Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
play, then it is a racing game. Racing games generally involve the player
controlling an avatar that represents a vehicle of some sort - cars, hovercraft,
boats, spaceships, etc. - though human avatars will be used when it is a snow-
board game, for instance. The player may race against other players, game-
controlled opponents or against the clock in a time trial mode.
Many racing games offer an increasingly authentic experience with
photo-realistic graphics, highly developed physics and attempts to match the
handling of their real-world counterparts. Alongside racing, additional game-
play features often allow the player to buy new vehicles or upgrade their old
ones by spending the virtual prize money they win in races.
There are racing games that avoid the real-world feel and are intended to
be simply fun or wacky. Some racing games also allow the vehicles to attack
one another as part of the tactics of the race.
Although some racing games have career progression as a part of the
game, most are unlikely to need the services of a writer. Though there is
often a large amount of text covering details of vehicles and upgrade parts,
this tends to be highly technical, rather than creative, and is probably already
well-covered by the development team.
Role-playing game
This genre is large, with many titles building into a series of games that
become major franchises. Visual and gameplay styles vary considerably, but
the underlying feature is that the player controls a character or team of
characters and develops their abilities and skills as they explore the game
world and the story unfolds.
Characters in role-playing games (RPGs) are governed by statistics.Their
skills and abilities are defined by numbers, so the player may control a charac-
ter that has, say, high intelligence but low dexterity among their abilities.
Often teams are built in a way which the characters' skills and abilities
complement one another.
As the player progresses through the game, the characters are awarded
experience points for successfully using their skills, completing quests or
defeating enemies in battle. These experience points are then used to
enhance skills or abilities when enough points have been earned to do so,
perhaps when the character increases to the next experience level.
The way that role-playing games establish the main player character tends
to fall into two camps.The first allows the player to define their own charac-
ter by choosing their appearance, gender, type, abilities and skills.The second
