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Reversal: expressing a theme through mechanics

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Reversal: expressing a theme through mechanics

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Content REVERSAL
EXPRESSING A THEME THROUGH MECHANICS
by
Yang Cao
A Thesis 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 2022
Copyright 2022 Yang Cao
Dedication
This paper is dedicated to my parents, who supported and believed in me.
ii
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my three thesis advisors. To Andy Nealen, my thesis chair, for all
the constructive feedback on the game itself and all the helpful, illuminating references to
research, projects, and materials related to my thesis topic. To Richard Lemarchand, for
guiding me through the winding road of production and being the voice of reason. To
Thomas Lu, for being so generous with sharing his knowledge and experience in game
development.
I would also like to thank my teammates. To Zian Zhang, my thesis partner, for being
a professional and respectful teammate, a delightful friend, and an absolute god in art,
animation, and storytelling. To Joseph Setiawan Djafar, our composer, and Chaoran Huang,
our sound designer, for filling our game world with beautiful music and rich sounds.
Lastly, I want to thank my cohort of three years and my thesis professors Laird
Malamed and Martzi Campos for being so supportive of this project.
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Table of Contents
Dedication ................................................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................. iii
List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... v
Abstract .................................................................................................................................... vi
Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Game Overview ............................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Joint Thesis and Team Composition ......................................................................... 3
Chapter 2: Thesis .................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Inspiration and Prior Art ............................................................................................... 4
2.1.a Puzzle Games ..................................................................................................... 4
2.1.b Other Genres....................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Other Relevant Works and Research ......................................................................... 8
2.3 Thesis Statement ......................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 3: Designing Mechanics and Puzzles ............................................................. 12
3.1 Mechanics and Their Meanings................................................................................. 12
3.2 Designing Puzzles ....................................................................................................... 14
3.2.a Level/Puzzle Perspective............................................................................... 15
3.2.b Area/Floor Perspective .................................................................................. 23
3.2.c Game/Tower Perspective .............................................................................. 28
Chapter 4: Design Challenges ........................................................................................... 31
4.1 Constraint: One Activated Ability at One Time ...................................................... 31
4.1.a Original Design: Easy For Players, Dicult For Designers ....................... 31
4.1.b New Constraint, New Issues ......................................................................... 33
4.2 The Design of Light Switch ....................................................................................... 37
4.3 The Shape of the Tower ............................................................................................. 37
4.3.a Imbalance in the Amount of Tutorialization .............................................. 38
4.3.b Imbalance in the Depth of Each Mechanic ................................................ 38
4.4 Diculty Ramping .......................................................................................................39
4.4.a Original Scope .................................................................................................. 39
4.4.a New Scope and Results ................................................................................. 40
4.5 Hint System ...................................................................................................................41
4.5.a Explicit Hint ...................................................................................................... 42
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4.5.b Environmental Hint......................................................................................... 43
4.5.c Deferred Hint.................................................................................................... 44
Chapter 5: Conclusion .........................................................................................................45
5.1 Looking Back ................................................................................................................ 45
5.2 Moving Forward ........................................................................................................... 47
5.3 Final Words ................................................................................................................... 48
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 49
iv
List of Figures
1 Reversal Rev the Protagonist ..................................................................................... 2
2 Reversal Overview of the Tower ................................................................................. 2
3 Baba if You Screenshot ................................................................................................4
4 Braid Screenshot ...........................................................................................................4
5 Inside The Protagonist Controls a Husk for the First Time ...................................6
6 Inside The Protagonist Eventually Controls a Destructive Blob of Bodies ........6
7 Celeste The Protagonist’s Inner Demons Chases After Her ................................. 7
8 Celeste The Protagonist Begins to Chase After Her Inner Demon ..................... 8
9 Passage The Protagonists at the Early Stage of Life .......................................... 10
10 Passage The Protagonists Growing Old ..................................................................10
11 Reversal Gravity Reversal Activated ........................................................................ 12
12 Reversal Reflection Activated ................................................................................... 13
13 Reversal Light Switch Activated .............................................................................. 14
14 Reversal Level 7 with Greybox Art ............................................................................16
15 Reversal Level 2 Tutorials ........................................................................................... 17
16 Reversal Teaching Jump Height ............................................................................... 17
17 Reversal Rev Activating Gravity Reversal for the First Time ..............................18
18 Reversal Objects A ected by Gravity ...................................................................... 18
19 Reversal Reinforcing Jump Height Upside Down .................................................19
20 Reversal Level 12 ......................................................................................................... 20
21 Reversal Level 13 .........................................................................................................20
22 Reversal Level 18 Requires the Player to Apply Previously Learned Skills ..... 21
23 Reversal Level 9 Start State ......................................................................................22
24 Reversal Level 9 Becomes More Dynamic and Complex .....................................22
25 Reversal Level 9 Solution ...........................................................................................23
26 Reversal First Floor Overview ................................................................................... 24
27 Reversal Story and Puzzle Intensity for Each Level on the First Floor ............ 24
28 Reversal Second Floor Overview ............................................................................. 25
29 Reversal Level 10 Reflection Tutorial ...................................................................... 25
30 Reversal Rev and His Reflection Pulling Apart an Obstacle ...............................26
31 Reversal Third Floor Overview .................................................................................. 26
32 Reversal Plant Presses a Button on the Ceiling ....................................................27
33 Reversal Plant Lifts Rev Up ....................................................................................... 27
34 Reversal Storyboard for the Palace ......................................................................... 27
35 Reversal Storyboard for Finale ................................................................................. 29
36 Crayon Physics Deluxe ...............................................................................................33
37 Reversal Level 11 Steps the Player Needs to Take to Solve ................................34
38 Reversal Level 15 Elevator ......................................................................................... 35
39 Reversal Level 15 Solution Requires Rev’s Reflection to Climb to the Top ..... 36
40 Reversal UI Design Using a Pointer ......................................................................... 36
41 Reversal Original Scope ............................................................................................. 39
42 Reversal New Scope ................................................................................................... 40
v
43 The Room: Old Sins Hint Example ............................................................................42
44 Reversal Level 4 Uses Lighting to Highlight Key Areas .......................................43
45 Reversal Level 9 Unwanted Solution ...................................................................... 46
v
Abstract
When a mechanic evolves along with the story, it ceases to be just a part of
the gameplay; instead, it becomes one of the integral elements that are trying to
express a meaningful theme.
