Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
At the time, DOOM
was unique because
more than one
gamer could play.
players entered the
game from their own
computers using
phone-line hookups
or local area net-
work connections
(LAns).
FiGuRe 2.5 Wolfenstein 3D amazed players with the ability
to turn in a complete circle in real time.
In Wolfenstein 3D , you played a World War II POW named William “B. J.”
Blazkowicz, attempting to escape from a German castle—Castle Wolfenstein.
Along the way, you picked up and used weapons including a knife, pistol,
machine gun, and Gatling gun. Addictive and a massive hit for its time, the
game holds a solid niche in game development history because of its success. In
1993, id followed on its success with Wolfenstein by releasing DOOM .
As these shooters developed into more elaborate, complex games, the abili-
ties the characters could exhibit increased as well. Instead of moving over static
backgrounds and observing gameplay from a bird's-eye view, gamers could run
around inside a world—jump, duck, dodge, turn corners, and go through doors
to encounter new locations as if they were immersed in the setting themselves.
Designers interested in creating shooters should keep in mind that the more
immersive the game is, the more popular it tends to be. The more complete the
immersion, the more the gamer can suspend disbelief. In World of Warcraft, for
example, the environment changes to reflect time of day and exhibits weather
that can include rain, snow, or fog. The game even has world events with quests
and in-game prizes celebrating Halloween, Winter Festival, and so on. In the
game Thief, conversations are overheard as the thief sneaks quietly about in the
shadows, adding believability to that world. The more immersive a game is, the
Shooters can be
played from a first-
person POV or a
third-person POV,
as in tom Clancy's
splinter Cell .
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