What makes a good fan mission?

greenie2600 on 13/9/2015 at 17:45

I've been thinking about this question, and I decided to write up my thoughts for anyone who creates FMs (or is thinking about doing so). Forgive the self-indulgence. This is obviously just one person's opinion—but even if you don't agree with all of my points, hopefully they'll at least get some ideas flowing. Feel free to add your own thoughts.

General

Give the player room to move around. A common mistake is to make the layout of levels too realistic, and therefore too cramped. In real life, there are probably only a couple of feet between your couch and your coffee table, and opening your back door might completely block the hallway. But real people are agile and maneuverable, and video game avatars (as far as the game engine is concerned) are rigid cylinders. They need more room.

So, keep this in mind as you create your mission. The measurements might be less realistic, but the mission will feel more realistic to the player, because they aren't constantly getting hung up on level geometry. Nothing breaks immersion like being reminded that you're just a virtual cylinder colliding with virtual rectangles.

Don't punish the player unfairly or unpredictably. Pushing a button shouldn't fry the player with electricity (unless there are warning signs). Opening a door shouldn't put you face-to-face with an angry guard (unless there's some way to know beforehand that the guard is there). Servants shouldn't attack you (because that deviates from the game's standard mechanics, and violates the unspoken contract with the player). Whenever the player suffers an injury or setback, they should be able to say "that was my fault; I should have seen that coming". Outwitting a mission is fun. Stepping on invisible land mines isn't.

Consider designing guard patrol routes that overlap and interlock. When patrol routes don't overlap much, it's too easy for the player to "clear" each area, rendering it totally safe (and therefore boring). There may be specific cases where you want to do this—but in general, you want to keep the player on their toes. They should rarely feel sure they could walk away from the game to make a sandwich, and come back 30 minutes later to find Garrett still alive.

Playing a level with well designed guard patterns feels like teasing apart a tangled piece of string—neutralizing guard A makes it a little easier to take out guard D, which makes it possible for you to sneak past guard B, which lets you pickpocket the key from guard C, which lets you access the security office to disable the cameras, which make it possible to get to the water arrows that will allow you to disable the iron beasts blocking the way to the basement... The player won't necessarily be conscious of this—they're just exploring the mission, looking for opportunities to disable threats. But you need to make sure those opportunities—and threats—are varied and surprising.

One way to do this is to put guards on long, circuitous routes that pass through multiple areas of the building. (But don't just put a bunch of guards on the same route at evenly spaced intervals—that feels artificial, and makes it too easy for the player to camp out in a single safe room and take out each guard one by one.)

Use the Z-axis wisely. Definitely exploit the vertical axis. But don't exploit it so much that your mission becomes (http://g02.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB11JFHIXXXXXXkXXXXq6xXFXXX4/Free-shipping-720-degree-three-dimensional-maze-Exercise-the-child-s-ability-thinking-skills-and-the.jpg) a three-dimensional maze. In general, the player should do most of their movement on the horizontal plane. The layout of vertical connections between areas (staircases, shafts, elevators) should be simpler than the horizontal ones (hallways, waterways, streets).

If you do incorporate more complex vertical transitions (say, ventilation ducts, or a network of secret tunnels), consider adding grills or peepholes that allow the player to see the rooms they're passing over/under/through, so it's easier to maintain their bearings.

Locks that take forever to pick are boring. Don't make me sit there holding down the right mouse button for 45 seconds, especially if there are no guards around to make it challenging.

Secrets and hidden stuff

Secrets should be hidden artfully, not obscurely. What constitutes a well hidden secret? Many FM authors seem to think that a microscopic switch, positioned so it can only be seen from a specific, improbable angle, in dark corner of a mansion with a hundred rooms, is well hidden. Well, it's certainly hard to find, but I'd argue that being hard to find isn't the same thing as being hidden well. There's no wit to it. The player is expected to find it through brute force: by simply scouring every inch of the mission. And that's not fun.

