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How classic arcade game Gauntlet inspired future action RPGs
Gauntlet, a co-op arcade game with a fantasy twist, was groundbreaking for its time. We interviewed Red Faction designer David Abzug about its legacy and influence.
In 1985, Atari Games released Gauntlet, a fantasy-themed, top-down dungeon crawler that allowed you to choose from one of four characters: a Warrior, a Wizard, Valkyrie, and an Elf. Each of them brought a specific strength to the table; the Warrior was the fighter, the Wizard was the spellcaster, the Valkyrie was the tank and the Elf was the rogue.
Neither the archetypes nor the player's choice was revolutionary in and of itself. Arcade games in the mid-'80s already allowed a single player to select from a variety of characters, each possessing different strengths and weaknesses.
What made Gauntlet special is that it combined this character diversity with co-op mechanics.
Typical multiplayer arcade games in the '80s distinguished its characters by physical appearance alone; they would typically possess the same moveset, attack power and defensive toughness. Double Dragon, released in 1987, is a famous example; Billy Lee and Jimmy Lee have no practical difference; their clothing palette swap is the only thing that distinguishes them.
One positive of this redundancy is that it allows for casual players to drop in and drop out of the arcade game, party style. There's no player-to-player communication necessary if the characters are functionally identical; one simply fights, and hopes one's partner holds up their end.
Strategy becomes more sophisticated and engaging when players' avatars complement and compensate for each others' weaknesses. One player can provide cover from a distance while the other blocks the choke point. Players can strategically decide which magical potions to leave for their partners, based on the players' respective character strengths. And although these types of strategies are taken for granted today, it was a pretty big deal in 1985.
The number of enemies in Gauntlet could be overwhelming.
© Atari Games (via YouTube)
"Gauntlet came out during my freshman year in college when I was a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and I played it at the Space Port, which was a block away from the quad," said veteran game designer David Abzug. "A couple of friends and I were there, and when we saw it, we said to ourselves, 'Now wait a minute. We can all play together? Oh hell yeah.'"
"We were going from one-on-one competitive to a four-player co-op game," continued Abzug. "And the advantage of Gauntlet being an arcade game, rather than a PC game, is that it went out to a larger audience."
David Abzug is a game designer, best known for his work with game development company Deep Silver Volition. In that capacity, he was crucial to the development of the Red Faction franchise and Saints Row IV; prior to that, he worked on Microsoft's Mech franchise. Abzug started designing games with pencil and paper before he started coding them; he made his first Dungeons and Dragons world when he was 12 years old.
Abzug views Gauntlet as an early precursor to the modern action RPG. The earliest RPGs were turn-based, but the later ones shifted towards real-time strategy, requiring the sort of teamwork and pairing of differently powered characters that Gauntlet popularised. Gauntlet also popularised the development of a metagame, in which the players were forced to communicate, via speaking to one another, apart from what was physically happening on screen.
Some modern multiplayer games try so hard to eliminate teamwork that you're essentially parallel playing a solo game. The New Super Mario Bros franchise, which allows you to float along in a bubble while your team-mate completes the level, comes to mind. The game sacrifices complexity for accessibility, a necessary concession for what is marketed as a family game. Gauntlet had no such concerns about player accessibility; its larger purpose was to eat quarters.
What is fun about Gauntlet is not evident from watching a playthrough or even playing it solo. It's not even evident from playing it with strangers, who will kill anything that moves instead of formulating a plan of attack. Like an action RPG, Gauntlet can only be fully experienced through loud, communicative play with friends, who take it as seriously – or not – as you do.
"We would have discussions around this: 'I'm picking the Elf, because my partner never shoots through the projectile slits,'” said Abzug. "And sometimes, there would be food, some of which could be shot and destroyed. So you would set up your attack lines so that you weren't hitting the food, and debate who got it. Another player might have less health than you, but you would argue that you needed the food because you were always attacking at the front."
"A lot of what I learned about game design – about sight lines, about using walls to block movement, about setting up enemies – I learned by playing Gauntlet and games like it," continued Abzug.
There were hordes of on-screen enemies in Gauntlet that would "Zerg rush" the player, coupled with stationary "turrets" that would slow the player's progress. Abzug frequently used these elements in his game design, to the point that others could identify his distinctive work.
"In Mech Warrior 4, there was a mission I designed where you fight a horde of smaller Mechs; that was directly inspired by Gauntlet," recalled Abzug. "The outposts in Saints Row IV had unlockable walls, behind which were a ton of enemies, and Gauntlet had the same sort of thing."
"You're trying to get a dichotomy of emotions out of the player," continued Abzug. "You first want the player to think, 'How am I going to survive this?' as the rampaging army crests the hill. And then at the end when the player is standing atop a hill of enemies, the player has not only a feeling of success, but a feeling of power. You'd put in scripting that says, 'Don't spawn until the player is down to X health,' or 'Don't spawn until enemies are down to X number' so you get a second wave. You're trying to build an emotional roller coaster."
Game designer Dave Azbug presenting at a conference
© Dave Azbug
Today, Abzug is an adjunct professor at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where he teaches, among other subjects, game design. He uses Gauntlet as an instructional tool for the next generation of designers, because the core principles of game design stay the same, even if the pretty graphics and systems around them get ever more detailed and complex.
"I use Gauntlet to show character differentiation," said Abzug. "Every character has a visual look, a close attack, a ranged attack, a magical attack, a health pool, and a movement rate. And with just those six tools, the developers created four different characters. A more modern game like Diablo 3 also differentiates its characters, but it has more than 500 different levers the developers can pull in order to do so."
"I also use Gauntlet to teach basic level design," continued Abzug. "You have walls, breakable walls and unlockable walls. Lying on the ground, you have treasure, food, potions, keys and exits. And then you have monsters and monster generators. The developers came up with some interesting levels using just a limited number of tools. And Gauntlet is a master class in using old elements in new ways. I always teach my students: don't solve system problems with added complexity. And don't solve encounter problems with added difficulty."