Many games have done this, but what if the theme we as game designers
want to express is complicated and has several di erent aspects? In this case, how
do we design multiple seemingly disconnected mechanics and bring them
together? In this paper, I will, through the making of the 2D puzzle game Reversal,
describe the methods I have taken to design the three inter-connected yet
drastically di erent core mechanics and the 20 levels, present the playtest data we
have collected, and eventually, provide a thorough conclusion of whether the
mechanics are complementary and meaningful in terms of serving the main theme
of the game.
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Game Overview
Reversal is a joint thesis project I made with Zian Zhang, a fellow student
from my cohort as well as a good friend of mine. Reversal is a 2D puzzle game in
which the player controls a little robot called Rev, who must traverse through a
mysterious, three-story hierarchical tower. Over the course of the game, by using
three reversal-related abilities to solve puzzles and climb the tower, Rev will
experience the poor living conditions of the lower-class robots, the monotonous life
of the middle-class robots, and the extravagant life of the elite robots living in an
opulent palace. Eventually, Rev will climb to the top of the tower to determine its
fate.
The primary target audience is puzzle game lovers, regardless of age, gender,
and ethnicity. The secondary target audience is people who appreciate the 2D
hand-drawn art style.
1
Figure 1: Reversal Rev the Protagonist
Figure 2: Reversal Overview of the Tower
2
1.2 Joint Thesis and Team Composition
As mentioned previously, Reversal is a joint thesis project. Our team consists
of me, Zian Zhang, Joseph Setiawan Djafar (composer), and Chaoran Huang (sound
designer).
Although Zian Zhang and I are co-creators and co-designers, we have also
covered various distinct aspects of game development.
In terms of game development, I focused on the design of mechanics, puzzle
design, and programming. Zian Zhang covered storytelling, character and
environmental art, and animations and cutscenes.
Additionally, I was responsible for scheduling, such as setting up practical
sprints and time boxes, while Zian handled team management and playtests.
However, we would also delegate tasks to each other if we were too busy.
At the moment when this paper is written, Zian and I have yet to set up a
social media account and the game’s ocial website, but we aim to do so for
marketing and publishing.
3
Chapter 2: Thesis
2.1 Inspiration and Prior Art
2.1.a Puzzle Games
I have always loved puzzles, because of the exhilaration I feel when I finally
see the solution or something just suddenly clicks and completely alters my
perception of the puzzle. Naturally, I enjoyed games like Baba is You, Stephen’s
Sausage Roll, Braid, etc.
Figure 3: Baba is You Screenshot
Figure 4: Braid Screenshot
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However, as someone who also enjoys stories–which could be from books,
movies, games, or any other similar medium–I find these mind-boggling puzzle
games rarely fulfill my craving for a satisfying emotional journey. There’s Portal, of
course, with its one single, brilliant mechanic and an increasingly intense story.
However, there is a disconnection between its portal mechanic and the story of an
Artificial Intelligence gone rogue: one could very well use another (less robust)
mechanic to design puzzles around it, and the story would still work. This isn’t an
issue when both its puzzle design and story are vastly entertaining on their own
and the mechanic is often used in story sequences (e.g. the escape sequences and
the final boss fight), but what if the mechanics suit the story so well that changing
them changes the feel of the story as well? What if the puzzle mechanics evolve as
the story progresses? Will the game be more impactful and immersive?
With these questions, I must mention Inside, a game developed by Playdead.
When I first played this game, I was blown away by its brooding atmosphere,
uncanny mind-control mechanic, and the thought-provoking, eerie story about
control. When I analyzed the game later, I realized that the mechanic of mind
control is slowly growing in power, until the protagonist controls and merges with
an entire blob of bodies, destroying everything and everyone along his way. This
design of evolution of the core mechanic could go unnoticed in untrained eyes, but
its e ect of leading the protagonist to the inevitable “mutation” is still extremely
impactful on a subconscious level.
5
Figure 5: Inside The Protagonist Controls a Husk for the First Time
Figure 6: Inside The Protagonist Eventually Controls a Destructive Blob of Bodies
2.1.b Other Genres
Think of chapter 2 of the brilliant 2D platformer, Celeste, where the
protagonist’s materialized inner demon begins to chase her through the dreamy,
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starry landscape. The player must not stay at a place for too long for the enemy to
catch up, nor should they cross paths with this enemy. This simple new mechanic
of chasing shows the protagonist’s wish to escape and never face her fears and
struggles. However, as the protagonist eventually decides to accept her negativity
and worries that her inner demon embodies, chapter 6 introduces a new, opposite
mechanic where the enemy begins to run away from the player, and the player
must reach her instead. In the end, the protagonist and her other self decide to
merge and collaborate, allowing the player to dash in the air twice instead of once,
thus reaching higher places.
Figure 7: Celeste The Protagonist’s Inner Demons Chases After Her
7
Figure 8: Celeste The Protagonist Begins to Chase After Her Inner Demon
Maddy Thorson, the creator of Celeste, gave a GDC talk called Level Design
Workshop: Designing Celeste (2018). In this talk, she shared how she designed the
mechanics and the levels based on three perspectives of the game: level,
area/chapter, and the entire game. It greatly inspired me in terms of level design on
Reversal, which I will be analyzing in later chapters.
