Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
the door; do you hit a button and sit back and watch the perceivable consequence
of a cut scene of the door opening, your character stepping through to the other side?
A door is very specifi c at this stage. Wouldn't some abstract pattern of pixels do just
as well? Think about what you do more than what you see. What happens because
you pressed a button or waved the Wii remote around or spoke the right words into
your DS? Interventions, nonsemiotic acts you transmit to the game engine to test
the enigma of the inside-out code. Over and over again you compulsively try to push
this game forward.
In building up your GIS and thinking about what the player needs to make sense
of them you are actually building up fragments, sections, vertical slices of gameplay.
Is this going to work? It is easy to change anything you like. At this stage you should
change anything and everything you like. Remember paradigmatic analysis from
Chapter 10? That is exactly what you should be doing here. Change the interactive
sign, change it again and again; do silly things with it, make silly substitutions just
to get an idea of what might and might not work. It is easier to change things now
than at any time in the game design process; remember to do your paradigmatic
analysis. Oh! So this is part of the game design process, is it? Yes; yes it should be.
Now we're getting ready to ask the single most important question of all. How
is compulsive repetition going to snare the players of your new game? Why won' t
they be able to stop playing? This is not easy. Remember from Part I, different types
of players and very often the same player at different times of the day or in different
moods will want different types of game. Some people will want to roleplay, to
become someone else. Some people will want to forget about being a person, who
and what they are, completely, for a while. But somehow, whatever the game, com-
pulsive repetition has to happen in your players; how and why is it going to happen?
What is going to grab people's attention? What are the attractors that will focus
their minds on the game and away from the rest of the day around them? What will
they be rewarded with? And what will be the next attractor they might, should, will
chose? Perceptual opportunities are at the heart of compulsive repetition.
Let us suggest some questions to ask concerning how the code of interaction is
implemented and how to generate the desire for compulsive repetition in its players.
First of all, does the player have time to think? This is of course related to twitch
factors but it is also important in determining what player types might be interested
in the game. No time to think means killers and maybe some managers, but probably
not wanderers. If there is a lot of time to think then this means managers and wan-
derers and maybe even some participants.
How diffi cult is it to choose the next attractor? If there is only ever one then
we are talking about puzzles, such as Tetris and Breakout, and classic platformers.
If a small number of attractors, then we are talking about racing games, shooters,
and the like. If there are lots of attractors then we are talking some action adventure
games and certainly RPGs as well as virtual worlds such as Second Life.
How many signs of intervention are there? A very small number of deep controls
will appeal to a whole range of demographics. A large number, including many
combos, will only appeal to hardcore players, killers certainly and managers, if the
latter have time to think.
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