preface
The first time I played Azure, I was quickly dissuaded by the difficulty of the game. Not long ago, perhaps because of the depression, I remembered this game, although I hadn't played much before, I remembered that the theme of the game was about "depression", so I was ready to play it again. Magically, it didn't take long to get started this time, and as I learned more and more about the character's story, I gradually felt the charm of this game.
Some players say that Azure provides a new way to deal with negative emotions, and in the process of challenging difficult levels, the mood will gradually become clearer as you play through the level. After dying nearly 10,000 times and finally playing the first seven chapters, I can still empathize with the statement that the game can improve my mood. The ability to create this wonderful experience for players stems from the clever fusion of the level and narrative of the Azure game, each sub-level is designed around the story, and all the sub-levels are combined to form the narrative and game experience of the chapter.
Before talking about "Azure" in detail, let's share a few stories about "mountains".
1. The movie "Free Solo" records Alex's experience of climbing the Chieftain Rock at an altitude of 2307 meters with his bare hands, and after preparing in 2009 and trying thousands of times, he finally reached the top. Asked why he climbed with his bare hands, he said: "In my mother's eyes, no matter how well I did, it didn't seem so good to her. The resulting self-loathing was part of what prompted me to climb with my bare hands. The main driving force stems from the pursuit of the ultimate experience of life.
2. In the 118th episode of the podcast "Sooner or Later Update", anchor Ren Ning said when talking about the feeling of climbing the Kumano Ancient Road: "Here (the mountain) can not only hone his body, but also fully appreciate his cowardice, laziness and retreat. ”
3, the founder of the fat pudding game, Little Cotton, mentioned in a speech that in the most frustrated stage of his life, his brother's advice to him was to find a "mountain" to climb.
4. Writer Brianna Wiest named one of her books "The Mountain Is You.",
A passage from the introductory:
“For centuries, the mountain has been used as a metaphor for the big challenges we face, especially ones that seem impossible to overcome. To scale our mountains, we actually have to do the deep internal work of excavating trauma, building resilience, and adjusting how we show up for the climb. In the end, it is not the mountain we master, but ourselves.”
"For centuries, mountains have been used as a metaphor for the great challenges we face, especially those things that seem simply insurmountable. In order to climb that mountain, we need to dig up the wounds in the inner world, build resilience, and adjust the climbing posture. The final summit is no longer important, because in the process, we have surpassed our past selves. ”
The "mountain" that appears above has another meaning. The game's Blue Mountain also has a "magic" that unleashes the dark side of the climber himself, with the player constantly confronting and talking to him on the way to the mountain until he finally reconciles with him.
First, excellent operating feel
"Azure" has four modes of operation: "move, jump, sprint, climb", there is no numerical level of upgrades and item buff system, the only way for players to become stronger is through continuous practice, gradually become proficient in the use of these four actions.
Game Maker's Toolkit, in the video "Why Does Celeste Feel So Good To Play," divides the "run" of a platform-hopping game character into three processes: acceleration — maximum speed — deceleration. If the acceleration time is too long, the character's action will become sluggish; if the deceleration time is too long, it will cause a sense of slippage when stopping.
Madeline in sports is an athlete who controls his body freely.
Compared to other platform-hopping characters, Madeline's "acceleration" and "deceleration" take less time, with little sense of motion inertia, and players can start and stop characters with agility. Madeline's jump height is about 3 times the height, which is lower than the same type of game characters, but shortens the time for the character to jump and fall, also to make the operation more agile. There is still enough time to stay in the air during the descent process, allowing the player to adjust the character's position and land in a safe area.
"Dash" is the core skill of Madeline, players can sprint in up to 8 directions, because the arrow keys of the handle are prone to errors when operating, and the need to find a foothold immediately after the sprint, so the sprint skill will bring a sense of instability to the player, and the player needs to stay focused when using this skill.
Restrictions on Movement:
If you run out of stamina during the climb, the character will fall. Instead of showing the player the character's stamina, the game uses flashes of the character's body to indicate it. When the character's physical strength is exhausted, because it is not known how much stamina is left, the player will become nervous, and when the emotion is mobilized, the player will be more involved in the behavior of the moment. After using the 1 Dash skill, the character's hair will change from red to blue, indicating that the player cannot sprint again, and can only return to the plane to restore the sprint ability. This way, players will be more cautious about using sprint skills and planning courses of action.