2.2 Other Relevant Works and Research
The authors of MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
(Hunicke et al., 2004) proposed the MDA framework to help designers think about
the process of how a game is eventually delivered to the player as an experience.
The framework mentions three elements: mechanics (M), dynamics (D)–player
interaction–and aesthetics (A)–player’s emotional experience. It states that the
designer perspective goes from M →D→A (mechanic-driven), while the player
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perspective goes from A →D→M (emotion-driven), and that designers need to think
in both ways. Similarly, the YouTube channel, Extra Credits, has several videos
recommending a mechanic-driven approach to game design (2013), saying that
having a complete story instead of a set of potential mechanics first will limit the
designers when it comes to designing the core gameplay. However, the channel,
like the MDA framework, cautions that it’s also important for designers to stay
focused on the kind of experience or emotion they want the players to have so that
they can come up with core mechanics that can create such emotions or explore
such ideas.
Many designers have created experiences and games in an attempt to
explore this connection between mechanics and narrative themes; I have already
mentioned a couple in Section 2.1 Inspiration and Prior Art, but I’d also like to talk
about a few more examples that explore this in a more extreme way.
One example is the works of Jason Rohrer, such as Gravitation and Passage,
where every mechanic and every pixel is a metaphor of life, thus able to tell a story
about life. For instance, Passage is all about walking (living), but there are obstacles
(problems in life) all around the player. The player can choose to navigate through
this maze of life on their own, which has higher mobility, or do it with a partner,
which impedes mobility but doubles the score, resembling how a relationship
creates companionship and more problems at the same time. However, to me, this
walking mechanic is not nearly as universal as the second mechanic in the game:
vision. When the player is still at a young age in-game, things in front of them are
blurred, just like how most people at that age do not see their future clearly, but
9
when the player grows old in-game, things behind them begin to blur, indicating
that they are losing the memories of their past. Passage, though extremely short,
has managed to elicit emotions and empathy from the player through its simple,
metaphorical mechanics.
Figure 9: Passage The Protagonists at the Early Stage of Life
Figure 10: Passage The Protagonists Growing Old
Another example, though not aging well at all partially because of its gender
representation, is The Marriage, with multiple confounding rules and mechanics
that determine the survival of a blue and a pink square on the screen. The game is
said to emulate the dynamics of marriage purely through mechanics and their rules,
but it should be noted that, unlike Passage which conveys a feeling without
explaining anything outside of the game itself, The Marriage has paragraphs and
paragraphs of explanations in words, which might still fail in making the players feel
anything. Even the developer of this game apologized for it and considered their
work partially a failure.
I am mentioning all these games–regardless of their e ectiveness in
expressing a theme–because I believe it is important to understand and learn from
10
works that are using games as an artistic expression and di erentiate my
implementation from theirs.
2.3 Thesis Statement
Before diving into my thesis statement, I would like to quickly mention the
thesis Zian Zhang is focusing on through Reversal: telling a story about social
hierarchy and inequality without using any texts.
Since I’m heavily inspired by all the prior art in the previous sections, I
wanted to explore the delivery of the complex idea of social inequality–and the
reversal of it–through the integration of multiple mechanics that share the same
theme of reversal.
Based on the MDA framework, my methods are leaning heavily on the
M->D->A side of the spectrum, but since my goal is about serving the story of
Reversal, I must also recognize the validity of A->D->M and apply it when necessary.
Consequently, the three main methods I used to explore my thesis are: (1) come up
with three core mechanics, each of which is a metaphor for an aspect of social
inequality, (2) introduce these mechanics one by one to create a sense of growth in
power and a sense of progression in the story, and (3) integrate these mechanics to
bring out their common theme: the hope for a society without hierarchies.
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Chapter 3: Designing Mechanics and Puzzles
3.1 Mechanics and Their Meanings
Reversal has three core mechanics in total: Gravity Reversal, Reflection, and
Light Switch. All three mechanics share the consistent theme of reversal and hope
for a change in social inequality.
First of all, I wanted to introduce the idea of fluidity of hierarchies, where
there is no glass ceiling in society. In Reversal, the mechanic of Gravity Reversal is
often used to get over obstacles that are too tall to jump over, and more
importantly, to reach higher places and higher social classes (represented by
di erent floors in the tower). This design expresses the hope that the social
hierarchies are no longer fixed.
Figure 11: Reversal Gravity Reversal Activated
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Secondly, to break the glass ceiling, or achieve any sort of social reformation,
collaboration among the people regardless of their di erences is the key. In
Reversal, Reflection allows Rev to create a copy of himself across the central
vertical line of the screen, which will move in the reversed direction of Rev. This
instant spawning of a copy not only allows Rev to gain access to places that
himself cannot get to but also encourages the two Revs to work together (e.g. by
pulling on an obstacle in opposite directions, thus breaking it and clearing the way).
This mechanic is designed to show that even though people can come from
di erent worlds, they can still work towards the same goal.
Figure 12: Reversal Reflection Activated
Lastly, I wanted to acknowledge the relativity of good and evil; the values a
social class believes in might be extremely harmful to the rest of the society, while
what it despises is potentially what the rest needs. To achieve an abstract yet
visually distinct version of this idea, the mechanic of Light Switch flips the lit and
13
unlit regions on the screen, creating a rather magical e ect. To make it interesting
in terms of gameplay, I introduced light-sensitive plants that grow or shrink
depending on how much light they receive. And depending on the player’s actions,
when fully grown, these plants could become insurmountable obstacles or serve as
a ladder to lift Rev, implying that light isn’t always good, and dark shouldn’t always
be avoided either.
Figure 13: Reversal Light Switch Activated
3.2 Designing Puzzles
As mentioned in Section 2.1.b, Maddy Thorson explains the three levels of
perspective when it comes to level design in Celeste: level, area, and game, and that
a single level should feel coherent under all three perspectives. Similar to but much,
much smaller than the structure of Celeste, Reversal has a tower structure
composed of three main areas (floors), each of which is composed of several
individual levels (for detail, see Figure 2 on page 2).
