Game design: theory and practice / by Richard Rouse III ; illustrations by Steve Ogden.-2nd ed. One of the early ones that caught my eye was the first edition of this book, Game Design: Theory & Practice by Richard Rouse III.
Introduction
What Is Gameplay?
What Is Game Design?
Who Is a Game Designer?
What Is in This Book?
Furthermore, readers who may find the content of this book to take on too much knowledge may find the glossary helpful in sorting out what an RTS game is and what the two different meanings are for FPS. Often discussions of game design can break down into questions of semantics, with no two sides ever meaning exactly the same thing when referring to a game's "engine". I hope the glossary will help readers avoid that problem with this book.
Who This Book Is For
Theory and Practice
Introduction to the Second Edition
What Players Want
Overview
Why Do Players Play?
Players Want a Challenge
Players Want to Socialize
Many death-match style multiplayer games are basically adaptations of single-player games in multiplayer incarnations, such as Doom, Half-Life, and Halo. But even in these single-player-turned-multiplayer games, players like to socialize while playing.
Players Want a Dynamic Solitary Experience
Players Want Bragging Rights
Players Want an Emotional Experience
Players Want to Explore
There is the exploration of different strategic choices in a game like Civilization, different types of resources to manipulate and combine in a game like Magic: The Gathering and. While exploration isn't fully integrated into a pure gaming experience, exploring a fantastical world on one's own terms can be a rich experience that games excel at in a way that no other medium can.
Players Want to Fantasize
While many people spend their time dwelling on the past and wondering how events could have turned out differently if alternative decisions had been made, games can give players the opportunity to figure out how history could have been different. Even without the elements of excitement and glamour, even if someone else's life isn't actually that exciting, it can be interesting to spend time as that person.
Players Want to Interact
A whole line of historical games, from war games to economic simulations, allow players to explore events in history and see how different decisions than those made by the historical figures involved will lead to very different outcomes. Good computer games can offer players an otherwise inaccessible opportunity to see the world.
What Do Players Expect?
Players Expect a Consistent World
But only those players who stick with the game through many early setbacks will figure it out. I'm not suggesting that pinball should be abandoned or radically simplified, but one of their flaws is that they alienate new players who can't see the connection between their actions and the outcome of the game.
Players Expect to Understand the Game-World’s Bounds
Once players understand all the gameplay mechanics a game uses, they don't want new, unintuitive mechanics being randomly introduced.
Players Expect Reasonable Solutions to Work
Players Expect Direction
But since the game simulates reality (building and managing a city), players know what it is. Although SimCity does not have an explicit goal, the very nature of the game and its foundation is very broad.
Players Expect to Accomplish a Task Incrementally
But in addition, the game is littered with sub-objectives (such as “clearing the machine gun nests”) that players intuitively discover as they go. Platformers like Ratchet & Clank are particularly good at providing incremental micro-goals, where all the thousands of arrows players can pick up throughout the game each help a little towards their larger goal: buying the super weapon. to use against the gigantic enemy.
Players Expect to Be Immersed
And if the character players control, their surrogate in the game world, isn't someone they like or can see themselves in, their immersion will be disrupted. For example, in the third-person action/adventure game Super Mario 64, players with a.
Players Expect Some Setbacks
It's very hard to fulfill a fantasy when game features keep reminding players that it's just a game. It's also a good idea to let players earn a little early in the game.
Players Expect a Fair Chance
If the game is so unchallenging that players can beat it on their first try, it might as well not be a game. If players feel that the game beat them through some "cheating" or "free kicking", they will be disappointed with the game.
Players Expect to Not Need to Repeat Themselves
If it's not a lot of fun to do, and players have to keep solving it throughout the game, they'll get frustrated and hate the game designers for their lack of creativity in not coming up with new challenges. Indeed, if players could save after each small, incremental step they make, the game would be significantly less challenging.
Players Expect to Not Get Hopelessly Stuck
If players can play through a game without having to explicitly save their progress, their experience will be that much more transparent and immersive. This way, players who are used to saving their games will be able to do so whenever they see fit, while players who often forget to save will be able to play the entire game without having to hit the save button.
Players Expect to Do, Not to Watch
If there's gameplay involved in some way, such as players planning troop placement for the next mission, then it's not really a cutscene and can last as long as necessary. But ultimately, if the game is good, gamers will want to play again and will skip the cutscene.
Players Do Not Know What They Want, but They Know When It Is Missing
It doesn't matter if the cutscene is text scrolling along the back of the screen, full motion video with live actors, mobile animation or is done using the game engine, all this in-game interruption should not take longer than a minute. And of course, if the cutscene contains critical gameplay information, the designer will want to allow players to replay the cutscene as many times as they want.
