Friday, December 04, 2009
Game Design: Seven Ways to Make Mazes Suck Less
Maze (n): A confusing intricate network of passages.
The maze is a popular old-school gaming standard. It's a gameplay device that sounds awesome on paper, especially for adventures and RPGs. It's a navigational challenge, requiring problem-solving and memory skills. It's alternative gameplay to supplement existing mechanics, and most importantly it is EASY to implement! What's not to like?
The first maze appearance in a video game that I'm familiar with was in the original Colossal Cave Adventure by Will Crowther and Don Woods. There were two mazes: the little twisty maze of passages all alike were created by Crowther, and Woods created the maze where all the passages were different. It was then, in the 1970s, that players first began experiencing the joy of mazes in computer games. And I believe it was then, in the 1970s, that players discovered the truth about mazes in computer games:
Mazes suck.
I don't know if I ever actually recall anybody talking about how FUN the maze was in a video game. On the other hand, I have heard several people trash mazes as their least favorite element of some games. Sure, they sound good on paper. But I think the key word in the definition above is "confusing." Being confused isn't all that fun, in general. Mazes - especially with a mouse-eye, first-person view - are confusing by nature and pretty dang un-fun.
However, emerging from temporary confusion is a lot of fun. Actually solving the maze, like solving any challenging puzzle, feels terrific. The threat of getting lost and confused is kinda fun too. Just as the threat of permadeath in many roguelikes is part of what makes them fun. But in both cases, it is a Sword of Damocles situation. It's the threat, not the event, that's fun. The tease of danger of becoming hopelessly lost adds a certain intellectual thrill. We're going in, and don't know how we're going to escape. That's fun.
But when the threat is fulfilled, and the player really does feel lost? Not so much fun.
Is it possible to capture the two "fun" aspects of mazes - the thrill of the risk of becoming lost, and the satisfaction of solving the intellectual puzzle offered by mazes - while mitigating the actual problems of becoming lost? And when you do that, does the maze lose it's "maze-ness?" Does it at that point become just a... map?
I've been pondering this working on Frayed Knights, as I was working on on the minotaur's lair a couple of weeks ago. Minotaurs, based on tradition as old as ancient Greece (back when there was just ONE Minotaur!), lair inside of mazes. But mazes... uh, suck. So what is a poor game designer to do?
While some of these ideas came too late for me to feed into my minotaur maze design, I had a few thoughts on how to at least improve things. If a game, for whatever reason, must include a maze-like sequence, here are some basic rules-of-thumb to make mazes and maze-like areas suck less:
1. The idea is to tease the player with the possibility of getting lost. Something that looks like a maze, acts like a maze, and threatens to be a maze will function just as well.And here's a bonus eighth tip:
2. Mazes should be small. A big maze could be made up of some easy-to-recognize landmark areas connecting smaller mazes and still feel like a big maze.
3. The maze itself - traveling from point A to point B - should almost never be used as the principle gameplay element in any part of the game. Trying to challenge the player by a maze alone leads to hopelessly convoluted mazes. Instead, designers should use simpler mazes to supplement some other game mechanic.
4. If possible, it should be easier to escape the maze than to solve it. Having an easy exit / reset button is a Good Thing (found in a Tales of Monkey Island episode).
5. Adding a vertical element to a maze can make it feel FAR more confusing and complex than it really is. If used carefully, it can add to the fun and challenging puzzle-solving aspect without adding to the bad "I'm totally lost, this game sucks!" aspect very much.
6. A first-person perspective makes any maze ten harder (statistic pulled out of thin air). Any other form of limited visibility preventing the player from seeing the entire maze at once will also make it more difficult.
7. Once the player has solved the maze, avoid requiring her to "re-solve" or backtrack through the maze again. Have shortcuts or bypasses unlock for key locations once they have been discovered.