14
An extremely helpful design method is Kishōtenketsu, a narrative structure
with four stages: beginning, development, twist, and conclusion. The YouTube
video, Super Mario 3D World’s 4 Step Level Design from Game Maker’s Toolkit (2015),
shows how Super Mario 3D World uses such a method to design its levels, which,
though purely mechanical, creates a satisfying gameplay narrative. Since some
earlier levels in Reversal are fairly short, I only applied Kishōtenketsu to the design
of some later levels.
3.2.a Level/Puzzle Perspective
When designing a level in Reversal, I often asked myself what’s the purpose
of this specific level. Usually, levels in Reversal have one (or more) purposes from
this list: (1) storytelling, (2) tutorial, (3) an application of what a tutorial has taught
the player, and (4) a combination of multiple learned skills.
Sometimes, when a level is conceptually complex, we tend to follow the
design method of Kishōtenketsu to create a puzzle arc for that level.
(1) Storytelling:
There is only one level in Reversal that serves solely the purpose of
storytelling, and it is level 7 (Figure 14), on the first floor. This level has a zigzagging
layout that forms a three-story structure. For each story, there is a group of NPCs
that Rev can interact with. Additionally, this layout is also a subtle illumination on
the structure of the entire tower.
15
Figure 14: Reversal Level 7 with Greybox Art
(2) Tutorial:
Being a small game with multiple core mechanics, Reversal rarely introduces
new mechanics, new elements, or new uses of learned mechanics individually. To
introduce multiple ideas subtly and not overwhelm the player, we often create
“gates” in a single level, where the player must learn one thing to get past the first
gate, then learn the next thing to solve the second part of the puzzle, and so on.
A good example of this is in level 2, where its goal is to teach the player (1)
what they can or cannot jump over (Figure 16), (2) to push and pull a box by
pressing and holding “E” (Figure 15), (3) to learn to use the box as a step (Figure 16),
(4) to interact with objects by pressing “E” (Figure 15), (5) to learn the first ability,
Gravity Reversal (Figure 17), (6) that only interactable boxes will be a ected by
Gravity Reversal; everything else, including the background environment and some
animated NPCs in the background, is not a ected (Figure 18), and (7) to reapply
step (3) but with gravity being upside down (Figure 19).
16
Figure 15: Reversal Level 2 Tutorials
Figure 16: Reversal Teaching Jump Height
17
Figure 17: Reversal Rev Activating Gravity Reversal for the First Time
Figure 18: Reversal Objects A ected by Gravity
18
Figure 19: Reversal Reinforcing Jump Height Upside Down
(3) An Application of What the Tutorial Has Taught the Player:
A good example of this is on the second floor. In one level, the player is
taught that they can use anything stationary (a wall, a box without interacting with
it, a little step, etc.) to adjust the o set between Rev and his reflection (Figure 20).
In a subsequent level, the player encounters a much more complex level that
requires their knowledge about this adjustment of o set. They must use a box to
block Rev from walking right but allowing his reflection to walk left freely (Figure
21).
19
Figure 20: Reversal Level 12
Figure 21: Reversal Level 13
(4) A Combination of Multiple Learned Skills:
Levels that serve such a purpose usually appear in the late game so that the
players are already relatively familiar with the skills required; they just need to know
when and where to use them.
On the third floor, we have a level that requires the player to apply the
following learned skills: (1) create an opening on a platform by using Light Switch to
20
make the plant intertwine with another small, dangling plant and pull down the
latter along with the brick the latter is attached to, (2) bring Rev or his reflection up
through a growing plant, (3) adjusting o set between Rev and his reflection, and (4)
use Rev and his reflection to activate two separate things at the same time. See
Figure 22 below for a simple illustration.
Figure 22: Reversal Level 18 Requires the Player to Apply Previously Learned Skills
(5) Kishōtenketsu Design Method:
As mentioned previously, a narrative told through Kishōtenketsu has four
stages: beginning, development, twist, and conclusion. We especially like using this
method when designing the most dicult levels in our game.
A good example is the last level on the first floor. In the beginning, no laser
has been turned on, and everything looks quiet and static. This is the moment for
the player to explore and figure out the key components of this puzzle: two lasers,
one short reflective box, etc.
21
Figure 23: Reversal Level 9 Start State
As the player begins to turn on lasers, they will start to learn their behaviors:
one laser (laser A) is completely static, and the other (laser B) rotates between
three di erent angles. They will also learn that gravity must be pointing down for
the exit (object B) to open, so the only way for them to reach the open exit is to
stand on a platform (object A) that will move up when powered by a laser. Now, they
need to figure out how to use laser A and laser B to power up object A and object B
at the same time.
Figure 24: Reversal Level 9 Becomes More Dynamic and Complex
22
Now comes the third stage: the twist. It’s usually assumed by the player that
the static laser A must be paired with object A, and the logic follows that the
rotating laser B should be paired with object B/the exit. However, this is the wrong
assumption that we want the player to have before figuring out the correct
solution: the player should utilize the reflective box to reflect laser A so that it will
power up object B/the exit instead, and object A/the platform will only be
occasionally powered up by the rotating laser B.
Once the player can see through the twist, the only thing left for them to do
is to move the boxes to the correct positions and reach the open exit.
Figure 25: Reversal Level 9 Solution
3.2.b Area/Floor Perspective
As illustrated in Figure 2 on page 2, the tower has three floors and each floor
has its own theme. Our puzzles are mostly designed around that floor’s
environment and theme. Also, each floor will have its own gameplay narrative,
23
which alternates between calm and high-tension, low- and high -diculty, short
and long puzzles.
