is clear developer interaction on the subreddit, which is great for more detail playtesting feedback, positive discussions, and a stronger fanbase.

Monetization should be an easy task for 20XX, thanks to their pre-announced dynamic pricing throughout development. The game is currently available on Steam for $14.99 (what we believe to be the perfect price for any moderately developed indie game), which was raised from $11.99 prior to August 31, 2016. Over time, there could easily be support for paid DLC that features new levels, playable characters, items, and more. Paid DLC/expansions in a roguelike is a delicate undertaking, but definitely worth it when players feel like they’re getting their money’s worth (looking at The Binding of Isaac as an example).

Playtest Report

We had two of our playtesters run through the regular 20XX mode five times each. They were free to choose their character and had no limitations with play style except that they had to choose the first available level following a successful boss fight (in order to avoid freely picking familiar levels and avoid new challenges). Playtesters were encouraged to take notes on their experience following the conclusion of a run.

While none of the playthroughs went particularly far, our playtesters definitely felt a challenge once they got through at least two levels. Note: a “level complete” includes defeating the boss and continuing on. Levels ended prematurely are not included on this, regardless of whether the player died during the level or boss fight.

Even as first-time players, the bosses were seen as exceptionally easy to defeat in the early game. However, once a few levels were cleared, they got noticeably harder. While the progression makes the player feel challenged, it was seen as too sudden and came off as frustrating, especially if powerups haven’t been impressive that run (playtesters were certain they had missed something significant in the level). Additionally, the speed bonuses were awarded nearly every time a boss was defeated, which led us to believe the threshold for the rewards was set far too low. The rewards were also frequently underwhelming, which was disappointing on many occasions.

Level distribution was luckily quite balanced for our playtesters. To their enjoyment, their least favorite area was also the least common.

Playtesters expressed excitement when finding core power-ups, as they enjoyed the unique combat and mobility effects as well as the visual changes to the character. While stat modifiers were by far the most common, playtesters were mostly bothered by seeing the same modifiers over and over, like Ninja Sash. While there’s no hard data to support this, both playtesters agreed that Ace felt far superior to Nina, due to the reach of his default sword and Nina’s unimpressive basic attacks. They also agreed that the main menu layout was confusing at first, since the main gameplay is in the middle tier of an ambiguous shelf-like room.

Here we distinguish between powerup types: core powerups are armor and weapons, stat modifiers simply increase a stat with no added effects, and chance effect powerups are bonuses based on conditions.

Proposed Improvements

For such a complicated game, there are several ways of approaching any given problem. While we know our suggestions are not the only solution, we believe they’re either the most cost effective approach or will result in the greatest player response. We’ve streamlined our thoughts into three core areas.

Mechanics:

We believe more Core and weapon upgrades will increase new player attention and enjoyment, and create more late-game strategies for the experienced fans. Right now the vast majority of power-ups do little to nothing in regards to player appearance or abilities, which can be discouraging for a fresh audience. Defeating more significant enemies should have a weighted item pool, encouraging new players to work for items that immediately make their character look and act in new ways.

The biggest improvement to power-ups would be to include more (and more significant) damage modifiers, in a similar vein to The Binding of Isaac. While 20XX online communities have been sharing unique late-game builds for some time now, it’s very rare to have people with drastically different builds by the time they beat their third or fourth boss. It would also be a positive influence for sharing screenshots and clips of the game, which wouldn’t only promote sociability in general, but also show how unique and fun this randomly-generated experience can be.

Design:

The platforms that fall down after a player comes in contact with them need a “respawning” animation. Frequently during playtesting a player would be trying to advance through an area and get damaged and knocked back by a respawning platform they didn’t realize was coming back. In some cases this has caused frustrating deaths, especially following a Twin Astrals fight.

Additionally, Arctic Datacore maps should get rid of any icy surface shorter than 3 “units” wide. While icy surfaces are a familiar mechanic, there’s little fun in having to break the pace of the game to slowly hop on one small surface to another, lest you fall to your death. At very least, the physics of icy surfaces should be tested and refined, since there are still areas where normal movement is completely inhibited (slanted surfaces will sometimes stop the player completely, instead of slowing them).

