Context Sensitivity
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2022
- This video presents theories about general game design concepts. It’s not meant to prescribe a set of ideals which all games must follow. However valuable any guideline might be, it’s always (or almost always) possible to imagine a game which is made better by ignoring such considerations. A great game cannot necessarily be made just by applying a set of principles.
I don’t know if/when I’ll be making another video but if you enjoyed this one and would like to support me, you can make a pledge. There’s no reward for doing so but this video wouldn’t exist without the support of my patrons.
/ matthewmatosis - เกม
I don't know if/when I'll be making another video so assume there's nothing else coming and enjoy this one for what it is. 👍
👑
Understandable, have a nice rest of your life.
goated
why tho
You're gonna make me cry but thank you based Matthew
im impressed that matthew managed to mention fixed cameras without bringing up W101. that must have taken restraint
Insert sweating black guy meme
haha yes I love wizard 101
I'm surprised that Conker's Bad Fur Day wasn't brought up, lol. That's 'context sensitive: the game.'
@@FunZies. That's literally the first thing that came to my mind. The scarecrow guy telling you about the context sensitive button, lol.
@@puppetmaskerr my favourite key & peele bit
I've made peace with the fact that most of the TH-cam channels that I'm subscribed to don't or won't ever upload content on a frequent basis, if at all. It just means that if they do, I have something to look forward to re-watching several dozen times over. So thank you Matthew, I'm glad to see you're still doing you. Best of luck on your future endeavors.
I never understood the want to have more frequent uploads by everything and everyone. What's stopping them to subscribe enough quality>quantity channels to have enough content for every day?
@@unison_moody For me, that's a good idea in theory, but in practice that will result in some instances of having a large string of days where I get no content follow by 1 day where my subscription box is filled with uploads by many or all of them. I don't personally mind that, it's just something to consider.
This comment, I am responding to here.
T H E F E E L S
If you haven't, go check out his extra channel where he sometimes streams.
Made a reply to express the same wishes as OP.
Cheers Matthewmatosis. Have fun now. :)
The developers of Breath of the Wild absolutely designed the game with minimizing context sensitivity in mind, and actually the quote that proves this comes from an IGN article where they asked why you couldn't pet dogs in the game, lol. Here's the quote:
“In the game it seems like you can do anything, but what it really is are all these interlocking systems where you actually have a pretty limited number of actions that can do a ton of different things,” Fujibayashi told IGN. “So if it came down to something like petting a dog, we would actually have to put in a custom action just for petting a dog that couldn't really be used for anything else.”
“In terms of design philosophy, it just didn't fit with how we actually made the game world,” he added. “It's actually more about taking a smaller number of actions and using them in as many ways as possible.”
Goes to show just how well thought out the game really was in my opinion!
Everything except stamina but thank god for mods fixing that nowadays
@@islandboy9381 stamina is an extremely integral part of why that game works well but sure, if you say so
@@GKoopa He didn't say remove it entirely. The default stamina system is seriously flawed. Much of the open world exploration involves staring at and micromanaging the stamina bar since it runs out so quickly and you're penalized for letting it hit 0. They actively incentivize staring at that green stamina donut instead of the actual world. It makes sense for combat and it makes sense for climbing. It does not make sense for it to be so restrictive when just sprinting around. It's actively detrimental to player enjoyment in that scenario which is most of the game. Nothing about having to micromanage stamina while exploring is integral to why BOTW works well overall. It would work better without that factor.
Stamina bars are a useful mechanic, but they have to be used well. They should serve to create meaningful decisions the player has to make during gameplay. How this works during combat is obvious. The player must choose and space their actions wisely in combat to avoid running out of stamina. Meaningful decisions are made which is how engaging combat is constructed. What meaningful decisions are being made when running from point A to point B and having to stop sprinting several times due to stamina limitations? Nothing is gained from it taking longer to complete the trip. Nothing is lost by using a mod to make sprinting unlimited. A recent example of a developer who figured this out and changed it is From Software with Elden Ring. Sprinting outside of combat no longer consumes stamina, but within combat it still works the same. The important parts are preserved and the tedium is removed.
@@islandboy9381 I want more stamina systems in my games if it is actually justified, so yeah, thanks
Hell yeah
An incredible video!
It reminds me of Hidemaro Fujibayashi, the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild director, explaining why there isn't a "pet the dog" boutton in the game:
“In the game it seems like you can do anything, but what it really is are all these interlocking systems where you actually have a pretty limited number of actions that can do a ton of different things. So if it came down to something like petting a dog, we would actually have to put in a custom action just for petting a dog that couldn’t really be used for anything else.”
“In terms of design philosophy, it just didn’t fit with how we actually made the game world. It’s actually more about taking a smaller number of actions and using them in as many ways as possible.”
i thought aonuma was the director? though i could be misremembering
You're leaving out the part where his team came to him with a plan on how petting as an action could apply to all creatures in the game and how you could pet all of the enemies as well. Which he sadly shot down as well.
Could have been amazing
Why can't it just be treated as "talking" to the dog? The game already uses the A button as 'mount' for big animals and 'talk' for people.
Similarly, I don't get why fishing couldn't be done with a specific weapon like a stick with rope on it that you cast with the R button, or even an arrow that has a rope on it that can be used with any bow.
I do like how there are proxy actions you can do with the existing mechanics, like luring fish and building rapport with dogs by dropping them food, but it feels like it wouldn't take much effort to make a fishing rod weapon and a talk option for dogs. They feel like missing elements of the existing mechanics imo.
Asking for a pet the dog action is dumb
@@toonlonk Aonuma is the producer, Fujibayashi is the director
In Dragon's Dogma there's a dedicate grab button that allows you to carry objects, carry people, grapple enemies, and latch on to giant foes so you could scale them.
It always bugged me how I couldn't use the same button for Ladders. In order to climb one, you have to hit an interact button at the base of it to enter a "climbing ladder state" where you cant freely jump off at any point. This is contradictory to how climbing mechanics against giant foes work where you can grab on to them from a jumping or standing state and let go or jump off at any point.
For ladders, you either need to finish climbing up, slide down, or get hit by a staggering attack to manually get off.
I never had a term for these until now. So thank you. My friends wouldn't hear the end of it. 😂
I hope they consider that change for Dragon's Dogma 2. DD had a nice set of gameplay mechanics to toy around with
I already miss him. Nothing hits the same.
Why did he stop making videos?
I've resorted to rewatching his MGS reviews
@@kidnameless That's good news, knowing that he's practicing what he's preaching. I'll have to look further into the extras- haven't gotten any notifs (YT probably didn't keep me in the loop).
Its funny, because the majority of creators on this website, I can find a copycat, a replacement or anyone doing content in a similar fashion.
Matthewmatosis is the only channel I can think of that absolutely no one is matched up against with.
And now he stopped :(
You know how low-key-but-really-high-key frustrated that makes me feel?
@@El_Andru I completely understand and relate.
The most egregious case has got to be Deus Ex Mankind Divided, where the button to fast forward a conversation was the same as the instakill takedown. So you'd be mashing it to finish the dialog, and then accidentally murder the shit out of the NPC. The first time it happened I was first shocked, and then outraged at whoever decided that that was an acceptable control scheme.
Just a lil prank. Don't be mad.
I never noticed this because I played the game on a mouse and keyboard, but that observation in itself also reveals why some older games like the original Deus Ex had SO MANY functions mapped to so many keys. It might be unwieldy at first, but it provides and unparalleled sense on control once you get used to it. There is never an ambiguity about what will happen when you press a button and you avoid the oopsie-whoopsie mistake of accidentally beating the snot out of a poor NPC.
i thought shoot and use were able to be keybinded but maybe im wrong
@maxermrh1979 dude what is that a loads of bullcrap story? To "accidendltly" kill soemone in that game you would have to MASH that button for like 2 extra seconds after dialogue has finished. SOMEHOW I don't believe that ever occured unless you are a person who cannot pay attention to a video game they are playing because you spend 2+ seconds button mashing after dialogue was over.
