DokimiCU
commented
3 years ago Apologies for length!
I am unlikely to be contributing much to discussion and design. So here is everything I could think of relevant to my design vision for Exile (in addition to what's already in the design guide).
Most of the designing I done intuitively, and much of it is only partly implemented in the game already. Hopefully making this explicit will be useful for people.
Exile's future is up to the community now, but this is what I was thinking anyway. If you've liked the game so far, some of this might be the reason why.
- My impression of the community's understanding of my vision for Exile: I am confident people can successfully polish up the game as it currently exists.
I am less confident major new features will be designed appropriately. Some people seem to get it, others less so. Exile could easily fall into some seriously negative tropes, which is why I want to get my vision down explicitly.
I find many games out there to be deeply problematic. I made Exile to get away from those games. But, because those games are all that many people know, some people's natural instinct is to turn Exile into just another one of those games.
An example suggestion I stumbled across: "some ideas i thought of while playing that may be nice would be a city(to be discovered) thats all walled up super high and thats the city that exiled the player..and ya they dont like the player..but maybe there some way to make peace over time...or take over the city and become the new leader maybe lol"
City? Okay. Make peace? Maybe. Take over and become king? I find this problematic.
Many games seem to be built around this belief that people want to experience a god-like power trip fantasy. A dream of violent domination. I find that type of design deeply disturbing. That is not healthy. You are not a god. Be careful what you fantazise about.
I am especially bothered by people seeing Exile as being about "Strength" and "Weakness" (I've written about this already), or intepreting the game as following the violent "Prison Island" trope (where hardened criminals fight to the death).
- Dark Souls approach to mental wellbeing: Given that the stated goal of the game is to leave the player better off, it might seem odd to make a game that is so ridiculousy hard.
Dark Souls is famous for both being extremely hard and for helping people overcome depression. Despite never having played Dark Souls it seems I stumbled upon much of the same design approach as Miyazaki used.
It is precisely the difficulty, the confrontation with the struggle, and learning to overcome which seems to help people. Seeking out activites that give you this sense of self-efficacy is actually recommended in some mental health guides. Also helpful is the presence of beauty amidst pain and struggle, and the acceptance for failure and brokenness.
Compare this with games based on wish fullfilment. There you are the chosen one, and you can rise to greatness just by finishing a few quests, or everything is pleasant and happy - unlike your real life. This can make people feel better in the short term, but worse later on. We know it's a lie. The game only serves to contrast with how hard real life can be.
(Miyazaki's design philosophy regarding many aspects of game design seems to align with approaches I have stumbled into myself. Dark Souls may be a good source of inspiration in general.)
- Humor: While Dark Souls looks fairly bleak and moody, Exile is open to being more lighthearted in tone, as well as dwelling with that darkness and difficulty, more like Rimworld where the characters get into absurd tragi-comic situations in their fight for survival. e.g. some Exile character stories are fairly ridiculous, deaths often come from having done something idiotic.
- Tragedy: Go watch some Ancient Greek plays. They tend to end with someone getting exiled. The characters in this game just came out of a Greek tragedy. The entire story of this world of is a tragic story. Any narratives in this game are likely to have some major tragic themes.
- "Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" (by Ursula K Le Guin): Exile's approach to narrative follows the points that Le Guin makes in that essay (it's available free online. She's not unique in making this "anti-heroism" argument either, she just does it in a very Exile relevant way). This means: no hero's journey, no chosen ones, no singlehandedly saving the universe. Thinking you are God should backfire in this game. Violence and domination probably are not the answer. If anything your character was a victim of people who think like that (or used to be one of them, and got exiled for their hubris).
- Respect for ecology, nature, environment: perhaps Exile could be considered a work of Eco-fiction (ecological fiction, the genre that includes Solarpunk). Some deep underlying themes are present in the game here. Much of your effort can be towards mastering technology and controlling your environment. Yet this takes place above the ruins of a failed civilisation that through its quest for mastery destroyed itself, ruined its environment, and threw your character's ancestors into the Dark Ages. One of the game's major themes therefore is about our relation to technology and nature.
Care has been taken with how the natural world is portrayed. We have realistic (though simplified) geology, soils, hydrology, seasonal cycles, and ecology. Large trees if destroyed cannot be replaced. Animals if driven extinct don't come back. Your industrial activities produce waste products. In singleplayer these environmental themes don't show up much, but in multiplayer issues of environmental degradation could become significant.
