Overview

• Choosing new abilities is one of my favorite activities in a game
• Oddly enough, even though trees are very restrictive and I usually prefer more open ended systems, I enjoy skill selection even more when it takes place within a fixed hierarchy

Skill Trees

Pros

Why do I like skill trees so much? I would expect someone like me to not like them.

• Big picture
  • I like how skill trees give a clear visual representation of how an ability fits within the larger picture and how it relates to other abilities
• Planning ahead
  • Similar to the previous point, a skill tree allows players to plan ahead—if I want to get a later ability I see the earlier abilities I need to acquire first
• Theme visualization
  • I love character class themes, and skill trees can act as showcases, displaying all of the abilities in a single view so the player can get the full force of the theme

Cons

• They are not as flexible to develop and expand upon
• Most games with skill trees are released out of the gate with the trees fully fleshed out and fine-tuned to fit within a single UI view
• Skill trees loose some of their appeal when they need scrolling or zooming
• They nearly require a level-based character system
  • It is possible though uncommon to have non-level based skill trees
    • The main example I know of is Dead Space, where the player collects points to invest in multiple trees