Mini-Studies: Design Space

Pre-Ramble

This blog serves as a companion piece to another one I’ve written labeled “Giving Space to Design Space”.
www.blobspike.com/blogspike/2024/10/26/giving-space-to-design-space

I’ll be going over some mini case studies of specific aspects of various games, ruminating on how the game approached and explored that specific thing’s design space, why the designers might have gone that route, and where it could possibly go in future iterations. These will mostly be evaluations and conclusions I’ve come to after using the tools and strategies from the aforementioned design space blog.

Obviously, I’m an outsider looking in so I have absolutely zero clue about the inner workings and intentions of the design team behind these games and decisions. However, this specific blog is an exercise in observing specific aspects of projects and media I engage with. Keep in mind that evaluations of one very specific aspect of a game does not carry any meritorious judgement about that individual aspect and certainly not about the game as a whole.

In any case, I’d be remiss to not include a table of contents:

I. Brave Point System - Bravely Default and Bravely Second
II. Stat Distribution - Maplestory
III. Note Highway - O2Jam
IV. Wild Cards - Uno
V. Weapon Triangle - Fire Emblem Series
VI. Blade Combo System - Xenoblade Chronicles 2
VII. Pick Up - Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki Doki Panic
VIII. Scout - Legends of Runeterra
IX. Boost - Sonic Generations
X. Companion - Magic: The Gathering

I. Brave Point System - Bravely Default and Bravely Second

Summary

Bravely Default and Bravely Second are a fairly traditional JRPGs in many ways. Characters and enemies enter an instance of turn-based combat where a speed stat determines the sequence that actions are taken between characters. However, the Bravely Default series introduces BP or Brave Points. Most actions require one Brave Point to take. When a character’s turn would come up, they gain 1 BP and, if they have 0 or more BP, they can take an action (they effectively skip their turn if they remain in the negative). If each involved character or enemy only takes one action each of their turns, the game is not very different than most traditional turn-based combat games.

However, this is where Brave and Default come in. By Defaulting, a character enters a defensive stance and doesn’t consume a BP. This allows them to bank BP for future use, up to a total of 3. Brave is the act of using extra BP during a character’s turn to take additional actions. There are some caveats though: That character can only take up to 4 total actions (they can choose how many actions they take), and they can’t Brave if it would put them lower than -3 BP.

How It Plays Out

BP, Brave, and Default are pretty cool innovations on a fairly played out genre. However, it mostly is just a resource system with a fairly small range and I’m confident in saying that its space is narrow-to-medium, probably leaning closer to medium. The actual ability to alter these major actions is fairly shallow: Change up how much BP is gained, make different actions cost different amounts of BP, and… that’s it, really. However, this system is used in a couple of cute ways.

1. It gives players a major amount of agency by allowing them to guarantee powerful combinations of actions rather than do one then hope a whole turn cycle passes and they can take another action.

2. Enemy characters can also take advantage of Brave and Default.

3. BP modulation via conditional effects or specific abilities do spice up encounters.

4. Some skills and attacks care about how much BP a character has or how much is being used in the moment.

Credit: Screenshots sourced from IGN Wiki “Brave and Default”; Gamer Guides “Brave and Default”

While there’s not a whole lot you can do with this system in terms of tinkering, it manages to find great importance for itself in many other mechanics and systems. And it’s honestly a great joy when you realize you can take 4 actions at 3 BP, then take more Actions on the following turn since you’d be set at 0!

Where It Can Go

I’m honestly struggling to imagine other scenarios this system can be utilized. And to be clear, a series having explored a majority of what its innovative system can do is not a slight on the system whatsoever. If anything, that’s being efficient. When I complete Bravely Default 2, I may add an addendum if it manages to surpass my expectations in this field.

II. Stat Distribution - Maplestory

Summary

Whenever a character levels up in Maplestory, they get a variety of points to put into stats or skills. Since Maplestory has undergone many iterations throughout the years, we’ll be specifically talking about “Old School Maplestory” where characters get 5 ability points (AP) and 3 Skill Points (SP) each time they get a level. SP is used to unlock and power up skills, whereas AP is used to improve HP, MP, STR, DEX, INT, and LUK stats which all have different effects on damage output and secondary stats like Accuracy. The primary stats (STR, DEX, INT, and LUK) are also used for requirements on some equipment and certain metagaming strategies.

