Game Design 101: Super Mario's Hidden Language | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: to.pbs.org/Don...
Game Design 101 continues as we start our three part exploration into the video game design of Super Mario. In this episode we tackle the “language” of Super Mario.
Subscribe to PBS Game/Show! bit.ly/1BPJ2VE Tweet at us! / pbsgameshow
↓ More info and sources below ↓
When you break a game down to simple mechanics such as verbs and nouns, you can see how intricate or simplistic it really is. Mario for example, makes the absolute most out of a very limited amount of action words, leading to a multi-faced, attention-grabbing game that is simple to learn but difficult to master. Over the next three episodes of Game/Show, we will continue to break down the game design genius of the Mario franchise, so please subscribe and let us know what you think in the comments below!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Facebook / gameshowpbs
Email us! pbsgameshow [at] gmail [dot] com
Follow us on Reddit / pbsgameshow
--------------------------------------------------------------
ASSET LINKS:
0:25 Super Mario Bros super show episode 1
www.youtube.co....
0:33 THE WIZARD Flashback: "I Love The Power Glove. It's So Bad"
www.forcesofgee....
0:54 Game over! - Collector sells ‘the history of gaming’ on eBay for an enormous £350k
www.thesun.co.u....
0:57 Super Mario Brothers Parkour [In Real Life]
www.youtube.co....
1:17 Chris Crawford In Depth Interview on Value Investing
www.valuewalk.c....
1:45 5 secrets of level 2 in Bubsy 3D
www.youtube.co....
2:48 Geralt of Rivia
s-media-cache-....
2:49 Drowner
witcher.wikia.c....
2:51 BattleToads
deathbattlefano....
2:52 THROWBACK: RELIVE THE PUNISHING DIFFICULTY OF BATTLETOADS
www.digitaltren....
--------------------------------------------------------------
MUSIC:
""Oh Damn!"" by CJVSO
/ cj. .
""Digital Sonar"" by Brink
""Mindphuck"" by Known To Be Lethal
www.youtube.co....
""After Hours""
""Lakes"" by Chooga
www.youtube.co....
""Beautiful Days"" by Extan
/ beaut. .
""Spectrum Subdiffusion Mix"" by Foniqz
/ f. .
""Good Way Song"" by Electronic Rescue
""Alice y Bob"" by Javier Rubio and Parsec
archive.org/de....
""Sleet"" by Kubbi
/ kubbi-sleet
""Toaster"" by Kubbi
/ toaster
""Patriotic Songs of America"" by New York Military Band and the American Quartet
freemusicarchiv....
""Lets Go Back To The Rock"" by Outsider
www.jamendo.co....
""Run"" by Outsider
www.jamendo.co....
""Fame"" by Statue of Diveo
www.jamendo.co....
""Freedom Weekends"" by Statue of Diveo
www.jamendo.co....
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hosted by Jamin Warren (@jaminwar)
See more on games and culture on his site: www.killscreend...
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbr...)
This is going to make me write stories with Mario maker.
+randomgirl L Remember to conjugate! -jj
+PBS Game/Show Hello
Have you talked about games as a form of comedy/parody like with the indie game starring Leonardo DiCaprio and how does this work with copy right laws?
redcarpetrampage.com/
Interesting, so Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World all use the same general sentence structure, but SMB2 uses JUMP less, and introduces GRAB, making it a significantly different sentence/game.
It's also worth noting that SMB2 is not a Super Mario game. It was rebranded as a Mario game in the US because the actual SMB2 was thought to be too difficult for an American audience.
BlitzXor
Sure, I assumed that was common knowledge at this point.
+Adam Farnsworth poor assumption
+FooMeow I disagree
Such a great point! Other considerations: THROW is also a pretty big deal. The two are pretty universally co-linked throughout the game, but there are exceptions like sand or stopwatches. Also, JUMP is different for each character (as is GRAB) which really plays with the interactions between levels and characters.
Side note: I'm pretty sure anyone who would choose to watch this video knows about Toki Toki Panic.