Making the kick in RE4 context sensitive helps in one major way. It guarantees that you are invulnerable during the animation. With a dedicated hit button, even if you only gave Leon i-frames on successful hits, the game would need to know in advance that your move will be successful. Otherwise, you would either be invincible all the time during it which would lead to abusing the mechanic like timing wall jumps or ladders. Or it would cause uncertainty in moments where other enemies are attacking you during the starting animation. While this makes the system less challenging, it actually decreases uncertainty.
Why not remove the invincibility effect then?
@@youtubeguyHithe invincibility effect is what makes the game fun
26:33 This point about constantly adjusting the analog stick as the camera angle changes can be compared and contrasted to the death of tank controls as a control method. Tank controls were developed for the express purpose of making it easier to control a character with a shifting camera. So many people disliked this control scheme, that eventually it died off completely. In the end, people decided it was far more preferable to keep track of where your thumb is pointing than it was to keep track of the on-screen character's facing.
Almost nobody except old-school horror fans will seriously advocate for tank controls anymore.
I wanted to write a reply in favor of tank controls before reading your last line. As a Resident Evil fan I have to concede this one.
The rigidity of tank controls worked well for the platforming in Tomb Raider (less so for the combat)
I thought of tank controls there too. But I don't think their decline is only about keeping track of direction. There is also the issue of turning speed. Directional control allows instant rotation towards an arbitrary direction. There is also precision. With tank controls, have you turned to face precisely the correct direction? Or do you have to readjust and readjust over and over in a way that takes you out of the experience? Of course it also depends on if strafing is included or not, but the name "tank" implies there is no strafing, which is also super annoying regardless of whether the controls are relative or not
the rigidity of tank controls works well for tanks
I really don't understand why people shit on tank controls. They work great, you always have full control of your character and making them do exactly what you want them to do when you want them to do it, unlike something like Devil May Cry, which I stopped playing in fury at the shifting camera fucking with my controls and getting me killed constantly.
I loved the attempt Assassins Creed made at writing controls and how they’re represented with “head”, “right arm”, “left arm” and legs that all did something related to those buttons with high profile and low profile versions. It was such a neat idea, where you could work out the controls without looking at any prompts necessary.
they even have eye tracker support like he was talking about
Tying multiple actions to the same face buttons using modifiers (R and L triggers) was the secret genius of AC's control scheme. It ( in part) eliminates the issue of pressing an input for one action and getting a completely different action. You will never accidentally parkour by pressing the A button expecting it to Blend, you have to press A while holding R to parkour. The modifier key (R) makes parkour an entirely unique input, which additionally greatly aids the player in gaining muscle memory for what input performs what action; all you have to memorize is the input, not the context under which the input will do what you want and not something else. Of course, AC has other issues with context-sensitivity, particularly the specifics of where you go and what you do during parkour.
>Matthew makes a new Video
>The Queen of England Dies
Ireland bros we won
Irish excellence
My man! I'm so happy to hear you pontificate on game design with a tight script again.
There is no channel just quite like this one. It amazes how Matthew's words are just spot on and the way he thinks about stuff is just expanding my horizon.
"[Talking about trends in video games] Shooting is the DEFAULT method of interaction for 3D games." and surrounding this claim with some hard hitting examples, Matt kind of 'invented' some definitions, which totally stand for themselves, and put into words a nebulous characteristic of a medium that's so young and fast changing, it baffles me.
I would love to have a drink with this guy!
This reminds me of what CS Lewis wrote about evil acts. Every evil act is a a perversion of a good act. Depending on the context, killing a man could be a good and honorable thing to do, or an evil thing to do. Depending on the context, making love to a woman could be a good and beautiful thing, or an immoral thing. Very philosophical and fundamental idea that transcends gaming, and I don’t doubt you had that in mind while making this video. Thanks for your work.
The term (context sensitive) will forever remind me of the first level in Conkers Bad Fur Day. Beardy saying IT'S CONTEXT SENSITIVE, THAT MEANS IT'S SENSITIVE TO CONTEXT is forever in my mind.
That game tho is a satire of video game mechanics such as that! That's why they''re all so over-blown.
about 10 minutes in. reminds me of when years ago i got into an argument with someone about how the context sensitive interactivity and canned animations for things like pulling switches in the new doom games is worse than having a universal 'interact' action like in the original, which functions the same no matter if its a door, button or secret wall (i guess i had nothing better to do that day).
i didnt really know how to articulate the mechanical difference at the time, but this explains it really well. you're one of the few game analysis channels that always gives genuinely unique insights
I absolutely love the new Doom games (never played the originals), but man oh man does Eternal have a massive context sensitivity problem - the chainsaw. Or rather, the chainsaw *targeting.* It's a very important tool for a variety of reasons, and often times it's crucial whether you want to chainsaw a minor demon or a heavy demon (because that choice affects how much fuel you expend). Even as of the latest updates to that game, you still occasionally get these incredibly annoying moments when you meant to target demon A, but actually end up chainsawing demon B due to some wonkiness between how the underlying algorithm determines the target, and how your camera's perspective interacts with it.
I have really wanted to try an Ultra Nightmare run of that game for a long while, but little problems like that - that 1% of time when your controls otherwise work fine 99% of the time - is enough to completely turn me off from trying.
The thing is, an "interact" button is generally the epitome of contact sensitivity. The dreaded "E" key in games like Battlefield comes to mind.
I feel like they did a good job where they put it in terms of context sensitivity.
@@marcustulliuscicero5443 okay but would you rather an action button or a bunch of weird controls mapped to buttons you'll rarely use?
Related to this, there's a good addition in Doom Eternal where you can move those huge blocks by punching them rather than using the interact button.
Everyone knows about context sensitivity! You press "B", the light comes on, and it makes the ting noise, "ting." That's it.
Ghost Trick has a context sensitive button because the scenarios in that game are too diverse to be accounted by a more unified control scheme. More consistent (less context sensitive) controls require a limited or fixed amount of actions that are repeated over and over throughout the game. Disco Elysium is another example of this, almost every action in the game is context sensitive to the point where there is little or no traditional gameplay and everything is handled within the dialogue system. Basically any game that requires a vast array of possible actions to be performed by the player has to use context sensitive commands, as is especially evident from games that try to integrate the gameplay with the narrative.
This video is exactly how video game analysis should be, not just “I summarize the Wikipedia page and here’s one theme I think is interesting, so I made a 50 minutes video about it”
lol what? Who EVER does that at all?
@DarshanBhambhani
care to POINT OUT who does that? No? Oh I guess then you just decided to make a comment talking nonsense for sake of talking nonsense . Amazing!
@@KapitanPazur1 I think what he means is that this video is a very in-depth, exhaustive look at the phenomenon of context sensitivity and the effect it has on gameplay and controls. Personally I can't think of any other game critic who takes this deep of a dive about a game design element, so really it's easier to name the ones who don't than those who do. You're free to name exceptions if you disagree, I'd honestly be happy to find another channel of similar quality.
@@KapitanPazur1what? TH-cam is literally full of these channels. There'd be too many to name but I think two good examples are Noah Caldwell Gervais and The Sphere Hunter. Just describe the game and some very broad points, often repeating your points over and over again. Hbomberguy is a great example of that latter part and how you can do all this without knowing much at all about game design. Matthewmatosis, GDC talks and maybe some Joseph Anderson videos are the only videos on youtube that I can find which goes in depth while not droning on for an unbearable amount of time.
