Verb-Oriented Gameplay

A style of gameplay from some of my favorite games but I rarely see in any discussion is verb-oriented gameplay. This is my favorite way to design control schemes and I want to talk about what it is exactly, why I think it’s so good, how it can be used to design gameplay, and how it can affect gameplay.

What is verb-oriented gameplay?

Imagine a typical controller for any console and every button the player has to press during gameplay. Now imagine every button representing a simple verb for what the player can do during gameplay. For example the player can run, jump, attack, or crouch and every one of these verbs is mapped to a separate button. That is the base of verb-oriented gameplay.

That’s pretty simple but there’s a twist to this kind of gameplay that makes it exciting. Think back to elementary school math classes and remember lessons about the order of operations. Verb-oriented gameplay also follows a similar order of operations. Using the same above example, if a player inputs “jump” plus “attack” the result will be a midair attack, or “run” plus “crouch” plus “attack” could result in a sliding kick. This order of operations is what adds depth to the gameplay and gives players choices about the actions they perform.

Verb-oriented gameplay in action

Super Mario 64 is one of the best and oldest examples of this kind of gameplay design being implemented. What works so well about this is that every action Mario can perform is grounded in reality and easy for players to understand. Looking at only three button on the controller Mario can jump, crouch, and attack. Any combination of these inputs results in a realistic action that makes sense from the combination of those verbs. If you jumped and kicked in real life it would probably look like Mario's high kick. To do a backflip in real life you'd have to crouch low and then jump just like in the game. This kind of control scheme is easy to understand because every button does the same action and players can conclude what a combination of actions result in based on their understanding of what a jump followed by an attack might look like. Even when the actions are unrealistic, like how crouching after jumping results in Mario doing a butt slam, players can still make an educated guess about the outcome.

Not a perfect design solution

This may be my favorite way to design control schemes but there are certain cons to this kind of thinking. This kind of gameplay has a small niche and doesn’t work for every game. It's best suited for action oriented gameplay rather than methodical gameplay, I can't even think of how this might work for an RTS or CRPG. It can also greatly increase development time when overdone. If four actions can be combined in any combination that means over 340 unique actions can be executed and need to made by the developers.

What’s very valuable about this kind of design is how easy it can be to understand and the depth it adds to gameplay. As I talked about in the Mario 64 section, when results from a combination of verbs are grounded in reality, players can quickly understand or come to conclusions about how a combination of inputs create new actions. Also players can quickly understand what every input means when it’s tied to a simple verb such as jump or attack. More experienced designers than myself have written about good gameplay being a result of a player’s ability to plan. With so many actions the player can perform, more opportunities to achieve a goal are opened up and a better ability to plan is given to the player. This added depth can make the player perceive a better gameplay experience.