How It Plays Out

The concept, and intent, of stat distribution has incredibly wide design space. But how it manifests within Maplestory is actually pretty narrow by comparison. Unfortunately, while the system has a lot of cool roleplaying elements, most of the actual gameplay ramifications incentivize “stat check” gameplay. Your character must meet specific requirements for their role to have a reasonable chance of “clearing content” without making you pull your hair out. An example of this is having a minimum amount of HP to survive attacks a boss can deal. If a boss deals 5k damage and you only have 2k HP, you’ll probably never defeat that boss. Similarly, if your entire party deals 1m damage per minute and the boss has 100m HP, you better be ready to stay there for 100 minutes minimum.

And to be clear, Maplestory does do quite a few cute things. Most jobs have a “secondary primary stat” such as standard Magician equipment having a LUK stat requirement despite the job relying on INT for a majority of its damage formula. Bandits (and their eventual 4th job counterpart, Shadower) actually want a mix of LUK, STR, and DEX for optimal builds. Dragon Knights (a fourth job counterpart of Warriors) primarily use STR (with DEX to cover equipment requirements and Accuracy needs), but there existed a (mostly theoretical) build that primarily used LUK to improve Avoidability so low-level mobs could be farmed more easily.

Where It Can Go

I think it’s pretty obvious that Maplestory could have given a lot more depth to stat distribution than it did. Several other games actually have! And to make it incredibly clear, my intent with this mini-case is to highlight:

1. A design does not always explore every nook and cranny of its “potential”.

2. Different designs can go into different games with dramatically different execution and effects.

III. Note Highway - O2Jam

Summary

The "Note Highway” is the area that notes travel while songs play. Once they reach a certain area, players have to press a corresponding button to score points (they get more points if they are accurate) and avoid failing! Depending on the song, notes will travel faster. Additionally, players can choose to increase the speed of the note. Otherwise, O2Jam does not really do much else with the Note Highway.

Credit: Screenshot sourced from Soft32

How It Plays Out

O2Jam explores the Note Highway in an extremely narrow fashion. It really didn’t need to expand on what a Note Highway could do, especially for its time. After all, a lot of the game’s draw is song choice, dressing up anime-styled avatars, and being a social lobby experience. Players will mostly interact with the Note Highway for aesthetics purposes (swapping out themes) or making the notes slower/faster for challenge modulation.

Where It Can Go

Note Highways are in an interesting place. They mostly want to be clear and simple since that works well with the gameplay of rhythm games, O2Jam included. But we’ve seen a fair number of innovations throughout the years including: Invisible notes, notes that swap tracks on the highway, different ways to draw notes on the highway, and different shapes for the highway (including formless ones like Beat Saber). One innovation I enjoy is sliding notes that move diagonally along the highway. While I’m not certain the design space for Note Highways as a concept is wide, there’s definitely more stuff to do. If it hasn’t happened yet, I’d like to see multi-track drifting.

IV. Wild Cards - Uno

Summary

In Uno, each player takes turns playing cards that match a quality of the most recently played card—color, numerical value, or symbol—until one player has no more cards. Wild Cards are special cards that can be played regardless of the most recent card’s qualities and is treated as any color of the player’s choice.

How It Plays Out

Wild Cards are used very simply in Uno, and for a good reason. People are usually playing Uno to have a fun time, not a think time. The main iteration on Wild Cards are Wild Draw 4s, which determines a color AND forces the next player to draw 4 cards. However, recent sets have released decks with Wild Shuffles and Wild Customizable Cards.

Variations of wild cards found in UNO ALL WILD!
Credit: Uno Rules

Where It Can Go

While Customizable Cards are just cheating when viewed from the lens of “evaluating design space”, I think it’s safe to say Wild Cards have extremely high potential in terms of design space just by definition. There are plenty of possible iterations I can list off from the top of my head and dozens of others I can make up if given the time. For example: A Wild Symbol card. Maybe a colored card that gives a Wild Card choice to the next player. How about a Wild Card limited to a few modes?

V. Weapon Triangle - Fire Emblem Series

Summary

Units in Fire Emblem fight using weapons they hold. Depending on what weapon they have relative to the enemy, their stats might raise or lower. Different games have different exact bonuses and introduce different relationships among available weapons though they usually slot into a rock-paper-scissors scenario.

