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Outer Wilds: a game of curiosity-driven space exploration

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Outer Wilds: a game of curiosity-driven space exploration

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Content 1
Outer Wilds
A Game of CuriosityDriven Space Exploration
by
Alex Beachum
______________________________________________________________
A Thesis Paper Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
(INTERACTIVE MEDIA)
May, 2013
Copyright 2013 Alex Beachum
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Table of Contents
Abstract 3
Project Description 4
Motivation and Objectives 5
CuriosityDriven Exploration 6
Telling Stories of Distant Places 8
A Web of Curiosities 9
A World In Motion 11
Exploring the 4th Dimension 13
Knowledge Over Agency 14
Prior Art Review 15
Process and Evaluation 17
A Flawed Introduction 17
Welcome to the Space Program 20
Building Models of Complex Systems 22
Designing a World That Changes Over Time 23
Future Extensions 25
Conclusions 26
Works Cited 28
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Abstract
Outer Wilds is a space exploration game designed to inspire and reward player curiosity.
This paper defines the concept of curiositydriven exploration and discusses our attempts (both
failed and successful) to design for it over the course of development. It also delves into the
design of Outer Wilds’ simulated solar system, and investigates how creating a world governed
by dynamic forces affects freeform exploration.
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Project Description
Outer Wilds is a game about curiositydriven exploration in a world that changes over
time due to natural forces beyond the player’s control.
The game is a seamless firstperson experience in which players have just 20 minutes to
freely explore a miniature solar system as it dynamically evolves over time. After those 20
minutes are up, the sun goes supernova and the the Universe itself comes to an end. However,
the solar system is stuck in a time loop where each supernova sends the player back in time to
the beginning of the loop. Only by exploring over the course of multiple time loops can players
come to understand the history, systems, and secrets of the solar system.
Figure 1: The solar system
The aesthetics of Outer Wilds are meant to evoke the feel of a backpacking or
mountaineering expedition infused with NASA sensibilities. Equipment is made to look like slightly
worn expedition gear, and the planets themselves are subtly alien takes on realworld
geographical features and climate zones. The goal is to capture the daring and fragile nature of
space travel without making it feel cold, sterile, or impersonal.
With the exception of the introductory sequence, nearly all narrative in Outer Wilds is
embedded within the world for players to discover as they explore. Each piece of narrative fits
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into an overarching history of the solar system, which tells the story of an ancient race (inspired
by Anasazi culture from the American southwest) that traveled there millions of years ago in
search of an object older than the Universe itself. Piecing this narrative together requires players
to both understand the systems that govern the solar system as well as learn to navigate within
them as they evolve over time.
Motivation and Objectives
There are many political, scientific, and economic benefits to realworld space
exploration. “Through addressing the challenges related to human space exploration we expand
technology, create new industries, and help to foster a peaceful connection with other nations.”
1
Even so, I think the most fundamental reasons we explore the cosmos have little to do with
these practical justifications. The curiosity to explore distant planets, the courage to delve into
the unknown, and the desire to understand the nature of our constantlyevolving Universe are
emotional and valuedriven motivations that cannot be easily explained on a spreadsheet.
2
The primary objective of Outer Wilds is to capture this spirit of realworld space
exploration in an interactive experience. Unlike many games that feature spaceflight, such as PC
classics Elite and FreeSpace 2, Outer Wilds does not feature any combat or trading elements.
Nor is it primarily a space flight simulator, such as Lunar Flight or Kerble Space Program.
Instead, Outer Wilds is a game about exploring the unknown in order to answer questions about
the Universe. It attempts to convey these themes by supporting curiositymotivated exploration
and by depicting a volatile solar system that changes over time due to cosmic forces beyond the
player’s control.
1
NASA, “Why We Explore”, 2013
2
Griffin, “The Real Reasons We Explore Space”, 2007
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Curiosity-Driven Exploration
Humans explore for an incredibly wide variety of reasons. During the Age of Discovery,
expeditions were undertaken to discover new routes for the silk and spice trades, to expand
empires, to find gold and other sources of wealth, and to expand European knowledge of the
world. NASA’s website currently has an entire page titled “Why We Explore”, which maintains
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that “Humans are driven to explore the unknown, discover new worlds, push the boundaries of
our scientific and technical limits, and then push further.” During his 2007 GDC talk on
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exploration in games, Far Cry 2 creative director Clint Hocking observed that “Explorers all
seemed to explore for different reasons. They all have different drives. Some of them were
motivated by money, some by patriotism or nationalism, some of them by more of a pure desire
