Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
of a slave's mouth, in this game, is to scream when she's cocooned by the queen. In contrast,
the queen's lack of visible emotions suggests control, calm, the visage of a stone bust or some
other symbol of a ruler. It's another visual reminder that this character operates very
differently
from the others.
Animators working outside of games have known these techniques for a long time—to make
characters distinct and memorable, you can vary their silhouettes along with other visual cues
like color. We have even more reason to use this idea in games, because we need to communi-
cate and reinforce that objects in the game follow different rules.
Motion can be used to characterize actors, objects, and rules. The armored slave in
Lesbian
Spider-Queens
moves more slowly than the others to compensate for the fact that she can only
be approached from the back or sides: the player has to do more planning to capture this char-
acter. Consequently, she moves differently from the other slaves. Whereas most of the slaves in
the game run, waving their weapons threateningly before them, the armored slave moves in
a slow, mechanical march (see Figure
). She keeps her shield directed squarely forward to
remind the player that she remains unassailable from this
4.10
direction.
Figure 4.10
Walking animation of armored slave.
Players can tell what's important in
Lesbian Spider-Queens
(see Figure 4.11) because these things,
the living things, are moving, while the less important things, the walls and the scenery, are still.
Maybe the player's character is moving even when the player's not moving her, rocking on her
heels, tapping her foot, or looking at the player expectantly. Make sure the player can find her
character at a glance, because her position is the most important piece of information on the
screen.
In my game
To mb ed
, the player's character Jane is animated even when she isn't actually mov-
ing. There's a simple, two-frame animation of Jane when she pushes against a wall (see Figure
4.12
, exploiting the crushing spike
wall's ongoing destruction of walls and obstacles is important in
To mb ed
. There are many situa-
tions in the game that require the player to wait until an obstacle is removed by the spikes.
), and it serves an important purpose. As covered in Chapter
3
