Wonder/Wander

Wonder/Wander is the culmination of the research into how players interact with environments, and through that finding new methods of indirect control.

Sometime after starting the MA, I wanted to settle on finding different indirect control methods that help guiding experienced and inexperienced players. This proved to be a fools errand, as experience didn't make much of a difference to how a player perceived and interacted with the world. What I did notice however was a split between players who followed the guidance as planned, and those that forgo the guidance to do what they wanted to do. In essence, this is a split between players who learn by example and players who learn by trail and error independently.

The main theories, borne from the 2 years of research, that inform the design of Wonder/Wander are as follows:

·       Players lack an immersive connection to the game environment. This means that techniques used in architectural theory, such as the use of ‘refuge points’ to make players feel safe, the idea that cramped areas make people feel claustrophobic and that people are attracted to and feel safe in brightly lit areas, do not translate well to digital environments and are highly unlikely to effect a players choices in where they want to go.

·       Research showed that players make decisions based on a logical process of whether or not a navigational decision will result in gaining an advantage within the mechanics of the game, rather than through an immersive connection to the environment.

·       Players’ experience of other game influences the decision making process. If their experience of other games doesn’t help them in a particular situation, then they will use their knowledge from reality.

·       Some players will be unsure of how a particular stimulus works in the game world, even if real life the stimulus is infamous for its effect.

·       Once a player has learnt that a stimulus will disadvantage them, they will avoid it 100%.

·       Not all players will be attracted to the same things. Some players will closely follow visual cues, while others will recognise the cues, but choose to go somewhere else in an effort to explore or mine an area for any potential advantages before proceeding down what they believe to be the intended path to progress.

Wonder/Wander, as a game, is an open environment where players are lead to experiences that they find enjoyable. Agency driven players, those who notice visual cues and choose to do the opposite of what they say, are guided towards collectibles and challenging areas, where they need to avoid deathly lasers. Guidance driven players, those who will follow visual cues as intended, are taken on a guided tour of the environment, and can discover a loose and subject narrative.

The general idea behind Wonder/Wander, of making a game for both those who want to explore and consume all that the game has to offer and those who want to just get on with it, can be expanded upon with other 3d games, as can the indirect control methods used in the game itself.



During the time between this post and the last, I worked as a freelance level designer at a games company, working from home. I knew the experience would improve my level design work by a wide margin, so I waited until the contract had finished before starting on Wonder/Wander. Unfortunately, the work can't on the blog, but after the game has been released I will talk more about it.