to go where people hadn’t been.”
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In virtual environments, player motivations to explore are similarly varied, depending on
both the structure of the game (how much freedom does it allow the player?) as well as
individual play style (is the player naturally inclined to explore?). Some players explore the
openended world of Skyrim in order to find new quests that will advance the narrative, some
explore to find alchemical ingredients or better equipment, and still others explore just to see
what sights the world has to offer.
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One of the major objectives of Outer Wilds is to create a game that rewards a specific
type of exploration, which I’ll refer to as “curiositydriven exploration”.
3
Briney, “Age of Exploration”, 2008
4
NASA, “Why We Explore”, 2013
5
Ruberg, “Clint Hocking Speaks Out On The Virtues Of Exploration”, 2007
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Ruberg, “Clint Hocking Speaks Out On The Virtues Of Exploration”, 2007
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1. “Curiosity is defined as a need, thirst or desire for knowledge”.
2. “Exploration refers to all activities concerned with gathering information about the
environment.”
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Using these definitions, curiositydriven exploration can be described as any situation in
which someone chooses to explore her environment (real or virtual) with the primary objective of
expanding her knowledge or understanding of it. Although it’s certainly possible for exploration to
be motivated by multiple factors, let’s assume that in order to be truly “curiositydriven”, the
expansion of knowledge must be the biggest (or the only) motivating factor.
Examples of CuriosityDriven Exploration:
● Climbing a mountain to see the view from the top.
● Digging up ancient artifacts and ruins to understand how a culture lived.
● Smashing particles together in a giant accelerator to figure out how the Universe is put
together.
● Diving into the deepest part of the ocean to discover what is there.
The common element between these examples of curiositydriven exploration is that
each one starts with a question (e.g. “What’s on the ocean floor?”), and the goal of exploration is
to find an answer to that question. Even something as simple as choosing to travel towards a
strangelyshaped object in the distance implies the question of “What is it like up close?” (and
possibly “What is it?”), and moving towards the object becomes an attempt to answer that
question.
7
Edelman, “Curiosity and Exploration”, 1997
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Telling Stories of Distant Places
In order for a game to allow this sort of curiositydriven exploration, it has to give players
something to be curious about. While placing interesting objects in the distance is certainly a
good starting point (and one that many games, including Outer Wilds, use frequently), there are
other ways to pique the player’s interest besides direct observation. In particular, The Legend of
Zelda: The Windwaker has been a huge source of inspiration for the way it encourages curiosity
by telling the player stories of distant places.
The Windwaker takes place on the Great Sea, a vast ocean dotted with 49 small islands
which the player can freely travel between in her sailboat. On one of the islands lives an old
sailor, Lenzo, who loves taking photos (referred to as “pictographs” in the game). Inside his
house is a gallery full of framed pictographs of the places and things he has seen during his
travels. If you interact with one of the pictographs, Lenzo will tell you a brief story of how he came
across the subject of that image, and even gives you directions to a few of them (e.g. “it lies due
south of here”).
Figure 2: Lenzo’s Gallery (The Windwaker)
Critically, Lenzo never implies that you should seek out any of the things depicted in his
pictographs. Although the statue in the above image is actually part of the main quest required to
complete the game, talking to Lenzo does not reveal this larger purpose. In fact, without knowing
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about its role in the main quest, and with so many other possible goals to pursue, the only
apparent reason to follow Lenzo’s directions and sail to the Triangle Islands is to learn more
about the mysterious statue. One of Lenzo’s comments seems specifically meant to evoke this
sense of curiosity “I wonder if such things still remain out there on the high seas, lonely on the
waves?”
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A Web of Curiosities
In many ways, the overarching structure of Outer Wilds can be understood as an
evolution of Lenzo’s picture gallery. Every major object, structure, or location players discover in
the solar system is part of a web linking these numerous “PointsofInterest” (or POIs) with four
special objects known as “Curiosities”. Like the pictographs in Lenzo’s gallery, POIs tell players
about the existence of interesting things in the world (the Curiosities) and provide them with
enough information to investigate on their own (without explicitly telling players to do so).
Figure 3: Embedded Curiosity Web
There are only four Curiosities, and each one holds the answer to a major narrative
question regarding the history of the solar system. For example, reaching the Curiosity at the
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Nintendo, 2002
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center of the gas giant answers the question of why the device causing the time loop was
originally constructed. Each Curiosity exists in either a hidden or hardtoreach location, and
actually getting to one requires an understanding of the dynamic system surrounding it. This is
