The solution to this is to add factions like the bandits shown above. These guys represent groups that think you’re the weak link. Their hostility counter grows each turn whether you attack them or not, causing them to attack every so often.

I also fixed up the resource code, so now it’s possible to gather wood, stone, gold, gems, food, and corpses. I also added wooden walls and fixed the costs of the structures that I have so far.

In short you can build your kingdom, but you still have no chance of survival.

So that’s the next step. I think the main thing is adding the weapons and inventories. Once ranged weapons are added to the game it will be a lot easier to defend yourself. I want to do weapons in a really solid, data-driven way, so it can handle melee weapons, ranged weapons, and spells. Also it needs to be moddable so people can add in new stuff.

One more thing I did this week was change the way the water tile looks, which makes me incredibly happy for reasons unknown.

When games allow players to make choices, each choice must provide distinct gameplay options for the player.

Let’s explore some ways choices can effect the gameplay experience.

Choices can let players navigate multiple content paths

If players can choose between level A and level B, they are more likely to replay the game to see the option they skipped. Also, by varying the difficulty of the two levels, frustration can be avoided if players get stuck on one of the paths.

Choices can impact story

Interactive storytelling is a thorny subject. While games can provide multiple paths of story progression for the player, they often do this in a way that seems like a facade. Sometimes only cut-scenes are modified. I contend that this is not enough. All gameplay choices should effect the gameplay itself. Here’s an example from Dragon Age:

If you choose to start the game as a mage, you play as a wizard who has just completed his training. One of your friends, Jowan, is not so lucky and tells you that the wizard circle is going to make him Tranquil (basically turn him into a robot). He’s planning an escape, but needs your help to destroy a sample of his blood held in the tower phylactery so that the wizards will not be able to track him down.

At this point you have a choice: You can either help him out or reveal his plan to the chief enchanter. I (being a trusting person) decided to help him out. This leads to a dungeon crawl. After destroying his blood sample, Jowan and the player are caught by the authorities. Jowan reveals that he is actually a blood mage (an outlawed form of magic). The player gets chewed out and then sent to join the gray wardens.

Dragon Age: Origins

My brother (being a duplicitous tattle-tale) told the chief enchanter about Jowan’s plan. The result: he had to accompany Jowan through the dungeon, to keep watch over him. Even the cut-scene afterwards was basically the same! He still got chewed out, but the chief enchanter eventually stood up for him.

My point is: while seeming to give the player a choice in Dragon Age, this choice is utterly hollow. A more impacting option would be to make the player confront Jowan directly.

Choices can offer different risk/reward balances

Allowing players to choose different paths with known different risk/reward profiles allows divergent strategies to be pursued by the player.

One game that gets this right is Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. In Dungeon Crawl the player must explore different dungeon branches to either collect runes that allow the player to pursue the Orb of Zot, the game’s MacGuffin, or get various rewards that make life easier for the player.

Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup

Finding the right order for going through the branches allows the player to formulate a dungeon descent strategy, and also make tactical decisions based on the rewards the player has found so far. For example if the player has no poison resistance the difficulty of the swamp, a branch that contains the first rune most players go for, is increased. This may lead players to first attempt to battle through the orcish mines, a somewhat difficult area, in order to seek out some source of poison resistance.

There are probably more methods in which choices can be made meaningful in games. Can you think of any? Next time I’ll be exploring why the outcomes of choices should be obvious.

Allowing players to make choices when playing video games adds to replayability and player involvement. However, the ways that game designers implement choices range in quality. In some games choices are shallow, unimportant, and ultimately boring or distracting. In others choices are character (or player) defining, captivating, and rewarding. I’ve been thinking about three rules that make choices in video games crunchy and delicious.

In AI War, player choices are incredibly important at the strategic level.

The Rules

The following are three non-exclusive rules of including awesome choices in videogames

1. Choices must be meaningful
2. Outcomes must be obvious
3. Wrong options must be prohibited

I will explore these rules over the next few entries.

Do any of you feel I’m missing any key rules? Am I wrong?

Your homework for this post is to play AI War by Arcen Games.