Beginners in game development regularly ask what a designer does, and the best answer I've seen is they solve the door problem, meaning they understand and plan for the incredible complexities of “simple” actions. New developers will often hear this and immediately say “That’s stupid, just make a door.” So, I wanted to explain how badly I've solved the door problem in First Person Stapler so people can see how easy it is to screw up.
I knew I wanted this game to be silly and chaotic. I already had a kick mechanic (that you can read more about here) designed for kicking wheelie chairs, copy machines, boxes, etc. So, I built the doors purely based on physics, just a slab on a hinge-joint. I let the player kick each one in like they were a SWAT team breaching a door, and given the point of the game is to go through and clear targets like a CQB target range, door kicking fit the theme.
The problem is, players are really bad at kicking in doors. I designed them and built them, and understanding that both the player's leg and the doors themselves are actually working as physical objects I figured out pretty quickly how to kick in the doors. You have to stand a foot or two back so your leg can build momentum, and aim for the spot just under the handle, as far away from both hinge-joints as possible to get the best swing. I've been play-testing the game with that knowledge the whole time and never had any issues I've had to address, aside from the door sometimes bouncing back and hitting the player in the face. I've left it because I mostly find it funny.
Now that the game is out in the wild, people are not understanding these doors. They're running straight up to them, smearing their face right into the hinge as close as possible, and trying to kick them open like the woman from Kill Bill doing the one-inch punch out of the coffin. Half the streamers I've watched have been concluding certain doors are locked, or fake, or need story moments to open them because they've unsuccessfully kicked at the door jamb and moved on when it didn't open.
I’ve already changed the tutorial to include a portion on optimal door kicking distance and targeting, and after watching people blow past that, I've added three different doors into the tutorial all with the same instructions. In the next build, I'm going there is going to be an in-game feedback mechanic to praise the player for good kicks and disparage them for bad kicks. Hopefully slowly training them to do it right, or at least explaining to them when they do a bad job that the door isn't locked or broken.
If that mechanic fails, I'm going to have to take all the fun out of it and make it a boring old door that opens with an animation when the player interacts with it.
So, this is how I failed in my door designs for First Person Stapler and all the extra work I've had to put into the game just to teach players how to open my stupid doors. If you want to see their stupidity in action, check out the in-browser version of the game on Itch, or if you want to see the more polished training mechanic, wishlist the game on Steam.