I think that the portal series also gets this
Right. With only two basic verbs (shooting portals) you can solve any puzzle.
verb and noun*
+Toalewa9889 Portal has a lot more complexity than just shooting portals, though. Yes, it's a core part of the game design, but so is jumping and picking up items, among other things. The player might jump off a high-up ledge into a portal which sends them flying onto a platform where they can press a button to release a box which lets them redirect a laser into a turret to disable it, thereby giving them safe passage to the next area. Elements can interact in a lot of ways, but there's no singular verb that makes up all interactions in the game. But you'll notice, they do keep the verb count low, which is important. Complexity arises from just how flexible those verbs are, and how many outside elements the game designers introduce. Like in Portal 2, the 3 types of gels that can coat surfaces don't add verbs, they just change how your verbs interact with the environment. Jump goes higher, run moves faster, portal can be used on a surface it otherwise couldn't.
+Toalewa9889 Please, conjugate the verb Portal.
Bitcoon i am aware, but shooting portals would be considered the games main verb
Toalewa9889
What I think is the big difference between Shoot Portal as a verb and Jump as a verb is that Shoot Portal does exactly one thing, moves one of the entry points to the portal to the location you shot it (or fails to do so, depending on where you shoot), and then everything else is handled by the physics system, while the Jump verb has a bunch of specifically programmed rules. One is a verb that has it's properties specifically designed and which needs memorized, the other is a verb that modifies the world and then the rest of the general cases apply to this new Feature. (At least, as presented - I think they've talked about needing to fudge the physics engine so that things worked the way it 'felt' like they should in the commentary, so I'm not meaning to imply that one approach takes more or less work than the other, just that when interacting with them one feels like memorizing a series of rules, and the other feels like manipulating the physics system of the game world in a specific way)
wow... I really really REALLY like this episode, really interesting and simple, now I can make a little difference on my Mario maker levels haha, thanks compadre!
+PauLtus B Found a new channel to subscribe to, yay!
Someone really wants to be an intellectual. No this is not the hidden language of Mario. This is a dumbing down of programming rules.
The secret language of Mario (or any game worth it's salt) is how it talks to the player and teaches them the gameplay without them ever knowing. One of my favorite examples is in Super Metroid when you obtain the Plasma Beam. On your way to the power up there is only one path and that path is obstructed by an unavoidable mass of enemies that takes several attacks to clear. Upon returning through the path it takes one. Informing the player without them realizing that plasma beam can affect many enemies in sequence.
I love the Super Metroid example!
Interesting analogy to express the "lots of variety from a single mechanic" design idea. Good job +Game/Show.
And yet Mario cannot jump the princess...
This really sheds new light for me on the mechanics of game design. As a game designer myself, I can really appreciate keeping things simple and using one verb to do multiple things instead of using many verbs that basically do one thing. It's a very fascinating process that Nintendo has really embraced.
This actually got me thinking. Never heard this type of explaining/describing interactions in video games before.
Great video! I love how simply you explained verbs in games.
One genre I enjoy is roguelikes and their bump verb. You "bump" into a goblin wizard and it dies, dropping its bag of magic scrolls, you read the scroll and can then make fireballs which then kill more goblins but happens to also burn the bags of loot they had, one item was a potion of ice, and the fire causes it to go off, freezing you and killing you.
A really interesting take on the 'linguistics" and on things Mario does.
However, you shouldn't have compared the verbs ( and the effects/outcomes) to those in beat 'em up games like Batman, and Final Fight, as they complexity of games comes from having VARIOUS INPUTS and MEANS (attack combos, weapons, etc.) at your disposal to effectively carry out the ONE OUTCOME, that is beating them up.
In Mario's case, as you very nicely elaborated, complexity comes from VERY FEW INPUTS, that results in VARIOUS OUTCOMES, and hence myriad of opportunities (which lead to emergent gameplay)
The intention of both games are different.