There have been some chunks generated in Stonetemple Skycity that have points of unavoidable damage, and the “Don’t Attack” Glory Zone has spawned when the player doesn’t have an available power to use. There are more specific instances of randomly-generated issues, but these stood out the most from our playtesting reports.

When a player goes through the red doors to pre-boss and boss areas, there is a slow pause and the player is shifted over to the next area. This strange transition would make sense in the Metroidvania genre, but stands out in an unpleasant way in its current implementation. We believe the player should be set to a preset stand-walk-stand animation sequence if this transition is being used to cover up background loading and is unavoidable.

Most significantly, the graphics and aesthetics would greatly benefit from a facelift. While the game has come a long way since its EoE days, the style is still reminiscent of in-browser Flash games, adding an unfortunate “cheapness” to the experience (which will have a negative impact on marketing efforts). Other than the previously mentioned issues with foreground vs background clarity, there is simply a lack of contrast between foreground elements that can make navigation unpleasant and difficult. Many times the screen is just too busy in a way that feels claustrophobic and cluttered. While random generation can only be controlled so much, there are enough familiar sequences that we believe the chunks can be better designed to require players to master different mechanics and combat strategies, not just put together to introduce constant variety.

Concept:

Possibly the most significant improvement to the game is a conceptual one: better integrate the characters and backstory into the game in order to give the player a feeling of progression. In any roguelike, the player is travelling with a purpose. In 20XX, the player is simply checking off bosses on a list. There’s no uniqueness between Stonetemple Skycity as level 1 or level 8, and that makes the experience feel incredibly disappointing late-game.

Ultimately, the gameplay is too shallow for a successful roguelike experience. The game lacks real progression, and while bosses and enemies may get more difficult, the player doesn’t feel like they’re working towards a concrete, story-driven goal. A stronger story integration would be a good first step in making the game more compelling, but visual changes based on an increasing difficulty modifier would be the bare minimum for a v1 release (dynamic music would be a very strong accompaniment to this). Why are these locations randomized? Perhaps the robots are destroying and rebuilding society to fit their needs? Maybe the robots’ goals differ between playthroughs, affecting a global chunk generation variable? Just food for thought.

Closing Thoughts

In it’s current state, 20XX is extremely promising. Between good market timing, great design, and a strong community presence, it has all the makings of a significant success. Even outside the core gameplay, there is a great sense of humor, enjoyable music, and a simply fun atmosphere. However, like any game in active development, there are several unresolved issues that will undoubtedly cause a fuss once the game is out. We’re confident that addressing the aforementioned issues will improve likelihood of unwaveringly positive feedback and increased financial success. With declining interest in Megaman and the ultimate failure of Mighty No. 9, 20XX is in a perfect position to be the “real” modern Megaman. Take note below, Mighty No. 9 released between the last two point on the graph, scoring 100 for Google Trends during that time. Interest is dwindling, and with a strong marketing strategy timed with continued public interaction, 20XX will surely take over that audience completely. Thanks to the random generation, live streaming has a high potential for long term interest, but we would advise against marketing too heavily to that niche until progression and polish are addressed, as per our proposed improvements.

Thank you for taking the time to read our abridged demo audit. If you want to share your thoughts or have any questions, feel free to reach out to us by emailing chris@piloneconsulting.com. If you found this interesting and informative, please share it with your friends and colleagues. We plan on releasing more audits like this on a variety of games to show how no two projects are alike, and that for the highest quality service you need to hire an expert, like Pilone Consulting (http://piloneconsulting.com).

[piloneconsulting-blog]

Drunken Robot Pornography

A Post-Mortem Design and Product Audit

(Abridged for demo purposes)

Overview

Drunken Robot Pornography (DRP), a first-person shooter by Dejobaan Games, creates a unique atmosphere that combines humor, exciting gameplay, and impressively unique enemies. While there are several fundamental issues, the game is generally well designed, polished, and enjoyable. While the majority of issues with the game itself surround lacking or overly light features, there have also been missed opportunities with the project that likely limited sales potential. If both areas are addressed, we see no reason why there wouldn’t be a resurgence of interest in DRP and Dejobaan Games as a whole.