* Any map can become a "maze" in the worst way very easily if not carefully designed. A good map should contain plenty of landmarks, avoid excessive repetition of similar geometry, and never let the player stray too far from "focal points" to guide progress. In other words, they should be kept tight, clear, and distinctive. (RPG Maker users, take note!)And yes, I keep learning that last one the hard way. But I keep finding other indie game designers doing the same thing.
Bottom Line: Mazes, in general, still suck. But I believe that, used carefully, maze-like game mechanics can still be salvaged to make fun games.
Labels: Game Design
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:22 AM (Permalink)
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As with most areas of game design, you need to figure out what your design goal is and see if the element fits. This includes mazes.
What should the maze accomplish? I think the "being confused is never fun" rule is a red herring because being able to overcome the confusion can be fun, especially if the player had to use a bit of cleverness. For example, being able to drop breadcrumbs in a maze to navigate it is neat; but your game needs to support that type of feature.
I think maze fail when designers try to intentionally frustrate the players: too many invisible teleports, instant death traps you can't easily anticipate, etc. All these things can be really frustrating to a player. Not to say that every maze has to be boring, though. It's worse to bore players than to confuse them for an extended period.
Sounds like you figured out some of the design aspects that worked well for your game and are using them. That's exactly what a game designer should do. But, I'm always wary of the "one size fits all" philosophy.
What should the maze accomplish? I think the "being confused is never fun" rule is a red herring because being able to overcome the confusion can be fun, especially if the player had to use a bit of cleverness. For example, being able to drop breadcrumbs in a maze to navigate it is neat; but your game needs to support that type of feature.
I think maze fail when designers try to intentionally frustrate the players: too many invisible teleports, instant death traps you can't easily anticipate, etc. All these things can be really frustrating to a player. Not to say that every maze has to be boring, though. It's worse to bore players than to confuse them for an extended period.
Sounds like you figured out some of the design aspects that worked well for your game and are using them. That's exactly what a game designer should do. But, I'm always wary of the "one size fits all" philosophy.
Mazes do suck. But a narrow path little to no exploration (Dungeon Siege) sucks even more. I think the trick is to make the player think they are great navigators through a bit of openess, while vaguely keeping them on the straight and narrow. Sacred comes to mind, and it has a lot of landmarks like you were talking about that really help.
For example, being able to drop breadcrumbs in a maze to navigate it is neat; but your game needs to support that type of feature.
Dropping object in mazes in text adventures in order to navigate them was fun approximately *once*. Soon it was met with a sigh, and then a groan, and then a playerbase developed who would quit the game if asked to do one of those darned mazes.
Of course, this is partly because the traditional text adventure "unmappable maze" required that you go through and test every single exit and draw a complex diagram in order to navigate it. So even when you have the trick, it's not much fun.
Dropping object in mazes in text adventures in order to navigate them was fun approximately *once*. Soon it was met with a sigh, and then a groan, and then a playerbase developed who would quit the game if asked to do one of those darned mazes.
Of course, this is partly because the traditional text adventure "unmappable maze" required that you go through and test every single exit and draw a complex diagram in order to navigate it. So even when you have the trick, it's not much fun.
hrmm. not sure I know what to say about this. One of my favorite games (Ultima Underworld) was all one huge maze, but it of course gave you an automap (which in my opinion is a cheezy way to nullify a carefully designed maze).
I think mazes are an RPG artifice - created when pen and paper or poor graphics made it difficult to make corridors look different. People are actually pretty good at navigating maze like settings by selecting landmarks. Only in situations purposely created to have no landmarks are mazes difficult. So here is to hoping that graphics and game design are to the point where we can offer rpg-ers nice, complex caves and dungeons that are so unique it is impossible to get lost.
I think mazes are an RPG artifice - created when pen and paper or poor graphics made it difficult to make corridors look different. People are actually pretty good at navigating maze like settings by selecting landmarks. Only in situations purposely created to have no landmarks are mazes difficult. So here is to hoping that graphics and game design are to the point where we can offer rpg-ers nice, complex caves and dungeons that are so unique it is impossible to get lost.
