Making Mystery part 1

An Introduction to Mystery

Say you just finished high school. You have an immaculate GPA and have taken a healthy dose of extra curriculars. You can get into any school you want. Which one will you choose?

With any possible school there is Mystery. Will the professors be engaging? Will you get along with your classmates? How many single girls will be in your English class? You don’t know.

A Mystery is something unknown. It’s the classes you haven’t taken. It’s the people you haven’t met. It’s the profile and the relationship status you can‘t see.

What you don’t know could cost you. Your professors might have tenure and not give a shit. Your roommate might only wear polo shirts and listen to Nickleback. The single girls could be in the Nursing Program. A Mystery can bite. It’s like the hot sauce on your burrito.

Yet Mystery could have everything you want. The professors could be personable and passionate. The school might have shows for Ratatat and The Weepies. The girl in English Class could be looking for a study buddy. There’s the potential for joy and surprise.

A Mystery could be anything, from horrible to beautiful. From Nickleback to prophetic professors. From a poisonous mushroom to a 1-up. From evil to hope. You just don’t know. It's the Mystery which make a decision interesting.

What if there wasn’t any Mystery? What if you knew what would happen? Without Mystery there is no decision.

Take Tic Tac Toe as an example. For a child the game is interesting. Their decision of ‘where to put the X?’ has Mystery. They don’t know where their opponent will place an O. They don’t know the strategy. But once they understand the game it’s choices bore them. Every game will be a tie.

Or say you are playing an RPG and are in a dungeon. Should you go down the left path or the right one? Which one’s a dead end? Which one has treasure? If you’ve played the game before, the choice loses meaning. You know the left path leads to the +3 Broadsword of Kobold Crushing. There is nothing left to learn.

As Raph Koster argues in “A Theory of Fun,” learning is why people play games. Learning is the fun. Once it's done and the Mystery’s solved, the players stop playing. The kids put away Tic Tac Toe. The +3 broadsword gathers dust in your inventory. You finish school and get the degree. (Could be a fun game: Get the Degree!)

This is where the making of Mystery begins: with learning. How does a player learn? How do they gather clues? How do they solve a mystery?

...continued on Making Mystery part 2: Eating Cake

Interesting Decisions: Introduction

As a kid, I would buy pounds of skittles and then marathon a new game. It strikes me that most games are like junk food. They are made with simples sugars and pre-processed choices. For example: Should I open this treasure chest? Yes, it has treasure. Should I use my most expensive attacks against this boss? Yes, he’s a boss. Should I run my character in circles for hours? Yes, I want dizzying amounts of experience. I learned the hard way that some things aren't good for you. That some games are simple and stupid to a fault. And that eating candy for 30 hours straight will make you vomit.

As a game designer, I want to make good games. Games with intrigue. Games which are difficult to master. Games full of protein and complex choice-o-hydrates. I’m interested in making interesting decisions.

There is a famous quote from Sid Meier: “games are a series of interesting decisions.” He has made some interesting games, most notably the Civilization Series. Yet some people, like Chris Bateman, have objected to this. Others, like Mark Rosewater, use a broader criteria when looking at choice. ‘Interesting decision’ is not the only rubric used to create games. But, it is the one I will be writing on.

In this series I will discuss a few different things: What is a choice? What makes a choice interesting? What separates a difficult choice from and easy one? When should I use simple choices? How do punishment and reward effect choice? What should the cost be? How can choices create stories? This series is about choices, choices, and choices.

As part of the writing process, I will make a game to go with each section. The style will vary from classic games to video games, from simple to complex. I’ll also provide a bit of analysis on each one. Anyways to be continued in Making Mystery Pt 1.