People ask me all the time why I make games or, more precisely, why I make the games I do. That’s summed up in the motto and mission of OtherSide Entertainment – “Player Powered.” Paul Neurath of Looking Glass fame founded the studio with that game style in mind. In other words, he wanted to make what are commonly referred to as “Immersive Simulation” games – you know, games like Underworld, System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex and more – I’m looking at you, Arkane!
I love that kind of game. I have no interest in making any other kind of game. I believe Immersive Sims are… well… important. How could I not join him when he asked me to? I signed on as a partner around the time the studio was created specifically because I wanted to make “Player Powered” games. I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to make the kind of game I love. So here I am.
End of story, right?
Well, not so fast. I could stop there, but this wouldn’t be much of an article if I did! So I’m going to keep going and talk about what “Player Powered” means, at least to me.
For starters, here’s our studio vision, one of the things you can find on our website:
“We make deeply immersive games that draw players into richly imagined worlds. Games that empower players to choose their own playstyle, making their experience unique. That encourage players to team up with their friends and weave their own shared narrative. The kind of games that are powered by our player’s vision as much as ours.”
That’s a solid description of Player Powered (obviously, given that it’s our public statement of intent!). But I want to go even deeper and, though some might find it obnoxious, get super personal about it. This article is about how my teams and I express that mission in our games. (And make no mistake – all the philosophy that follows is driven by the hard work of the teams that must put up with me. They do the real work, so try to avoid calling me “creator.” That just embarrasses me and probably ticks off team members. Ticking off team members is never a good idea…)
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?
Lots of people think games are “just entertainment,” a way to pass some time, experience an adrenaline rush, maybe think about optimal strategies to overcome arbitrary challenges.
That’s great. You can’t really argue with it. But it’s a bit reductionist for me and doesn’t provide much guidance for developers. It reinforces the idea that games are relatively simple things with no real purpose.
I think developers need to think more deeply about what they do. I’d argue that when you make a game you must have a purpose, a reason for making that game and not one of the thousand-and-one other possible games. In other words, you need a purpose for making the specific game you’re making.
And from “purpose” you can take the next step and define success – you need to know that, your team needs to know it, your publisher needs to know it and even players should know (though perhaps not consciously). You need to know not just what you’re going to do and why, but also when – or if – you’ve hit your target.
Developers have defined success a variety of ways. I’m going to start by identifying some possibilities that have general application rather than being specifically about Player Powered games. I promise we’ll get to that…
Some people make games to make money or sell a lot of copies (usually a prerequisite for making a lot of money…). Frankly, if this isn’t one of your success criteria, you’re not likely to be making Immersive Sims or any other kind of game for long, so take this one as a given!
Some people define success in terms of team morale – if the team is happy and (I’d argue more importantly) proud of what they’ve done, that’s a successful project. Of course you want your team to be happy and proud. (See earlier comment about ticked off teams. They don’t make great games.)
Some make games for the ego gratification that comes with attention and critical acclaim – or for the validation that comes with recognition from outsiders that they’ve done a good job. Anyone who says they don’t care about kudos is probably lying. In my experience, no one cares about cover stories and awards until they start getting them.
Some make games just to provide people some “fun” (whatever the heck that essentially meaningless word means – but that’s another post for another time…) If a game passes some time in a way that engages and pleases players, that‘s good enough.
So, is that all? Are those the only success criteria?
Obviously, I don’t think so. So let me tell you about the Player Powered success criteria. Not because they’re the only ones or necessarily the best ones, but because they’re a little different and may spark some thinking on your part about what success means to you. Plus, I have a personal mission, I work at a studio that’s built to do this (plus, I admit I like to evangelize!)
Here’s the list of things I add to the list above, as if those weren’t hard enough. Stick with me. We’re playing on Expert now!
- Have I empowered players to tell their stories in collaboration with us – with the developers?
- Have I delivered at least one new thing in the game that no one has ever seen or done in a game before?
- Have I allowed players to see the world through the eyes of someone else, someone potentially unlike themselves?
- And have I made a game that’s about something more than just what’s on the surface? Have I made players think?
My hope is either to convince you to agree with me that these are desirable success criteria or to get you disagreeing so emphatically that you’ll be moved to consider what your mission is. Then we can have a fun little argument in comments or in person at a conference (someday). Just be ready for a knock-down-drag-out argument. Those aren’t just success criteria and Player Powered isn’t just a motto. It’s a mission. On my team at OtherSide, we consider it when we make every one of the myriad decisions required when developing a game.
So in the coming weeks, I’m going to talk about each of my success criteria for a Player Powered game, one at a time, starting with what I consider to be the most important — Player Empowerment. In a sense, that’s the central characteristic of Immersive Simulations.
I’ll warn you up front that this is going to be highly personal. The opinions expressed here may not reflect the thoughts of everyone involved in making Immersive Sims, though I think – I hope – most would agree.
See you in a few weeks.
Gaming the System 
Hi Warren,
I know this sounds like a bizarre question, but do you have any idea where the running gag of hidden basketball courts in Looking Glass games came from? I suspect that it was an inside joke about the hidden basketball court at Disneyland’s Matterhorn Mountain, but I haven’t found anything conclusive either way.
The hidden basketball court is in most of the games I’ve worked on, not just the ones with Looking Glass. The simple reason why it’s there all the time is that I’m a basketball freak and insist on it. The other part of the deal is that the team can’t tell me where the court is – I want to find it myself.
FWIW, there are some other things that always show up in the Immersive Sims I’ve worked on – the number 451 has to be there. And I used to like including an “altered state of consciousness” but I stopped doing that a while back. It just didn’t seem like a great idea once gaming’s audience became as diverse as it is.
I remember being slightly disappointed that the phone network in Mickeyjunk Mountain didn’t respond to dialing 451, but it’s not the biggest deal. That was a great level regardless.
I think you bring up good points. I’ve been reading Reality Is Broken by Jane Mcgonigal and there’s a lot of similarities (writing style too). I think while Money is the big factor, from my experience, it needs to be fun. The little games I worked on at Game Jams are the kind of thing that end up being Indie hits. However after a long weekend it starts to feel like work so everyone stops. Immersive Sims as you mentioned are what happens when a dedicated team with a budget puts their best efforts at something. But it needs that passion, that shared vision of having fun and including little Easter eggs. I can’t help but feel like small teams do better at keeping the vibe. If something gets too many people working on it like CP2077 it looses it’s grab. We wanna escape into the game, bind with the control where we don’t even think it’s just second nature. I hate button mashers, I don’t play to get my belittling aggressions out (most of the time) and they definitely remind you that between cell phones and video games we’re going to have problems out of our thumbs later in life. And it’s absolutely important to bring something new to the table. I recently finished the playthrough of Far Cry 6 as the female protagonist and it made me realize how girl gamers feel with everything always being male. I was generally interested to see this other side of society and eventually it didn’t feel so alien to watch her story unfold. Between video games and movies, media is are way of teaching people things they might not get from their support group in their lives.