Favorite Games
1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Action-Adventure – Nintendo 64, 2000
The best game I have ever played. In no other, the world and its inhabitants were brought so wholeheartedly alive as in Majora’s Mask. Being the hero, saving the world, truly meant something. Meaningful play achieved like never before. And all thanks to the ’3 days’ system. In the game, you had 3 (ingame) days to save the world; at the end of the third day, the moon crashed on the earth, destroying it. But you had the power to travel back in time, to the beginning of the first day, to play it all over again. This mechanic had a tremendous impact on the NPC’s and their sidequests.
Because the timespan within the game covered only 3 days, it was possible to give a lot of NPC’s meaningful and in-depth behavior. They didn’t just stand around somewhere, waiting for you to talk to them, but had their own schedule. More importantly, you were able to change those schedules and behaviors if you experiences them before, and knew how to react to them. This allowed for immersive time-based, causal-based and personal-based quests. A worried lady might ask you to deliver a letter to her missing fiancee, but if you prevented a thief from robbing an old lady, the fiancee would never come out of hiding, as he was after the same thief. And that’s just one link in the chain. To complete the more rewarding, grander sidequests (I felt happiness inside when I finally reunited those lovers) you were required to thoroughly study the action of multiple characters for many 3-day cycles.
On top of that, the 3 days mechanic allowed feelings of failure and grief. If you failed, you would experience the sadness of the characters, motivating you to only try harder next time. This too works only within a time-travel context as that resets all causalities. Other elements contribute too, like the empty-shell-hero Link (allowing you to pour your own personality into it) and the absense of an evil scapegoat (hard time blaming gravity for making the moon crush on the world). It has the archetypical hero’s journey feel of the Zelda series and these unique mechanics that push the narrative into unexplored hights, making this game truly come alive.
Design Lesson: meaningful play driven by narrative
2. Metal Gear Solid
Tactical Espionage Action – Playstation, 1998
Another game with a high degree of aliveness. I loved how the real world and previous installments, like the references to the Cold War, the Kurds, Outer Heaven and Zanzibarland, were used to create a story greater than the game. I also love the narrative use of the endbosses. They all have a substantial part in the story instead of just being a purely gameplay obstacle dressed up as a character. Yes, 2 of them have a lesser part in the story, but think again; they are the bosses which you fight more than once, making the second encounter weighted as you’ll bring the memories of the first.
Third, the story keeps me on the edge of my seat with its whodunit structure. There’s a pretty big cast of extravagant, interesting characters and trusted friends can turn out foes whereas mysterious enemies can become your only ally. Throughout the entire game, you’re constantly wondering who’s exactly on what side and what agenda everyone has. A similar game in this aspect is GrimGrimoire (Playstation 2). As it also features a time-travel structure with all its character-depth advantages, I just couldn’t leave it out.
Design Lesson: a story bigger than the game
3. Legend of Kartia
Turn-Based Strategy – Playstation, 1998
A forgotten game from the sprite-based era. The reason it’s so high on my list is that it offers the antagonists an exceptional amount of screen time. I loved to watch the scenes between the varied enemy characters, which where as numerous as my allies. They had wishes, they had regrets, they were just as human as we were, just on the other side of a conflict. This gave the entire game so much more depth.The aforelisted Metal Gear Solid achieved the same in its own way.
Another aspect I liked was the avoidance of certain clichés, with not everyone and their dogs being orphans the most refreshing one (albeit a difficult one, I know).
Design Lesson: a story is as good as its villian (¿A game is as good as its challenge?)
4. Metroid Prime
First-Person Adventure – Nintendo Gamecube, 2002
This game, while having the same mechanics as a First-Person Shooter, was called a First-Person Adventure instead, because of its heavy exploration. And its indeed this part that makes it truly great. If Metal Gear Solid tells a story bigger than the game, then Metroid Prime is set in a world bigger than the game. There are so many optional ruins to scan, caves to discover, with fulfilling gameplay enhancing rewards, not to mention the beautiful bonus scenery.
The funny part is, its exactly the linear, and not freeroaming, core of the game that makes these discoveries so pleasing. It’s as if the game doesn’t accknowledge those hidden chambers, which makes discovering them all the more real. An earlier game that featured this element, althrough not as strongly, would be Jet Force Gemini (Nintendo 64)
Design Lesson: a world bigger than the game
5. Skies of Arcadia
RPG – Dreamcast, 2000
Exploring the skies of Arcadia is so fulfilling because it features so many references to the real-world age of exploration. This Jules Verne inspired fantasy world has its own versions of the British steam-powered Empire, Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, the New World, Cape of Good Hope and much more. Thanks to these aspects, the world felt really fleshed out and, contradicting as it may sound, fresh and original.
