The Viewing Experience of Tetris

[kastle09]

Introduction

Why Online video is Important

Who are the makers/watchers of online video

Shaping the game
[blockquote]•    Technology
          •    Art
          •    Design[/blockquote]
_____________________________________________________________

Introduction
A bit of time ago I made a post regarding the state of Tetris as an e-sport where I listed a few issues we currently experience and what would need to change in order to gain any sort of mainstream recognition. Some of those points were more relevant than others but a big one was the Spectator aspect. It's not something a lot of game developers consider but how the game is watched rather than how it's played is what gains an audience. Tetris suffers from a fundamental problem of "how to make falling blocks exciting".
So here I'm going to reiterate a talk that someone in the StarCraft scene made, Sean "Day[9]" Plott, and his talk about Observer friendly Interface. Some of the stuff (Especially at the beginning) may seem very very very idiotically obvious to you if you have any sort of presence in the online space, However I'll talk about it anyway just in case people didn't know there was more things to do on the internet than go to Harddrop, look at their emails, and watch hours of you know what. Also to have a solid reasoning for why this is important if anyone wasn't aware how big a market there is for watching other people play video games.
In a way this is also a bit of an open letter to Ubisoft because I'm kind of backing Tetris Ultimate to make any sort of dent in mainstream gaming.

Why Online video is Important
To talk about online video you have to first address the elephants in the room, Twitch.tv and YouTube.
So what content do people watch on these platforms and why do they watch it?
The content can range a great deal from E-Sports tournaments where players are able to display their skill in a chosen multiplayer title. Tournaments such as "The International", a Dota 2 tournament that sold out the Key Arena in Seattle and offered up to 10 million in prize money, have an appeal not to dissimilar to regular sporting events.
Another kind of content is commentated gameplay, where a streamer will narrate his experience while playing. This narration can vary from humour, tutorials or topics unrelated to the game itself. Most often people will watch videos because the personality of the content creator is engaging, whether it's because of his extensive knowledge on the game, a humorous take on it, or because maybe he is just voice is incredibly soothing.
In 2013 Twitch boasted 45 Million unique viewers per month. In addition the most active and largest section of YouTube is the gaming space.
With the rise of online video there is an easy, free way to advertise games and cater to a large demographic without the need to pay for TV spots, Banner ads, commercials etc.

Who are the makers/watchers of online video
this is from a talk by Google in 2012
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The graph above illustrates the views. There are 2 important things to take away from this.
The first is the percentage of the content that is inherently gameplay focused. This is why it is so important that the gameplay be made easy on the eyes, because that is what the majority of viewers want to watch.
The second is that 47% community created content. That can thrive provided what is given to the player base is easy to record, and easy to create content out of, again gameplay being the most significant portion of that. And this is basically free marketing for the developer in the long run.
There are two kinds of people that will watch your content, The first is the hardcore fan base, people like you and me, the ones that come to Hard Drop and look for new content. The kind of people that have the game built into their lives. If they have a spare 5mins or an hour they are playing the game. These are also the people that will create the content. Sprint records, recording tournaments etc. The other is the person who has never touched the game at all, the people who have heard about it but are reluctant to get in. The design needs to cater to them, so they can have a nice and easy transition and become one of the hardcore fanbase.

Shaping our Game
Now that we've established that yes this is important and how it can affect the success, what can be done to improve it? We're going to split this into the following:

•   Technology – What engineering tools can help the streamer and viewers?
•   Art – What techniques make for a better streaming/watching experience?
•   Design – What mechanics can help to tell a better story?

Technology
Let's review some examples of what content creators use. This is not ALL of the tools, but just an example of common ones.

•   Twitch.tv – An online Streaming service
•   YouTube – A Video Hosting Service
•   XSplit – An example of a means to setup online recording and streaming
•   FRAPS – An example of a program to record non live footage.
•   Elgato Game Capture HD – An example of a capture device for consoles.

I mention this array of tools becomes it depends on the platform the game is for and also how it operates. For example when Skyrim came out in 2011, a lot of the shader processing used the first core of processors. At the time Xsplit used core 1 for most of its encoding so there was a large amount of frame dropping and it was god awful to stream at launch. Remember the point is everything should be easier for the content creator. Once these things have been explored, it doesn't hurt to just have a guide to setup in the most hassle free way possible, this could come from the community or developer in this case.
In Tetris it's not as big of an issue but most games have to be captured in windowed mode, which some games can have trouble with. If you are hardcore dedicated to streaming you will always find a work around but for up and coming streamers who are trying to build a brand this can be a big deal breaker. It should also be noted that even from a console you aren't capturing the feed, most of the time it's a window and you are capturing that region.
Some other titbits:

•   Vertical Sync as an option, some encoders freak out if they see tearing and randomly stops, which Vsync can help with.  
•   16:9 Resolution. Don't worry about 4:3. Most content all content nowadays is in 16:9 resolutions.