(1) First Floor/Lower Class:
Figure 26: Reversal First Floor Overview
Since this is the longest floor and the player only has Gravity Reversal ability,
we wanted to engage the player on a more visual level for this floor. We came up
with a laser feature that not only looks vibrant with its glowing purple visual but
also works well with locations such as the crystal (also purple) mining site and the
crystal processing factory.
However, despite these flashy visuals, our goal for this floor is to teach the
player when and how to use Gravity Reversal. As a result, we added many tall boxes
as obstacles that the player must get over by using this ability. Finally, we control
the number of lasers, boxes, and twists in the puzzles to create a varying gameplay
narrative, allowing the player to take a moment to breathe and rest after they have
solved a few complex puzzles.
Figure 27: Reversal Story and Puzzle Intensity for Each Level on the First Floor
24
(2) Second Floor/Middle Class:
Figure 28: Reversal Second Floor Overview
This floor portrays the city of the tower. At the beginning of this floor, we will
introduce the second power, Reflection, to the player. Our goal for this floor is to
guide the player to constantly use Reflection so that the two Revs can help each
other out and perform tasks at the same time.
With this new power, we have to create interesting situations where the
player will need to use it. The first, most straightforward one that we introduced is
spawning Rev’s reflection in a place that Rev himself cannot get to.
Figure 29: Reversal Level 10 Reflection Tutorial
Once the player is comfortable with spawning Rev’s reflection, the next step
for us is to create a sense of collaboration–the meaning behind this power–through
25
gameplay (see Section 3.1.a.(3) An Application of What the Tutorial Has Taught the
Player for examples).
Figure 30: Reversal Rev and His Reflection Pulling Apart an Obstacle
(3) Third Floor/Upper Class:
Figure 31: Reversal Third Floor Overview
This floor is composed of a huge, grandiose, well-lit palace. At its entrance,
the player will receive the third and last power, Light Switch. Our goal for this floor
is to focus on light and darkness, and how they sometimes are not what they seem
to be.
We also introduced a more organic feature related to Light Switch: a plant
that grows under the light and shrinks in the darkness. When it grows, it can press
buttons on the ceiling or bring Rev up if necessary, but it can also become an
obstacle blocking Rev’s path forward.
26
Figure 32 (left): Reversal Plant Presses a Button on the Ceiling. Figure 33 (right): Reversal Plant Lifts Rev Up
At the climax of this floor, there is a huge chandelier swinging in the palace’s
big hall, casting bright, warm light all over the interior space. In the end, Rev will
destroy the chandelier–and the light along with it–revealing the ugly truth buried
behind shiny walls and ornate oil paintings.
Figure 34: Reversal Storyboard for the Palace
27
3.2.c Game/Tower Perspective
When we look at the game as a whole, the entire story is about getting over
obstacles, climbing the tower, and breaking the hierarchy. As mentioned previously
in section 2.1.a, the core mind-control mechanic from Inside evolves along with the
story, creating a sense of growth in power. However, due to our time constraint and
a limited number of levels, I did not attempt to make each of our three core
mechanics grow stronger. Instead, I chose to introduce these mechanics one by
one, allowing Rev to become stronger as he gains more powers and solves
increasingly more dicult puzzles.
In this perspective, the first floor is the beginning, which empowers Rev with
Gravity Reversal and the ability to reach higher places, guiding him to climb to the
next floor.
The second floor is the development stage, as Rev’s reflection becomes a
companion of Rev, thus doubling his power.
The twist (mechanically speaking) could have happened on the third floor,
but it didn’t. However, the light-sensitive plants have become another helper along
Rev’s tower-climbing journey. On the other hand, we do have a twist in the story,
which reveals to the player that Rev originally came from the upper class. In the last
chapter, I will reflect on how we could have done this part on a gameplay level
better.
The tower-top finale scene serves as the conclusion. As Rev reaches the very
top of the tower, his power should reach the summit as well. To express this, we
came up with a final sequence where Rev will use his three powers to their limit and
28
perform a sacrificial act that penetrates a hole in the tower, revealing its
hierarchical structure to robots from the first and second floors who were
previously unaware of this structure.
During the finale, Rev will use up Light Switch to turn the entire night scene
into a bright morning scene, use up Gravity Reversal to shoot high up into the sky,
and eventually, as he begins to fall, use up Reflection to create multiple copies of
himself. Together, all Revs crash into the tower, some getting broken into pieces
along the way. In the end, Rev lands on the first floor all broken up, and points
upward at the thin shaft of sunlight reaching him through the hole he has just
created, showing the worker robots around him that there is an entire world above
them.
Figure 35: Reversal Storyboard for Finale
Lastly, I would also like to mention the shape of the tower (see Figure 2 on
page 2), which is a pyramid, a symbol of imbalance, where the few people at the top
are wealthier and more powerful than the combined force of the rest of the
29
community. The first floor has 9 levels, the second floor 6, the third floor 4, and
there is the final level at the top of the tower. This structure is designed to serve the
story, but from the gameplay perspective, there are some issues that I will be
discussing in the next chapter.
30
Chapter 4: Design Challenges
In this chapter, I will go over a few design challenges that I have encountered,
solved, or let go of during production.
4.1 Constraint: One Activated Ability at One Time
4.1.a Original Design: Easy For Players, Dicult For Designers
At the very beginning of our production, when I first prototyped the second
power, Reflection, the plan was to allow more than one power to be active at the
same time so that the physics and everything else related to the core mechanics
would feel much more powerful and out of the ordinary world.
However, as soon as we began designing puzzles that required the player to
use both Gravity Reversal and Reflection, we realized that the player was way too
powerful than we would have wanted. When both Rev and his reflection could freely
use Gravity Reversal, it was too easy for them to get to all the places, thus making
many of our newly designed puzzles trivial to solve. I believe the main reason is
related to the combination of powers.