A Never-Ending List
Interview: Sid Meier
So, that inspired a lot of the economic side, the stock market aspects of the game. The addictive quality, I think, also comes from having multiple things.
Brainstorming a Game Idea: Gameplay, Technology, and Story
In part, this is because video game ideas can come from three different, unrelated fields of form: gameplay, technology, and history. These different origins are interconnected in interesting ways, with the origin of the game idea limiting what one will be capable of.
Starting Points
Starting with Gameplay
Depending on the type of game you hope to create for the player, you need to analyze what kind of technology that venture will require. You should also ask if the game's programming team is ready to create the required technology.
Starting with Technology
Just as starting with a desired type of gameplay determines what type of engine to create, starting with set technology requires the game designer to think primarily about gameplay that works with that type of technology. The game designer must consider how the storyline is communicated to the player through the engine she must use.
Starting with Story
Or the designer wants to tell the story more from the point of view of the soldiers who had to fight in that battle. All of these companies' adventure games used very standardized game mechanics and technology.
Working with Limitations
Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis
When forced conversations became necessary, where an NPC could walk up to the player and start a conversation with her instead of the other way around, I implemented the appropriate game mechanics. This almost made the game more of an adventure than an RPG, but I was fine with that as it supported the story best.
Damage Incorporated
These fellow Marines chatted with each other as the player maneuvered around the game world with them. One of the weaknesses of the game was that I did not fully understand the limitations of the Marathon engine at the beginning of the project.
Centipede 3D
The differences can be traced back to the origin of the idea for their game, and the way they approached using a licensed engine. This is partly because one of the hallmarks of a classic arcade game is the lack of any real storytelling.
The Suffering
The main effect of the humble story was to provide the setting and influence the look of the game, to explain why the player flies around and blasts centipedes and mushrooms, and why the worlds of the game change. So our origins were really a combination of gaming and horror, both dependent on each other.
Embrace Your Limitations
Established Technology
Of course, if a designer is really committed to making a certain game before she gives up, she might need to be smarter about how she implements it. Or the big question: does the game really have to be 3D at all, or will a 2D implementation be just as good.
The Case of the Many Mushrooms
Embrace your limitations!” I announced in the middle of this discussion, not like a tired scientist who could finally shout, "Eureka!" Everyone present thought my announcement was quite funny, but on reflection I decided it was actually quite true to the game. But overall I still believe that game developers should embrace their limitations once they discover them.
The Time Allotted
It's better to shelve an idea that isn't compatible with your technology (you can always come back to it later) and come up with a design that's better suited to the tools you have. There's a lot to be said for making art about not being beholden to the person writing the checks.
If You Choose Not to Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice
Game Analysis: Centipede
One of the key components of many classic arcade games was their wild variation in gameplay styles. Tempest is one of many classic arcade games that focuses on shooting enemies that are getting closer and closer.
Classic Arcade Game Traits
Of course, some games violated some of the above rules of form, but they can still be considered classic arcade games. One of the defining games of the form, Centipede follows all of the classic arcade game characteristics listed above.
Input
This keeps the game perfectly balanced and requires players to carefully plan their shots, a design element that adds more depth to the game's mechanics.
Interconnectedness
Instead of simply turning down to the next row, the centipede will move vertically straight down to the bottom of the screen. If players kill the centipede too close to the top of the screen, it will leave a large pile.
Escalating Tension
Remember that the flea falls from the top of the screen based on the amount of. When the player's ship is destroyed, the wave starts over and so the centipede returns to the top of the screen.
One Person, One Game
Focus
In the course of the many battles you have to fight, skirmishes you have to endure, and losses you have to overcome during the development of a game, with conflicts that may arise with other team members or within yourself, it is very easy to you lose track. just why you were making the game in the first place. The technique I explore in this chapter is certainly not one that all game designers use, but I think it is one that all game designers can benefit from.
Establishing Focus
The focus is solely on the concepts most central to the game you hope to develop. You want your focus to be something you want to fight for intensely until the game finally ships.
An Example: Winter Carnival Whirlwind
Make sure you don't include aspects of your game that have more to do with funding and publishing the project than making the game you want to make. And soon, if you remember, you will say that it is time to change the title of the game, and everyone will say: “Why.
