Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
challenges and forces the player to improvise as the circumstances dictate. A build-
ing strategy that works in one landscape might not be as effective in another.
n The player starts with a limited amount of money to start building. She must
earn the money for further development as she goes along. The player is offered a
loan when she runs out of money, but she has to pay it back or face the wrath of
the Roman emperor (who will eventually send his legions to attack the city). The
economy responds fairly slowly to changes, creating an unpredictable rhythm of
good and bad economic tides (see the “Make Negative Feedback Slow and Durable”
sidebar). A player might get into trouble when crucial buildings collapse or burn
down because she forgot to hire enough prefectures or engineers, locally collapsing
the entire economy.
n On many maps, the player can be attacked by invading barbarians, requiring her
to focus both on building and defending the city. Attacks create periodic threats
that increase over time. The player must prepare her defenses in advance, creating
a delicate balance between short-term (making ready for the next attack) and long-
term (building up the economy) effects. This adds additional patterns and is more
difficult to manage than a city that is less prone to attack.
n Certain missions require players to produce large quantities of particular trade
goods to please the emperor. This makes the player dependent on trade with other
cities for vital resources. Such an economy will have sudden, periodic changes in
the number of trade goods in circulation. These rapid shifts can wreak havoc on the
economic balance. The wealthier the city gets, the more delicate the balance that is
required to maintain its wealth.
make neGat i Ve Feedback sloW and durable
incorporating negative feedback is a good way to create a stable, balanced economy in a
game. however, it can also make a game too easy and too predictable. One design strat-
egy you can use to create a more delicately balanced game economy is to make negative
feedback slower and more durable. For example, consider the diagrams and chart in
Figure 9.6 . The black line in the graph shows the setting of the input register; it changes
as the user clicks the register. The negative feedback in the red diagram operates very
fast and creates a stable economy, so the red line in the graph follows the changes in the
input value very quickly. The negative feedback, shown by the blue diagram, is equally
strong, but its effects are delayed: The blue line follows a more unpredictable pattern
as a result of changing input values. The purple diagram also makes the effects more
durable, creating an even more erratic pattern.
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