Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
purple. Each element of the game world is identified by its distinct colors. The player may not
yet know what the lollipop-shaped thing does, but she knows it's an artifact she can use. Once
again, there's a visual motif; in the abstract world of
Zaga-33
, the motif can be as simple as
orange
versus green.
Figure 4.6
Comparison of items and monsters in
Zaga-33
.
The way objects in a game appear should tell the player about what they do and what their
relationships to each other and to the player are. It should also differentiate objects: objects
that follow different rules should be visually distinguishable from one another. An easy way to
do this is to pay attention to an object's silhouette, or the shape of the object.
As an exercise, my friend Leon Arnott created his own hacked version of
Super Mario Bros.
called
Silhouette Mario Bros.
He blacked out all the characters in the game, Mario and monsters alike,
so that they appear as solid black shapes. And of course, he discovered that everything in the
game is still perfectly recognizable. The enemy turtle, which becomes a projectile when Mario
jumps on it, is a different shape from the enemy mushroom, which does not. The beetle that is
safe to jump on looks different from the beetle that is dangerous to touch. Look at Figure
4.7
.
Can you
recognize these characters?
Figure 4.7
Mario characters in silhouette.