When there are two available powers, we would have 2^2 = 4 game states: no
active power, active Gravity Reversal with inactive Reflection, active Reflection with
inactive Gravity Reversal, and two active powers. At this point, as designers, we
could still design puzzles while considering all four states, but it would be a
complete combinatorial nightmare for us when the player eventually has three
powers in total because we would have 2^3 = 8 game states. The nightmare would
happen when we had to make sure that, out of the one single intended solution we
31
had planned out, no other game states would lead to a di erent but equally viable
solution.
Moreover, to prevent this from happening and making our game too easy, we
realized that we constantly had to add many di erent little constraints to each
puzzle to remove unwanted solutions. For instance, during one of our level design
discussions, we wanted to stop Rev’s reflection from reaching certain places by
using an obstacle, but we soon fell into a downward spiral when we realized that for
this obstacle to work, we would have to add another obstacle or constraint before
that. After hours, even days of struggle, we asked ourselves: why not just apply one
single constraint on our mechanics instead of many mechanically/logically
inconsistent ones on each puzzle?
There was also another minor reason that made us change our design
direction. We have a visual design that covers the screen with a colored, translucent
layer when a power is active; red is for Gravity Reversal, blue for Reflection, and
green for Light Switch. If more than one power can be active at the same time, the
screen will be covered with more than one layer, which will obstruct the player's
visual.
Of course, the reason we had serious concerns with the game being too easy
and abilities being too powerful is because we want the three abilities to be
completely di erent but balanced. However, some games do not have such design
schemes. For example, Crayon Physics Deluxe is a game about drawing figures,
which will be a ected by physics such as gravity, to make a circle reach a star. In
this game, there is a massively overpowered rocket mechanic that makes the
32
puzzles much easier to solve, but Petri Purho, the game developer, deliberately left
the mechanic as it is because it was never his design goal to not make an
overpowered mechanic that the player could abuse.
Figure 36: Crayon Physics Deluxe
4.1.b New Constraint, New Issues
The new constraint of allowing at most one power to be active at one time
was happily decided, and we shifted from fighting against combinations to
designing and planning sequences. For example, we would plan our level’s solution
as: Gravity Reversal around location A to reach location B, Reflection around
location B, Gravity Reversal around location B, and Reflection around location C.
33
Figure 37: Reversal Level 11 Steps the Player Needs to Take to Solve
At first, this sequential design method worked wonderfully, but issues quickly
arose when we moved on to more complex puzzles. While we no longer needed to
add many constraints for the puzzles to work, we needed new mechanics to create
more freedom.
The reason why this happened was mainly because of Reflection. Unlike the
other two powers, Reflection is dependent on the location Rev is at so that his
reflection can be spawned at the desired location. Consequently, due to the limited
space of each level, we usually only have at most two key locations for Rev to
spawn his reflection. Once the player finds those locations, they need the two Revs
to be present for a large section of the gameplay, which means that during this
section, they cannot deactivate Reflection and use any other power, and if they
deactivate it before reaching the next stage of the puzzle, they will have to return
to the beginning of that section and start over again.
34
Without Gravity Reversal available to them all the time, the player begins to
have trouble reaching higher places, which makes them feel limited and weak. To
eliminate this sense of constraint, the puzzles either do not require Rev or his
reflection to climb–which should also help the player to find the solution more
quickly–or introduce elements that will bring them up. One example is the elevator
in the last level of the second floor. The puzzle in this level begins at the ground
level, and slowly brings Rev’s reflection up to the top of the level to open the exit
(see Figure 38 below).
Figure 38: Reversal Level 15 Elevator
Even though we found ways to bring objects up when Gravity Reversal is not
allowed, the main issue about Reflection remains: the player cannot deactivate
Reflection in the middle of the puzzle. In the level with the elevator, Rev’s reflection
can only be spawned on the ground level; therefore, he must be present until he
35
opens the exit for the real Rev. This also made Gravity Reversal not as powerful; it is
mostly used to explore around before starting to solve the puzzles.
Figure 39: Reversal Level 15 Solution Requires Rev’s Reflection to the Top
We also spent some time trying to figure out how to convey this constraint to
the player, since by design, our game seldom tells the player anything explicitly. We
came up with a UI with a pointer that looks like a clock hand. Whenever the player
tries to activate another power when one is already active, the pointer will vibrate a
bit, and an error sound e ect will play, indicating to the player that the pointer can
only point to at most one icon, so they have to deactivate their current power to
use another power.
Figure 40: Reversal UI Design Using a Pointer
36
4.2 The Design of Light Switch
We encountered many design diculties regarding Light Switch. Our original
idea about this mechanic of flipping light and darkness was related to shadows cast
by moving objects, and the puzzles would be about getting multiple key elements
all under light or all in darkness, but we didn’t realize that (1) Light Switch would
then just be used at the end to flip everything, and it was not a power encouraged
to be used in the middle of a puzzle, and (2) although it was an intriguing concept
and could have very dramatic visual e ects, it was way too powerful; any region
could be in light or darkness instantly, and the puzzles just seemed trivial.
Therefore, we needed a change in direction as soon as possible, and
light-sensitive plants were introduced to the game. We decided to focus on
exploring light-sensitive plants and make use of their behavior of growing and
shrinking to create interesting situations. However, we never were able to solve the
real issue of Light Switch. The mechanic remains in the background and is only
used very occasionally. Despite our aim for creating three balanced powers, Light
Switch has only managed to appear as powerful as the other two on a visual level,
but not on a functional, mechanical level.
4.3 The Shape of the Tower
As mentioned in Section 3.2.c, the tower has a pyramid shape for story
purposes. However, this shape, along with the fact that we have three core
mechanics, has created some balancing problems.
37
4.3.a Imbalance in the Amount of Tutorialization
First of all, since each new power is introduced at the beginning of each floor,
and the number of levels on each floor decreases as the player moves up through
the tower, the player has less time available for them to get used to the new power.
