Off the Clock: Tending Someone Else's Garden

The concept of the loop has been on my mind ever since the Rez Infinite trailer. That game, and all of the subsequent Q Entertainment games, had incredibly simple loops that were just super compelling. Rez is just hold button->move stick->release button. The gameplay is really simple, but the rewards are immediate and visceral. Samples trigger off of shots, those samples build into layers, those layers build into a song. There's never been a game before or since (Child of Eden came close but was missing something) that so immediately and intensely triggered the rhythm-game trance of immersion like Rez did. So while the Internet of the day knew it as "That game what can get your girlfriend off" it was something much deeper for me. It was also an incredibly difficult game to get a hold of back then. I rented it multiple times on PS2 from Hollywood Video, first to play it, then later to try and show it to people.

A couple of years later came the launch of the PSP and Lumines, a game headed up by the same dude that made Rez that had a similarly small loop with similarly immediate and simple reward: samples and music. Lumines is the reason I bought a PSP, and the game I spent the most time playing on that system. Like Rez, it was best played in the dark with headphones for the full effect of the zen-like trance it could put you in.

I'm a fairly recent fan of the site, so I had no idea that Jeff also held Rez in high regard. Just when I thought I couldn't like that guy any more. In any case, the way that he and the rest of the crew spoke about the experience of the VR version of this game just made me giddy. I was especially excited by Jeff talking about how it breaks so many of the rules of what VR games have been so far, but without the negative consequences usually associated with them. Mizuguchi-san's games have been about making music visceral & immersive, so Rez Infinite seems to me to be so incredibly obvious I'm amazed I didn't immediately think of it when PSVR was announced. I have a deeply personal and academic interest in VR as a platform, so I was all in to begin with but now I don't think there is anything that will keep PSVR from being a day-one purchase for me.

Great stuff as always, Austin!

I hope this works, but I personally find the Ultimate cycle in Overwatch to be addictive. The more healing/damage you do, the more your Ultimate meter fills. Once it's at 100%, you unleash a powerful move that can turn the tide of the game entirely. If you switch characters, you lose the progress that meter had.

Usually, I'll stick to a specific character longer than I would've, only to get at least one Ultimate attack in to maybe change the game. Sadly it almost never works but I've found it to be a double-edged sword, since I would be better in another role, with another character, but I keep going with my current one just to get that Ultimate attack. Weird, huh?

Hmm I liked Crash a whole lot, I never thought it was exploring racial tension, which is why most people criticize it, but more isolation in modern society... but I guess everyone hates that movie. I like Paul Haggis, in any case, but Crash isn't my favorite movie of his..

Well anyhow! A good gardener looks very rad.

I like what you're writing about and how you're writing it, Austin. Excellent stuff.

I love the loop in Sid Meier's Pirates where you sail>pillage>sail>dock>repair>mission(if you want to)>sail>dance with governor's daughter>sail then repeat until you eventually die. I haven't played the game in a while but I sank dozens of hours into it when I first bought it.

I really appreciate how Austin can dive deep without being over analytical, like some ex GB writers I could mention.

Far Cry 2 had an amazing loop of getting a mission and gearing up that I miss in the sequels. In Far Cry 2, the weapon degradation plus the ability to upgrade your weapons makes it always worth it to grab a new weapon from your armory and maybe put a backup in the weapon case. So the loop goes: receive mission > gear up > map out route > traverse to objective > accomplish mission > repeat.

It's part of why I think it's one of my favorite games of all time. Just the simple mechanic of guns wearing out and having to gear up beforehand and think ahead made you actually feel like a mercenary. It lets you be the action hero hero arming themselves in a cool montage instead of just picking a gun from a menu and using it for the rest of the game (like I did with Far Cry 3). That plus having to traverse made it feel like you were actually visiting different regions as opposed to just putting a checkpoint on the map and traveling as the crow flies.

I recognize Far Cry 3 is a better polished product, but they took out so much of the character and ambition that I find it oddly cold. If it didn't have the skill tree progression/crafting progression, I don't think it would actually be any fun to play. Whereas I can fire up Far Cry 2 and enjoy hours and hours of gameplay with everything unlocked or right near the start of the game.