I see that Game Design 101 is becoming a bit of a series. I like it!
This is super interesting because you can also apply it to acting and the concept is totally the same. Taking the old adage that acting is reacting, you could say that Mario jumping is the action-- because it's such a concise yet deep action, there are many possibilities for reactions. For example: Mario jumps on the Goomba, the Goomba reacts by dying.
What's so beautiful about the game design is that, continuing with the analogy, a simple action can make for a chain of different reactions that produce a multitude of different stories. Example: Mario jumps into a ? Block --> the block reacts by popping out a mushroom --> Mario reacts by running for the mushroom --> Mario misses and dies by falling into a pit. Or: Mario reacts by running for the mushroom --> Mario grabs the Mushroom --> Mario gets bigger. The story evolves and now there's a different scenario with different possible outcomes.
What's even more interesting is that the scenario always begins the same way, and always ends one of two ways. Mario is thrown into a level. Either he beats it, or he dies. The in-between is endlessly complex based on your actions.
All of this simply taught me that you have abilities (verbs) in videogames and each ability reacts™ with objects.
This concept doesn't need a whole nine minutes of "explanation".
WOO 5 SECONDS OF FAME!
+Ebon Hawk you and me both man
+Ebon Hawk He's mentioned you before (probably). I remember because he made a point to clarify he wasn't sure if he was pronouncing your name right and i made it a point to correct him/shame him that it's the name of Revan's ship in KotOR...
I love game theory on emergent game-play. The best "real world" analogy I've seen for it is what happens after you have two private investigators follow each other. Brilliant video!
I've never before realized just how much jumping there really is in Mario games.
+TheJaredtheJaredlong Would it surprise you to know that in Marios ever first appearance he was originally called "Jump Man"? :D
+Kalernor Well to be fair, that's what they used to call me too. -jj
+Kalernor Donkey Kong was an early example of a platform game with jumping, wasn't it - prior to DK most platformers worked more like a 2d version of Captain Toad than what we expect from platformers today, I think? And, in fact, the first level is very interesting in that it is possible to complete /without/ jumping if you use the ladders just right - as in most platform games prior to Mario you'd have needed to. The first level is pretty unfair if you don't jump, but it's possible if you don't and the arcade cabinet would have had a button on it which you obviously press and discover 'hey, there's a jump'
Wow, I never realized sentence structure and Mario could work so well together! I've never been too skilled with programming language, but seeing the rules of each object laid out in plain English made the behind-the-scenes mechanics more crystal-clear. Since we talked Mario this episode, how about one focusing on Zelda next time? "Link burns that random bush that sticks out funny near the top of the map, and the bush burns away, revealing a stairway to the next dungeon." I expect Zelda might have a lot more verbiage!
Although the connection between logic and language is undeniable, I like to see this idea of jumping like a series of executed actions rather than words and logic. I feel that this linguistic approach is not broad enough to tackle emergent gameplay.
Think about it: when you're playing Mario, language is irrelevant, but rather, action. As you jump, things happen. Words (as symbols) are not present when we play games. Rather, depictions of real-world objects (or similar), and events take place, but not word. What's more, we don't even process events with words, but with concepts (see Pinker, 1954). That's why you can conceive breaking a block as "hitting it from below" rather than 'jump' + 'at block'.
+VodKaVK I think the linguistic approach is mainly just to formulate these ideas. Like how algebra is used to formulate maths. Makes it simpler and more efficient to deal with.
+Kalernor On a superficial level, probably. But again, equating English rules to the coding in the game, or the mechanics, is not necessarily efficient all the times. Thinking that grammar is logic, I think, is wrong, and it provides a very limiting view on games.
This is an awesome, concise, and powerful analogy. Very useful.
A less concise but equally useful analogy tool is applying the concept a of rolling ball puzzle to your level design. You can imagine the player's progress thru a level as a ball rolling through a maze. In order to move the ball thru the maze, they must make certain "rotations" to the puzzle, in a certain order. These rotations are your verbs, basically. Unlock door, flip lever, attack creature, etc. I particularly like this analogy when looking at LoZ temples, but some games have even used it literally, having you roll the world around the character.