# posted by 
: December 04, 2009 10:38 PM
: December 04, 2009 10:38 PM
You know, I actually liked mazes back when I had to draw my own map on graph paper. Of course, the whole game was something of a maze back then, but I also enjoyed puzzling out the real mazes - the dungeons with invisible teleports and spinners (NOT instant death traps). Of course, that would get old fairly quickly, but a small maze could be fun.
With automaps,... I just don't know. I wouldn't want to play a game without them, not these days. And how can you get "confused" with an automap? But it kind of removes the whole point of having a maze, doesn't it?
Hmm,... how about a maze which the player is supposed to avoid? I wonder how that would work? Suppose you included a small, but difficult maze, set outdoors with stone walls, but the player would discover he could simply climb up and walk across on the top of the walls? Well, something like that, anyway.
Of course, then what would be the point of working on a maze that no one would ever use? I don't know. A REAL maze would need to be fun - tense, but not frustrating - small,... and humorous, perhaps?
With automaps,... I just don't know. I wouldn't want to play a game without them, not these days. And how can you get "confused" with an automap? But it kind of removes the whole point of having a maze, doesn't it?
Hmm,... how about a maze which the player is supposed to avoid? I wonder how that would work? Suppose you included a small, but difficult maze, set outdoors with stone walls, but the player would discover he could simply climb up and walk across on the top of the walls? Well, something like that, anyway.
Of course, then what would be the point of working on a maze that no one would ever use? I don't know. A REAL maze would need to be fun - tense, but not frustrating - small,... and humorous, perhaps?
Of course, then what would be the point of working on a maze that no one would ever use?
If carefully written and clued in a way that the player doesn't realise at first that the maze is avoidable but then inside the maze discovers it can be bypassed, there can be a very happy moment of "Cool!" when you escape the evil evil maze.
For masochistic completists, you could drop some extra non-essential loot in the maze or award them some meaningless status for being determined enough to go through the maze anyway.
If carefully written and clued in a way that the player doesn't realise at first that the maze is avoidable but then inside the maze discovers it can be bypassed, there can be a very happy moment of "Cool!" when you escape the evil evil maze.
For masochistic completists, you could drop some extra non-essential loot in the maze or award them some meaningless status for being determined enough to go through the maze anyway.
Suggesting even more dumbed down consolized stuff instead of suggesting elements that can tie your ability to find the right direction to stats, or the player using his or her head, or both... Oh, Daggerfall, where art thou? :(
Unless you have played Daggerfall, you have no place among the living, complaining about mazes. And if you have played Daggerfall, you still have no place among the living complaining about mazes. Daggerfall is about the only game that has mazes for mazes. Mazes in Daggerfall are art. Extreme repetitiveness through the whole game notwithstanding, as a completely different matter.
The only semi-valid point I can see in that rant is only valid depending on the circumstances:
"7. Once the player has solved the maze, avoid requiring her to "re-solve" or backtrack through the maze again. Have shortcuts or bypasses unlock for key locations once they have been discovered."
Some games have done this and unless the game in question has something particular against this, this is a valid point.
Unless you have played Daggerfall, you have no place among the living, complaining about mazes. And if you have played Daggerfall, you still have no place among the living complaining about mazes. Daggerfall is about the only game that has mazes for mazes. Mazes in Daggerfall are art. Extreme repetitiveness through the whole game notwithstanding, as a completely different matter.
The only semi-valid point I can see in that rant is only valid depending on the circumstances:
"7. Once the player has solved the maze, avoid requiring her to "re-solve" or backtrack through the maze again. Have shortcuts or bypasses unlock for key locations once they have been discovered."
Some games have done this and unless the game in question has something particular against this, this is a valid point.
# posted by : December 06, 2009 6:33 AM
: December 06, 2009 6:33 AM
I was one of the (apparently few) people who actually played Daggerfall to the "end." And a little bit further - though I never have been able to enjoy playing an Elder Scrolls game for more than a few hours past the ending.