The Function of the Focus
I would argue that writing it down is the key to really getting a handle on the nature of the game you plan to develop. Unlike when you're describing the project to someone, you can't say on paper, "Oh, yeah, and there's this part, and this other aspect over here, and I really mean this when I say it." If it's not down on paper, it's not part of the focus of the game.
Maintaining Focus
Of course, the fact that a game is primarily created by an individual does not guarantee that the game will be focused. If you're working as a designer on a game with a team, it's essential to make sure that the other people on your project, whether artists, programmers, or producers, understand the nature of the game's focus.
Fleshing Out the Focus
Your design document will not cover everything needed to actually make the game playable; no way it can. Using a focus statement wisely during the course of a project will keep the game on the right side.
Changing Focus
Better to fix issues in the game and your focus now than to be stuck with them for the rest of the project and end up with an inferior game. In fact, from conception to the earliest versions of the game, not much attention was paid to the game mechanics and behavior of the original.
Sub-Focuses
Even marginally skilled, poor players will be able to play the game all the way through on the easiest difficulty level, given enough attempts." Winter Carnival Whirlwind has a relatively low overall difficulty, as the player can set the difficulty levels in the game.
Using Focus
Interview: Ed Logg
I found that many of the ideas needed a lot of work, so it was not unusual for the original brainstorming idea to receive a major overhaul. Some of the conversions made improvements that were not possible in the coin-op market.
The Elements of Gameplay
I didn't know the best strategies or tactics even though I designed all the game's systems. Experience plays a big role in understanding what makes a game fun, experience both as a game designer and as a game player.
Unique Solutions
Anticipatory versus Complex Systems
In a game with a more simulation-based approach, containing a puzzle such as the pressure plate described above, the designer and programmer come up with a set of success conditions for that puzzle. Instead of "the puzzle is solved if the players use stones, weapons or monsters to offset the tiles", the rule is "the puzzle is solved when the tiles are offset by the appropriate weight being placed on top of them". Of course, this puzzle example is simple, but the same techniques can be applied to much more sophisticated and interesting systems that create a wide variety of successful play styles.
Emergence
This strategy was so effective that it was clearly the best strategy to use and allowed players to miss 90 percent of the game. Second, they saw that the flea does not come out on the first wave of the game.
Non-Linearity
Types of Non-Linearity
Multiple Solutions: I discussed above how a well-designed game allows players to come up with their own solutions to the challenges the game presents. Having multiple solutions to the individual challenges within a game is a big part of non-linearity; it allows players to have multiple paths to get from point A (presenting the challenge) to point B (solving the challenge).
Implementation
This type of non-linearity can also be used to add completely optional side quests to the game. Players can then continue playing until the end of the game, without ever interacting with challenge Y or Z.
The Purpose of Non-Linearity
Why spend a lot of time on parts of the game that not everyone will see?” tell you a bit. Caution: All designers should understand that non-linearity does not mean that players wander aimlessly around the game world.
Modeling Reality
Thus, it was able to deal with weighty and serious topics in a more resonant way than if the game took place in some demonic underworld. I can do this in real life; why not in the game?” Indeed, many more complex first-person shooters have added this very feature.
Teaching the Player
This makes players feel that they are indeed on the right track with the game and encourages them to keep playing. It's true that players don't want their games to be too simple and too unchallenging, but punishing them for blunders from the start is not the right way to produce this challenge.
Tutorials
Here was a practice level completely camouflaged in the game world that was a lot of fun to play. Originally, I hid the cave in the woods, making it difficult for players to find and thus making the game even more unforgiving.
Input/Output
Controls and Input
Control pads force the designer to improve their controls, to remove everything that is superfluous and to combine all the actions of the game world. Some of the most successful games adopted control schemes that players already knew from others.
Output and Game-World Feedback
Almost all games present players with a view of the game world as a central part of their output system. Not all information about the game world needs to be conveyed to players through visual stimuli.
Basic Elements
Game Analysis: Tetris
Unlike what happened with Myst, when Tetris was first released, most of the gaming press dwelt on the game's origins in Russia and seemed impressed, or at least unexcited, by the gameplay of the title. Now that the game is an undisputed classic, every game critic will be happy to tell you about it.
Puzzle Game or Action Game?
Centipede this menace is the arthropod that eats its way down from the top of the screen. As the game progresses, the speed at which these blocks fall from the top of the screen increases, increasing the challenge for players and increasing the difficulty over the course of the game.
Tetris as a Classic Arcade Game
Players actually only need three buttons to play the game successfully, and these all translate into clear results on the screen. However, players will never be able to fully master the game due to the difficulty of the game and the potential for infinitely long games.
The Technology
Artificial Intelligence