I don't hate these channels and I actually like a lot of Hbomberguy's videos when he's not talking about video games but it sucks to see Matthew's videos not getting the success they deserve and other channels getting millions of views because they droned on about how they hate the latest AAA game for 8 hours.
@@Gadget-Walkmen Game Maker's Tool Kit and Design Doc are channels i'd reference as video game "analysis" that does nothing except say what is in the game, not offering any worthwhile analysis
Love these deep dives into such basic aspects of games.
This one puts me in my if how in Kirby and the Forgotten Land they adapted to 3D by lessening the precision. If you look like you hit the ground from your perspective, you’ll jump again instead of floating. If the camera angle makes it look like an enemy was in range of an attack, the enemy will get hit. I suppose that’s changing the context sensitivity by lessening the tolerance of the context
A shining gift in the midst of a dark time
Didn't know real life could have plot twists but Matt dropping a video after almost two years is as close as it gets holy shit
And then the Queen dies. Wild day.
"a youtuber releasing a video is a plot twist"
him releasing a video out of nowhere surprised me more than the queen death honestly
@@ricki399 same haha
And the channel died
You've made a lot of good points I've never considered before. Context sensitivity strikes me as such a small part of video games that I never considered how large an impact it can make on how a game "feels" or "plays."
Glad you’re doing well, Matthew.
I'm a little surprised that Conker was never brought up once despite its satirical take on the concept of context sensitivity, but perhaps that would've been too obvious.
Either way, absolutely fantastic work as always.
If you think about it Conker is similar to Ghost Trick with a single button dedicated to context sensitive actions.
What are some examples of this? I know little about Conker
edit: except that drinking and also peeing happen at some point i think
@@SweetPeteInTheBackSeat all along the ground in the game's various levels are giant "B" symbols with an accompying light bulb showing over Conker's head. Pressing B on them activates a very specific context sensitive action and its different for most of the times you do it. Its mostly played for comedic purposes so its a novel use of the idea.
He probably hasn’t played but it did come to mind while I was watching the video lol
@@SweetPeteInTheBackSeat Some of the actions include:
Pulling out a gun/flamethrower/slingshot/toilet paper
Turning into an anvil
Taunting
Always necessary to solve the current situation, somehow
Bringing up BOTW reminds me of that interview where they mentioned they didn't add a "Pet the dog" function because it would clash with the design philosophy of the game. "In the game it seems like you can do anything, but what it really is are all these interlocking systems where you actually have a pretty limited number of actions that can do a ton of different things" - Fujibayashi. They really were going out of their way to curb as many contextual actions as possible.
They could have put a context sensitive action to pet the dog on the A button just like pressing A will cause to speak to an npc or mounting a horse
@@Thierce Speaking to NPCs and mounting horses are necessary actions, petting a dog isn't
I still would have LOVED a "pet the dog" function in Zelda. I LOVE IT when games allow us to pet the dog entirely so.
You just made me realize something. VR solves a lot of these context sensitively issues simply by the increased axis of movement you get from you 2 controllers and Headset. All 3 have 6 Degrees of Freedom which normally requires around 2 analog sticks each. It's probably why VR describe things as feeling more "natural" because the camera issues and some of the controller issues are easy to figure out and require less abstraction.
You have officially confirmed my suspicion that your foray into game development has greatly enhanced your ability to write on games. If nothing else you've gained a lot of intimacy with the function of games at their core in your time away. I encourage you to continue your journey and I look forward to watching the arc of your essays unfold as your gamedev experience grows. This made my day. :)
15 minutes in I'm thinking, "Wow, what a great video. This conclusion is taking a long time, though..."
The best part of your videos is how *dense* they are with thoughts. 30 minutes from these videos is worth 3 hours, in terms of observations made, from most other content.
Let out a somewhat embarrassing yell of excitement when I saw this in my feed. Your works are outstanding, and I hope your future is bright!
Incredibly embarassing
*compressed fat guy voice*
"How embarrassing!"
just had the worst day ever, seeing this has completely flipped that. your videos are a constant inspiration and something i expected i would never see again after meta microvideos. i finished ghost trick last week on your recommendation too and i love it this comment is valueless cuz i havent actually watched the vid lol so i will do that pleasse continue to pour your time into whatever outlet fulfills you
Hope you have a better day tomorrow
Better days to you, lad :)
Matthews helped me through some rough days too, glad you're feeling better man.
>lizard boy
>having the worst day ever
You're a member of the british royal family aren't ya?
bruh he streams and posts regularly on patreon about his own game
My favorite example of a good context sensitive action is how sliding is implemented in many games. There's a button for crouching (going low), there's a button for sprinting, so crouching while sprinting makes you slide on the floor. Feels very intuitive, to the point where I feel disappointed whenever a game that has crouch and sprint doesn't allow me to do this.
This works particularly well too because there would seldom be a situation where you would want to crouch from a sprinting state as they tend to be relatively opposed mechanics.
Another video to watch 10+ times. We will all cherish it 😂
I haven't been using the context framing device for it but this concept is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. With the return of a lot of my favorite developers and franchises over these last few years (DMC and Capcom in general being one of the biggest examples of this) I've fallen in love with gaming again on a level I haven't experienced since the early 2000s. And it took games like that to make me realize why.
It's exactly that automation you talk about. On a base level I have no problem with it but I feel like many developers use it as a crutch. Instead of making fun core gameplay with simple game structure to let that core gameplay shine (go to point a, b, c and complete the same objective but each experience is different because the toolset we've given you and how you choose to use it) a lot of design has changed to weaker core gameplay and then substituting that with a more mini-game like design to fill in the gaps (go to point a, b, c, and each of these objectives will feature completely bespoke systems and goals.) The most extreme example of that everyone turns to is the "Ubisoft open world" design, but, it ain't just open world games that do this. Plenty of linear games also do that as well, in fact there is probably no better example of the concept than Uncharted 2 and 3 to me.
Was never really into those games like other people but at the time I could not put my finger on why. Why was this just not doing it for me? It's taken like a decade but thanks to games like Breath of the Wild, Monster Hunter, DMC5, and so on I understand better now. I think less people say it today but the fun of Uncharted 2 at the time was "it's like you're playing a movie!" They made all these completely unique set piece scenarios for players to play through. Each one is a completely different gimmick and experience with the goal of wowing the player. But when you wipe all that away and look at the gameplay, what are you left with? A bog standard cover shooter that even die hard fans and reviews of the day would admit is not as mechanically good as many other shooters.
That's not to say I think Uncharted is a bad game per se, but, I realize nowadays that there is a certain threshold in game design where the developers lose me. And a lot of developers had been really hitting that edge over the last decade. Someone can come back in a few decades and make fun of me if they want, but, personally I think the 360/PS3 era where a lot of this style of design started to take over is going to be looked back on with the phrase of "aged poorly" when younger generations go back to play a lot of heavier hitters of the day.
I've heard you talk about context sensitive actions on streams before so it's very nice to have a video where you elaborate on your ideas in depth. The bit about changing our input when the camera moves with the player is especially enlightening since that's something I've been doing since I was a kid but never thought too much about other than it being a constant annoyance in certain games.
I recently discovered your videos and was disappointed to see you weren’t making them anymore. Needless to say I’m thrilled to see some new content from you. Keep up the good work Matt, your the best person taking about games currently on the internet!
Watch Joseph Anderson he pretty much make the same content
Matthewmatosis is much better than Joseph Anderson
To be fair, he's stopped working on videos for a while because he's making his own game. That would naturally take up a lot of time.
@@joebailey8294 It's not even fair.
@@wesam9669 No need to insult Matt like that! 😂
Using footage of Symphony of the Night over that quote, I love it.