Art
Not to dissimilar to basic UI interfaces you make for any program or game, things like really clear representation of data for example. You want it to be easy for viewers to have the same kind of recognition of elements the player gets.
In addition to all that, there are 3 critical things that make streaming incredibly easier to look pretty. As we mentioned before, we want this to be as easy as possible for the content creator.

•   Clear space to set a webcam.
•   Clear Space to set up overlays and banners
•   Stealable themes.

It may seem kind of obvious but sometimes not in many peoples for fronts of UI design. So let's contrast to Tetris games and see what we can learn.
Here is TF, the bane of my Tetris life.

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I don't like TF personally, as a game it has a lot of problems in my eyes, but let's just look at this for the perspective of a stream. Let's consider our list, where would an appropriate place for a webcam be. Most streamers prefer to have it in the bottom left or right. Here we can see the bottom of a chat box would be a good place for one. Also consider a lot of the design is very square and right angles, the bottom is big enough for a running banner to be placed. It's also a minimalist design, adding these things wouldn't intrude on the overall aesthetic.
By contrast lets look at Cultris II

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I love Cultris. I've spent my entire career here for over 4 years. However let's go through our checklist again. Where would a webcam go? Where would a banner go? This design looks nice but not as easy to place the elements a streamer wants.
Some other things:
•   Data Summary. If a new player steps in midway through a stream and looks at the game they should be able to instantly know what's up If you are playing the game you are only looking at the matrix and the preview window. But as a spectator your eyes can wonder around. If you look back at the TF example. There's the game timer, the ranks of each of the players. In Cultris there's the very cool speedometer and pending lines. Information like that can convey information even if they don't know all the ins and outs. "Wow 169, he is super-fast" or "wow 24 lines pending he is super dead" etc.

Design
Tetris specifically is locked in its game mechanics; it's a formula that's been consistent for the past 35 years. So what's the appeal in watching?
Tetris is a skill based game it's inherently nonlinear. The fact that it is non-linear is what makes it something worth watching. People tune in they see what's going on and see what other people do differently to what I do. What can I learn, what can I adapt into my own play. Games are fantastic in that the distance between viewing and execution is very close. If I watched a great play in the UEFA cup game, I can't go home find 21 friends and recreate that moment. In games though, I can see someone doing something with amazing skill and proficiency and I can go home and emulate that right away.

Another thing to consider is the observer interface doesn't have to be the same as what the players sees. Unfortunately I can't think of a good example, maybe seeing the stick he desperately needs before he does would be awesome.
____________________________________________________

If you want to see the original talk by Day[9] you can find that [a href=\\\"http://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-observer-friendly-game-gdc-next-panel-with-sea/2300-6415924/]here.
I hope you enjoyed that read and hope it stirs discussion into a positive step.
I also hope Ubisoft would take some of these considerations into an account for there game. *High Hopes*

Cheers
kastle09

[ZeroT]

I think tetris is a hard game to commentate. It is sort of difficult for a player that happened to wonder upon a tetris commentary to understand the intricacies of a high level match. They will see that its two players going very fast, and that aspect is entertaining, for a time. They will fail to see how carefully each move by the players is placed. How they setup for attack or defense and just how impressive a certain downstack is. These ideas are very tough to convey in terms that someone with no foreknowledge of modern multiplayer tetris will understand. This is tough for us as seasoned players to grasp because over years and countless hours playing we can see the blocks very quickly and its hard to not see it like a seasoned player. Its tough to imagine tetris being a popular thing to watch on Youtube or on Twitch by those who haven't themselves had an experience on something like TB or greater. I think for the video side of tetris to grow, the game itself must grow first.

In a game like CS:GO the streams can become very popular, because its fairly easy to follow even if you don't catch the little things that only the pros can do; One team eliminates the other, or plants a bomb and it explodes. At its core its quite simply understood and explained. Tetris doesn't have that luxury. Multiplayer tetris has come too far from what tetris was in the average person's conception.

