Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Past the monster, the shape opens even wider: there are a lot of tiny choices to make on and in
between these hanging platforms. Will the player climb up to the top or the middle? Will the
player collect the mushroom? Will she break some of the blocks? Break all the blocks? Just run
straight through? And then, after that, it narrows again. Mario has to get over this pipe to see
the rest of the game. There are a few different choices again. The player can jump from next to
the pipe, from on top of the platforms, she can run and jump, or she can jump from a stand-
ing position. But she must prove she understands that she can use her verb, Mario's “jump,” to
navigate obstacles.
As we change the shape of a scene from beginning to end, alternating wide spaces of choice
and narrow spaces, we create the pacing of the game. We can guide the motion of a scene
in a particular direction, toward a particular point, without taking away the player's ability to
choose. We can open our scenes wide and then slowly narrow them down until the player is
performing our script word-for-word. We can choose the shape that is truest to the purpose of a
scene. Then we can decide what kind of scene comes next and how the shape of that scene will
relate to and continue from the scenes that came before. Will the next scene be more difficult,
pushing back against the player's desire to continue? Will we develop new verbs, opening more
possibilities?
We can also think of the shape of a scene in terms of how it is presented visually, how it leads
the eye around and draws the player's attention to the most important elements of a scene. We
talk about that in Chapter 4.
Scenes with Purpose
For every scene in your game, you should be able to answer two questions: what's the purpose
of this scene, and how can you accomplish it using established game vocabulary? If you want
the player to feel tense in this scene, what rules and objects are in the game that will allow you
to create that feeling? Are there objects you can use to add an element of timing, for example?
As we saw with the examples of the electric fence at the beginning of this chapter, timing can
also help develop a verb. Are there aspects of a verb or other rules that a scene could help the
player understand? When we fail to tell the story we want to tell using the vocabulary of our
game, remember this: that's when we resort to using devices that have no connection to our
game, like movies with no player interaction.
The game
Condensity (
www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/598331) is about guiding a group
of water droplets, who all move as one but may be in different positions on the screen, to an
exit that they all must occupy at the same time. This is the critical idea of the game: that the
water drops may be navigating spaces that are arranged differently, with different configura-
tions of obstacles, using the same instructions from the player. To emphasize this disparity, the
droplets can be transformed (by heated or chilling elements) between two different states: the
liquid state, which is affected by gravity, and the gas state, which is able to fly (see Figure 3.15).
