Mage Knight - Lessons from the Tabletop

What? A Board Game in a Video Game Design Blog?
      As much as I have devoted the last several years to the study of video games and how they are made, I have come across certain board games that have also caught my attention. Not the Monopoly or Scrabble games everyone knows about, but the kind found only in specialty shops, alongside Warhammer figurines and D&D manuals. They are the kind of games that I feel don't get enough love these days.

     Consider this: video games have been steadily evolving over the past several decades, but this evolution has been held back by technological constraints. Alongside those technological constrains are the rising costs of utilizing these new technologies, driving the cost of developing video games up higher every year. What this means is that as games get more expensive to make, you start to see less variety and experimentation in the medium, as an ill-fated risk can mean a death sentence to a development studio, or a major loss the stockholders of a major publishing company.

     By contrast, the board game industry has been steadily growing. While remaining very much a niche market, they are able to thrive and grow without the constraints put on video games. The costs of development are very low, and a game prototype can be whipped up by a single designer working with a team of dedicated testers. And since the technology never really changes (aside from making pieces look fancier, etc), board games are able to enjoy a steady and constant forward momentum toward innovation and new creative frontiers.

     Mage Knight the Board Game* is an example of some truly excellent game design to come out of the board game world. It's one I felt like highlighting here to show just how much video game designers can learn from our board game designer friends.

     *Not to be confused with the earlier miniatures game set in the same universe.
Overview
     Mage Knight is a fantasy conquest game where you take on the role of one of four Mage Knights and battle your way across the map, acquiring Fame, loot, and conquering various holdings across the map. All of your actions are dictated by a deck of cards, and gameplay is all about careful management of your cards and how to maximize the effectiveness of each turn.

     The game is far too complicated to go over every rule in detail, so I highly suggest watching this video demo of the first round of play to get an idea of how the game is played. If you want to learn more and/or put your reading comprehension skills to the ultimate challenge, both the Rulebook and Walkthrough book are available through Fantasy Flight Game's official website (be warned, though, the books are not very well written and can be very confusing). Hopefully this will make enough sense as to not be too confusing should you not choose to look into those things, but just thought I'd give you a heads up.

     So without further adieu, lets take a look at the game's various mechanics.

Put on your robe and wizard hat!

      Mage Knight has a lot of interesting mechanics that interact together in fascinating ways. It strikes a strong balance between randomness and predictability that allows for deep strategies to emerge and for fun surprises to happen over the course of the game. Below are a few highlights of the system I found particularly compelling:

• The Deck
       Each player starts with a deck of 16 cards, with one card unique to each character that is a stronger version of one of the standard cards. Considering that you draw up to five cards each turn (or more as you level up), this seems like a small number, especially for those used to games like Dominion or even Magic the Gathering with large decks. Unlike in MtG, you are most likely to be able to use every card in your deck each round, which affords you some strategy to complement your turn-by-turn tactics, rather than crossing your fingers and hoping you draw that one kickass card you stashed in your giant deck.
  
  
  
       Tied to the deck is the idea of rounds in the game. Each player takes their turns during a round until one player is unable to draw cards at the end of their turn to put into their hand. Note that decks are only shuffled in between rounds, never in the middle of one. Now, if you compare this to traditional deck building games like Dominion, where reshuffling your deck isn't a particularly huge deal, this creates a very different dynamic. In Mage Knight, how fast or slow you draw new cards has a strong impact on how long the round will go and what you will be able to accomplish, and even what you and your opponents will be able to do.
  
       Consider this: Suppose you used the Regenerate Card to draw 2 cards. Now, this means that not only do you get 2 cards, but that also means you deck is going to run out faster, which can potentially mean that other players will not get to play all of their cards.
  
       At the same time, given how wounds effectively shrink your hand size, it is no coincidence that the regenerate card, your main way of healing, has the choice of Heal 2 (trash two wound cards from your hand) or draw 2 more cards. It makes even a single wound a potentially major liability, and one to be dealt with as soon as possible.
  
       This creates an interesting system where even though you may not be able to predict what you will have from one deck to the next, you have a good idea of what you will be able to do over the course of a whole round, so there is the right balance between randomness and deterministic strategy.
  
  
  
       One could draw parallels to this in RTSes like Starcraft 2, where there is also a mix of determinism and randomness at play during a multiplayer matchup. A player is in full control of what they make, and can make predictions of what their opponent is going based on how quickly they get up certain buildings or what kind of army compositions they go for. Aside from the choices of the players themselves, and arguably the AI of the units, Starcraft is far more on the deterministic side when compared to Mage Knight, given that it is played on a computer that can handle all the number crunching behind the scenes. Board games, by contrast, rely on randomness as a shorthand simulation of complex deterministic algorithms behind these games, so generally the outcome is comparable on some level.
  
       There is a downside, of course, to having the computer do a bunch of heavy lifting so the player doesn't have to pull out a calculator. It can mean that the underlying systems of the game are more complex than the player could ever wrap their head around. You have to carefully balance the need for hiding info from the player with having just the right amount of mechanics to be interesting. I much prefer the route the Diablo III beta is going in, where by default descriptions of abilities are short and general, with the option to expand them. Dawn of War II, on the other hand, went about it the wrong way by hiding virtually every stat of every unit, to the point where you have only a vague idea of how much damage you are doing against particular types of enemies. Rather than being able to look at a number and say that its damage is good/bad, you have to just eyeball it or look over esoteric charts and stats created by fans on external websites.
• Cards
       Each card in your deck can be played in three different ways. First, you may put the card into play normally for its basic effect. Alternately, you can spend mana of the appropriate type to use its more powerful ability detailed in the lower text field. Finally, any card can be played sideways to act as a Move 1, Attack 1, Block 1, or Influence 1.
  
  
  
       This system makes it so every card use has to be carefully considered, and there are tradeoffs for every choice. Do you spend a card for its basic effect to save your mana for later? Use its more powerful effect to pull off a killer turn? Or go all in and play a few cards sideways to pull off a turn you only barely have the cards for?
  
       The most compelling aspect of this system is that it gives players ample ability to make clever moves and pull off killer combos. Not only does it make the player that pulled them off have more fun, but other players can also vicariously feel the rush of a well-executed turn.
  
