Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Now the player has the choice between teleporting to a food capsule or teleporting some-
where else. Well, of course the player's going to take the food capsule; that's not really much of
a choice. So let's make it a choice: let's put another, smaller fence behind the food capsule. If the
player wants the food capsule, she has to teleport not once but twice: she has to teleport to the
capsule and then teleport away before this second fence can touch her (see Figure
3.11
).
Figure 3.11
The player might have to make dangerous choices to collect some food capsules.
This is an interesting choice: take the easier path, or take a harder path for which you'll be
rewarded. Giving the player meaningful choices makes her performance more meaningful. As
game creators, we're little Rube Goldbergs, bolting together all sorts of interesting predica-
ments for the player until we have an interesting system in which she can perform by playing,
and in doing so express herself through choices.
Shaping and Pacing
Shape is a word that can have a lot of meaning for us as creators of games. Think about what
the shape is of each scene in your game. Remember, we're writing a script for our player, we're
setting up the props in such a way as to guide the performance, but ultimately we can't police
the details of the player's performance. So we can't always ask, “What happens in this scene?”
Instead, we can ask, “What is the shape of this scene?” When we determine that shape, we're
also defining the space of possibilities within it, much as an
architect creates the space of a
room or hallway by deciding where the walls go. The space of possibilities in a scene encom-
passes all the ways that the player has to move within the game's shape by making choices.
 
 
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