Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.
The general three workflow patterns for the four main race events of NFS
illustrated using the BPMN 2.0 visual grammar [15]: a) Pattern for checkpoint race
event, b) pattern for sprint and for rival race event, and c) pattern for battle race event
3 Use Cases
For our initial investigation we have chosen two gameplay distinct action games,
Need for Speed: The Run
and
Half Life 2
.
Need For Speed: The Run (NFS):
NFS is an action racer where the player takes
part in a race across the US. The complete race is broken down into stages with
each stage again divided into different race events. These events can roughly be
divided into: a) checkpoint races, b) sprint races, c) rival races, and d) battle
races. In case of a checkpoint race, a sequence of checkpoints has to be crossed.
In workflow terms this can be described with a
Sequence
pattern (Workflow
Pattern #1 [17]). This is illustrated in Fig. 1a.
A bit more complex is the workflow pattern for the sprint race event (see
Fig. 1b), where the player has to overtake a number of opponents and to cross
the goal line in first position. The task to overtake multiple opponents can be
described as a cycle that repeats until the player is on the first place (WP #10 -
Arbitrary Cycles
[17]). However, overtaking all opponents and reaching the first
place is not enough to win the race, the player also has to maintain the lead
until the goal line is reached. This is modeled with a second arbitrary cycle. The
Simple Merge
pattern (WP #5 [17]) is used to merge the outgoing branch of the
Overtake Opponent
node and the false branch of the second arbitrary cycle.
The rival race event is technically the same as the sprint race event except
that the player has to race against specific drivers that are part of the storyline.
It can therefore be modeled the same way as the sprint race.
The battle race is a slight modification of the sprint race, where the player
has to overtake an opponent and keep the lead until a checkpoint is reached
after which the player races against another opponent until the next checkpoint.
This repeats several times during a single battle race. The basic structure of
the workflow pattern for a battle race event is therefore similar to the workflow
