Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.14
Otto chasing the player's character, frame by frame.
Otto's bouncing motion suggests it is above the maze, outranking the robots and the player
alike, maybe connected in some way to the maze. More tangibly, its bounce provides an
explanation for why the electric walls, fatal to all the game's other characters, don't affect Otto.
It is literally above the maze. Otto's slow (though faster as the game accelerates), unwavering
pursuit of the player characterizes it as a threat, despite its smiling face.
Simple animations are often enough to convey important changes in state. A common signifier
is blinking—making a character invisible every other frame—to convey that the character is
temporarily invulnerable, as in a grace period after being hurt. A powerful opponent might
flash red when struck to indicate that the player's attack has been successful, but that the oppo-
nent hasn't been fully overcome. A weapon glancing off an opponent harmlessly conveys the
player's attack has been ineffective. A character meandering randomly might suggest that it's
harmless. We have a rich vocabulary of animation to exploit in our games.
Large images can tell us as much as small images. The composition of a scene can direct our
attention to the most important part of a scene. Figure
4.15
shows the final scene of a game
called
Labyrinth of Zeux
(1993) by Alexis Jansen. The object of the player's quest, the Silver Staff
of Zeux, is present in this scene, and you can see how the entire scene is designed, visually, to
push the player toward it.
The T-shaped objects below the Silver Staff are poles the player can ride on. They form an arrow
pointing at the Staff, and the poles nearest to the Staff are brighter. The Staff is positioned in
the center of an open space, framed by a wide rectangle. The rainbow colors of the walls, the
corners of every concentric layer, all point to the Staff. Everything in the screen urges the player
upward toward the game's ultimate goal.
The visually striking scene from
l'Abbey des Mortes
is almost entirely
portrait: there's nothing for the game's protagonist to do on this screen beyond stand at the
window and look out. This tranquil scene, almost empty but for the tops of trees and a sprin-
kling of stars, represents a moment of peace in the middle of a larger, more hectic adventure.
(2010) shown in Figure
4.16
