Game Design: “Shadows on Deck” - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 170

For this stage in the game design, it is enough to roughly outline how the story is going to pan
out. In fact, a rough plan is better than a full story as you will see when we come to plan the game
play. Here's the basic outline:
We start with Flynn on his home island where he is living with his dad. He is bored and
slightly troubled. Then a problem arises. The island is threatened by a poisonous fog creeping in
from sea. Flynn gets his opportunity for adventure; a chance to save his home and maybe
discover who his mother is. Just as Flynn is starting to worry about the fog and what to do, a
parrot appears (we need a parrot in a pirate game). The parrot-we'll call him Archie-lets Flynn
know that his mother is in danger. He sets off on his adventure with the parrot as a companion
and guide. He finds his mother and the cause of the evil, but then there's a twist. His mother has
been kidnapped by an evil pirate and Flynn has to do what he is told to keep her safe. So he sets
off to find a treasure for the evil guy, hoping that his mother will be freed afterwards. But the
pirate tricks him; he intends to invade Flynn's home island and will probably kill Flynn and both
his parents if his evil plan succeeds. In the end, Flynn finds a way to best the bad guy and we have
our happy ending. Flynn has saved the island and found out something about who he is and
something that he is good at.
If we were just writing a story, this is where we would start fleshing out all the details of the
journey we just described. But this is a game, not a book or a film, and so before we can finish the
story, we need to look at the game play.
Game Play
In a game, the game play is the most important thing. The story will help make the game more
interesting and immersive, but first of all, the game play has to be fun. So it is time to look at what
we are actually going to do in this game and what levels we will have.
Game play is a very broad term and not always easy to understand. It encompasses all the
features in the game that are interactive, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes games from
other forms of media such as films or topics. A book is not interactive, because although the
reader is affected by the words they read, the topic is not affected back. It doesn't change
depending on who is reading it.
Games also provide challenges to their players in the form of objectives or goals. Pre-defined
challenges distinguish games from simple toys. You can create your own challenges using toys,
but they do not impose them on the player in the same way as a game.
So the game play is how the game responds to a player's actions (interactivity) in pursuit of
the objectives of the game (challenge). In essence, these are all the elements that affect how the
player plays the game. We can divide these elements into three areas, each of which requires
careful consideration: actions, rules, and challenges.
Actions: What Can the Player Do in the Game World?
By actions, we mean the controls and moves the player uses to play the game with. Can we jump,
shoot, talk? Squeeze giant squids to produce ink splotches? Do we use the mouse pointer to
choose troops or press “I” to bring up the inventory?
It's important to not confuse the player with too many moves and key combinations to
remember. As a rule, the challenge of a game should never be the controls. It should be hard to
beat the bog-eyed monster at the end of the level, but easy to remember where the jump key is.
Rules: What Restrictions Are We Imposing on the Player?
Gravity is a rule. If the player misses a platform, the character will fall down and maybe take
damage or restart the game. Does the player have a certain number of lives or tries? Is there a
limit to how many things he can pick up?
The rules define the world in which the game exists, and even the designer must be careful to
follow those rules. If we say that there is gravity in the game world, then the monsters must be