DRP initially released on Steam with a $14.99 price tag with a 20% discount on the first week, while Dejobaan Games ran a series of live streaming events surrounding the launch to increase interest and visibility. Ever since, there hasn’t been significant community or media attention but reviews were positive overall, averaging around 65-70 out of 100 (66/100 on Metacritic at the time of writing). We believe that if the suggestions in this document are taken into strong consideration moving forward, significantly higher scores would be attainable as well as new and sustainable revenue streams.

Breakdown

DRP ultimately provides the player with an energetic and entertaining single-player experience. It effectively utilizes simplicity (with some instructional loading screens) to teach the player basic controls. While the early game difficulty ramp is far from steep, there are several elements that lacked proper instruction and could potentially prove to be frustrating for inexperienced gamers (for example, the fact that turrets are indestructible or the behavior of spam mobs). Thankfully, the fast paced nature of the game coupled with the visually exciting design should leave most players unaware of the lack of direction.

To summarize our six points of focus in a single thought, DRP features exciting and attractive, yet shallow, gameplay that ultimately suffers from lack of sophistication  and commitment to visibility and proliferation of online content.

Gameplay is fast, fun, and easy to learn. However, for being a self-described “bullet hell”, there is a disconnect between the pacing and style of traditional bullet hell games and what DRP has to offer. Not only are the Titan projectiles typically slow and easy to dodge, the weakness of Titan limbs makes them pose little to no threat to the player, regardless of the number of weapons attached. Not only are Titan weapons lackluster, but the player’s only available gun feels extremely weak without utilizing at least one of the few available buffs in the game. While it’s very satisfying to stack every buff and shred your enemies, it happens so infrequently it’s too irregular to confidently look forward to level-to-level. The low number of available power ups is also discouraging, especially in contrast to the visually and mechanically diverse Titans.

Accessibility is not seriously addressed in DRP’s game options, but control customization is available and gameplay works equally well between keyboard/mouse and a controller. Game dialogue and text is only available in English.

Polish is very well done throughout DRP; every asset fits within the aesthetic and even non-essential environment assets have a futuristic minimalism that fit well within the world Dejobaan created. While the world is minimalistic to the point where each level feels disconnected from the others, it works well enough to give the player a good variety of experiences without being repetitive or confusing. While the UI is mostly well designed, some menus would benefit from a rework. The Titan creation screen, for example, features what appears to be the default Unity UI assets. The bonus content (links to other projects and social media pages, etc) is unclear to anyone unfamiliar with the iconography, which is undoubtedly a high percentage of the audience.

Visibility and Sociability are key players in DRP’s success, but unfortunately there are just too many areas that were left unaddressed to give the game enough momentum in the market. While some Steam integration created opportunities for players to connect and discover new content, the design flaws previously mentioned gave communities little reason to explore original content other than momentary curiosity. The gameplay is perfect for Twitch (and other live streaming platforms), but other than early streaming by Dejobaan, there wasn’t enough original content or demand to keep an audience for long enough before it began losing public interest.

Monetization is a non-issue for the existing version of DRP, but there were definitely missed opportunities early on for additional revenue streams. We believe DRP was priced perfectly for the type of game and amount of content it offers, and would suggest any reboot or sequel is priced the same. We strongly believe that 14.99 is the new 19.99, and audiences will react positively to new future content at a familiar and accessible price.

Playtest Report

Although DRP features 52 unique levels with additional playable content, our playtest covered just the first 15 levels. We feel this sufficiently covered the essential player experience but acknowledge there are additional mechanics not covered in this document.

