How to Make Capture the Flag More Fun

          The Overwatch Year of the Rooster Event ended a week ago. It was nice to see this holiday celebrated as most games stick with Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. Thematically, the event was wonderful. New skins and emotes fit the occasion. However, I have a problem with the new game mode they introduced: Capture the Flag. It was not implemented well. The idea could have worked, but every match I joined had either one team grabbing a flag and then beefing up defenses or neither side would get a flag and the match ends in a draw. This is common in Capture the Flag (CTF) type games. The main reason these games end in draws is due to limitations on getting flags in the first place. CTF is built to be fair, but it’s so defensive on both sides that it’s almost rare that a flag is taken at all. If no progress is made, the game mode can become disengaging quickly.

          Wildstar had an interesting take on the CTF game mode. Players could take one flag at a time, but multiple team members could take multiple flags. Instead of having only three flags to steal, there was five to take. Increasing the number of flags doesn’t necessarily make it more fun, but with the changes made to the formula it made sense to do this. Enemy teams could steal back flags taken from them. One flag was generated every so often in a different location away from either teams’ bases. After a flag had been taken from the spawn, another flag would be set on a timer to spawn somewhere else. Both sides could take flags and didn’t need to be the only ones holding a flag in order to capture. If both teams have a flag, just let them score. It might end in a close match, but whoever caps the flag first is in the lead.

          Inhibiting the flag bearer is not good. This makes players hesitant to even go for the objective in the first place. It’s easier for them to decide to support the flagbearer by attacking the enemy. Just let them keep all of their buffs and move at normal speed. You don’t need to give them extra buffs, but certainly don’t take anything away. 

The rest of the players on both teams could have a unique buff that is applied when someone gets the flag. Let’s say Player 1 of Team A grabs the flag and starts running back to their base. All other players of both Team A and Team B get a movement speed buff so they can reach their ally/enemy faster and provide support/impede progress. Team A can help their teammate with healing, shields, or speed buffs if they wish. The enemy can do whatever they can to slow down or eliminate the enemy. 

          Picking up the flag itself shouldn’t be a hassle either. Don’t put a delay timer on the flag that’s easily interrupted by so much as a sneeze. Have the player take the flag instantly at their own risk. Maybe someone guarding the flag can intercept the player on their way back to base. If the flag falls for any reason, anyone can pick it up instantly and go where they need to. There’s no need to respawn the flag back to the center. It’s more exciting to keep the action where the group already is. While you’re at it, have the next flag spawn during the time the current flag is being taken to a team’s base. This gives teams something else to think about: Do they all stay with the group and risk letting the new flag be taken by the enemy? Or do they send a small party to go and grab the new flag? 

          Overwatch can do better with their CTF. They may have had some ideas for this mode, but it didn’t work out as planned. They’ll improve it and make it exciting to play sometime. But for now, it needs some serious work.

Favorite Antagonist

          Some time ago I wrote an article about favorite protagonists. As you can see by the title, I’m looking at villains now. Thing is, good villains are hard to find. 

          To me, Handsome Jack of Borderlands 2 is the most evil of all the antagonists I’ve encountered.  He does lots of bad things to the player, but he also hurts other characters in the world. It’s one thing for a villain to strike at me, but to drag in people I know and love? That’s grounds for war! What I like most about this guy is how often you interact with him. It’s not direct interaction, but it still makes me cringe every time I hear from him. Usually he insults you or impedes your progress by sending a boss to fight you or something. I think it’s when he gets personal is when you start to hate him. He’s the kind of guy you love to hate. Whenever he hurts someone you know, that’s when the grudge you’ve got against him intensifies. For example, he captures Mordecai’s pet hawk and infuses it with several properties such as Fire, Shock, Toxic, and even Elemental. He forces it to fight you. After you’ve weakened it enough, everything seems fine. We can all go home and get Bloodwing fixed. Then Jack decides to make the bird explode into meat chunks and leaves you and Mordecai to mourn over the loss of a dear friend. 

          Not all villains have to be smart, though. They can just be someone in the protagonists way. It could even be someone who has evil intentions, but is not competent at carrying out their plans. Take Dr. Nefarious of the Ratchet and Clank series. He’s the kind of guy who has one goal: kill the squishies (his term for organic life). The way he moves gives him this zany and comical feel and his dialogue makes you snicker. When he overloads with rage, a soap opera recording plays until someone smacks him back into reality. You just can’t take him seriously, but you sort of like him. Does he accomplish anything? Not really. But I’d like to see more villains like him.