We felt compelled to either (1) combine tutorials and applications of them in single
levels, or (2) reduce the number of new elements introduced. For (1), the players
sometimes would comment that they felt overwhelmed sometimes. (2) will lead to
the next problem we are facing.
4.3.b Imbalance in the Depth of Each Mechanic
Due to the limited scope and the fact that we have three core mechanics, it
has been dicult to explore each mechanic to a fuller extent.
For Gravity Reversal, although there are 9 levels on the first floor–8 if we
exclude the first level that teaches the player how to move and jump–we were
hesitant to introduce more features related to gravity (for instance, a gravity field
that has a constant gravitational direction regardless of Gravity Reversal power) to
explore Gravity Reversal further because if that was the case, we could very well
make an entire game around this one single mechanic. Instead, we used lasers and
reflective boxes to fill the levels, which, in my opinion, made the puzzles on the first
floor stray away from the core mechanic of Gravity Reversal.
For Reflection, although there are only 5 levels on the second floor, it seems
that the players have enjoyed this floor the most. I believe the main reason is that
we nailed the theme of collaboration that is represented by the Reflection power,
and focused singularly on it by designing tutorials that prime the player for the idea
38
of “two Revs being at two places at the same time” and more dicult levels that
challenge the player to apply the idea in more interesting ways.
On the other hand, Light Switch, as I mentioned earlier, is the mechanic that
we have explored the least, because of the diculties we have been having about
the mechanic itself and the fact that there are only 4 levels on the third floor.
4.4 Diculty Ramping
4.4.a Original Scope
The original scope of the tower has 7 levels on the first floor, 5 on the second,
and 3 on the third (15 levels in total). According to some suggestions I have received
from my advisors, I focused on designing some key levels first. A key level is usually
(1) a basic tutorial level, (2) a level that requires a newly learned skill to solve, or (3)
the most complex level located at the end of each floor. After we settled on the
general frame of those key levels, we then proceeded to design the in-between
levels, which should have mid-level diculty and a mixture of tutorials and
applications, and slowly guide the player from the tutorial key levels to the most
dicult key levels.
Figure 41: Reversal Original scope
39
However, after doing weekly playtests, I noticed that even with the
in-between levels, many players still felt overwhelmed when they reached the key
levels. The main reason is that in these key levels, we often wrongly assumed that
the players would know a few things that we never made tutorials for. As a result,
we decided to do what producers usually wanted to avoid: expanding our scope by
adding more in-between levels to fully prepare the players.
4.4.b New Scope and Results
Figure 42: Reversal New scope
Now, we have 19 instead of 15 levels in total. One of the in-between levels we
added that simply functions as a tutorial is the level mentioned in Section 3.2.a (3)
on page 19, An Application of What the Tutorial Has Taught the Player.
Based on the feedback we received from the past few months, with the help
of the newly added in-between levels and adjustments on existing levels, the
players have stopped getting stuck on many levels that were originally dicult to
digest, but they still feel overwhelmed in the last level on each floor. However, we
40
have an interesting observation that, more often, the last level on the first floor (key
level 9, see Figures 23 to 25) tends to be more frustrating than the last level on the
second floor (key level 15, see Figure 39).
According to the players’ comments, I believe that level 9 feels overwhelming
because of the confusing and distracting visuals and the overwhelming amount of
variables. With a laser that is constantly rotating and making a platform rise and fall,
the player finds it dicult to concentrate. On the other hand, level 15 is extremely
static in comparison. Everything only moves by the player’s control. This slows
down the pacing and calms the player, and they usually feel more clear-headed
when they are in this level.
As a result, I would say that the method of designing key levels first and
in-between levels after is a good method when the key levels themselves are well
designed, but when the key level itself has problems that are not derived from the
lack of tutorials, the key level itself should be adjusted to eliminate unwanted
frustration.
However, I also do not think that key levels should set the bones of the
project; I believe designers should always keep their minds open so that when new,
brilliant ideas arrive, they should at least consider the possibility of incorporating
them into existing or new key levels.
4.5 Hint System
Due to the limited scope and time of the project, I let go of adding a hint
system into the game and solely focused on adjusting existing levels or adding
more in-between levels to help the players out. However, during discussions with
41
my advisor, Andrew Nealen, and my teammate, Zian Zhang, a few options for the
hint system surfaced. If given more time, I would have experimented with them in
the game.
4.5.a Explicit Hint
Having an explicit hint system can be very helpful in puzzle games. A good
example is the Room series, which keeps track of the time the player has spent on a
puzzle, and when that time exceeds a certain limit, the hint icon will glow, letting
the player choose whether they want to see it or not. Additionally, there are often a
few sequential hints for a puzzle, and they will be revealed one by one based on the
method above.
Figure 43: The Room: Old Sins Hint Example
However, there are many reasons that a game would refrain from using an
explicit hint system: (1) it might disrupt player immersion, (2) it might make the
players feel not as capable (since if they are, they probably will not see the hints),
42
(3) the game is designed to be very dicult and not hold the player’s hand, (4) it
might be a lazy solution used to hide the bad design or tutorialization in the game.
If we were to have a hint system, it would never be explicit, because we want
an immersive experience that is not obstructed by UI elements. Plus, we never
aimed to design a hardcore game like Stephen’s Sausage Roll; we wanted our
players–who do not have to be avid puzzle game players–to figure out the solutions
on their own and feel accomplished afterward.
4.5.b Environmental Hint
There are so many possibilities with environmental hints, and even though I
said we do not have a hint system, we already used lighting to illuminate many
important objects or areas in a level.
Figure 44: Reversal Level 4 Uses Lighting to Highlight Key Areas
43
We also talked about doing background art and animations that indicate an
action Rev should do, a location the player should pay more attention to, or even
just a direction that Rev should move in.