Second, the exquisite level design
Developer Matt talked about designing the game's levels and was inspired by the sport of rock climbing. When climbing, people will choose different routes according to their own conditions, but they will eventually reach the end.
The levels in the game also follow this "multi-route" design. As shown in the above level, the player has at least 3 ways to pass. In terms of operation, players also have a variety of options, in some levels, aggressive players can use "sprint" to pass the level, conservative players can also use "jump + climb" can also pass.
The difficult levels of "Azure" have extremely high requirements for the accuracy of player operations, which is mainly reflected in the "level structure" and "level elements".
1. Stressful level structure
The game has fewer flat areas, and most of the time players need to climb and jump in vertical space. With limited physical strength, characters will fall if they climb for too long, requiring the player to make a choice in a short period of time. Each small level of the game is a screen size, and the levels are fixed and do not move with the character, so that the player can focus on the character.
Speaking about the level design at the GDC sharing session, developer Matt said, "Without that tension, the story of climbing that rock wouldn't be fun. ”
He took the above level as an example, when testing, he found that the process of jumping on the upper left platform was too flat, so he added two spikes on the left side of the platform, so that when the player jumped up, the mood would be more nervous. This design concept, which runs through the entire level of the game, is also the reason why players find the "Azure" level compact and challenging.
In the level above, the width of the space for the player to sprint upwards is almost the same size as the character's body, and the character can only sprint upwards just below the gap so that he does not touch the spikes around him. For example, when passing this level, the character needs to sprint to point A first, and when he uses his inertia to reach the crystal directly below, he must immediately sprint upwards, and then cannot sprint to the left immediately, because the distance of the sprint will exceed the position directly below the next crystal, requiring the player to use a short fall time to reach the vicinity of point B, and then immediately sprint to the left, and when it reaches the crystal directly below, then immediately sprint upwards. The structure of the "Azure" level is a great test of the player's ability to connect and cooperate with several actions and the grasp of timing.
2. Level elements with different characteristics
Players will constantly encounter new level elements during the game, which are closely related to the structure of the level, and new elements continue to appear, avoiding the duplication of the player's game experience. From the first chapter to the seventh chapter, the increase in the difficulty of the game gives people the feeling that it is not continuous, but fresh, which also shows that the levels of "Azure" are full of creativity and playability.
The first chapter appears as "Teleporter". Characters can use the inertia generated when they reach an endpoint with the help of a portal to gain a strong thrust to reach a distant target point.
In the second chapter, "Quick Jelly" appears. Players can quickly travel through the quick jelly, but if the exit is next to an obstacle, the character will be killed, testing the player's route planning ability.
The third chapter appears as the "Trap Platform" (the green box section), where once the character stands on it, the platform will spawn deadly slime for a short time, and the player can only use this as a temporary jumping platform.
The level elements that appear in the next few chapters are no longer stated one by one. But the same point is that it is extremely challenging to test the accuracy of the player's operation, the proficiency of the action connection and the ability to judge the timing. The cost of death in Azure is extremely low, and it will be revived immediately after death, and even the game music has not changed. Sometimes I feel that I can pass a certain level, purely because of too many deaths, and the success is entirely because of luck, but when I die thousands of times, I am not surprised by "lucky", probably because I know that my ability is very close, even if I fail this time, I will definitely succeed in a later time.
Third, narrative-driven level design
Although Azure is a platform jumping game, its narrative is excellent. The developers said in their 2017 GDC sharing: "Every level is like a little story. For example, the character jumps over a spike, rushes upwards over the suspension, and then climbs to safety. "Each level is designed based on the story, and each level consists of chapters that make up the direction of the game's plot. In addition, although the number of NPCs in the game is small, each person has a very personal personality, and in the process of interacting with them, the player gradually understands Madeline and the entire story.
In the second chapter, Madeline encounters Dark Madeline, and in the conversation between the two, the player learns that Dark Madeline is the dark side of the character, and Azure Mountain gives Dark Madeline a shell, and Medeline must face it this time.