Always loved the "Gears of War" loop of Active Reloading. Empty a clip, build up the anticipation/tension of watching the little white line slide across the bar, hammer the bumper at the exact moment (hopefully), and get a Second Wind of sorts with the upgraded damage. Something zen-like about hitting it multiple times in a row.

Still reading the article but I just wanted to point out a small typo in case Austin would like to fix it: "Does he know that I've been trying to sabotaging the garden?"

Fallout 4, with the addition of settlement building/management, has a really enthralling cycle that I just can't shake. I go out into the world, explore new places, collect resources, complete quests, and when both me and my follower have bulging bags worth of junk to scrap I head back to Sanctuary to unload, upgrade some weapons and armor, maybe build a few things, sell some things, and just generally unload. Once I'm done with that, I head back out to where I left off and continue onwards, ever progressing at a steady pace.

Seen as I just beat Wolfenstein: The OId Blood I think there's 2 if not interesting, simply pretty fun loops regarding item/health/ammo collecting in both these games (base game + expansion). The first one is outside of combat, where you scour the area looking items, preparing for the next fight. You might run across secret areas, you take in the smaller details like propaganda posters and magazines etc., or if there's an overabundance you can tell there's a big fight coming up.

The second loop is doing all this while in combat, you have to juggle knowing the enemies positions and where they can from/go to along with keeping track of where you havent checked yet and safer routes to there. All this on top of the regular mechanics of just being in a firefight really makes you feel rushed and pressured and it's great

I play a decent amount of FIFA and in particular, doing the my player career mode. As such, the loop that I thought of was the

REPEAT

LOOP
match
training
ENDLOOP

season
trade

REPEAT

I wonder, would skiing in the Tribes series be considered a gameplay loop? If so, that's the one; that's my favorite.

I'm a huge fan of the lengthy, involved process of reloading in Wolfire's Receiver (http://store.steampowered.com/app/234190/). First you have to eject the magazine, then put away the gun. Then you slide bullets into the magazine one at a time, then you take out the gun again. You insert the magazine, pull back the slide or manually cock the pistol, and you're finally ready to fire. Each of the actions is controlled by a different key, so it becomes a satisfying finger ballet as you get to know the order and mappings. The gun state is not displayed anywhere on screen, so every time you start the game you have to manually unload the gun and make sure the safety is off, etc., if you want to be sure of actually firing when you pull the trigger. Bullets are not easy to come by, either. So you find yourself running around, firing at drones and then completely unloading your gun every time, just to know for sure how many bullets you have.

At a macro level, the loop of die - respawn - examine surroundings - figure out gun state - shoot dudes - figure out gun state - repeat is also great.

Play Receiver, is what I'm saying. I haven't even mentioned the weird, purposely disjointed story stuff, and the music, and the sweet mods that add more weapons, and-

I am almost constantly in love with the loop of 4x games. I've always liked viewing them as short term goals which add up to an eventual victory. Observe the current situation, formulate a long-term Plan, Break this into an immediate objective, and then React to the changes brought about by the environment and your opponents. Something about the way these games let the achievable short term build on itself in such a satisfying manner makes for an incredibly rewarding feedback loop.

I love the loop of CCGs. If we talk about it in the context of video games then Hearthstone would be my go to (even though it has serious flaws), but this applies to stuff like Netrunner (best game of all time) and MtG etc too. The loop of "make deck > play matches > refine deck/make entirely new deck based on performance > play more matches" always keeps me coming back.

What I love about this type of game especially is that strategy is dependent on the current state of the meta i.e. what other players are doing directly impacts what you're doing. Players playing lots of rush decks? Everyone makes decks to counter that, rush decks become unusable. The meta slows down, people stop teching to counter rush because no one uses it anymore, rush therefore becomes viable again. The constant push-pull of it is fascinating to me. It's as much about anticipating what your opponents might do as it is about countering things they have done. Add to that the evolving nature of the games as new cards are released and it's just the perfect genre for me.

Makes me think I'd have been way into MOBAs if I'd have been born a few years later.

That Witcher 3 Rosa Var Attre article is great, thanks for the link, Austin!

