This week I have been looking at hooks in games, I analyzed the hooks we are using in Adventure In Aellion and looked at the hooks used in Otterman Empire, another game I have been working on.
There are 3 types of hooks that a game can use which are resource, story, and social.
Resource hooks are essentially using your resources, it could be generated over time or could run out with use or it could be a new item to unlock a new area. I feel that energy-based or resources that recharge to a point while you’re not playing as resource hooks can be pretty vicious in mobile games but have been used well in other games. An example of a different type of resource hook that I do like could be obtaining the whiplatch (like a grappling hook, a different kind of hook), which allows you to access new areas making you want to explore. The actual difference is not in the implementation of the hooks but in the ethics of their use.
Story hooks make the player want to know what happens next. Story hooks use lots of traditional writing techniques such as cliffhangers to create mystery for the player.
Social hooks are my favorite of the three types of hooks, this hook type is about either playing with friends, showing off to friends, and generally being social. It may be that you unlock a cool skin to show off or it could be that to defeat the big dungeon boss you need 3 to 5 friends. Another type of social hook is simply scoreboards so that people can play against each other, it’s also relatively easy to add a scoreboard to most games so it’s something to think about for my future games.
Aellion is intended to utilize story hooks as one of its aspects intended to keep players interested, but as the game is still developing, the game makes greater use of social and resource hooks in its current state. The game has items you have to unlock to get to new areas, which is a resource hook and multiplayer lets players play together to help each other out but it also has a second aspect where you can show off your character with its gear and customizations. Meanwhile, in Otterman, the hook I mostly worked with is also social. The game is competitive and while there is a story, it takes a backseat to the action-packed versus gameplay. Neither game makes use of resource hooks, which are my least favorite type as I feel they interrupt or force play instead of letting it occur naturally. For example, I quit World of Warcraft because it demanded a certain amount of content completed each week to stay competitive, and even if you wanted to catch up at the weekend, you can’t do that because its time-gated, another type of resource hook and I did not like being forced to play that way, I find it unethical.
I think that knowing the types of hooks can lead to better design decisions, When we made Aellion, we did consider how the player would play the game and what would bring them back. I do not think we succeeded particularly well at first and having a chance to go back over hooks has allowed me to bring suggestions to the rest of the team that I hope will improve the game for the players, luckily for us, the game is still in development. For future game development, I want to make time to analyze the hooks I use. Because I am more of a mechanical designer, I think about the mechanics and how they will work first, analysing hooks is a great way for me to turn those mechanics into a better flowing game.