Innovation of the Week: Object Interaction & Manipulation

This week, I'd like to show some appreciation for a gaming innovation that has kept evolving over the years and continues to fascinate players: Object Interaction & Manipulation. It's an important one as it homes in on a core aspect of games - interacting with what's on screen, plus it opens up many possibilites beyond simply defeating enemies. It allows players to engage with the game environment in a more natural and dynamic way, solving puzzles, uncovering secrets, influencing the narrative or just screwing around for fun. Object interaction has become a cornerstone of some genres and series (the recent Zeldas for example), adding depth, immersion, sometimes realism to our favorite games.

Probably the first notable example can be found in Superman (A2600, 1979), an early (perhaps the first) action adventure game in which players can pick up and carry as well as drop both NPCs and some objects. Starting out, the villain, Lex Luthor, breaks a bridge near the beginning screen into three pieces in what might be the first scripted event in a game. It's then up to the player to explore and find the parts, then bring them back together on that screen to repair the bridge. Besides that, they are tasked with capturing all criminals and putting them in jail, and the game keeps track of how many are left in the GUI. What's also interesting is that one of the enemies, the invincible chopper, can also pick up objects and characters and place them on a random screen.

Some Later Notable Examples:

Sokoban (1982) - This game introduced block pushing and puzzles around it, an influential and now taken for granted feature. The tile-based mechanics and block movement seamlessly integrated with early video game graphics, with their backgrounds and objects more obviously locked to a grid pattern, and they can be found again in various later games like the Lolo series, Bomberman series, early Zelda games, Sonic the Hedgehog and Soul Reaver.

Hard Hat Mack (1983) - This early puzzle platformer, probably inspired by Donkey Kong, is surprisingly rich in interaction. Player goals involve replacing holes in the floor, catching a moving jackhammer to secure plates, and picking up, carrying and dropping wares into a processor. There are also interesting level design gimmicks such as conveyor belts, springs, revolving escalator platforms and the player avatar can attach to a giant magnet to be carried to a higher platform

The Staff of Karnath and Below the Root (1984) - These games introduced telekinesis to video games, the supernatural power to move objects with your mind. While a subject of ridicule and wishful thinking in the real world (the closest we have come is controlling robots attached to our heads with brain signals), and something we could only watch being pretended in movies, in games we can push some buttons or keys and see a simulation of the results in real-time. In the latter game, the power is called kiniporting and once upgraded, it can also be used for teleporting yourself somewhere on the same screen.

Knight Lore (1984) and Starquake (1985) - These are two of the games that introduced stacking objects on top of each other to reach higher and/or further. They also featured some other interesting and relevant mechanics: In Starquake, there are persistent and manually controlled flight platforms, meaning a player can pick one up at a pad on one screen, use and then place it on a pad somewhere else and it will still be there when/if they return, leaving a sense of lasting impact to one's actions. In Knight Lore, players can instead push objects placed on top of other objects, as well as do a neat little trick where they stand on top of an item, then put it into their inventory while jumping to carry it with them while also reaching higher. This trick allows for one item to be used as a traversal tool over and over again.

Thrust (1986) - In this momentum-based shooter/puzzle hybrid inspired by Gravitar, players pick up and carry a ball towards the atmosphere to beat each level, which is easier said than done. What's impressive about this aspect is the "ball attached to rope" physics when carrying the ball. Its weight actually pulls your ship when it gains speed and it rotates around your ship when doing turns at high speeds pretty much as you'd expect it to. The other points of interest are shooting switches to temporarily open doors, and shooting a reactor to disable turrets placed in the levels.

Dungeon Master (1987) - This influential "blobber" (real-time party-based dungeon crawler RPG in FP view) lets players pick up items and place them in either hand or in the inventory, using the mouse. This is also how you interact with stuff like switches or torches placed on walls. Weapons such as clubs can be picked up and thrown and they'll land on the ground so you can pick them up and use them again repeatedly. Finally it also introduced the paper doll interface used for placing gear on different parts of a character.

Exile (Superior Software/Audiogenic)(1988) - This momentum-based shooter/platform adventure hybrid featured advanced for the time physics (gravity, inertia, mass, shockwaves, and elemental (water/earth/wind/fire) effects are simulated and puzzles designed around them). Players can pick up and drop or throw items, and can accelerate a thrown object using their jetpack before throwing. The game also interacted with the player avatar in interesting ways - mushroom spores can clog up your jetpack for example and there are creatures that can either suck you in or repell you. As an alternative to direct combat, you can grab some creatures to stop them from hurting you. Finally, there's a bit of a twist to the item inventory - your pockets are actually stasis fields meaning an object is completely suspended in time and space. This means a live grenade won't explode while in there for example.

SimCity and Populous (1989) - In the first proper city builder, players interact with objects and the environment in various ways and in real-time. Besides creating roads, powerlines and zones for building (which happens automatically if conditions are right), players can bulldoze plant life tiles and buildings. More entertaining however, is the ability to trigger one of ten disasters at will: fire, flood, plane crash, tornado, earthquake, monster attack, shipwreck, nuclear meltdown, UFO attack, and bomb drop (MAC ver.).

In Populous, the first god sim, a terraforming spell lets you manipulate the terrain by raising and lowering land at a certain distance from your leader or city, a feature which later appeared in SimCity 2000 in a slightly different form. Similar to SimCity, there are also some disaster style spells: armageddon - makes everyone leave their homes and go fight including the enemy population, swamp, earthquake - reduces and randomizes on screen land height, volcano, and flood - raises the water level by one for the whole map.

Ultima VI (1990) - An RPG that features a very interactive game world with added commands like poke, prod, push, pick up and take. Players can move and destroy chairs, play an instrument, bash down and lock doors, rob stores and banks, throw a wine bottle across a room and have it shatter on the floor, use a telescope to have a look around, start or douse a fire, kill NPCs and talk to party member NPCs. Besides being able to interact with what would be doodads in most other contemporary games, as well as examine paintings and books found around the world. One of the more complex series of actions made possible is milking a cow and then churning the milk into butter, which can then be eaten.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991) - Besides expanding on the interactivity of the first game with actions like enemy freezing and object throwing, this game is an early example of added context sensitivity to an action (a concept first introduced in Ultima I I believe) in that the interact button's usage will change depending on what you are moving Link up against and what tools you currently have. Stand next to and face an NPC and they will talk to him, a pot, bush, placed bomb, frozen enemy or the side of a sign and he will lift it, hold it and push away from certain objects and he will lift or pull them, etc. Beyond that, there are switches that raise and lower water levels, and you can move between a light and dark world to reach some new areas and solve some puzzles in either world.

Soul Reaver (1999) - This game's world is divided into two dimensions, similar to A Link to the Past's. The level design morphs a bit in some places when moving between planes which can allow you to reach new areas, a pretty impressive accomplishment for a fifth gen 3D game. You can also pull blocks sideways and flip them, which is used in various dungeon puzzles. Finally you can use a telekinetic force projectile to destroy windows and wooden barriers, push blocks from afar and push enemies backwards into hazards or stun them. You can also carry and throw stunned enemies (this had been a thing since Typhoon Gal and Renegade in 2D games).

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What are your favorite moments of object interaction and/or manipulation in gaming? Share your thoughts!