Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The thing that is cool about static games is that they can be just as fun to play as
dynamic games and have significantly less processing overhead, as they do not have to
achieve the 60FPS real-time processing target to achieve smooth, professional game
play. This is because the nature of the game is not predicated on motion at all, but
rather on making the right
strategic move
, but only when it is your turn to do so.
There can be some forms of collision detection involved in static games regarding
which game piece has been moved to a given location on the gameboard or playing
surface; however, there is no danger of overloading the processor with collision detec-
tion, because the rest of the game board is static, with the exception of the one piece
that is being strategically moved during that particular player's turn.
The processing logic for strategy games is more
strategy logic
-based program-
ming, geared toward allowing the players to achieve an end win, given the right se-
quence of moves, whereas the dynamic game programming logic looks more at what
collisions are taking place between game sprites. Dynamic games are focused on point
score, dodging projectiles, finding treasures, completing level objectives, and killing
enemies.
Complicated strategy games with lots of interrelated rules, such as chess, are likely
to have far more programming logic routines than dynamic games. Yet, because the ex-
ecution of the code is not as time sensitive, the resulting game play will be smooth, no
matter how powerful the platform and CPU are. Of course, the game rule set logic must
be flawless for this type of game to truly be professional, so, in the end, both static and
dynamic games are difficult to code, albeit for different reasons.
Dynamic games could be termed
action games
or
arcade games
and include a lot
of movement on the display screen. These highly dynamic games almost always in-
volve shooting things, such as in the first-person shooter (e.g., Doom, Half-Life) as
well as in the third-person shooter (Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto) genres, or steal-
ing things, or evading things. There is also the obstacle course navigation paradigm,
commonly seen in platform games, such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario.
It is important to note that any genre of game can be produced using 2D or 3D
graphics and assets or even a combination of 2D and 3D assets, which, as I pointed out
There are so many popular game types that there is always the opportunity to create
an entirely new genre of game by using a hybrid approach of a static (strategic) game
type and a dynamic (action) game type.