  
  
       The closest equivalent that comes to mind are the Tactical Marines squad of Dawn of War 2. They are the single most versatile unit in the game. They start out quite capable enough, but at tier 2 you can upgrade them (the squad, not all tactical marines) to be anti-vehicle, anti-infantry, or anti-heavy infantry depending on your weapon choice. This allows them to be adaptable to any situation you want, though there is always the sacrifice of resources and time should you need them to switch to a different weapon.
• The Day/Night Cycle
       Each round alternates between day and night. During the day, it is easier to cross through forests (pretty common), harder to cross deserts (pretty rare), and you can use Gold mana, which is essentially a wild that can be spent as any basic mana type. You are also able to see what enemies are guarding fortifications from far away, making it easier to plan your assaults.
  
  
  
       During the night, however, it becomes harder to cross through forests, easier to cross deserts, and instead of Gold Mana you can use Black Mana, which allows you to use the enhanced versions of your spells. It also makes it so for most fortifications you can't know who is guarding it until you are directly next to the building.
  
       This works to create an interesting element of timing to how one should explore the map. Should you cross a forest and explore a new map tile, risking being stuck in a forest at night? Is it worth it to assault a Mage Tower in the middle of the desert when you are only a couple turns away from daytime?
  
  
  
       This is not unlike the Day/Night system of Warcraft III, though it has a bit more of an impact on gameplay. In Warcraft III the main advantage of night vs day is that at night neutral creeps would be asleep, allowing you to ambush them to gain experience for your hero easier, and the line of sight of your units was lower. If you were a Night Elf, you could also shadowmeld (turn invisible but take no other action), and moon wells (which provided supply and restored nearby units' health and mana) would replenish their mana.
  
       It worked well to create a compelling mechanic that encouraged timing of your attacks and creeping (killing neutral "creeps" to level up your hero between battles with your opponent). The one complaint I'd have about their implementation was that it wasn't a strong enough factor to make a huge difference at low-level play, and could be easily ignored after early game.
• Location Cards
        Mage Knight features many different locations you can visit, from villages, to Mage Towers, Monastaries, and even Monster Dens or Ancient Ruins. Each location has slightly different rules about what players encounter at each place, what type of enemies they have to fight, and Influence costs for their various services. All of this could very quickly get confusing for a new player, but MK has a rather ingenious way to make this easier to grasp.
  
  
  
        Each location card has the full text description of what the location does, plus an iconographic representation of the rules on the left. This I think is an excellent design choice, as it makes it easy for a player looking to remind themselves of the rules of a card to just glance at these icons and grasp its at times complex rules in a fraction of the time.
  
        The most similar analog to this in the video game world would probably be the iconography used in such games as RTSes or MMOs, which rely heavily on complex user interfaces filled with different icons players have to be able to identify and understand at a glance. However, there is still a major emphasis on having to read or be told lengthy explanations of how to use the interface, with no quick and easy way to be reminded of what they do without cracking open a book worth of help text. The closest to actually iconographically explaining mechanics would probably be fighting games, which these days has training modes that let you see each character's full moveset.
• Combat
        MK has an interesting combat system that simplifies and streamlines combat considerably, but without dumbing down the overall experience. When you attack a monster, there are three phases. First is the Range Attack Phase, where you may play any Ranged or Siege** attack cards or abilities. If you have enough points to equal or exceed the monster's defense, they are dead and you can claim your reward. If not, you enter the Blocking and Damage Allocation phase, where the monster gets to hit you, and you must either play a number of block points equal to the strength of the attack, or take wounds, allocating them to your hand or to one of your units. Finally, you enter your normal Attack phase, where you can play any type of attack to kill the monster (if you can).
  
        **Identical to Ranged, except it can be used against Fortified opponents, which Ranged cannot.
  
        This system is interesting for a couple reasons. First, it is deterministic, rather than being based on any kind of dice roll. If you have the right cards, you will be able to kill a monster. No critical hits or percent chances of getting a wedgie. This makes combat feel much more like a chess move than a bet placed on a roulette table. I mention in my previous post how I feel the best way to create the thrill of skill-based play is to make in-game actions be based on the player's choices and actions, not the random calculations of the computer, and I think this accomplishes that quite nicely. Second, it is fast and easy to get through without sacrificing it's depth or strategic potential.
  
  
  
        The streamlined nature of combat makes a lot of sense for a board game, as unlike in a video game the players are responsible for all the number crunching. It also makes sense from a game pacing perspective. Video games with complex combat systems generally have either a turn-based combat system, or feature encounters with only a few opponents. This makes it so the player can easily see when their dismembering, or stun attacks, or parrying, etc are making a difference, and the added realism makes for a compelling fight. Perhaps the best old-school example of this is the combat system of Prince of Persia 3D, which featured vertical attacks, left and right horizontal attacks, as well as the ability to feint, parry, or block as you saw fit.
  
        Cool mechanics and such may be cool in a game with a few opponents, but if you are mowing down waves of dozens or even hundreds of enemies in a game like Dynasty Warriors, it can quickly become chaotic. Not only does it pose a risk of confusing the player, but it could also very well just be completely ignored, given the pacing of the combat.
  
• Character Advancement
       Each time a player gains enough Fame to level up, they will either gain a new command token or gain an Advanced Action card (and new skill), alternating between the two each level. Gaining a command token raises your unit allowance by one and will increase your defense, hand size, or both. It is a nice, incremental bonus that gives you just a little more power.
  
       Gaining new Advanced Action card is a bit more dramatic. Most advanced action cards give you great benefits, and are sometimes powerful enough to really change the course of a whole turn. Yet for all their power, in the grand scheme of things they actually don't affect the game as dramatically as you may think. Rather than giving players a power to call upon at any moment, players are given a new ability that must be carefully and wisely used during the game round. This creates more punctuated moments of power, making the player feel stronger without dramatically effecting the balance of the game. It is more like improving your critical hit chance than your base damage.
  
        The new cards are further balanced, paradoxically, by how powerful they actually are. Because they can have such a dramatic effect on your turn, they have to be used very carefully. Many can be made even more potent if played at the right moment, making its use a very careful consideration for the player. They are powerful enough to be consistently useful, but not so useful that they become a "no brainer" ability.
  
       One could compare this system to the ability system of Battlehearts, where you gain new abilities every couple levels, but those abilities tend to have significant cooldowns. There is a decent variety between abilities that are "no brainers" that you want to use at every possible opportunity, and situational abilities that can be dramatically more powerful at the right moment. This is to be expected, of course, given the large market the game is targeting.
  
