Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Why A to B works
Whether or not you care for the simple graphics, game play in A to B just works. This can be attributed to
much of the theory that I read surrounding game development. First and foremost was Jesse Schell's
Art
of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
(Morgan Kaufmann, 2008). This topic did a fantastic job breaking
down game design. Everything from inspiration to execution was covered in detailed and easily digestible
checklists and methods. In the topic, Schell claims that the mechanics are the foundation of the game, so
most of your attention needs to be focused on it. For me, this was the most important piece of information
in the topic, and became the basis for my first rule of simplicity.
Another helpful idea was from the seminal work on the concept of flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is
the idea that a perfect state of mind is achieved through the balance of skill and challenge. Too much
challenge causes anxiety, too little causes boredom. There are number of other resulting emotions, but
flow occurs when everything is just right. This idea was instrumental in the process of level design.
Between fine-tuning the positions of A and B, along with carefully selecting the number and set of
modifiers, I hoped to provide the perfect balance. This is essential in almost any type of game. If the game
starts out and is too challenging, the player will quit. If it takes too long to become challenging, the player
will quit. The level of skill involved in the challenges provided another key component. In a game like A to
B that relies on precision and repetition, everything needed to be entirely skill-based. Leaving anything up
to chance would simply frustrate the player. However, there are certain games where chance and
uncertainty play an important role in the game. It is crucial to analyze your exact circumstances to decide
how much skill vs. chance should be involved.
One of the most important elements to the success of the game was the balance of risk vs. reward. Similar
to skill and chance, there needs to be an appropriate balance between the two, or else a game will feel
“off.” With A to B, reward always came in the form of more points. Risk is a little more difficult to identify,
but was equally as critical. For example, if a player has laid a certain path of modifiers and is struggling to
get to point B, there are two options. The first and safer method is to continue to tweak the current setup
slightly until the ball reaches point B. The riskier, but potentially more rewarding option is to totally
rearrange the modifiers to create a different strategy. While this might pay off big-time, the player might
also end up back-tracking and have to do many more minor tweaks. This example illustrates how you can
provide subtle design elements to make for a more compelling game.
Processing.js
While Processing has been around since 2004 and has grown into a powerful tool, Processing.js is in its
infancy. There are a few distinctions between Processing and its JavaScript brother. Processing has more
than 100 libraries. This is a central attraction to using Processing because it greatly expands its
functionality. The libraries include everything from physics simulation to camera and face detection. The
first downside of the JavaScript version is that there is no ability to import and utilize these libraries.
Essentially, you only have access to the core functionality of Processing. That being said, there are people
out there who are attempting to port some of the popular libraries to JavaScript to allow for some more
expanded integration.
