Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Another thing to notice in the table is that the property taxes reduce the number of
“no winner” outcomes. This, too, is a desirable quality in a game: The friction helps
prevent stalemates.
TAble 8.2
effects of different
Property Tax rate
settings
TA x RATE
PROPERTy/HOuSES
BluE WINS
(Buys 14 Properties)
RED WINS
(Buys 6 Properties)
NO
WINNER
no taxes
632
152
216
0.1/0.02
557
314
129
0.2/0.04
472
503
25
0.3/0.06
456
542
2
So far, all the extended examples in this topic have been about games that have
already been published. But the Machinations framework is not just a tool for analy-
sis. To demonstrate the framework's value for designing new games, we will discuss
in detail a game that (to our knowledge) never has been built yet is known to game
design community. This game is SimWar.
SimWar was presented during the Game Developers' Conference in 2003 by game
designer Will Wright, who is well-known for his published simulation games,
SimCity
and
The Sims
, among many others. SimWar is a hypothetical, minimalistic
war game that features only three units: factories, immobile defensive units, and
mobile offensive units. These units can be built by spending an unspecified resource
that is produced by factories. The more factories a player has, the more resources
become available to build new units. Only offensive units can move around the
map. When an offensive unit meets an enemy defensive unit there is a 50% chance
that one destroys the other, and vice versa.
Figure 8.18
is a visual summary of the
game and includes the respective building costs of the three units.
FIGURe 8.18
a visual summary of
simWar (Wright, 2003)