where the POIs come in. Each Curiosity is linked to three PointsofInterests, each of which is
located on a different planet. POIs perform three basic functions:
1. They tell players about the existence of the Curiosity they are linked to.
2. They give players one out of three pieces of information they will need to understand the
system surrounding that Curiosity.
3. They give players an audio frequency that allows them to locate the other POIs linked to
that Curiosity through their telescope.
For example, one of the Curiosities is the ancient device that powers the time loop itself.
It lies buried beneath the surface of a planet, and the only way to reach it is to understand the
system of planetary alignments that governs an array of ancient teleporters on the planet’s
surface. After learning about this system from POIs found on other planets, players are able to
teleport inside the time loop device, where they learn about its origin and purpose in the world.
The idea behind this POICuriosity web is that no matter where the player chooses to
explore first, she will stumble across a POI that attempts to pique her interest about one of the
four Curiosities. In Henry Jenkins’ essay on narrative architecture, he argues that detective
stories are a common form of embedded narrative because they “motivate the player's active
examination of clues and exploration of spaces and provide a rationale for our efforts to
reconstruct the narrative of past events.” Although Outer Wilds has no murders or conspiracies
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9
Jenkins, “Game Design As Narrative Architecture”, 2004
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to drive player exploration, POIs are analogous to spatiallyembedded clues that enable players
to decipher the mysteries of the solar system.
A crucial aspect of this setup is that both POIs and Curiosities are completely
knowledgebased concepts. Instead of physically unlocking Curiosities, POIs simply teach
players how to reach them through a deeper understanding of existing systems (which means
that it is technically possible, although highly unlikely, for players to reach a Curiosity without
finding all or any of its POIs). The fact that the Curiosities themselves exist solely to answer
major narrative questions (and offer no other tangible rewards) is intended to craft an experience
in which the most stronglysupported purpose for exploration is to learn more about the Universe
and how it works. This also mirrors the goal of realworld space exploration to “address
fundamental questions about our place in the Universe and the history of our solar system.”
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A World In Motion
Despite being a timebased medium, relatively few games feature worlds that are
irreversibly changed by the passage of time. This is especially true of many openworld games,
where being allowed to freely explore for as long as desired is a large part of their appeal. Even
though the openworld game Skyrim takes place in a land under attack by dragons, nothing bad
happens if players choose to put saving the world on hold to climb a mountain or collect potion
ingredients. While designing a world that clearly waits on player input sidesteps many
undesirable and difficulttomanage situations (e.g., the game does not simply end if players fail
to save the world in time), it tends to result in a fairly stable world that necessarily revolves
around the player.
Of course, we live in a Universe that very clearly does not revolve around us. Realworld
10
NASA, “Why We Explore”, 2013
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space exploration tends to be an incredibly humbling affair that constantly reminds us how small
and insignificant our planet truly is on the cosmic stage. Like our own solar system, the solar
system in Outer Wilds is governed and changed over time by forces that do not know or care
about the player. The goal of this approach is to create a world that players can come to
understand but are ultimately unable to control (much like our own relationship with the
Universe).
To achieve this in Outer Wilds, we made the entire solar system part of a realtime
physics simulation. Rather than design each planet as a discrete “level”, every planet is
simultaneously kept in orbit around the Sun via simulated Newtonian gravity. In addition, most
planets physically change over time due to local largescale processes. Some of these
processes are fairly random. The planet known as “Brittle Hollow” is gradually broken apart by
unpredictable impacts from molten rocks that erupt from its volcanic moon. Other processes are
more deterministic. On the pair of planets known as the Hourglass Twins, sand flows from one
planet to the other, burying a cave system on one planet as it reveals ancient ruins on the other.
Figure 4: Timelapse of the Hourglass Twins
The cumulative effect of these systems is a volatile world that dramatically changes over
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time. Unfortunately, since many of these systems are either irreversible or unstable (or both),
the simulation can only run for so long before it either devolves into chaos or reaches some sort
of equilibrium. To circumvent this issue, the simulation only runs for twenty minutes, after which
the Sun goes supernova and the entire solar system resets. This is explained within the narrative
as a diegetic time loop in which the player’s character is trapped.
Exploring the 4th Dimension
The fact that each planet irreversibly changes over the course of twenty minutes means
that it is practically impossible to explore the entire solar system during a single playthrough.
Similar to other heavily timedependant games like Majora’s Mask and Way of the Samurai,
