Often, when one sits down to think about video games, it is easy to be tempted to think that more is better; more content, more duration, more missions, more objects, more micropayments ... well, this last one maybe not so much. However, parallel to this escalation of content so typical of the AAA industry can be said otherwise; design by subtraction .
Many will hear the expression for the work of Fumito Ueda as a result of his talk at the GDC in 2002. The subtraction as the main design tool seeks, precisely, to leave to the minimum the skeleton and the mechanical structure of your game with the intention of Maximize your emotion, message or background. Why have four weapons if you can do the same with one? For what twelve skills can there be two? Less is more and go that can be.
If to this design by subtraction we add one of the main ideas coined by Anna Anthropy in her A Game Design Vocabulary we have a first structure for Minit. The author, when talking about design, establishes the need to know perfectly the main verb of your game and reduce to the maximum the inclusion of redundant mechanics or that could be replaced by the use of that same verb: keep it simple .
Content
Minit is a game that has filed its asperities to the maximum and reduced its verbs to the minimum expression of an adventure title . In a similar way as Titan Souls (another maximum exponent of design by subtraction), the possibilities of the genre are reduced; an object in the hands at the same time, a possible action without jumping, somersaults, dash or blocking ... simple, fast and deadly need.
Deadly need because Minit gives a twist to the design by subtraction to reduce even the constant playing time we will have as players; one minute; sixty seconds That's the duration of our protagonist's life because of a cursed sword that, like a kind of King Arthur with bad Karma, finds on a shore. The curse of the sword will make us die exactly every sixty seconds.
This obligation of a minute = a life does not cease to be a kind of reinterpretation of the design by subtraction of Ueda taken to one of the most difficult terrains of the game; the time When speaking, speaking as one-on-one people, we understand the morpheme as the minimum unit of lexical or grammatical meaning and that it can not be divided into smaller meaningful units. If we transfer this linguistic concept to the genre of adventures one poses ... what is the minimum that one does in a title of these characteristics? Find an object? Open a new path? Find an NPC? Defeat an enemy? Basically, in games within Zelda's sphere of influence, the least that one expects to do with meaning within their game is one of the things mentioned.
In its own way, also assumes it by filling its game space with actions of this type; find objects, defeat enemies, reach a new place ... practically every minute we do something. Exactly, every minute. Minit transforms the action of discovering, which could summarize all of the above, into the minimum unit of meaning for its game and limits it in a minute (and if we complete the game it does so in 40 seconds). One minute is, for Nijman, more than necessary time for the player to perform an action with meaning and importance in Mint ... and, well, it is. If you search through networks you will find the odd video of players who have perfected their actions so much that they complete Minit in 25 minutes, that is, 25 well-measured actions.
Game Structure
Mint is, in its own right, one of the best greased titles of recent months. Before sitting in front of it one does not do more than think about how many traps the game will play to sustain a development in 60-second pills; the answer is none. It does not need it because everything is built around that minimal unit of meaning. With each life, if we have used it well, we will achieve an object or shortcut that will allow us to advance a little further in less time. No cheating or cardboard; only good design and education of the player.
Returning now to the idea of Anthropy on mechanics we will find that Minit is taken to the letter and there is only one verb; hit with our sword . Although the action of hitting varies if we carry a bone, a watering can, a photo camera ... everything is the same button and beyond the movement crosshead we will not need any other interaction with our environment. Everything is resolved with a single button that will vary depending on what we carry in our hands and what we have in front of us. If we carry a sword and there is an enemy we will attack, if there is a tree we will cut it or if there is a switch we will press it. Simple and effective
To this reduction of mechanics the title adds a brief inventory that will simply affect the possibilities of our mechanics. We do not have objects that we can use beyond what we carry in our hands and everything we collect that can be useful will be used automatically in case of need allowing us to increase our actions; for example, without the gardening glove we can not cut down trees and without cutting trees that short path, it is really a long journey through the desert (attention, this may be literal).
There is only one small exception to this that reinforces Minit's design; we have a second button that we can use to end our lives and reset the minute in our home. The game, fully aware of the importance of the concept; an action in one minute allows you to save thirty seconds of waiting in case of error. Because in just a few minutes our brain and way of playing will have adapted to the proposal of Minit and our internal metronome will have adjusted to the game. We will be surprised knowing perfectly if we will have enough seconds for what we want to do or if, on the contrary, it would be a good idea to reset the minute and look for a shorter route.
Game Details
Developers : JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom
Publisher : Devolver Digital
Designers : Jan Willem Nijman, Kitty Calis, Jukio Kallio, Dominik Johann
Artist : Dominik Johann
Composer : Jukio Kallio
Engine-> GameMaker: Studio
Platform : Microsoft Windows, macOS,
Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Release Date : 3 April 2018
Genre: Adventure
Mode : Single-player
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 x86/x64
Processor: Intel Pentium D 830 (2* 3000) or equivalent / AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2600) or equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 7600 GS (256 MB) / Radeon HD 2400 PRO (256 MB)
Storage: 200 MB available space
Mac OS X
MINIMUM:
OS: Mac OS X 10.9 or later
Processor: Intel Pentium D 830 (2* 3000) or equivalent / AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2600) or equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 7600 GS (256 MB) / Radeon HD 2400 PRO (256 MB)
Storage: 200 MB available space
SteamOS + Linux
MINIMUM:
OS: Ubuntu 16.04 or higher
Processor: Intel Pentium D 830 (2* 3000) or equivalent / AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2600) or equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 7600 GS (256 MB) / Radeon HD 2400 PRO (256 MB)
Storage: 200 MB available space
Conclusion
Minit's design work ends up molding the player's mind in the same way that knowing one or another language modifies our thinking. We all know it design proposal but we can quickly forget what we know to play Minit because everything costs seconds and literally steals our lives; we avoid useless confrontations because it does not make sense to lose those two seconds of hitting and we even ignore NPCs that, like the old man in the lighthouse, may take too long to talk ... We only have sixty seconds to do something, it's better worth it.
Minit reduces to the maximum its mechanical skeleton to bring out the importance of a good design of mechanics, times and actions. Everything that is futile is non-existent or an impediment to the proper functioning of the game. Each movement and action cost precious seconds and mastering something as complex as our rhythm of play is the key, making Minit a perfect tool for you to reflect on the way you play.
Happy Gaming!!!