Mechanics and interfaces.

The mechanics in a game are like the interfaces in software. They allow you do to things. The aim of good interface design is oblivion. A good interface is one that you are hardly aware of. One that just lets you do what you want to do without having to figure out how. One that feels natural.

I believe the same applies to videogames. Mechanics should be transparent. They should offer you access to the fiction of the game without demanding any attention for themselves. They should feel natural to do, logical, spontaneous. It should feel like they don’t exist.

There is, of course, another school of thought. There are people who love interfaces. They love sliding things around on their iPhone screen, pressing buttons and flipping levers. They are not particularly interested in what they can get done with the software. They just like to play with the interface.

A similar thing happens in many videogames. In fact, it happens in most. And often even to their detriment. There is a group of games that is almost nothing but mechanics. All games that are derived of traditional games fall in this category. Others are more focused on the emotional experience of the player, on narrative, characters, moods, places. They are the games that have made a medium out of videogames.

Many of those “media-videogames”, however, are still partly stuck in the mindset that considers mechanics design equal to game design. So instead of making transparent interfaces that allow the player to enjoy the fiction, they are often still riddled with obtrusive designs that pull you away into the abstract interface level. Shooting an unlikely amount of enemies while picking up ammunition that happens to be spread around all over, pulling a lever in one room that makes some gears turn in another which opens a valve that makes a heater go one in the basement that leads to the release of a key from a metal clamp on the roof, jumping on conveniently placed platforms, picking up gold coins spraying from fallen enemies, and so on and so forth. Fiddling with buttons and sliders instead of actually doing something.

A videogame should take its fictional universe seriously. And the experience of the player should take place entirely in that universe. The interface to that universe should aim to be as invisible or seemingly non-existent as in the real world. Any interactions that do not pass the transparency test should be removed.

(unless of you course you cheat like I do in Bientôt l’été and make the interface part of the fiction)