Video Game Collectables notes for designers

For those who've managed to avoid the lure of video games a collectable in this case is easy to explain - You've just finished wiping out an entire population of baddies who've all managed to cram into one room when you spot something shiny in the corner you head over to it and a message pops up on the screen "1/10 Gnomes found".


Now if you're into video games and if you're slightly compulsive (if?) the question becomes "Where are the other 9 of these little [beeps]?" or to be more precise "Where's the last of these [beeping] [beep] [beeps]?" followed shortly by a visit to GameFAQS. More so when collecting them all becomes tied to Trophies and Achievements.

Collectables have cropped in in video games for ages and the simple reason is to pad the game. It doesn't matter that you've finished you haven't found all the "Amazing WOW!" comic-books scattered through the game - achievements just adds the icing to the giant pad cake. However play enough games and you can see that collectables fall into two main categories:

#1 - World difference. Collect all 10 Tomes of Power and you unlock the Fist of MegaDeath; find these pieces of Intel and be able to buy the Awesome Gunsight of Awesomeness; find these bags of gold and be able to buy... stuff.

#2 - No world difference. Find all these gnomes and be able to say you found all these gnomes.

All of these can get tied to achievements, but it's really the former that you want to find so why even bother with the latter oh right padding. So if we're going to keep getting these things in games, can designers at least put some effort into them?

Rule 1 - Logical positioning. Why is there a suitcase balanced on that hoist? Won't it fall off as soon as its used? Who put it there in the first place? In many ways this is akin to asking who leaves these health-packs and ammo-crates lying around.

Rule 2 - Placement equals exploration. If you're going to tuck a collectable in an out of the way spot do so in an attempt to show that you can climb that type of wall, walk on that ledge, approach that bunker from another direction. Don't just stick them in dead-ends or areas that the player would never visit except to get the collectable.

Rule 2.1 - If you need to walk on a type of ledge or climb a wall to reach a collectable then you need to be able to do that all the damn time. If you want me to jump from Roof A to Roof B to reach something I'd better be able to jump to Roof C and not hit an invisible wall.

Rule 2.2 - Don't hint that someone is trying to get a collectable in the wrong way when they're doing it the right way. In other words if the only way to get at a collectable is jump over a railing which you have to hit at just the right time or fail; don't put a painted-on door behind it.

Rule 3 - Number the collectables. There's little worse than finding you're missing one item and having to scour everywhere to find it (especially combined with failures to observe Rules 1 and 2) so yeah you turn to a list - but which one are you missing; um? This is particularly important if you've split a level up into more than one section with a load in between "43/44 gold in Midtown" So is that one left in Midtown East or Midtown West?

Rule 3.1 - Mark where collectables have already been found. I don't want to use a list, but if one (or a friend) says "Collectable behind the dumpster down that alley with the head" and I go to check; am I not seeing it because I've already picked it up, or because I'm not seeing it, or because I'm in entirely the wrong alley with a head and dumpster? If I need to open a case, leave the case, if I need to bash through something leave the empty hole; don't just make it vanish as if it were never there.

Rule 4 - Collectables look like collectables. If you've made your collectables look like flour sacks, don't dump a load of non-collectable flour sacks as debris in a level. Worse sin - putting one collectable flour sack in a pile of non-collectable flour sacks.

Okay that's all I can I think of for the time being. If you're a designer and you're about to sprinkle some collectables about your new level (and seriously why do I get the impression that this is last-minute stuff?) try and hold these rules in mind as you do so.