Level 1-15 rated by difficulty, entertainment, and design on a 1-10 scale

As an introductory sequence, DRP actually does quite well. Despite minimal explanation, controls and goals are intuitive and easy to master (movement, flying, shooting, powerups, item collection). However due to the slow levels early on, gameplay feels somewhat stagnant by level 6. It picks up momentarily and begins to introduce more challenging levels, such as level 8, but then unfortunately drops back down to simplicity and repetition until level 11. By then, the player has essentially mastered all mechanics and is ready for a greater challenge (thankfully, one can see the steady increase in positive experience from level 13 onwards). While it’s expected to introduce steady waves of difficulty, it’s fair to assume players will grow weary of the “three slow, three fast” pattern shown here until the final boss at level 52.

Online leaderboard standing from playtest session

One rational conclusion to draw from our playtesting data is to assume the levels with lower ratings are due to poorer performance. By cross referencing our leaderboard standings at the time of playtesting, one can see no strong positive correlation between high leaderboard placement and low feedback rating. One important point not covered in our playtest is how there there are steadily decreasing number of leaderboard positions as the game progresses, indicating players grew tired or frustrated at points throughout the game, never to return. A dangerous metric worth investigating.

Relation between leaderboard rank and cumulative level rank with linear trendline

Proposed Improvements

After a preliminary design audit, playtest, and analysis, we believe the points below would provide significant benefit to DRP if addressed. The benefits of these points may be in player experience, profitability, or just general polish.

1. Restructure level challenges to feel more like MMORPG raid bosses (a large systematic battle against a focal enemy, or enemies, that involves strategic multitasking and pacing). DRP is a game where giant sentient robots are destroying futuristic Boston, but right now the levels are small and centered around Titans that are less dangerous than being caught off guard by randomly spawning spam mobs. Reducing reliance on these mobs while increasing the difficulty and complexity of the Titans will improve player experience and reduce frustration(a). Auxiliary enemies could easily introduce unique challenges when generated from spawning units attached to the Titan itself, or shielded environment spawners whose behavior is linked to the Titan’s. A more advanced improvement (but certainly an appealing one) would be the ability for Titans to have a behavioral finite state machine, defining movement, weapons used, and fire speed based on health, available limbs, and other factors(b). This FSM would be integrated in the Titan creator, which would improve sociability and visibility, now that players can create more unique and challenging Titans. Even basic strafing and engagement with the environment (destroying platforms, etc) could introduce a novel amount of complexity, especially when accompanied by redesigned levels. While the existing levels are aesthetically pleasing and conceptually sound, many feel claustrophobic or inappropriate for the desired player experience(c).

a. Being damaged or killed by a random mob is as challenging as being killed by RNG. While it’s possible to keep track of enemies on the indicator by the crosshairs, it’s not easy or enjoyable to fight an interesting enemy while dedicating your attention to the chum.

b. Yes, this is a lot to ask. However it would drastically change the game to the point of essentially reinventing the title (which could be used if a re-release or paid DLC was of interest). One of the primary criticisms from players is the repetitive nature of the game as a whole, which undoubtedly is a byproduct of the static nature of the Titans (uniquely rotating parts simply don’t introduce enough character). While this would not only make Titan combat more compelling, it would be enough to add “personalities” to individual Titans based around their combat style.

c. Many of the more attractive maps turned out to be the least enjoyable to play. With walls, small and distant platforms, and low visibility, it felt like some levels were designed for one experience while the rest of the game was designed for another. See point 3 for further explanation.

2. While the time limit serves a purpose, it would be better served as an enrage timer (going back to point 1 and raid boss design). Make parts harder to destroy and Titans attack more often once a time limit has been reached. Visual and audio cues would accompany this change in attributes and behavior.

3. Tighten the player’s walking. Right now it feels like you’re running on ice, or still using your suit jetpack on the ground. There are too many maps where difficult controls lead to accidental damage or falling out of bounds.

4. Introducing more languages (even a simple implementation like subtitles alongside the existing voice acting) would allow further growth of DRP’s audience. A lot of DRP’s entertainment comes from humor and it shouldn’t be lost if an interested gamer is more comfortable in another language.

Closing Thoughts

Ultimately, timing could make or break a release

Looking at Google Trends for “bullet hell” and “Drunken Robot Pornography”, a common pattern arises: the search popularity of the game peaks while the genre is a hot topic. DRP was released with great timing, but the downturn of the bullet hell popularity likely played a part in DRP’s relatively short tail. If it had been release in late 2013 when bullet hell games were increasing in popularity it may very well have reached audiences that wouldn’t have normally gravitated towards an indie game flying under the radar.