Great video. I think this concept can be used to help explain why even the best of the 3D Sonic games are controversial, because those games are very context sensitive.
If you press the jump button while Sonic is in the air, the resulting action is either a short airdash forward or a homing attack that snaps the player to a nearby enemy. This context sensitive action results in many cases where Sonic does not move as intended. While the homing attack may be necessary for a 3D sonic game to even function, the fact that the homing attack is such a crucial part of Sonic's moveset means that there is a degree of control taken away from the player. Long strings of homing attacks can feel like a quicktime event where the game is basically playing itself. These games also have a ton of automation in them so having part of the core moveset feel automated is not doing it any favors.
There's also the issue of the camera. As was mentioned in the video, the camera is a big issue with 3D platformers. The camera in 3D Sonic is like Crash Bandicoot in that it changes angles frequently and the player just has to react to it. But the fact that the player has to react to these camera changes so fast in 3D Sonic games has resulted in many cheap deaths. There's also the 2D sections in games like Sonic Generations where the player is expected to understand that the entire control scheme has changed based on the fact that the camera has suddenly shifted to a 2D view. Something Sonic Team could take notes from with the camera is a Sonic inspired indie game series called Spark the Electric Jester which allows for full camera control. Camera control at high speeds brings some new challenges with it but it generally allows for better control of the player character.
If anyone has other examples of context sensitivity in 3D Sonic games I'd love to hear them. There are people who love the less context sensitive 2D Sonic games but couldn't get into Sonic Adventure and Sonic Generations, so I think there might be something here with this concept.
This instantly made me think about how controllers could change to accomodate just a bit more precision.
I think at a certain point, too many buttons means many players have to consciously remember what buttons are even there, taking them away from the game. The success of the Wii would point to this too- remember they wanted complete casuals, people who absolutely never played games, to understand the controller. I’ve seen older people struggle to remember where buttons are on standardised controllers and even if they remember the button layout, they might not remember what particular buttons do- the same people have never needed me to remind them of the Wii remote or Nunchuck’s layout (other than the occasional mixup of which is A/B or Z/C). But even if you ignore that extreme, I find that many of my friends- who are about the same age and have no issue with standardised controllers or challenging games- find keyboards intimidating or strange. They aren’t used to that option and as a PC gamer, I am.
It’s hard for me to imagine many changes to controllers due to that- triggers or a pad on the back may work, and gyro has been a great option for shooting in particular, but on the PS4 something as simple as a front-pad is barely used and the speaker and light are usually seen as a gimmick (mostly the speaker, the light is more unobtrusive, often mirrors HUD elements and Inscryption went so far as to use it for an ARG). They may have particular use cases, but it shows that a lot of people are very comfortable with what we currently have, to the point even these things can be seen as a gimmick. I think developers shy away from them as unintuitive and uncommon controls, even if more precise once understood, may draw criticism. I could imagine many people would never realise the purpose of how you wall jump in Super Metroid and would write it off as stupid for being unintuitive to them.
I think clicking analog sticks has been useful as an extra option, mostly for things like toggling into first-person view- something I find I’m usually doing when I stand still, so the analog is still- and this removes the small but common issue of FPV being bound to some generic “action” button that prevents that view in certain contexts. I hear there’s a deluxe XBox controller with some special extra triggers, but I have no experience with that, and even the analog click has its weaknesses. If you want to click the analog while moving it around at the same time, that just isn’t pleasant as it disrupts the motion and I find it distracting to do while moving- even with the D-Pad- due to how I associate movement with analog sticks. And yes, I have seen games where I wanted to move and perform an action forcibly mapped to the analog click, so bad design there.
I actually play fighting games with a keyboard (which yes, my friends find ridiculous, but I don’t like arcade sticks) and maybe it’s habit, but I still find myself “limiting” keybinds to an extent in all games. It’s physically more comfortable. Since PC gaming allows many more controller options, I could try making more unorthodox controllers myself but that would become expensive and the process of designing and learning it probably isn’t something I would enjoy, unless it’s for an all-time favorite game and I had a very strong idea for the button layout. I still haven’t made a personal hitbox since, on top of the cost, I think it would be frustrating to design and assemble- I don’t know anybody who would design or assemble it for me- and for that particular genre, my keyboard is more comfortable to me than anything else I’ve tried, so I stick with it even though I think a custom hitbox would be an upgrade. I already know I would want a different hitbox layout for at least four of those games, but I only have a strong design in mind for one of them. At this point, I’m physically used to that keyboard, so I might never get around to a hitbox.
There’s something to be said about intuition/comfort zone vs what could potentially be a more precise control scheme with more buttons. Reminding yourself of context, though it highlights that you are playing a game, may still be less distracting than trying to learn a controller. I can imagine a world where every game has a uniquely designed, idealised input system but even if the development and distribution of those controllers weren’t an issue, the intuition and need to learn them would be. That’s subjective and even a surmountable learning curve may turn people away, so we have a standardised controller and due to physical limits clashing with design choices and desires, we get context sensitivity.
Of course there are many jarring, poorly-implemented examples of context sensitivity, I’m not arguing against that. But for minor things such as speaking to an NPC, context-sensitive buttons / a generic “action” input work fairly well. I don’t even think QTEs are that bad- we’re better for having moved past them as a popular trend, it’s just that a huge number of them were poorly designed- though when they are better, the frantic input can bring a very chaotic feel that an animation on its own would not.
You could also look at HUDs for something similar, you need to juggle readability of the most important pieces while avoiding an obtrusively large HUD. For certain games you may want to minimise the HUD for the best FOV, but it would become unreadable to many players. (Allow player options/customisation for cases like this.) In text-heavy games, or text-heavy moments in action-based games, you may want to increase the size of the text. You likely want health to be the most visible part of a HUD, or if you are giving equal importance to other information like ammo, at least avoid cluttering them around the health bar. My point is the intuition of these systems is subjective.
There are also actions that may simply not translate to good gameplay and are better as contextual moments, but that has infinite variation and potential for subversion and niche uses (depends on context itself). I will say I generally prefer cutscenes over stretches of walking with narrative, but no gameplay, since at least cutscenes can be skipped- I’m almost never narratively-driven by games as I overwhelmingly prefer other mediums for storytelling, so I almost always hate that being integrated into gameplay, even if it makes it more consistent with the game logic. Even BoTW errs too much into walking over padded landscapes for me, and I think the actual design under the mechanics is lacking in many ways, that’s a game I admire more than I actually enjoy playing it.
Also, I wish Z-Targeting would evolve somehow. Even before you bought it up, I’ve noticed it as a sore spot many times. Ocarina had a great initial concept there and it doesn’t feel like the system has been updated for many games since.
There is trusting the system with auto-targeting vs knowing the context in which you’re using it, which I think can be interesting in itself as it demands you pay attention to context, but that depends very much on the game’s design and indeed can be a sore spot at high-level play.
Though the eyetracker idea does mean players might slow down their vision, otherwise you could trust things happening a certain way and look away. Still a cool thought.
For your wall jump example I could imagine using a button to start a slide down a wall rather than a flush fall, press jump from that slide for a wall jump. I’m sure there’s something you wouldn’t use in a midair context that could fill that contextual action on modern controllers. To be fair, any game that lacks a double jump or other midair action on the same button as jump doesn’t really need to worry about this, as a jump button wouldn’t be used for anything else in the air anyway. You could even have the option to slide down a wall and do a flush release if you wanted that for whatever reason, such as baiting an enemy attack.
Excellent video as usual, shame I was late to this one.
