Toys in games: The 5 Hour Rule and Systemic Synergy.

In the last few newsletters, I’ve used the term toys, which I previously defined as:

This is an important definition when figuring out our player progression and Minimal Viable Content. I first developed this definition when working at Roll7, where I was using it to calculate viable playtime and how long we should expect players to stay engaged with the game. I thought I would go over those principles today, as they came in super handy when developing new concepts.

Sizing up new ideas: Playtime

We can estimate playtime expectations based upon price in our chosen genre and weigh that against the budget we need. This gives us a way by which we can calculate our content needs.

However, knowing the amount of content is only half the battle. We want to make sure that the game is still engaging for players so they actually use all of this expensive content that we’re making. We also want to make sure that we are using our resources in the best way. This is where systemic synergy comes in.

Systemic Synergy: The 5 hour rule

What I mean by systemic synergy is quite simply when two different mechanics (or toys) work together in such a way that the combination of them gives a new, third toy. This is ideal game design and we should always be striving for this.

Based upon my own research and calculations, a single, well developed and sizeable toy will give around 5 hours of gameplay before players start to get bored.

Example 1

A quick example of this is PS2 action platformers, like the Jak and Daxter games. They would use a combination of the core game (platforming) with frequent mini games or alternate mechanics to keep players engaged (driving etc). These toys didn’t link together at all, so we look something like:

5 hours (core) + 5 hours (side A) + 5 hours (side B) = 15 hours

The problem here becomes obvious. You’re essentially making three different games and stitching them together into one thing. This approach is still common. It is very expensive and not sustainable, you aren’t making the most of your development time with this approach.

Example 2

Better examples are often games with emergent gameplay. Let’s look at the Legend of Zelda games. Even from earlier titles, these games had this figured out.

The base of zelda is essentially platforming and hitting stuff. They could have stopped there and the game would have still been fun, but with no gadgets ocarina of time would likely have got boring after 5 hours.

But, new toys come into play that interact with each other. Bombs can be thrown, or arrows can hit enemies that would be impossible or dangerous to hit with the sword. over time these systems build up into a complex gameplay loop where each piece complements another. Of course, they mastered this principle in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, which also have huge playtimes which are engaging throughout.

These examples follow a different formula.

Toy A x Toy B = Toy AB

5 hours (toy A) + 5 hours (toy B) + 5 hours (Toy AB) = 15 hours

With good systemic synergy, A and B are fused together, forming a new toy that from a development perspective is almost free. This can compound too and add a huge amount of depth to your game for comparatively little cost, in comparison to the Jak and Daxter model.

Conclusion

When creating new ideas and trying to work out whether players will stay engaged for the whole thing, consider the 5 hour rule, and think hard about how your systems interlock.

This has two big advantages:

1. You can hit target gameplay times on a lower budget.

2. Less waste: There is no point making content hardly anyone will use.

In my experience, this rule trumps the rules of content calculation. Figuring out that to hit 25 hours your game needs 50 levels is all well and good, but if that game is a single toy game, you are going to have a lot of frustrated players, and you aren’t offering good value. This doesn’t mean starting over though, adjust your price point and content accordingly, if you think the toy is really great.

There are other ways to boost these figures too, but that will be covered another time.