Hello! This is the start of a series I’ve been wanting to do about case studies on certain mechanics and concepts in game design. I personally find it very useful to gather a lot of references to things I would like to emulate before starting work on a project, and this series would be very along those lines, just in a considerably more formal sense. This post is about:
- utilizing synergy in game design when concepting
- tying it into other aspects of the game, like art, sound, and narrative
- and using those tie-ins to make additions feel more natural
The Concept of Synergy
People use a lot of different methods when it comes to approaching game design. Good design is an ephemeral thing; difficult to consistently grasp, especially with the same methods. When trying to form the foundations of a game, people often use the concept of pillars (different from the 4 pillars of game design); the imagery behind the word conveys strong support, as the common pillars of a game support the “high concept” of a game idea. This does not necessarily mean things like visual appeal and audio appeal are independent from the gameplay. This word use also implies, however, that the gameplay features core to the game are entirely separate, which (as in life) isn’t always true; a different design approach that embodies the concept of core features being connected is the concept of synergy. In tandem with pillars, synergy can be likened to support beams connecting one or more pillars, using something they both have in common to help support one another. Synergy is about having core concepts play off each other in the pursuit of a more unified game experience.
There are some games whose features are very independent from one another; Angry Birds is one solid example; some strong words that come to mind are “cute“, “accessible“, “physics-based gameplay“, “rewarding“, “intuitive” (and arguably “marketable“). None of these gameplay pillars really influence each other; the intuitive physics-based puzzles play off of the accessible control scheme, but that’s about it; the cute character design does not consistently inform you of what each bird does, nor does it tell you what the game is about. “Angry Birds” essentially gives you no information about the content of the game, aside from the fact that birds (disabled birds, at that) will be somehow involved.
Can you determine anything about the gameplay in Angry Birds from the titles or splashes? Are they even relevant to gameplay?
Compare this to another fairly simple and popular mobile game; Temple Run, for instance. Were I to tell someone that title, and ask them what the point of the game was, they could easily correctly guess by just restating the title. In Temple Run, this theme is “Indiana Jones Running Away From a Boulder”, which gives a mental picture that perfectly matches the picture of the gameplay itself. So not only does it provide the perfect setting for the “endless runner” type game (giving a very motivating intro of “Take the Idol”, immediately followed by the player running away from whatever may be chasing him), it also gives hints to the kind of obstacles you might be facing, namely those that Indiana Jones might have faced in his archaeological escapades at any point in any of his movies: falling bridges, traps, narrow gaps, long jumps, etc.; everything about the game, from the art/setting, to the gameplay, to the soundtrack (constant tribal drums) is tied into the previously mentioned main concept. If we look at Temple Run with the pillars concept, the main pillars are a little difficult to pin down; “endless runner” is one, and “adventure movie-inspired” is another, alongside “arcade-style high scores“, but it’s difficult to point out a feature and have it only work for one of the three; thusly, Temple Run serves as a good example of having synergistic gameplay features.
Used correctly, synergy can help immerse the player, make the game experience more unique, and unite the game itself in a single core concept. However, synergy can also be a difficult thing to apply; sometimes a game can be too large to tie ALL of its aspects, or perhaps the core gameplay and setting of a game are vastly different, making it difficult to connect the two. A good example of a game that accomplishes this is Metroid Prime.
The first Metroid Prime game is the perfect example of a wild step into uncharted territory. The Metroid franchise was already (at this point in time) well established to be a 2D exploration-based platformer, wherein you explore the available number of areas, find a weapon (usually after defeating a similarly-themed boss) that also functions as a key, which unlocks a larger portion of your surrounding. That gameplay archetype is so traditional as to be named after the franchise itself, i.e., Metroidvania games. In this, the setting is equally as important to the gameplay as it is to the art theme; the layout of rooms, similarly themed areas, and bosses all need to be logically connected, for the sake of both gameplay and setting. It wouldn’t make very much sense if you fought a metal-themed boss in an ice area, or got a spider-themed ability after fighting a huge golem. So it is traditional for Metroidvania games to have their settings and gameplay connected; already, there is a degree of synergy between those three pillars; the RPG-like progession-based gameplay, deep world, and exploration theme are all connected. However, these are all, as previously mentioned, the staple themes of Metroid games; Metroid Prime is a game where Retro Studios had to tread new ground, and in doing so, they find new ways to tie the core pillars of Metroid-style gameplay together.