  
  
       Skyrim, on the other hand, went about this wrong, and it is one of the big reasons why I lost interest in the game after a while. There are really no situational spells or abilities in the game to speak of. All of them are useful and with the right specializations can be freely and arbitrarily chosen on a whim. The elemental system of ice being effective against warriors, lightning against mages, and fire against everybody goes a little way toward alleviating this, but not far enough.
  
       The result is that battles have very little in the way of true strategy or tactics, and your choice of what kind of spells to hurl at your opponent or weapons to use are pretty much purely arbitrary, with no clear reason to favor one over the other outside of personal preference. Again, this make sense if you are appealing to the casual crowd who perhaps isn't a Rhodes Scholar in the Art of War, but it needlessly sacrifices some satisfaction to your more hardcore players.
• Variant Rules
       Finally, I would say one of the best features of the game is the fact that there are so many different ways to play. Contained in the rulebook are numerous variant rules and scenarios which let you tailor your experience to the preference of your players. Do you want to play a tooth-and-nail competitive brawlfest for the conquest of the continent? Or are you in a more touchy-feely mood and would rather play a cooperative game? Hate everyone and want to just play by yourself? Or are you and your buddies a bunch of stoned druids that think that wandering around the forest and summoning dragons to fight is a great way to pass the time? (see the "Druid Nights" scenario on page 17 of the Rulebook). All of these options are welcome and embraced.
  
       In all honesty, I can only speculate on this chicken-or-the-egg conundrum of whether video games or board games started offering different modes for different players first. I am inclined to say board games, since we have had complex tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40k stretching back to the 70s and 80s respectively. But who knows?
  
       Regardless, the benefits of offering many modes and variants makes the game much for appealing to a bigger audience of gamers, both in terms of their tastes, the amount of friends they have available, how much time they have, or how much of a challenge they want to take on. Video games have only started to scratch the surface of the potential of offering such diverse choices.

Banding together with our Board Game Brethren!
     Sure, great board games like this one may not pull in the money or have the name recognition of video games, but ignoring them would be a big mistake in my opinion. There remains a vast treasure trove of great design decisions and discoveries and concepts borne out of board games that most video games today have not even considered.

     To me, good game design is good game design, whether it is on a table, TV, or computer screen. I hope that in some small way I can help bring more attention to great board games out there and foster a greater bond of mutual collaboration between the board game and video game industries. There is much we can learn from eachother, and even more to gain from it.

Shinobi - The Way of the Badass

A Ninja Is You!
     Shinobi for the PS2 is one of those hidden gems that doesn't get the attention it deserves. This stylish, Hiro Nakamura-approved action game has you stepping into the shoes of Hotsuma, a ninja of the Oboro clan, tasked with defeating the evil sorcerror Hiruko and his army of Hellspawn and zombies. It's stylish presentation and fast-paced, well-designed combat system make it an excellent model of how action games should be done.

     Not many praise this game the way I do. At the time of its released, it got only mediocre reviews from critics and mixed reviews from players. Some people couldn't get past the steep difficulty curve (noobs), others couldn't handle its camera system (Pro Tip: Use R1 to lock on to enemies. Problem solved.) But even more seem to miss the genius of this game's combat system. Though simple, it does an excellent job of rewarding skilled players by allowing them to wield the power to take out a horde of enemies in seconds, or slay a boss in a couple well-timed hits.

     While this game certainly isn't friendly to the casual player, there is much to be learned from Shinobi. Not only does it have a great combat system, but it also successfully blends all the key ingredients that make a player feel badass.

Being Badass
     One of the most fundamental aspects of designing an action game is making the player feel empowered. Sure, it may be fun to watch a cutscene showing how awesome the protagonist is (or in Nero's case, how awesome he wishes he was), or being able to press a "kill every enemy in the room" button a la Knights of the Old Republic. But at the end of the day action games are most satisfying when the players feel they are the ones fighting the enemies themselves.

• Putting the Power in the Player's Hands
       A cornerstone of Shinobi's combat system is what it calls the "Tate System." In the game, Hotsuma wields a powerful cursed sword known as Akujiki. It is a weapon of tremendous power, but it feeds on the yin energy of the souls of those it slays (or, if no one else is available, whoever happens to be wielding it - ie you). On the plus side, each time you slay an enemy, the sword becomes empowered and deals more damage with each subsequent kill. After a string of successful kills, a player can easily one-shot even the most powerful enemies, and even cut a boss's health bar in half in a single strike.
  
       Of course, making the most out of this system is easier said than done. It requires a careful mastery of your ability to scan nearby enemies, quickly decide the best order to kill them in, and then use your coordination and reflexes to close the distance between enemies while your sword is charged. This is made easier by the Stealth Dash ability, which allows you to dash forward quickly or move around behind enemies, leaving a ghostly copy of yourself as a diversion for your enemies. This all creates a system that keeps players on their toes, and makes combat quick yet tactical at the same time.
  
       Based on conventional wisdom, you would think that say that without a proper upgrade system or additional weapons a combat system like this would get boring after a few levels. But you would be wrong. Over the course of the game, as the player comes to grok the combat system, they will naturally be able to take on tougher and tougher opponents while feeling like they are steadily growing in power. Not because they hit level 50, or have +60 strength from their Stache of Manliness, or from picking up the Ultra Vorpal Dancing Sword of Universal Annihilation, but because they themselves have gotten better at the game. They can see themselves grow in power before their own eyes, and that is the ultimate feeling of empowerment.
  

Of course if strategy isn't your thing, perhaps power-leveling to level 999 is more up your alley.



• The Allure of Power
       Power shouldn't merely be shown in a game, it should be felt by the player. If a character is calling down a meteor out of the sky, then it should deal a lot of damage and feel like it has impact behind it. It is much more exciting when your spells feel powerful than spells you see in a game like Guild Wars, for instance, which had to sacrifice the power of its spells in the name of having a balanced multiplayer experience. Calling down meteors didn't decimate a city, but instead made people trip and fall and take some damage. Woo hoo? That's not to say that kind of balance doesn't work for that game, and I loves me some Guild Wars (Guild Wars 2 could not come fast enough), but it just doesn't make the player feel particularly powerful.
  
  
  
       Dawn of War 2, on the other hand, did not shy away from having uber units and abilities, but embraced them. This is best illustrated in how they handled balance between vehicles and infantry units. In a game like Starcraft 2, you may see a group of marines take down a massive unit like a Mothership, since that is a game based around soft counters, where every unit theoretically has a shot against any other unit. DoW2 takes a different approach.
  
