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The Story Behind the Bioshock Hacking Mini-Game

Posted by Zonk on from the hack-hack-hack-hack-the-combat-drone dept.

MTV's Multiplayer Blog has a chat with Dorian Hart, the designer at 2K Boston that gave us the pipes-like hacking mini-game in Bioshock. The two of them discuss the reason we direct blue liquid to win, the fan reaction to the game, and the value mini-games bring to their 'parent' titles. "I suppose it certainly gives the game an extra dimension: something else to do other than shoot. In a shooter, even a shooter that has small variance in how the game plays out, the number of verbs that you actually use in a given 10 minutes, half an hour, an hour of gameplay is pretty limited: you have a gun; you shoot it. Having a mini-game just gives the player a different thing to do, a way to break the player out of a rut they may be in, in how they're thinking about what they're playing. It engages a different part of their brain. As long as it's not too onerous or forced upon the player too commonly. They say, "Variety is the spice of life," and I think that applies in this case. As long as you don't make it an essential, unavoidable, too-important part of the game, because people are expecting a shooter."

11 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Bioshock... I remember that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was that thing before The Portal came to save us all, right?

  2. Pipe Dreams? by Propagandhi · · Score: 2, Informative

    Anyone else remember that game? I'm sure there's an online version.. was way harder than the bioshock version...

    1. Re:Pipe Dreams? by j.sanchez1 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Anyone else remember that game? I'm sure there's an online version.. was way harder than the bioshock version...

      I forgot how addicting this was.

      --
      Speedy thing goes in; speedy thing comes out.
  3. Useless by fozzmeister · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a terrible mini game, I like the splinter cell one where u pick a door lock, it makes sense. I have no idea why I have to play pipemania to get 10% off prices, and it's _incredibly_ tiresome after the 60th time.

    1. Re:Useless by provigilman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have no idea why I have to play pipemania to get 10% off prices, and it's _incredibly_ tiresome after the 60th time.

      Well, there's your problem right there! You don't have to play it all. Want the cheaper prices at the vending machines? Use the buyout or the autohack. Want to stop those pesky turrets, bots and cameras? Shoot them! Better yet, freeze/electrocute them, then shoot them!

      That's part of the point of the minigames. You need to part with something to gain an advantage. Be it money, autohack tools or time, you need to give something in order to get the benefit. If you don't like the hacking minigame just blow everything up, buy your items at full price and craft all your autohack tools for the times when you *do* want to hack something.

      Me personally, I sort of enjoyed right up until about the last level. Luckily by that point I could auto-hack the turrets and bots, and the cameras and the few vending machines I encountered were a breeze thanks to my engineering tonics. So, for me at least, right around the time they started to get boring was when I could just breeze through in 10 seconds (which might be why they got boring...no risk). It's all about how you want to play...

      --
      "Life's short and hard, like a body building elf." -- The Bloodhound Gang
  4. I actually liked the minigame by Alzheimers · · Score: 2, Informative

    I actually liked having the pipes minigame as a kind of steampunk-hacking system. Considering the theme and the setting I think it was very appropriate, if you ignore the fact that enemies basically wait for you to finish while you're playing it.

    While they're not terribly difficult even at the hardest settings, it's a nice change of pace and definately more satisfying than automatic hacking or using a consumable. It's just too bad there wasn't more variety in it, having a couple different minigames would have been much more interesting.

    1. Re:I actually liked the minigame by feepness · · Score: 2, Informative

      While they're not terribly difficult even at the hardest settings, Not sure which game you played, but on the hardest settings for me there were many times which if you did not swap directions immediately (first piece!) you'd end up heading into a dead end created by alarms/short-circuits.

      Was very happy when I got to the auto-hack stuff.
    2. Re:I actually liked the minigame by complexmath · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yup. A hack with the hardest rating almost always requires swapping the first tile with another one. Along with the increased speed, this is the reason safes are regarded as so difficult to crack. That aside, by perhaps 2/3 of the way through the game some of the hacks are unsolvable without at least one tonic installed. Another thing I like is that it's impossible to die from the health penalty incurred from failing a hack. Worst case you'll bottom out with next to no health left and can continue hacking until you get it. This makes hacking health stations basically a no-lose situation.

    3. Re:I actually liked the minigame by anethema · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, it was stupidly easy because you can NOT die from hacking damage. You just keep hacking and hacking and you can always get it eventually.

      --


      It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
  5. Like, let me grab, like, my list again. by Seakip18 · · Score: 2, Informative
    FTA:

    It engages a different part of their brain. As long as it's not too onerous or forced upon the player too commonly. They say, "Variety is the spice of life," and I think that applies in this case. As long as you don't make it an essential, unavoidable, too-important part of the game, because people are expecting a shooter. Play through bioshock and count how many times you came across something you could hack. Now, after doing that, how many times did the puzzle's general setup change? It is one thing to keep your core idea of the minigame to play a plumber. It is another when the plumber solves the same problem not just a dozen, but dozens of times in a game.

    It was not until you could auto-hack turret/bots that the game became much continuous; not stopping ever 5 minutes to hack a turret or a camera to avoid getting spotted.

    On a side note, I'm surprised they did not talk about the technical background of the minigame. I believe it was just a Flash game with the actual game code providing the pretty overlays. Same with the bathysphere menu.

    Lastly, shame on the interviewer for not having played System Shock 2 before the interview. Then again, this is the least of what we should have expected when we saw MTV featuring the article.
    --
    import system.cool.Sig;
  6. Re:Why pipe dream? by spyrochaete · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was playing Blades of Steel the other day and had a great chuckle during the second intermission where you play a Gradius mini game on the jumbotron.