3 Reasons to Let Players Beautify the Game Space Through Play

Last time I discussed the advantages of destroying the game world. Now I want to shine a light on the inverse: beautifying it.

A common idea throughout this series of narrative design articles is the importance of change. The player's actions should have bearing on the world they're exploring, and this can be represented through positive environmental changes, such as the restoration of dilapidated or oppressive game spaces.

Consider letting your players beautify your game space through play for these 3 reasons:

1. Immediate, Clear and Intrinsic Reward System

There's a reason why cleaning videos blow up on TikTok. Our minds enjoy watching a dirty space become clean. Think: before and after photos, house restoration television, or the video game equivalents, as seen in Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.

Hard works goes a long way at building an audience's investment. Chores have a bad rap in real life, but they provide reasons for players to return to your game. The player feels an obligation to complete those daily challenges, pluck those weeds, water those flowers and feed those chickens.

Stardew Valley (pictured right) gives players a farm in ruin. The player's goal is immediate: restore/enhance the farm to functionable beauty.

The game world reflects the time and energy invested by the player by showing measurable progress. The player's reward is their own sense of accomplishment; their hard work has paid off.

The same goes for most Animal Crossing games, but especially for New Horizons (pictured above). Between the weeds, fallen branches, oddly clustered trees and rocks, starting players have their work cut out for them. But the daily grind at beautifying the game space provides comfort and routine, and makes the player feel like their actions make an actual difference in the world.

Bonus points if characters and NPCs react to the player's sincere efforts.

2. Imprinting the Player's Identity

Base building makes up a large chunk of play time in Bethesda's Fallout 4 (pictured right). The wasteland's rubble, trash piles, and rusted out alternate reality 1950's Americana apocalypse becomes a canvas for players to build upon.

Players are presented with real fixer-uppers to clean, demolish, and restore. Taking it a step further than Stardew Valley, however, is the ability for one player's creations to look dramatically different from another's.

It isn't difficult for players to become invested in fictional worlds. In fact, Minecraft's blocky, pixelated, procedurally generated worlds have become some of the most beloved environments for players, as they're able to create, collaborate and imprint themselves onto the space.

Imagine if you took Minecraft's mechanics and aesthetics, and told a compelling narrative about environmentalism? Dragon Quest Builders 1 & 2 (pictured left) contain emotional stories of destruction and restoration, which then supplement the building mechanics and motivations of the player. The additional gimmick of recycling and reusing elements within a world of ruin adds creative, player-driven opportunities to sandbox and tell their own stories through play.

3. Visually Representing Narrative Progress

Players might forget the sunny Delfino Plaza of Mario: Sunshine (pictured below) begins the game cast in shadow. It's through Mario's progress collecting Shines that the town's jovial, iconic sunshine returns.

The plaza's original dark state creates an oppressive atmosphere, priming the albeit barebones narrative with ample motivations. The sunshine is restored gradually, serving as a visual representation of player progress, while also providing a carrot-on-the-stick to look forward to once the Plaza is full of sunshine and those iconic, happy, Mario vibes.

Like with destroying your game world, beautifying it can add longevity to the spaces you've already designed. Dragon Quest VII (pictured right) gives players two versions of the same place: one in the distant past and one in the present day. Each town in the past is a vignette type story involving some sort of cataclysmic event that the player must prevent.

In the example images to the right, we find a town plagued by demonic rain, turning the town's inhabitants to stone and killing the vegetation. Through a series of puzzles, battles and set pieces, the evil is banished and the town "restored." The bottom image shows that same environment in the present: now lush with vegetation, yet still lonely.

Each town follows a similar story of preservation, whereby the player's actions fix a ruined land. Using the same space twice can be exciting for players, especially when you've changed those spaces' context, mood, or beauty.

Similarly Suikoden II (pictured left), reimagines the dilapidated town of North Window—overrun by monsters and the infamous vampire, Neclord—into the game's main HQ. By recruiting new characters to your army, the town is further restored, marking narrative progress and reinforcing the game's themes of protection, unity and recovery.

Tip: Practice designing environments, i.e. dungeons, that can serve a dual utility.

In Conclusion:

Environmentalism is a powerful, important and relevant topic to discuss in your video game's narrative. Games—big or small—can approach this idea in a myriad of ways. Maybe you destroy a world of peace, or restore a world a ruin, but whichever you decide is best for your game, players should be an active participant in that change through their own play.

Allowing players to beautify the game world grants opportunities for the player's self-expression, while providing intrinsic motivations to return to and invest in your world and property. Set clear environmental stakes, design an evolving world, and your game space will be brimming with life.

Questions for the Reader:

1. For fans of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, or base building games, what motivates you to keep coming back every day/week/month?

2. Beyond "building games," what other genres lend themselves to environmental stories?

3. When do video game chores become unfun? Where is the line in which they become a barrier rather than a motivator?

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Jacob Conner Harris is a writer currently doing business as MSLA Creative. Please reach out on LinkedIn or at mslacreative.com to discover how Jacob can help your game's narrative succeed.