Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURe 11.16
Progress as a journey
However, there are more ways to look at progress in games. In the previous chapter,
we described progress in terms of how close the player is to reaching a victory con-
dition. In this case, progress is not measured as space traversed but in terms of some
aspect of the game's state. It can be convenient to think about how many actions
the player needs to perform or how much time he needs to bring about the target
state.
Figure 11.17
represents this structure in its most elementary form.
FIGURe 11.17
Progress as an aspect
of the game's state
Framing progress as a relationship to a particular game state allows us to think about
creating dynamic forms of progress from new angles.
board Games rely on emerGent proGression
more Frequently
Board games seem to use emergent mechanisms of progression more frequently than
video games do. Board games cannot rely on many rules or vast predesigned levels
the way video games can. They are restricted to the materials that fit into a single
box and cannot burden their players with a large set of rules to govern many different
individual cases. however, a number of board games aim to entertain their players for
long periods of time, sometimes even days! modern board games use a mixed bag of
techniques to achieve these results. They often come with boards that are built from
randomized tiles to create different starting positions (for example
The Settlers of Catan,
shown in
Figure 11.19
), and they include rules that divide the game into different phases
with different gameplay in each (for example,
Power Grid
). however, the best, but also
the most difficult, way to create progression in such games is to set them up so that dif-
ferent gameplay phases emerge naturally from the mechanics rather than from arbitrary
rules. an example of this effect, one that we discussed in more detail in chapter 4,
“internal economy,” is chess: chess goes through distinct opening, middle, and endgame
phases. designing games that exhibit that type of emergent behavior is something of
a holy grail for almost every game designer and has the potential to turn your games
into modern classics. There is no reason why video games shouldn't aim for that type of
gameplay as well.