Outer Wilds is intended to be a longform experience comprised of multiple playthroughs. This
setup effectively adds an extra dimension to exploration by making “when” players explore just
as important as “where”. After all, Brittle Hollow as it exists at the start of the time loop is a very
different place from the shattered husk it becomes after twenty minutes of meteoric
bombardment. The Hourglass Twins are also a good example. If players arrive during the first
half of the time loop, they can explore the underground cave network of the first twin before they
fill with sand. If players choose to explore the Hourglass Twins later in the time loop, they can
investigate the ruined towers on the other twin which are gradually revealed by the draining sand.
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Figure 5: A tower being revealed on the Hourglass Twins
Since these largescale changes occur continuously as the result of procedural forces,
they give each playthrough a certain unpredictability (and occasional serendipity) that comes
from navigating a dynamic physics simulation. We like to think of it as trying to explore inside a
storm. During our playtests so far, some of the strongest player responses were prompted by
the more procedural aspects of the world. Several players responded in shock and surprise as
they watched the giant sand funnel on the Hourglass Twins suck their ship off of the surface.
Another player accidentally fell through a black hole, but managed to use his jetpack to reach a
comet that just happened to be passing by before his oxygen ran out. Still another player was
excited to witness a tornado in the gas giant lift an entire island into the atmosphere. Even
though most of the Curiosities and POIs have yet to be implemented, the existence of these
dynamic systems seem to go a long way towards making the solar system a space that is
engaging to explore in and of itself.
Knowledge Over Agency
Although players are free to explore wherever (or whenever) they wish, they have very
little agency to affect the forces that drive the solar system. All they can do is understand how
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each force or system works and learn to deal with it. This parallels the POI/Curiosity system,
which is also completely knowledgebased. Together, they create a world that rewards
exploration for the sake of knowledge and understanding as opposed to more tangible rewards.
This concept of knowledgeoveragency has been a driving influence for several major
design decisions, such as the behavior of the sand that flows between the Hourglass Twins. The
question we faced very early one was whether the player could trigger this transfer, or whether it
was something that happened automatically over time (beyond the player’s control). We decided
to go with the latter because it supports the idea that there are forces at work beyond the player’s
control, which means the player must to adapt to the world and not viceversa. This decision set
a thematic precedent for all future systemsrelated decisions, leading to the current solar system
in which players must learn to explore within systems that are beyond their control.
This theme also influenced the overarching narrative of the game. Originally, the goal of
the game was to find a way to stop the Universe from ending. This changed to the goal of
understanding why it is ending (among other questions). Even the narrative climax of the game is
knowledgebased, where players finally discover what the thing older than the Universe actually
does. Conveniently, this mentality meshes nicely with the nature of time travel as depicted in the
narrative. Since the player’s character is stuck in a time loop where only her consciousness
travels back in time, memories and knowledge are the only things that could possibly persist
between time loops (barring a sufficientlycontrived plot device).
Prior Art Review
Many existing explorationfocused games can be loosely grouped into two categories.
There are “openworld” games, such as Skyrim, which treat exploration as something optional to
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do between objectivedriven missions. On the other side of the spectrum exist largely goalless
exploration games such as Proteus and Noctis, where the only objective is to freely navigate a
virtual world. The world of Outer Wilds exists somewhere in between. Although players are
initially set loose to explore without anything resembling a goal or objective, the POICuriosity
web is a collection of concrete (albeit optional) clues and objectives waiting to be discovered.
Despite their similarities, POIs and Curiosities differ from Skyrim’s quest system primarily in the
way in which they are communicated to the player. Whereas Skyrim directly tells players what to
do (e.g. “Inform the Jarl of Whiterun about the dragon attack on Helgen.” ), the POIs in Outer
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Wilds merely inform players of their affordances within the world. For example, while most
tornados on the gas giant lift objects into the sky, there is a POI that tells players about the
existence of a tornado that pushes objects downwards. It is left up to the player to use that
information in order to reach the Curiosity at the center of the planet.
Outer Wilds’ timedependent nature is largely inspired by Majora’s Mask and Way of the
Samurai, both of which feature worlds that change in dramatic and irreversible ways over time.
Just like Outer Wilds’ time loop, both games require players to complete multiple playthroughs in
order to see everything their worlds have to offer. The key difference between these games and
Outer Wilds is that the time loops of Majora’s Mask and Way of the Samurai are completely
deterministic that is, their worlds consist of scripted events that always happen at specific