Ahh, man, I've had this concept vaguely swirling around in my brain for ages. My earliest memory of this pertains to a puzzle in the great deku tree in OoT - that one where you have to burn away a spiderweb on the floor in B1. I think there are a couple of ways to go about it, but my favorite is pressing the shield button while holding a flaming stick, causing Link to crouch down, which burns away the web. I couldn't articulate this feeling as a child, but the fact that the internal logic was consistent enough to make this a valid solution surprised and delighted me. Much more satisfying than the action button changing to the word "Burn" when you got near.
That's actually impressive, haven't heard of that method ever. I always light the stick then roll on top of the web.
I disagree. I got stuck at that spider web because up to that point, the game had taught me that any interaction I can perform will show me a button prompt to do so, and thus, without a button prompt, I thought I wasn't able to interact with it. The game contradicted the rules it had established and left me stumped on what to do. They set up an expectation and then betray it almost immediately. That's bad design.
@@L33PL4Y LOL JUST NO! That's complete NONSENSE as that's NOT "bAd DeSIgN" there are MORE than one way to solve situation as the first level/area/dungeon of the game was to INTRODUCE you for more than one way to solve a problem from how you explore and do everything.
You getting "stuck" on that level is you not thinking outside the box as the game most CERTAINLY shows you on how to solve problems outside a button prompt.
"the game had taught me that any interaction I can perform will show me a button prompt to do so, and thus, without a button prompt, I thought I wasn't able to interact with it."'
That's 100% NOT true at all as you JUST made that up right here entirely. Where are you getting this nonsense? You just failed to think outside the box as not everything interaction was a "button prompt" at all nor
They didn't "cOnTradicTed tHe rUlEs It hAd esTabliSHEd" AT ALL, there was MORE than one ways to solve the spider web puzzle as you can burn it with a fire stick OR fall off the top of the cliff from the top of the tree and use your gravity to fall ontop of the web to use your weight to break the web on the bottom floor. That's using LOGIC and sense just like every person is EXPECTED to do, you just "stumped" yourself, the game didn't do that AT ALL as you just were being very bright or 3-dimensional to solve the problem that's easy for EVERY other kid can solve other than yourself.
Not everything needs to be SPELLED out for you to get and understand, that's not "baD DesIGn", that's just you failing to understand there are more than one way to solve a problem right in front of you.
Not everything before than was a "button prompt" at all as you were told to solve the puzzle of trying get the Kokiri Sword and get the Deku Shield as well and they most certainly didn't need "button prompts" to obtain at all as you needed to find materials to get one and crawl through hole in the wall and dodge a boulder to obtain another.
"They set up an expectation and then betray it almost immediately."
LOL No they didn't. This is just you making up nonsense here because you're failing yourself for not being able to solve a problem here on your own as I've already explained clearly as the game did NOT set up “button prompts” for every single situation. That’s nonsense and something you just made up here.
"That's bad design."
LOL Not even close to being "bAD deSiGn" , it's GREAT design to think outside the box, you just failed yourself here for not thinking clearly as not every button prompt was used for EVERY situation, the game isn't at fault here, it's just you and you alone.
This is your own problem here for not being able to think in more than one way.
@@Gadget-Walkmen Even just skimming your comment I see outright lies and ignorance of the way the game tutorializes, so I'm not going to entertain you with anything further than a succinct, "Wrong, sorry."
@@L33PL4Y Nah, you're still the ONLY one here that's OBVIOUSLY wrong here as it's not the game's fault or ANYONE'S elses that shows that you can't understand and solve a problem that's VERY easy to solve when you're THIS bad at solving it as a kid.
You don't see anything here other than your OWN delusions here, that's for sure.
Nothing I've said is "oUtrIGht liEs", you're JUSt delusional, nothing about what I've said is "igORaNCe" each other as I KNOW how the game tutorializes front to back and you STILL don't know what you're saying here as EVERYONE here can clearly see that you're in the wrong here based on what you're saying as game doesn't have "bAd desIgN" AT ALL to anything to which you're saying, it's just you problem for not thinking clearly, that's literally JUST it.
The only thing that's "sUcCINcT" is how bad your statements have been, that's for sure.
Nice going, you've played yourself here BADLY.
Immersive Sims have this one quality making those games really intriguing to me and I've never been able to quite describe what quality that is.
And watching this I realized that a lack of context sensitivity in your actions tends to make for really good immersive sims.
I've been wondering why the Hitman series didn't grab me the same way that many ImSims do, even though both involve having you play with mostly rigid systems that react in a way that you can almost always intuit and figure out. But where ImSims mostly use unchanging tools that you've been given in advance, many actions in Hitman seem to be context sensitive often not letting me figure out that you can use this tool to achieve that outcome but instead presenting me with a button prompt that lets me know that I've 'solved the puzzle'.
There is something very interesting about a lack of context sensitivity. It makes you feel like you're thinking out of the box while also feeling completely natural.
Either way, great video and I'm very glad to have watched it.
"It means context sensitive...it's sensitive to context. Try it over there"
"Oh, just what I needed! In fact, it would seem to me that these give me just what I need at that moment in time...context sensitive, clever!"
Usually when I watch game related video essays I am at very least entertained, but generally don't get much else out of them other than hearing someone else's opinion.
Your videos have consistently presented some interesting perspectives or ideas that I had not heard or considered before. That's not to say the videos *aren't* entertaining, but I guess I'd call them more interesting than fun.
Either way, a lot of what you've said over the past 10 or so years have stuck with me and it has heavily contributed to me viewing and playing games differently. For the better.
I thought the previous video would have been a very fitting end to the channel, but it's of course nice to see another one pop up. If this is the last one, I'm content with that.
That is not a pun, but I wish you can be content too with whatever you choose to pursue in life in the future.
After a long slumber, the Matthewmatosis awakens once again
I feel the game design work has helped your video essay writing :)
So in chess you have a lot of context sensitive mechanics. En passant, pinning, not being able to move into check, etc. Go/Baduk has Ko, and no self suicide, but besides that probably has the most freedom with simple context of any board game, given that there are only like 5 rules. However to play well is to take more and more of the context of the game state into each move.
I like that you shoot the doors to open them in metroid rather than pressing A in front of it
I think the original Assassin’s creed is interesting as it tries to provide the player some context at all times to the player by assigning each the buttons to a part of the body.
Triangle is for instance, the head. X is the legs. Square and circle are the left are right arms respectively.
This means that regardless of the context, you will have a general idea of what to press to get a desired outcome even if you’re in a new situation. At least, that’s the theory.
The lack of context sensitivity was actually what drew me to the Souls games in the first place. I just didn't know how to articulate it. It's also why the grappling hook in Sekiro seemed out of place.
Well this was one of the best game design videos I've seen.
26:40 Tank controls are one way to reduce ‘context sensitivity’ in 3D games. Even when the camera shifts, the player character moves in the same direction.
People often praise the old Tomb Raiders for allowing complete control of Laura Croft's acrobatics in 3D space
You still have to deal with the subjectivity of the camera. Moving towards the camera is never as precise or confident as away from it.
@@siphillis and sometimes that can be used to good effect like in horror games, but yeah.
Is it really? If you're holding up on the stick, but the character is actually moving left, is that a context-insensitive state?
@@Supahdenning Sure it is relative to the player's character, but at least the camera won't make you swerve to left or right when it shifts. Tank controls are usually hated, but they serve their purpose in most games where they are implemented.