"Dante launches" is the beginning of a sentence that almost always ends in something very very cool.
SUPER interesting methodology for mechanics design analysis, I learned something!
Really happy to see one of my favorite public broadcast channels covering some of my favorite forms of entertainment! Couldn't jump on that subscribe button fast enough!
In that Batman example, there's more to it than punching. Some bad guys have two Machete where you have to daze them with your cape, some are wearing armour where you have to brute force them, some have shields where you have to ground pound them, some are 'roided up with Titan where you can throw your batterang at whilst it's charging you making him shield his eyes and not seeing the guys he's about to plow through and some are fixing to get guns where you have to take them down before they can shoot you.
I like this comparison! You can use the jump to create subordinate clauses that act as nouns in new sentences, and you can substitute in all sorts of new objects until your Mario sentence resolves to the state of the game. It reminds me of the concept of formal grammar.
Really awesome ep. Didn't even realise that Mario is the father of emergent gameplay.
The Witness does great things with "draw a line from point A to point B." I just got to the ending and I'm debating whether I should start a new game to go back and try to find all the things I know I missed the first time through. The difference in The Witness is that it doesn't rely on different results or objects for the verb, but on various restrictions for how the line must be drawn. Draw a line from A to B that creates this shape. Draw a line from A to B that touches these points. I can't believe how satisfying it has been.
interesting ! I never thought of that. That would mean that the more sentence you can make in a game, the more "ways" to express yourself trought the gameplay there is.
+laurent pavot this video also made me think about the game "magicka" where you have 8 verbs (for each element) that you can cast in combination to each other, up to five of them. and then you can direct the spell in three different orientation. imagine the number of sentences you can make ! In this case each player develop their owns "sentences" and have an unique way to play the game
Can't wait for the rest of it !
this is the BESTEST THING EVERS!!!!! I LOVE YOU PIKACHU!!!!
Great episode!
This can also apply to classic Sonic games.
Sonic jump on a badnik and the badnik explodes. Sonic jumps on a spiky badnik and Sonic is hurt. Sonic jumps on a spring and is propelled into the air.
Sonic spindash into a badnik and he continues rolling and hit multiple badniks until he slows to a stop or rolls into a wall which have a secret on the other side.
This can even be applied to modern Sonic games, though some do less than others. This is a fun exercise to do with games.
:D
Burnie Burns, one of the early machinimators, often talked about designing your story and the entire structure of a show around the verbs available in the videogame's world.
Love this new series! Keep it up!
It feels like Mario is designed to be a mini Rube Goldberg machine. With mini stories set up and designed to be set of by the player. The act of setting one off gives the player a sense of reward, as though they created it from scratch. This combines with the fact that in later games Mario is able to pick up shells/items and carry them for later use gives the player a greater sense of identity and connection to the game.
Loving the video so far. Just stopped at 4:15 to ask what irony it was you saw - "Mario jumps on the goomba and the goomba is flattened, Mario jumps on the spiney, he (Mario) dies".
I'm sure I must be missing something here. I imagine someone will suggest that the irony is that this time Mario dies when he jumps on an enemy but that doesn't seem to fit.
First off, excellent episode! I love the idea of game object and mechanics interaction broken down into simple sentences to illustrate gameplay emergence. I definitely plan to use this within my own work to add diversity to my mechanics. I can easily see the wide possibilities for tying each of the objects in my game with each of the mechanics to form more interesting systems.
Second, as a man with a handlebar mustache, I'm certain you'd be able to grow out a magnificent mustache of your own!
Interesting new angle on Mario that I'd never thought of before. I think this explosion of possibilities is why I love Smash Bros so much as well. True, there are lots of ways to hit your enemy but depending on how high their percentage is and what direction you send them, the result of a smash is always interesting.
Yes, more of this please!
