Using Collectables as Tools

Collectables within games have gone through many transformations throughout the years. They've appeared as main quests, side quests, tickets to hidden areas, extra achievements and for unlocking rare items. All of these can be tools to increase the quality of the game.

One of my earliest memories of collectable items was in the Spyro game series where, in the first game, the gems are part of the main quests as they were used solely to progress into other worlds. They later developed the purpose of the gems in Spyro 2 by adding a power-up when 10,000 gems were collected. This was developed further again in Spyro 3 by adding a bonus level into the game, increasing the total playtime for the game.

Collectables have been used, for many years, as tools to enhance the player's experience and increase the value of the games themselves. This is no less true today, although now there must be a balance between the benefits for consumer and developer.

Having collectables gives the opportunity for more achievements/trophies the player can unlock which increase the value of the game and makes the selling price seem more worth it. However, does adding these collectables add value to the player's overall experience of the game. Games have developed a lot since the basic fetch-quest collectable system of the earlier Assassin's Creeds and other similar games whereas now players want a more exciting approach to collectables.

Collectables can also be used by the developers as a tool during production in more ways than one. After X amount of collectables have been found, gifting the player with certain abilities/items that can help them along the way, gives the player incentive to search for the collectables and allows for the creation of a new and interesting game mechanic. A good example of this is in Alien Isolation; the blueprints for more tools/weapons and, later on, improvements of these tools pushes the player to explore in order to help them complete the game easier.

As well as providing new mechanics, they can be used as a world-building tool by enticing players to explore the environment, which can then be turned into dioramas hinting at the story of the world the player is exploring. Areas can also be built around a collectable in order to make the player notice an asset that may be of use to the player. Once again Alien Isolation's Nostromo Logs provide the character with something of interest by delivering more lore.

Both of these push the player to explore more of the world, find other secrets and gain useful utilities.

Since collectables are developing to provide a more quality games experience, this gives me an avenue to explore the value of these assets within the world and connecting it to the amount of work is necessary for items like these.