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Variations on a Core Mechanic
Working with an existing core mechanic is a common game design problem. Perhaps there is a core mechanic that you want to borrow. Or maybe a publisher is funding a digital game project that needs to resemble an existing game genre. Or it could be that you have already designed an original core mechanic, but you don't know how to extend it into a full game experience. In this section, we look at examples of how to modify and re-mix a core mechanic to create new game experiences, using Breakout as a touchstone. The version of the game Sudnow describes is Breakout for the Atari 2600. Although he only plays the "basic" version of the game, the original Atari cartridge includes many play variations. The inclusion of game variations was a common design strategy in early console games for platforms such as the Atari 2600. Typically, designers extended the basic game interaction, creating numerous variations for play. For this reason, Atari games are excellent examples of game designs that take a core mechanic and spin out many variants. The alternate versions can be clever and engaging or gratuitous and unplayable. But there is much to learn from both successful and unsuccessful attempts at creating core mechanic variations. On the original Atari 2600 Breakout cartridge, there are twelve different game variations. We list the mechanics for each below:
Timed Play
Breakout on the Atari 2600 is a finite game. The goal is to clear the bricks from one screen, which leads to a second screen of bricks. If that screen is cleared, the game ends. Because players score points for each brick eliminated, the score at the end of a finished game is always the same (864 points). One problem with this game design is that an expert player will be able to clear both screens and will eventually lose interest in the game. Even though the core mechanic might be engaging enough to encourage repeat play, it is more likely that the player will feel as if the game has been "solved." The game's space of possibility will become too familiar, and is unlikely to offer any more surprising challenges.
To address this potential problem, the cartridge includes a "timed" version of the game. In addition to a point score, the game keeps track of how long a player has been playing. The goal of a timed game becomes not only reaching the maximum number of points, but doing so as quickly as possible, adding a quantifiable tool for judging performance to the same essential game play. The result is that timed Breakout becomes a more engaging game for advanced players, who may have reached a scoring ceiling in terms of points. The game variation allows players to continue exploring strategies for reducing their overall time. It is significant to note that the timer could have been included in the basic game as well.The timer doesn't structurally change the actual interaction-it merely displays a new kind of data. But the timer does change the experience of the game, psychologically placing players under more pressure as the seconds tick by. Breakout can be a very difficult game for beginners, and it was a smart design decision to keep the timer element out of the basic game. That way, beginners feel a bit more comfortable as they learn the game's basic interaction. Conversely, advanced players feel as if they have "graduated" to a new level when they take up the timed version of the game.
Breakthru
Another variant on the Breakout core mechanic is the "Breakthru" version. In this game, the player's core interaction with the paddle remains the same, but the behavior of the elements in the game change. When the ball hits a brick, it eliminates the brick-but instead of bouncing back, the ball keeps on going until it hits a wall.That means that a ball will travel right through the wall of colored bricks, leaving a trail of empty brick spots as it plows through them. What is the reason for this design variation? In the normal version of Breakout, it feels satisfying to eliminate bricks, a satisfaction that extends over the course of the game. One by one, brick by brick, you chip away at the wall. Breakthru accelerates this satisfaction, allowing you not just to nip at the wall, but to gouge out whole sections in a single gesture. Although it makes the game much easier, this variation adds a new degree of experiential pleasure to the game. It is significant that the designers chose the more delayed gratification of the basic version to be the default structure for play.
Steering, Catching, and Invisible Bricks
Atari 2600 Breakout includes other variations as well. In some, the player can use the paddle to affect the ball while it is in the air, nudging its path to the left or right. In others, the player uses a button on the paddle to "catch" the ball, making it stick to the paddle until it is released. In a third variation, the bricks are invisible until they are hit, at which point all of the remaining bricks light up. Each of these versions of Breakout has a strong impact on the play of the game. Steering and catching give the player an additional way to control the ball, increasing the complexity of the interaction slightly, while also decreasing the game's overall level of difficulty. The invisible brick variations make the game much harder, especially when there are only a few bricks left and players must use their memory to aim at them. All of these variations (timer, breakthru, steering, catching, and invisible bricks) offer not only individual variants, but are mixed and matched to provide many versions of Breakout. Each of the dozen games on the cartridge is either basic Breakout, timed Breakout, or Breakthru; each of these three general types manifests four times: with no additional modifications, steerable balls, catchable balls, or invisible bricks.This system offers a total of twelve different Breakout games, eleven variants on the basic version, each one modifying the game's core game mechanic. Obviously, one effect of including variations is to greatly expand the overall space of play; each version of the game provides new strategic and experiential possibilities. Playing Breakout takes place on two levels: not only do players explore the structure of an individual variant, but they also explore the larger set of variants as a whole.
