Emerson Matsuuchi, designer of Specter Ops, goes into all the ins and outs of putting together a hidden movement game.
There are very few hidden movement games out there right now which means there’s still a ton to be explored. Emerson discusses the challenges he faced and his insights on the topic.
9 comments on “How to Make a Great Hidden Movement Game with Emerson Matsuuchi”
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Gabe,
Great podcast, as usual. I’m not particularly interested in hidden movement games simply because I play a lot of solo games but I really appreciated what Emerson had to say about game design in general and I think it’s good for budding designers to hear that even experienced designers will look at several hundred concepts to yield one or two games.
Cheers,
Joe
Yeah, hidden movement is very much a niche mechanic. I’m working on a micro game with it as the main mechanism just to play around and see how it works.
And you’re totally right about Emerson’s insight on the ratio of ideas/prototypes to published games. It’ so important for designers to understand the numbers and not get discouraged.
I agree that it is encouraging to hear that most designers go through that many concepts and ideas before getting to the one that sells. I appreciate that Gabe asks that question every time.
I really like the idea of a solo hidden movement mechanic. How can you make an AI move without knowing where? Now that would be a fun puzzle.
Forbidden Desert. That’s hidden movement right?
I don’t think so. How do you mean?
The pieces of the ship. You need to find two tiles that indicate the row and column that a piece is on. With the sandstorm moving the tiles around, wouldn’t that be hidden movement?
I think that would be more in the realm of deduction.
BGDL Community,
Emerson gave a very interesting challenge. To think of another way to style of the hidden movement mechanic. I think he only mentioned two ways, point to point and grid. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
The reason that I love this challenge is because I know there has to be other ways but I couldn’t think of a single one for the entire hour of my commute. Maybe Emerson is right in saying the next step is to add the digital element to the game.
I’m curious what ideas any of you may have thought of that did not involve digital assistance.
Also, would you consider Stratego hidden movement or hidden information?
I look forward to seeing what the BGDL brain trust can come up with.
It’s seriously a conundrum. I tried my best to come up with a different way to do it for my game, “Barnyard Escape,” but ultimately, grid movement just proved to be the best solution.
Perhaps if you did a bigger picture game, like a Carmen San Diego globe trotting kind of thing, you could move from country to country and have the ability to fly or ride to different parts of the world. But ultimately, that might just be a riff on point-to-point movement.
I think Stratego is more hidden information than hidden movement. It’s obviously where a piece moves, but what kind of piece is moving is the mystery.