       In DoW2, vehicles and walkers are virtually impervious to small arms fire, walkers can fling infantry around like rag dolls, and tanks can wipe out entire squads in a couple shots. The only way to counter them it to build anti-vehicle weapons, which itself creates interesting metagame possibilities. Do you build anti-vehicle units to counter possible vehicles from your opponent, spend the requisition to tech up to better units, or build up your infantry more in the hopes of outmaneuvering your opponent? In other words, it makes a significant difference whether a player gets vehicles or not, as it can force an opponent to rethink their whole strategy to handle the massive threat they pose to their forces. Vehicles rightfully feel powerful and threatening.
  
  
• Crafting a Believable Threat
       Power just isn't interesting without an element of vulnerability. A player can be godlike in power, but if all the player ever faces are weaklings then there just isn't as much pleasure in defeating them. To really make the player feel they are a powerful warrior facing a formidable foe, both the player's character and the enemies themselves must be appropriately threatening.
  
       In Shinobi, you have to contend with large groups of enemies, with health powerups being few and far between. The result is that you have to watch your health carefully and hope you down a miniboss before you die to a stray shot. Despite being dangerous, enemies can be easily killed. Contrast this to what God of War does when you play Spartan mode, which makes enemies both deal more damage and take less damage. The result is that battles that should be routine and quick become protracted slogs, with the player feeling like a weakling fighting superior foes, undermining their sense of power. It is far better to have enemies deal more damage yet remain as fragile in normal mode, to maintain pacing while being a little more punishing with mistakes.
  
  
  
       Just as important is to make major enemies as menacing in-game as they are made out to be in the story. In Knights of the Old Republic 2, the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus was able to kill the entire population of a planet with his mind, and keeps a derelict star destroyer together with his thoughts. Yeah yeah, the Miraluka were especially force-sensative and thus vulnerable to attack. Yes, the ship he controls isn't technically a Star Destroyer despite looking like one, and the protagonist is conveniently a "hole in the force" which makes him/her uniquely qualified to fight him thanks to being immune to Nihilus's mind murderings... while otherwise exactly the same as any other Jedi in every other respect.
  
       I suppose with all those caveats you could say it makes sense that the protagonist could kill Darth Nihilus, a god among the Sith, in a straight-up lightsaber duel. Sadly this poor, barely corporeal being of pure evil and hate couldn't be bothered to have a few captive jedi to suck the souls from to replenish his health, or even stun the rest of your party like Darth Malak did in the first game. But you know, it's cool, because he was really hungry for that tasty tasty force energy he was promised from the Jedi temple he thought he was orbiting over.
  
       But in all seriousness, after how much time was devoted to making Darth Nihulus out to be the biggest, baddest Sith in the universe, ready to take on the whole Jedi academy single-handedly, he proved to be pathetically easy to kill. Far from being an epic confrontation, you end up mindlessly wailing on him just like you would any other nameless Sith enemy in the game, albeit with a bigger life bar. It made defeating him feel less like a heroic triumph and more like a speed bump to the overarching story.
  
  
  
       Compare all that to the fight with the Kayran in The Witcher 2. In that game an entire chapter was devoted to investigating and gathering supplies and information on how to kill the beast, and you even teamed up with a sorceress to take him on (unless you didn't. Ah, branching storylines!) Then when you finally got to him, it was a hulking monster which could kill you in a single swing of his tentacles. Now that was a moment that made you really feel like a proper monster slayer.
  

Feeling Badass
     Another important component of the badass formula is crafting a compelling narrative that makes players both sympathize with the protagonist and feel the weight of the challenge they face before them. The player should feel comfortable stepping into the shoes of the intrepid hero and motivated to take on the challenge of achieving the character's goal. Shinobi and its sequel Nightshade do a great job of illustrating how this should and should not be done, respectively.

     Nightshade's protagonist, Hibana, is a mercenary tasked with dealing with a rouge ninja clan headed by her former master and lover, Jimushi. During the first cinematic of the game, she bemoans the fact that today would have been a great day for a picnic and that today isn't her day. This isn't the last time she repeats this "today isn't my day" line either.

     Now let's pause for a moment. Hibana is working for some sort of military organization, conveniently wields a diet-Akujiki with all the same powers but none of the soul-sucking side effects (because really, why bother with the original, ancient artifact that is the envy of all ninja kind when you can just use a knock-off?), and she is pretty hot. I'd say she's doing well for herself, all things considered.

     Hotsuma, on the other hand, in the span of a few days had to kill his own brother in a duel, fight undead hordes composed of his former family and friends, and wield a sword that was constantly on the verge of devouring his soul. But does he bitch about it? No, he keeps his mouth shut through most of the game and takes on Hiruko and his minions like a boss.

     The point being that if there are to be any flaws with a character, they should serve to make the character more interesting and intriguing to a player, not less. Hotsuma is one man taking on an army with no backup, shouldering tremendous feelings of guilt and loss, and playing with fire by carrying around a cursed sword. Hibana is a hired mercenary tasked with stopping an evil corporation from taking over Tokyo, who has a thing for guys twice her age and a fondness for picnics. There just isn't enough interesting conflict and motivation behind Hibana to really take her seriously as a heroine, much less a badass.

Looking and Sounding Badass
     Finally, all of the above is moot unless you have good audio and visual design to complement the game's tone. For the design of Hotsuma, they went out of their way to make a stylized, futuristic looking ninja, with a sleek look and an awesome red scarf . They also added some interesting stylistic flourishes for when you successfully kill a series of enemies. This was all complimented with an awesome soundtrack that did a great job of creating a compelling atmosphere for the game.

     There are plenty of other great examples of this, including the soundtrack of Devil May Cry 3, which complimented the dark, brooding atmosphere and worked to reinforce Dante's own aesthetic style of being a half-demon demon-slayer. God of War's orchestral soundtrack also does an excellent job of making the battle-hardened Spartan feel like a force to be reckoned with. This all goes a long way toward creating the right kind of atmosphere and tension that can increase the player's engagement.

March gloriously into battle in your... skintight suit made of magic hair?