Instead, the player should be able to intuit the presence of a secret. They should think "that's a strange place for a painting", or "it seems like this room should be bigger; is there something behind that bookshelf?", or "that wall looks new". This is admittedly a tricky balance to strike: you don't want it to be too obvious; you want the player to feel like they were clever for spotting it. Still, a secret that's a little too obvious is better than a secret that's aggressively, obnoxiously obscure.

Readables

The player should be able to pick up key readables. That crumpled paper with the code to the safe? The journal which explains the location of the hidden door? The tome describing the ritual to open the sealed portal? If you expect the player to clearly recognize its significance, then allow them to pick it up. Otherwise, you're simply forcing them to remember it or write it down—and that's not fun. Let them get on with playing the game, instead of pausing to take notes.

...and consider making non-key readables non-pick-uppable. Few things are more frustrating than cycling past a hundred scrolls, keys, and edibles to find the one inventory item you actually need. Preventing the player from collecting junk items in the first place helps to mitigate this problem. Of course, this hints to the player which readables contain clues and and which are just for flavor—but I think that's a feature, not a bug (see the next item).

Keep readables concise. I've played too many FMs which can't decide whether they want to be a video game, or a novel. No matter how wonderful your prose or your story, no one wants their gameplay experience to be interrupted every few minutes to read a twelve-page journal.

The worst offenders bury crucial information in their baroque prose, thus forcing the player to carefully read every scroll, journal, and book they come across. This is fine for players who enjoy complicated backstory—but not every player does.

My recommendation: try not to exceed two pages (the left and right sides of a book count together as a single "page") unless you have a good reason. You can get away with one or two longer readables per mission, as long as they provide definite bones to the plot, and aren't just an excuse to get people to read your fanfiction.

For example, if breaking into the baron's private chambers is a key objective, it's probably fine to put a lengthier journal on his desk, to explain more about the circumstances that led you to his mansion, and start laying the narrative groundwork for the next mission. But don't leave long readables just scattered around. When the player finds a piece of lengthy exposition on a random table, s/he's going to assume there's something important in it. If there is, s/he'll be frustrated that s/he had to wade through so much fluff to find the one relevant bit. If there isn't, s/he'll be annoyed that s/he wasted time reading it.

"But if I just put the clue right there, doesn't that make it obvious?" Well, yeah—it does. But does burying the clue in a bunch of filler solve that problem? No—it just forces the player to jump through an additional hoop to get to the clue. And jumping through hoops isn't challenging or fun. It's just work.

For each readable you add to you mission, ask yourself: what is the purpose of this readable? If you can't clearly answer with one of the following, then consider removing or rethinking it:

* To further the gameplay (e.g., to suggest the existence of a hidden switch, hint at the location of a lost key, or reveal a passcode).

* To reveal a specific plot point (e.g., to explain who the dead guy in the basement is, or suggest the baron's infidelity).

* To add general flavor to the environment (e.g., a snippet of Hammerite scripture in a temple, or a bit of humorous gossip between servants).

Unless you're very confident in your writing abilities, enlist someone to review and edit your readables, objectives, and other text. Misspellings, typos, grammatical issues, clunky prose, and inconsistent voice and style all disrupt immersion. Suddenly, I'm no longer Garrett the master thief, skulking into a noble's chambers and reading about his private intrigues—I'm just reading someone's sloppy email. (I'd likely be willing to help edit, and maybe even do some writing, if you need someone.)

User Interface

Don't mess with the appearance of the light gem. Yes, it's tempting to customize everything that can be customized, just because it's so darn neat. But the light gem is the single most important element of Thief's user interface, and players have learned its subtleties through long experience. When you replace that tool with a new, unfamiliar version—for no better reason other than the fact that you can—you frustrate your players needlessly. One of the cardinal rules of user interface design is that things shouldn't change arbitrarily—above all else, an interface should be consistent. The light gem is part of a UI, not a medium for self-expression. Leave it alone.