times. By learning when these events occur (and what future events they affect), players can
intervene in order to manipulate their outcomes. One of the most pivotal early design choices on
Outer Wilds was to focus less on using the time loop to create these precise schedules of
events, and more on using it as a way to create largescale irreversible systems for players to
explore and understand. Whereas Majora’s Mask and Way of the Samurai are about
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Bethesda Game Studios, 2011
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experimenting with causality, Outer Wilds is about learning to navigate and survive within a
dynamic system.
Outer Wilds draws much of its thematic and aesthetic inspiration from the films Apollo 13
and 2001: A Space Odyssey. These films inspired the game’s fairly realistic portrayal of space
travel as well as its theme of fragility. Space travel in Apollo 13 feels like a truly dangerous
undertaking, where the fragile Apollo capsule is all that protects the characters from the void of
space. Unlike many popular space flight games such as FreeSpace 2, Outer Wilds accurately
represents space as a frictionless zerogravity environment. Although this makes space travel
far less intuitive for players, it also makes it feel much more realistic and dangerous. This model
of spaceflight also allows us to create situations in which the player must exit her ship in zero
gravity. These situations convey an intense sense of fragility, and are directly inspired by the
scene from 2001 in which Bowman chases after Poole’s body, which is rapidly drifting away
from their ship and into the void of space.
Figure 6: 2001: A Space Odyssey
In addition to space travel, 2001: A Space Odyssey also influenced the embedded
narrative of Outer Wilds. Similar to how 2001 tells the story of an expedition to find a mysterious
alien artifact of cosmological significance, Outer Wilds tells the story of an ancient alien race in
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search of a mysterious object older than the Universe itself. In fact, we often used referenced
2001’s monolith scenes when designing the parts of the game that involve the mysterious object
itself.
Process and Evaluation
A Flawed Introduction
The core elements of Outer Wilds the embedded web of POIs and Curiosities and a
world governed by dynamic forces are both complex concepts for players to understand.
Before they can uncover POIs or even attempt to reach a Curiosity, players must first learn how
to navigate the world’s dynamic systems (many of which are extremely dangerous). This in turn
requires a certain level of proficiency with the momenttomoment telescope, probe, and
spaceflight mechanics.
Creating an introductory sequence to ease players into this complexity (while
simultaneously introducing the world and setting the proper tone) has proved to be one of the
most difficult design challenges of the entire project. While the specifics have gone through
many iterations, the intro sequence has always begun in a small alpine village (situated in a
crater on the third planet from the Sun) and ended with the player lifting off in her spacecraft to
explore the wider solar system.
Below is an outline of our very first iteration of the intro sequence. Players were required
to complete all ten steps (in order) before they were allowed to lift off and explore the rest of the
solar system.
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Original Introductory Sequence
1. Roast a marshmallow.
2. Use the telescope to observe distant planets in the night sky.
3. See an alien object fall out of the sky and crash on the other side of the village.
4. Leave the starting area and walk down to the village.
5. Talk with the Outfitter to obtain probes.
6. Use a probe to take a picture of the crashed alien object.
7. Show the Outfitter the picture to obtain a jetpack.
8. Use the jetpack to reach the crash site.
9. Discover the alien map of the solar system, which reveals the true scope of the world
and its many possible destinations.
10. Return to the Outfitter to gain access to the spaceship, then lift off to explore the cosmos.
Figure 7: A Stranger Comes to Town
On paper, this introduction seemed to cover all the essentials. It introduced the gameplay
arc of using the telescope to spot something from afar, then using probes to get a closer look,
and finally using flight mechanics to travel there in person. We decided to center the entire
sequence around the investigation of a crashed alien object because we hoped players would be
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curious to know what it was and where it came from (questions that could then be answered by
exploring the solar system). We also chose to make the villagers actively disinterested in
exploration in order to emphasize the importance of the player’s own sense of curiosity. For
example, the Outfitter actually tried to convince players that the crashed object was not worth
investigating, which was written in hopes that players would want to prove him wrong.
In practice, this approach proved to be fundamentally flawed both as a gameplay tutorial
and as a thematic and narrative introduction to the world. The most immediate problem with this
approach was that the alien object fell out of the sky before players had a chance to fully explore
the village and orient themselves within the world. We essentially tried to use the “Stranger
Comes to Town” narrative archetype, but we made the mistake of introducing the stranger
before the town. As a result, many players completely forgot about the crashed object once they
started exploring the village (which, from their perspective, was just as strange and unknown as
the crashed object). In fact, most players eventually had to ask what they were “supposed” to do
