Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Playing this diagram is already tricky, mostly because of its high pace (see the side-
bar “Speed vs. Cognitive Effort”). However, once you find the right balance, it is not
too difficult. We can further change this by adding an interaction between the two
mechanisms. In
Figure 10.5
, we added a mechanism that increases the rate at which
threat is produced for every flower the player collects. This means that the player
must spend more and more time avoiding the enemies while progressing toward the
goal. This creates a nice difficulty curve for the mission. It starts out relatively easy
but gets more difficult quickly.
FIGURe 10.5
interaction between
progress and difficulty
!"
!
speed Vs. coGnitiVe eFFort
Figures 10.4 and 10.5 are good illustrations of the balance between speed and cognitive
effort described by chris crawford in his book the
Art of Computer Game Design
(1984).
The tasks of collecting and avoiding are not very difficult in themselves, and even finding
the right balance between the two does not involve too much strategic thinking. however,
because the diagram moves at a high speed, finding the right balance fast enough is
actually quite challenging. crawford suggests that speed and cognitive effort should be
balanced. Games that require a lot of cognitive effort should run at a low pace (or even
be turn based), while games that require little cognitive effort should run at a fast pace
to make them interesting. You can get an appreciation for this balance by changing the
speed of these diagrams or setting them to a turn-based time mode.
desiGn challenGe
Figure 10.5 implements the
escalating challenge
pattern and comes very close to imple-
menting the
escalating complexity
pattern (see appendix B for detailed descriptions of
these patterns). can you find a way to change the diagram so that it implements escalat-
ing complexity? how would you incorporate the new mechanics into the game's fiction—
its imaginary world of flowers and enemies?
