I'm Declaring War On Tedium
Over the course of the last year I have gone and devoured every beat-em-up I could get my compulsive hands on. It's been a lot fun because I love these games to death, but it's also been very frustrating because oftentimes I am required to perform very trivial tasks in order to progress. I realize this problem extends deep into many other genres as well, but it's particularly sticky with modern beat-em-ups because the features and mechanics that have been stacked on top of them to make them more appealing and engaging are inherently tedious.
The worst offender of these modern mechanisms is story, and the cutscenes that so frequently accompany them. Designers have taken the perfectly scant stories of the old arcade action games and erroneously assumed that the player needs a plotline and cutscenes and dialogue to stay engaged inside an action game environment. This simply isn't true, all the player needs is a motivating concept, i.e. save your girlfriend or clean up the streets. None of these require intricate explanations or drawn out custscenes, they just need to be openly stated. It is very important to note that I am addressing beat-em-up gamers here. If you were to kill the story and the cutscenes in a Final Fantasy game, you would alienate the people who play those games and consider those features to be core components of the experience. But no one has ever picked up a great beat-em-up with great gameplay and said "I don't want to play this great beat-em-up because there just isn't enough story." And while we're talking about it, let me just say this; I simply cannot excuse the hugely offensive decision that many designers have made to not let the player skip a custscene.
Feature unlocking is another huge distributor of tedium in action games and it must die immediately. It makes plenty of sense in other types of games for other types of players who are motivated by Pavlovian reward structures and love to see new things come into their possession at regular intervals. But again, the typical action gamer is playing your beat-em-up in the first place because they want to experience the sensation and thrill of combat. Anything and everything that is put behind a locked door in a game of this nature is something the player could have been given right from the start to increase their overall enjoyment of the game. I'm assuming the popular logic here is that you want the player to be motivated to complete your game or to perform certain tasks, and that unlockables act as a carrot in front of their face. This simply isn't true, all the player needs is a fun game. No one has ever picked up a great beat-em-up with great gameplay and said "I don't want to play this great beat-em-up because there just isn't enough things to unlock. There's too many features and mechanics available to me right from the start and I'm overwhelmed with fun!" And while we're talking about it, let me just say this; I simply cannot excuse the hugely offensive decision that many designers have made to make me unlock amazing weapons and gameplay modes for absolutely no reason.
Game structure is a much more subtle problem but no less important, both in and out of the main gameplay mode. There are just too many places in a typical game where the player must sit through something that takes way too long to play itself out. Why must the player sit through a bunch of logo/loading screens and then push a bunch of buttons and watch some irrelevant cutscenes to start playing the really fun game? Why does the player have to complete arbitrary chores over and over again? Why is this vehicle segment or quick-time-event so lengthy? There are too many times that the game puts the player in this awkward position where they are up against a tedium stack and that's when players stop playing. Quit doing this to the people trying to enjoy your game! No one has ever picked up a great beat-em-up with great gameplay and said "I don't want to play this great beat-em-up because there's just not enough time in between the fun parts of this great gameplay." And while we're talking about it, let me just say this; I simply cannot excuse the hugely offensive decision that many designers have made to make me run through an entire section of level just to make another attempt to defeat a monotonous boss.
I intend to circumvent these problems entirely with Aztez. The player is not going to have to sit through anything they don't want to. Anything that can be turned off or shortened CAN be if the player chooses. If a mechanic makes the game more fun, it will be available from the start. The goal here is to eliminate all of those moments where the player just wants to get back to having fun.
Challenge Vs. Punishment
One of the fundamental components of an engaging game (card, board, electronic, party, etc.) is that there is some degree of difficulty between starting the game and arriving at the success state, whatever that may be. While this can be applied to games of all lengths and depths, the bottom line is that a player that goes unchallenged for too long is going to get bored. It's one of the amazing properties we possess as living creatures; we need to go face to face with our environment in SOME way or else we start feeling numb.
The geniuses that developed the first arcade games realized that tapping into this evolutionary compulsion was the perfect business model. They realized that by engaging players hard enough with a game they must pay to play, then they will happily pay to play...over and over again. This is why coin-operated games were often times so difficult yet so successful; they managed to find the sweet spot between compelling and punishing. The problem here is that a lot of us game designers who grew up playing those games still think that challenge must be appropriated in those archaic ways. But times have changed. Different kinds people are playing different kinds of games and expectations have mutated, for better or worse.
Now I want to talk about Super Meat Boy for a quick second. Edmund McMillen (one of the two developers of the game) wrote an awesome post on the Team Meat blog about challenge in games and he broke it down into a really straightforward formula; (% chance the player will die) x (Penalty for dying) = Difficulty. This formula is basically addressing the player concern of "How often will I fail and how much and I going to be punished for it?" Super Meat Boy answers this question in a very distinct way - you die very often and are punished very little. This was a conscious decision on the part of Team Meat and they have specifically constructed all of their levels around this equation.
So what does this have to do with Aztez? It has to do with the fact that we are also going to answer this question in a very distinct way; by making it very difficult to die in addition to punishing you very little when you do. Of course this seems to introduce the problem of having too little challenge, and I absolutely agree that the danger is there. So my perceived solution to this potential problem is to alter the nature of the challenge itself and design accordingly. Instead of challenging the player to not die, Aztez will challenge the player to perform very well (phase 1 of the game). Games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Off-Road Velociraptor Safari have done this to great effect; the onus is on the player to accumulate high scores in creative ways as opposed to avoiding a death state. The only problem with those types of games is they are timed and you are restricted to experiencing the game in specific difficulty levels in specific amounts of time. I believe there is a way to circumvent these traditional restrictions and still create an engaging game.
