rwarnking
commented
2 months ago 04.08.2024 Discussion
In this Issue we discuss these main questions:
- What qualifies as a minigame?
- How should features be tagged, that have similarities to minigames but can not be categorized as such?
- In what granularity should minigames be tagged?
What qualifies as a minigame?
Basic Definition
Firstly we discussed the basic understanding of a minigame. Generally speaking a minigame can be understood as a game within a game, made to break up the gameplay and entertain over a short period wikipedia. In most cases the minigame appears differently than the maingame, for example by altering the UI, disabling physics or by a different control scheme. While there are minigames that have near trivial content there are also those that still have complex rules for example in form of a card game. Additionally a minigame can be seen as a task of lesser importance and with a low frequency of repetition, meaning that the player is not forced to play the minigame multiple times or over a long period.
Optional
Following this we discussed if a minigames needs to be optional content or if such a game element can still be called minigame if it is mandatory. Often minigames are required to gain access to specific rewards (unlocking chests). While these rewards are usually not required to end a game, they can be mandatory to complete some quests which allow the player to progress (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition). In those cases the player would be hindered from finishing the questline (soft lock) when the player is not able to beat or win the minigame. In some games this might also happen during the main story (BioShockâ„¢). Based on this we concluded, that whether a minigame is mandatory or not does not impact its state as a minigame.
Quicktimeevents
Furthermore we discussed quicktime events (for example L.A. Noire). Even though minigames and quicktime events are similar in terms of the short time period the player interacts with them and the often enclosed appearance, they have multiple key differences, that made us not include quicktime events as minigames. Basically a quicktime event is a section in the game in which the player needs to press one button or a sequence of buttons as soon as it is displayed on the screen. This does test the reaction time of the player and the ability to find the correct key fast enough. Even though it is possible to view this as a minigame we decided to categorize it as a mechanic, mainly due to the simple rules and the low complexity. Therefore while a quicktime event is not regarded as a minigame, a minigame can still contain quicktime evets.
Necessary and sufficient condition
Similar to quicktime events it is generally difficult to differentiate minigames from the 'normal' gamecontent, but also minigames from a game mechanic. Hence we chose some necessary and sufficient conditions to identify a minigame.
| Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Necessary | Visually | GUI-elements that are only used in the minigame context |
| Necessary | Mechanically | Control-elements that are only used in the minigame context |
| Necessary | Rules | Rules that are only used in the minigame context and are essential for wining or losing |
| Necessary | Enclosed | Changing the context can be perceived e.g. by a transition |
| Sufficient | Main mechanic | Minigame mechanics should not make up to much percent of the game content |
| Sufficient | Complexity | The complexity of a minigame should not exceed the complexity of the main game. (less scope) (What would the game be made of without this minigame? Complete game even without this minigame.) |
Evidence
For clarification we decided that it must be possible to provide evidence for a minigame, for example in form of a screenshot. It is to be expected that a person who played the game would recognize the display scene and would understand why it might be a minigame. Generally the screenshot should suggest a subgame inside of the actual game.
How should features be tagged, that have similarities to minigames can not be categorized as such?
Homogen vs Heterogen
Our discussion revealed a direct connection between the game structure and minigames. A game which is packed with minigames would most likely also be tagged as heterogen (Professor Layton, WarioWare). The combinations of tags will allow to differentiate between games for example with homogen + minigames and heterogen + minigames.
To clarify this we specifically discussed A Short Hike which is homogen but still contains minigames that are directly embedded in the game. These qualify as a minigame because it changes the mechanics of the game to a more skill oriented focus.
Another example would be Animal Crossing or Pokemon (fishing) where the player also encounters directly embedded game components without special windows or UI elements. **For these cases it is especially difficult to define if they are a minigame.**
Lesser Game Components
Finally we began discussing the use of this tag for game components that are part of the game but are of low relevance or only secondary. For example if a game might contain skill based sections, but these would be overrepresented if one would tag the game with motor skill tags, since this would it make difficult to differentiate between continuously high skill games and those that only have a small portion or section of it. **For the moment we concluded that this should not be represented by minigames to prevent multiple meanings for these tags. Therefore a new tag will be needed!**
In what granularity should minigames be tagged?
Basics
It is allowed for a game to be tagged with multiple minigame tags, but for each tag the game needs a separate minigame, meaning that a minigame can either be mini: skill or mini: busywork but not both. Ergo if a game has N minigames the game can - but does not need to have N minigame tags.
- mini: busywork
- mini: logic
- mini: skill
We opted to iterate multiple games and their minigames to get an overview of minigames that exist. Using this we would decide which categories are needed to adequately portray these.
| Game | game component | tag | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| L.A. Noire | quicktime events | - | quicktime event |
| Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut | socializing | - | its a skill/hack |
| Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut | hacking | low complexity, but GUI suggests strategy | |
| BioShockâ„¢ | lockpicking | ||
| BioShockâ„¢ | hacking | mini-logic | |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition | lockpicking | mini: skill, mini: busywork | based on the design |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition | pickpocketing | more like an mechanic | |
| Among Us | everything | mini: skill, mini: busywork, mini: logic | |
| Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition | boss level | level based and heterogen | |
| Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition | challenges | - | additional content, challenges (Bastion, Metal: Hellsinger) |
| Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition | gießen | activity | failure is not possible, not part of the actual game |
| Pokemon | gambling machines | mini: luck | |
| Pokemon | fishing | no context transition | |
| Pokemon | beauty competition | mini-luck, mini-strategy? | |
| Risen 2: Dark Waters | lockpicking | mini busy | |
| Harvest Moon | fishing | ||
| Spiritfarer®: Farewell-Edition | fishing | ||
| Animal Crossing | fishing | ||
| Animal Crossing | bug catching | ||
| Detroit: Become Human | quicktime events | - | quicktime event |
| Professor Layton | puzzles | mini: busy, mini: logic | |
| Pyre | basketball | - | level based and heterogen, long sections with transitions between game and story |
| Dave the Diver | sushi bar | mini: busy, mini: rhythm, every type of minigame? | |
| Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition | special missions | - | very clean transition between game, missions and activities - sometimes the GUI elements might be different |
| Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition | sport activities | activity, mini: skill | |
| Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition | occupy area | activity? | |
| Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition | Stunt-Sprünge | ||
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | Gwent | mini: strategy | (Card Game) |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance | rolling dice | mini: luck | |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance | pickpocketing | mini: skill, (mini: busy) | |
| Day of the Tentacle Remastered | Maniac Mansion 1 | mini: game, gameception | difference between game in a game and minigame is difficult - use eastereggs as tag? |
| Doom Eternal | Doom | mini: game oder gameception tag | |
| Fallout: New Vegas | Caravan | mini: strategy | Card Game |
| WarioWare | everything | mini: skill | |
| Undertale | Dodging | it is a mechanic | |
| Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Bundle | Chaos Emerald Level | too similar to the other levels | |
| Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure | Puzzling | central game mechanic |
Examples for other game components
| Game | game component | tag |
|---|---|---|
| Tomb raider | dungeons | enclosed level without transition |
| Legend of zelda | dungeons | enclosed level without transition |
Results
We concluded by adding the following tags for minigames:
- mini: luck
- mini: strategy
- mini: logic
- mini: busy
- mini: skill
We furthermore added follow up issues for gameception which was a major difficulty when discussing games that contain complete games as a minigame and _activities_. Further idea were added to issue #61.
Previous Issues:
22
Related Issues:
54