Aim & Objective
The
primary motivation to design a game like DungeoNeer was to take diametrically
opposing and seemingly incompatible design philosophies and themes, and
amalgamate them into a never before seen game with a strong narrative and
thematic core held up by unique and engaging game mechanics.
Here
the objective was to introduce stealth and more methodical gameplay approaches
and progression with deliberate planning into a conventionally action heavy and
frantic game genre. Thus, DungeoNeer was born.
On
the surface, Roguelite games, which are generally hectic and action focused
with fast paced, frantic gameplay seems incompatible with stealth based, slow
and methodical gameplay, with Engineering as an underlying theme. This is
precisely why these two conflicting game design ideas were chosen to be
coalesced into a harmonious Stealth Roguelite game.
As
a Game Designer, it is an intellectual exercise to make seemingly conflicting
design philosophies to work harmoniously. For this to happen, a novel and
robust game mechanic had to be fabricated that would hold the game together,
both from a thematic perspective and also act as a significant game mechanic
that is present all throughout the game.
Artistic and Design Influences
Rogue-Likes
have a steep learning curve and it breaks one of the fundamental Game Design
Rules (Adams, E., Rollings, A., 2006) by forcing the player to learn through
repeated dying. One of the most alluring factors of Rogue-Likes is the balance
between reward and punishment. Players feel more accomplished after overcoming
the difficulty by meticulously learning the enemy attack patterns,
understanding the various gameplay systems and how to maximize their
character’s efficiency against specific enemy types. Rogue-likes are more niche
than Rogue-lites as it doesn’t provide any way for meaningful progression. In
Rogue-likes the players retain no progress between each individual playthrough,
referred to as Runs within the genre. The only way the game gets ‘easier’ is by
the player actually becoming better at the game. On the other hand, Rogue-Lites
are generally considered easier and as lighter versions of the game Rogue,
which is an eponym to the genre itself. In Rogue-Lites, the player gets to
retain some form of resource or currency that can be used across runs to
upgrade the character, thus making every subsequent run a bit easier.
The
Equilibrium mechanic is an extension of this, its acts both as a logical means
of retaining progress and also has thematic significance linking it to Engineering
as a core ideology for the game.
Most
of the inspiration for the game mechanics was derived from actual Science and
Engineering itself. The challenges were in deciding how to implement real world
scientific and engineering concepts as interesting and enjoyable game
mechanics, since this is not an Engineering simulator; a careful balance had to
be maintained to make sure the gameplay isn’t too complicated or boring, by
being bogged down by complexity.
The
moment to moment gameplay is directly influenced by some of Arkane’s games such
as Dishonored and Prey. The very first time the spark for creating a game like
DungeoNeer emerged when the thought of removing all the over the top Sci-Fi abilities
and superpowers from the above mentioned games, came up.
Research
A
few in-game screenshots from Prey was a great starting point for the level
design, as it a great example of immersive sim with a semi open world
structure. It has multiple pathways to traverse around the game world and has an
incredible and tonally consistent art direction.
A
careful balance had to be struck while gamifying and implementing engineering
concepts as game mechanics in DungeoNeer, as it is not designed as a Simulator
game, but rather a stealth-action FPS.
Wilkinson
et al., (2018) provide description of how the realms are structured in the
Norse mythology, which helped understand how each of the game’s dungeon can be
influenced by the 9 realms. The whole game’s map and the individual dungeons
and the routes connecting them were designed based off of how the realms are
situated in relation to Yggdrasil, the cosmic Tree in the centre of Nordic
universe, hence the research facility was named after it. Cotterell (1996)
explains in great detail about the Norse gods and giants, their roles in the
Scandinavian world as well as their physical descriptions. A lot of influence
was taken from his book for the giant Mechatronic boss enemies in the game,
their names and abilities are similar to how these mythical creatures are
portrayed in the poetic Edda.
Krisciunas
(2022) in his interview with Dr. Mark R Johnson, discuss about why roguelikes
are a fan favourite genre and how the main stream games, games that are played
by the broader, casual audience, influence old-school, classic roguelike games.
Dr. Johnson talk about how the rouglike genre is quite niche even today and is
within its own self-contained bubble with hardcore fans. This was taken as a
design motivation to combine a more approachable game genre, action-stealth,
with borderline simulator like engineering concepts, which is an even more
niche genre and tying it all together with roguelike mechanics, creating an
Immersive sim.