I like this, you should make game design 101 videos more often.
The first thing that comes to my mind is Alto's Adventure. It's a mobile endless runner, but in order to survive, you have to do trick chains to gain speed. Tapping only causes the player to jump. Well, technically you can do two things, because holding makes the character lean backwards and do a backflip. So by doing these two things you can do incredible and very long trick chains, for example you jump off a cliff, do a backflip on your way down, you land on a grind, do a few more backflips, then land on a rock and bounce off which makes you jump over a chasm, etc, etc.
Interesting! I have never thought of games in these terms, but it makes sense now that you mention it. It reminds me of using Baccus Naur or the Chomsky Normal Forms to map out systems and such.
This episode made me want to play Mario now. Great points made
Great video Jamin. I especially enjoyed this video because, unlike some of your other videos, it touches on a topic that I haven't seen before on any of the other game design channels I follow. Also, I think the game design field needs more formulations like the one here in the video where strings of actions and events are referred to as "sentences" with each factor in the event being represented by a "word". I think this will make it much easier and efficient to TEACH these concepts to budding game designers and further improve how game design curriculums can be established and taught.
Huh, interesting. Game design is an awesome subject. Wish I could pick it up at school.
+Theo Hamilton (linky00) Learning about it on your own is a close second :) There is no limit to what one can learn once they want it enough.
+Kalernor I try to learn it on my own, but school keeps getting in the way. Sad irony, but changes are being made to the school system… eventually!
Theo Hamilton School should remain your priority, but maybe your second priority could be learning game design?
Also you won't be in school forever. You have a variety of options to choose from then.
+Kalernor It kinda is my second priority. I fill whatever time I have left with stuff that interests me (or fixing my computer, which is my third priority). And I'm definitely lucky to have loads of options available to me, especially in the school I'm at. My problem is mostly with the rigid and unbalanced curriculum. But, again, it's getting better :)
did you not get taught ICT they teach coding and basic game design and college is a gift study design and ICT/Scripting and finally the internet
This could have been neatly framed in Wittgenstein's Tractatus, in which he describes how reality can (and should) be understood in purely linguistic, mechanical terms. Which was more or less an attack on conventional philosophy and metaphysics (broadly).
He would later rethink that position, but I think it fits particularly well in the context of games; Mario is not merely described as jumping, he is *defined* as jumping - in a very real sense, the entirety of Mario can be summed up in his his verb-relation to the world he inhabits.
Just a thought.
True. If you take away Mario's jump, what would happen? Something to ponder...
The Roguelike genre seems to pride itself on getting the most use out of it's verbiage as it possibly can. So in, for example, Nethack, you can read potions (which usually does nothing) along with spellbooks to memorize a spell or a scroll to use a one use magic ability (and if you read a scroll while hallucinating it sometimes has different effects as if you read it when not hallucinating, you can't read anything while blind because of course you can't, etc, etc, etc.
Mario's jump is still unsurpassed as the most polished, perfected mechanic in any game. I've not seen one, even ONE game have a mechanic quite so flawless.
Very interesting. I never knew why Mario was better than other platforms. They all look more or less the same but Mario always has that extra something.
Really excellent Jamin!
Very interesting. Nice Video.
FTL also uses many of the same design in the fact that if you fire a missile at an enemy shield system, causing a breach in the room, and taking down a layer of shields, however, the enemy who was operating the sheilds then decides to board your ship, and so on and so forth.
Love game design 101. :)
Interesting observation. What about looking at it a different way: it is not the JUMP that is so significant, but rather the environment (since its reaction to it make it so unique...) And I think in this, BRAID makes a wonderful job. You basically have the time rewind ability, to which there are also many different reactions, alebeit is not the fundamental ground block as the jump.
You got yourself a new subscriber, good job!
a little note. Batman has different effects depending on the enemy. If the eneme has a shield. He will be forced away if he tries to simply punch. If he holds a electrostick he will get shocked. Though all things can be overcome if you know the combos. so it might still be lacking
Nice one - Mario is one of the best platformers ever made. (And thanks for responding to people giving you crap over lack of lenses!)