And I admittedly had one of my best gaming moments escaping being trapped in a maze-like dungeon. But again, it was more about the satisfaction of escaping than the two hours of wandering around frantically, wondering if I'd make it without having to re-load a saved game.
But I still stick to my points on mazes. I think, as typically implemented, they are mroe annoying than fun.
And I admittedly had one of my best gaming moments escaping being trapped in a maze-like dungeon. But again, it was more about the satisfaction of escaping than the two hours of wandering around frantically, wondering if I'd make it without having to re-load a saved game.
But I still stick to my points on mazes. I think, as typically implemented, they are mroe annoying than fun.
Seems like you answered your own tips there...mazes apparently aren't fun. According to your thesis on mazes, the impression I get is that any thing hard isn't fun. And we should avoid anything not fun at all cost.
So, guess you just taught us to avoid mazes entirely. Such a fine line between the two "funs", seems easier just to avoid the whole thing and just give the loot and the princess to the hero after he creates his/her character and names it...
Yes...I was kinda being sarcastic, my bad.
cl
So, guess you just taught us to avoid mazes entirely. Such a fine line between the two "funs", seems easier just to avoid the whole thing and just give the loot and the princess to the hero after he creates his/her character and names it...
Yes...I was kinda being sarcastic, my bad.
cl
Suggesting even more dumbed down consolized stuff instead of suggesting elements that can tie your ability to find the right direction to stats, or the player using his or her head, or both...
I have to admit, I really like the idea of tying this to stats or skills. Then again, I always want more skills - non-combat skills that are actually useful in a game.
Incidentally - totally off-topic - did anyone see this article about how it's better for games to be sexy than worthy?
http://tinyurl.com/ygce2vg
Just thought there were some interesting points there - especially remembering some games that just blew me away with their novelty (and I tend to be one of those "retro" gamers he sneers about).
I have to admit, I really like the idea of tying this to stats or skills. Then again, I always want more skills - non-combat skills that are actually useful in a game.
Incidentally - totally off-topic - did anyone see this article about how it's better for games to be sexy than worthy?
http://tinyurl.com/ygce2vg
Just thought there were some interesting points there - especially remembering some games that just blew me away with their novelty (and I tend to be one of those "retro" gamers he sneers about).
Well, that's kinda the opposite of the point I was shooting for, but I'll bite.
The real point here isn't the difficulty. It's the fact that mazes frequently serve the role of "filler." They aren't quality challenges or entertainment. They very quickly devolve into *tedium* that serves principally to string out the game by slowing travel from point A to point B. This is poor game design, IMO.
But what I'm really trying to do here is extract the fun aspects of mazes out from the parts that are simply tedious.
The real point here isn't the difficulty. It's the fact that mazes frequently serve the role of "filler." They aren't quality challenges or entertainment. They very quickly devolve into *tedium* that serves principally to string out the game by slowing travel from point A to point B. This is poor game design, IMO.
But what I'm really trying to do here is extract the fun aspects of mazes out from the parts that are simply tedious.
@Psychochild - Yes, you are right, and I shouldn't necessarily paint this as a "one size fits all" solution. And a lot of it is based on player preference as well. The threshold between "amusing" and "annoying" varies from player to player (and can vary from day-to-day for any player). But if boring a player is a cardinal sin, then I'd rather err on the other side.
But what I'm really trying to do here is extract the fun aspects of mazes out from the parts that are simply tedious.
I understood that, though my answer could have been clearer. I was trying to identify the aspects of mazes I used to enjoy, since we must know which parts are fun before we can extract them.
As I noted, I'm one of those weird people who love maps, and I used to enjoy making my own on graph paper. Teleporters and spinners, I guess, gave me a pattern-recognition challenge - not exactly a puzzle, because I usually dislike puzzles (at least, the typical adventure game kind of puzzle), but a bit of a challenge, nonetheless.
