My first game, Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis, is without doubt the most relentlessly non-linear game design I have ever done, and includes examples of all the types of non- linearity described above. Odyssey is an RPG and takes place on an archipelago that includes seven primary islands for players to explore. Though players are required to complete at least one quest on the first island before moving on to the rest of the game, there are two quests, each with multiple solutions from which players may choose. Indeed, clever players can skip the quests entirely if they figure out how to rob a particular
townsperson. (In fact, this was an emergent behavior that I had not anticipated, but which fortunately made sense and did not derail the game significantly.) From there, players are able to move freely about the next five islands, picking which ones they want to explore and which they prefer to just pass through. Indeed, all that is required for players to reach the seventh island and the end-game is successful navigation of each island, killing the
monsters that get in their way. Of course, killing those creatures is made significantly easier if players receive the rewards for completing the quests. But if players so choose, they can skip the entire middle of the game. Of course, few players have done this, preferring
instead to explore the different quests and situations they encounter there. Nearly every one of these quests has multiple ways for players to solve it, with their actions having a direct impact on how each of the island’s mini-stories resolves. Finally, the game itself has multiple endings for players to explore, endings that suit the different overall goals players may
have: survival, revenge, or a sort of justice and harmony. Though the game had a very definite story, I am happy to say that I doubt very much that any two players ever experienced it in exactly the same way.
Odyssey is an extremely non-linear game, allowing the player to solve puzzles in whatever order he chooses and to select which quests he wants to go on. The game almost always provides more than one solution to any given puzzle.
Overall, my game The Suffering was significantly less non-linear than Odyssey, but still I applied many of the same non-linear storytelling techniques in order to give the game’s story depth. The Suffering makes each player’s experience unique through its morality system, which assesses how the game is being played and then determines the player character’s past and changes how the characters in the present speak to him. As a horror game, the plot was kept somewhat vague on purpose, with players needing to fill in many of the blanks themselves. Furthermore, each player was likely to have a different
subsection of the overall story, since much of the story is contained in optional side areas.
Indeed, players who blaze through the game full speed ahead will miss a lot of the plot, while those who play normally will probably see about half of what there is to be found. This means there are many different ways to experience the story and players will have different impressions of it depending on how they play. Indeed, during development there was a lot of concern about players missing too much of the game by running through it quickly since there are relatively few bottlenecks to block progression. In the end, though, through
gameplay testing and the feedback we received after the game shipped, we realized that almost all players will explore the game more than is required of them merely because they are interested in it. Similarly, players will fight creatures they don’t strictly need to. It is important to remember that players want to play a game to have fun, and only the most masochistic will deliberately ruin their play experience. Thus you don’t need to worry about the game’s exploits quite as much as making sure the game is fun if played by cooperative players.
On the puzzle side of things, The Suffering is somewhat less successful in terms of non- linearity: many of the puzzles have multiple solutions, but an equal number do not. Though most of the objectives were planned to have multiple ways of completing them, we had several situations where one solution would involve an exciting payoff while the other did not. Our producers were concerned gamers would miss too much by choosing the alternate solution, and thus we ended up cutting some of the less exciting alternatives. This leads to
an important rule of thumb: if you want to have multiple solutions or paths, they should all be equally compelling so players will not feel cheated at having picked the much less
spectacular path. Another failed bit of non-linearity in The Suffering involved a particular level that was initially designed to be extremely non-linear. In this level, there were originally three separate paths leading to the level’s end. Through our gameplay testing we learned that players were extremely confused by the three paths, with almost all players looping back to the beginning of the level and then being confused as to where they were.
Admittedly this particular problem was due to poor level design, but this is a case where non-linearity ended up hurting the player’s experience, and we ended up reworking the level flow in the final game.
Non-linearity is an extremely powerful tool to use in designing a game, and the above descriptions of the types of non-linearity a designer can employ may seem obvious to the reader. What is astonishing, then, is how many games fail to provide any substantial non- linearity for players, instead insisting that players play through the game on a single line from point A to point B. One reason for this is that creating all of these non-linear elements can be quite time consuming. Consider that between point A and B, we have the
aforementioned challenges X, Y, and Z, but players only have to overcome one of these challenges in order to progress. Players can then continue playing through to the end of the game having never interacted with challenge Y or Z. As a non-linear game, that is the
players’ prerogative. The problem arises when a cost accountant looks at the game and tries to figure out where the game’s budget can be trimmed. Well, obviously, if Y and Z are not strictly necessary, why bother having them at all? Why spend a lot of money on the programming, art, and design necessary to get Y and Z working when there’s a chance players will never see them? Unfortunately, accountants are often not in touch with the finer points of game design, and when you say, “But non-linearity is what makes this game
great!” they are likely to dismiss you as “unreasonable” or “difficult.”
Working meaningful non-linearity into The Suffering proved quite challenging.
Non-linearity is also often hard to pull off from a design perspective, certainly harder than simple linearity. This may be another reason why so many designers shy away from it at
the first opportunity. Designing numerous obstacles that are different enough to provide variety for players and apply roughly the same challenge is not an easy task. In the X, Y, and Z challenges example, if Z is significantly easier than X or Y, it is quite likely no one will ever bother with X or Y. In a way, a game with poorly designed choices for players is
nearly as linear as a game without any choices at all. The non-linearity your game provides must be meaningful and useful to players or it is a waste. Designers who think too highly of their own design skills may also avoid non-linearity in their designs because they want
players to experience every single element of the game they decide to include. “Why spend a lot of time on portions of the game that not everyone will see?” say these somewhat
egotistical designers, missing the point entirely. If enough people play your game, some people will surely see what you have created, and each one of the players will have a
somewhat different experience because of it. Just as a great novel will have multiple layers to its story and different meanings that different readers will take away, even more so a game should allow players to find their own way through the game-world and empower them to craft their own unique experience.