I've spent the weekend researching and reading chapters about meaningful game design, metaphors and mechanics, along with getting over a sickness. I read some stuff from Rules of Play talking about teaching a player the rules of a game and how completely changing the rule can arbitrarily punish the player and make what the player had already learned worthless. So keep things consistent and don't break the rules unless necessary, same principles apply to film too and I have already learnt this in film at high school. It goes on to say a way to remedy the situation could be by adding visual details that tell the player the difference between to similar objects. This will tell the player between right objects and the wrong objects, "Blue buttons open secret doors. Red buttons unleash fireballs of doom." Again something I already know, but perhaps revealing the difference after the player has interacted with it could be a way to teach the player? After reading this I thought of Fallout and how players require terminals to open security doors or red buttons to open secret doors. This doesn't just apply to doors and buttons though, it could be any mechanic, What attack can be blocked, what enemies can be hurt, what terrain can be traversed, etc. Having the difference between mechanics creates "meaningful play".
Something I didn't think of is how mechanics, like traps and secret doors, using similar objects could cause players to pay closer attention to their environment searching for anything new that may lead to new mechanics an experiences, as stated in the chapter Games as the Play of Meaning. Players are curious and when they discover something new to interact with they will most likely try it out. If the already know blue buttons open doors and come across a red button, they may press it and learn that it activates a fireball trap that automatically kills them. Curiosity really did kill the cat, but at least it now knows what red buttons do. This could be considered an intentional death by the game or a death by player mistake if the player had a means to press the button through another entity like another player or a bullet, But the player won't know how to do this if they don't already suspect the button to be hazardous. Teaching the player by making them interact with the mechanic could make them frustrated if the mechanic is designed to punish them. Not sure if the author of this book thought of that has I haven't come across them mentioning how to avoid the negative effects of learning through interaction.
I'm going to space what I've learnt across multiple blog posts as it would be too long a read having it all on the one post and also I'm still reading the chapters myself. In an unrelated note I have completed the new helicopter image and will begin working on the zombie eating sprite. I have made the chopper and blades separate so the blades can be spun through script without affecting the chopper.
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