Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
love to replay games, others would rather move onto another game, so replay
value may depend on the target audience.
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Figure 5 Linear gameplay, player-influenced story
An alternative to the parallel strands is shown in Figure 5. The gameplay
levels are largely unaffected by the choices of the player, but at each story
node there could be subtle variations that have been affected by the previous
story node choices or by the style of play through the last gameplay level.The
earlier squad example fits into this structure. This can still be an expensive
way to create a story that reacts to the player if the story nodes contain scenes
that are pre-rendered full-motion video, but if they are handled within an in-
game scene mechanism the overheads can be significantly reduced.Again, the
gameplay itself does not have to be as linear as shown in the diagram and can
be as open as possible within the confines of the level.
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Figure 6 Controlled branching story and gameplay
