Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
the balance in the game, especially when several of them are created. They can
make the gameplay pretty unpredictable and alive because situations can be a little
bit abnormal as robo-golem does not depend on the game scenario and players.
Such conditions are known as the emergent gameplay; this term describes the situ-
ations when the standard gameplay intentionally (developers hypothecate some sort
of freedom in particular areas) or accidentally (because of a glitch or other type of
undocumented situation) offers unexpected extra mechanics. The main advantage
is that players discover such situations accidentally and this convinces them that a
game is a pretty complex system with a lot of unexplored details. Hence, it is worth to
play again and again testing the feature found already and explore some new ones.
The most spectacular examples of the emergent gameplay are based on various
glitches or some form of developer oversight. A canonical instance is a rocket jump-
ing when a player fires through the ground (or other type of surface) while jumping
to increase the distance of a jump, popularized by Quake from id Software. This fea-
ture was discovered by players and became very popular. The audience also tries to
utilize such funny situations as opponents stuck somewhere in 3D surroundings or
some gaps in the game levels to reach some locations faster. But more interesting
are the intentional causes of the emergent gameplay when developers give some
additional functionality or properties to some items so they can be used in other
ways; for instance, several crates can be turned by a player into a ladder, helping to
climb a roof. Since a good game is a field for experiments, there should be a chance
for players to invent some new methods of achieving goals. The game should not
haveanobviousstructureoflogic;itmustlookmuchdeeper,likeasystemwithsome
hidden factors and properties.
Averygoodmetaphorisalongcorridor;itlooksmuchmoreintriguingifithasseveral
doors rather than empty walls. Even if the doors are fictional or locked, they create
an illusion of a bigger world. By the way, this principle is very popular in level design.
The location should look like a part of a larger universe, so only the correct gap could
be found to escape it to a place, which is seen on the horizon.
Robo-zombie
Another funny idea is of using useful spares from the player's inventory. The robots,
walking around without a proper goal, wanting only to have some "braains"; let's call
them robo-zombies. In contrast to a robo-golem, he can be constructed only of two
parts: the body and the legs. The head is not required. It gives the robo-zombie less
power because the sum of two cards is not large, but that can be offset by the abil-
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