Thank you for saying this! It's exactly what's getting on my nerves with many games! I really prefer combat in many older 3D games in which context sensitivity wasn't as prevalent yet. Few things feel as precise as a shooter like SWAT 4 - the only control issue most players with this game, for example, was that the shout and interact button were the same, resulting in player characters yelling at doors to surrender, thereby alerting suspects nearby, instead of quietly closing the door as intended. But the control ini file was accessible and could be edited (I miss the days of actually owning my purchased games and being allowed to mess with their inner workings), and many, many players mapped interact to a different button. It does also include good examples of context sensitivity (like holding a mouse button for a prolonged time at a specific part of a door automatically equipping the item used at that part, like a breaching charge above the handle, a lockpick at the key hole, or a spy camera at the gap below the door), but even these were the only parts of the game that I occasionally found frustrating because I wanted to pick a lock, but aimed a little to high and pulled out a breaching charge instead. Granted, that's easily fixed by pressing the designated lockpick button instead, which was also available by default; these options were luckily quite optional for the most part.
But yeah. I remember playing it a lot back in the day, to the point of remapping my entire keyboard and actually printing out little signs that I stuck onto my keys so that - in the days before voice chat was commonly used - I could easily form entire sentences in chat by macro.
That's what control is. This video is exactly what I felt, put eloquently. Keep it up.
i think breath of the wild is a really good example, especially because the one case of context sensitivity is really evident every time it happens. i always get so annoyed when link decides to do that huge dive instead of just jumping into water, and that's the only context sensitive action i can picture
This is great video. But I think a better way to think of this distinction is between context sensitive actions and context sensitive outcomes. In the former, the action performed by a button press depends on the context. In the latter, the action performed by the button may be the same but the outcome changes because of the context. So in Breath of the wild, you can swing an axe at thin air, at an enemy or a tree and the outcome is vastly different. And it feels like you are controlling the character and the world is reacting to your actions. Whereas with context sensitive actions, the context is fettering your freedom of action.
@@AC-qu9ng yeah I know that’s. I’m just suggesting a terminology
I think a good example of doing this well is something like Final Fantasy 12, where the gambit system allows you to define how you AI-controlled party members respond to their situation. I tend not to like having to rely on AI partners in RPGs, and having control over what the AI chooses to prioritize made a huge difference for me personally.
i love that this video hones in on the issues surronding lock-on that has been so often mentioned in your souls reviews, having a notable spot in your "lost art of souls" video. Great work.
"...there's no silver bullet solution, but thinking every challenge can be solved the same way is half the problem in the first place"
That closing line was amazing dude. As a fighting gamer, I vastly prefer the titles where "throw" command is just pressing 2 buttons at once (Street Fighter 3), rather than a "proximity" input that requires you to press forward+HeavyPunch when you're super close to the opponent (SF2). I like the certainty of being able to punch while stepping forward at any distance, and throwing only when I mean to. While an extension of this philosophy (i.e. using every button combination available) could lead to an overcomplicated arsenal of mechanics, I think the "certainty" of the attacks/defenses more than makes up for the finger gymnastics required to practice first.
I'm with you here! I played a lot of Street Fighter V, and then when I started playing The King of Fighters XV, the fact that grabs in that game work more like in SFII really threw me off.
This is one of absolute my favourite video of yours to date, thank you for making it Matthew.
My friends and I differ in our game selections often, and I think a key distinction was that I owned mostly Nintendo consoles as a child, whilst they had Xbox and PlayStation. I have tried to encourage them to play Nintendo games because I had a sense they offered more "mechanical freedom" or "deeper gameplay" or something like that, but I could never articulate fully why, having grown up on Nintendo games, I found modern games so lacking. I still might not be able to get them to play Breath of the Wild, but at least now I can get them to watch this video ;) so thank you, and best of luck with continuing to make Mushido. Having similarly quit my job to start making games, I know who all-consuming they can be, and it can be nice to take a little "work break" now and then, so I hope you enjoyed making this.
I can't speak for all Patrons, but I'm more happy to keep supporting all of your endeavours, whether games or videos on games, or videos on movies/TV shows or whatever. I don't expect you to make a load of videos just because I like them, but I want to feed back that if all I heard from you in 2 years was a periodic game update and maybe 1 video, I would consider that an excellent investment from my perspective.
Keep doing what you want!
Chris
This reminds me of one thing I really liked about Nier Automata. It's a 3D action game, but occasionally there are shmup sections or the camera positions itself in a fixed way to make a certain section play 2d-ish. Yet these changes are smooth because the controls are consistent. The melee, shooting, and burst attacks may differ between their shmup and 3d versions, but the buttons are the same.
When the world needed him most, he emerged from the shadows to deliver a complete banger.
i love that even after 10 years of youtube, matthew's voice sounds practically identical to when he first started
I think he's still improved his delivery a lot over time. He sounded pretty unconfident and imprecise in his first video, Portal 2, and he overcorrected ~2013 by almost yelling into the mic at all times. This relaxed, professorial tone suits him the best, so I'm glad he's sticking with it.
@@siphillis He said in a stream that he yelled because his mic had very low gain.
Not really. His voice actually sounded a bit higher and kind of more "aggressive" until 2015 thereabout, and I feel like his voice has only gotten more pleasant to listen to since then (more calm and collected)
The game that came to mind right away for me was Kingdom Hearts 2, which took the old combat system from Kingdom Hearts 1 and added the context-sensitive Triangle button. It allows the game to have much more cinematic boss fights, but it also can turn some fights into "Hunt-Down-The-Reaction-Command" events. (Looking at you, Demyx!)
Fire one shots the water clones (can’t remember if other magic does) but there are times in that game where that’s an issue (I can’t think of any times off the top of my head where it’s a major issue though). The fact it’s only one button though causes the larger issue of making 99% of reaction commands braindead, though there are some good ones like when fighting samurai nobodies with the rc they share with a certain end game boss.
This is probably one of the most thought-provoking videos I've seen on game design in quite a while, really interesting stuff to ponder.
Thank you for digging up Ghost Trick for this video. That game was a gem lost in time
I feel in some way whether something is "context sensitive" really boils down to interactivity. An action that is not context sensitive never takes away from interactivity and can even add to it. An action that is context sensitive always diminishes interactivity and is probably why it "feels" so bad when it happens compared to the alternative.
This is a magic moment. Rewatched your Last of Us II review and Meta Microvideos yesterday. Some of my favorite stuff on the website. Haven’t even started watching this yet but I’m incredibly grateful that it’s here.
Seeing a notification from this channel really made my day.
The video itself was really interesting to watch, you really shine at pointing out new perspectives about game mechanics that I haven't considered even though all I've done since I have memory is playing games. Thank you for this upload, loved every second of it.
I enjoy your insights so much. The way you explain complex concepts, in a crystal clear, concise and engaging way is such a rare (and valued) talent. Your content really is next level.
Watching the video, I was finding the topic pretty interesting, but then 32:34 blew my mind: I always thought wall jumps were that way to make them more difficult to master, given that it's basically a secret mechanic that can make the game easier, but avoiding accidental wall jumping seems now the developers' original goal.
Yet another reason why Super Metroid is still one of the best games ever made, even in a post-Hollow Knight world; still awe inspiring.
I was surprised when he showed the Hollow Knight clip to reveal that wall jumping in the game was more "Context Sensitive". I always presumed that it relied on clinging to the wall first & THEN jumping, to the point where I would listen for the wall-clinging sound to know if I could wall jump. It now just feels kind of weird that it isn't, given that the Mantis Claw unlocks both wall-clinging & wall jumping.
I do think it's both. The hidden wall jump 'tutorial' and its placement in the game, along with the fact the the wall jump is never required to complete the game (unless you optionally save inside the tutorial area before getting the space jump) strongly seem to indicate that the mechanic is meant to be secret until that point - which is important, because if first-time players found it by randomly mashing the jump button next to walls and started relying on it, they might accidentally sequence break out of getting things like the Ice Beam.
Surprised DOOM's glory kills weren't brought up! They seem like a near-perfect mix of precision control and context sensitivity- It's especially impressive how natural they feel in such a chaotic environment.
