Collectible Design in Games

May 31, 2008 2:01 am Sir Haxington Game Development

Some people love em’, some people couldn’t care less about em’. “Collectibles” are simply a finite amount of objects player can obtain in a game. These objects typically aren’t integral to the progression of the game, but are often added to give the game an extra layer of interaction. Some game designs take collectibles beyond just an extra set of objects you can get, while others stay rooted in traditional, old-school collectible design.

I find it interesting that collectibles are still around in many games today. Five years ago I wouldn’t have expected collectibles to show up in mainstream games like Call of Cuty 4 or Halo 3. I thought gamers would have grown out collecting “things” by now. However, the part of me that used to collect stamps and coins when I was a child still finds enjoyment in obsessively hunting for virtual objects. It seems there are many others like me.

I’m going to dissect collectible design and analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly of various collectible systems. I’ll be projecting a lot of my own preferences here, so bare with me. I’ve divided collectible design into five major categories, which are:

Hunting Enjoyment: Are the collectibles fun to hunt down and find? Sometimes, the hunt can be more enjoyable than obtaining the item.

Collection Enjoyment: Is the act of acquiring the object enjoyable? Are there sweet sounds when you pick an object up? Is the art of the object really cool? Do crazy particles play when you touch the collectible?

Immersiveness: Does the object fit into the game world or does it remind you that you’re playing a video game?

Clue Factor: How hard is it to find the collectible without any sort of guide? Are there audio and visual cues which help you find the collectible? Are there any hints in game which help you organize finding the collectibles?

In Game Reward: Do you receive new weapons or abilities by collecting objects? Do the collectibles unlock game content?

Using these categories, lets take a look at some recent Xbox 360 games and see how they stack up. I’ll use a scale from 1 – 10 to rate each category.

———————————————————

GTA IV – Pigeons

Hunting Enjoyment: 2

After collecting all 200 (!) pigeons, I must say they weren’t terribly fun to track down. I ended up using the Gamesradar guide to find them all. I think finding all the pigeons in Liberty City would have been basically impossible without a guide. There are some ridiculous collectible placements, such as one where the player are expected to drive one of the larger boats far out into the water, climb to the top of the vessel and snipe onto the mainland. Finding pigeons in GTA IV feels very much like a chore.

Collection Enjoyment: 8

Even if hunting pigeons isn’t fun, shooting them feels awesome. After taking a shot, pigeons explode into a huge puff of blood and feathers, with a great pigeon “Cooo!” sound. You also get the immediate text notification on the screen letting you know that “There are 95 flying rats left in Liberty City.” Unfortunately you can’t stab pigeons, which others around the office were disappointed with as well. C’mmon, who doesn’t want to stab a virtual pigeon?

Immersiveness: 8

Pigeons fit into the game world nicely as the game setting takes place in a huge urban environment. Who hasn’t seen flocks of pigeons in a city? The pigeons are animated in addition to cooing when you’re near by. The result is pretty life-like collectible that blends in well with it’s surroundings.

Clue Factor: 7

Rockstar did something I’ve never seen before: Put a map of the collectible locations in the game (which you can access though their in-game internet). However, to make that feature especially useful, they should have removed the dots from the map once the pigeons has been killed. The collectibles blend in well with their surroundings, but they make cooing sounds when you get near them. Pigeon animations help you spot them, but since they are small and hidden pigeons are generally hard to find. Also, some pigeons have an orange glow around them, but some don’t, so the clues can be inconsistent.

In Game Reward: 3

At least there was an achievement for killing all the pigeons. But really, there wasn’t much of an in game reward. I think you gain access to a military helicopter, but since you have to shoot 200 pigeons it’s not really worth it. I believe the military chopper is also accessible if you play the game regularly anyway.

Summary:

This kind of collectible really only appeals to completionist gamers but the pigeons are fun as hell to shoot.

———————————————————

Call of Duty 4 – Laptops

Hunting Enjoyment: 4

There isn’t much to hunting laptops, really. Sometimes you see them, sometimes you don’t. I ended up using a guide to find them all, but I did find a majority on my own. IW’s collectibles didn’t send me on a wild goose chase which come collectibles are guilty of. Also, since I knew how many were left in the level (displayed in the pause menu) and because Call of Duty levels are fairly contained, I didn’t feel bad for not trying to find all the laptops before the level was over.

Collection Enjoyment: 3

Press X, collect laptop. A nice touch was telling the player how many laptops were left in the level. I don’t recall any audio cues when you picked up a laptop, and nothing spectacular happened after collecting one. At least you have to press a button to collect a laptop (not just walk over it).

Immersiveness: 10

Laptops fit really well into the modern warfare game setting and can be placed in just about any modern location and make sense. These collectibles blend in so well that it wasn’t until a few levels into the game that I realized laptops were interactive. I thought these collectibles were just static models.