From my streaming experience though, I felt like I was helping the most when someone would ask a question in the chat and I could answer and even demonstrate how something worked or why I do a certain thing. The interaction in streams is something I really do like.

[Shuey]

Nice write-up!

[StS]

I think tetris is a hard game to commentate. It is sort of difficult for a player that happened to wonder upon a tetris commentary to understand the intricacies of a high level match. They will see that its two players going very fast, and that aspect is entertaining, for a time. They will fail to see how carefully each move by the players is placed. How they setup for attack or defense and just how impressive a certain downstack is. These ideas are very tough to convey in terms that someone with no foreknowledge of modern multiplayer tetris will understand. This is tough for us as seasoned players to grasp because over years and countless hours playing we can see the blocks very quickly and its hard to not see it like a seasoned player. Its tough to imagine tetris being a popular thing to watch on Youtube or on Twitch by those who haven't themselves had an experience on something like TB or greater. I think for the video side of tetris to grow, the game itself must grow first.

One of the reasons why I think having access to instant slow-motion replays would be amazing.

Alternatively, one thing I find lacking in the "Tetris = e-sport" movement is the demand for match replay files that could be distributed (thus serve as promotional material/allow people to comment over and thereby build a proper personality). Obviously, I've got no idea how feasible an idea this is in terms of programming.

[derder]

Alternatively, one thing I find lacking in the "Tetris = e-sport" movement is the demand for match replay files that could be distributed (thus serve as promotional material/allow people to comment over and thereby build a proper personality). Obviously, I've got no idea how feasible an idea this is in terms of programming.

I would love this to be implemented in Nullpomino online multiplayer as it would offer the possibility of re-casting games and deeply analyze games. As far as the replay mode of Nullpo goes it's at least usable for offline-matches which are recorded, if you don't want to re-cast the game live you have the possibility to advance frame by frame (or in steps of 10 frames) via frame step in the replay, what would be good enough. unfortunatly offline multiplayer is a seldom thing for two reasons: to players sharing one keyboard isn't playable for most good players I know (and most of them dislike gamepads) and it's hard to get players together for offline matches (at least in my area)

[Extruderx]

Nice write-up indeed! I agree with everything said, even all the replies.
I want to give some more sources of inspiration for those who are doing research on this topic.
During this summer I've been reading some forum posts about the new free game in development, being created by a collaboration of Epic Games and their fans - the fourth part of a classic FPS series, Unreal Tournament. Their forums are open to everyone. The main priority of the devs is to make Unreal an e-sport title.

The clutch is, Unreal has exactly the same problems as Tetris does - about being a candidate for e-sport. Both are good game series that have passed the test of time - they're just not as interesting to watch as the top of Twitch (from the point of average Twitch viewer, not me). Unreal, like Tetris, has somewhat split community - ones prefer UT2004 style, which is faster, the others favour classic UT, made in 1999. Both want to influence the playstyle of the game being made. You might want to read these forum topics first:

https://forums.unrealtournament.com/showthr...a-real-analysis!
https://forums.unrealtournament.com/showthr...-killer-feature
UT forums probably can give you some good insight on "what does make the game an e-sport" topic. There are much more discussion threads going on, these two are a good example though.

I think there are two problems with multiplayer Tetris now. The first one is that the multiplayer modes have turned the genre from a puzzle game into an arcade one. The best players don't think where to place their pieces when stacking, they eventually start to feel the optimal placements. That makes it hard for both the newbies and the spectators to get into. I like such fast-paced gameplay though. As caffeine has said in the "skill gap" topic, "I'd much rather play faster games than the slower ones". Dig race and Swiss cheese mode present a reasonable balance between arcade and puzzle gaming, as I have felt like.

The second problem is that the players of an e-sport should be able to have their distinctive style and be able to develop different skills. As I've picked up from watching Twitch streams, in Dota/LoL you're able to play aggressively/defensively on various points of the match. In CS:GO just one player might not be special, but a team definitely can have their own tactics and strategies. In Starcraft we have build orders and macro/micro styles (SC is particularly notable in that regard - the faster players have more Actions Per Minute to get better control over their army, but they can still be outplayed, say, in macro - there are numerous cases of European players that have beaten the Korean ones in that manner). Even chess had a 6th place in Twitch by presenting a major tournament - I dare say that chess has more opportunities for skilled players to have their own style than any other game (except maybe Go, just as ancient board game.)

