Game Design: “Shadows on Deck” - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 173

Main Moves for Our Hero Will Be:
• Run
• Jump
• Double jump
• Charge
• Climb
• Duck
• Send out the parrot
Besides his moves, Flynn will be able to talk to people along the way and help people in
exchange for information and other favors.
That means we need a dialog system to be able to ask questions and give answers. The speech
system will be closely related to how we tell the story, so we won't plan it until we've written more
detail into the story. We'll go through dialog and cut scene techniques in Chapter 9.

Rules

Game World
We definitely have gravity in our game, but we will bend it in favor of our hero. Flynn can jump
higher and further than his enemies. This is because he is nimble and small. Big enemies can't
jump as high and they take more damage when they fall. In exchange, the monsters get to carry
weapons. Flynn takes damage just by coming into contact with a weapon, be it saber or claw.
When he does, he is pushed back slightly. This is both to make it obvious that he hit something
bad and to make sure he doesn't repeatedly take damage from the same thing before he can
move out of the way. As he is pushed back, he might fall off a platform. That means the player
needs to be extra careful if he is on a high platform, which seems fair enough.
The parrot should be useful as a tool, so he is a clever bird. Flynn can talk to him and get
important hints. When the parrot is sent as a distraction, he will always get the attention of the
bad guys, but he is always clever enough to avoid their weapons. That way, Flynn can never lose
his only weapon.

Main Rules in Our Game World Will Be:

• We have gravity, but modified in our hero's favor.

• Flynn can jump higher than any enemy.

• Flynn can fall further than enemies without taking damage.

• The parrot is always more “interesting” to enemies than Flynn.

• The parrot cannot take damage.

Monsters and Hazards
Monsters and hazards are essential elements of a game, particularly a platform game. They are
there to provide challenges, add spice, and to populate the world that would otherwise seem very
empty. For a long game like ours, we need a wide array of different hazards we can throw at the
player.