Clue Factor: 6

In the pause menu, a bit of text tells you how many laptops you’ve collected in the current level. Other that that, you’re on your own. However, telling you how many collectibles are left in the level is a pretty helpful clue.

In Game Reward: 8

One of the better in game rewards, laptop collection incrementally unlocks cheats you can turn on at will. The more you collect, the more cheats become available. These cheats include the ability to slow down time, turn on “ragtime” mode which speeds up time, puts a sepia tone filter over the screen and plays old timey music, enable black and white vison mode (COD Noir), explode enemies into tires on death, and so on. The COD4 cheats are some of the more interesting and unique collection rewards in any recent game.

Summary:

The laymans collectible. Not really annoying or difficult to find and comes with pretty decent in-game rewards.

———————————————————

Halo 3 – Skulls

Hunting Enjoyment: 10

Why are skulls so fun to collect? Skull hunting in co-op was one of the most memorable gaming experiences I’ve had in years. Trick jumping, hopping through huge rings, exploring hidden and hard to find areas with your friends were tons of fun. No collectible has been this much fun to hunt in recent memory.

Collection Enjoyment: 8

You have to pick up a skull to collect it. Rather than the skull disappearing upon activation, it shows up in your hands, which you can then walk around with and show off to your friends. We had great fun playing pass the skull.

Immersiveness: 5

Skulls blend into the backdrop fairly well and and seems like any other model placed in the world. However, in order to collect skulls, you have to stop thinking about the rest of the game for a minute say to yourself “Okay, lets go hunt some skulls.” Collecting skulls in Halo 3 takes you out of the whole story vibe and remind you that you’re playing a video game.

Clue Factor: 1

Were there any clues? I had to look all the skull locations up online. Skulls are generally located in places that you would never think to look without a guide. Even though players will have to look up the skull locations, they are interesting and challenging to hunt.

In Game Reward: 9

Each skull rewards players with a new unlockable game altering feature, if you choose to activate it. Some skulls, when activated in the lobby, allow players to make the game more challenging. In turn, making the game more challenging turns on score multipliers in Halo 3’s campaign scoring mode. Some skulls turn on purely visual features, such as exploding confetti out of the grunts on headshots accompanied by a sound of children cheering, an obvious reference to Viva Pinata.

Summary:

Skull collection is suited for hardcore players or for a fun co-op diversion. Skulls are pretty hard to find, but enjoyable to hunt for (especially in co-op) and offer awesome rewards.

———————————————————

Assassins Creed – Flags & Templars

Hunting Enjoyment: 2

There are hundreds of collectibles to find, spread out in a vast, open world. I guarantee you’ll have to use a guide since many flags are located in hard to reach places. Because there are so many flags, there’s a good chance you’ll make an error while checking them off your list, which means you might have to look for them all over again. I had to and I know a few other people that had the same problem.

Collection Enjoyment: 4

Killing Templar Knights bumps the collection fun factor up a bit, but a majority of the collectible gathering in Assassin’s Creed is simply walking into or over flags. Not really much enjoyment happening there, especially since the combat is fairly monotonous. Collecting a flag does give the player an audio cue and visual reward of some matrix like particle effects.

Immersiveness: 4

The flags shimmer and glow, and seem out of places with the rest of the game art. Flags are also placed in odd locations where a flag shouldn’t be, such as sitting in the middle of a roof balanced in a way that defies physics. Templars however make much more sense and fit in well with other AI in the world.

Clue Factor: 4

Flags glow and shimmer a bit, drawing your eye to them. Templars use a different character model then other AI in the game and are more challenging to kill. However, these collectibles are still tough as hell to find since the game is so huge. When you gather a collectible, the number remaining is displayed on screen and the amount of collectibles remaining can be accessed in the menu at any time.

In Game Reward: 1

The player gets no reward for collecting flags and killing Templars.

Summary:

A purely completionist collectible. Only gamers going for achievements should attempt to gather collectibles in Assassins Creed.

———————————————————

Bioshock – Audiologs

Hunting Enjoyment: 4

If you go hunting for audiologs, you’ll basically have to stop playing the game and specifically look for them. They blend into the world and are often missed, so as usual you’ll need a guide to find them all. Stumbling upon an audiolog is a nice treat though. The average player will run into enough of them on their own to not miss out on too much extra content.

Collection Enjoyment: 7

If you’re not into the story, then finding audiolog won’t mean anything to you as the audiologs serve to fill in the plot of the game. They definitely add to the atmosphere and make the game feel more alive. Seeing and hearing various characters of Rapture which you’d otherwise have no interaction with makes players want to find more logs.

Immersiveness: 10

The collectibles help move the story along with high production value audio recordings of the game actors. Also, the collectibles blend into the world nicely art-wise. Bioshock probably has one of the most immersive collectible designs to date which should be used as a model for story driven collectibles.

