Toilet Dilemma

Independent game designer Steven Harmon created a website called Toilet Game Studies in 2017

What Is This

Independent game designer Steven Harmon created a website called Toilet Game Studies Toilet Game Studies in 2017, which he calls The International Journal of Game Toilet Research. Although the idea itself is quite silly, the articles on the website are unexpectedly interesting, and the thoughts presented are not only applicable to the game design industry, but also helpful for logic and critical thinking.

I found an authorized Chinese translation version online. Here I would like to thank Ye Zitao for his help with Toilet Game Studies. Deeply grateful.

The following is the main text of “Toilet Dilemma” written by Steven Harmon

Translation: Ye Zitao

Questions a Game Designer Should Ask When Considering Adding Toilets to a Game

  • Will there be toilets in the game?

  • Why or why not?

  • If yes, where?

  • How many toilets are in the game?

  • How long does it take for players to reach the first toilet on average?

  • Are toilets in the game interactive, or are they just decorative? If interactive, how?

  • How will you communicate to the player that a toilet is “interactive”? Use non-diegetic user interface, highlight on hover, or say that everything in the game is interactive, and through association, players will know this is also interactive?

  • Can you urinate or defecate in the toilet, or does the toilet have other uses? For example, drinking water in Fallout: New Vegas, saving progress in No More Heroes, or loot boxes in Borderlands.

  • Is the amount you can excrete limited by food intake? What about time?

  • Do you hold down a key/button to defecate, or do you need to press a series of specific keys/buttons or gestures?

  • Is excretion limited to inside the toilet?

  • Can you interact with your feces after defecating? For example, in Duke Nukem Forever, players can pick up and throw feces, with feedback given by the Duke breaking the fourth wall.

  • If toilets can do more than one thing when interacted with, is it consistent throughout the game in providing these same choices, or does it vary depending on the type of toilet, location, character progression, or story line?

  • If there are multiple options when interacting with a toilet, how does the player choose which one to execute (affordance)?

  • Will enemies spawn in toilets and surprise attack players?

  • Do AI use toilets? How many AIs can one stall accommodate? When a toilet is occupied by AI, is the door locked? For how long?

  • How are physical interactions on keyboard and gamepad mapped or represented to real-life interactions with toilets?

  • Can you lift the toilet seat, and the toilet lid?

  • If so, is this opening and closing achieved through animated transitions during input, or is it directly physics-driven?

  • If it’s animated, if something blocks the closing of the toilet lid, or something on the lid prevents the opening of the toilet lid, will the animation be interrupted and stop, go through the aforementioned object, or push it away? Can you still interact with the closed valve?

  • If so, does it close the toilet flushing simulation, or is it connected to something else?

  • Can you remove the toilet tank lid?

  • After removing the tank lid, can you see a real-time operating flush mechanism?

  • Are there any surprises or easter eggs next to the flush device in the water tank?

  • Can you flush?

  • If so, does flushing just launch a particle effect, sound, and animation of urine level decreasing and water becoming clear? Is it physics-simulated? If other objects in the scene fall into it, will there be interaction?

  • What happens when you try to flush while the flushing procedure is running?

  • Is there an achievement for flushing 100 times? 1000 times?

  • Will flushing a certain number of times trigger an event? For example, annoying the AI, or causing the toilet to clog or overflow?

  • If there’s an overflow, is there physics-driven water simulation pushing objects in contact?

  • Will AI slip on the overflow and hurt themselves? Will there be a janitor AI coming here, hanging a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign near the flooded area? Will other AIs use pathfinding techniques to avoid the aforementioned area? What type of pathfinding would AI use to avoid overflow soaked in feces?

  • Can you use the flush handle to communicate in Morse code? Will this be part of a certain puzzle?

  • Is the toilet a dead end or is there a secret passage/portal behind it?

  • Does the player character have a gender? Are there gender signs on the exterior of the toilet?

  • Is there any difference between men’s and women’s toilets?

  • Are these two gendered toilets connected through a broken wall for easy navigation?

  • Is there bias in the act of defecating inside a virtual toilet? Can you defecate standing up, or sitting down?

  • What value do you think toilets represent in this game (cultural, political, etc.)?

  • Are these values intentionally conveyed through interactions with these toilets?

  • What does the toilet say in terms of environmental storytelling?

  • What are the dimensions of the toilet?

  • Is there an auxiliary rail next to the toilet? If not, does your game world have no disabled characters?

  • Is the user interface for interacting with toilets distinguished by color or pattern? Can colorblind players interact with toilets as easily as non-colorblind players?

  • Did you exclude a certain group of players in representing toilets? Was it intentional or unintentional?

  • When is a good time to stop asking yourself theoretical questions about toilets in the game and continue with other parts of the game?

Summary

The designer’s job is to consider everything literally, and how everything creates and affects the entire gaming experience. Pay attention not only to details, but also to the big picture, and pay attention to the composition in the game (gestalt). “The role of game designers is, first of all, to be the spokesperson for players.” From Tracy Fullerton’s Game Design Workshop.

By thinking about and paying attention to toilets, designers show their consideration for players (advocacy). If players want to flush the toilet, why let them down? This means using paper prototypes to design handles, laying out toilet positions on grid floor plans, or rapid prototyping and iteration… Design is design. As long as your design can convey the design concept to engineers, artists, and players, then you have completed your work.