Evolution of the Game Design
The
first spark for the game came while playing Dishonored and Prey, both of which
were immersive sim and action-stealth games where the player had an array of
different magical or borderline magical yet sci-fi abilities. So the initial
idea was to design an immersive sim with a diverse set of gameplay
opportunities that could be approached however the play chose to, but without any
supernatural powers for the player character. Thus DungeoNeer was born, where
the only thing the player can rely on is their own two hands and their
engineering skill.
Though
Rogue-Likes are a niche genre they are beloved by their fans for its steep
learning curve and difficulty. There are no stealth focused Rogue-like games in
the market today, for good reason, as designing an engaging stealth game with
Rogue-like elements is no small task, since these two design philosophies seem
to diametrically oppose each other. This juxtaposition and the challenges it
came with is what motivated the design of DungeoNeer.
The
very last thing to have been added to the design is the analogy between each of
the Dungeons and the 9 realms in Norse Mythology. Initially there was no
thematic or artistic connection to the Norse myths, but while researching and
looking for inspiration it was immediately clear that this connection was not
only necessary but also seamless. Since the game is set in the Scandinavian
region it was narratively easy to justify. This also provided a foundation for
each of the dungeon’s art direction and level design as it was tailored to fit
the myths in terms of how the atmosphere in each dungeon was, along with what
kind of enemies and hazards are more common in that dungeon.
Design Rationale
The
inclusion of Botsworth is probably one of the best design decisions for this
game. It works flawlessly both from a narrative standpoint and also supports
the gameplay. Botsworth is a very quirky and whimsical AI virtual assistant
which is juxtaposed to the brooding and steely eyed Engineer, this dynamic
provides a much needed comic relief to the game’s narrative and moment to
moment gameplay. In addition to this, the player can summon Botsworth via their
D.I.M scanner for context sensitive hints while playing, which is delivered in
a sarcastic tone. This was necessary from a gameplay perspective to teach the
numerous mechanics of the game to the players.
In
an interview Susan Kath (Green Man Gaming, 2017) takes about Prey’s style of
storytelling, which is a direct influence for DungeoNeer. The design rational
behind obscuring the story is to shroud the facility, its Inhabitants and all
the events in mystery for both the character in-game and for the player. This was
purposefully done to increase a sense of attachment to the Engineer, because
the player only knows what the Engineer knows and to uncover more and more of
the story and to understand what happened to the facility, the Engineer’s and
in extension the player’s role in all of this, the player has to explore and
discover hidden clues, documents and audio logs. With this information its upto
the player to make further decisions in the narrative arc. This information is
provided in neutral manner and every key character’s motivation and agenda can
be learnt through this. After all of this it’s the player’s decision to choose
one of the 32 possible endings, either with all the narrative information
acquired and processed by the player or by intuition. The player’s choose to
ignore the story entirely and be motivated by just escaping the facility. As a
mechanics heavy game, quite a few players tend to not care too much about the
narrative beats as long the gameplay is enjoyable and doesn’t get boring.
Hence, this was another reason to make the storytelling in DungeoNeer sublime
in nature and kind of optional. If players do choose to uncover the mysteries
of Yggrdrasil it’s like mini detective game trying to put the story together
with scattered and out of sequence documents and information.
Puzzle Designs
As
the game is built on the fundamentals of Engineering, the puzzle mini-games had
to be designed around actual engineering concepts. First one is lockpicking,
which is present in a lot of games; DungeoNeer introduces some complexity to
the existing lockpicking mechanics by adding a minimum pin requirement, wherein
the player needs ‘n’ number of picks to even attempt picking a level ‘n’ lock,
and magnetic lock pins.
There
had to be a puzzle fully dedicated to Computer science engineering, a lot of
design ideas had to be revised and eliminated over a period of 2 months until
the puzzle design was finalised. As CSE is an extremely vast subject, choosing
a specific area to start building a puzzle design was tricky and there were
also constraints from the gameplay and other aspects of design related to
player enjoyment and complexity. The first CSE puzzle was designed around
inserting a “Malware” node in a binary tree (GeeksforGeeks, 2022), where
players have to choose the right path and navigate the tree to deposit the node
at the right location. Second one is based on decrypting the password that is
encoded using Binary tree traversal directions, where players have to identify
which node the encrypted code is indexing to and solve it to reveal the
password.
Lastly,
there is the Electrical panel diagnosis and repair puzzle. One of the
interesting aspects of this is that the players have to perform the diagnosis
themselves, unlike other games where the game itself informs the player what is
wrong with the device and what has to be done, here there are visual indicators
that can be used to deduce what the issue could be and then the players can
proceed to rectify it.
