Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
cataloGinG lock-and-key mechanics
The machinations diagrams for different lock-and-key mechanisms help identify the
subtle differences among them and the issues you might encounter using the mecha-
nisms in a game. There are many more lock-and-key mechanisms than we can document
here. as a designer, creating these little diagrams and studying their mechanics will help
you to build a repertoire of design lore. having a large catalog of lock-and-key mechan-
ics will be very useful when you have trouble coming up with the right mechanism for
your game: simply go through the mechanisms you found in other games and find inter-
esting opportunities to apply to your own game. a catalog of mechanisms is the game
designer's equivalent of a collection of reference art that many professional artists use to
get inspiration from or to explore new ideas.
Dynamic locks and Keys
To create lock-and-key mechanisms that involve more feedback, start by treating
the keys as a resource that can be produced and consumed, rather than as a simple
item that either is or is not in the player's inventory. For example,
Figure 11.13
rep-
resents a mechanism in which the player needs to harvest ten keys before she can
open the lock. (In this case, harvesting is an automatic action that happens when
the player is in the right location.) Feedback takes place through the application of
dynamic friction on the number of keys the player has collected. The more keys that
are harvested, the quicker the keys are drained. In this case, we might think of the
key as a kind of magical energy the player needs to unlock a door. This mechanism
makes it somewhat harder to estimate how many keys need to be harvested to get
past the lock. Obviously, this gets even more difficult as the distance between the
location where keys can be harvested and the lock increases. Unfortunately, the mech-
anism is not very interesting in itself: It boils down to harvesting enough keys and
then dashing for the door. There is little strategy involved. But we can improve on it.
FIGURe 11.13
a simple feedback
mechanism for a lock-
and-key mechanism