next. I still cannot decide what was worse the fact that this question represented the antithesis
of curiositydriven exploration, or the fact that the introduction’s rigidly linear progression meant
that it had an answer.
Problems also arose in terms of narrative structure. Players had no sense of who their
character was or what his or her motivations might be. Why did they start by roasting a
marshmallow and then look through their telescope? Why did they want to go into space? In
addition, due to our decision to make the villagers disinterested in exploration, players described
them as “cold”, which ultimately prevented the village from feeling like home the way it was
intended to.
The original introduction also failed to teach players the basics of spaceflight (arguably
the game’s most central mechanic), which resulted in nearly every playtester accidentally flying
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into the Sun shortly after takeoff. Instead, the intro taught secondary mechanics (like the
telescope and probes) in very restricted situations that did not accurately reflect how those
mechanics would be used for actual exploration. For example, players learned to use probes by
taking a picture of a specified target, which is a far cry from their intended use as a way to safely
poke and prod at unknown systems and environments.
Welcome to the Space Program
Rather than try and patch what was clearly broken, we decided to rebuild the introduction
from the ground up. While it seems obvious in retrospect, that first iteration demonstrated that
before players can be curious about distant places or new systems, they must first understand
the space they are in. This inspired the complete removal of the alien object that crashed in the
old introduction. Instead, players are now introduced to the world as a member of the village’s
space program, and the entire introductory sequence revolves around the idea that the player’s
character is preparing for her first voyage into space. Not only does this provide a diegetic
reason for teaching players spaceflight, it sets up both the player’s character and the village, and
gives players a chance to become oriented in the world before blasting off to explore the rest of
the solar system.
Much like the original introduction, the new one starts players next to a campfire beneath
a starry sky. However, rather than being forced to roast marshmallows or look through a
telescope, players are immediately free to explore and interact with their surroundings. In fact,
the only task that is absolutely required to complete the introduction is to learn the launch codes
from a character at the observatory. In place of explicit linear objectives, the village is filled with
completely optional content that focuses on instilling curiosity and teaching players about
spaceflight and the systems that govern the world. To facilitate this, characters in the village are
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far more enthusiastic about space exploration, and either wish players good luck or tell stories
about distant places. One character teaches players to use their telescope (without telling them
what to look at), while another character challenges players to complete a zero gravity training
scenario.
Figure 8: Revised, nonlinear village layout
Even from our first few playtests, it is clear that this new introduction is a dramatic
improvement over the original. After completing the zero gravity training scenario and flying the
model spacecraft in the village, players are now far more successful at piloting the fullsized ship
after liftoff (as evidenced by fewer trajectories into the Sun). Since the introduction is more open
and only has one required objective, fewer players have to ask what they are supposed to do
next. In fact, most of our playtesters take time to talk to villagers, practice in the zero gravity
chamber, and look at exhibits in the museum before seeking out the launch codes and lifting off.
Even the villager dialogue has seen success in encouraging player curiosity. One
character in the village tells players that he would love to explore the “gnarled, thorny planet” that
can be seen in the sky on certain nights. After talking with this character, three separate
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playtesters decided to look up at the sky to see if they could spot the planet he was talking about
(which, by a stroke of luck, was actually in the sky on all three occasions). Although it is a very
simple example, the resulting positive reaction from the playtesters demonstrates the possibility
and value of rewarding curiosity.
Building Models of Complex Systems
One of our biggest decisions in creating the new introduction was to reincorporate a
concept from one of the game’s oldest prototypes. In this particular prototype, players flew (and
more typically crashed) several model rockets before being shown a fullsized rocket and asked
to climb inside. Not only did flying the model rocket from a thirdperson view help players
understand the scaledup version from a firstperson view, it also gave flying the fullsized rocket
a greater sense of weight (as evidenced by players’ initial reluctance to climb inside).
I had initially intended to incorporate this idea into Outer Wilds’ introduction, but decided to
remove it due to fears that it would distract players from investigating the crashed alien object.
After it became clear that our original intro sequence failed to prepare players for space travel,
we decided to bring back the model rockets as part of the revamped introduction. Not only is this
new addition consistently a hit with playtesters, it is clear that they understand it as a model of
the fullsized ship they will eventually lift off in.

