{"id":10443,"date":"2022-03-11T11:32:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T02:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=10443"},"modified":"2022-06-01T15:37:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T06:37:08","slug":"20220311-10443","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220311-10443\/","title":{"rendered":"Game developers explain the little tricks players don\u2019t notice that improve gameplay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Written by. Nick Mosier based on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20220309-194819\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a>&nbsp;(original article&#8217;s publication date: 2022-03-09 21:22<\/em> <em>JST)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Salman Shurie, founder of Gesinimo Games, recently posed this <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Salman_Shh\/status\/1501249703563997184\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">question<\/a> to game developers on Twitter. \u201cWhat secret things did you add to your games to make the game easier to play that players never noticed but did so much for the game?\u201d We\u2019ve seen some developers take to social media to post these sorts of techniques before, which appears to have sparked Shurie into starting the exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shurie starts by introducing one of their own techniques. \u201cIn my game Fistful of Nothing, made every enemy only able to attack you with their weapons only if they&#8217;re on screen just to take that element of frustration that comes from getting killed by an off-screen enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">in my game Fistful of Nothing, made every enemy only able to attack you with their weapons only if they&#39;re on screen just to take that element of frustration that comes from getting killed by an off-screen enemy <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2nOmuOWIxA\">pic.twitter.com\/2nOmuOWIxA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Salman Shurie( \ud83e\uddd0 ) (@Salman_Shh) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Salman_Shh\/status\/1501256193624395790?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It looks like a number of other games have devised ways to adjust enemy attacks based on the player\u2019s field of vision as well. Sam Suite, a programmer at DANG! behind the boomerang action game <em>Boomerang X<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sam_suite\/status\/1501262441933541377\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed in a response<\/a> that \u201cin Boomerang X, most flying enemies will try to curve around and attack you from the front if they&#8217;re out of your field of view.\u201d Similarly, Arkane Studios\u2019 Laurent Couvidou <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lorancou\/status\/1501335087312343040\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explains<\/a> that \u201cIn <em>Dishonored 2<\/em>, NPCs don&#8217;t strike as often when you turn your back on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Respawn Entertainment gameplay programmer Ian Holstead talked about the Prowler creatures that appear in the game. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IanHolstead\/status\/1501368424764940288\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According to Holstead<\/a>, \u201cProwlers will never attack you while you&#8217;re knocked or self resing (otherwise it&#8217;s nearly impossible to self res near prowlers).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We got no ledge. So we bump dash specials up a bit to help players who are expecting to get on stage. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xqBcKMgDdA\">pic.twitter.com\/xqBcKMgDdA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Dan Fornace (@danfornace) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/danfornace\/status\/1501356186691510272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 9, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Aether Studios CEO Dan Fornace showed a technique used in the platform fighter <em>Rivals of Aether<\/em> with a slow-motion video. The game takes inspiration from <em>Super Smash Bros.<\/em> where the goal is to knock opponents off the stage. What Fornace demonstrates is that when a player is slightly below the ledge of a stage, dash specials will compensate for this and bump them up a bit so that they land on the stage. Even if players are slightly off with their placement, the game itself is helping players pull off their moves as intended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to player inputs, many developers make use of something called input buffering or input caching. In the case of the side scrolling action game <em>The Bleak Divine<\/em>, developer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GeorgeB_Green\/status\/1501257592601030662\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">George B. Green explains<\/a> that to correctly allow players to dodge roll when landing after a jump, the game caches a dodge input entered by players while in the air. Since players can\u2019t dodge in the air, the game checks for the cached input to become valid in the next few frames. Taking and holding these inputs in advance lets the game give users a smoother experience.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10445\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-696x392.jpg 696w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/20220309-194819-001-747x420.jpg 747w\" \/><figcaption><em>Tower of Guns<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Joe Mirabello of Terrible Posture Games also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/blankslatejoe\/status\/1501357183090499588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> an interesting bit of information about the roguelike shooter <em>Tower of Guns<\/em>. \u201cI made the first two runs of Tower of Guns harder and the third easier in order to help the player feel like they were \u2018getting the hang of things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Riot Games technical designer George Oliver <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/georevilo\/status\/1501256228437061636\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">added<\/a>, \u201cIn some of League&#8217;s game modes I made teams leave spawn faster based on how many more towers they have over the enemy team,\u201d following up with, \u201cIt made everything feel faster paced and made games where a team is getting absolutely stomped end quicker so losing felt less painful.\u201d Games even have stuff going on behind the scenes to help influence how players feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In Modern Warfare when you escape the prison as Farah     there&#39;s a pistol in the toilet of the bathroom you crawl to. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yAPFMXP8KM\">pic.twitter.com\/yAPFMXP8KM<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Steve Holmes (@SteveH_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteveH_\/status\/1501444074565373955?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 9, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Timskafte\/status\/1501487426296061955\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tim Skafte<\/a>, a 3D artist who worked on titles such as <em>PLANET ALPHA<\/em>, had an interesting example about a game that\u2019s currently in development. It sounds like the game is going to be a roguelike that uses dice in some capacity, and Skafte explains, \u201cwhenever the player rerolls a dice, we reroll once but if it comes up the same we reroll it again.\u201d We don\u2019t know much about the game at this point, but it sounds like guaranteeing a different outcome on rerolls is increasing player satisfaction. You could say it\u2019s something that\u2019s made possible by it being a video game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Games seem to employ a lot of little techniques behind the scenes to smooth out gameplay that players likely don\u2019t notice. If you\u2019re interested in seeing more examples, check out the original tweet <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Salman_Shh\/status\/1501249703563997184\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Game developers explain the little tricks players don\u2019t notice that improve gameplay. \u201cIn Dishonored 2, NPCs don&#8217;t strike as often when you turn your back on them,\u201d says Arkane Studios\u2019 Laurent Couvidou.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-10443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Game developers explain the little tricks players don\u2019t notice that improve gameplay - 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