Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
game is actually played by multiple players. Once you've done that, it's fairly easy to
imagine how a diagram might be duplicated and the duplicates combined to repre-
sent the multiplayer situation.
In other cases, it's useful to model the mechanics for one player at a higher level of
detail than other players. Or you can leave out certain aspects of the game, such as
players taking turns. At a high level of abstraction, there is often little difference in
the effects of real-time play and turn-based play.
For the examples in this topic, we have tried to keep the level of detail low and the
level of abstraction high so the diagrams don't get too complex. This way, you can
easily see the structural features of the internal economy, which will help you to
understand how these structures create emergent gameplay. For this reason, the
natural scope of a Machinations diagram is that of a single player and that player's
individual perspective on the game system. Although it is certainly possible to
model multiplayer systems and turn-based play, the framework, as it currently
stands, does not include features designed to support multiplayer games in particu-
lar. For example, the main input device for interaction with a Machinations diagram
is the mouse; there is no support for multiple players using multiple input devices.
The tool has no means of enforcing whose turn it is to interact or to prevent one
player from clicking a part of the diagram that belongs to another player. It's a simu-
lation tool, not a tool for building playable games.
Finally, a word of caution: We have used Machinations diagrams to model a number
of real games, but as we said, we have intentionally simpliied them in this topic.
The Machinations framework and diagrams only facilitate understanding of games;
they aren't a substitute for studying the game itself.
The Machinations framework is designed to model activity, interaction, and com-
munication between the parts of a game's internal economy. As shown in the
previous chapter, a game's economic system is dominated by the flow of resources.
To model a game's internal economy, Machinations diagrams use several types of
nodes
that pull, push, gather, and distribute resources.
Resource connections
determine
how resources move between elements, and
state connections
determine how the
current distribution of resources modifies other elements in the diagram. Together,
these elements form the essential core of Machinations diagrams. Let's take a look
at these basic elements.