Beautifully putting into words something I've felt for so long and been unable to express. When you brought up the example of Monster Hunter I was reminded of how much I love that series for the reasons you show.
I also remember playing a Gundam game on the PS2 (Federation vs Alliance if I remember correctly) where I discovered that in niche situations you could free aim a mortar weapon and I would spend way too much time trying to make it work because I enjoyed the sheer freedom of it vs the game's lock on.
The following game was Encounters in Space and I hated it because it forced you into all sorts of restricted lock on scenarios given it focused on space battles
Last possible Mathewmatosis of this timeline just dropped
One thing this video made me think of was how you manipulate objects in (frictionals) Amnesia (and to a downgraded degree in SOMA). You dont open doors or drawers, or draw around chairs, but rather hold a button (IIRC Y) and then move the mouse. Add the WSAD keys for more force or shoving. Youve done this for searching, blockading doors or even to solve puzzles.
It was always a bit weird and inconsistent, but to me this detail really added to the immersion. I thought less about the buttons to press, and more about the action I wanted to make. Especially when chased by a monster, drawing objects to block a door and shove around side blockers really felt much more organic and tense. Wonderfull stuff :D
The gameplay bit was interesting too. I guess that precision is part of why I enjoy shooter mechanics a lot; its not just precision, but also the instant reaction that is so satisfying and adding to the precision. Otoh, Dark Souls is obviously a great example and feels very grounded due to its controls, but there is still a delay and lots of movement by my charachter. Later Souls games are also so much about learning enemy patterns that they almost feel context sensitive; like theres a button prompt but it just doesnt show you, because only a perfect reaction is rewarded. Is that maybe a side effect of difficulty?
Idk. Either way, always nice to see a Matthewmatosis vid, they always give me a lot of fun stuff to think about. I hope some devs take notice too! :D
Using the fire example from BotW is actually interesting, because I remember being totally stumped in the first dungeon of Ocarina of Time with the puzzle where you have to light a stick on fire and then use it to burn some spider webs. In a game that up until that point demonstrated that if something can be done as an interaction that there will be a button prompt telling you, you'd think you'd light a stick on fire, walk up to the web, and press A to have Link burn the web, but instead you have to actually touch the fire to the webs using game mechanics. There isn't really much else like that in the game, so, that puzzle always felt out of place to me. Whereas doing something like that in BotW makes total sense because it always has the attitude of "if you want to do something, do it with the mechanics we gave you."
I agree, I got stuck at the first spider web because I couldn't figure out what to do with no button prompts which the game had thus far taught me to expect.
OoT is filled with interaction like these and it would be hard to name them all. Even at that very early point in the game you would have been subjected to some of them. The deku babas (plants) will give you a different item depending on how you kill them, the web in the center of the tree is broken by jumping on it from a great height, you can make a ladder fall by shooting it with the slingshot, the shield will reflect projectiles, deku sticks will burn up after a while, and even go out if you jump in water.
There are a lot of interactions that follow game logic and that happen with no button prompts at all. The fire you need to use to burn the web is even show right in front of you first. Blaming the context sensitive A button for not understanding the fire problem doesn't make sense, because even that early on in the game you had been taught that there are a lot of interactions that can happen without it.
@@wwasdwtfcantmove That's a long list of false comparisons which are not at all examples of the same thing.
Killing enemies is not the same as being expected to think of applying fire to a spider web.
You have to do the high leap to break the web later, after you've lit a web on fire.
Making the ladder fall comes with a target to lock onto.
Shield reflection: again, combat is a completely different scenario that is not puzzle-solving. They use entirely different parts of the brain. I think Navi even tells you that you can reflect the deku projectiles.
A stick burning out automatically is also nothing at all like having to figure out you can light webs on fire.
Environmental interactions up to that point are either obvious, highlighted with reticles, explained by Navi, or have special A button prompts. Burning the webbing is not any of those things.
That's a good example for an advantage good chemistry systems have for puzzle solving. Once you know foliage is flammable, you are certain fire will burn it. It's consistent and eliminates guesswork.
So you figured out that you have to have the stick touch the fire to light it but not that you have to have the fire touch the web to burn it? That doesn't make any sense.
It's kind of a strange feeling having my thoughts and opinions about games and controlling them over decades of doing it get put into a short video that expresses them in more detail and with more fines then I could possibly manage.
You're a genius.
just discovered this channel and loving these very deep dives into specific aspect of game design
"If you're not on the ground you can't jump." Matthew Matosis - 2018
@@rikamayhem
"If you're not on the air, you can't double jump" - Matthewmatosis, 2022
Tell that to Donkey and Diddy
@@emperortgp2424 Hah, I admit I hadn't realized he said that afterwards.
Hey Mat, thanks for releasing another video. I'm just happy to see that you've put something out there :)
Thank you man. You've been an inspiration. Your craftsmanship ethics are unmatched
Thanks for this bit of perspective. Shooters being low in context sinsitivity feels so intuitive. I enjoy shooters, all sorts in different ways. I always liked the very nature of it. Performing one action, seeing the result, having a prediction on how it will go and adjusting accordingly. The ark and speed of the projectile, the aiming, the satisfaction of hitting a target, seeing the result of the impact. It feels very similar to 2D platformers and jumping. It is essentially the same action, just that jumping turns you yourself into the projectile. The rest stays the same, the launch, the ark, the impact.
I often pondered this orb, what some games lack, why they feel wrong, are less fun to me. But this bit of language, the lack of context sensitivity can equate to control and how to think about what contributes or takes away from this control, it just feels correct, so generally applicable, so basic. I like it.
Also I appreciate, that you mentioned near the end, that the Zelda A button is an example where context sensitive controls still make sense. I wanted to write about that, but you considered it already. It's not about demonizing it.
Thanks for making my day dude!
I was starting to fear you stopped making videos.
May want to read the pinned comment
he did, he’s announced this over a year ago. this one was a surprise, and probably the last
I wonder what he does for a living if not making videos...
The work you do nowadays is ALWAYS impressive, as is the journey of your channel. Exhausting every point and way of thinking about a topic in just a few concise sentences - it's 🔥
I feel like my brain can finally relax when listening to you. No filler - just analysis, considerations, and ideas. Sometimes about video games, but really you go far beyond that. Truly inspiring. You convey so much and put so much thought and life experience in your craft, it feels like classical music or a movie made with passion and conviction. A well done interview with you would be so interesting to me, I feel. I hope you continue growing and sharing this process with us, but most of all I hope you are happy. Thank you, Matthew, for everything you gave me - and us - "just" by doing these videos - which I know is much, much more than what we might ever see by watching them. ❤
I absolutely love videos like this. This is such a nuanced issue that may seem trivial at first, but the vast range of subtle effects it has on gameplay is astounding, you describe it all very well.
I was wondering if he would mention VR games in terms of context-sensitive actions. One of the huge benefits of a VR headset and hand-tracking controllers is that you no longer have to rely on an ambiguous control analogue, like a controller, to replicate reality - your controls are now based on the limits of your body. In a third person game, if I want to pick up a small object on the ground, I have to rely on a button prompt the developers give me, whereas in VR, I can just bend down and pick it up. Conversely, this is why context-sensitive controls, ones that try and patch up the many limitations VR have right now, feel especially jarring in VR; "point-and-click" teleporting movement, and control-stick movement in general, to name some. Because it's moving away from a freedom of action that requires no learning - a hand controller does exactly what a hand should in real life.
