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A thread on lying to players! There are some *major spoilers* for some fairly recent titles (2017); Iâm not going to list them because that just tells you that youâre going to be lied to at some point which kind of makes the spoiler warning meaningless!
This goes into narrative design than level design, but thereâs a bit of overlap with how you approach things; my knowledge of narrative design is more limited than that of my LD so do A) take it with a pinch of salt and B) feel free to correct me if Iâm entirely wrong on things!
So there are 3 kinds of lies in games; Lies in mechanics, Lies in narrative, and Lies by NPCs. All 3 have meanings and impacts on the player and all need to be handled with care as they can impact on the playerâs engagement and enjoyment.
As designers we create a kind of unspoken contract of with the player which, over the course of the gameplay sets out what the player can expect from the game. This can be via direct tutorials (press F to etc) or by implying rules (red barrels always explode).
Lies in mechanics are things which break this unspoken contract. This can be done accidentally (how many doors in this apartment complex can you actually open?) or on purpose (now you have to press E to etc because the character is drunk!).
This kind of lie can be very risky; you can start to break down the playerâs sense of fairness and freedom within the experience. The ideal state for any game, Iâd argue, is one where the player feels that any mistake or misunderstanding is theirs, and not that of the game.
Dark Souls does not lie, cheat, or mislead; it is extremely fair but merciless. Miss time a roll or run out of stamina at the wrong moment and BOOM, You Died. Its difficulty comes not from unfairness and randomness but from forcing the player to learn.
There are some soft lies in mechanics which do work, but can make the player feel bad if they find out. Things like aim assist, hidden difficulty scaling, etc. Be careful not to conflate dislike of these things with accessibility options and design choices however!
Lies in narrative are, effectively, plot twists; this is a real big old simplification. The core concept here is to imply a truth, and then disprove it. This is often best done without the player being told anything directly by a character; play with their assumptions.
The most perfect example Iâve seen of this comes from Arkaneâs 2017 Prey. If you have not played it stop right now and go play at least the first 20-30 minutes of it; you will not regret it imo ⌠or continue to read, Iâm not a cop.
Prey lies to you from the outset. It implies that you are in your apartment on earth, that your brother is on earth, and that everything is fine and you are safe. None of this is true. Whatâs fantastic about it is that the player feels as lied to as the character would.
Creating and maintaining this connection between what the player and the character are feeling at that moment is the key to Preyâs long term objective; to make you question *everything* in the environment, including the intentions of other characters.
IMO the tiny moment of slow-mo as you break the glass sells the entire game. I wonât spoil any more of Prey but it is a touchstone for the entire experience. Who knows what? What are their agendas? Were there two mugs there before?
Lastly we have Lies by NPCs. There is a massive overlap between these and Lies in narrative; almost all the lies characters tell the player are to facilitate big narrative moments. The cake is a lie, Ravenholm, all of ⌠all of Deus ex âŚ
However some Lies by NPCs serve a very specific purpose; to be read as a challenge to the player. This often happens in RPGs where the player has to decide how much to believe any character on any topic.
This often loops back to questioning Lies in mechanics.
This often loops back to questioning Lies in mechanics.
If the player is told by an NPC that taking action A will give result B, when in reality it will give result C the game forces the player to consider where the lie is; did the NPC lie? Did the mechanics lie? Is it a bug? Making this clear is very very important.
In a game like Prey where the player understand that they can be lied to, have been lied to, and almost certainly will be lied to again, all within the first 20 minutes the player is much more likely to accept NPCs brazenly lying to them, even on mechanical topics.
In cases where the player has had no reason to question the intent of any NPCs in the game world they are much more likely to have a negative response. Once again they may feel like the game has lied or misrepresented itself rather than a NPC has.
I am struggling to think of a really good example here as most of these are either minor quests or become major parts of narrative lies. If you have a good one in mind please let me know!
to link this back to my previous thread about player choice ( https://twitter.com/NATO_chrisjm/status/1277411758714560518) Lies by NPCs can often be used to spur major narrative changes like we see in linear games *but directly triggered by the player in a way which they are predisposed to own*
This can be good or bad depending on your target audience and game. If you sell the game on moral questions and big choices it can work really well; if you go the âmake the world your ownâ route some players can feel they were deceived into making a choice did not want.
Replay value also comes into this depending on where and how you place and frame player choices. The second time around the player knows theyâre being lied to; what will change? Can they play the NPCs are their own game? Etc. Makes for good chat with other players.
Anywho, as I said, narrative design isnât my area of expertise but I hope itâs been interesting for people. I hope to do another thread on Factions soon. Itâll follow this threads âtangential to LD but spans into itâ sort of thing.