I have an idea for fixing that. We should be able to up the complexity of the game and its mechanics without slowing it down. Maybe a different score system, maybe a different method of interacting between the fields than the simple line insertion - the gameplay innovations should be tried. I imagine casting/analyzing some made-up fantastic Tetris variant that is more deep - "And now Blank goes for a new ZTZO build, which could be only countered by a DT Cannon or J-attacks. But in midgame Hobo manipulates the garbage in a way that phase downstacking could give more points, thus allowing him to get a second Hold ready earlier. By making a timing attack he should be able to punish Blank for avoiding the usage of STOLZ and the powerful JIZLOTS build, which is regarded by many people as overpowered, but we know that it's only better in certain cases. The previews show that TZT combo gives a good defence to LOIJ square, so it can't be deformed by "underground" attacks. Making an O-spin is a valid strat at this point, though the O-piece can be sniped by the enemy who is accustomed to OSJ, TOJ and TLI builds. Playing as fast as Blank does right now is a good way to quickly gain some points, but without careful planning later it's a certain death topout.
Blank 0-1 Hobo."

Cultris II is not the last Tetris game to be made, and while it has a good basis, the game mechanics should be experimented with - Dota was created as a Warcraft 3 map because of such an experiment, and it overtook WC3 as a more popular strategy game. While I was commentating the ICL tourney, I've understood that the slight differences in players' styles are not well seen by the less experienced people. It's hard to recognize a player by his particular gameplay. Everyone stacks high at the beginning of the match, then you have a choice to downstack or to do a re-stack, then there is choice to block the incoming lines or to accept them, and so on. King of Stackers does have good depth, but I suppose that its steep learning curve prevents new people from staying and playing eachother; the same problem also applies to Nullpomino.

TL;DR - the more game variations and rule modifications, the better - so we can pick a golden ratio between playability and watchability of the game.

[kastle09]

I think there are two problems with multiplayer Tetris now. The first one is that the multiplayer modes have turned the genre from a puzzle game into an arcade one. The best players don't think where to place their pieces when stacking, they eventually start to feel the optimal placements. That makes it hard for both the newbies and the spectators to get into. I like such fast-paced gameplay though. As caffeine has said in the "skill gap" topic, "I'd much rather play faster games than the slower ones". Dig race and Swiss cheese mode present a reasonable balance between arcade and puzzle gaming, as I have felt like.

I like faster pace games too. To me, its the difference between a Turn Based stratergy game like say Civ 5, and a Real Time stratergy game like Starcraft. In Civ 5 you have time to look, simulate in your head what various actions might do and then make the best one for the given scenario. In Starcraft you can't do that. A bad decision done quickly is better than a good decision that's to late. Some people don't like this but I think its engaging cause you get a lot of those "well what if he did this 20 seconds earlier, what would happen if he delayed this instead".

I think the problem with the 2 game mods you suggested, is that the racing aspect is not as engaging I think then a battle mode. Some people could argue with that point but to me it feels more like an execution challenge because you don't interact with your opponent at all. Even car racing games you are interacting with your opponent a bit, but a dig mode or swiss cheese mode isn't really the same as that. Maybe you can get items to f*** with the other players idk. But then it feels very mario kart and less serious.

The second problem is that the players of an e-sport should be able to have their distinctive style and be able to develop different skills.

I think this is one of the biggest problems Cultris has compared to other tetris games. Because of the lack of tspin and that the fact combos are based on time rather than sequence placement, puts heavy emphasis on being quick. Which is cool, but we get into this spot where the only other differntiater, downstacking is kind of more obselete of a skill. People like meow/morphling and R.Poopmore prove that wrong on occasion but I think they still get outshined by the quicker players more often then they can fight back. And it should be said both are still incredible fast. Like you said the differing in stratergy has to be more pronounced then it currently is.

I have an idea for fixing that. We should be able to up the complexity of the game and its mechanics without slowing it down. Maybe a different score system, maybe a different method of interacting between the fields than the simple line insertion"

Maybe a little bit of complexity isn't a bad idea but you have to be careful not to overload it because its very intimidating for new players to deal with. What you want is depth which is not the same thing. What Can I do with the mechanics I've been given, whats the versatility. Complexity is just the amount of information a player has to remember. Depth is how many things you can do with that information.

[Extruderx]

What you want is depth which is not the same thing. What Can I do with the mechanics I've been given, whats the versatility. Complexity is just the amount of information a player has to remember. Depth is how many things you can do with that information.

