Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 4.7
Activities in
The
Settlers: Rise of an
Empire
take anomalous
lengths of time, but the
user interface does not
include a clock.
LETTING THE PLAYER ADJUST TIME
In sports games and vehicle simulations, game time usually runs at the same speed
as real time. An American football game is, by definition, an hour long, but because
the clock stops all the time, the actual elapsed time of a football game is closer to
three hours. All serious computerized football games simulate this accurately.
Verisimilitude is a key requirement of most sports games; if a game does not
accurately simulate the real sport, the league might not approve of it, and its com-
petitors are bound to point out the flaw. However, most such games also allow the
players to shorten the game by playing 5- or 10-minute quarters instead of 15-minute
quarters because most people don't want to devote a full three hours to playing a
simulated football game. This is also a useful feature in testing; it takes far too long
to test the product if you have to play a full-length game every time.
Flight simulators also usually run in real time, but there are often long periods of
flying straight and level during which nothing of interest is going on; the plane is
simply traveling from one place to another. To shorten these periods, many games
offer a way to speed up time in the game world by two, four, or eight times—in
effect, make everything in the game world go faster than real time. When the plane
approaches its destination, the player can return the game to normal speed and
play in real time.