Figure 9: Prototype model rocket vs. fullsized rocket
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This concept of using models to represent larger systems has since become one of the
major tools we use to create a world that tells stories about itself. While designing the new
introduction, we decided to build a science museum inside the village observatory. This science
museum is a collection of exhibits that reference various places and systems that actually exist
somewhere in the solar system. For example, one exhibit is a quantum statue that changes
shape whenever the player is not observing it. This statue is actually a model of the Quantum
Moon, which exhibits a similar sort of quantum behavior on a much larger scale.
Designing A World That Changes Over Time
Creating a solar system governed by dynamic forces has proved to be exceptionally
challenging. In addition to designing complex threedimensional spaces, we have to consider
how those spaces will change over each twentyminute playthrough. The approach we have
found to be most successful is to design each planet around a single major system that
changes over time (like the sand that flows between the Hourglass Twins). Although each major
system is always designed with an initial experience in mind, the nature of the physics simulation
often limits our ability to force systems to work exactly as intended. Although the gas giant was
originally envisioned with floating islands that would orbit the planet in its upper atmosphere, we
soon realized that air resistance would actually cause these islands to spiral into the core during
the first few minutes of the game. While we could have simply removed the effects of drag on
the islands (which would have lead to new problems regarding the player’s own drag and relative
motion), we decided to keep working within the existing fluid system. We eventually realized that
the same drag that caused the islands to sink could be used to keep them afloat if we placed the
islands between two fluids of differing densities. Experimenting with this system ingame
ultimately lead to the concept of the spherical ocean that now embodies the gas giant. To make
25
this system change over time, we introduced ocean currents and roaming tornados (both
created with fluids) that interact with the islands in unpredictable ways.
Figure 10: Tornado lifting an island inside the Gas Giant
This approach of rapidly prototyping each planet’s overarching system allows us to
identify and take advantage of the strengths of the physics simulation while simultaneously
reducing the need for custom workarounds (like ignoring drag on only some objects). The
resulting system becomes the canvas on which we can then design specific level geometry and
create POIs and Curiosities that take advantage of those systems. For example, we decided to
place POIs on the islands inside the gas giant after observing how they were tossed around by
the tornados (in order to increase the likelihood players will come into contact with that system).
Overall, we have found that this approach of first creating a dynamic system, and then
designing content to take advantage of that system’s behavior is a highly successful way to
combine procedural and handcrafted content.
Future Extensions
As of this writing, we are just starting to implement the web of POIs and Curiosities
discussed earlier in the paper. Based on what we learned from revamping the intro sequence to
26
better reward curiosity, we are confident in our approach of using POIs to reveal the affordances
that players can use to reach Curiosities. Even so, extensive playtesting will be required to
determine how much information each POI should reveal, not to mention whether or not players
are actually motivated to investigate each Curiosity.
Should this project ever gain a large enough audience, I think there is potential to build a
community of players around the unpredictability caused by the timedependant and
physicsdriven nature of the game. Judging from the sheer number of extremely improbable
events that have transpired during playtests, I think players would be interested in recording and
posting their feats and misadventures within the game. For example, one player decided to jump
out of his space ship midflight and yet somehow managed to land on Brittle Hollow intact using
only the jetpack. Another player decided to push the model rocket all the way across the village,
carried it up to the ship in the launch tower elevator, got it inside the ship using the tractor beam,
and flew across the solar system to finally deposit it on the Hourglass Twins. These types of
exploits are largely possible thanks to the dynamic physics and systems at play, and I think
players would be interested in sharing their own improbable experiences with a larger
community.
Conclusions
Although curiosity has proved to be a difficult concept to pin down, I believe we have
discovered a number of useful techniques that either support or reward curiositydriven
exploration. From our iteration of the game’s introductory sequence, we learned that you cannot
expect players to be curious about a distant or new element in the world before they understand
