Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
When you first think about the dimensionality of your game space, don't immedi-
ately assume that you want it to be three-dimensional because 3D seems more real
or makes the best use of your machine's hardware. As with everything else you
design, the dimensionality of your physical space must serve the entertainment
value of the game. Make sure all the dimensions will contribute meaningfully.
Many games that work extremely well in two dimensions don't work well in three.
Lemmings was a hit 2D game, but Lemmings 3D was nowhere near as successful
because it was much more difficult to play. The addition of a third dimension
detracted from the player's enjoyment rather than added to it.
FIGURE 4.4
Legacy of Kain: Soul
Reaver 's material (left)
and spiritual (right)
realms. Notice how the
walls are slightly
twisted in the spiritual
realm and the overlay
indicator is different.
SCALE
Scale refers to both the absolute size of the physical space represented, as measured
in units meaningful in the game world (meters, miles, or light-years, for instance)
and the relative sizes of objects in the game. If a game is purely abstract and doesn't
correspond to anything in the real world, the sizes of objects in its game world
don't really matter. You can adjust them to suit the game's needs any way you like.
But if you are designing a game that represents (if only partially) the real world,
you'll have to address the question of how big everything should be to both look
real and play well. Some distortion is often necessary for the sake of gameplay,
especially in war games; the trick is to distort the scale without harming the play-
er's suspension of disbelief too much.
In a sports game, a driving game, a flight simulator, or any other kind of game in
which the player expects a high degree of verisimilitude, you have little choice but
to scale things to their actual sizes. In old 2D sports games, it was not uncommon
for the athletes to be depicted as 12 feet tall to make them more visible, but nowa-
days players don't tolerate a game taking such liberties with reality. Serious
simulations need to represent the physical world accurately.
Similarly, you should scale most of the objects in first-person games accurately.
Fortunately, almost all first-person games are set indoors or within limited areas,
seldom larger than a few hundred feet in any dimension, so this doesn't create
implementation problems. Because the player's perspective is that of a person
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