Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The ordering of these scenes is crucial, as you might imagine. In our teleporting game, it prob-
ably makes sense to show the player how to teleport past a nonmoving force-field first, then
a thin force-field, and eventually a thick one. This sequence creates the
pacing
of the game as
well as its
resistance
—concepts we'll be discussing later in this topic.
The Cast
The purpose of scenes is to introduce or develop rules, to give a chance for the game's cast—its
verbs and objects—to shine, and a chance for the player to understand something new about
them. Objects are the building blocks of scenes. While verbs are often our main characters
throughout much of a game (at least if they're robust!), the selection and arrangement of
objects in a scene are often what makes the scene unique. They're our most basic tools for cre-
ating choices for the player and setting up encounters between verbs and objects. The timing
of an object's appearance on
stage is important.
In a game called
Ducks
(www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/3833) by Nick Scalzi, the player
guides a mother duck around a pond: point the mouse at a position, and hold the left button
to move toward it (see Figure
). The verbs are simple: the player can move the mother duck
around the pond. Her five ducklings follow in a line behind her, repeating every motion she
makes.
3.5
Figure 3.5
Layout of the pond in the game
Ducks
.
In the game's first scene, the mother duck swims around the pond and collects food for her
ducklings. The objects here are the rocks in the pond that make impassable objects the ducks
have to swim around and the moving lily pads that represent food. You can see the layout of
this pond in Figure
. It's a mostly open space with a few scattered rocks. There's a wall of
rocks along the left border of the screen, and the banks of the river on the top and bottom.
3.5
Food lily pads drift onto the screen from the left and right. They represent moving targets—
things that the player wants to catch. They're prompts; they give the player an incentive to
“move” and, in doing so, to learn how the mother duck moves. The player also learns how the