their local environment. Not only is it extremely difficult (and perhaps impossible) to control what
players are curious about, in doing so you run the risk of transforming their curiosity into the need
27
to fulfill an extrinsic requirement (like our attempts to make players curious about the crashed
alien object). One approach that seems to successfully encourage curiosity is to populate the
world with things that reveal affordances elsewhere in the world without telling players what to
do. This allows players to ask their own questions about the world, and increases the chances
that those questions have answers.
When designing a world around largescale dynamic systems, we discovered that it is
important to first make an extremely rough prototype of each system, because they often behave
in unpredictable ways that influence gameplay. Although the gas giant’s dynamic systems were
initially designed on paper, the decisions that lead to the creation of its spherical ocean were all
based on observations of runtime behavior.
The primary purpose of Outer Wilds’ largescale dynamic systems is to create a world
that changes over time. Interestingly, these systems also seem to reinforce the project’s other
goal of curiositydriven exploration. Even though the majority of POIs and Curiosities have yet to
be implemented, players are already curious to investigate the physical systems themselves.
One playtester spent several minutes trying to figure out exactly how the quantum statue works,
while another proposed multiple hypotheses to explain the behavior of tornadoes in the gas giant.
In the end, I imagine Outer Wilds merely scratches the surface of the many possible
ways to design for curiositydriven exploration and worlds governed by dynamic forces. I think
the game does successfully reveal the potential of both concepts, especially with regards to
explorationheavy experiences, and I hope that our approach is a useful trail marker for the next
travelers who venture into this territory.
28
Works Cited
Games
Nintendo. 2002. The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker. Gamecube. Nintendo.
Nintendo. 2000. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Gamecube. Nintendo.
Acquire. 2002. Way of the Samurai. Playstation 2. Spike, BAM! Entertainment, Eidos Interactive.
Ghignola, Alessandro. 2000. Noctis IV CE. PC. SelfPublished.
Braben, David. Bell, Ian. 1984. Elite. PC. Acornsoft, Firebird, Imagineer.
Volition, Inc. 1999. FreeSpace 2. PC. Interplay Entertainment.
Shovsoft. Lunar Flight. 2012. PC. Shovsoft.
Squad. 2011. Kerble Space Program. PC. Squad.
Key, Ed. Kanaga, David. 2013. Proteus. PC. Twisted Tree.
Bethesda Game Studios. 2011. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. PC. Bethesda Softworks.
Films
Apollo 13. DVD. Directed by Ron Howard, Universal City, CA: Universal Studios, 1995.
2001: A Space Odyssey. DVD. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Beverly Hills, CA: MGM, 1968.
Other Sources
Edelman, Susan. “Curiosity and Exploration”. Spring 1997. California State University,
Northridge. http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/students/explore.htm (accessed February 2, 2013).
Ruberg, Bonnie. “Clint Hocking Speaks Out On The Virtues Of Exploration”.
May 14, 2007. Gamasutra.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/129881/clint_hocking_speaks_out_on_the_.php
(accessed February 2, 2013).
NASA. “Why We Explore”. March 5, 2013.
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/whyweexplore/why_we_explore_main.html
(accessed February 2, 2013).
Griffin, Michael. “The Real Reasons We Explore Space”. July, 2007. Air and Space Magazine.
http://www.airspacemag.com/spaceexploration/Uncommentary.html?c=y&page=1
29
(accessed February 2, 2013).
Briney, Amanda. “Age of Exploration”. September 23, 2008.
http://geography.about.com/od/historyofgeography/a/ageexploration.htm
(accessed February 2, 2013).
Jenkins, Henry. “Game Design As Narrative Architecture”. 2004.
http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html (accessed February 2, 2013).

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Asset Metadata

Creator Beachum, Alex (author)

Core Title Outer Wilds: a game of curiosity-driven space exploration

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 04/30/2013

Defense Date 03/07/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag curiosity,exploration,first person,marshmallow,OAI-PMH Harvest,open world,procedural,simulation,solar system,space,time loop

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Brinson, Peter (committee chair), Gibson, Jeremy (committee member), Luo, Victor (committee member)

Creator Email abeachum42@gmail.com,beachum@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-248860

Unique identifier UC11293903

Identifier etd-BeachumAle-1636.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-248860 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-BeachumAle-1636-1.pdf

Dmrecord 248860

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Beachum, Alex

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

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