Ok, so I took a long break from designing games and gaming in general. And now that m back designing games, I thought I might as well finish this topic. Firstly, we have a genre that seems to have been saturated with all the ideas. This genre has been done so many times and in so many ways that it is very hard to expand or even dare to think of any improvement possibilities. But you can carry on reading and decide if anything does make any sense after all.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ENDLESS GAMES
Before we dive into the possibilities let's try to figure out why the endless games matter. By the way, if you like game designs then you should definitely read this book by James P. Carse. Unlike finite games, which is driven by a define set of goal and eventually a conclusion to the game, infinite games are played for experience. These endless games have horizon instead of outcomes. Players are looking for an experience rather than a result. One way of looking at it is that the player is playing to die. A game that says you will be killed eventually and that's the only way to end the game. But still people play it. The player is always looking for surprise, or a drama, instead of an ultimate winner. Endless games are like soap operas, where the audience is looking for a twist or a surprise and they don't want it to end. The best way to describe the genre is to think of a progressive gameplay that is stripped down to mere bones. As the Canabalt creator, Adam Saltsman, described the motivation, "I love minimalism in games anyway, but this was a good excuse to push it further. Canabalt uses six shades of gray and one button and is still pretty exciting."
STORY AND PROGRESSION
Games have evolved to become a good story telling medium. There are games that have rich story telling, however, endless games aren't that kind. The best way to describe an endless game is like the movie, Groundhog Day. It doesn't matter what you do, everything reset back to the same game. But even in Groundhog Day, we see that Bill Murray doesn't respond the same way to the same problem everyday. And that should be the underlying goal of the game. Just because its an endless game, that does not mean it has to be the same thing over and over. Granted that endless games take their queue from arcade games, having simple game mechanics. However, that doesn't mean the game can't be story driven. For example, endless runner are the best example of showing slow but never ending process of growth. Every run is a learning lesson, every run can lead to a new enemy. Now of-course, there can't be a new enemy every run. But it doesn't have to be the same enemy all the time. The player is always looking for a surprise and an experience. These stories may or may not have linear storyline. They can be about different characters and the world they have to survive in. Like Mario, you have these strong, defined characters. And all of them have a strong back story. Bowser and Mario are never friends, Princess Peach is abducted and Mario is always finding way to save her. But when you play the game, it is about level design and gameplay mechanics. So although, we are still playing a game that doesn't have any specific storyline implemented in the gameplay, but because of an established storyline, we all know why Mario( or the player) is going through all the pain.
SHOWING THE PROGRESS BETTER
Progress in endless games haven't been explored too much. Yes, you have customisation, yes you have highest score but that's about it. What if the endless games have progression in form of not just difficulty settings but as the game progresses, you get new enemies with different mechanics. I understand that the core idea of such games is to have shorter gameplay sessions, but you can still have those. What if the character progresses with greater abilities and that results to new enemies. This will let the players experience something new and they will play it, looking forward to new challenges. Again, what better example than Mario. You have defined levels and every level teaches you a mechanics and when you clear it, it test you with a boss fight. Then the whole thing repeats again with new mechanics. I understand that this might stray away from the original idea of minimalism, but we are talking about expanding the game. So in that regards, I think it is acceptable. Progression in endless runners can be considered as candy crush take on the match 3 gameplay.
DAILY GOALS/BRANCHING
One thing that endless games do best is achievements. Specially games like jetpack joyride. They have daily goals and overall achievement system that keeps the player interested all the time. But what if we use daily goals and side missions to expand on game mechanics. What if the game has a storyline that explains the enemies. Those storylines are a part of endless games. It introduces different worlds. And as you play those side missions, with the visual feedback, players get to understand the world of those enemies. Maybe even take a break from the repetitive gameplay and explore other, or certain aspects of, game mechanics. This way daily goals won't be just an aid to the usual grind but also a good reason/opportunity to showcase different game mechanics.
CONTROLS AND MECHANICS
Yes, endless runner, by its name, a runner. But that's not exactly a justifiable definition. In my opinion, endless runners are games that progress all the time. There isn't going back, rather a game that keeps moving forward. This means that by introducing new game mechanics, we can not only let the player just run but keep them moving forward. Temple run is basically, Indiana Jones running for his life. Having said that Indiana Jones was not always running, he was jumping, balancing, stopping only to escape his death. That is what we need to do more. Now while we talk about all these, next obvious question will be, then what about the pacing of the game? Can we still maintain the rhythm of the game? This is where the game design skills come in. Once, we understand what we want, game pacing can be achieved with iteration and polishing.
PROGRESSIVE VS EMERGENT GAMEPLAY
This last point is very abstract, or maybe even bizarre, but lets just explore it anyway. So progressive gameplay is gameplay that has level designs or a story structure and everything happens in a linear progressive fashion, e.g. Mario or any game with story line etc. Emergent gameplay is when you define a set of rules and the game evolves as the player performs the actions based on those rules. The simple way of explaining emergent gameplay is chess.
What if we take this theory even further. What if we have a gameplay that is kind of hybrid of these two. Say, your game has a structure but as the player is given an ability, it changes the gameplay to something different. Those abilities are randomly given and the player is given a choice to pick it or leave it. With each selection, the player is presented with a gameplay that supports/works with that ability. The possibilities and the combinations will make that game deep and the scope of the game can become huge.
