Difference between revisions of "Enemies"

Revision as of 07:02, 23 April 2010

Game elements that are actively hindering players to complete game goals.

Many games have game elements that portray people or monsters that try and hinder players' goals. These Enemies can actively resist players' intentions through actions or they can be an explanation for challenges or obstacles in the Game World.

Examples

Early video games such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders have Enemies which provide challenges to the players even though they have a limited set of behaviors. Later games like the first-person shooter Doom series and the real-time strategy Age of Empires series have many types of Enemies that players need to face.

All the infected in Left 4 Dead Series are enemies to the players, although some are possible to avoid by not disturbing them. The same applies to Assassin's Creed 2 although this game allows more options for avoiding confrontation, e.g. distracting guards with hired thieves or courtesans as well as bribing heralds to stop being wanted by the authorities.

In fighting games, e.g. the Soul Calibur or Tekken series, players choose one of the available character to then meet another as an Enemy controlled either by another player or the computer. Similar structures exist in death-match versions in first-person shooters, e.g. the Doom or Quake series, and those game in the genre specifically designed for team play, e.g. Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and the Battlefield series.

Several games, e.g. Super Mario series, let players know who the main Enemy is but only makes it possible to actively fight him or her at the end. A version of this is to let players know that there is an enemy but only reveal its identity when one can act against it.

Space Alert shows how Enemies can exist in games as more abstract challenges that need to be overcome, in this case card representing threats that players need to work together against to beat.

Using the pattern

Agents in the form of Avatars or Units is a typically way of creating Enemies with diegetic presence in a Game World. By this their are natural ways of providing players with ways of interacting with them and understanding how the Enemies can effect the environment and the players. Enemies can however be indirectly present through how they create challenges to players, e.g. through Cards or by activating Traps, which in these cases are also typically accompanied by narrative explanations, e.g. through Cut Scenes. This indirect approach is especially common when the final Enemies are Boss Monsters which the players only get to directly struggle again at the end of the game or Level.

The cause for enmity between the player and the Enemies can usually be described through a Goal/Preventing Goal pair. By using high-level goal pairs, the Enemies can be used as the main driving force for Narrative Structures. Such an overarching goal can then be used to create numerous subgoals within a Hierarchy of Goals: a Collection of goals that consist of several duels, Gain Information goals to gain the identity of the Enemies or their Achilles' Heels, Overcome to defeat the henchmen of the Enemy, Supporting Goals to find the Tools or learn the Skills for defeating the Enemy, and so on. However, causes compatible with the diegesis need to be found to explain why these Enemies cannot be encountered early in the game if Diegetically Consistency is to be maintained.

For game elements to be able to function as Enemies they need some way of negatively effecting players. Actions that allow Combat is the most common but those giving players Penalties offer alternatives that do not diegetically imply Eliminate goals. Giving the Enemies the possibility of doing the actions players can may be required to provide Challenging Gameplay, e.g. Enemies without the possibility for Movement are in themselves typically not a challenge against players that control Avatars or Units that can move.

Another primary design choice when defining Enemies is how players can Overcome or Evade them after they have begun to actively oppose them. There may be many ways to do this, which may change during gameplay, and players may have to complete several subgoals before having the chance to challenge the Enemies at all. Typical ways of overcoming Enemies are by Elimination (most often in the form of Aim & Shoot as in first-person shooters such as the Doom series), by permanently making Interferable Goals impossible or by converting through succeeding with Gain Ownership goals.

The difficulty of Enemies can be modulated by changing their Skills, giving them Privileged Movement compared to the players, or simply changing their numbers. All these can be used to provide Challenging Gameplay, and this be further increase (and adding Complex Gameplay and Varied Gameplay) by using Orthogonal Unit Differentiation to give different Enemies different abilities. One example of this is the inclusion of the Arch-vile in Doom 2 and Doom 3 which can revive other dead Enemies or summon more respectively, and the priest of Age of Empires and monks of Age of Empires 2 that can convert enemy Units. Vulnerabilities and Achilles' Heels can instead make the Enemies easier to Overcome, but may require players to complete Gain Information goals first.

