Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
bounce back off the paddle. Ghost signs are specifi c to games and computer-based,
interactive media.
It is possible to argue that these three ghost signs should really be controller
signs as the game designers have used the edges of the screen in its own right as a
signifi er. In this case these three signs would be both permanent and active. In other
early games the screen boundaries had different actions associated with them; in the
case of Spacewar reaching the screen boundary with your space craft resulted in you
being “ teleported ” to the opposite side of the screen. Whether or not we regard the
screen boundaries here as ghosts or controllers, there are numerous examples of
ghost signs in other computer games. The important insight here is that in games
we can fi nd meaning through exercising agency, through intervening.
Finally, in Breakout we have three object signs: “ score, ” “ balls left, ” and the
beeping noise as the ball rebounds. These are permanent, we always recognize what
they are; and they are transient, the score goes up, the “balls left” goes down, and
the beep signifi es the ball colliding with an object. They do not affect other signs
but they can be affected by other signs: specifi cally, the syntagmatic relationships
between certain other signs cause them to change.
Certain syntagmatic relationships between signs signify not only change but
also major gameplay developments. The sign composed of a ball immediately
against the bottom screen boundary causes the “balls left” sign to decrement— you
lose a life and possibly the game itself. A ball hitting a brick causes the score to
increment, the brick to disappear, and the ball to be defl ected. In all these, and other,
situations we have the collision between an actor sign and an active sign, or between
two actor signs, or between a controller sign and an interactive or actor sign— the
ball and a brick for example—triggering changes to various transient signs: the ball
rebounds, the brick disappears, the object signs for score and “balls left” are adjusted.
We could refer to the latter two changes as “side effects” because they are the result
of the internal gameplay logic rather than anything we can perceive directly on the
screen. They refl ect that logic in operation symbolically in the perceivable gamespace.
Thus particular syntagmatic relationships between action signs cause signifi cant
changes in game state, the nature of which are often signifi ed through object signs.
Figure 11.1 details the patterns of relationships between signs. In general we can
say this about the various classes of signs:
• Interactive: Literally the target for our interventions, in turn can affect actor
signs and object signs.
• Actor: Autonomous agents, NPCs, in the game world, can affect interactive
signs, object signs, and other actor signs.
• Controller/Ghost: Constrains the behavior of interactive and actor signs.
• Object: Refl ects changes in the game state; the white arrow indicates the pos-
sible presence of side effects.
• Layout: Does not participate in gameplay but helps to denote and connote
situation and context.
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