I think this is really important for current games design where designers are trying to cram an increasing number of verbs into a games that have to be playable on a console controller.
Aside from the obvious problems that come when the main verbs are "shoot" and "hit", it also creates frustration when you have context sensitive controls and the verbs associated with a button can shift due a tiny change. I mean I've lost track of how often I've just wanted to pet D-Dog and ended up fultoning someone or something out.
I think doom takes it to a new level with their enemy design, and how the are easy to see and communicate to the player what they do; and how to take them out.
+Rei Senpai (Reimasutā) My favorite part of Doom was learning enemy patterns of attack and tricking them into fighting each other.
Awesome video!
I do think this game design from several simple elements interacting with each other in ways that are still simple.I think it mostly shows in the better puzzle games (Portal, or the Witness as you mentioned), you can have pretty complicated situations but a player can still get a grip on what's going on.
So this is more or less based on the number of physical interactions that can occur after you make a choice for the short to long-term events. With Mario games, the effect is often times immediate reactions and less so on long-term. Another example of this could be something like Catacomb Kids.
In Catacomb Kids, you can throw a colorless potion at a brazier to start a fire by a grumbul (goblin). The grumbul catches on fire from the colorless potion's gas and heads to the nearest pool of water, but falls into a pit of spikes onto a pressured plate that causes a heavy weight to fall and crush the grumbul.
Dwarf Fortress is more like "A dwarf gets angry because his cat died so he pulls a random lever causing lava to flood the workshop causing a thirsty dwarf to catch fire which in turn causes the thirsty dwarf to accidentally detonate the brewery when he goes to fetch a drink while on fire."
this is a great video : )
Can you do this series with people's levels as a series?
Tha Ulillillia bit made me subscribe
Okay Warren, I take it back. This series that you're producing now is actually a good indication that you do understand video games to some degree. So now you've finally made me doubt that you're not a gamer as you're starting to get into the nitty gritty of game design. Bravo, you're the very first SJW to give me this.
now, mario might have the most classic "sentence" structure, BUT... I do believe portal has the best run on sentences. lol
Inching slowly towards the concept of a core mechanism. Watch 3 Minute Game Design's episode on how games work for more on that.
you would overstate fred savage's role in gaming since he's basically your twin.
Also something I just realized is, as a lot of you probably think, much of the creativity in game design exhibited in such old game gems are due to the limiting resources on 8-bit game and console restrictions, which forced the game designers and developers to think of such creative ideas. This also applies to the "Hidden Language" talked about here, since the NES had only a d-pad and 2 buttons on the controller! Opposed to todays console controllers which have a lot of buttons, thus giving designers the space to add more and more mechanics without giving each mechanic the depth it potentially has, the old NES controller also partly FORCED the designers/developers to add as much depth to the limited amounts of mechanics that they had, given the constrains placed by the controller.
How much time does it take to create an average episode (in retakes)?
I like how this guy pronounce's Mario's name right.
+Fermifire
...How else do people pronounce it? Other than people intentionally pronouncing it wrong, I don't think I've heard it any other way.
MEH RYO, I heard it pronounced wrong. Like Pokemon when they pronounce it wrong and pronounce it Pokeymons.
Fermifire
Pokemon I hear wrong all the time.
No mention of the bounce? "Mario jumps on a goomba, the goomba dies, and Mario bounces, landing on another goomba who dies."
Mario jumps over a wall, narrowly misses a Koopa, and lands on a mushroom.
The Koopa was in fourth place, Mario lapped third place thanks to the mushroom, and this is why the feather isn't in Mario Kart anymore.
Interesting how Mario's "language" changed from Donkey Kong and Mario Bros to Super Mario.
I mean, you'd only jump on a conscious enemy in Mario Bros if you were suicidal.
Mario ||: jumps at just the right time and :|| saves the princess.
