GDC: Cave Story and the Triumph of Pragmatic Game Design

Cave Storycreator Daisuke Amaya, better known as Pixel, presented a post-mortem of his influential indie game this morning at the Game Developers Conference. In breaking down the five essential factors of game design, Amaya painted his work as a masterpiece of pragmatic design.

Working largely alone on the game over the course of four years, Amaya made practical decisions at every point which helped to shape the tone and direction of Cave Story. He arrived at the game's simple, retro style in part because of his love of classic games, but also because the minimalist look allowed him to develop a large volume of unique art on his own.

The design of protagonist Quote reflects much of the famous thinking behind Mario's original appearance: the character's large head and small body allows him to be expressive, with exaggerated actions and a sympathetic face. Contrast was an important factor in the visual design; as most backgrounds were dark -- the primary setting being those titular caves -- the hero stands out against the blackness with a bright red-and-white color palette, and his bare white arms stand out against the red of his shirt. Secondary characters were designed with similar considerations in mind: the rabbit-like mimigas' white faces likewise stand out, while human characters were dressed in white.

This also worked to help differentiate the game's stages: many of the stages feature moisture and foliage to evoke a sense of humidity, while the Egg Corridor's color scheme conveys warmth; meanwhile, the simple hints of sand and desert-like enemies in the Sand Corridor feel arid and oppressive.

Amaya feels that music, story, and atmosphere come together in games in a way that is at once memorable and unique from any other medium."In good experiences, people tend to fall in love with music they hear repeatedly,"he says. Thus effectively written game music can evoke memories and fondness from players in a way that other mediums can't duplicate.

Before demonstrating the beta version of Cave Story (in which enemies were based around a universal"bar of soap"design aesthetic and the Balrog character appeared multiple times throughout the game as a recurring boss named Poo), Amaya spoke to the importance of balancing level design to guide players without making them feel controlled."Many games have tutorial levels,"he said."But I don't like those."Instead, Amaya stressed the importance of organic level design that"lets players feel like they've solved problems on their own."Cave Story's first area reflects this philosophy; much like Nintendo's Metroid, from which it draws inspiration, players are given two paths, but one is obstructed and can only be navigated once you collect an item collected by exploring the other path. The weapon system also expresses Amaya's love of intuitive design; each weapon has its own advantage, a situation in which it works best, and players can only power up the guns by using them.

The beta version is interesting as well; many story and game elements were changed before Cave Story reached its final iteration. Perhaps the most interesting unique element of the beta is the ability to play portions of the adventure as a frog prince character capable of easily navigating water. With luck, Amaya will release footage of the beta game to the public to give a hint of what might have been. If nothing else, though,Cave Story 3Ddeveloper Nicalis has promised that certain elements of the beta will be integrated into the 3DS remake.

And those who find the game's bonus"Hell"stage too challenging can take some comfort in knowing that Amaya was unable to complete it himself upon revisiting it when recording footage for this presentation."It's OK,"he said."You don't have to finish this level!"

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