It's time for another Deep Dive, where we ask the developers from Okomotive some in-depth questions about their roles and their work on FAR: Lone Sails, and their upcoming title FAR: Changing Tides.
Our last Deep Dive focussed on animation and modelling, you can catch up here.
For our fifth installment, we're asking Level designer Philipp Stern questions about Game Design
Let us know in the comments if you have any other questions for Philipp!
What got you into Game Design?
I was a kid with a vivid imagination. I would create stories and whole worlds while playing with my LEGO or reenact them in person. I remember one time I wanted to go rock climbing so I grabbed a hammer and nails from my dad's toolbox, climbed up the furniture in my room, and peppered them with nails to the disdain of my parents.
Sometime in the early 90s, my dad got a computer and I'd spend hours drawing up maps in MS Paint. I've always felt the need to create, which was probably why I decided to become a graphic designer later on, but after a few years in that job, I realized that working for clients didn't give me enough room for self-expression. So when I saw the opportunity to study game design I did not hesitate and applied.
What are some of your favourite designs in other games that have helped you on both FAR titles?
The basic concept of FAR was created by Don (Schmocker) who drew some inspiration from Little Big Planet. But recently we talked about the similarities of timings in FAR and the sequences you press keys when playing World of Warcraft. We took the buttons from the physical to the virtual space. Another inspiration is the machines you encounter in the different obstacles, we always try to find that sweet spot between fantastical and realism to make it believable. Lots of the mechanics are then derived from these locations or machines we wanted to create. We think about how they would work and try to recreate this with the tools available.
Puzzle elements are a major part of the game, can you talk us through some of the processes when designing a puzzle?
We set some guidelines that we tried to follow when we designed the puzzles in Changing Tides. Each puzzle needs to have an emotional or visual payoff when completed as well as teach the player a new mechanic or tell them something new about the world.
In the first half of the game, the player unlocks the different upgrades of the ship. Each puzzle to get these upgrades teaches the player step by step about the new functionalities they're going to encounter in the ship afterwards. So when they return to the ship the player already knows what to do.
In the second half of the game the puzzles are more about the world-building and the creation of emotional moments or stunning vistas, so the puzzles focus more on telling a story or reusing existing mechanics in a new and interesting way.
How did you find adding new ship mechanics to FAR: Changing Tides? Were there any challenges, concerns, or fixes from the first game?
The ship in Changing Tides is much bigger than the Okomotive from Lone Sails, around double in size, and we wanted the player to feel that from the very first moment they encounter the ship. So we decided to change from attaching things to the vehicle, to unlocking existing compartments within the ship. This made the actual process less complex for us to implement.
One concern we had was: Would the ship feel as much your own as the Okomotive did because you were "building" it yourself, which we feel creates a stronger bond. So we decided to let the player change the appearance of the ship themselves at least once in Changing Tides as well so a similar connection can be forged. One thing we improved much upon from Lone Sails to Changing Tides is the sails. Whereas in Lone Sails you’re just able to raise or lower the sails in Changing Tides you have to adjust them to the wind direction which makes the ship feel more connected to the world.
I think that a general change from Lone Sails to Changing Tides is that everything is bigger, not just the vehicle, but also the world and locations. We needed to add more depth to the different mechanics without being overwhelming. One way we did that was to have a basic mechanic, one would quickly understand and then add an element that was less crucial, but would improve the outcome when the player picked up on it. The engine for example: if the player fuels the oven and starts a fire the engine starts and makes the ship go forwards, so far so simple. But if the player pushes the oven to its limit, the engine will start to heat up and eventually, the heat valve will pop out – completely stopping the ship. Now the player can just push the valve back in and start going again or they can start to cool the engine using the hose, which is much more efficient than having the ship stop each time the valve pops out. This depth allows the player to learn about the ship at their own pace, which further builds up a connection to the ship.
Both games have an ongoing story in the background, what was your process in making the story mix without being intrusive to the gameplay?
We've always had more of a symbiotic relationship between the world and the gameplay. Almost all of the puzzles are story-motivated. We usually start with the story we wanted to tell which defines what locations the player would encounter. For example, the fallen civilization wanted to protect themselves from the flood their scientists foretold. So they decided to build a big wall to hold off the flood from their capital. But they still needed to get out through that wall until the flood came, so they built a huge gate.
From this point on we were asking ourselves what would make a good experience opening that gate and how could we involve the ship? How could that gate have worked mechanically? And what do we need to teach the player at this stage of the game? Opening such a huge gate would need a lot of force so we decided that it would be a good location to introduce the boost of the ship. Most of the decisions we make are based on the story in some way. They’re often logical consequences of the different elements we established during the concept, world-building, or story writing phase. So by growing the gameplay and the world-building in parallel we can ensure they work with each other.
Neither game has a player tutorial, can you explain how you were able to teach the players the controls without being obvious with a text box?
We do have some button prompts to tell the player the basic inputs, but the more in-depth mechanics we wanted the player to discover themselves. It gives people a great sense of pleasure to feel they’ve figured something out for themselves. But to make sure the player is not walking up to a huge puzzle being completely overwhelmed by it, we try to isolate each part of the puzzle into a separate section. It's way easier to solve one small task because the options to do something wrong are limited. Then when the player understands this small part we put something on top of the first element to slowly add more complexity.
FAR: Lone Sails & FAR: Changing Tides both unlock mechanics over time, could you tell us how you manage that progression to make the experience enjoyable?
Unlocking new things is always fun, it presents the player with a new way to interact with the ship and keeps the interest of the player, asking themselves "I wonder what the next upgrade will be?". It’s the equivalent of a birthday present: Unpacking something new and fun. The upgrades in FAR always try to make the player's life piloting the vessel easier or more interesting in some way. The sails help to save fuel, the engine helps to progress when there's no wind. It's about giving the player more options to handle different situations. We slowly increase the knowledge required to keep the ship going in different situations.
In Changing Tides, we expanded on this concept. When the player first gets a new upgrade, the oven, for example, they’ve already been taught how the basics of it work in a puzzle. But the oven in the ship behaves differently if it has been damaged. Also, there’s more depth to the interaction, since the bellows can get stuck if the player doesn’t pay attention. So over time the player gains more knowledge about the vehicle and the more the player knows about it, the more attached they get to it. It’s like getting to know a person, the more you know about the person the closer you feel to them.
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