Inspiring Curiosity in Paralight – The Plan, the Timeline and execution.

Inspiring Curiosity within a Third-Person Asymmetric Co-Op Puzzle game using Targeted Design choices.

Introduction

In today’s world, Games have turned into an extraordinary medium for creativity, immersiveness and deep interaction within a virtual world. To achieve this a game developer must explore multiple points of view about the theories, research and perceptual effects (feelings, emotions etc.) they are trying to elicit from a player. I believe that one of the most important aspects of a game is its ability to inspire curiosity in a player and push them forward to explore the game’s world and mechanics further. If a player feels inspired and curious about the world they have been put in, they will feel drawn towards completing the objectives of the game and maybe even enter a flow state rather than make progression strenuous, non-fulfilling and cumbersome.

In this essay, I will aim to outline and summarise the theories of Curiosity and what tools and methods a game designer can utilise to invoke Curiosity in a player about the game world and mechanics. I will try to relay this research to a game which our team been working on over the past few months.

What is curiosity? A summary of the consensus.

Curiosity is a state of being where a human feels a need (be it intense or subtle) to learn, discover or know something. Due to the word’s connotation being so simplified in cliches like “Curiosity killed the cat” and pop culture, most people forget that Curiosity is such a fundamental and simple component of our nature. Without it, the strive towards invention or discovery would not be there. This state continues to puzzle philosophers and psychologists to this day because under its simple exterior lies a deep and vast interconnected network of human emotion, instinct and drive to develop and better ourselves.

One of the key problems around forming an accredited and official study of Curiosity is that there is no single widely accepted definition for what it exactly is. Over the years there have been various interpretations which have all had different conclusions and interpretations attached to them.

One of the classical interpretations of the term comes from William James (1983: 37) who is a psychologist and philosopher. In his book he calls Curiosity “the impulse towards better cognition,” which connotes the want and need of a human being to understand and learn that which they do not. He then explains as a human gets older, Curiosity becomes an impulse towards further complex knowledge such as science and philosophy compared to the Curiosity towards stimulus of the 5 senses observed in children. In essence, there is a shift from external stimuli towards mental stimuli in terms of curiosity as a human’s brain and psychology develop.

Another classical definition is that of Psychologist Daniel Berlyne (1954:180-191). He outlines 2 specific curiosity pairs - Perceptual vs Epistemic and Specific vs Diverse curiosity.

The need for a living organism to seek various novel stimuli (light, colour, sound) is called Perceptual Curiosity. Berlyne explains that the more an organism is exposed to its desired stimuli the more its drive towards it decreases. This type of curiosity can be attributed to various animals and how they explore their world and small children. It is also attributed to an adult human’s basic drive for exploration and new experiences.

Against the Perceptual Curiosity stands the Epistemic Curiosity. Berlyne explains that unlike its counterpart it applies mostly to humans. He describes it as a drive towards stimulation that carries information with it. This type of stimulation would be able to help us acquire more knowledge or bring more information to an uncertain situation where more knowledge is required (like searching for a weapon in a fight).

From the second pair of Curiosity types, we have Specific Curiosity, which refers to a desire for a specific piece of information (like the next step in solving a puzzle). Contrasting to this Diverse Curiosity refers to a desire for any simulation at all, regardless of what it is (like when someone is bored, and they need anything entertaining).

Along with these classical definitions, psychologists and philosophers are still debating the nature of curiosity. Today it is said to be a special form of information-seeking characterised and set apart by the fact that our motivation for it is internal (ex. mental question from interest) rather than external (ex. animal attack). For now, the rough summarization of the definition of Curiosity is - a drive state for information which motivates learning and cognitive development. (Loewenstein 1994:116(1):75–98).

Give all this information I suggest that there are 3 fundamental things we can focus on from a design standpoint and attempt to change to provoke Curiosity:

a) Art Direction and Audio Style – enough stimuli to intrigue but not enough to overwhelm. (Perceptual and Diverse Curiosity)

b) Player/Puzzle mechanics – Diverse selection of Environmental Puzzles with unique interactions- (Epistemic and Specific Curiosity)

c) Narrative – A well-represented story in-game with various mechanics. (Drive state to keep exploring)

Paralight – a bioluminescent asymmetric co-op puzzle game.

Because our games’ core inspirations are set in the fantasy/sci-fi realm and the mechanical aspects of the game itself revolve around exploration, narrative discovery and puzzle-solving, I believe it is the ideal scenario to be able to drive Curiosity in a player and inspire them to keep exploring and improving their skills of play as the challenge rises.

After exploring various ideas in 3 different game prototypes, the team chose to settle on a third-person vertical co-op game. The 2 playable characters have their own unique and specific set of abilities and backstory causing an asymmetric gameplay dynamic which is unique to our game compared to its inspirations. The players explore the world together and solve its various puzzles with their combined abilities.