The weapon triangles present in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
Credit: Sourced from The Play What You Like SRPG Compendium

How It Plays Out

The series as a whole explores Weapon Triangles in a variety of cute ways. There are weapons that specifically reverse the relationship, skills that embolden or nullify them, and multiple Weapon Triangles that co-exist. The Weapon Triangle also gives direction on how units can be developed and utilized. A class can be evaluated more highly if it gets access to certain weapon types or can swap weapons to gain an advantage on any enemy it comes across. Challenge-wise, these qualities are also utilized. In many games, early bosses often have axes which are naturally weak to swords, which the main Lord character will often utilize. While the base gameplay of Weapon Triangles is pretty linear/narrow, and a lot of the designed gameplay scenarios reflect that, I want to give credit where credit is due: The Fire Emblem series does explore the design space at a pretty decent depth.

Where It Can Go

Rock-paper-scissors systems as a whole have incredibly wide design space though Fire Emblem’s Weapon Triangles are mostly just bonuses to Accuracy and/or Damage. Introducing things such as different classes being affected by the Weapon Triangle in different ways, an expanded web of weapon relationships (like Type advantages in Pokémon), or different advantages to be gained by the Weapon Triangle are just a small list of possibilities. While I haven’t played Fire Emblem Engage, my cursory research found that the Weapon Triangle was given an additional bonus of inflicting a status if the attacker had an advantage.

VI. Blade Combo System - Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Summary

During combat in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, characters charge up Specials that are quick-time events with some sort of utility (usually damage). Specials can usually be charged up to level 3, though some Blades have a level 4 Special. Blades also have an element that determines their Specials’ element.

Blade Combos occur when a Special is used and another Blade Combo is not already in-progress. To progress through a Blade Combo, a flow chart must be followed by using Specials of a specific element and a minimum level. For example, “Mega Explosion” occurs when a (minimum) Level 1 Fire Special is used, then a (minimum) Level 2 Fire Special is used within a fairly generous time frame followed up by a (minimum) Level 3 Fire Special. Other element Specials can be used during a Blade Combo, but if they do not meet element or level requirements, they do not advance the Blade Combo. If a Blade Combo is not advanced during the available time frame, the Blade Combo fails and another can begin.

An example of a Blade Combo flow chart. The four combo lines are: Fire→Fire→Fire, Fire→Fire→Light, Fire→Water→Fire, Fire→Water→Ice.
Credit: Screenshot sourced by RPG Site “"Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Combat Guide: battle system and combat strategy tips for battles in Alrest”

Successfully completing a Blade Combo does a few things: A large amount of damage is done, an elemental orb is generated on the enemy based on the last element and, depending on that element, a certain aspect of combat is “sealed”. “Mega Explosion” creates a Fire element orb which also “seals self-destruct”. Elemental orbs are used to inflict massive amounts of damage during Chain Attacks.

How It Plays Out

Blade Combos are obviously fairly constrained by the designed flow charts so in that sense, the system is “narrow”. The flow chart combinations never change throughout the game and neither do the outcomes of finishing them. However, many mechanics, general combat flow, and a great deal of party building considerations are inextricably linked to Blade Combos.

As a result, Blade Combos end up being more of a glue rather than anything truly exciting. As a whole, Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s combat system just has so many exciting things that are competing with each other. Each Special has its own cutscene, special effects, and even branch in the Blade’s skill trees. Additionally, each Art needs to be timed and potentially combo’d with. And, of course, Chain Attacks are a major aspect of combat (especially later in the game) and more naturally becomes the trump card of a given combat encounter.

Where It Can Go

Blade Combos are in the strange position of “they can definitely mix things up, but is the cognitive burden it places on designers and players worth it?” An immediate iteration would be a sprawling map of different Blade Combo routes, maybe even different combos having different routes depending on the character. However, would that actually be fun? There might be a demographic for it, but I would imagine the research necessary to make a functional team that “feels optimal” would be a high barrier to the general audience which would make them give up on the system entirely.

With so much to consider already, would the dev team really want to add more?
Credit: Screenshot sourced from Xeno Series Wiki “Combat (XC2)”

Would allowing players to freestyle Blade Combos lead to more interesting gameplay? Funnily enough, the DLC Torna - The Golden Country, does exactly this with some other changes as well (the primary one being player-determined character elements). Freestyle Blade Combos were less interesting to myself. I enjoyed the puzzle nature of making sure I could get through each Blade Combo route. Having the system be so blasé cooled me off on the system a bit.

I’m not sure if Blade Combos could pick up some changes without compromising its core appeal. However, I do think that Chain Attacks in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 picks up where Blade Combos left off. Rather than worry about elements, it instead worries about the character’s class type and each character gets a fun little bonus that is unique to them. Additionally, instead of having to micro-manage Special charges with an extremely chaotic user interface, many of the decision tree choices occur during the stop-and-go Chain Attack sequence instead.