Clue Factor: 3

The tape players blend in well with their surroundings and there aren’t any in game hints on where the audiologs are located. I *think* they might have “twinkled” every once and a while, but the effect is hardly noticeable.

In Game Reward: 6

Depending on how you look at this the reward could be awesome or terrible. As you collect audiologs you unlock new content which helps deliver the story. However, players aren’t rewarded with any new abilities or game features. The audio logs should probably get a higher score here, but not having a gameplay reward drags the score down a bit in my mind. If you like the story you’ll like the reward. If you are indifferent to the story you might as well not care about the audiologs.

Summary:

The ultimate collectible for people who care about the story.

———————————————————

Lost Planet – Targetmarks

Hunting Enjoyment: 2

As you progress through various levels, “targetmarks” (which is apparently is another word for “coin”) are stashed around in nooks and crannies about various levels. As usual, you’ll need a guide to find them all (what game doesn’t it seems?). Unfortunately, exploring is penalized in Lost Planet since you all missions are basically timed, which makes hunting for collectibles can be particularly stressful. Playing on different difficulty settings means having to find and collect entire new sets of coins, which is pretty annoying as well.

Collection Enjoyment: 2

You shoot a coin, and now you’ve collected it. An short audio cue plays as well.

Immersiveness: 1

Spinning coins which spell the name of the level, which are often found floating in the middle of a snow storm aren’t particularly immersive.

Clue Factor: 4

The coins spell the name of the level, so players should be able to deduce which ones are left. However, coins are placed in no particular order throughout the level, so you can’t deduce which one you might have missed, you’ll just know there if there are more to find or not. Targetmarks also spin and shine which make them easier to spot.

In Game Reward: 1

None, as far as I could tell.

Summary:

Another collectible for achievement whores.

———————————————————

Crackdown – Blue and Green Orbs

Hunting Enjoyment: 7

Orbs were fun to hunt in co-op, but only your orbs would show up and not other co-op players’ orbs. Design-wise this makes sense because you wouldn’t want people collecting each other’s orbs and essentially breaking the game. However it’s annoying from a player’s standpoint: “Hey, do you see this orb? Hey, what about this one? No? I do… what about this one?” was a pretty common conversation while playing. In any case, when a one of those blue or green beacons of light caught my eye, I dropped what I was doing (including helping out a co-op buddy) and did everything in my power to collect that orb.

Collection Enjoyment: 9

Touching an orb sends green or multicolor particles into the air and into your character, accompanied by some rewarding audio cues. Since each orb makes your character stronger, players will go out of their way to collect orbs and feel awesome while doing so.

Immersiveness: 2

Blue and green light beacons with a silhouette of a running character on them are very “gamey” or “arcadey” by most standards.

Clue Factor: 8

There were a metric ass-load of collectible orbs (hundreds) , but a majority of them are easy to spot since the bright glowing blue and green colors stand out so much. Orbs can be seen from across the city, although you’ll need a guide for some of the harder to reach ones. Orbs also make a faint humming sound when you’re near in proximity.

In Game Reward: 10

Each orb makes your character stronger, faster and jump higher, which in turn allows you to access more orbs. Crackdown has one of the best gameplay related rewards for individuals in any game.

Summary:

Orbs in Crackdown are one of the most fun collectibles to hunt and collect, plus the collection benefit is awesome.The only major drawback is that they’re not immersive.

———————————————————

Who Wins?

For what it’s worth, my personal favorite collectible system comes from the makers of Crackdown. Many people I know who like Crackdown love becoming stronger and more powerful through orb hunting. Bounding around a huge, open city while climbing and jumping onto high rise buildings just just touch that glowing column of light is surprisingly fun. Halo 3 comes in a close second simply because the co-op skull collecting experience was so memorable to me. Plus, something about finding a skull feels so good. Probably because the skulls are hidden so well, they seem almost forbidden to try and find.

Who Loses?

I think the weakest collectibles systems come from Lost Planet and Assassin’s Creed. Neither system offers any rewards, other than achievements. Both systems feel like a cheap way to extend game length. Assassin’s Creed had hundreds of worthless collectibles, while Lost Planet requires multiple playthroughs on various difficulty settings to acquire them all.

All in All

I think that identifying the five major categories of collectible design and striving to make your design exceed in at least a few categories will go a long way in making your collectibles memorable. Just keep in mind what’s important to your game design. Are you after a diversion (Assassin’s Creed, Lost Planet) or something more integral to the gaming experience (Bioshock, Crackdown)? Maybe a little something for everyone (Call of Duty 4, Halo 3)?

I think the most important rule is to remember that collectibles should enhance your game, not feel like a cheap trick to extend the length of your game.