     Or you could forget all that and do what Platinum Games did with Bayonetta. Rather than trying to characterize Bayonetta as a strong, powerful woman that can kick some ass, they pretty much decided to make an anti-badass. Aloof, sensual, and more than a bit bizarre, Bayonetta's lolipop powerups and butterflies that appear when she double jumps make for a highly stylized and unique action game. As fun as the game was, it fell short in the story and immersion department since it was hard to really put yourself (man or woman) into the gun-heeled shoes of the absurdly-proportioned Umbra witch. Rather than feeling like a badass, you just end up feeling detached from the character, and thus more of an observer of where her wacky adventure will take her.

Laying Down the Law
     Making a truly badass game transcends mere mechanics, audio/visual presentation or story, but encompasses all three of these things. Like any good game, each piece builds upon the others to create a cohesive whole. One doesn't need to be making hardcore games to see the merit in looking to the fundamentals of player empowerment and pushing the right emotional buttons to make players psyched to play your game. In my opinion making a player feel like they are doing great at your game is far more satisfying than a player gaining more stats and stuff to artificially boost their performance.

Battleheart - Straddling the Casual/Hardcore Divide

Finding the Holy Grail of Game Design
      The game industry lies at an interesting juncture between business and art. Inherent to this condition is the constant struggle between creatives and businessmen trying to figure out what kind of game products will make the most money while also being satisfying for players. This can lead to trade-offs and compromises being brokered, all in the name of maximizing profits.

      Central to these dueling forces are gaming demographics. On one end of the spectrum are the challenging and often competitive experiences of hardcore games, which stand to test the reflexes and wits of experienced gamers and satisfy them through feeling they have accomplished a formidable task. On the other hand you have casual games, which are much more calm and are about providing a light, fun, low-commitment experience to share with friends or just to stave off boredom during a long bus ride.

      On the surface, it seems these two types of games are polar opposites, and attract very different audiences. But what if a game could be made that could bridge this gap, and unite all gamers in the bonds of peace, love, and friendship?

Artist's rendition of a gaming paradise.

The Battle Begins
      Battleheart is a game I feel comes close to hitting that magical sweet spot of being intuitive enough for anyone to pick up and play, yet have enough depth to keep a hardcore gamer hooked. Developed for iOS and Android devices, Battleheart offers a light action-RPG experience with simple controls and a surprising amount of tactical and strategic choices. May not be the kind of game to give your middle aged mother, but it's a step in the right direction.

      In the game, you control four characters via a touch-screen interface, giving your characters commands by pressing and dragging a line to a target. This is context-sensative, and can be used to send a knight to attack a goblin as easily as it can allow a healer to heal an ally. Each class then has a series of special abilities they can use. When a character is clicked on, a set of buttons appears in the top left corner that can be used to activate the unit's various powers, with a simple cooldown on each of them to prevent spamming.

      The result is a system with a good mix of autonomy and micromanagement, not unlike your typical RTS game, or the paradigm system used in Final Fantasy XIII. While battles are not always difficult with the right team composition, the player is always kept on their toes, micromanaging their characters to keep them alive and trigger their special abilities at opportune times.

      Outside of combat, the game has a simplified system of equipment and ability management that is likewise a good mix of accessibility with a good amount of depth. Equipment works a lot like in classic Final Fantasy games, with a weapon, armor, and two accessory slots, and the easy ability to buy and sell new items as needed. Equipment doesn't play a huge role in the game, but there is a good variety of accessories to customize your characters to your playstyle.

      Additionally, characters gain new special abilities every five levels, with most levels offering a choice of two different abilities. Your choice of abilities can be swapped any time out of combat, giving the player a sort of simplified talent tree to allow them to customize their characters and adjust their strategy freely. Combined with the ability to swap out party members and experiment with different team compositions, players have a lot of choices of how they want to customize their party, as well as how difficult they want to make the experience for themselves (who needs healers, anyway?).

      At each level of Battleheart's design, one can see areas where the designers took elements from more complex games and simplified them down to their most essential components, preserving the joy a player gets out of interacting with such systems while making them easier to pick up and understand intuitively.

      It is this concept of breaking down the hardcore game experience into its core parts that I feel is the key to creating a game that can appeal to all gamer crowds.

Boldly Going Where Several Have Gone Before
      Battleheart is not the first game to attempt to bring mainstream game design closer to a casual market, but the phenomenon still remains rather rare. Arguably one could say Nintendo games have been following this trend for years, but I feel they do not reach a level of maturity or complexity to truly scratch the hardcore gamer itch as something like Battleheart does.

      So what games have managed to do this? Here's a few recent examples:

• Puzzle Quest
        Puzzle Quest, is a game that attempts to meld the simple and addictive qualities of a puzzle game with an epic roleplaying adventure, complete with classes, spells, and equipment to alter your abilities. It does a great job of leveraging the addictive qualities of a puzzle game while adding additional depth to allow players to look at such a game from a different angle. By mixing the old with the new it is able to lure players in and endear them to the new mechanics without them getting in the way of the core experience.

• Bastion
        Playing like a typical hack and slash, Bastion primarily plays like an action game with a few minor RPG elements to spice things up, including customizable powerups from various drinks and upgradable weapons. The real genius of this game, however, lies in how it handles difficulty.
        The player is able to visit a special temple building to activate different gods, which in turn give enemies a buff in return for giving the player extra experience for killing them. This system not only allows players to tweak the degree of challenge they want to face, but also define exactly what that challenge will be.
        Enemies taking too long to die but you've become good at dodging? Switch a few gods and raise an enemy's damage while turning off their damage reduction. It is handled in such a way that it is clear these are meant to provide an extra challenge, making the player feel empowered to choose them, as opposed to games like God of War which ask the player if they want to switch to easy mode if they are doing poorly. It also has the added benefit of allowing players to take on bigger challenges at their own pace, and choose exactly what those challenges will be, without forcing them to commit to a specific difficulty setting.

• Heavy Rain
        When you think of casual games, you most often think of cutesy games like Angry Birds - inoffensively cute and safe for children. What's rare is seeing a casual game tackle any real dark or mature themes*. Enter Heavy Rain, a game of modest complexity that is looking to do just that.
  
  *I could be wrong, of course. Haven't come across any myself but if you have an example of one I would be happy to be proven wrong.
  
        It is hard to classify Heavy Rain as a casual game in the traditional sense, but it is nonetheless a good example of an accessible game dealing with mature subject matter. In addition to having fairly simple gameplay, it deftly tackles one of the most off-putting aspects of a hardcore game: punishment for failure. Now, it doesn't take the Prince of Persia route and just make it impossible to die, but instead features a branching story, where regardless of success or failure the story continues, changing as a result of your actions.
  
