Ben Gonshaw: Digital Media Theorist & Game Design Consultant
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ASSUMPTION GUMPTION

20th December 2004

One of the keys of game design is to assume that the player knows nothing. Give them a gentle first level to act as a tutorial to your key features, and release more features over time to get them used to them. Do not assume that they will be able to pick up your game and just play it. Do not assume that they know how lock and key tests work and that health is hidden inside crates. Current gamers may know, but one subtle event demonstrating your staples to the player can make the difference between accessibility and impenetrability. The problem is that some of these elements have become so ingrained in the gamer’s lexicon that we no longer realise that these are things that we have had to learn. Remembering what parts are unique knowledge means relearning how we relate to games, and seeing them afresh.

When you do so the flipside of the ‘assume nothing’ rule becomes clear. Suddenly the player is savvy, intelligent and sees more than you can imagine. In fact, this tendency of the player to imagine things that aren’t there can be used to a developer’s advantage. The original Sims and Creature’s series allowed the player to imagine that deep interrelationships were occurring between characters, that each of them had a unique personality. A randomly selected animation was imbued with mystical levels of deep AI. A developer can be sparing with some aspects of a game, knowing that the player will create their own backstory, and reasoning for a character’s actions, or for a foible of the gameworld. When a player creates their own narrative or justifications for aspects of a game, they are no longer playing someone else creation, but they become an active partner and author of the experience. This creates a deeper bond between screen and player. Experimental psychology has shown that experiences are stored and recalled better as the meaning and the level of processing in creating that experience increases.

A designer has to be able to distinguish between these two forms of assumption: that the player will know how to play their game, and that the player will know how to relate to their game. In the former you cannot be too accommodating, but the latter requires a much more delicate touch to get right. If you do not leave enough cues for the player they may invent something that you contradict later on, but leave too many and there is no room left for the player’s own invention. The only assumtion you can make as a designer is that every player knows nothing about games and that they will apply their own interpretations to fill the gaps that you leave, whether deliberately, accidentally or through lack of time.

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