Thanks for clearing this up. Tetris can be potentially be as deep as chess (in both there are a lot of "board states" - the number of sample positions possible is high) while remaining relatively simple. Too bad that in the current games the combinatorial depth just doesn't "open up" in the same way as it does in chess.

[kastle09]

I've been trying to think about the what you could do to spice up tetris. I'm wondering what we can steal from other games. A perk system like from CoD? It can suit different playstyles. A meter like in streetfighter, you can gain it when you build up send lines or block lines. and then use that meter to ... do something idk.

I feel like we as a community could make the game. Theres enought talent in Design, programing and art here but we would be halted by TTC so quickly soo ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Extruderx]

There were several attempts to "modernize" Tetris on HD, specifically the "Tetris RPG" prototype which had a selection of skills and mana meter. Fresh, but it's only like an add-on to Tetris Battle, so no wonder why TTC probably wouldn't approve of it as a separate game.

My strange rough draft of an idea: we could create a puzzle-strategy game. I like the neon blocks from C2 as they're very colorful and customizable. The player builds a "base" within his own matrix with tetrominos representing generators, cannons, research centers, walls, factories, etc. Those can be linked together to increase their production and stats. You're forced to clear lines though, because the "buildings" work only certain time and you need to make place for the new structures. You get hold and previews as an in-game upgrade which costs energy.
You can attack in 3 ways - flood the enemy with junk (garbage sends), make holes in enemy "buildings" and eventually destroy enemy tetrominos via cannons. Victory is achieved by blocking the tetromino entry point. In between the matrices there is a neutral "battlefield". When you send garbage, the pending lines end up here as "units" of different types, so they can be blocked by the enemy, as in a normal Tetris game, but here pending lines combat each other in real time. Outcome is determined by the number and type of units. The player cannot influence the battlefield in other way than sending more lines. The surviving units enter the enemy matrix as garbage sends or destroy enemy buildings if they are cannons. I don't think that this kind of game is harder to make (all in 2d), but it can claim a big audience. The only drawback is that we are not TTC.

P.S. As for Tetris Ultimate, I'd like to see a 2v2 mode where each team has one matrix, and two players of the same team take turns placing bags - 7 tetrominos in their field in real time. The gameplay is as usual 1v1 but if only the dueling players used 1 bag only, then changed places with their teammates, who place another 7 pieces and so on. I'd love to see two good guideline players cooperating with each other in such way. It would slow down things a little and add depth too.

[kastle09]

P.S. As for Tetris Ultimate, I'd like to see a 2v2 mode where each team has one matrix, and two players of the same team take turns placing bags - 7 tetrominos in their field in real time. The gameplay is as usual 1v1 but if only the dueling players used 1 bag only, then changed places with their teammates, who place another 7 pieces and so on. I'd love to see two good guideline players cooperating with each other in such way. It would slow down things a little and add depth too.

Can you imagine 2 people playing on the same matrix simultaneously, THat would be f***ing incredible.

[Extruderx]

Can you imagine 2 people playing on the same matrix simultaneously, THat would be f***ing incredible.

That was possible in Tetris Tengen and TGM2 Doubles mode, just not as a battle mode against the other team. I think that the gamemodes like this one should be patched in the Ultimate version one day.  

[derder]

Can you imagine 2 people playing on the same matrix simultaneously, THat would be f***ing incredible.

Its possible in Tetris party (as "Singleplayer" Marathon) or in Tetris party Deluxe (as 2v2 Battle), maybe one of the few things nullpomino can't replicate...

Another thing to note is: Maybe Tetris hasn't enough viewers on twitch, because there are no regular streams, especially no streamed tournaments. Sure, there is the HD stream (which apparently streams a lot of LoL in the last days for god knows what reason), but it's usually some rare commentated high level random online multiplayer with low user interaction. The only remarkable stream from the last month I can remember was by Katatoniopeth, who would've answered every question that arrosed but unfortunatly has problems in having his skype voices appear on stream, so he seems to soliloquizing, what most likely "fears" someone new to tetris.

Also there should be more tournaments to attract people to competition. I know, I myself only have a tournament every 6 month and only in germany, but I want to gather the german community first. Also I'm planning on having streams with Tetris games every weekend, this gonna happen soon.

But tbh: I guess the fact is not only that the game is too "weird", it's the regularity it is shown (e.g. I had 60 viewers, only german, for my last tournament stream, so they are willing to watch)