The first-person perspective of Prime gives a great deal more emphasis on background and setting; in a 3D world, there’s an entirely unexplored dimension of map design and background art that has to be done. To achieve the depth of detail and character that the previous Metroid titles had, the player needed a way to differentiate active/interactable game objects from purely cosmetic ones, as well as provide a background for the various wildlife and buildings in the world. To accomplish this, Retro added the Scan Visor; a tool in Samus’s arsenal that functions as a functional encyclopedia, identifying animals and constructs and briefing Samus on their attributes. This helps inform the player in the gameplay sense, both in the previously mentioned identifying interactable objects, as well as giving the player hints on how to defeat enemies/bypass obstacles. However, due to the detailed description and frequency of scannable objects, the scan visor also helps flesh out the game’s setting; the descriptions and names of each enemy make them far more recognizable and natural to the background than in any Metroid game previous. Bees and beehives have separate entries, juvenile and adult enemies have separate entries; every object now becomes that much more unique to the world thanks to the depth added by the scan visor.
The added depth of background is not limited only to the scan visor. Metroidvania games typically involve a great degree of backtracking, as well as enemies becoming more difficult as you progress. This usually makes backtracking efforts incredibly tedious and boring. However, in Prime, as you progress, backtracking to previously cleared areas reveals that the old enemies in said area have been replaced with new ones, and with good reason. In the ice biome, you claim the next exploration item by defeating an adult sheegoth, and the random enemies littered throughout the area were all juvenile sheegoths. As you continued your adventure, the juvenile sheegoths matured, and you return to see all the places they would have been littered with adult sheegoths. This repeats itself in other biomes; Chozo ghosts are awakened in the temple area once you progress through it (disturbed by your presence, no doubt), and once you progress through a space pirate level, space pirates begin to spread out throughout all the biomes, searching for a hint of your whereabouts. This feature has several effects; it makes your character growth feel significant; previously boss-level enemies become commonplace, as you can deal with them far more easily due to your unlocked skills. It makes the ecosystem of the planet feel more real, as things react to your presence, and prepare themselves for your arrival. Finally, the placement of all these enemies make sense for the region, and, in some cases, hints at the lore behind their existence. This one mechanic reinforces all of Prime’s core tenets; exploration, world building, and gameplay.
Not every mechanic is about gameplay, though; one of the most important things about Prime is presenting a convincing ecosystem for each biome. Each enemy has to exist there naturally for a reason. True to this, there are a lot of enemies that are entirely incapable of harming Samus that she encounters throughout the game. Scarabs, parasites, swarming enemies; all of these do little more than slow Samus’s normal progress, and possibly cover up her visor. They only serve two purposes; to provide enough variety of wildlife to form a convincing image of a complete ecosystem, and to provide further background on the areas they’re in as Samus explores them.
They serve both these purposes simultaneously; they are not purely for one alone. Every mechanic mentioned thus far supports more than just one aspect of the game, and in this, they cannot be separated from either. The synergy of these mechanics allow the various pillars of the Metroid series to repeatedly work together to strengthen the entirety of the game; the scan visor is utilized through gameplay, and informs gameplay, goal, and world, as do the maturing enemies, and the traditional metroidvania weapon key progression. Metroid Prime has a lot of extra features that serve to bridge the gaps between core pillars, and they’re strong enough to make all three synergize well. In fact, Prime has so many of these, it serves as one of the best examples of the true “Metroid” experience, potentially doing it better than any of its predecessors.
Different Applications of Synergy
Synergy is not only useful for adding to previously established ideas, though; it can be applied effectively in a lot of different scenarios; there have been a plethora of recently-released games that include good examples of tying features together to serve a greater purpose. Some use more well-established pillars to help empower weaker ones, others use source material / similar games as a springboard for methods to tie the game experience together. There are even some examples of games recognizing that their aspects have little synergy, and eschewing their weaker pillars in favor of just providing an opportunity for their main gameplay to shine.
In Dota 2, Valve was given an opportunity to remake a lot of backstory, character art, and theming in order to make a truly standalone version of the world of DoTA. A lot of the DoTA 1 backstories were tied to their respective WC3 heroes, so a lot of renaming and redesigning had to happen. Valve took this opportunity to make the heroes’ relatively weak and irrelevant backstories actually reflect the playstyle and personality of the hero themselves. Heroes that are difficult to play and require a lot of mastery had their backstories and character personalities retooled to be narcissists; heroes that typically require a lot of time/money to be effective typically have an overinflated sense of their own importance; heroes that are hard to kill, or that do well on their own, are typically written as lone wolves. All of this reflects the intended playstyle of the character; mid heroes dominate the game at the early to mid stages, carries need everyone to make space for them in order for them to shine later on, solo heroes go it alone. This is all in broad strokes, however; there are some individual brilliant examples of heroes matching their backstory perfectly (see Broodmother, Sniper, and Invoker, for instance), but that’s for a different part in this series. The point of all this character story-revamping is also so that the character themselves can react correctly to their being played “correctly”. Valve’s interactive voiceover system makes the characters react to one another, to their appropriate enemies, and to the things that they do. The minelayer shouts with glee whenever he kills someone with his best-laid plans; the fire sorceress and the high-flying fire daredevil get along, the insect takes pleasure in killing the arachnid for once, the cackling energetic narcissist taunts his opponents as he fights them, etc.; all these things serve to flesh out an otherwise weak backstory and game world by being interlaced with the gameplay.