How are we going to do this? Don't know yet! But I'll tell you this much - I'm asking the following questions: What if the player had control over the difficulty of the game on a moment-to-moment basis? What if the player could end the current gameplay segment whenever they wanted? What if the player was rewarded for taking creative risks by having their punishment states delayed, or even eliminated? Help me out here, gamers! 
Introducing: The Priest
The Aztec Priests had a special place in Aztec society as the individuals who interfaced directly with the gods through the act of sacrifice. Men became priests after demonstrating great piety in addition to their combat prowess. The raddest part of the Aztec priests were that they continued to do battle and accompanied the warriors in ritual combat.
We will be using priests as our opportunity to experiment with fun magical effects. The idea here is that they have special powers granted to them by the gods. The appearance of a priest means it's time to get tricky as you'll no longer be dealing with simple weapon attacks.
Introducing: The Eagle Warrior
The other legendary warrior society one could enter upon successfully taking 4 captives was based on the mystical and divine eagle. The eagle had a very important place in Aztec society as both a majestic flying creature and as a herald of a new age; the ancient Mexica were told by their patron deities to build Tenochtitlan where they saw an eagle devouring a serpent atop a cactus. Truthfully, we do not know how the Eagle warriors differed functionally from the Jaguar warriors, but we know they were equally prestigious and most likely represented a tactical identity. The Eagle warrior was as glorified as the Jaguars and were just as frightening to behold to the common warrior.
The Eagle warriors will fulfill the same need as the Jaguar warriors do in terms of distinction, but will be slightly different threats. The carry different weapons and will fight a little differently from each other, but they will present a similar challenge and both will be far more rewarding to destroy then common and noble warriors.
Introducing: The Jaguar Warrior
When an Aztec noble warrior stepped his game up and took 4 captives, he was then inducted into one of two very special warrior societies. One of these two societies was based on the fierce and powerful jaguar, a highly revered and respected beast (I'll tell you about the other society real soon). Jaguar warriors were some of the most famous warriors in all of Aztec culture; they are celebrated countless times in art and in story and they maintained an inspiring position on and off the battlefield.
When these guys appear things will start to get serious. We will be using these decorated warriors to indicate stiffer competition, which is a classic trick typically done with palette swaps. The idea here is to be able to look at an enemy (in spite of the aesthetic similarity they all bear) and know what you're up against, which is essentially what the Aztecs did with their warriors as a way to trumpet the caliber of their military might.
Introducing: The Noble
Once a young combatant has taken his first captive and proven himself worthy of the warrior life path, he is inducted into the ranks of the noble class. He now has access to higher education, specialized war training, and will have front line position in the ritualized warfare the Aztecs practiced amongst themselves. It is at this point in the life of a budding career warrior that he will begin to form a battle identity and as his exploits increase, so will his formal decoration.
If this guy looks familiar it's because you've seen him in the concept art and in the technical demos. That's right; this is what you'll look like as you start out in the world of Aztez. Just like the noble warrior creates an identity for himself as he continues to fight, so shall you...I'll tell you how later.
Introducing: The Common Warrior
After demonstrating his resolve on the battlefield by serving as a porter, the young man was given a weapon and a shield and charged with one singular task; taking an enemy captive. At this point he has had a good amount of formal training and fully understands the importance of his role as a warrior, as is now intensely focused on bringing in that first captive and becoming a man. This is where it all began for the career warrior; if he proved himself here he would formally advance into a life of nobility.
Let's be perfectly honest here; this is about as green as it gets for a man who was allowed to carry a weapon. These were young men with something to prove and this was their undoing as often as it was their success. In the context of the game, they're the perfect meat to grind; unremarkable, plentiful, and vivacious. There is some value in playing with your food and I intend to make that point with these characters. 
Aztez On Facebook
Just in case Facebook is your preferred contact point for the games you can't stop thinking about, go ahead and take advantage of our Aztez page on Facebook! We've added a button on the sidebar at the top (you can't miss it, it's the only blue object on the site) so you can jump to it from here with the swiftness of a thousand peregrine falcons.
Introducing: The Porter
When a young man makes his decision to pursue the path of the warrior, he must first prove that he can keep his wits about him in an actual battle by serving as a porter. The porter was responsible for carrying weapons of war around to wherever they were needed and making sure that the warrior ranks stayed supplied. Mobility was his weapon and the importance of his position was undeniable.
It's hard to say at this point how often you'll see this character during gameplay, but know this; his appearance will mean great things for those swift and brutal enough to get to him before he fulfills his responsibilities and disappears...
Introducing: The Commoner
The common man of Tenochtitlan, while most likely born into the lower class, would still learn to farm, be trained in the ways of good citizenship, and be introduced to warfare at a school built specifically for the lower classes. Around the age of 15, he could either continue his education and learn to be an administrator, civic worker, or even a priest (if they were pious enough), or they could attend military school and begin their life as a warrior.
Most of the time you see this character in the game he will be in the background, making the environments feel alive with their animated presence. But what about the rest of the time? Well sometimes these guys stumble onto a battlefield, and the fact of that matter is that they have as much blood to offer as anyone else...
Aztez is being made by Ben Ruiz and Matthew Wegner. Unsurprisingly, they are both incredibly violent.
Categories
- Content (19)
- Development (2)
- Fun (20)
- News (5)