Anyways, as to the gameplay loops question, for me it's definitely JRPG-styled grinds (particularly when with a party); battle>level-up>shop>re-equip>battle. There is something I find primally engaging about managing and improving a character/party, especially finding the most efficient way to improve and sustain my character(s). It makes the act of battling secondary to my goal of improving the character(s), but this is exactly how I like it.

As an aside, this desire for efficiency is why I enjoy hunger/thirst/sustenance systems in games so much (which is very much it's own rabbithole but still related). Somehow, being successful at managing all of these subsystems while still succeeding at the game makes everything more fun to me.

Expeditions: Conquistador is a really good example of the sort of thing I love, containing all of the stuff I mention above tied together in a pretty roguelike-ish bow. Very cool game--the devs are making a Viking-themed sequel, releasing 2016ish.

I'm still love the whole concept of these articles. They're very intruiging reads, and always thought-provoking. Keep up the good work, Austin!

Early typo: "x and plant toss". Which verb do you settle on? I must know.

Edit: Also "trying to sabotaging", "A Good Gardner"

I'm just stuck so fast in XCOM Enemy Within cash flow problems. Balancing resource farming, research spending, engineering solutions is compelling, and getting complex bottlenecks to progress, spendign money gaining access to more avenues, then only having enough money to go down one. Seeing the elementary mechanism whereby the enemy gets harder is very bad for morale, but very alien.

I want a sort of combination of XCOM and Frozen Synapse's simultaneous turn based play (at the moment, even with overwatch it seems quite innacurate, more an allegory machine than a simulation of the combat it tries to represent), with RONIN's realtime presence and slowed planning available, but with some time limit. If this mechanic was upgradeable through a conceit of super-fast tactical brain-overclocking technology, that'd be nice. The ability to build an orbital base, becoming more like Arrowhead's Helldivers, would be progression. The ability to get another Skyranger and delegate missions to other commanders when attacks happen all at once, would also make it feel more alive, alongside the promised form of an actual alien intelligent civilisation not just a spawn a.i. story director. Also there is too much to learn and feel out before the mechanics are known and just enduringly interesting. Its not Loderunner enough in spirit. Paradoxically I think this could be improved by research being more of a procedural diceroll: In real science you don't know what you will discover from research, and especially on repeated play-throughs this is a farce in the game. At some point with that solution though, I'm asking to be invaded by different aliens every time, for a procedural Laws Of Physics generator, story-generating as Invisible Inc.'s levels, and that's a bit much. Revealing the numbers behind things, the economic, supply lines and reactive and strategic workings, approximating them accurately, coming up with damage counters etc for a commander's delectation, should all be the work of the boffins in the labs. I think there could be some good work done here by Firaxis that would pay off exponentially.

The engineers should be much more clear cut, with rare incompetence or failure or surprise, they should be able to make dummies, test ranges, etc, so you know what you are buying.

I'd also like a diplomatic and creative, peaceful argument that would make your actions have a moral range. I know they are B movie aliens but violence begets violence. Whether its monumentally oversacrificing human life for a war effort, or E.T. mistreated and his friends decide on revenge, it is a compelling theme. The more you alienate, the more hopelessly sectarian and callous you are. It would be well aided by showing the world's struggle with their armed forces and social developments depicted on the world map. Perhaps you could have something like Solaris, where the aliens are born slightly of dreams. The sense of these super-advanced bastards coming into contact with us is superbly cool, like the one 'what if' kicking around Hollywood of a squad of Marines VS all of Rome idea, with Rome's natural philosopher's bent on reverse-engineering firearms in such a fight, aswell as asking 'why fight attall?'. It doesn't feel realistic when ideas that aliens could have a different metabolism, a different scale by factors of hundreds of times, goes unexplored. Have they shrunk down to humanoid size to try and be surgical in the warfare, or keep their army in practise, or fight a proxy war with Buddha, with Earth their Vietnam? What is advanced about such barbarity? Do we bring out the worst in them? Could these arguments be the ones co-opted by feelings of apathy, guilt, and cynicism of surrender-monkey traitors?

