4X Game Design Review Part 1

Probably one of the most complicated game genres in existence by its means of definition is the 4X genre: eXpand, eXplore, eXterminate, eXploit.

This is the first part of a series of examinations of the mechanics that go into a 4X game. It will be used to design a 4X game that takes you from the stone age of your country, to dominating the planet, eventually taking your species in the stars, wherein you test your mettle at conquering the galaxy through expanding, exploring, exploiting and exterminating.

There are several issues that arise in making an enjoyable 4X game, such as pacing, learning curve and difficulty. Oddly, after looking into the mechanics and design features, these are not the key design elements that I think a 4X should concentrate on, but should be taken into account by proxy. The two design elements that I think are of equal importance are the balance between Marco Management, Micromanagement, Information Absorption, and Abstraction.

There is a very subtle balance with Mirco and Marco management of the game environment, that is very hard to design correctly, and must be played to feel correct. Ideally the balance should allow the player to get his hand as dirty as he wants, and focus on what the player finds interesting while letting the computer handle other aspects.

If there is too much marcro, then it starts to feel like a spectator game, as you tap on the plastic wall of the ant farm, removing the player's connection with the game and preventing the player from really add his own thumbprint to great effect.

If there is too much micro, then the game pacing will start to suffer as tedium sets in. This also allows for greater chance of information overload, preventing the player from having a sense of a 'bigger picture', requiring an outside means to keep track of objectives and progress. It will also prevent the player from knowing what is happening within her own empire.

Information absorption plays key into these two above concepts. The information has to be provided with just enough detail, and context to be understood. Ideally, a player should get all the information she needs for an action from a single screen and know what it is in relation to other aspects.

To allow for ease of information absorption, the game's simulation of events will need to be abstracted during macro and micro management. Abstraction is a tool that should be handled differently for the player then from the non-controllable characters. A human player has an easier ability to understand when certain things are done behind the curtain for the sake of game play, whereas the computer can do rather odd things when this done for it, as seen in other games such as MOO3, Galactic Civ. Arguably this has more to do with how the non-controllable characters are programmed, then the actual abstraction to make them easier to handle. Ideally the abstraction level for the human player should be for the elements of the game that are tedious and have no game play impact.

The next post will define the academic experiment game with all this in mind.