VII. Pick Up - Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki Doki Panic

Summary

In Super Mario Bros. 2, players could pick up items on the ground or the the things they were standing on (including enemies) and lift them above their heads. Afterwards, they could drop it OR throw it left or right in an arc.

How It Plays Out

Given that this game was released in the NES era and actually a reskin of another game, Doki Doki Panic, we can’t be too harsh on how simply this mechanic played out. Generally, it served to aid a sense of discovery by hiding random items behind tufts of grass or served as a method of delivering one item from point A to point B. In terms of combat, picking up objects to throw them at enemies involves the player with environmental factors and adds the thrill of preparing and lining up shots.

Super Mario Bros. 2 artwork from the instruction booklet, page 13.
Credit: Sourced from Strategy Wiki

One ramification of this mechanic is it necessitated that characters could stand atop or ride the things they pick up… including enemies and potential projectiles. In the context of the Mario series up to that point, that was actually a pretty refreshing take on character-platform-enemy relationship.

Where It Can Go

Picking up things is a universal concept so I’m not really sure where to go from here. Plenty of games have iterated on this concept with things such as picked up items cursing/blessing the player while held, giving more things to do with held items besides a singular throw trajectory, and diversifying/specifying what can be picked up. If we look at the Mario series, this mechanic returns immediately in Super Mario Bros. 3 though the implementation required Mario to essentially be running the whole time as a “trade-off”. Fans of custom levels and speedruns of Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and various Super Mario Maker levels might recall creative tech and uses of picking up items.

VIII. Scout - Legends of Runeterra

Summary

In Legends of Runeterra, players are given an Attack Token at the start of each round in an alternating order. A player with an Attack Token can use the token and an action to send a lineup of units to attack. Scout is a keyword mechanic that means “The first time each round that exclusively allies with Scout Attack, Rally.” (Rally is a keyword that means you get an Attack Token.) In layman’s terms, if your attacking lineup only has units with Scout, you get another free attack for the round.

How It Plays Out

Scout has a lot of connections with several of Legend of Runeterra’s systems and mechanics, especially in regards to moment-to-moment scenarios. The obvious one is Scout incentivizes the attacking player to have as many Scout units as possible so they can attack with the maximum amount of units they can afford each round. At the same time, Scout can also be used as a scouting action; attack with already developed board presence to present aggression your opponent might not be ready for and still have an attack left in the tank. Some silly ways to play with this mechanic is mixing in Rally to have a silly sequence like Attack -> Rally -> Play some Scout units -> Scout Attack -> Attack.

Scout didn’t get too many “fun designs” and most of its initial batch of cards were basic units that had slightly subpar stat lines or an additional effect. However, there was a small theme of units with Scout that had Challenger or granted Vulnerable to enemy units (these allowed your units to force units to block them). In this scenario, Scout greatly benefited the player if those units could survive Scout combat and fight an additional time. In terms of deck strategies, one that stands out to me were Miss Fortune decks that wanted a high number of declared attacks… Scout is a perfect synergy in this scenario!

Credit: Card images sourced from League of Legends Fandom Wiki

Where It Can Go

Like many TCG mechanics, Scout never really had a resurgence or a batch of releases that further utilized the mechanic. There are obviously a lot more permutations of mechanics and themes Scout could have been stapled onto, but it was probably decided that they weren’t viable for one reason or another. Personally, I’d like to have seen a theme about mixing Ephemeral and Scout (Units with Ephemeral die if they survive combat or at the end of a round). But I’d probably have to agree that there aren’t too many ways to retool Scout in a meaningful way.

IX. Boost - Sonic Generations

Summary

During “modern levels”, Sonic has a Boost Gauge with an energy resource. By using up energy, Sonic can Boost and gain a notable increase in speed and damage enemies/obstacles without taking damage or slowing down. Energy can be gained by performing tricks or gathering rings. A notable aspect of Boosting is the sudden acceleration and higher maximum running speed. Additionally, Sonic’s turning radius become much wider to the point that drifting becomes necessary to make turns that Google Maps would describe as a “slight left/right”. However, Sonic does get a sidestep maneuver for minor repositioning.

