Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
dialogue is muddled or too long, or the accent is too hard to understand, they
will move on to another product.
In addition, keep the flavor of the game in mind. Accents, catchphrases, and
in-game jokes are fun—sort of like adding Easter eggs—so you can spice a
game with them here and there. But be careful not to make the game too dif-
ficult to follow. Special elements give gamers more to talk about outside of the
game, and when fans form around a game and create mods or websites dedi-
cated to the game, you've established an audience who will help promote your
game for you.
Mods
refer to modi-
fications of the game
made by fans. they
can be entirely new
levels or additions to
existing parts of the
original game.
Testing Gameplay
While playing the first
Mario Bros.
game, players battled their way through
castle after castle, defeating bad guys and hoping to save Princess Peach, only
to see the annoying text “The princess is in the other castle” flashing across the
top of the screen. Needless to say, that type of design was not repeated in subse-
quent games for the franchise. What can you learn from this design flaw?
As you write the gameplay for any game, keep in mind that players are work-
ing hard to get through all the challenges you have set before them. If a player
is struggling to work through the game, and you deny them the reward again
and again, you'll frustrate the player and they will walk away from your baby.
Why would a player deal with constant frustration when there are many games
out there that are well designed and provide challenges but temper the more dif-
ficult aspects with fun rewards?
The best way to determine if your gameplay is too difficult or too easy is to test.
Test your game, then test it again, and then, test it some more. The importance of
testing a game can't be overlooked or treated lightly. It takes a tremendous amount
of time, effort, and often, money to make a game. Testing is a way to ensure that
the game will be well received; and nothing is deadlier than releasing a game with
bugs or errors that could easily have been caught and fixed in testing. If a game is
released with problems, bad press will circulate very quickly, and all your effort to
make the game will have been wasted.
As soon as your project goes into production and you have the first bit of play-
able game, begin testing—and keep testing right up until the game ships. The
more people who test the game who aren't familiar with it, the more objective
and honest the feedback will be.
Gaming companies have entire divisions dedicated to testing their games.
Testing begins as soon as they have any playable game elements, even with tem-
porary assets. Chapter 9, “Game Production Pipelines,” includes a more thor-
ough description of testing.