Some inspirations for this type of gameplay came from games like Portal 2 (Valve 2011), Beyond: Two Souls (Quantic Dream 2013) and Human Fall Flat (No Brakes Games 2016). Although these games are typically single-player, they also have co-op modes which were well received by their players. The Environmental Puzzle design in those games was a good example of the game that we wanted to make.

Greg Costikyan (2013) writes about understanding uncertainty in video games and how it inspires curiosity in the player to go forward. From things such as being unsure of what another player will do in a multiplayer game at any moment to the uncertainty of overcoming an obstacle or solving a puzzle. Costikyan argues that triggering uncertainty in players brings about temporary heightened states of curiosity. I think that this coupled with the Curiosity a player already had about the game world and its narrative can push them to keep playing instead of feeling deterred to play.

The 3 games mentioned above illustrate this very well. As an example, the clever co-op puzzle design of Portal 2 (Valve 2011) brings an ever-increasing difficulty upon the players to keep them intrigued while the deep story of the Portal universe makes them keep searching for more clues in the environment. A similar thing can be said about Human Fall Flat (No Brakes Games 2016) as it uses some of the same design techniques. On the other hand, Beyond: Two Souls (Quantic Dream 2013) uses diverging story paths where your choices influence the story to achieve uncertainty.

By limiting the stimuli that the game has and choosing the precise moments to present the player with content will keep them wanting more if the right balance is struck. To me personally, this sounds like a Flow State effect but one focused only on game exploration and progression.

Paralight aims to achieve a comparable effect by merging a gradual increase in Environmental Puzzle difficulty coupled with a well-crafted environment made for rich storytelling. As an asymmetric co-op game, both players will have to communicate to be able to find a solution to a puzzle which they will need to execute using their abilities together. The team trusts that by making the targeted design choice of having the puzzles themselves be rich with narrative elements in combination with the increasing difficulty will cause the “heightened states of Curiosity” that Costikyan (2013) talks about in his book. Because of this, Puzzle-solving and asymmetric player mechanics seemed like the best design choice for our exploration game as we think this combination will help us achieve this effect.

In terms of visual style, the team decided to go for a colourful bioluminescent alien world covered in alien plants and creatures. Some inspirations for this were Avatar (James Cameron 2009), natural bioluminescence and Subnautica’s (Unknown Worlds Entertainment 2014) deep-sea part.

We believe that this visual style is very fitting for the story which we want to tell and accentuates some of the story elements. Since we are building an exploration game we decided it’s a good idea to present the player with various novel stimuli such as the glowing bioluminescent world and the sounds of the alien planet and creatures. We believe that if we achieve the right levels of stimuli then the experience will feel balanced and cohesive while also keeping players seeking the next interesting creature/puzzle they will come across while exploring.

In light of the design inspirations for our game and the plan we have made for putting in place the targeted design systems and visuals as well as the narrative, we feel that we would be able to test, refine and hopefully achieve the desired effects on players.

Inspiring Curiosity in Paralight – The Plan, the Timeline and execution.

To invoke curiosity in a player effectively we had to start with brainstorming ways to apply, test and refine the research. A carefully chosen combination of Mechanics, Art direction and Story need to be crafted around that idea. I will aim to outline the current state of the game and all the choices and changes we have made so far.

From the narrative, the team chose to have 2 rival characters – a Mage and a Steampunk brute. They would be in opposite factions and would not stand each other. The narrative summary is that the airship they are both travelling on crashes on a strange mysterious planet and that they need to work together to off it.

Our narrative reflects on the Uncertainty aspect, outlined by Costikyan (2013). By basing it around an uncertain situation and a mysterious alien world the players have no choice but to start with a “heightened states of curiosity” that Costikyan talks about if presented well, narrative-wise, at the beginning of the game. After the beginning, it touches on the Perceptual and Epistemic curiosity outlined by Berlyne (1954) – The natural drive to explore the environment world, and the natural drive to gather more information while exploring.

While developing the game we decided on this approach for various reasons. As the story kept developing, we continued testing the ideas as we go. What we found out was that players consistently had a bigger drive to explore a world presented as “unknown, alien and mysterious” than one that was “previously explored, visited/inhabited by humans”. By making the players stuck on the planet they expressed a certain level of necessity to escape, making them more likely to explore the environment. We added alien ruins as well as collectables which have proven to be a necessary addition as over the recent 2 months of testing it has proven to be an important factor to keep players engaged in the narrative.

