Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
(
continued
)
Time Period
Environment
Technology
Character Types
Post-apocalyptic
Party
Time travel
Ninjas
Space station
Pirates
Alien world
Cowboys
Demons
Superhero
Detective
Zombies
Animals
Diseases
Determining the game's target audience with its corresponding ESRB rating, its genre, and its theme
will in turn guide your choices for other game design elements such as color schemes, music,
character names, clothing, and gear, as well as types of treasure, abilities, weapons, and hazards.
Fun and the Game Experience
If it were simple to define what “fun” is and apply it, game design would be easy. Unfortunately, “fun”
is subjective—what is fun to you may not be fun to anyone else. You may not even find the same
game to be fun after you've played it many times. The simple truth is that you cannot predict if the
game-playing masses will think your game is fun.
While there is no specific formula for fun, there are well-known tools you can use to avoid common
problems in gameplay mechanics that would otherwise definitely lower the game's fun potential.
Maps
A good place to start is by mapping out your game on a piece of paper or with your favorite drawing
tool. To see how a map can help you find game design problems, let's take a look at a map of the
Obstacle Course scene (Figure
9-3
).
laser
blizzard
player
moving platform
pendulum
cannon
Figure 9-3.
Initial map of the obstacle course