          The scariest villains are usually the ones that don’t communicate with the player, but interact with them either indirectly or directly. In Among the Sleep, your own mother is a villain as a nightmarish representation. As a toddler, you perceive your mom as a caring person, but also as this horrible monster. In your mind, there’s a version of your mother who drinks excessively and becomes enraged, thus becoming this hideous beast. In this form, she can follow and capture you. In her normal form, she has a nurturing personality. It’s terrifying seeing one’s darkest impulses brought into a physical incarnation.

          What villains do you all think are great? Is it someone who’s committed the most nefarious deeds? Someone with wicked intentions? Or perhaps a complete monster?

Conveying Narrative

          For those of you who want to make games with stories, how do you tell a narrative in a game? Do you tell it like a book with lots of text to read? Or do you show it like a movie in a theater? Or maybe you read off some lines for the player to hear when they pick up an audio recording in game? These methods don’t exactly work as effectively as one may hope. Making players read text takes them out of the game, though they may still be engrossed in the world. Showing a cut scene can work for some cinematic moments, but the player still has to stop to watch it. Audio recordings can fill players in on the story, yet the information can be lost if other sounds are playing, too. All of these methods require the player to stop focusing on the game in order to take in the narrative. Admittedly, the audio recordings may take them out the least, but I still feel like I’m missing out on crucial information if I pick up an audio file in BioShock and some slicers are hitting me. They’re both making noise and I’d rather not read subtitles in the middle of a fight.

          To properly convey narrative in a game, the player must not be pulled out of the gameplay for too long. Let them keep moving around and looking at things, have them find brief scripts of text that can be read in under thirty seconds, ensure any essential audio lore can’t be interrupted by another sound or by music. One of the best ways designers convey narrative is through mechanics and level design. 

          Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons does this exceptionally well. The player must control both brothers to solve puzzles and progress through the game. The narrative is sort of happening in the background, but you also gain an attachment to the brothers themselves as their characters develop. The two need to find a way to cure their father’s illness. Naturally, they go around town looking for assistance when they are instructed that the cure will likely be found outside of town. To leave town, the two brothers must work together to bypass obstacles. The mechanics of puzzle solving are simple enough, but it requires that both siblings operate in tandem to progress. It creates some heartwarming (and gut-wrenching) moments as the game goes on. 

When the player reaches a point near the end, the eldest brother is gone and the game changes mood entirely. How can you play the game (and proceed with the narrative) when your only brother is no longer here? Naturally, you think you can do this last puzzle by yourself. Despite your efforts, it doesn’t work out. And yet, the game never explicitly tells you that you can still use your brother’s controls to solve the puzzle. When you do, the solution is found! It’s a gripping moment when you finally realize what to do and what it means that you can still use your brother to help you despite his absence.

          However, there are games that have are narratively focused and have gameplay built to suit the story. Oxenfree is a good example of how narrative can sometimes take precedence over mechanics. Players can decide what dialogue options they respond to other characters with. Depending on their choices, the story plays out differently. The only mechanics the game has is walking/running, dialogue choices, and tuning a radio. The radio is interesting, but it isn’t the most awesome thing in the world. It helps convey the backstory of the world and also helps in progressing through the game. Oxenfree relies on these mechanics to make their story more engaging because playing with that radio makes you feel more involved. Dialogue choices alone could maybe make the game playable, but the radio is what really sells the narrative. Without that mechanic, this game might as well be a “visual novel”.

          When it comes to conveying narrative, focus on using gameplay and design to tell the story. If an important detail needs to be in the player’s mind, let them know by having them see or hear the crucial information. If presented well, they won’t forget. You can use text, but don’t flood them with an encyclopedia of your game world’s lore and history. They can still find that stuff and read it on their own time, but don’t make them feel like they have to read it right this minute. Cutscenes work for cinematic moments, but the player can’t do anything until the mini movie ends or is skipped. If it’s too long, they will likely want to skip the story altogether just to get back to playing again. And audio recordings work fine, just don’t have them play in areas where there’s going to be a lot of noise. Even if the background sound has a lower volume, it’s still additional noise to filter out. Build your game out before you incorporate a narrative. Or if you have an incredibly good narrative, find mechanics and systems that fit that kind of story. If you only want to tell stories, why not write a book?