        This "the story must go on" approach the game takes is helpful in a number of ways. Not only does it remove the punishing aspect of being forced to replay a part of the game you just experienced, but also makes it so there are minimal barriers to keep the story moving. This did well to encourage most players to complete the game start to finish, in contrast to a study showing only 10% of gamers complete the games they buy.

The Money Game
      While game designers can pat themselves on the back for coming up with clever ways to draw in a larger chunk of the gamer demographic, does this translate into better sales? Does the difficulty of making a game attract a few more diehard gamers justify the extra effort? I think it does.

      The advantages of targeting a casual audience are obvious enough. The sheer numbers of non-traditional gamers out there drawn in by games like Farmville is undeniable, many of whom are certainly outside of the usual demographic of 18-30 year old men. These games can not only reach children clamoring for the next thing to hold their attention, but also older folks with some disposable income and free time on their hands.

      The more traditional kind of games are still alive, of course. Good games that draw in a hardcore following enjoy an energized fanbase and strong brand loyalty. One need only look at major e-Sport events such as Major League Gaming to see how the popularity of hardcore games has grown and is quickly taking on a life of its own.

      To create a game that can appeal to both crowds is to get the best of both worlds. You can have a large userbase thanks to your game being accessible and fun, while still having a strong following of core gamers that will carry the word of how great your game is. Further, if the game is successful in hitting both markets, you'll be able to get word-of-mouth promotion from gamers and non-gamers alike.

Overcoming obstacles
      Making a game that appeals to both a hardcore and casual crowd is certainly a tall order, and it is little wonder that few games have been able to do it successfully. Hardcore game design and casual game design approach games from very different angles, and melding the two isn't always easy. Regardless, I think this is the best way for companies to not only make big profits from sales but also help push games into a solid and lasting hobby for consumers.

      ADDENDUM: Apparently Bastion is now easier than ever to play. If you don't have Steam or a 360, you canbuy the game and play it right in the Chrome web browser! Sweet deal!

Planescape: Torment and the Evolution of the RPG

This Mirmir's got stories he's dying to tell
      Allow me to preface this post by saying Planescape: Torment is the game that got me interested in Game Design. Never before did I think games could touch on topics so mature and nuanced as it does and in a way that is both fun and compelling on so many levels. Playing it was the first time I realized the potential of the gaming medium as a legitimate storytelling platform. While not the perfect game, it is easily the most inspirational game I have ever played.

      In spite of all the praise I give it, I have only recently gotten around to beating the game, following a GameFaqs walkthrough so I wouldn't miss a thing. I am now in a position where I can truly reflect on the game in its entirety.

Now pike it, berk, while I give you the chant...
      Planescape: Torment is a classic of PC Roleplaying Games, and many consider it to be one of the greatest RPGs of all time. With a compelling plot, very unique game world, and a little bit of philosophy thrown into the mix, one could say its one of the most sophisticated games ever to grace the world of PC Gaming.

Still waiting on that Planescape: LittleBigPlanet mod...

      The player takes on the role of the Nameless One, an amnesiac man who wakes up on a slab in a mortuary. He soon discovers that he is immortal, and with a trail of clues left on tattoos on his back he embarks on a journey to discover the nature of his mortality and who he really is. His journey takes him to all corners of the Planes, from the clockwork labyrnth of the Modron Cube, to the upper levels of the Nine Hells and beyond. All the while he comes across a diverse cast of characters, from a talking skull, to a sentient suit of armor, and even a chaste, lawfully good succubus to name a few.

      Based on the original vision of the game*, the designers went out of the way to subvert the common tropes and cliches of the RPG genre. The result is that you will find no swords, healing potions, or generic spells to be found. In fact, every item and character you interact with in this game is made with such care as to be both memorable and reflect the unique style of the game. They truly went out of their way to make the look and feel of the game really reflect the bizarre and imaginative world of its source material and challenge the player's preconceptions at every turn.

      *I recommend playing the game before looking over the plot and villains sections, as they contain spoilers.

The Planes
      The game is based upon the Planescape campaign setting of the 2nd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and represents one of the most unique settings I have seen in a game. It is essentially a fantasy afterlife, where depending on how good, evil, lawful, or chaotic you are, you end up being reborn on one of the respective planes to that alignment. All of the planes rest upon a sort of funnel-shaped spire of infinite height, with the city of Sigil at its center.

      From Sigil, one is able to travel anywhere in the planes, they need only know the key and the door that leads to it. That key can be anything, from a physical key, to a thought, gesture, etc and the doors are just as diverse. Thus Sigil becomes a hub of all the strange and fantastical creatures you can come across in the Planes.

      Sigil is ruled over by the godlike Lady of Pain, who guards over Sigil and prevents anyone from controlling it, while insisting no one dares worship her under the penalty of being "Mazed," or being trapped in a pocket dimensional maze that is almost impossible to escape from.

      All of this only scratches the surface of what you would find in the game, but is intended to paint a picture for you of a world where anything is possible, and everything around you has a delightfully strange, mysterious, and haunting quality about it.

Delving into the Dark of It
      Planescape: Torment's characterization of its world, characters, and items go far beyond what we see in most RPGs today. This is due in part to the changing market demands on RPGs and the gradual evolution of the genre. To truly understand why we don't see more games follow Planescape's example, one must examine the history of the genre as a whole.

RPG Osmosis
      Throughout its history, the RPG genre has been a sub-genre of sorts among existing genres. It is the sum of many influences over the years, including a few mentioned here:

• War Sim Influences
        The modern roleplaying game was born out of Dungeons and Dragons, and Dungeons and Dragons was born out of tabletop War Sim miniatures games. When looked at from this perspective you can see where a lot of the stats and other complexities of the genre came out of. When sophisticated video games became possible in the 80s you started to see the first RPGs that could do justice to the complex systems of games like D&D.
  
  
  
  
        Ultima was an early example of this trend*. Featuring stats, levels, spells, etc it was among the first games to try to bring the magic of D&D into our computers. To add to the realism of the experience, many games in the series required players to carefully manage food, drink, and sleep for their characters to be effective. These kinds of systems were put into the game for the sake of greater immersion, to make the player feel like they were a real adventurer. For die-hard fans of those games, it did just that, but many more people found such systems to be annoyances and barriers to having fun.
  

*Note: I have never played any of the Ultima games, so this information is primarily drawn from other sources.

