Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
or more, it is clear that for a single writer it would be an almost impossible
task to undertake along with story development, quest objectives, item
descriptions, and so forth.
Shooters
It almost seems that as long as there have been computer games there have
been a good proportion of them devoted to shooting things. From games
where the player defends the Earth from invading alien hordes to those
where the player takes on the role of a criminal and shoots the good guys.
The primary gameplay mechanic is to shoot the opponents while keeping
your avatar alive. Because this can prove difficult, many shooters offer a
number of lives to work through before deeming that the game is over or
they include power-ups that enable the player to restore health, improve
shields or give bigger and better weapons that take out the opponents more
quickly.
Shooters have a great deal of variety and refinement today, with many
offering background stories and even character development as part of the
process of giving the player an ever greater experience.
The first person shooter (FPS) is probably the most successful and widely
known sub-genre, which came into its own in the early 1990s and has domi-
nated gaming in many ways since. Often building upon technical develop-
ments of the hardware and clever simulation of such real-life features as
gravity physics, these games are increasingly immersive to those who like to
shoot enemies in seemingly authentic environments.
Many FPS games also give degrees of artificial intelligence to the enemies
so they can adapt to the player's style of play. Others offer up to ten levels of
difficulty so that, with some experimentation the player is able to find one
which gives them a considerable challenge but not without the opportunity
of winning.
Most FPS games now offer online play where you can play with or against
others. Some of these are a simple an extension of the single player experi-
ence where, instead of the other combatants being controlled by the game,
they are controlled by other players.
Increasingly, developers of FPS games are seeing the importance of
weaving a story through the single player experience. Although some
instances have been a little hit and miss, there are examples where this is
implemented in such a way that players lose nothing from the shooter
experience and still follow a rich story. Because of the normally high budgets