But as I noted, I wouldn't want to do that today. Graphing out dungeons was fun years ago, but that time is gone. So is there anything about a maze which WOULD be fun? (I agree that it's often just a filler, a way to slow down the game - like so many other features of RPGs. And regular reloading after dying in a trap is NOT fun.)
Well, I love exploration, and I love finding loot (for me, loot is part of the whole experience of wondrous discovery). If there were some rational explanation for a maze, I'd have no problem with it. As Brian noted, any player would feel good about demonstrating his cleverness with "breadcrumbs," wouldn't he?
I mentioned finding a way to avoid the maze, but yes, I am one of those "masochistic completists" who wants to explore every possible location in a game. So instead, it might be better if you could cleverly defeat the maze (in part, through marking your path) while still going through it.
If there were relatively easy ways to avoid the frustration (and the traps), while making the player think that he was brilliant for thinking of them, that might make a maze fun. That's especially the case if they were rational. I mean, what WOULD you do when faced with a maze? Obviously, you'd mark your trail, and you'd try to identify traps.
Hmm,... you know, if a maze were used to hide treasure, the owners of the treasure would regularly need to get there safely. So the only traffic would be on the direct path to treasure. So maybe your characters could just noticing the undisturbed dust in the trapped passages,... or follow the smoke stains from countless torches over the years on the correct path.
It's a comic RPG, right? So maybe after years of use, the correct path might be obvious (or, at least, obvious to skilled trackers). You could then put hilarious death traps in the side passages, just for those players who'd want to see what would happen.
I must admit, I'll often save a game and do the wrong thing, just to see what the game developer will do to my character. You might get players deliberately setting off the traps in the maze, just to get a laugh (while players who weren't interested in that would have a clear path through it). Just a thought.
I understood that, though my answer could have been clearer. I was trying to identify the aspects of mazes I used to enjoy, since we must know which parts are fun before we can extract them.
As I noted, I'm one of those weird people who love maps, and I used to enjoy making my own on graph paper. Teleporters and spinners, I guess, gave me a pattern-recognition challenge - not exactly a puzzle, because I usually dislike puzzles (at least, the typical adventure game kind of puzzle), but a bit of a challenge, nonetheless.
But as I noted, I wouldn't want to do that today. Graphing out dungeons was fun years ago, but that time is gone. So is there anything about a maze which WOULD be fun? (I agree that it's often just a filler, a way to slow down the game - like so many other features of RPGs. And regular reloading after dying in a trap is NOT fun.)
Well, I love exploration, and I love finding loot (for me, loot is part of the whole experience of wondrous discovery). If there were some rational explanation for a maze, I'd have no problem with it. As Brian noted, any player would feel good about demonstrating his cleverness with "breadcrumbs," wouldn't he?
I mentioned finding a way to avoid the maze, but yes, I am one of those "masochistic completists" who wants to explore every possible location in a game. So instead, it might be better if you could cleverly defeat the maze (in part, through marking your path) while still going through it.
If there were relatively easy ways to avoid the frustration (and the traps), while making the player think that he was brilliant for thinking of them, that might make a maze fun. That's especially the case if they were rational. I mean, what WOULD you do when faced with a maze? Obviously, you'd mark your trail, and you'd try to identify traps.
Hmm,... you know, if a maze were used to hide treasure, the owners of the treasure would regularly need to get there safely. So the only traffic would be on the direct path to treasure. So maybe your characters could just noticing the undisturbed dust in the trapped passages,... or follow the smoke stains from countless torches over the years on the correct path.
It's a comic RPG, right? So maybe after years of use, the correct path might be obvious (or, at least, obvious to skilled trackers). You could then put hilarious death traps in the side passages, just for those players who'd want to see what would happen.
I must admit, I'll often save a game and do the wrong thing, just to see what the game developer will do to my character. You might get players deliberately setting off the traps in the maze, just to get a laugh (while players who weren't interested in that would have a clear path through it). Just a thought.