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, as you don’t carry over
any progress from one run to another and due to the steep learning curve. Thus,
Rogue-lites came to be and players were able to retain some progress and 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.
There
was a real necessity for this game mechanic to exist, because in its absence
there would have been severe dissonance between the core ideology that this
game is built on vs. the Rogue-like game mechanics, the former being centred
around the perseverance of an Engineer’s mind-set and an innate ability for him
to do whatever was possible with what is given and to make gradual but
noticeable progress every time, where there’s no such thing as absolute
failure, but Rogue-likes are antithetical to this very ideology and are built
around the idea of resetting progress and stripping the player clean with every
failure.
Ideologically,
Engineering could be defined as doing the best you can at that point in space
and time, with whatever resource you have in hand. It’s not the ideal solution
but it’s an optimal one; given the resource and time constraints. This core
principle wherein the player would feel like they have done the best they could
with the tools they had and the knowledge they possessed, had to be implemented
both as an underlying theme for the whole game and also as a core game design
philosophy. That would mean letting the player retain the progress they made in
this run for the subsequent ones, but this abstract definition of Engineering
is diametrically opposed to the fundamental structure of Rogue-Like game
design. 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 induces change and
puts things out of order, such as- the player picking up resources and loot ,
unlocking or breaking 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, when it wasn’t fully developed and is
now barely holding on and hence CAINE can’t immediately recognise the
Engineer’s escape attempt. So, CAINE can reset the Research Facility (i.e.
Dungeons) and stop the Engineer from escaping only when it recognizes your
attempt in doing so, this point of recognition is the point at which maximum
chaos/change 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- 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 as they believe they have no chance 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, it’s 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 new which you were incapable of doing
the first time. Thus, the principle 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. As there are consequences to your actions, more
bombastic actions fills up the Equilibrium meter faster than stealthier and
more methodical approaches, this encourages players to engage in a calculated
manner to plan ahead while keeping the Equilibrium in check.
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.
Player Experience
and Managing Complexity
Since
the game has a lot of distinct and peculiar mechanics and rules, the D.I.M
Scanner along with the virtual AI assistant Botsworth were designed to teach
the player about the numerous tools and their functions, what can each tool
accomplish and what they can’t; this also ensures that players are not
discouraged and frustrated by the complexity of the game mechanics.
The
D.I.M Scanner can be used while having a tool /gadget equipped, the HUD will
display UI elements on the object in the game world i.e. whatever the player is
scanning describing the material composition and information explaining what
the object/device does, alongside this there will be icon depicting how
efficient the currently equipped tool or weapon is against that material or if
the tool is compatible with the functions required to accomplish the task.
For
example:
1.
If the player has the Axe equipped and is
using the D.I.M Scanner on a wooden barricade, then a ‘Broken Shield’ icon,
tinted green, appears around the crosshairs on the HUD informing the player
that the Axe can efficiently break the barricade. If the player had a hammer,
the same icon would appear but in orange, implying the hammer is only
moderately efficient against a wooden barricade.
2.
If the player
scans a Vent or Panel cover fastened by ‘Torx’ socket screws and the player has
a Torque Wrench with a ‘Hex’ bit attached, then the ‘Tool’ icon appears in
green and a ‘Torx screw’ icon in red, suggesting that the tool is compatible
but the bit type is wrong.
Conclusion
The
design process of coming up with the game mechanics and their implementation in
a Rogue-like game was challenging. There were no games to directly reference
and take notes from, DungeoNeer is one of a kind with regard to the mechanics
and their integration into an Immersive sim game. The process of deciding which
real world scientific and engineering concepts to choose and how to gamify it
was a long and arduous process with constant revisions through mental and paper
play testing.
Further
enhancements are always possible through some actual play testing. Rigorous
testing is needed to balance the resource economy of the Rogue-like games to
maintain a proper level of reward to challenge/difficulty ratio. Rogue-Like
games are mostly developed in a highly iterative manner, with constant feedback
and revisions to the game design. Usually these games are released in
Early-Access stages, wherein the players get their hands on a game that’s still
in development, this is very vital to the process as it gives invaluable data
about the synergy between the game mechanics and balancing. DungeoNeer could be
greatly improved by this method. New game mechanics, new tools and new
interactions can be introduced in future expansions, with addition of new
dungeons.