Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Many games that use subtasks do not make all the tasks available at once. They
create dependencies among the tasks. We can easily add dependencies to the flower
collection example (
Figure 10.7
). The advantage of these dependencies is that they
allow the designer to control the pacing of the tasks and create a nice difficulty
curve by making the more difficult tasks dependent on the easier ones. Sometimes,
this leads to completely linear missions, in which the order of all the subtasks is
fixed. You shouldn't always choose this approach, however, because players appre-
ciate some freedom of action. If your game has a fixed sequence of subtasks, you
should at least make sure that the actions required to complete a subtask allow some
options—otherwise, the gameplay amounts to checking off boxes. When evaluat-
ing the quality of your mission design, you should always ask yourself how many
options are available to the player at a time. More is generally better than fewer, as
long as you don't overwhelm the player with options and no data about how to
choose one.
FIGURe 10.7
dependencies among
subtasks
linear missions in open Game spaces
if a mission is linear, that doesn't mean the game space must also be linear. many
adventure games, especially those that rely heavily on a long sequence of locks and
keys, have one sequence of tasks that must be completed to beat the game; they have a
linear mission. But this mission can be set in a level in which the player must run back
and forth a lot—through a castle, for example. This is called
backtracking
and can be
frustrating if used too often. if you have a mission that is very linear, simply creating an
open game space to give it more variety is a poor strategy. Usually it is better to redesign
the mission to create a less linear experience. Give the player good reasons to explore
the castle through your mission, rather than forcing them to run through the same space
again and again.