On the flipside, Arkham Asylum is a great example of a game with an extremely large backstory and world needing to make sure that its gameplay is up to snuff. Everyone knows Batman; his background, martial prowess, detective capabilities, fearsome stature, and versatility is told of time and time again. , Rocksteady approached the concept of making a game to live up to this kind of legend in an intelligent way; they researched some of Batman’s finest moments and greatest tales, and made sure that all the things Batman was capable of in these stories, he was capable of in game. The Dark Knight Returns is a perfect example; if you read through that comic before playing through the game, you’ll recognize that a lot of the action scenes, exposition-through-platforming, predator mode attacks, and other similar Batman storytelling tropes all stand firm. Some of Batman’s combat moves and predator mode takedowns are directly taken, shot-for-shot, from this comic (right down to the last criminal freaking out and shooting everywhere). Arkham Asylum even starts like the typical Batman comic would; with Batman seemingly in the middle of the adventure. Rocksteady even went the extra mile to include a lot of the non-story-centric Batman villains in, either through small features, discoverable faux interviews, or just subtle nods. Asylum does not seek to tell the Batman story, or even any of the villain’s stories; everyone already knows them, so there’s no point. It just provides the desired experience; to make a game that makes you feel like you ARE Batman. In using his already well-established world and character backstory, it does it in the best way possible; utilizing the tried-and-tested pillars of a pre-built world and a fleshed-out character; all Rocksteady had to provide was the gameplay, and even synergized THAT with the previous two pillars to make sure they weren’t missing a beat.
If, however, a well-built world and story are not what you want, but instead just a solid and fun gameplay experience, you can still use synergy for that. Terraria is a game about mining and collecting and using your hard-earned materials to make weapons to fight with. Those are the only two pillars. The setting barely matters; it changes so much, so wildly, and so often, no explanation is offered for all the things you’re doing; one moment you could be fighting martians, another moment you’ll be exploring the jungle, or holding off waves of christmas-themed enemies, and the only thing they all have in common is that they’re dangerous, and have cool stuff that you want. Those last two things are the core tenets of the game, and Terraria’s wide selection of enemies proves that those 2 things are the only things that unite everything. You kill martians, and get a cool UFO mount. Kill jungle enemies, get a vine whip. The setting may tease what items you’ll be getting, but the gameplay tells you almost nothing about it. It’s a one-way relationship here; all these themes and backgrounds only serve as a medium to provide you more Terraria-like gameplay, so the gameplay is the only thing you’re here for.
Tying it All Together
The core concept of synergy is about “cooperation between forces in order to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects“. Applying this to game design, you can use the individual core features, or pillars, of a game to support one another, and the resulting improvement of both features is greater than both of those features alone. Synergy can help you support the weaker parts of your game, help tie the game closer together, and help find ways to fill the holes in any game idea.
However, there is something to be said for synergy being more effective for certain ideas. If you have a pre-defined background setting, or a certain artistic style in mind, attaining true synergy for all aspects of your game may be difficult. The game ideas that best fit this synergistic model are games made with a target experience in mind. In Metroid Prime, the target experience is “explore and evolve on an alien planet“. In Arkham Asylum, it’s “be batman“. This makes the synergy in both games easier to accomplish, as the target experience is so incredibly pure, it’s easy to make the various pillars have something in common.
If you had a game idea that was purely meant to be about just one thing, tied to no particular background, synergy can do a lot for you. Rock Band‘s target experience is “being in a rock band“. Because this target experience is so straightforward, there is seemingly no end to the opportunities for synergy. A gameplay experience that plays on the fantasy of performing a song, and being on a stage, utilizing team gameplay that reinforces the concept of working in concert with your teammates, as well as practicing songs beforehand, along with a degree of difficulty that directly coorelates to the instrument and song you are playing, and a character builder that allows you to shape your character’s instrument play style, background, and looks to whatever you want it to be, hand in hand with a band builder where you have to grow a fanbase by playing songs to get funds for tours and new gear, and linking this with the difficulty so skilled players and bands gain fans and fame even faster, even going so far as having tours and venues that are all real places; there is no end to the amount of things you can do. You can even use the little things, like having the options menu take you to the practice room, where you can also practice songs, having the loading screens show your characters setting up for a gig, as well as your fans piling in and getting excited/requesting encores when you play well; even the little inbetween moments traveling menus where your band is taking album cover shots, or having band meetings. You start to hit this sort of watershed moment, where all the pillars of gameplay, art, music, and story become so tightly knit, they start to coalesce, and the only thing left is the just the game experience. That’s the only thing you’ve ever been supporting, in the end, and because all the mechanics are so fiercely intertwined, that’s the only recognizable pillar left.
Used skillfully, synergy is truly a powerful thing.