DRP is not a bad game, and easily revivable through a reboot or sequel. If the lack of complex gameplay was addressed and the new content was properly marketed, it could very well achieve Metacritic scores in the 90s, assuming everything had the same level of polish as the existing content. It’s safe to assume DRP was created by a highly talented and creative team that couldn’t add all the content they wanted to in a reasonable time frame and was too busy to dedicate full time to marketing and continue development long after release. We have no doubts that if the same team were to re-release the game with the same energy and intensity as the original, it would be a fantastic success.

Thank you for taking the time to read our first abridged demo audit. If you want to share your thoughts or have any questions, feel free to reach out to us by emailing chris@piloneconsulting.com. If you found this interesting and informative, please share it with your friends and colleagues. We plan on releasing more audits like this on a variety of games to show how no two projects are alike and that for the highest quality service you need to hire an expert, like Pilone Consulting (http://piloneconsulting.com).

[piloneconsulting-blog]

The Story of Skorecery

One of our clients, GrappleHook Games, has just revealed that their latest game Skorecery has been accepted into the Boston Festival of Indie Games’ Digital Showcase. While they deserve a big congratulations (which you can give them on their Facebook page), it should be said that success doesn’t come easily, and there is still a long road ahead!

A few years ago, GrappleHook Games created their award-winning arcade game, SquadHero: Revolver, where the player cleverly uses a Guitar Hero controller to shift colored ships to align with corresponding targets. The game received universal praise from classmates, colleagues, and industry professionals, winning the Pupil Perfection award at the 2013 Boston Festival of Indie Games, Best Overall Game at Northeastern Game Demo Day, and Most Innovative Game at Northeastern Game Demo Day. Riding on the momentum, they begun development on Buzz Breakers (which would eventually become Skorecery) with the help of Pilone Consulting’s current Director of Operations, Chris Germano. 

The three worked tirelessly to design an exciting, innovative, but accessible local multiplayer game. The original prototypes were well received and the team was strongly encouraged to continue development, as initial versions only featured a single map, 1v1 gameplay, and limited player mechanics. Over the coming months, mechanics were changed and refined (custom physics, controls), features were added (gravity flipping, real-time stance swapping), and the controls were fine-tuned to feel fast and responsive. At this point, all game assets were basic 3D shapes, which was helpful for clarity during gameplay but made it harder for players and audiences to get excited since the lack of any real identity made it hard to build any sort of emotional connection with the in-game “characters”. This was the first major pivot, where the team embraced simplicity and eliminated many superfluous features, like “stance switching”, where a player could trade abilities and stats in real time to adapt to and modify the pace of the match.

Eventually, Buzz Breakers went to space: the rectangles were replaced with moon rocks, the players were replaced with capsule-shaped astronauts (there wasn’t an experienced artist on the team yet), the playing field was given a retro-futuristic mining atmosphere, and the main menu was styled up to be entertaining and memorable. Building on the initial audience gained from demoing Buzz Breakers around the Greater Boston Area, it was easy to draw in a crowd when Crater Kings was an official sponsor of the 2015 Boston Festival of Indie Games. At this point, Crater Kings amassed a noteworthy following, but the state of popular indie games (Hokra, Videoball, Rocket League) put the team in a tough spot. Simple mechanics and a space theme wasn’t going to stand out any more, and a serious redesign had to take place.

After a lot of planning, refinement, and technical work from the GrappleHook Games team, Skorecery was born. Artists and musicians were added to the team to give the game an amazing new look and feel, and Pilone Consulting returned to manage digital marketing and audience building. Why go with anyone else when your marketing team helped design and build the game in the first place? 

Still, there’s a lot of work to do, as we plan on getting Skorecery to Steam without cutting corners or abandoning an unfinished project. We’re extremely proud and excited that Skorecery is receiving the praise it deserves, and we’re not going to stop until we think it’s the best game it can be. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the 2016 Boston Festival of Indie Games on Saturday, September 10 at the MIT Johnson Athletic Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts!