Don't make me guess what material a surface is made of. Raise your hand if you've ever peered at a custom texture, wondered whether it's wood or just muddy-looking stone, and then wasted a rope arrow to find out. As with the light gem, it's often best to stick to the familiar, default textures here.

Immersion

Use NPCs that are appropriate to the environment. City streets should be patrolled by the City Watch. Private buildings should be patrolled by private guards. Pay attention to voice sets, too—the player shouldn't heard a guard muttering "I never should have gotten out of doing noble guard duty", when the guard is doing noble guard duty.

Playtesting

Give your playtesters some guidance. Don't just turn them loose and hope for the best. In particular, ask them to test these things:

Make sure the player can't reach areas that aren't meant to be reachable. Players will try to get onto every rooftop, ledge, and crate they can see—so your playtesters should, too. Being able to access unintended areas—or not being able to access areas that look like they should be accessible—breaks immersion, and can allow the player to circumvent the challenges you've so carefully designed.

If an area is reachable, make sure it's properly dressed and finished. The player shouldn't be able to see outside of the level boundaries. Surfaces should be properly textured, and should produce the correct footstep sounds. There should be no invisible walls or floors.

It should never be possible for the player to jump and hit an invisible ceiling. Even if they've hauled some crates there and climbed on top of them. Find the highest accessible point in your level, and make the ceiling generously higher than that.

Ladders can be especially tricky to get right, so test them well. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to maneuver onto an innocent-looking ladder in a fan mission—only to plummet to my death. Being killed by a dumb bug like this, suddenly and through no fault of my own, is the most frustrating way to die in a game—especially if I haven't saved lately. Test ladders carefully, especially those which are tall enough to cause significant injury to the player if they fail to attach successfully to the ladder.

Unna Oertdottir on 13/9/2015 at 18:48

This
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141005&p=2170393&viewfull=1#post2170393)

Quote Posted by epithumia

To all FM authors, I humbly offer my counter-proposal:

Please continue to make the missions you want to make.

We get few enough missions these days, and not every mission is going to appeal to everyone. And if given the choice between a mission without difficulty settings, with too many roving patrols, difficult-to find loot, and complicated puzzles and no mission at all, I'd take the former every time. It's your art, created for whatever audience you want. Make it however you desire.

greenie2600 on 13/9/2015 at 21:32

God, I hate the Internet sometimes.

It's not meant to be a list of commandments. And of course I'm grateful for any fan missions that folks care to make, and of course creators of FMs should use their own judgement.

Tannar on 13/9/2015 at 23:05

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. The only thing is that this has been discussed here for many, many years with numerous posts such as yours. So we've heard it all before. That doesn't mean it's not valid or useful. I suspect most everyone here would agree with most everything you said. It's just old news.

Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to trot all this out from time to time. And who knows, maybe some new authors will not have seen stuff like this before and get some guidance. Hope springs eternal.

Xorak on 13/9/2015 at 23:35

I think that's a nice write up. I pretty much agree with your thoughts. Though I think even allowing two pages for a readable is too long in general. It should be hard coded into the engine that you get a single page per readable. :laff: Force designers to make short but excellent readables.

Another thing I find is that though making a mission non-linear should be the goal, it can be even more fun if the player is allowed to access locations that it appears they shouldn't normally be able to reach yet, but through player ingenuity they manage to get up to them. For example, even something as simple as a balcony which a player must jump up on certain statues to reach. This gives the player the feeling of breaking the mission and doing the unexpected, while of course the designer expected it to be done all along.

I find this sort of design is often totally stripped from modern games, so that even though some games seem to be non-linear, they never give the feeling of non-linear. What I mean is that a mission can be laid out in a circle and is thus ostensible non-linear, but there's not much point if left and right both lead to the same experience regardless of what path you choose. So more vital even than non-linear is the goal of allowing the the player to carve out their individual playthrough through choice and exploration. I guess what marketing people would call player agency while never making an attempt to give the player any agency at all.

greenie2600 on 14/9/2015 at 00:08

Ah; didn't realize I was covering well-worn territory here. Sorry. I've just been mulling this over lately, and felt the urge to put pen to paper, so to speak. Thought it might stir up some interesting discussion.