Other cultural standouts would be the cold war feeling of Metal Gear Solid 3 (Playstation 2), the world of Bioshock (PC), the premise of Joanne D’arc (PSP), the fairytale Folklore (Playstation 3) and of course #9 of this list. I’m also very exited about Assassin’s Creed 2, with its Rennaissaince Venice setting!
While we’re on the subject, it’s also interesting to note that it was Majora’s Mask that sparked my interest in Venice and its carnival.
Design Lesson: cultural depth creates interesting worlds
6. Dungeons & Dragons
Role-Playing Game – pen & paper, 1974
Grandfather of modern gaming, what more could possibly be said? I find it interesting that when I think back of my D&D sessions, the most interesting parts where the roleplaying parts and not so much the combat, which rather was used as a foundation for the first. When I look at computer games though, it’s mostly that second part that has been fleshed out well. Just a little reminder that the game still fully developing as a medium.
Design Lesson: games have a looong and exiting way to go
7. Pokemon Red/Blue
RPG – Game Boy, 1996
This game got me hooked like no other, and with me many others. What I find intruiging is the role the player assumes. In many games, the player character is a hero, someone with supernatural or at least superhuman powers. As many games are about physical conflict, this is required for progress. In Pokemon, you can be your ordinary self, while your pokemon do these supernatural jobs for you. This was what hooked me, what made me tfantasize about the game when not playing. It’s far easier to imagine myself as a pokemon trainer than a sword-wielding or gun-slinging hercules. This game the game quite some lasting appeal.
Maybe the same is true for silent protagonists, notably those in Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64) and Half-Life 2 (PC).
Design Lesson: the avatar, a character or an empty-shell?
8. Final Fantasy XI Online
MMORPG – PC / Playstation 2, 2002
While I try to shield myself from the bottomless time-eaters that are MMO’s (I might find them too much fun), I did enjoy FFXI for a while. It also made me realize some unspoken appeals of gaming in general. For you avatar’s outfit, there are no wrong sizes. There are no washed out colors after extensive wearing. If you don a piece of equipment, it will look exactly like the Creator intended. There is no need for doubt, for insecurity, while there is room for perfection. If I reach level 75, I’m at the top of the food chain. In a digital lifetime, I can talk to every interactive character in the world. Humans love control over their environment, and a game offers that which real life doesn’t: a finite enviroment. A powerful force indeed. I’ll be on the lookout for Final Fantasy XIV.
Design Lesson: games can offer powerful yet subtle feelings of perfection, completion, control
9. Eternal Sonata
RPG – Xbox 360, 2007
I thoroughly loved this game from the moment I heard about it. Polish composer Frédéric Chopin has a dream on his deathbed, and it’s in the fantasy world of this dream that a game is taking place? It sounds so majestic. I might say it drew out my inner child, looking at a world in which miracles and wonder exist. I can’t help but adore a game with such a premise.
On a related sidetrack, I’m a big fan of game titles that give me this same feeling of wonder. Final Fantasy, Beyond Good and Evil and Half-Life (I didn’t knew its down-to-earth meaning when I first heard it) are some sparkling examples.
Design Lesson: if you think everything has been done already, think again (and again, and again, until you find that special something)
10. Text Express 2
casual word game – webbased
Fine, fine, this casual game wouldn’t exactly make the list of Toby the gamer, but it did help me as a designer, so I’ll use it to casually round up the list. You see, I dispise word games, because I’m not that good at them. I also dislike time-based challenges, as I prefer to think things over. But dispite this game being nothing more than that, I liked it. I wanted to keep playing. Why?
The letters were represented as coals. Whenever I spelled a correct word, the coals would be dropped in a firebox, which powered up my train. The time was represented by another trains, moving forward in a steady fashion. If I made words fast enough to arrive at the next station before the time-train, I won. Then the game would show the map, and the environment around the railway would turn green, and cows and trees would pop up! The more I traveled to different stations, the more alive the world would get. And that motivated me to keep playing.
Most titles on this list are grand, epic adventures, narrative-driven games. But this one shows it doesn’t always have to be that way. Even if the representation is just a wrapper around the core gameplay, if its applied right, if the two feel right together, they can still enhance one another.
Still, a colleague disliked the game because he wanted to enter even more words after reaching the station. He go no motivation whatsoever out of the representational layer. This has actually been an important step in the creation of my Castle & Temple model, which I will reveal upon graduation. Stay tuned.
Design Lesson: everything is relative. Different players crave different experiences. Different designs ask for different choices. Fighting human nature is a lost battle. Players will play the games as they see fit.