CONCLUSION
The idea of this post is to explore and discuss the possibilities that hasn't been talked about. I'm not saying any of these would make any sense or if that would change the genre to something else. But personally, I no longer play any endless runner because there isn't anything new happening in that genre anymore. Having said that I strongly feel that this genre has a lot to offer than just a cloning of already said games in the last post.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ENDLESS GAMES
Before we dive into the possibilities let's try to figure out why the endless games matter. By the way, if you like game designs then you should definitely read this book by James P. Carse. Unlike finite games, which is driven by a define set of goal and eventually a conclusion to the game, infinite games are played for experience. These endless games have horizon instead of outcomes. Players are looking for an experience rather than a result. One way of looking at it is that the player is playing to die. A game that says you will be killed eventually and that's the only way to end the game. But still people play it. The player is always looking for surprise, or a drama, instead of an ultimate winner. Endless games are like soap operas, where the audience is looking for a twist or a surprise and they don't want it to end. The best way to describe the genre is to think of a progressive gameplay that is stripped down to mere bones. As the Canabalt creator, Adam Saltsman, described the motivation, "I love minimalism in games anyway, but this was a good excuse to push it further. Canabalt uses six shades of gray and one button and is still pretty exciting."
STORY AND PROGRESSION
Games have evolved to become a good story telling medium. There are games that have rich story telling, however, endless games aren't that kind. The best way to describe an endless game is like the movie, Groundhog Day. It doesn't matter what you do, everything reset back to the same game. But even in Groundhog Day, we see that Bill Murray doesn't respond the same way to the same problem everyday. And that should be the underlying goal of the game. Just because its an endless game, that does not mean it has to be the same thing over and over. Granted that endless games take their queue from arcade games, having simple game mechanics. However, that doesn't mean the game can't be story driven. For example, endless runner are the best example of showing slow but never ending process of growth. Every run is a learning lesson, every run can lead to a new enemy. Now of-course, there can't be a new enemy every run. But it doesn't have to be the same enemy all the time. The player is always looking for a surprise and an experience. These stories may or may not have linear storyline. They can be about different characters and the world they have to survive in. Like Mario, you have these strong, defined characters. And all of them have a strong back story. Bowser and Mario are never friends, Princess Peach is abducted and Mario is always finding way to save her. But when you play the game, it is about level design and gameplay mechanics. So although, we are still playing a game that doesn't have any specific storyline implemented in the gameplay, but because of an established storyline, we all know why Mario( or the player) is going through all the pain.
SHOWING THE PROGRESS BETTER
Progress in endless games haven't been explored too much. Yes, you have customisation, yes you have highest score but that's about it. What if the endless games have progression in form of not just difficulty settings but as the game progresses, you get new enemies with different mechanics. I understand that the core idea of such games is to have shorter gameplay sessions, but you can still have those. What if the character progresses with greater abilities and that results to new enemies. This will let the players experience something new and they will play it, looking forward to new challenges. Again, what better example than Mario. You have defined levels and every level teaches you a mechanics and when you clear it, it test you with a boss fight. Then the whole thing repeats again with new mechanics. I understand that this might stray away from the original idea of minimalism, but we are talking about expanding the game. So in that regards, I think it is acceptable. Progression in endless runners can be considered as candy crush take on the match 3 gameplay.
DAILY GOALS/BRANCHING
One thing that endless games do best is achievements. Specially games like jetpack joyride. They have daily goals and overall achievement system that keeps the player interested all the time. But what if we use daily goals and side missions to expand on game mechanics. What if the game has a storyline that explains the enemies. Those storylines are a part of endless games. It introduces different worlds. And as you play those side missions, with the visual feedback, players get to understand the world of those enemies. Maybe even take a break from the repetitive gameplay and explore other, or certain aspects of, game mechanics. This way daily goals won't be just an aid to the usual grind but also a good reason/opportunity to showcase different game mechanics.
CONTROLS AND MECHANICS
Yes, endless runner, by its name, a runner. But that's not exactly a justifiable definition. In my opinion, endless runners are games that progress all the time. There isn't going back, rather a game that keeps moving forward. This means that by introducing new game mechanics, we can not only let the player just run but keep them moving forward. Temple run is basically, Indiana Jones running for his life. Having said that Indiana Jones was not always running, he was jumping, balancing, stopping only to escape his death. That is what we need to do more. Now while we talk about all these, next obvious question will be, then what about the pacing of the game? Can we still maintain the rhythm of the game? This is where the game design skills come in. Once, we understand what we want, game pacing can be achieved with iteration and polishing.
PROGRESSIVE VS EMERGENT GAMEPLAY
This last point is very abstract, or maybe even bizarre, but lets just explore it anyway. So progressive gameplay is gameplay that has level designs or a story structure and everything happens in a linear progressive fashion, e.g. Mario or any game with story line etc. Emergent gameplay is when you define a set of rules and the game evolves as the player performs the actions based on those rules. The simple way of explaining emergent gameplay is chess.
What if we take this theory even further. What if we have a gameplay that is kind of hybrid of these two. Say, your game has a structure but as the player is given an ability, it changes the gameplay to something different. Those abilities are randomly given and the player is given a choice to pick it or leave it. With each selection, the player is presented with a gameplay that supports/works with that ability. The possibilities and the combinations will make that game deep and the scope of the game can become huge.
CONCLUSION
The idea of this post is to explore and discuss the possibilities that hasn't been talked about. I'm not saying any of these would make any sense or if that would change the genre to something else. But personally, I no longer play any endless runner because there isn't anything new happening in that genre anymore. Having said that I strongly feel that this genre has a lot to offer than just a cloning of already said games in the last post.
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