The Trifecta
What do these two game do that make them so addictive? Addictive. That isn’t quite the right word. You see, when I say ‘addictive’ what I feel like I’m saying is that it’s fun and playing it makes you not want to stop. This quicksand effect is more than that. It’s more than, “I want to play more of a fun game because it’s fun.” This effect is akin to being thrown into the future. Like something out of a sci-fi flick it feels like time has just washed over you, and you were utterly unaware of it. Looking back at your progress in these games feels like remembering a dream. You can’t quite remember all the details, but it was a dream that you liked.
What about these games do this, though, and what games do it poorly? I think this effect is three-fold, and when it’s done poorly that’s because it’s missing at least one of these three ingredients. The first ingredient is loading bars.
I think that this effect is brought on by, more or less, always waiting for something. There is always something that is just about to be done. There is a loading bar that is right about to finish. These games get setup so that you have dozens of little loading bars to manage. You click on them to complete, and another starts. Sometimes your reward for completing these loading bars are more loading bars.
Loading Bars By Example
In the Civilization series the loading bars are two-fold. Each city’s progress towards a new technology is a loading bar. Also, each city grows over time, after certain factors are met it gains land and with that comes advantages. This timer for when a city grows is another loading bar. Workers that improve tiles are each little loading bars. You want to put your unit over there and that is so many turns away because units only move so many tiles per turn. Well their action of moving to that destination is in itself, a loading bar.
In Stardew Valley each one of your crops grows a little more each day until you harvest them. These are all loading bars. To upgrade your tools you must gather resources and take the tools to be worked on by a blacksmith. This blacksmith takes a few days to do the upgrade. The process of collecting the resources as well as waiting for the blacksmith are all loading bars. The game is split into four seasons that all play a little differently. Waiting for the next season to take advantage of some seeds you have that can only be utilized in that season is a loading bar.
Busy Busy Busy
The second ingredient to this quicksand trifecta is to not have any down time. Always have the player be doing something. While you’re waiting for loading bars there needs to be busy work, but that busy work needs to be enjoyable. Though it’s not necessary, having a resource to deplete can make for wonderful busy work.
Many players such as myself have a desire to be as efficient as possible. Using resources as quickly and effectively as possible scratches an itch quite well. In Civilization it can be gold or strategic resources. In Stardew Valley it’s gold and your daily energy. Stardew valley has a mechanic to increase energy, so that we are allowed to keep ourselves busy longer. The game actually rewards us with the ability to do more busy work.
If you don’t give them busy work, then the lack of downtime needs to be that at any given moment the next loading bar-like mechanic needs to be close to finishing. The player might as well wait just a little bit longer to get the next little reward.
Congratulations
The third piece of the puzzle is arguably the most difficult. This is making the loading bars completion rewarding. The player needs to be invested in completing these. The reward system needs to be something that the player wants to get. Rewards need to happen incrementally, and frequently enough so that they always feel like they’re just about to win. This is the same feeling like a slot machine, but instead of chance they’re waiting on the loading bar. Since it’s definitively not based on luck then the reward feels like we earned it. Even if all we did was go over and click on the ground for a few days the reward for that crop feels like we put in hard work and effort.
In the mines in Stardew Valley you’re rewarded every 5 levels deep with an elevator. The next venture into the mines you can go right to that 5 level increment without doing it all over. As this progress through the depth of the mines is a series of 5-level loading bars, the reward brings them better loot the deeper they are. At 20 level increments the player is rewarded with a chest that usually contains better equipment.
The Hardest Part
I think the most difficult of the trifecta to get right is the last one. Making the player want the reward for a given progress bar is difficult. Mobile games fall flat here disgustingly often. So often I know I’m about to get something if I play just a little longer, but I really couldn’t care less if I got it or not. The worst mobile games that attempt this effect don’t have busy work, either, or at least not fun busy work.
I think that where Civilization and Stardew Valley get this right is in the story. In Civilization 5 each time you meet another player there is a brief interaction with them where they greet you. Each time a player finishes a world wonder you are notified with a popup that shows some nice art. The world around you also creates its own story. The narrative is never spoken or written, but exists at the edges of your mind as you make every decision. Each time you decide something, the story is written a little more.
In Stardew Valley the opening sets the tranquil tone for the game. Throughout the game you follow a calendar to know how far through a season you are. This calendar also has the birthdays of the towns people. These townspeople going about their days, between buildings, talking to one another, fishing or taking pictures, it all creates a story. Holidays and festivals happen semi-frequently and all of this builds up a love of the town you are now a part of.
You begin to want this town and its folk to thrive, and go about your day in an attempt to be a better member of this community. The ability to do this is the reward that you care about. I want to get to the end of the next loading bar so that I can get that thing that somebody wanted.
Cumulative Change
Once this trifecta has its hooks set into you the limit to how many hours exists in replayability. This is where Civilization has a bit of a leg up on Stardew Valley. (Though points have to be given to stardew for being made by 1 freaking person, that’s amazing.) These games plateu after enough time is spent in them. The crafting of the end game is important for the difference between 300 hours and 3,000 hours. A few things can lengthen these games effectively.
My favorite of these is cumulative change. A game world that you the player change just sets the hook deeper. If you didn’t care about a town that already existed, try to not care about one that you made yourself. We tend to love our creations, so if the player has freedom to change or create something then that is a bee-line to the player’s heart. Once you have that then you can reward the player with the ability to enhance or protect their creation
With Civilization 5 your creation is every tile in your empire. Each one that you craft is one of your special children. Nothing will make me turn from a peace loving friend into a city-trampling hate-filled bringer of war than having one of my cities forcfully taken from me. If you raze the city to the ground, then that’s a one way ticket to total destruction and may god have mercy on your soul.
Stardew Valley does this with your farm and your house. You can customize these to your liking and a few quick google searches is all you need to see some of the wonderful creations people can come up with. You lay each path, each fence, and you plow every plot that holds a plant. You decide where your chicken coop is, where your stable goes, what plants go where, how big of a T.V. you want, etc… This becomes your farm. It is your special snowflake and you’d defend it to the bitter end. Fortunately the game’s quiet calm atmosphere means there isn’t much defending to do. The reward system is more in the form of ever customization.
If Stardew Valley’s creator wanted to make people sink even more time into the game, let them have a permanent effect on the land. Let them make choices that alter the landscape. Perhaps you have the power to decide what companies can move to the valley. Once a year is a new interaction with some organization that wants to set up shop. Do you give the money to the blacksmith, turning it into a larger building and offering more services? Perhaps you give it to the fisherman who always wanted to expand his bait and tackle shop. The more that the game map feels like it’s your game map, the more invested you feel, and the more we can be persuaded to wait just a little longer for something to get done.
Finally
These two games complete this trifecta elegantly. One came from a company and studio, the other made by just one guy. One is a strategy game, the other is more like an rpg. Genre is clearly not the determining factor, nor are funds or graphics. Complete this trifecta just right and I’d love to see myself fall prey to another quicksand game.