- Nature is wild and raw, but mostly indifferent: many people comment about how "everything in this game is trying to kill you." This is a beginners reaction, NOT how the game is designed. Yes, if you wander around a desert walking barefoot on cactus and poking rattlesnakes then nature will kill you. But leave them alone, and they leave you alone. Very little in nature is ever truly out to get you. Exile intends to reflect that reality.
Compare this with games where the wilderness has 5000 wolves per square meter who personally have it in for you. They exist only so you can kill them. I find that really annoying and distasteful - its the Heroic violent power trip fantasy yet again.
- Playing the hand you are dealt: You might not get what you wanted, but perhaps you will discover things you didn't know you needed. While I'm not against options for customization (e.g. a character creator and custom start location), the default approach is to throw the player into a situation and then let them see if they can handle it. e.g. a random character, in a random location. You don't choose your hand, you choose how you play it. You must learn to accept who your character is, and their tragic fate.
- Complexity rather than complicatedness: Two items that are obviously different is more interesting than twenty items which are all pretty much the same, but differ ever so slightly so that it takes forever to figure out "Oh these are pretty much all the same."
- Multiple possible strategies: the game can be played "successfully" many different ways. Indeed, "success" is left up the player to define. The player should seldom feel trapped into following one particular path. The limitations of programming do restrict this, but at least two or three obvious pathways should be available (e.g. settled farmer, hunter-gatherer nomad, pastoralist herder, Indiana Jones with a death wish).
- Open and ambiguous narratives: because Exile is still in alpha not much has been done narratively, but I think it is good to keep things open and fluid. Many possible interpretations. Gaps and mysteries. This is a Dark Souls approach (so I am told!). I suspect it creates a more immersive world as the player is invited to co-create the world with their own imagination.
- Breaking free of the "Fantasy = Medieval Europe" trope: e.g. the character's home cultures (and therefore accessible technology and building styles) is based on the Classical World (Greece, Rome, Persia etc). Some of the entry level "stone-age" tech was inspired by Maori culture. Tuber based agriculture is common in tropical societies. The Tangkal tree is inspired by the African Boabab. Maraka nuts are inspired by the Karaka tree of New Zealand. Some of the underground city (e.g. the art, the love of jade) is inspired by East Asian culture. I think you get the idea!
- Multiplayer balanced in favor of cooperation rather than conflict: Obviously people can play how they want. But I deeply dislike the "Prison Island" trope. Exile is not Prison Island. Exile is the tragedy of becoming an outcast, not "hardened criminals receiving true justice." Also, people have lived in harsh landscapes for millennia, and they do it in cooperative groups. That's why getting exiled is a death sentence.
- A Virtual Training Arena: this game is about making hard choices in an safe space where failure doesn't matter. The hope is that you should learn something about yourself. It will punish bad decision making ruthlessly. But that's okay, it's just a game. You can learn those lessons here, in a fun way, rather than make those mistakes in the real world where the consequences actually matter.
- Age: this game is intended for adults, and might contain "mature" content. On the other hand I am aware this is easily accessible by children, so the fact it is not aimed at children should be made obvious. That said, I have little interest in "inappropriate" so called "mature" content such as splatter gore, glorification of violence and drunkenness etc (frankly I find that kind of "maturity" juvenile ). Exile might include drugs and violence, but the intent is to show why such things can be both appealing but also problematic.
- Modding support and customization: Ideally the code should be set up in a way that makes it easy for people to modify or adjust things. You can't please everyone... therefore settings. On that note: feature requests that fall outside the standard design philosophy for Exile should be left to independent mods. If you want Exile to be a A God-like Hero Power-tripping My Little Pony Furry adventure extravaganza on Prison Island, then that's on you my friend.
- Accessibility: Any one should be able to play this game if they want. That means Opensource values (free, source code available), able to run on low-end hardware, and support for language translations and disabled people (to the extent that is feasible).
I created the Design Guide document to help give some unity to future development if and when I left the project. My hope was to avoid any "design by committee" issues, and allow there to be something to refer to in discussions and when making design decisions. A kind of design "Constitution".
Now that I have passed the project on I've noticed other things I would probably add to that list, for the sake of clarity and keeping consistent with a vision that was mostly in my own head:
I'm not sure how useful people find this. I'm hoping making these design choices explicit will allow Exile to maintain a unified design even if it passes through several hands.
People might want to suggest other design choices that are important to them that could be added.