• Adventure Game Influences
        As the 90s came rolling in, some of the more obtuse systems used for "realism" of early RPGs were phased out, but the adventuring aspects remained the same. Exploring the world, seeking out hidden treasures and questing remained alive and well. In many ways they resembled a more complicated version of Adventure games of the time, which challenged players to figure things out on their own as they explored the game world.
  
  

  So sayeth the wise Alaundo...

  
        In contrast to today, however, many games did not hold the player's hand when it came to telling them where to go for their next quest. Indeed, even as late as 1999 Baldur's Gate did not even have a quest log, instead burying quests alongside other comments on events that have transpired on your journey. Further, there were no map markers to tell you where to go or even the name of different places on the world map.
  
        Going back to Planescape, which came out later the same year, even that game had huge amounts of game content that was not easy for a player to stumble upon. Players really had to search every nook and cranny and talk to all the interesting NPCs to really get the most of the experience. And even then the wrong dialog choice or character build could shut you out of some brilliant exposition or backstory.
  
        This was all done to reward exploration, lateral thinking, and the player's ability to navigate through the game world.
  
• Action Game Influences
        Over the last several years, we have seen a surge in the number of action-RPGs, epitomized by a game like Mass Effect. In contrast to older games, they have adopted the modern conventions of easy to identify quest NPCs, detailed navigational hints to reach quests and objectives, simplified spell and ability systems, and a greater focus on skill-based gameplay.
  
  
  
  
        This is certainly appealing for many gamers, as action games and shooters in particular enjoy the largest player base. Likewise because action games are all about momentum, minimizing frustrations for players makes a lot of sense. Of course, this is where making an action-RPG can sacrifice some of the best qualities of an RPG.
  
        As mentioned before, one of the best qualities of a game like Planescape is the richness of its game world. The archetecture of buildings, the characters, and even the strange items like talking books or magical tattoos add a lot of character to the game. When you move toward streamlining the experience, it can sometimes take a lot of these elements out. In Mass Effect, for instance, most of the items of interest are weapons and health packs, with a few different choices of armor. While this makes it easier for a player to pick out and find what they need quickly, and keep the pace of the game, it goes against the more slow-paced immersion of RPGs of the past.
  
        EDIT: A better example is the fact that Mass Effect is a game that shows you directly where to go to complete a quest, in contrast to earlier RPGs. For a player primed to go from point A to point B as quickly as possible as most action games encourage, this can work against a slower-paced exploration and inspection of the game world. Indeed, this even effects the design of locations the player can visit. In Mass Effect one can clearly see there are very few NPCs to interact with, and every town has clearly marked stores to buy items and equipment, in contrast to the more organic cities of Planescape.
  
  

  As a side note, what other RPG has a triumphant theme song about how much of a legendary badass you are?*

  
        Not all is lost, though. Skyrim has done an excellent job of blending the thrill of exploring and discovering secrets with modern interface and usability updates. It's first person perspective combined with strong incentives to explore and wander around the game world goes a long way toward creating the kind of world immersion that older RPGs strove for. It's not just about stepping into the game world, but embracing its culture and feel like you are stepping into a living, breathing world.

Changing the nature of a man

      No RPG since Planescape has been able to capture such a distinct and intricate world as effectively as it had. Every location, character, item, spell, and ability oozed originality and depth on a level no game could match. The challenge of Planescape is not in slaying monsters or solving puzzles, but in wrapping your head around this bizarre world, and its alien rules, culture, and laws of reality.

      It is a game that challenges the player to think deeply, both about its world and their own, and spark the player to look at the world differently than they ever did before. I sincerely hope that RPG developers out there will think long and hard on the lessons of Planescape.


* * *

      *It just occured to me that if this song is written in the Dragon tongue, then the only in-game explanation of who sings it is either:

1. The ancient oppressed people's that lived under Alduin's rule thousands of years ago
2. The Greybeards that are supposedly the few people that understand the dragon tongue in its entirety, or
3. A chorus of dragons who think Alduin is an asshole and are rooting for you to kick his ass.

Personally, I'm cool with any one of those possibilities. ;)

Ability Management and the Human Revolution

For the Uninitiated...
      Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel to the critically acclaimed Deus Ex released back in 2000. It follows the story of Adam Jensen, the chief of security for Sarif Industries, a massive corporation on the cutting edge of human augmentation (aka making cyborgs). Following a particularly gruesome brush with death, Adam is revived thanks to cybernetic "augmentation" technology, making him better, faster, stronger... with a few extra toys the 6 Million Dollar Man could only dream of.

      This is all set to a backdrop of intrigue and conspiracy, staples of the series, centering largely on the ethical quandary of whether human augmentation (ie slicing off limbs to replace them with robotic parts, enhancing the brain, etc) should be regulated.

      The game plays like your typical sci-fi first person shooter, with a heavy emphasis on stealth and using your augmentations to get an edge on your foes. It is well executed and blends its RPG elements well into the action.

      But forget all of that, lets talk ability management.

Always pack a few Energy Bars!
      Of all the things to stand out about DX: HR's mechanics, I found its energy system the most unusual.

      In DX:HR, you have a set of energy cells below your health bar, between 1 and 5 depending on upgrades. Abilities will either deplete your energy slowly, or cost an entire cell. If you have a partially depleted cell, it will replenish over time, but if you use up a full cell, it can only be restored by using items.

      At first I found this system odd, and took a little while to get used to, but after thinking about it for a little bit, I realized this is actually a very elegant piece of design.

      This kind of ability management system allowed for a player to manage their energy in interesting ways. Players could choose to use their cloaking or see-through-walls ability in short bursts to use them essentially for free, or blow through all their energy to stealthily clear out a room, but be tapped out afterward. It added a new dimension to the energy bar in a way that went beyond what I expected, adding nuance without being overly complex.

Going Deeper
      Looking at DX:HR's energy system inspired me to look at how other games deal with ability management, and how those design choices impact the player's experience. Regardless of whether they use mana, energy, or some other sort of resource, there are a few paradigms that show up frequently across the many games I've played.

• Traditional Mana Pool A system where a player has a resource that is sufficient to allow players to use abilities fairly frequently, but eventually cuts them off or forces them to invest in mana potions or take a break before being at full capacity. This system rewards a player that uses their abilities occasionally, while punishing a less frugal player. Almost every Final Fantasy (I through X) uses a system like this.

