Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The aftermath should not beveryruthless; anordinary universal robot canonly make
the player lose his next move. Some monsters can take some spares, for example,
various puddles take away robot's legs. Sphinxes like trophies in a form of robot
heads. Only weak monsters or the robot itself should withdraw the battery.
Besides, the monsters in containers can be a real bad thing: a pitfall card, which is
unconditional and cannot be defeated. One of the good illustrations is the card
You
lose your robot!
; by getting this, a player loses all current spares and his robot be-
comes a digital phantom. There is another terrible card that says
You lose one bat-
tery!
.
Remember that risks in games should be well balanced. Motivation mechanics for
players (for some AI systems) is based on playing with two general ambitions: to
be secure (to be alive) and to get some rewards (satisfaction). In most cases, they
contradict each other because, to be secure, it is better to hide somewhere and not
move. But to get some prizes, you need to face some danger. That is a basic ex-
istential principle, which is why such a choice during playing generates some strong
emotions.
Any risk must be worth the reward a player gets, and in some cases, it should out-
weigh the possible aftermath of failure. This forces players to take risks and make
more experiments. On the other hand, if the aftermath is too weak, the players may
become too arrogant, and their emotional state will be very indifferent to events. You
have to remember a crucial thing: a player is playing a game, while you (as the au-
thor of the game) are playing with his emotions, motivations, and actions. Without
emotions, choices, and experience, games are flat software with some beautiful pic-
tures.
