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Game Design Project : Entry 4- "Equilibrium" : A Genre Redefining Game Mechanic & its Thematic significance .

Similar to how Rogue-Lites were an evolution of Rogue-Likes, a game mechanic akin to ‘Equilibrium’ may become a genre redefining element and continue to be implemented in some form in Rogue-Lite games going forward. Today pure Rogue-Likes are non-existent, because by its very nature it’s a niche genre and is considered too difficult for the broader audience, since you don’t carry over any progress from one run to another. Thus, Rogue-lites came to be and players were able to retain some form of currency/resource between runs and hence every subsequent run became ever so slightly easier as you could upgrade and level your character up before venturing out for another run.

Personally, I would define Engineering as doing the best you can at that point in space and time, with whatever resource you have in hand. It’s not an ideal solution but it’s the optimal one within the resource and time constraints. So, I wanted to impart this ideology into the game, wherein the player would feel like they have done the best they can with the tools and knowledge they possess. That would mean letting the player retain the progress they made in this run for the subsequent ones, but this goes against the traditional definition of the Rogue-lites. Hence, ‘Equilibrium’ was conceptualized to bring, let’s say, some sort of equilibrium to this conundrum.

In ‘DungeoNeer’, Equilibrium is a measure of how much chaos the player has caused in the game world. Here Chaos is defined as anything that creates change and puts things out of order, such as- resources and loot the player picks up, unlocking or breaking locked doors, getting spotted by bots and killing enemies increases chaos as the world once recognised by CAINE is now not the same. From a narrative stand point this starts to make sense as CAINE is an AI that was almost destroyed due to the Deafening. So, CAINE can reset the Labs (Dungeons), only when it recognizes your escape attempt, so this point of recognition is the point at which maximum chaos is induced into the game world and the equilibrium is fully off balance.The Dungeons reset only when the equilibrium reaches maximum destabilisation not upon each death, unlike other Rogue-Lites.

So, this game mechanic in essence accomplishes 2 things :

1. It doesn’t discourage players into throwing runs. Let me explain, in Rogue-Lites where every piece of equipment and weapon is obtained randomly, players are dejected when they don’t get the best possible weapons and upgrades for their build, so they might start playing recklessly and they believe they have no chances of beating the game on that run with the build they got. This is antithetical to the core theme that this game is built on. As an Engineer, its in your very nature to be resourceful and do what you can regardless of how dire the circumstances are. So, every time you start a run, regardless of what tools, equipment and weapon you are given you will be able to make meaningful progress towards something in the game and in the next run, when you are given a different loadout, you will be able to do something else which you were incapable of the first time. Thus, the primary ideology of Engineering is established through this game mechanic.

2. It introduces strategic thinking, as players will have to plan not just for their current run but also for future ones and have to be cognizant of what they choose to do and how. Found a ladder make sure you leave it in across the chasm so you can walk over it the next time instead of finding an alternate route, stash resources in a place you can get to, so you can craft that remote C4 the next run, spend fuel to power up generators so the doors remain open for the next time you want to waltz in, much easier than trying to sneak past crazy doctors and automatic turrets. 

So, each of these feeds into the other, thus reinforcing both of them, (a core thematic principle and a game design mechanic), just like a system in Equilibrium. 

 

 



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