It's one of the things VR devs had to unlearn in the early days. Early VR games had buttons for crouching, opening doors, reloading but all of those things can just be done by using your hands the way you would in real life. If I'm a firefight in half life alyx and want to take cover i just physically crouch down, the devs dont and shouldn't need to add a button for it (except for the sake of accessibility)
I understand what you mean, but it is important to keep in mind that the teleporting movement exists, because otherwise most people wouldn't be able to play the game due to motion sickness. I do agree that devs should try to come up with better alternatives, but teleporting movement should probably stay as an option
The 3rd person context sensitivity problem is due to controller limitation than anything. On mouse and keyboard you can just look down, define clear rule for an interaction ray cast like in half life 2: it's this long, if it hit x interaction will be y, it will stop at the first thing it collide with etc.
@@harrincourt95 True. I wasn't trying to say these styles of movement need to be removed; if VR induced motion sickness can never be fixed, having teleport movement as an accessibility option should be to be in all future VR games. Rather, I'm referring to the gulf between the realism of VR hand controllers and modes of transport(let's stick to thumbstick-based movement). It's just something that comes naturally from the VR medium.
The eye tracking thing at face value sounds like an amazing evolution in controller design however I play games like this often and realize that once you've gotten into its rhythm your eyes aren't focused on the enemy you want to target hit right now and instead on enemies that aren't being comboed. The eyetracker is not and will never be a good method of player input because our input device for the game to send information to our brains. So while how it works will be easily predictable for the player, there will be many unintentional moments where you won't hit target you want to because you looked at something else. I actually don't know a solutions short of growing extra pair of limbs so we can use more analog sticks. Although maybe gyroscopic controls might be an answer.
Just depends heavily on the game. Some games actively encourage looking in directions that seem counterintuitive. You can play Rocket League almost never looking at the ball, because where the other team are is far more important. You can be sniping in cod and looking anywhere BUT your crosshair to keep an eye out for countersnipers. Or, of course, dark souls, trying to fight crystal golems in the forest while keeping an eye on the hydra's huge ranged attacks would lead to awkward semi-locked on combat.
I just discovered you a week ago and have been enjoying your videos a lot; so seeing a brand new video after it's been so long since your last one is awesome.
Absolute banger of a vid, Matt, helped me to put a lot of concepts into words that I have been thinking about in 3D games. Your commentary is always super insightful.
One thing about RE4's kick is that it applies invincibility during the animation, if they just made the kick done through a dedicated button you can do anytime, the invincibility would be grossly abused.
I think they intentionally made it context sensitive and invincible on purpose to reward skilled gameplay.
true, they could've made a failed kick have a vulnerable recovery animation to compensate.
imo they just wanted a cool badass animation and then realised it would be terrible to lock a player into an animation that clunky and long without making them invincible, hence invincibility.
That's thinking backwards. Just make it dedicated, a bit faster, less powerful and without the invincibility.
Resident evil 6 makes the gameplay better.
@@KamikazeChinamanBut that will betray the core principals of the game.
RE4's core is positioning, resource management also
RE4's other core is shooting AND influencing the enemy state's with it. So all your actions agains enemies are tied to where you shoot and because of that enemies state changes and you can make other decisions with it like shooting their head first then kick them to make space etc. Adding a dedicated kick button will change the game entirely also once you add dedicated kick button other actions that you can do will need a dedicated button as well.
Doing these moves anytime you want without shooting an enemy (mind you shooting requires ammo so you betray RE4's other core element 'resource management') and influenced them certainly isn't RE4 and also it will make a worse combat system overall.
Sometimes making restrictions is better and make the gane more engaging.
I hope I did convey how that will be a bad idea even though it sounds good on paper.
This is the first time I see a video that points out how RE4's core mechanics are used for most things in that game, not just combat, but also puzzles, treasures, traps, breaking crates. Even the knife could've been a button press like the kick, but you still need to aim it just like your guns.
This has been one of your best videos Matt, you've talked about so much. I certainly didn't expect to see such a believable reason for platformers going out of favor when I clicked on this.
I was binging your videos these days, repeating my favorites and watching the old stuff I never saw, wondering if you'll ever post something again. Thanks man, your content is one of the most intelectual out there in gaming theory and design. The Meta Microvideos is still one of my favorite pieces of gaming content on this world.
TH-cam has few content of true quality and yours is certainly part of the best. Thank you for making me appreciate another side of gaming that I never knew and have come to love dearly.
The Mass Effect trilogy is sweating in the corner with its infamous x button (though that’s only the surface).
OMG, gods blessed us with the new Matthewmatosis video!
Been here since the brilliant New and Tasty review. Your content is really special, I hope life doesn't get too in the way for you to make the occasional video still. Your well articulated insight is valuable.
This is an incredible video, it sums up a lot of things that I've thought about and felt but in an organised way and I feel like I understand the fundamentals of game design a little better
No one ever understands when I lament the death of the Wii's pointer controls as Nintendo opted to go in a different direction which eventually resulted in motion controls almost always being optional.
When Matthew brought up eye tracking as a targeting mechanic I finally fucking felt vindicated.
Seriously. Wii style pointers added to traditional controllers IS a necessary evolution and this video explains all of my thought process as to why as clearly as possible in regards to controlling 3D games. It is, for all intents and purposes, a 3rd analog stick (assuming that aside from the pointer, the "wiimote-like" controller has all the bells and whistles that a traditional controller has, which the wiimote lacked). Having a controller be held as two separate pieces in either hand and having pointers on both (which you can choose which hand to use, based on being left or right handed) should have been the next evolution of the controller after the Dual Shock invented the modern controller shape. When I explain this to people they can never understand why, describing it as a "third analog stick" is not sufficient because they do not understand why they NEED a third analog stick, because they've gotten so used to the way game's control they don't realize what they're missing. Z targeting has worked the same way in action games for fucking decades and NO GAME has it work perfectly, and all you ever needed was the ability to fucking POINT at the enemy you want to target.
15 years ago Nintendo experimented with technology in a game controller that should have changed the way games are controlled forever... and it just didn't happen. I can't possibly express how upset by that I am.
I hope you found some peace today :D
Maybe vr could satisfy that desire? because moving your head alone can accommodate like 3 analog sticks worth of control.
@@juliamaria3807 naw, VR games are very specifically designed to be a different type of experience than traditional games, the kind that would benefit from a pointer.
Nerrel has posted several videos detailing the merits of motion control. Probably you've seen them already but if you haven't they're worth a watch.
The technology simply isn't there. The motion control variants we had were never accurate enough to feel fluid rather than another layer of something you're struggling against.
Instead of thinking of this issue as one of "context sensitivity" in general, I think its more helpful to think of it as trying to avoid the situation where multiple actions that share the same input are not mutually exclusive. If you have a jump button but can also go prone in the game, since it's not possible to jump while prone then the jump button can be reused for an action that you can only take while prone. Standing and being prone are mutually exclusive states, any any actions that depend on their states need to be exclusive to each of them as well.
This is a pretty good compromise in my mind and has been done pretty well by games like MGS. The potential downside however is the learning curve can be much steeper and it takes longer having to wait for the player induced context to activate (in your example, going prone) before you can fulfill your intention tied to that (like rolling being tied to being prone with a weapon drawn in mgs5)
Just when I am beggining to get into game development, you came back with a beatiful video about something important yet overlooked, amazing.
It's crazy that we've basically had this sort of thing in games for the longest time yet I don't think i've ever heard anyone break it down so that it makes sense as well as you have here. It's a very insightful take and puts into words what I like about certain games more than others better than I possibly could've.
I almost never leave comments on videos, and I don't expect that you'll see this, but I want you to know that I appreciate you and everything you've done on youtube so far. You've helped me enjoy games that I didn't before, and enjoy games that I already did more than I realized. You have been the voice I hear in my head when I critically think about game design, and have brought me hours and hours of enjoyable content. I hope you're happy and fulfilled in anything that you do in your life, because what you've done on youtube is brilliant, and I'm sure you'll be just as fantastic at anything else you focus yourself into.