I agree that modern games tend to be much more railroaded and scripted—although the degree of meaningful agency afforded to the player in Thief has never been common. 'Tis a shame; it makes a game so much more compelling when you feel like you are the author of the gameplay, rather than just walking down a path that's been pre-scripted by the developers. Open-world games like Skyrim offer a sort-of non-linear experience, but you never really feel like you're coming up with your own solutions to problems—you're simply choosing what order to tackle the challenges in.

Tannar on 14/9/2015 at 00:10

I agree with that too, Xorak, although for me, I'd be fine if they could get anywhere with no restrictions of any kind. I wouldn't try to control it at all. What do i care if the player goes out of bounds and breaks the mission in some way? Taffers know what they are doing, and they know the risks. Getting out there is fun, and having that much freedom is sometimes the epitome of non-linearity. If it means loading a previous save (or even starting over), so what? No one who is truly interested in getting everywhere is going to mind that. And I honestly can't see why an author should care.

Edit: No need to apologize, greenie2600. As I said, it never hurts to discuss this stuff occasionally.

nicked on 14/9/2015 at 05:59

I think there's a big difference between deliberately crafting a difficult-to-reach location that some players will enjoy trying to reach, and leaving in a route to get to some untextured skybox edge for no good reason. That said, the best way to solve the latter is simply to expand the level slightly to turn it into the former.

Overall, a solid list of points. Most of these could apply to game design in general, not just fan missions.

Tannar on 14/9/2015 at 06:42

Quote Posted by nicked

And if you did that, I'd enjoy getting to that location that you set up. And when that was done, I'd see if I could get to the untextured skybox edge again. And if you made the map even bigger and turned that into a legitimate location that was hard to reach, I'd enjoy getting there too. And then I'd try to reach the edge of the map again. And on, and on ... So what's the point?

I'm not being facetious, I'm genuinely interested in hearing why you think it matters, especially when many players (particularly Thief players) will try to climb out of the world. If we think that's fun, why would an author try to curtail that fun, especially since they aren't going to be successful, at least not without a ridiculous amount of extra work? I just don't get it.

FireMage on 14/9/2015 at 07:41

Quote Posted by greenie2600

Make sure the player can't reach areas that aren't meant to be reachable. Players will try to get onto every rooftop, ledge, and crate they can see—so your playtesters should, too. Being able to access unintended areas—or not being able to access areas that look like they should be accessible—breaks immersion, and can allow the player to circumvent the challenges you've so carefully designed.

This is the lonely thing I disagree! As Xorak and Tannar said, this is a thing that allow people to feel free.
Plus, it is nigh impossible to make something really unreachable! Why?
Because a Taffer will always be able to do what he wants to do! ^^

If he don't reach the forbidden place with a small edge or crates, he will do it with something else as a healing potion or things like this!
It can break the game if he reach a hidden switch for a scenaric scene or may escape a room or a trigger that may activate something important too. But it is at his own risk! Because in general, a mission will normally NEVER force you to use a crate to reach an area which is not supposed to be secret if there is nothing obvious to ask you to do that. ;) So if a taffer has climbed everywhere and has destroyed his game, it is his own fault! :cheeky: Not the author's one!

The lonely thing I hate is the tiny switch dictature. It is something used at many times, and some authors use them oftenly in a Tricksterious way to make their game nigh impossible to carry on! xD But this is something redundant in Thief's discussions too but I post it anyway because many new map-makers use them a lot!
Honnestly, I know it is quite normal because a switch is easy to put in game, moreover the tiny switch is already written down in the gamesystem and it is not easy to find it so for someone's first puzzle, it is something great! But I may warn that the simpliest mission are sometimes the best! ;)

Every one loves Bafford's Mansion! But there are no locked door, no special effects and no tiny switch! ;)