Dark Madeline introduced herself as she said, "I'm the other you. Madeline replied: "Why does the other one I look so weird?" Here it can be seen that Madeline has some contempt for the existence of Dark Madeline, and when Madeline decided to reject Dark Madeline's proposal to cancel the mountain climb, Dark Madeline began to pursue Madeline fiercely, and the close combination of "Azure" gameplay and narrative can also be seen here. Madeline is determined to climb to the top of the mountain at the same time, but also the sound of retreat in the heart, this inner contradiction and struggle, through the chase between the two let the player deeply understand.
In the third chapter, Madeline arrives at a dilapidated hotel and meets the ghostly innkeeper, who decides to set aside his goal of climbing the mountain for the time being and clean up his room for him. The obstacle That Madeline encounters in this chapter is a black-red substance that is released from the innkeeper's body, and cleaning up the room is a metaphor for cleaning up the innkeeper's chaotic emotions. But instead of what Madeline had thought, she inflicted harm on the innkeeper and was greeted with a fierce attack. One of the ideas the game here is trying to convey is that in order to avoid harming others, we should prioritize ourselves.
In the fourth chapter, theo asks Madeline to imagine a feather in front of her eyes, and to maintain the stability of the feather by breathing evenly, echoing a line at the beginning of the game: Just Breath. In the final level, the feather element also appears, and the player needs to control the flight of the feather, requiring the player to be cautious while paying attention to relaxation.
In chapter six, Madeline describes his feelings of depression to theo this way: "I sank to the bottom of the ocean, I couldn't see anything in any direction, it was like claustrophobia, but at the same time I felt unobstructed... There must be something wrong with me. In the chat with theo, Madeline seemed to understand that she should let go of The Dark Madeline, and when she personally told Dark Madeline to let her go, Dark Madeline was completely enraged and began to attack Madelien more violently, cutting off madeline's imaginary feathers in an instant. Madeline fell to the bottom of the mountain in this attack, and everything needed to be started all over again.
At the foot of the mountain, Madelien meets the old woman again, and at her prompting, Madelien realizes for the first time that the dark Madeline, although it is acting arbitrarily, is actually very afraid of this climb. This time she is finally ready to talk to the Dark Madeline, so the two sides of the chase are reversed, and Madeline begins to chase the escaped Dark Madeline, and the player seems to be given a sense of self-redemption at this moment. The process of reconciliation is not easy, dark Madeline incarnated as a long-haired witch, constantly attacking Madeline with lasers and cannonballs, which also shows the clever combination of "Azure" gameplay and narrative. When Madeline finally impresses Dark Madeline, the two merge into one, Madeline gains the skill of the second sprint, and the next climb will make the player feel much easier, implying that when accepting his bad side, he will become stronger.
In the seventh chapter of the game, Madeline finally reached the top of the mountain, the game did not create a so-called highlight moment for the player at this moment, the dark Madeline still exists, and Madeline did not get any life answers. But after all this, some things have changed forever, and Madeline began to understand that the most effective way to love herself is to accept everything in herself.
The lines in the game are also worth recalling, such as Madeline using only a few short words to let the player experience the feeling of depression in her body. The way NPCs speak is also very interesting, the content is either philosophical or cute and funny, even if you chat with theo under the night sky, it will make people feel very warm.
epilogue
"Azure" is a very hard to play, even a little lonely game, but at the same time it is warm, the player follows the footsteps of Madeline, constantly inward to explore the negative emotions that have been avoided or despised by themselves, it must be admitted that these negative emotions are also part of ourselves, can not be eliminated by "letting go" and "overcoming", the only thing that can be done is to accept and listen to them, so that we can live in peace.
Finally, a small poem found in the game is attached:
phantom
It's not out of this world
But born out of this world
Lurking outside the order
Wake up, my heart is a fortress
I am vulnerable in dreams
Resources:
1.《Level Design Workshop_ Designing Celeste》
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1XW411z7D4?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0
2.《Celeste taught fans and its own creator to take better care of themselves》
https://kotaku.com/celeste-taught-fans-and-its-own-creator-to-take-better-1825305692
3.《Why Does Celeste Feel So Good to Play?》
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1M441197sr?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click