Non-Linear Gameplay

[Woe Kitten]

I'm doing some research into non-linear firefight and puzzle design and it just occured to me that it would be worth asking what your thoughts are on the subject. In the process I think we might be able to start up a thread that is useful to this community. So with that in mind here are a few questions to help guide your answers:

Are there any tricks you've learned to allow the player to approach your levels in their own way and solve the problems you pose them in unique and emergent manners?

Can you think of any really good examples of games or sections of games that created freeform environments that allowed you to approach them in creative ways?

As a gamer do you enjoy freeform games like Far Cry, Borderlands and GTA or do you prefer more linear experiences like Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare and Gears of War? Why?

All of these questions are designed to help you structure your thoughts but feel free to answer any way you want

[Assigir]

If the game have rpg-elements it should at least be semi-linear , but other wise it doesn't matter that much.
But when a level includes a puzzle I usually gets frustrated because I can think of multiple ways to solve the puzzle if the same puzzle ever were presented in real life. And thus I say puzzles should have multiple ways to be solved

[MáØ]

Freeform is good, people like it and love the idea of it. But true "freeform" is kind of stupid, if you want to have any kind of story etc. So I would say freeform needs to have some sort of "breadcrumbs" if you will, guiding players (genitally) where in the game they should go to get the most out of any primary story.

[Spike]

There's Fallout 3, Crysis, ...

[Phott]

Freeform is good, people like it and love the idea of it. But true "freeform" is kind of stupid, if you want to have any kind of story etc. So I would say freeform needs to have some sort of "breadcrumbs" if you will, guiding players (genitally) where in the game they should go to get the most out of any primary story.

One word: Morrowind

An excellent game, the only "breadcrumbs" you got was the directions given by people, not that Oblivion compass crap nor fast travel. If a modern game did that today I would be all over it.

[joe_rogers_11155]

Linear or non-linear, the player will have an objective. The order and method in which the player gets to the objective determines the linearity of the gameplay. In your OP you have listed two objectives: a firefight and a puzzle. I think it is important to notice that those two are connected by the fact that they are objectives - specific events or encounters that the designer means for the player to discover and conquer.

An objective is not non-linear because of the difficulty of a puzzle, the number of ways to solve a puzzle, the number of routes to it, or the number and uniqueness of weapons at the player's disposal. An objective is non-linear if the player chooses to go there even though there are other objectives available to him.

That said, I think I just answered one of your questions. "Are there any tricks you've learned to allow the player to approach your levels in their own way and solve the problems you pose them in unique and emergent manners?" Yes. Varying levels of objective difficulty, slowly introducing the idea of multiple puzzle solutions (Portal's floor buttons are a simple example of this - either use a Storage Cube or stand on the button yourself to activate it), multiple routes to an objective (or the concept of backtracking with new equipment to reach unexplored areas, which are popular and effective in Nintendo titles such as Legend of Zelda or Metroid), and having a high number of unique weapons at the player's disposal (Half-Life 2's gravity gun and pheropod are example enough) are all methods of making the objectives interesting and unique, whether they are linear or non-linear.

As a gamer, I enjoy linear gameplay because it seems to have greater potential to generate atmosphere and tell a focused story. Having the power to control the player's whereabouts and experiences can give birth to truly great storytelling. The challenge is to disguise the linearity just enough so that player can still have a great deal of fun and choice in his objective hunting. However, I also think the story is an objective in itself - to discover what is happening in the game. And thus, the story itself can be non-linear. You can introduce non-linearity in the story by coming up with alternate story paths and outcomes based on the player's actions (examples abound in Fallout 3 and Mass Effect).

Sure, Fallout 3 had one official "Story Quest", and that proved to be a fairly linear experience. What provided such non-linearity was the fact that traveling in the Wasteland presented so much danger that the player's objective constantly changed from "reaching the next Story Quest location" to "survive". It was a kind of forced non-linearity - the player was forced by the game world to change his objective. Outside of that, Fallout 3 was populated with a high number of "Side Quests", of which the player could have any number at one time. The ability to decide which quest to follow at any given time provided a very high level of non-linearity, especially long after the "Story Quest" had been completed.

So there a great many ways to go about designing. In the end, it is all a matter of whether the player can choose his own objective or not.

[Saxon]

Personally I love sandbox gameplay of games like GTA or FarCry, the reason being that I'm largely in control of what happens in the game.

Linear shooters feel too much like 3D versions of R-Type, or like Time Crisis but without the fun of a lightgun.

For mapping purposes sandbox environments are easier to create. Way easier - even in Source. Just make an environment as if it were a real one, you don't need to worry about where to stick a puzzle or where enemies charge out. The worst part about mapping for a linear game is getting balance right, but in the non-linear sandbox environment this is never such an issue if the player can slink away and rethink things.