For example, perhaps you like the satisfaction of the Breakthru version of the game, but you find it too easy. You might balance the difficulty by playing Breakthru with invisible bricks. If you are a strategic player that enjoys the pressure of the clock, timed versions of the game with steerable or catchable balls might work well for you. Providing variations for players lets them design their own experiences in a limited way. Although it is not the right solution for every game, it is certainly part of the appeal of many Atari 2600 cartridges. In the case of Breakout, the variations offer a great lesson in altering a core mechanic in order to enlarge the space of possibility. Beyond the original Breakout arcade game and the Atari 2600 version of Breakout, there are many other versions of the game that borrow the same core mechanic. For example, the sequel release, Super Breakout for the Atari 2600, refines the play in many ways. In Super Breakout, games are no longer limited to two walls of bricks, but can continue on indefinitely. Super Breakout also adds new game variants, such as more than one ball in play at once, more than one paddle on the screen at the same time, bricks that slowly move downward toward the player, and a special "children's version," in which the ball moves more slowly. The number of variations that could be designed for the core mechanic of Breakout is nearly infinite. For a last look at Breakout, we turn to Alleyway, a game published in 1989 for the Nintendo Game Boy. The essentials of the game are the same as in the Atari 2600 version: the player uses the directional pad on the Game Boy to move a paddle back and forth at the bottom of the screen, bouncing the ball into a wall of bricks to make them disappear. Alleyway offers its own variation on the game, while still remaining true to the Breakout core mechanic.
Breaking Out
The moment in Breakout when the ball actually "breaks out," when a player carves a narrow path that allows the ball to bounce along the top of the screen, is one of the experiential climaxes of the game. When breakout happens, the ball goes into a brick-clearing frenzy, as the player sits back and watches the system do the work. In the Atari 2600 game, breakout is difficult to achieve, meaning that only advanced players get to experience its thrill. Sometimes, by the time a player hits the top of the screen, there are only scattered bricks remaining, so that the satisfying rapid-fire breakout bouncing never occurs. Alleyway addresses this design challenge by providing levels that encourage breakouts to occur. For example, the very first level of the game features the classic wall of bricks, but with columns of bricks removed from the left and right sides of the brick wall. Instead of a closed wall that stretches the length of the screen, the wall of bricks has open sides. A well-placed ball can angle into this gap, travel to the top of the screen, and achieve breakout. This brick arrangement makes it much more likely for breakout to occur early in the game. Furthermore, when breakout happens, the audio design of the game highlights the event for the player. As in the original Breakout, when the ball hits a wall or brick, there is a collision sound effect. In Alleyway, the top border of the screen makes a very different, high-pitched bell-like sound when the ball hits it. This means that when the ball breaks out, the speedy back-and-forth bouncing produces an appropriately celebratory "ding! ding! ding!" The first variation on the design-removing the sides of the brick pattern from the initial game level-changes the game's structural logic in order to make the satisfying breakout experience more likely.The audio feedback helps emphasize this event when it does occur.
Repetitive Play
One common criticism of early digital games like Breakout is that they are too repetitive. Although the core mechanic of the game is quite satisfying on its own, each level is essentially identical.There might be many variations of the core game in Breakout and Super Breakout, but once a player has selected a version of the game to play, each set of bricks will be the same from screen to screen. Alleyway's solution to this design problem was to design many different level variations, so that each time a player clears a level and gets a new wall of bricks, the arrangement (and sometimes behavior) of the bricks is different. Alleyway is certainly not the first title to create unique levels for a Breakout-style game, but the progression of levels is particularly well-designed. Some levels in Alleyway feature bricks that fly steadily across the screen from right to left. Others have bricks that slowly move down the screen toward the player's paddle. In the timed bonus levels, the walls are replaced by portraits of Nintendo characters made out of bricks that the player must eliminate, breakthru style: the ball passes straight through the bricks and only bounces back when it hits a wall. The levels in Alleyway follow a repeating pattern. For each structural arrangement of bricks (such as the open-sided wall of the first level), the player plays a "standard" version of the game, then a version with horizontally moving bricks, then vertically moving bricks, before reaching a bonus level. The next level introduces a new structural arrangement, and the player cycles through the set of variations again, followed by another bonus level. This pattern of levels creates a wonderfully heterogeneous playing experience, providing both familiarity (the variations cycle in a consistent way) and newness (every four levels, a new structure appears). The engaging, repeatable core mechanic of Breakout is enhanced through a system of levels that adds an element of discovery to the overall experience.
Alleyway
Adjustments to a core mechanic, whether in a digital or non-digital game, can be subtle or overt. They can create meaningful variations on an existing game, or a new game altogether. The key to taking a core mechanic and modifying it within a game relies on an iterative process. As you experiment with variations, ask yourself what is successful or unsuccessful about the existing core mechanic. Then try out your best guesses to see whether or not adjustments to the core mechanic result in more meaningful play.
