Delaney King  ✍🏻 👸🏻

Things that do NOT effect the core gameplay, but give immediate responsiveness and reward. I mean, having picture frames you can straighten may not seem like a big deal, but some of us would go around and click on them to line them all up. No reward per se, but rewarding.

Even being able to snap off low level twigs, lift rocks and see beetles scurry out and have fish that swim around your ankles when you wade in the water that flee when a loud noise goes off. These little things can be a pure joy

Adding points of interest nodes that can feedback to making the hero smile and give a little chuckle or mutter "cool" every now and again adds character and invites the player in. Sure, I can run past the crystal toadstools, but if I steer close and walk, my character sighs.

Think of them like toys. No purpose, just a little interaction that you can do for the shits and giggles. A character brushing their palm over a bush as they walk past, swatting at glow bugs that come close when idling, pressure sensitive squares on the floor that change color

Humans like to mess with stuff for no good reason. We kick dandelions, rub statues bellys and poke fly traps. It is in our nature to dick around with stuff. Include these in your environments and the boring bits will be less boring.

Shoot a tree? Nuts and leaves fall out. No purpose. Just because. Punch a wall or have an enemy hit it, the paintings fall down. Smashable panels on the tunnel walls as you run through it? Okay. Smish smash smosh.

The stepping stones sink when you step on them and pop back with a farting sound a few moments later. The radio on the desk can be switched to different channels. Birds fly up out of bushes when you approach.

Kickable pebbles that splash the water. Coffee cups that fall off tables and smash if you walk too close to them. Toilets that flush. But flood if you drop an item in them. Strips of fabric you can brush against to make ripples. Pebbles and grit that jump up when you fire

Hitting a computer panel wall will make the blinky lights blink out and reboot, making a noise. No purpose but to give a smile to the player. GAMES ARE INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT

The moment your RPG character holds their nose as they walk past the pile of animal shit is the moment you connect them to the world they are in.

Always ask yourself "could the player dick around with this?"

Remember, we have to make damage trails short because players WILL draw rude stuff on the walls with them. Yet, this is the essense of toy environments.

Some advice for new devs wanting to try this stuff... Set your priorities right- not only adding features like this but in making your assets do this stuff. You want to prioritize gameplay states and animations over "toy" ones and make sure you reset these states.

So, in the case of "points of interest nodes"- set these to only work when a global game state is "relaxed". Entering combat, taking damage etc- turns off this state.

By having "relaxed" as a state your objects can check, you can turn off interactions that are not important. Setting sounds to very low priority is also a must.