Coop Design for an Open World David G. Bowring David Bowring - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Coop Design for an Open World David G. Bowring David Bowring - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mar 27, 2024 135 likes •905 views

Coop Design for an Open World David G. Bowring David Bowring Gameplay Designer for Saints Row 2 COOP systems design Mission design Level design and scripting Volition Inc Saints Row 2(XBOX360/PS3/PC) 3 rd person

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Coop Design for an Open World

David G. Bowring

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  • David Bowring

– Gameplay Designer for Saints Row 2

  • COOP systems design
  • Mission design
  • Level design and scripting
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Volition Inc

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  • Saint’s Row 2(XBOX360/PS3/PC)

– 3rd person open world action shooter – Fully Featured COOP

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Topics Covered

  • The SR2 Vision for Coop
  • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay
  • Developing Systems to Support Coop
  • Why Do Coop?
  • Lessons Learned
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  • Non-tethered
  • Drop in/out anytime co-op
  • Both players earn rewards and progression
  • Players are truly cooperative

Vision

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Split Screen

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Topics Covered

  • The SR2 Vision for Coop
  • Strategies for Designing

Coop Gameplay

  • Why Do Coop?
  • Developing Systems to Support Coop
  • Lessons Learned
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Ambition to Fruition

  • Open world games are highly complex
  • Decision not to tether increased complexity
  • Afforded some our greatest success as well
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Keys to open world

  • Sandbox/Emergent gameplay is supported by

gameplay systems

  • Modal gameplay
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Keys to SR2 COOP

  • Letting players do anything they could do in

single player

  • Make gameplay feel natural and seamless
  • Encourage true cooperative play
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Modal Gameplay

  • Activities

– One off special mechanics

  • Missions

– Story driven – Featured core mechanics

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Starting modal gameplay

  • Players should be able to be separate in the

sandbox

  • Players need to be together for modal

gameplay

  • Teleport the players at the start
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Defining COOP for Missions

  • Physically separate but parallel goals
  • Specific coop mechanics
  • No significant outward change to objectives
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Missions

  • Physically separate but parallel goals

– Players can stay together or take separate paths – Each player must complete their goal – Players come together at the end

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Missions

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  • Specific coop mechanics

– Both players locked together

Defining COOP for Missions

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Missions

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  • No significant outward change to objectives

Defining COOP for Missions

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Missions

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Defining COOP for Activities

  • Sometimes difficult to find a natural extension of

gameplay

  • Game stability offered problems with iteration
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Defining COOP for Activities

  • A threshold score within a time limit
  • Specific mechanics in a linear progression
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  • a threshold score within a time limit

Defining COOP for Activities

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Activities

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  • Specific mechanics in a linear progression
  • Each player has to be successful at their role

Defining COOP for Activities

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Escort

  • Gave each player a role
  • Each player had to succeed
  • Provided for some good fodder in design

meetings

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Activities

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Great Risk Brings Great Reward

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DEVELOPING SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT COOP

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Topics Covered

  • The SR2 Vision for Coop
  • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay
  • Developing Systems to

Support Coop

  • Why Do Coop?
  • Lessons Learned
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Vehicle Camera

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Trigger Placement

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Spawning

  • Two methods

– Function that held spawning – Spawn NPCs early

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Balancing

  • Decrease players hit points
  • Decrease players weapon damage
  • Increase numbers of enemies
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Measure twice, cut once

  • Evaluate features carefully
  • New features adds much more risk in a coop

scenario

  • We didn’t cut much of anything
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Saving game progression

These basic rules apply:

  • The client joins at the point where the server has progressed
  • Players must still complete all prerequisites for rewards
  • Both players earn progression and mission/activity specific

rewards when playing together

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Case Study: Coop Game Progression

  • Client has completed the first 2 missions of an 8 mission set.
  • Server has completed the first 6 missions of the same 8

mission set.

  • Client then joins the server’s game and completes the last 2

missions of the 8 mission set and then disconnects and resumes playing in single player.

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What happens for server:

  • Server receives mission specific reward for all missions
  • Server receives achievements for completing all missions in

the set

  • The server then can continue with the game as if they had

never played coop.

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What happens for the client:

  • Mission 1
  • Mission 2
  • Mission 3
  • Mission 4
  • Mission 6
  • Mission 7
  • Mission 8
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Too Complex?

  • Allow players to have more opportunities to

join

  • Players gain rewards that can be taken back to

their single player game

  • Players progress the game
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Topics Covered

  • The SR2 Vision for Coop
  • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay
  • Why Do Coop?
  • Developing Systems to Support Coop
  • Lessons Learned
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Players are connected!

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% Premium Gold Gold Silver

XBOX 360 Connected Users

XBOX 360 Connected Users

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Players are connected!

40% 45% 50% 55% Downloaded Demos Purchased at PS Store Used PlayStation Home

PS3 Connected Users

PS3 Connected Users

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Reasons to provide online content:

– Help players discover your product – Players expect online features – Increase shelf life – Providing players a social gaming experience

Players are connected!

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Topics Covered

  • The SR2 Vision for Coop
  • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay
  • Why Do Coop?
  • Developing Systems to

Support Coop

  • Lessons Learned
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  • Join anytime
  • Progression is saved
  • Players earn rewards

Drop in/out anytime co-op

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Joining a Cheater

  • Not handled well
  • Possibility of lost progression
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Story

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Story

  • Difference in sets due to overall game

progression

  • Each player is the star of their own cutscene
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“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy”

  • Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke
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Notoriety

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Diversion HUD

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  • Saints Row 1 multiplayer code
  • Client /Server relationship

Technical underpinnings

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Client Server

AI, Scripting, processing Report Client actions Update Client with Results

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Be warned!

  • Flexibility in approach is vital
  • Be ready to re-engineer or cut features
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No Tether Strikes Again

  • As objects in the world increased the client

suffered

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Rethinking Solutions: Hybrid solution

AI, Scripting, processing AI, Scripting, processing Both are Synched Both are Synched

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Downside

  • All systems had to re-engineered
  • Hampered designs ability to iterate gameplay
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Upside

  • Limited parallel processing
  • More AI in a coop game
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Topics Covered

  • The SR2 Vision for Coop
  • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay
  • Why Do Coop?
  • Developing Systems to Support Coop
  • Lessons Learned
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Lessons Learned - Programming

  • Every system had to be COOP friendly
  • Every system touched could break COOP
  • Enormous amounts of bugs were created
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Lessons Learned - QA

  • 37% of all Bugs involved COOP
  • Staffing issues
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Lessons Learned - Design

  • Focus on stability not new features
  • Make cuts early

– We didn’t cut much of anything on SR2 – Pushed content into the game until the last minute

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Lessons Learned - Design

  • Story continuity may take a back seat
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Lessons Learned - Design

  • Un-tethered in an open world creates huge

complexity

– Creates huge possibilities for emergent gameplay

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Lessons Learned - Design

  • Coop was well worth the time and effort
  • Coop was well regarded by our

players/reviewers

  • Design everything with COOP in mind
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QUESTIONS?

David Bowring david.bowring@volition-inc.com