Wireframe - #33 - 2020

36 / wfmag.cc

Designing great single-player missions

Toolbox

Even simply transitioning to a new setting, or

revealing a dramatic story twist without a defined

gameplay effect can create a subtle effect: as long

as the element of surprise is on your side, there’s

a whole host of things you could try.

Occasionally, it can be good to switch things up

by introducing a gameplay constraint or modifier.

Here’s a list of areas you could explore:

Time

Introduce a time constraint for a specific action.

Awareness

Ask the player to go undetected by enemies.

Movement

Restrict or alter the player’s movement.

Resources

Change or restrict the player’s resources.

Information

Give the player more or less information about

what is about to happen.

Openness

Alter the range of choices available to the player.

One note here: modifiers can be extremely

annoying if used improperly. I doubt there is a

single player in the world who loves a crass time

BEST-LAID

PLANS

A strong foundation for a twist

can be to use a tried-and-tested

screenwriter trick: “What if

the plan fails?” Our heroes are

trying to break into a bank vault

but someone trips the alarm.

The gun jams; the key snaps in

the lock; the wizard loses their

powers. Try throwing the player

a curveball and see how they

deal with it.

limit, a poorly implemented, enforced stealth

section, or tedious turret sequence. Here are three

concepts which might help avoid these pitfalls:

Give, don’t take away

Giving the player a special resource or interesting

short-term weapon can be more enjoyable than

robbing them of their equipment or forcing them

to use their starting weapon for a section.

Keep it snappy

Use modifiers briefly and sparingly – modified

gameplay is a side dish to offset the main course

of your core design.

Praise, don’t punish

Let the player get a benefit for succeeding in a

modified gameplay section, rather than punishing

them for failing. If there has to be a discrete failure

state, give them something fun to do while they

recover. There’s something about modifiers which

makes designers panic when it comes to risk/

reward, often asking the player to restart entire

sections if things go wrong: don’t fall into this trap.

GO GO GADGET

The nuclear option when it comes to twists and

modifiers is the ‘gadget mission’ – this is an entire

level which is predicated on a heavily altered

gameplay. These can be an effective choice for

ensuring variation in your campaign, but be sure

to apply the techniques above to make sure they

don’t alienate or bore players.

 Combat flight sims
like the Ace Combat
series can provide an
excellent source of
inspiration for game
mode types.

 Blizzard’s StarCraft (seen here in

all its recently remastered glory)

packs its single-player mission

full of tricks and modifiers to

challenge the player.