Media Cultures

Game Analysis by Elaine Fu

In Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design, games have four basic elements: mechanics, story, aesthetics, and technology, and It Takes Two is a perfect illustration of this concept. In every aspect, it is a game with strong artistic design.

As the appearance, sound, smell, taste, and feeling of the game, aesthetics has the most direct impact on the player’s experience, and people often judge whether a game is worth playing based on the first look at the game’s graphics. In It Takes Two, the combination and use of color are very attractive to the player, it can convey information and emotion. For example, the green color of the tree hole, the white color of the snow globe, and the bronze color of the clock can reflect the information. They are created based on reality. In the fantasy part of the game, some colors rarely appear in reality are widely used, which is very dreamy and romantic. In the game, each level is equivalent to a “theme park”, the game itself has a kind of exquisite painting style of Disney, and the objects are personified, so that the whole game has a fairy tale fantasy style.

In addition to the color, what’s more, worth mentioning is its camera language. The game was produced by Josef Fares, who has a background as a director and has worked on more than 50 short films. During the game, the player not only feels that it is a game, but it is also more like a movie, and they can have the experience of watching a movie during the game interaction. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that the camera motion in the game, not only the cinematic shot in the game CG but also the interactive operation of two screens combined into one. Instead of the traditional first-person or third-person perspective, It Takes Two develops a more interesting perspective based on it. Spiraling while riding a spider, giddy while fighting in an airplane, side-scrolling, and overhead angles in an ARPG. The many different game perspective makes this interactive game experience cinematic.

When it comes to the mechanic of It Takes Two, it’s the two-player co-op that was rarely seen in the game market a few years ago. It’s a true two-player game, with cooperation and competition, platform jumping, and multiple puzzles. The main mechanic in the game is platform jumping, and every level’s mechanic is built on top of it with some new content. The puzzle is then solved by both players. All game levels require both players to complete. Whenever you lose another player, you lose the main object of interaction, and the interactive experience at the core of the game will collapse, just like a pair of chopsticks without one, you will never be able to pick up food. The competitive aspect can be found in mini-games, where players can challenge reflexes with whack-a-mole or outwit them in chess.

The best thing about two-player games is that they allow two people to focus on each other. In other words, the interaction between two players is the most important interaction experience in that kind of game. To facilitate and achieve this interaction, the interactive logic of the game and the way through the game will be changed. To give players the ability and space to collaborate, at the start of It Takes Two, there is a switch that can only be pulled if two players are interacting at the same time. This switch is the one that opens the path to the next level. This design makes the player cannot avoid it in a single situation and must wait for another player to interact with it. In the actual play experience, both players can feel that the two of them are indispensable, I need you, you also need me, rather than you or I are both dependent.

The whole game process is the feedback of the player’s cognition and actions. The level provides the player intending to challenge and a special means to achieve that goal, and the player relies on his cognition, actions, and judgment to complete the level. The player’s knowledge of their abilities and the element of the level is necessary to complete the goals of the level. Therefore, the core challenge of a level for the player is the match between the thinking and handling abilities of the player and the challenge, which is the process of finding the right and effective solution to solve the puzzle.

The setting story for It Takes Two is both cliche and inventive, and the narrative structure is a simple “cutscene-levels-cutscene-levels ” loop. It’s a story about a couple of parents who are getting divorced but through a series of game levels gradually understand each other and finally get back together. If you win the game, it will have a happy ending.

The last is technical support. Although the whole process is only more than ten hours, every scene uses almost real texture and light and shadow effects, as well as modeling materials without repetition. Each “theme park” has many unique buildings, NPCs, and mini games. In It Takes Two, many of the main cities are just temporary stops for the player to wander around, rest and visit. Soon the player will continue the adventure and never return to these places. The first time I played the game, I was blown away by the detail of the scene and the size of the map. Some of them even change the way I think about game development. I used to think that one of the big issues in game design is to increase the reuse rate of material, to do the most with the least resources, and to “maximize revenue”. But It Takes Two whose design philosophy is “players should always be fresh, and switch to something new as soon as they get bored.” This philosophy of maintaining a high experience at all costs is supported by the technical prowess of the team.