Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
I also designed
To mb ed
to produce a lot of close calls between Jane and the spikes, so there are
many situations where, in order to squeak by the spikes, the player will want to start moving as
soon as that obstacle disappears. If the player wants to maximize her motion, she'll have to be
holding the movement button before the obstacle is destroyed.
If Jane is standing next to a wall, and the player presses the key that moves Jane toward the
wall and nothing happens, what does this lack of motion communicate to the player? What she
might take from the lack of animation is that the game has not received her input, or that hold-
ing the movement key has no effect here, when in fact the time the player gains by holding the
key early might be very important.
The pushing animation tells the player that her input
has
been received and
is
having an effect.
It communicates.
Motion can be aggressive, cautious, panicked, or controlled. Look at any cartoon and pay
attention to the way characters are moving when they're scared, when they're sneaking up on
other characters, and when they're giddy or gleeful. Motion can characterize the relationship
between objects. In
Berzerk
(1980), the player and a bunch of hulking, broad-shouldered robots
try to shoot each other in a maze of electrified walls (see Figure
4.13
). Touching the walls means
death to either player or robots.
Figure 4.13
Berzerk
maze, with player and robots.
The mechanism that keeps the player moving through the maze is an invulnerable, pursuing
robot named Evil Otto. When the player lingers in a scene too long, Evil Otto enters from the
same direction the player did and begins to chase her (see Figure
). Evil Otto is represented
in the game by a simple smiley face. But the way Otto moves—a fast, high bounce like a rubber
ball as it moves steadily toward the player—tells us a lot about its relationship to the player and
to the maze.
4.14