I don’t think mazes are all that fun either, but that is because they are too easy to solve and I never feel lost. The exception being the irrational mazes in the old Infocom games where you would go west from room A to room B, but going east from room B would place you in room C. Irrational mazes are very tedious to solve, but I am consoled by the fact that if there is a God then the old Infocom writers are surely burning in hell as a just punishment for this.
Mazes that force players into walking straight into every wall that they see in order to find that one special *invisible* wall are also quite tedious -which pretty much means damnation for the creators of games like Dungeon Master as well.
Rational mazes, like a hedge or corn maze in real life, are pretty to look at, but far too easy to solve if you know how. Rational mazes (meaning mazes that could actually exist in real life) don’t require you to have graph paper, bread crumbs, a compass, or even a map. You don’t need a sense of direction, landmarks, or a good memory either. All you have to do is use a trick that I learned when I was 8 years old – always turn left. That’s it. You will never be lost in another maze in your life if you simply turn left. Try it yourself the next time you’re in a corn maze. Just stick out your left hand and always touch the wall beside you. Not only will you be able to escape 100% of the time, but you will also be able to exhaustively explore the maze 99.9% of the time (there is one maze creation trick that can hide something from someone who turns left, but I haven’t seen any designers use it since the ‘80s).
You can give yourself a jelly bean if you can figure out the *other* way to always successfully navigate a maze.
This means that mazes are either incredibly tedious or incredibly easy – and neither of them would be what I call “fun”. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun to explore the Winchester House (Google it if you don't know what I’m referring to), it just means that it isn’t much fun to explore a labyrinth.
Mazes that force players into walking straight into every wall that they see in order to find that one special *invisible* wall are also quite tedious -which pretty much means damnation for the creators of games like Dungeon Master as well.
Rational mazes, like a hedge or corn maze in real life, are pretty to look at, but far too easy to solve if you know how. Rational mazes (meaning mazes that could actually exist in real life) don’t require you to have graph paper, bread crumbs, a compass, or even a map. You don’t need a sense of direction, landmarks, or a good memory either. All you have to do is use a trick that I learned when I was 8 years old – always turn left. That’s it. You will never be lost in another maze in your life if you simply turn left. Try it yourself the next time you’re in a corn maze. Just stick out your left hand and always touch the wall beside you. Not only will you be able to escape 100% of the time, but you will also be able to exhaustively explore the maze 99.9% of the time (there is one maze creation trick that can hide something from someone who turns left, but I haven’t seen any designers use it since the ‘80s).
You can give yourself a jelly bean if you can figure out the *other* way to always successfully navigate a maze.
This means that mazes are either incredibly tedious or incredibly easy – and neither of them would be what I call “fun”. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun to explore the Winchester House (Google it if you don't know what I’m referring to), it just means that it isn’t much fun to explore a labyrinth.
I just stumbled across this forum comment and thought it my have some applicability here (especially for a humorous RPG):
"A cartoon I saw in my youth subverted the trap cliche`. Rather than guess where to stand and for how long to avoid the firey balls of impaling spear doom, they were able to locate the service passages the engineers used to perform routine maintenance of the death machine and simply walked around."
From http://tinyurl.com/y8a863u
So maybe you could have, basically, a fake maze (however big it was, you'd only have to design the entrance)? In other words, there'd be no way to get anywhere in it without dying flamboyantly (and humorously), but the maintenance tunnel would bypass all that (while allowing the player to see traps from the other side).
Just a thought.
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"A cartoon I saw in my youth subverted the trap cliche`. Rather than guess where to stand and for how long to avoid the firey balls of impaling spear doom, they were able to locate the service passages the engineers used to perform routine maintenance of the death machine and simply walked around."
From http://tinyurl.com/y8a863u
So maybe you could have, basically, a fake maze (however big it was, you'd only have to design the entrance)? In other words, there'd be no way to get anywhere in it without dying flamboyantly (and humorously), but the maintenance tunnel would bypass all that (while allowing the player to see traps from the other side).
Just a thought.
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