I've been trying to explain to people how Call of Duty is a game with really poor design. This video really nails it.
Fun Fact: Mario's original name was "Jumpman"!
Pacman seems to have the same kind of sentence with "eat"
When Pacman eats a small pill
When Pacman east a big pill
When Pacman eats a normal ghost
When Pacman eats a scared ghost
Spelunky likes to speak in real long deadly sentences.
im currently playing ac: syndicate most verbs there just have like 2-3 outcomes: assassin throws knife and hits an enemy who takes damage/dies. assassin throws knife, nitro explodes. assassin throws knife hits rope, barrels fall down and maybe kill enemies. thats it. all interactions with throwing knifes.
auto mario shows how expressive those sentences can be. by design they don't construct sentences from the user's 'jump' input. They're a tribute to the expressiveness of the mechanics.
There's different game design ideals with different goals. You can't easily compare the Arkham games with Mario because they have vastly different design and narrative objectives.
Ayyy shoutout to my boy ulilia on that nubs you 3D footage
Bubys*
lol at using ulillilia's video at 1:45
Would you say that the sentences don't necessarily need to be diverse because of the verb or the direct action of it? Couldn't a sentence be diverse by the circumstances of why the player did the action they did?
I feel like the overall meaning here is interaction. This interacts with this which interacts with that, etc, while batman, fist interacts with face, and that's the chain. I think interaction isn't necessary though, in batman, if my fist plus goons face equals falling goon falling goon plus mine equals explosion, its not necessarily a better game.
This may be strange, but I would say player driven games and top-down space shooter/RPG's have better gaming languages, but only due to their exploration of game politics.
For instance, games like EvE Online and Star Sonata require you to think about your actions based on how other people will respond to them. Pirates are attacking a merchant, you can chose to aid the pirates or merchant, attack both, or just let the situation resolve itself without you, yet it all comes down to one action, one verb, shoot. Player shoots pirate, merchant targets same pirate and causes more damage, pirate - if out matched - runs. Pirate - if still holding the advantage - presses the attack on the merchant or targets player. 3 nouns, several verbs each, many more possible results.
Another example would be games, like Endless Sky, that are single player and still only have the one action - shoot - but are triggering several more possibilities. Each enemy you attack responds to you differently. Major fleets will attack and reinforcements will come, merchants try to flee, pirates will attack and flee if they are outmatched. How you interact with these groups also influences how they react to each other, and how they respond to you. Fight merchants, pirates love you. Help merchants, pirates hate you, help one fleet, another hates you. One verb translates into a massive amount of possible outcomes.
Such languages make you feel more involved.
But, at in the end, deciding if one game has a better language than another is subjective and all I can contribute is my opinion.
Sonic runs.
Sonic runs into a ring and collects it.
Sonic runs into an enemy and loses his ring(s).
Sonic runs into an enemy and dies.
Sonic runs into a pit and dies.
Sonic runs into a spring and bounces.
Sonic runs downhill and gains momentum.
Sonic runs uphill and loses momentum.
Sonic runs across a platform and it crumbles.
Sonic runs through a tube and curls up into a ball.
Sonic runs into a checkpoint and it spins.
Sonic runs through the goal post and it rotates.
Frame Savers mentioned this (Sarhianna, John and Chad).
I mean Darbian (autocorrect)
Well there's Sonic and.... wait... no, nevermind.
Urist saw a fine video lately
It's almost like the programming logic behind the game.
If JumpHitTarget == Goomba* {
Goomba->KillGoomba();
}
else { ect... ect... }
That would be bad programming, better to tell the thing that you jumped on it and let it react to it
What about minecraft with about only two buttons for nearly everything (destroy and place)
Mario is great, but I prefer Jump-n-Shoot Man
Mario's name before he was Mario .... Jumpman
Will you make more videos?
So based on this theorem Just Cause is pretty high on sentence structure...
But it's only an average game.
the video should have different title such as"why marios jump differ's than other jumps"or "mario's jump hidden potential"