The Genius of Auralux

If you’re an indie game designer like me, it can be hard balancing game mechanics with ease of playing. Among Us tried to make a game that was engaging through it’s different gameplay mechanics like side quests (check out my blog post about Among Us) which ended quite…

…well, they definitely had an amazing idea on their hands, but the gameplay mechanics could have definitely been improved.

And another example of terrible Gameplay mechanics in the gaming industry comes from none other than Nintendo’s Skyward Sword. In IGN's 2011 People’s Choice Awards, Skyward Sword was crowned as the “Game of the Year” over very steep competition like Portal 2 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In fact, my 2 favorite dungeons in the Zelda series, Lanaryu Mining Facility and the Ancient Cistern, were such a fun and eye gouging (iykyk) experience. Within a year, though, the game started to receive backlash, with buzz around the world about how Skyward Sword’s motion only controls took away from the playing experience. 

Although motion controls seem like a technical aspect instead of a game mechanic, they actually work as both because they shape how the players interact with the world, while also leaning into gyroscope/accelerometer inputting, calibration routines, and lag filling algorithms, etc. 

The game was also held back by the repetition of the same regions. When I finished the first round of dungeons, I thought I would go somewhere new, and when Fi (Link’s companion) told me to go back to the Faron Region, I felt let down. Not to mention to complete Skyward Sword, a player must visit the same region three times. That’s another game mechanic done wrong: The level progression structure and pacing with repetition was all off. 

Now, let’s turn to the epitome of minimalism with game mechanics: Auralux. At first glance, Auralux doesn’t have any bells and whistles like other strategy games of it’s type (Polytopia, Religion Inc.). No elaborate resource trees or power ups. You simply drag glowing dots created by Suns across the map to enemy nodes. And your opponent does exactly the same, all in real time. Yup, no turns, exactly like actual warfare.

This continuous tug-of-war means that you’re never waiting for your turn and makes the game purely strategic: when to split forces, where to spend all your troops: you don't have time to hide behind.  In stripping gameplay down to its core, Auralux proves that simplicity can be so powerful, delivering deep tension without a single extra feature to distract you.