To achieve consistency in the tests, the playtesters were asked the same questions each time about the same aspects of the game – Narrative(Outlined above), Mechanics and Audio/Visual style as each new game alteration was made. We kept tweaking and changing things over time and tested periodically to ensure that the gathered feedback had a positive effect on the alterations from the players perspective. Testers were asked to test a different aspect each time to avoid personal opinions leaking into any specific aspect and to keep the results clean.

The second aspect that we focused on was Mechanics. We chose to make the game with Asymmetric Co-op which would force the players to communicate with each other as they would need to use their different abilities together. We based the game on Exploration and Environmental Puzzle-solving as that would further ensure the players will communicate as they need it to progress.

The reason we made these choices is to invoke curiosity about the Complex and Ambiguous (C&A). In his co-written article Kreitler (1975:185-200) explains that such curiosity is when a person shows a preference for stimuli which are more detailed, in-depth and mystifying compared to those that are more simple, one-sided and linear.

In the original game prototype, the gameplay was more Dungeon-like as each room of the level was a separate puzzle in a closed space. In psychology, C&A curiosity is tested by observing which stimulus a subject would like to engage with more and for how long, compared to another stimulus. Throughout development, we found that our playtesters felt a stronger preference for a more open environmental puzzle approach instead as well as the ability to explore the game world as they expressed it made them feel connected.

We added collectables and alien ruins for the narrative because without those players reported progress feeling slow and boring, and with no reason to explore the world. With these strategically placed elements players reported feeling more intrigued in exploring the environment. This can be related to Conceptual curiosity which is also mentioned by Kreitler (1975) in his article. He explains it as a desire to explore a specific topic as in-depth as possible while actively looking for more information about it. This might explain why the extra narrative ruins and collectables might have made our players more engaged. They gained Conceptual curiosity about the game's story and kept looking for the next piece to add to it.

The third and final thing we focused on was the Art Direction and Audio Style. Right from the start, the team had a clear idea of what we wanted the Art and Audio to be like. From the first meeting where we discussed the game everyone unanimously agreed that we wanted a vibrant bioluminescent world covered in strange plants and creatures. We included the addition of ruined buildings and traces of a lost civilisation.

These choices felt natural to us as we set out to make primarily an exploration game. After some retrospection upon the development process, I think that the team made the right choice considering the Perceptual curiosity (desire for light, sound, touch) that Berlyne (1954) talks about. To expand on this idea Vidler (1977) states that when in a state of Perceptual curiosity, a person has increased attention for surprising or interesting objects. Judging from this I can say that our choice for a bioluminescent world with alien plants and creatures would play nicely on the Perceptual curiosity.

The Art direction has had almost no notable changes since the start so our players think it’s a good fit.

Conclusion

I think that curiosity is extremely important to remember when developing a game. Through my research, I have learned the power of this state for human beings. Not only is it necessary for our survival but our very own nature which makes us intelligent hinges upon it.

In a game design sense, a developer can exploit these human qualities to make their game more appealing and interesting. By researching and applying theories surrounding curiosity a developer can tweak certain aspects of their game that might have not worked very well before or have not been perceived as interesting/engaging.

The team and I managed to spark interest and curiosity in players about a few areas of our game by purely suggesting that there was something there worth exploring using the research above. Although players had an aversion and rarely chose to engage with those areas before, we have achieved results which show a big change due to design techniques used.

I can say that during the development of this game and doing research I gained a clear enough understanding of some of the many aspects and states that make a human-being Curious and Interested in something. I can also say that judging by the results we have seen, this research has helped the game improve positively. I will aim to employ this knowledge in other projects as I believe that it can be used throughout all aspects of the game design work I do.

References :

JAMES, William. 1983. Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life’s Ideas. Issue 402. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

BERLYNE, Daniel. 1954. A theory of human curiosity. 45(3):180-191. British Journal of Psychology.

LOEWENSTEIN, George. 1994. The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation. 116(1):75-98. Psychological Bulletin.

COSTIKYAN, Greg. 2013. Uncertainty in Games. MIT Press

KREITLER, Schulamith and Hans, Edward ZIGLER. 1975. The nature of curiosity in children. 13(3):185-200. Journal of school psychology.

VIDLER, Derek C.. 1977. Curiosity. In Motivation in education. Academic Press New York.

VALVE CORPORATION. 2011. Portal 2. PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux: Valve.

QUANTIC DREAM. 2013. Beyond: Two Souls. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows: Sony Computer Entertainment.

NO BRAKES GAMES, CODEGLUE. 2016. Human: Fall Flat. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Android, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Mac OS, Linux, Google Stadia: Curve Digital, 505 Games, DMM GAMES.

CAMERON, James. 2009. Avatar. Worldwide: 20th Century Fox

UNKNOWN WORLDS ENTERTAINMENT. 2014. Subnautica. PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows: Gearbox Publishing.