4.5.c Deferred Hint
Deferred hints appear in the next level. It could be an animation that reflects
on Rev’s action in the previous level. Therefore, this is less like a hint than a
post-level reflection that helps the player understand what they have done in the
previous level if they fumbled through it by luck, and a way to reinforce certain skills
that the player applied previously but have not gotten used to yet.
44
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Looking Back
Through the making of Reversal, which is the very first puzzle game I have
ever made, I have learned that puzzle games probably need the largest amount of
playtesting because playtesters are always coming up with innovative ways to
break the game.
Moreover, whenever we thought a puzzle should be at a certain diculty, we
usually had to turn the diculty down at least two notches for the players to really
play it at that diculty level. Since Reversal is not meant to be played at an
extremely dicult level, I had to give up on many interesting ideas that might lead
to very complicated puzzles.
In terms of my thesis, I find that players still feel a disconnection between the
mechanics and the story. I believe the three mechanics of Reversal are too distilled
or abstract from the original ideas they represent, as explained in Section 3.1.
Additionally, even though I would love to tell stories through mechanics alone, our
game is not that, partially because it is a joint thesis and my thesis partner Zian is
exploring visual storytelling, partially because the mechanics in Reversal are
supposed to represent ideas, not the actual story. When we conducted the
playtests, more than 95% of our builds were made of greybox art, and the
playtesters never understood the story, the hierarchical tower structure, the
su erings of the robots, etc. However, I would often think back on Inside, and
imagine whether I would understand the story and the meanings behind it without
45
the polished visuals, and I believe I would because a large amount of the story is
told through gameplay and mechanics, such as the stealth and chase sequences.
Therefore, I have to accept the fact that our mechanics are lacking a direct
connection to both the ideas they represent and the story itself.
However, despite the lackings, we have achieved a good level of diculty.
Playtesters who have some experience with puzzle games usually breeze through
easier levels with some thinking and spend more time in the last level on each floor.
I find that they usually spend more time in those levels not because these levels are
dicult, but because the layout has misled them. For example, a playtester solved
Level 9 (see Figure 25 for correct solution) in the way shown in the figure below, by
stacking the reflective box on top of a tall box. It was an extremely clever solution
and I was genuinely amazed by it, but unfortunately, we decided to remove it by
adjusting the angle of the laser because we never wanted stacking to be a solution
to any of the puzzles.
Figure 45: Reversal Level 9 Unwanted Solution
46
I was also glad to have added the constraint of only allowing one power to be
active at a time. The sequence-based design has made the puzzles not only more
challenging but also less convoluting. Often during playtests, I would listen to the
playtesters thinking out loud about how they think the end state should be, and
slowly working backward by using one power at a time. This happens the most on
the second floor of the tower, which might be why most playtesters enjoyed this
floor more than the other two.
5.2 Moving Forward
Due to our time constraints, we are approaching our Beta milestone and will
not be adding new sequences to the game that is already sequence-complete.
Therefore, the next steps for me would be debugging, polishing the game feel to
make every movement satisfying, and conducting more playtests to find more bugs
to fix and adjust the level layout to prevent potential unwanted solutions. As for
Zian, he will continue to fill our game with original art and animations. Additionally,
we will be updating our social media accounts and looking for potential publishers.
If everything goes as planned, we will be releasing the game around August 2022.
However, if we were to have more time, there are many things I would like to
change or improve on. First, I want to incorporate our three core mechanics into the
story more, and vice versa. In this way, the players are more active in participating
in the story because the actions they do are related to it. Second, as mentioned
previously in Section 4.3, the shape of the tower is creating some balancing issues,
so I would like to keep the shape of the tower–which will only be seen from the
outside during the finale–but spread the levels evenly across the floors. Lastly, also
47
mentioned previously in Section 3.2.c, from a game perspective, we are missing a
twist in the mechanics and gameplay. There are many ways we could create a twist;
for instance, we could make Rev lose all his powers for a while and make him regain
them, but this time, the powers have grown stronger.
5.3 Final Words
Reversal began as a small project in Interactive Design and Production I
taught by Richard Lemarchand. I still remember the grand scope Zian and I had
about making three mechanics and six levels in total, which got cut down further
and further until the game only consisted of one mechanic, three condensed levels,
and an ending saying “the journey has just begun.” I cannot express how thankful I
am that we have continued this journey (and will finish it in the foreseeable future)
with a scope that is much greater than our original plan.
48
Bibliography
GDC. (2018, February 27). Level Design Workshop: Designing Celeste [Video].
YouTube.
https:/ /www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RlpMhBKNr0&t=1621s&ab_ch
annel=GDC
Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M., Zubek, R. MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and
Game Research. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the AAAI Workshop
on Challenges in Game AI, (2004) USA.
Extra Credits. (2013, February 7). How To Start Your Game Narrative - Design
Mechanics First - Extra Credits [Video]. YouTube. https:/ /www.youtube.com/
watch?v=22HoViH4vOU&t=212s&ab_channel=ExtraCredits
Game Maker’s Toolkit. (2015, March 16). Super Mario 3D World's 4 Step Level Design
[Video]. YouTube. https:/ /www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmIkEvEBtA&t=2s&a
b_channel=GameMaker%27sToolkit
49

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Asset Metadata

Creator Cao, Yang (author)

Core Title Reversal: expressing a theme through mechanics

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Degree Conferral Date 2022-05

Publication Date 04/15/2022

Defense Date 04/14/2022

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

Tag 2D puzzle,ludic narrative harmony,mechanic-driven,mechanics,OAI-PMH Harvest,puzzle,Robots,thematic consistency,video game

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Fullerton, Tracy (committee chair), Lemarchand, Richard (committee member), Nealen, Andy (committee member)

Creator Email yangcao1708@outlook.com,ycao3072@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC110964813

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