I guess games which offer a novel soltion to a puzzle are ones which give multiple options to the player, usually in the form of vehicles. Vehicles give the option of going in guns blazing and creating all out havoc - contrast this with the approach taken by the stealthy player who may sneak in and quietly eliminate guards.

[MáØ]

One word: Morrowind

An excellent game, the only "breadcrumbs" you got was the directions given by people, not that Oblivion compass crap nor fast travel. If a modern game did that today I would be all over it.

FYI

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16976

Changes a bunch of Oblivions gameplay to that of Morrowind, including but not limited too, teleportation spells and travel routes, becoming a lich, lycanthropy, Morrowind vampirism etc

Oh and adds most of the Morrowind gamespace to the game.

[Major Banter]

I honestly don't give a damn - assuming the game keeps in mind which its actually doing.

Linear or Free-Roam please. No middle ground crap. No mixes.

[BaRRaKID]

The non-linearity comes from having different puzzles with different outcomes, and not by having one puzzle with several outcomes in my opinion. You can add the element of freedom by allowing the player to use different resources to solve the puzzle (for example when you've to stack objects in HL2 to get to a higher level you can choose whatever objects you want) but the outcome should always be the same.
It's like what I wrote in the article about level design, players move the level based on objectives, they want to get somewhere or do something, the puzzles (I'm considering firefights to be puzzles as well btw) you create are just obstacles to get to that objective. The non linearity comes from giving the payer a couple of different objectives and let him choose which one to take, each with its own set of obstacles.
You must also never forget the effort/reward ratio, the more you ask the player to do the more he expects you to give to him. You can create for example a puzzle that is harder to complete than another one, but that gets you faster to the objective, this is non-linear gameplay and adds more re-playability value to the game.

Sandbox games like GTA are fun, but the players might loose the sense of accomplishment if they are not done right. They also often do the same mistake that is asking you do to repetitive tasks which becomes tedious really fast, specially if those tasks are required to progress in the story line.

[Plague]

I thought Halo: ODST had a good combination of linear and non-linear gameplay.

You could wonder around the city in a very well laid out sudeo-sandbox.
You could approach your enemies in different manners and if you has friends you could split up and preform different tactics.
Yet it has the tracker always guiding you to a piece of the puzzle, and a little side story that encouraged you to explore.
Finally separated by linear story pieces to advance the side "Flash Back Plot".

All concluding in the final levels with a more linear experience.

[Major Banter]

I thought ODST was dull and boring.

It had nothing making the area interesting and the spawns were horrendously obvious. A good example of how not to combine the two genres.

[Smurftyours]

ODST is by far the worst halo game to have been released and IMO is a public failure of Bungie's work. It had no redeeming qualities and overall was a flaming pile of shit.

[Plague]

I thought visually the game felt nice... I just liked the city streets and how you see all the normal everyday items.
Then you also see them in this distressed state with the covenant occupying it.

I agree however that gameplay in the sandbox, combat wise, was dull and sub par.
I did enjoy listening to the side story and wandering the city collecting the logs.

We've been seeing Bungie go into the realm of sandbox play since halo 1, more so with 2 and 3.
ODST was their try at true-ish sandbox play. Reach having large environments but imo seeming linear in a Halo 3 sense.
They should just make a sandbox game at some point.

[xoqolatl]

As a gamer do you enjoy freeform games like Far Cry, Borderlands and GTA or do you prefer more linear experiences like Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare and Gears of War? Why?

Excuse me for skipping teh other questions but I only have valuable (lol i hope) feedback on this one.

IMO Borderlands is not a good example of non-linear story/gameplay. The missions and their outcomes are always the same, you can only pick the order in which you complete them, and even in that your freedom is limited. GTA on the other hand (especially GTA4 and San Andreas) is an example of a tradeoff between great story and non-linearity. GTA had to have several paths in the story - it wouldn't have had the sandboxy, life-sim feel that makes it so great. But GTA devs paid a price for that - the story and main character are just an addition to the gameplay. GTA-style games will never be as epic and as widely remembered as for example H-L2 or Gears of War - simply because every player will remember something other happened. As long as you only know one version of the story, and have one image of the protagonist, the suspense of disbelief works. As Tolkien said, it might very well have happened, the game just discovered what happened. When there are two paths (i.e. in GTA4, Roman or Kate survived), suspense of disbelief is broken and neither path is true. There are some exceptions to this rule - two stories can differ in small details. For example a KOTOR/Mass Effect systems works well - in the end, whatever path you choose, the same things happen. If two people met in a tavern and started telling their versions of that story drinking rum or pan galactic gargle blasters, they would just assume the differing elements (i.e. whether Revan was a man or a woman, or whether Shepard was a spacer or a colonist) are a gossip or got distorted in a 'Chinese whispers' way. BUT they would agree on the major points that could not ge a gossip, for example that the Star FOrge was destroyed or that Reapers did not wipe all life in the Galaxy.
Basically: the story and the protagonist MUST have a single defined version to become epic.