Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Digital games, running on screens, breathing through speakers, are capable of presenting
visual and audio information to the player. Images, animation, sounds, music. We can use these
channels to communicate the rules of our games, to emphasize and underline the important
interactions.
Look at a game like
Plants vs. Zombies
(2009). In this strategy game, the player is trying to
defend the left side of the screen by erecting defenses, each with a different function, that can-
not be moved once positioned. The player must choose what defenses to build and where to
build them. Different kinds of defenses have to be positioned to support other defenses. Enemy
forces appear on the right and move slowly toward the left, giving the player time to adjust her
strategy and make decisions.
The battlefield is a lawn. At the far left side of the screen is a house, ostensibly the player's
house. The defenses are plants, rooted in the earth. The enemy forces are zombies. These
images suggest things about the properties of these game objects, about the rules that govern
them. It makes sense to a player that when a plant is planted in the earth in a particular place, it
can't be moved. Of course, zombies move slowly. The way the game pieces are contextualized
gives the player expectations about how they work.
Super Mario Bros.
is a game that initially teaches the player a simple response to any opponent:
jump on its head. It would be interesting to have a creature that Mario couldn't just jump on top
of like all the others, one he had to carefully maneuver around. But when the player is condi-
tioned to resolve all conflicts by jumping on the creature, how do we communicate that jump-
ing, in this one case, is dangerous? Look at the spiny beetle in
Super Mario Bros.
( s e e F i g u r e 4 . 3 ) .
Figure 4.3
The spiny beetle looks a little more dangerous than the other enemies of
Super Mario
Bros.
for a reason.
All the other creatures in the game have smooth domes, round noggins, or tortoise shells. Spiny
has tall, jagged edges, gleaming and dangerous. This little guy you don't want to jump on.