Other humans ofter the most unpredictable behavior, so in many cases the most challenging Enemies are found in Multiplayer Games. Algorithmic Agents can be made very challenging by having Privileged Actions or more information (i.e. the game has Asymmetric Information), but this easily conflicts with players' Perceived Chance to Succeed and sense of Player Balance, especially when this makes the effect of the Algorithmic Agents' actions into Ultra-Powerful Events.

Since setting the difficulty of enemies can be hard to in advanced, especially with games which supports Game Mastery, it may be desired to be able to adjust the difficulty in direct conjunction to the gameplay. Difficult Settings put this in the hands of the players and can let them choose between Casual and Challenging Gameplay if the range of difficulties is large enough. Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment makes use of algorithms to modify the difficulty of the game during gameplay depending on player performance or number of players. Game Masters can modulate players' Perceived Chance to Succeed not only on their actual chance to succeed but also what the players believe, but may also do so after the players have performed actions through Fudged Results.

Another aspect of Enemies is if they always behave in the same way or if they have different set of behaviors. Having Enemies in passive states, as for example some of the infected in the Left 4 Dead series, can provide players the opportunity to have a Freedom of Choice between Combat and Stealth goals. The same goes for Enemies that patrol areas with Guard goals, except that this create more Complex Gameplay. Games providing these different states have the possibility of using Alarms, either as Traps which players can set off or to give players the Preventing Goals of hindering the Enemies to activate the Alarms when they have detected something. Enemies that flee when hurt or outnumbered may provide Diegetic Consistency while at the same time also making it possible to have Catch or Eliminate goals before they heal, regroup, or get reinforcements.

Related to different set of behaviors, the Enemies do not have to be opposed to the players initially, instead being neutral or helping but becoming Enemies after the players have completed some action, e.g. related to a Gain Ownership or Eliminate goal. Thus, player may have the options of choosing if NPCs should be Helpers or Enemies which may require Tradeoffs.

Time Limits

Another design choice is where in a Game World or in a Level the Enemies are met. They may block paths to Traverse goal, which makes their appearance likely or guaranteed, they may be the objectives of Reconnaissance goals, or may be Surprises in Exploration goals. In games requiring Maneuvering they can provide additional hazards that have to be actively avoided.

Having the Enemies appear separated allows players to decide what Enemies to challenge first (which can be useful to counter Orthogonal Unit Differentiation), while having the Enemies appear together can modulate the Right Level of Difficulty between different areas of the Level.

Stimulated Planning

Diegetic Aspects

Typically Enemies are clearly differentiated from other game elements through shape and color to help provide Diegetically Outstanding Features. However, by presenting the Enemies in ways suitable, players can have Identification with them it can create a form of Social Dilemma as can having to perform certain actions to Overcome the Enemies.

Narrative Aspects

Many games show Enemies to the players through Cut Scenes before they can interact as a way of presenting Narrative Structures, and this is especially common with Boss Monsters.

Consequences

Enemies are the Characters or Avatars of players that have Preventing Goals or Agents or Units controlled by Dedicated Game Facilitators or Game Masters. The presence of Enemies in Game Worlds causes Tension and gives players motivation for Overcome goals, often through Combat. As such, they naturally cause Conflict or Competition as they threaten to make the players lose Lives orResources (working as a form of Consumers), or otherwise block the players' progress in the game.

The appearance of Enemies are nearly always Disruption of Focused Attention events and can require Attention Swapping when several different groups of Enemies exist. Enemies are often used to give the motivation for the unfolding of Narrative Structures in games. When players can identify common Enemies, this is usually a motivation for creating Alliances.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Attention Swapping, Aim & Shoot, Conflict, Combat, Competition, Alliances, Overcome, Social Dilemmas, Reconnaissance, Preventing Goals, Tension, Disruption of Focused Attention

Can Modulate

Exploration, Game World, Traverse, Evade, Levels, Narrative Structures, Right Level of Difficulty, Perceived Chance to Succeed, Maneuvering

Can Be Instantiated By

Avatars, Units, Agents, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Game Masters, Characters, Eliminate

Can Be Modulated By

Consumers, Privileged Movement, Identification, Orthogonal Unit Differentiation, Gain Ownership, Skills, Alarms

Potentially Conflicting With

History

An updated version of the pattern Enemies that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design^[1].

References

1. ↑ Björk, S. & Holopainen, J. (2004) Patterns in Game Design. Charles River Media. ISBN1-58450-354-8.