• Precious Resource An ability management system where every ability used diminishes a resource that is not easy to replenish, or takes a long time to replenish. This forces players to consider each ability used carefully, forcing players to be strategic and think ahead and decide whether to use an ability during a particular engagement, or save it for later. The energy system of caster units in Starcraft 2 are great examples of this.

• Clutch Similar to precious resource, but usually only applies to a few specific abilities granted to the player. Generally these are the once or twice per encounter abilities (such as Biotic Powers in Mass Effect) or once per day powers (such as the racial powers in Skyrim). They are usually very powerful abilities that can turn the tide of battle, but can just as easily be wasted. They rely not only on timing and forethought, but also skill in accessing an encounter and determining if it warrants using such an ability.

• Burst Where you are able to use abilities in rapid succession, but with a period of downtime afterward. The clearest example of this comes from the energy-based champions of League of Legends, such as Kennen, Akali, or Shen (shown below). Similar to clutch, this kind of system also emphasizes timing, but also allows a player to go all-in with everything without as much downtime as in a Diminishing resource system.

Consequences and Tradeoffs
      Each ability system has its benefits and tradeoffs, which much be taken into consideration when it comes to game balance. It is easiest to compare these systems side-by-side in a game like League of Legends, which features a huge variety of different ability management schemes for each of its 50+ champions.

The Real Cost of Mana
      Champions that use a Traditional Mana Pool are generally the ones with the most powerful abilities right out of the gate. The main drawback for them is that eventually they have to return back to the nexus to replenish their mana more often than other characters. This leads to more downtime, and forces them to invest in mana replenishing items or items that boost their maximum mana, which can hold back their damage potential.

      On the other hand, by late-game they can end up having so much mana that mana use becomes a non-issue, as they can spam their abilities with impunity. While it isn't a huge deal in the session-based play of League of Legends, it can be a problem with single-player games, as by the end of the game a player may well have the ability to use their abilities with impunity. Most RPGs compensate for this by having higher-level spells cost more, however, but that isn't always enough. (see my Knights of the Old Republic example below)

Not Enough Mana!
      Traditional Mana Pool and Precious Resource systems can also fall prey to attrition, where the player doesn't have enough of the resource they need to do anything. Generally this is not a huge deal in League of Legends, but I can recall a time when playing Final Fantasy VII when I neglected to buy enough ethers (which can't be bought in most places) and thus ran out of MP before being able to kill the final boss. In these kind of situations this can lead to tremendous frustration for players, hence why more modern versions of these systems usually have some system of passive regeneration of these resources, or some other means of replenishing these that is always available.

The Sustain Pain Train
      Clutch and Burst-type champions have a significant advantage over Traditional Mana Pool champions, as they are able to remain in their lane longer, and don't have to waste money on replenishing or increasing their mana allowance. This translates into more money for better items, and the ability to remain in one's lane longer to farm gold and experience. To compensate for this advantage, burst-type champion's abilities usually do less damage than their Traditional Mana and Precious Resource counterparts, while Clutch abilities tend to have significantly long cooldowns.

      In other games, such as Mass Effect, this system works excellently in keeping a steady pace to the game and complements the more tactical decision making action games of its kind leverage. It frees players from having to worry about some mana pool running out or when to use a powerful ability so players can enjoy the thrill of the combat, rather than scratching their head while they draw out their battle plans.

Final Thoughts
      Ability management systems have a huge impact on how a player interacts with a game, and can help or hinder the overall feel of a particular game or playable character. When designing such systems, there are a number of things a designer should consider:

Self-Sufficiency vs Incentives
      If we think of ammunition in a First Person Shooter as a type of ability management system (which it is), then we can easily make sense of the old FPS convention of having health and ammo packs scattered around levels. This encouraged exploration by rewarding players for finding hidden rooms or other nooks and crannies in the level. Modern games put less of a reliance on going out of your way to find health and ammo, with most FPS adopting a fully regenerating health system akin to Halo and plenty of ammo dropped by fallen enemies, making nooks and crannies more of an optional venture for those that want a few extra grenades or rockets.

      But having a good system that rewards and encourages exploration for an exploration-based game can be a very important tool to keep games fresh. Skyrim, for example, has a system where a player must use soul stones to recharge their magical items after they have been used up (essentially a less annoying version of having to repair damaged equipment games like Fallout 3 have). This system is done in a way that is not intrusive or much of a hassle, while still making opening a chest only to find yet another common soul gem still be something useful to the player, and a subtle incentive to keep looking.

Avoid Mechanical Obsolescence
      If an ability management system is not balanced properly, then using an ability can go from being tactical to trivial later in the game. While it can add to a player's sense of growing power as their mana allowance grows, it can just as easily make the player feel nigh-invincible and strip any challenge out of the game.

I found Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 to be some of the most egregious offenders, as by the end of the game the sheer amount of Force Points at your disposal combined with no cooldowns on abilities made it possible to spam your most powerful spells to clear entire rooms of enemies in seconds and turn even the menacing boss into a joke.

I'm looking at you, Force Crush!

      Even if you are thinking in terms of a casual player who isn't looking for a lot of challenge, this still creates an upside-down difficulty curve. Early game the player would have to pay attention to their energy, health, etc and plan their actions accordingly, but by the end the only choice they have to make is whether to summon an ultra-demon to crush enemies slowly or kill them all outright with lightening bolts.

Put a New Twist on an Old Mechanic
      Innovations in ability management has gone a long way toward turning what started as a balancing mechanism into a fun component of the game in its own right. For example, in Skyrim, I have made a powerful mage character and equipped him with a Magicka-draining bow. Thus, whenever I run out of Magicka from casting spells, I can switch to my bow for a few shots until I'm back up to full again, then lay down the firey pain once again. While not the usual means of regaining magicka, it is nonetheless far more enjoyable that chugging a few mana potions and casting more spells.

      Tabletop roleplaying games have perhaps some of the most interesting takes on ability management, which go beyond a mana/energy resource. The Paradox system of Mage: The Ascension, for example, penalizes players for casting spells in front of mortals (on top of the cost to cast the spell normally). If they accumulate too many points in Paradox, some strange effect might occur, from a character's face turning into a black hole, a getting trapped in a repeating time loop, or becoming possessed by an evil spirit. Not only does this make the system more interesting but also reinforces the overall theme of the game.

Conclusions
      In short, ability management systems should be designed and looked at in terms of how they will impact player behavior, reinforce game pacing, and complement the atmosphere of the game's narrative.