Archive:PlayNOW! - 3 - Jumping to Conclusions

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• Published: ?
• Host: Playnow.com.au
• Author: Paul O’Connor
• Game: Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
• Format: Publised Online

The Designer Diary

Part Three: Jumping to Conclusions

A great thing happened this week. We designers had an argument.

Arguments are good. They’re barometers of passion. As assistant director Chris Ulm said to me afterwards, if a couple guys in their late thirties and five kids between them (meaning he and I) can get worked up into a froth over an obscure point of game design, then we’re still in the right business.

The contentious issue that set ancient friends upon one another with fire and steel?

Jumping.

Our first two games, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, made significant use of jumping. And hopping. And hoisting. And run/jumping. And jumping into wells, or between chunks of falling meat, or over land mines. This was appropriate for a side‐view game.

For a 3D game, it would be a nightmare.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some fine 3D platformers out there, many of which make extensive use of a jumping mechanic. It’s just not the sort of play we want to have in Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee. Jumping was one of the first things we took out of the design, way back when we did up the controls document. And no one missed it.

Until the engine was up and running.

One of the moves our animators worked up for Abe was a jump. Not just any jump, mind you … a spring into the air with multiple somersaults. Sure, it wasn’t in the spec, but we experiment with everything here at Oddworld, so the move was added to Abe’s basic functionality when the test engine made its debut.

And then we noticed our problem: jumping was fun.

It’s a happy problem to have. About all you could do was run a little Abe around in 3D and interact with some very basic geometry. No GameSpeak. No enemies. No puzzles. But people still wanted to play with the thing, and one of the things they liked to do was make Abe jump.

OK, no problem. We’ll put jumping back into the game.

Ah, but there is a problem. Not only must Abe and Munch run, walk, and sneak, but he still needs to possess things, and throw, and there’s a wide range of social and command GameSpeak abilities, to say nothing of all the new Quarma‐based power‐ups we’ve got planned. Oh, and you can pick guys up, too, and drive vehicles, and pull levers, and … well, let’s just say that even with the simple control scheme we’ve got cooked up to handle all this stuff, we weren’t eager to introduce a jump into our button map.

That’s not what we argued about, though. Interface is a mechanical problem, and pretty easily solved. No, what really set us off was a disagreement about the role of jumping in the game. The designers broke into two camps:

[The section below was originally published in the Italian magazine Super Consoleand has been translated into English by GPT]

The "Jumpers" loved the jump as it is. Assign to the jump its button and leave the player being free of using it where and when they want. Jumping is fun! The "Anti-jumpers" wanted to impose restrictions on where and when the player could jump. Sure, jumping is fun, but this is not a platform game and it shouldn't become the primary means of exploration and transport.

THE DEBATE

Jumpers: Restrict the jump to certain locations? Are you silly? How can one even remotely think of imposing restrictions on player control?

Anti-jumpers: we've already established restrictions in this regard. You can't throw if you haven't picked up anything to throw. you can only slip when going down a ramp. However, if it could be possible to jump everywhere...literally everywhere...wouldn't we risk to run into the age-old problem of accidentally-death-by-jumping that we detest so much in other games?

Jumpers: You are overestimating the problem! The player will learn which are the points where it's safe to jump from and which not. But if they want to jump from a cliff they have to be free of doing that anyway.

Anti-jumpers: but if we offer them this ability they will believe that it is a fundamental part of the game mechanic and will try to use it to solve it. The player will end up getting frustrated because they will start jumping all over the place in an attempt to gain an advantage...but our game design doesn't support this kind of gameplay.

Jumpers: so you don't wanna jump in the game , uh? But jumping is fun!

Anti-Jumpers: Of course we want the jump, it would be just better to restrict it in certain zones clearly highlighted by a sign or something like that. In this way the player is not forced to guess a determined passage.

Jumpers: Jump zones? But it's stupid! Jumping only where there's a "X" on the ground? What are you saying?!

Anti-Jumpers: remember that it was possible to make Abe jump longer if you made him jump in a well? Basically it's the same thing. We could develop a level design that would allow us to highlight the "jump point" with scenographic elements...

What we've decided in the end? I can't tell you - we're still thinking on that! As with any other aspect of the game, the chosen option will be the one that will give the prove of its effectiveness in the actual game. We'll attempt both the approaches and the one that will result the most fun will prevail. And if you think the people that debated against the one that will be the final choice will be ridiculed, i can assure you it will not be the case... because at that point we'll be busy to discuss on another subject and no one will remember who was on one side or the other!

Paul O' Connor

03-03-2000