Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
In earlier games, resolution was very low because that was all the technology
at the time could support.
Space Invaders
used a black-and-white raster display
(the grid of pixels) and ran at a resolution of 224×260 pixels. By today's stan-
dards, that is a small display; modern console games are typically 1280×720 or
1920×1080 and use millions of colors.
Because there were so few games for early designers to study when making
new ones, their inspiration tended to come from a variety of sources. Nishikado
was inspired by the video game
Breakout
and the movies
The War of the Worlds
and
Star Wars
when he designed the look for the characters
.
We'll talk more
about inspiration in Chapter 4, “Visual Design.”
Although action games can include first-person playing approaches, for the
most part they tend to allow gamers to navigate levels using an avatar and a
third-person point of view (POV). This avatar, the protagonist, is then maneu-
vered through various levels to do any or all of the following:
Resolution
refers to
how many pixels are
used to make up the
entire screen you're
viewing.
the blocky
space
invader
images
became iconic and
were often used in
films and tV shows
to represent any
creature or alien in a
computer game.
Overcome obstacles
Collect items (things needed like a key to enter the next level or
power ups)
Defeat bad guys and bosses
Action games often
feature levels with
distinctive looks and
are often designed
with obstacles that
can be negotiated
at high speeds—
again, requiring
excellent hand-eye
coordination.
Solve puzzles
Figure 2.2 shows a graphic from the game
Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare
, a
highly popular game from Activision. During gameplay, gamers go on military-
type missions and race through flying bullets, explosions, and various forms of
combat while shooting, jumping, dodging, and sometimes dying. For the most
part, action games require skill and excellent hand-eye coordination to maneuver
the avatar through these physical challenges.
The design of these games includes not only the avatar's abilities (physical
capabilities such as jumping, wielding a weapon, and so on) but also unique
environments for the levels. Levels tend to have very different looks. A gamer
may successfully navigate his or her avatar through a level that looks like a
jungle to move on to the next level, which may be the meteor-pelted surface
of the moon or a seafloor on a distant planet. This type of eye candy provides
a visual stimulus to gamers who are highly focused on the fast-paced skills
required to maneuver their avatars through the perilous environments.