How It Plays Out

Play-wise, Boost is very basic and it’s used in very basic ways. It’s mostly “on demand” and energy is relatively easy to obtain and manage. There’s a very visceral game feel from boosting that can only be explained as “gotta go fast”. Without much to tweak in terms of input/output, a lot of design iterations around boost necessarily have to focus on the challenges instead. Can players maintain control and mastery of Sonic’s movement during the Boost? Can they manage the energy resource optimally? Are there timing challenges based on using the Boost correctly? And so on and so forth.

Credit: Screenshot sourced from Sonic Fandom Wiki

Where It Can Go

Boosting is just very cool and its appeal/usage has been utilized by games for decades for a reason. Nitro boosts in racing games are always a hoot and Sonic has had boost pads to speed up the blue blur for decades. However, I think the 3D Boost era Sonic games showcase something important: Regardless of how viable a mechanic/system is in terms of critical reception and enjoyment, a design that strains the project CAN be a detriment.

The ramifications of having Boost be a viable mechanic restrains enemy and level design in a variety of ways. First, how do you design a glut of enemies that challenge Boost in fair and interesting ways? Even if you look at just boss designs, many are just “dodge until you can Boost into a weak spot”. One of Boost’s appeal is that Boosting utterly demolishes standard enemies and, even if it didn’t, Boost allows Sonic to avoid contact completely. In terms of level design, having to accommodate that vast distance Sonic can cover in a 3D environment (while keeping it “fun”!) has to be a monumental task in terms of hardware and planning. I think this shows quite a bit in later levels; the interwoven roller coasters of Chemical Plant and Speed Highway start to deteriorate as Planet Wisp enters the horizon and is almost completely gone by the time of Sonic Forces.

X. Companion - Magic: The Gathering

Summary

Companion is a keyword that allows a creature from out of the game (in sanctioned play, it resides in your sideboard) to be played as long as your deck follows some sort of restriction. These restrictions ranged from things such as “all creatures in your deck must have certain subtypes” to “all nonland permanents in your deck must be mana value 3 or greater.” However, this mechanic famously received a mechanical errata: Rather than being played from out of the deck, players can pay 3 generic mana at sorcery speed to add that companion to their hand.

The ten companions found within Ikoria.
Credit: Collage sourced from Reddit user Totallynottimturner

How It Plays Out

Power level/balance controversies aside, how exactly did Companion’s existence affect “design” and why were the existing batch of companions designed the way they were? There were ten companions, one for each distinct two-color pair. Each companion had a varied and distinct deckbuilding restriction that promoted novel limited and casual constructed strategies. However, the designs of each companion had to fit within a pretty narrow space: The deckbuilding restriction had to be clear/easily verifiable, each had to be exciting/splashy because this could would be the only time a batch of companions would be printed, and it had to be a full cycle of legendary creatures for color wheel aesthetics reasons and, presumably, for Commander format purposes.

Where It Can Go

While Companion will most likely never have a real card printed again (outside of maybe Modern Horizons-styled shenanigans), I think Companion has a ton of space to work with. I think the primary essence of Companion isn’t “deckbuilding restriction that nets you a creature” but rather “pre-decided objective to fulfill and reward”. Here’s an example: Companion — When a blue creature with mana value 7 or higher enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay {3} to put this card in your hand from outside the game if this is your chosen companion.

Even less radical departures like extremely simple deckbuilding restrictions or less “look at me, I’m such a good designer” companions would go a long way to allowing this mechanic to successfully coexist within the game of Magic. I want to see the 7 mana value vanilla 1/1 companion that people strawmanned into oblivion when misplacing their anger of Lurrus/Yorion onto Keruga or Lutri. It’s not difficult to imagine a world with 50+ companions that fit the Pokémon aesthetic Ikoria was obviously going for (to be clear, whether you or the Magic audience wants that is a different story).

The End of Space as We Know It

I tried to cover as many different genres of games and mechanics/systems as I could, though I was more or less limited by things I knew I could write at (minimal) length about. It’s my hope that these mini case studies serve as examples of personal observations/lessons you can peer from games and media you engage with.

To end things off, I’d like to mention that the ten things I covered here were partly decided from wanting a mix of wide/medium/narrow design space, covering a mix of mechanic/group/systems, and whether I considered that thing explored or unexplored (within the context of the game). For those itching to dig a little deeper, I found these categories to be a helpful framework to squeeze a deeper understanding of how I felt about certain aspects of the things I was evaluating. And here’s a bit of engagement bait: Separate from my own evaluations, how would you rate the mechanics/systems in this blog within these criteria?

Ciao,
blobspike