Still the power of turning the other cheek is the power of civilisation, as shown with images of civil rights protesters pressing peacefully forward even as they are battoned at the frontline by officers - and the change such images make to hearts of onlookers. (Whether that works in an age of tazers and pepper spray is debateable, as unsympathetic ways to incapacitate people, with experiences that can only be doled out by a different class, with no common ground in action). The war would mean more as something alternate to good peacetime gameplay. Sorry, I'm frothing. Obviously the game captures the imagination so thats an achievement. I just wish it would also put it to work. And have more romance in it! Romeo and Alienette!

"How it feels to play at all" is the best gaming article I've read in 2015. Well worth a look. Who wants to help me build the list mentioned in the article?

You want to talk gameplay loop? Let's talk about DOTA2.

Every match sets you back to square one. You are on an even level (literally) with every other player. in order to be effective throughout the match, you have to focus on leveling up and collecting gold by last hitting creeps. But you have to do thise while also not pushing your lane which makes it easier for the enemy to farm. This phase is a fight to be the most efficient player.

Once the players have leveled up some and unlocked their abilities and spells, they begin pushing lanes to take down towers and give their team a map advantage for the next phases of the game. This is a battle of map control.

Everyone is now sufficiently leveled and have progressed their abilities to the near end. They have also made careful selections of items to counter enemy hero picks. The teams typically stick together because the respwn timer has increased to the point where a single death could spell doom for your team. The temas try to take each other out to gain an advantage of numbers while the opposition waits to respawn, during which they can feel safe pushing their lane, taking towers quickly, and getting closer to the enemy's base.

This is the basic watered-down flow of DOTA2 matches: grind->push to control map->team fight-> new match. The addictive part of the loop is that you get to progress a new character every match; you have the opportunity to experiment with new ability builds, item builds, team strategies, team hero combinations every single match. You get the full satisfaction of hero, match mechanics, and strategy progression in a burst of 30-60 minutes.

The core loop is essentially the same every match but the satisfaction is in the variety of way to execute it in a game of 140+ unique heroes.

@wikmalm:

I'm kind of late to this comment thread, but:

I also really like both of these games. In particular, I really enjoy the races and events in Path of Exile. They really distill down that feeling that you as a player are making progress, rather than just grinding up numbers and loot. Each race begins at a set time with every player making a new character. Then, you race to complete objectives such as reaching a certain level or killing a certain boss. Sometimes the races are done on special maps or with special rules or mutators. At the end of the race, you're awarded points (which can be used to unlock special items), plus some prizes if you did especially well. It's certainly a different way to play compared to the campaign, but the short races (some are less than 15 minutes long) and real sense of learning the game - when to rush through groups of enemies, when to kill them for XP, which areas to spend time in to find loot, which objectives to go after etc. - is really satisfying.

I also really enjoy Warframe although I find it really hard to judge how difficult a mission I should attempt (especially when I'm grouped with people). I really enjoy the frantic combat flow that you have to build up, especially on mission types with unlimited enemies (such as excavation) - charge in guns blazing, use an ability, melee an enemy, grab an item, retreat to recharge shields, repeat. Moving around in that game is also really satisfying. At first it feels kind of floaty, but learning the various movement techniques means you can move very quickly while still taking out the odd enemy.

I really enjoy when a designer turns the loop on its head a bit. I have been playing the new Tomb Raider on XBO and the loop is pretty standard. Discover>fight baddies>loot baddies> explore area without conflict. But at point, early in the game the loop flipped. It was discover new area> explore without conflict> fight baddies in that same area. I feel like it's one of the most successful moments in games this year because rather than walking into an environment I wasn't familiar with, I got to be the hunter in an area I knew well because I had the freedom to explore it without conflict. It was a very empowering moment.

I really enjoy when a designer turns the loop on its head a bit. I have been playing the new Tomb Raider on XBO and the loop is pretty standard. Discover>fight baddies>loot baddies> explore area without conflict. But at one point, early in the game the loop flipped. It was discover new area> explore without conflict> fight baddies in that same area. I feel like it's one of the most successful moments in games this year because rather than walking into an environment I wasn't familiar with, I got to be the hunter in an area I knew well because I had the freedom to explore it without conflict. It was a very empowering moment.

Your link to Michael Evenden's article leads back to this article.