Minigames

It's common to see minigames these days. But how should they be defined?

To me, 'minigame' means embedding a distinctly separate game within the structure of the main game. I've got several thoughts about what makes a minigame good or bad.

Minigames can be very simple, even to the point that they're trivial to complete. They're not the main attraction but a source of variety. Even if a minigame can be completed by rote, the action of doing that can be still be fun. If a minigame gets too involved, it can annoy players.

Minigames should be 'easy'. Often the minigame is of a completely different mode of play to the main game. You shouldn't rely on the player being proficient in a style of game widely different genre to the one they have chosen to play. If you make the minigame 'difficult', then it becomes an obstacle to enjoyment for those players. Even if the style of the minigame is very similar to the main game, there's no guarantee it will be be any good. If a minigame takes too many attempts to complete, it can easily outstay its welcome and instead of providing variety, it provides discouragement.

Similarly, it's better to restrict such minigames to one part of the main game. A minigame that keeps rearing its head over and over again, or at length, is very likely to become tiresome. Tying a minigame to a specific location or a specific context makes it seem more meaningful. Attaching it the every location/part of the game just because you can can easily ruin it. Less is more. (I'm looking at you, card-game-embedded-in-an-RPG. Hang your head in shame.)

It's also better to integrate the minigame into the main game somehow. If the minigame is just an add-on, an optional part of the game the player can indulge in, why not make it a separate game? Make it a free game, even. Integration gives the player a reason to do the minigame, to advance their main progress somehow. It also provides a finite horizon for when they have done 'enough' of it, at least for now. A free-floating minigame runs the risk of either being ignored, or diverting the player into the minigame instead of the main game for an extended period.

Another factor to consider is the user interface for the minigame. Wherever possible, the minigame should use whatever interface would usually be supplied for its type, rather than trying to re-purpose an interface already in the game. A game with a branching conversation tree system can be pressed into service to emulate a card game, but the degree of indirection involved makes it awkward to use. If you're working within the limitations of an existing game engine, you need to think long and hard about whether you can do your minigame idea justice at all.

Note that I don't consider games made up of two or more layers to include minigames. X-Com games, for example, have both the tactical battles and the base management. Neither is really a minigame, not so much due to complexity as to the way the two complement each other.

By my definition, I've included one minigame in Splintered Realms Dizzy. It's simple. It's a type of puzzle not too dissimilar to the item puzzles of the rest of the game, and not too difficult. It's used in only one realm out of the eight and I rustled up a whole new menu interface for it.

I hope it's received well; but of course you can never know. Even if it isn't liked, once it's dealt with it's dealt with and the player moves on.