Just an Ordinary Day - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 103

obvious that it is scuba gear you have picked up but the message, “You picked up
the scuba gear,” makes this clear. This message, in conjunction with the doors that
will not open, leads us to consider the current challenge point, how to get on with
the mission. Obviously, you have to get into the water indicated by the hazard
warning signs in the fl oor. There are no major routes or retainers at this point.
Now you are ready for part two of the mission, the short journey to where the
fi ghting will actually take place. In this case, of course, it is a scuba dive. Once in
the water we have to fi nd our way into the base. Figure 7.8 gives a good idea of a
small part of the underwater base as seen from the surface. You can see it is an
angular structure with variously shaped windows with possible views inside.
However, this time there is no illustration. The list of surprises in Table 7.3 should
allow you to visualize this part of the level. You are quickly presented with the
challenge point of how to get into the enemy base. This is a route-based zone of the
game where connectors act in sequences to lead us to the sites of the two entrances
to the underwater base:
• Illuminated panels in roof of underwater base
• Windows in side of base
• Seaweed and spotlights under the base
• View up into base through break in the fl oor.
This section and the previous one, the entry room, are more or less adventure - based.
We do not fi ght but instead collect and puzzle. Eventually, you will fi nd one of the
two entrances underneath the underwater base. This brings you, of course, to the
whole point of an assault level: the site of the battle itself. But again, we give only
the Table of Surprises (Table 7.4). You should be able to visualize the scene that
confronts you having just entered the underwater base.
We have now gotten to the assault, FPS part of the level, the main business.
Choice points seem to be dominated by people and what they are doing, but unlike
SinCity where the basic activity type is fi ghting. There is also has the second, but
equally important, activity, which is “seek and destroy.” Although we now seem to
be in a straightforward FPS , we are not. The last attractor, “ doorway, ” in the Table
of Surprises illustrates this through the specifi c nature of the intention and reward
associated with it. Such an attractor-reward does not appear in SinCity's Table of
Surprises. AS-OceanFloor is an FPS with a signifi cant adventure component in
which we have to explore and solve a puzzle—where are the consoles we have to
destroy?—as well as fi ght. These basic activity types, which come from the genre
analysis, determine how we respond to attractors and indeed which attractors we
respond to. This emphasizes the interrelated nature of our four theories to date. POs
give us a pretty low level, moment-by-moment view of the gameplay.
Aesthetics and activity profi ling give us a general picture and genre gives us an
even more general one. From our analysis we see that in an assault level we are
presented with an extra set of intentions not present in a DM level. The player will
need to satisfy these in order to complete the mission. POs show that assault levels
are more complex in terms of gameplay. And we have also seen that because the