If you can’t make the festival, we won’t hold it against you! Just be sure to follow GrappleHook Games for more updates on the game, or Pilone Consulting if you’re curious about the other games, projects, and online content we work on. If you have a project you’d like us to take a look at, shoot us an email at chris@piloneconsulting.com and we’d be happy to chat!

[piloneconsulting-blog]

A New Hexagon

It’s no secret that designing a successful game requires a lot of talent, a lot of organization, and a lot of luck. While there are a handful of best practices for increasing the probability of success, there are still some extremely useful assets and strategies that many teams overlook. Utilizing a design document for organization, consistency, and transparency is key to successful pre-production (and something we specialize in), but creating the document yourself can commonly fall victim to reinforcement theory. Once the project is underway, frequent playtesting can prove to be invaluable, but very rarely will your team receive sophisticated and specific feedback with the clarity a fellow designer would provide. A design audit addresses that lack of clarity and sophistication but rarely steps back far enough to see how the game succeeds or fails in its accessibility, connectivity, and visibility online.

With our unique auditing process we break down the entire project into two core components: the characteristics of a successful game and the characteristics of a popular game. By maximizing either you will be sure to find some success, but by maximizing both you almost completely eliminate the need for “a lot of luck”. Typically, some form of hexagon chart is used to quickly illustrate the general feedback and category-based strengths and weaknesses. You may have even seen this type of chart in a stat-based video game (probably something within the RPG or MOBA genres). While familiar, our approach takes more holistic and full-service approach, giving necessary attention to the external factors that ultimately determine a game’s success.

The New Hexagon, as we’re calling it, is a binary graph that focuses on the two components previously mentioned: the successful game and the popular game. While similar, these two have unique properties and core tenets that need individual attention. The successful game needs powerful gameplay, polish, and monetization, while the popular game needs to be visible, sociable, and monetized. Ultimately, our categories are Gameplay, Accessibility, Visibility, Sociability, Polish, and Monetization.

For brevity’s sake, we’d like to break down just two significant elements from each triangle. If you’re interested in learning more, however, please contact us with the information at the bottom of this post!

Gameplay is simply the most important factor in a game’s success. While our definition of gameplay covers half a dozen key categories, some of the most obvious remain our top priority when evaluating gameplay: a smooth learning curve and compelling mechanics. While we touch on other significant elements, like level design, we think the learning curve and mechanics are the most defining factors to indicating successful gameplay as a whole.

Sociability is less commonly a priority for small teams (and we’re afraid to say many large ones as well!) which unfortunately plays a large part in the potential for a game. While many games have leaderboards and some form of social media sharing feature, few games incorporate being social as well as they should. While dreadfully annoying to many of us, Candy Crush’s social integration with asking friends for resources was an immensely powerful tool. Even games that reward players for liking their facebook page are taking a step in the right direction, as Facebook will retain interest through repeated interactions and natural distribution of content (look at Call of Duty’s page for example).

As a fun little glance at our approach, the above is quick display of the Call of Duty franchise using our system. It’s clear at a quick glance that the franchise is more powerful in its branding than the quality of the games, which is something most of us would agree with. The brand is extremely powerful, mostly due to its tireless promotions and constant stream of fresh online content (in other words, its Visibility and Social qualities). However as far as accessibility goes, it neither fails nor excels.Despite being available on multiple platforms, the only way for those with visual or physical limitations to enjoy the game is to set the difficulty lower. Unfortunately, this still prohibits those audiences from online gameplay, which is the majority of the franchise’s content. If you feel up to it, leave a comment with why you think we rated the other qualities the way we did!

If you’re interested in our approach and want to learn more, or if you’d like to discuss getting an audit done on your game, please leave a comment or contact us at chris@piloneconsulting.com. And if you haven’t yet, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more original content, progress reports, and promotions!

[piloneconsulting-blog]

Today marks the soft release of our website! Blog content coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled. Official release coming soon.