Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Theory in Practice
We've talked a lot about the theory of game design and storytelling in this topic. The problem
with theory is that great-sounding ideas and principles can be quite hard to convert into practice,
so we'll review how some of the theory from previous chapters can help us to plan out the level
design for our vertical slice. Let's reiterate some of the important points about game design from
both this and the previous book:
•
Challenges
: Above all, players need
achievable
challenges, with
clear goals
and
accurate feedback
in terms of
rewards
or
fair punishments
for their actions.
•
Progression:
Plan the
difficulty curve
of the game to maintain achievable challenges.
Slowly introduce your features one at a time, allowing the player time to gain skill in
each. Having a
balanced progression
will keep the game challenging and fun.
•
Interactivity:
Empower
the player by giving them control over
powerful situations
where their
actions
and
choices
have a
meaningful effect
on the game.
•
Mentoring:
Remember that the player is your apprentice. Your goal is not to beat the
player, but to
teach
the player how to beat your game.
Storytelling
: Engage the player in the narrative context of your gaming world with
believable characters
and
intriguing storylines
.
We will use a walkthrough of our level to illustrate how these relate in a practical way to the
design of our game. This will mainly focus on the first four of these, as storytelling will be covered
in its own section later on in the chapter.
•
Progression
The level we're using as our vertical slice is Rogues' Rendezvous, the pirate town hidden in the
cliffs. We've already planned out the difficulty ramping for the whole game, including what new
features we want to introduce for every level in the game. We've tried to select features carefully
to create a game that is well-balanced and interesting without getting chaotic. Too many
elements will result in a mishmash of ideas, and too few makes the game boring.
Although we will start with our planned progression, we should remain willing to make
changes. What looked like a fun design on paper might need tweaking if it turns out to not work
well. We'll also keep our eye out for happy accidents; while creating the game, we might stumble
on unexpected features or unexpected uses of planned features that are worth keeping. At this
point in the game:
•
Flynn will already have his jump, double jump, and climb abilities and should be
fairly confident at using them after the action in the rigging from the previous level.
•
Flynn will have already seen a range of hazards and monsters, but always had to avoid
them up to this point in the game.
Flynn will be used to receiving advice from Archie and using him to collect items and
solve puzzles.
And in this level, we want to introduce two new features:
•
•
Flynn will be given the charge ability that allows him to kill certain monsters by
pushing them into danger when they are looking the other way.
•
Archie will be given the distract ability, which allows him to lure certain monsters into
dangerous situations so that Flynn can dispatch them.
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