Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
time. And, in fact, that's the key: Those media don't provide only fun; they provide
entertainment. You can entertain people in all sorts of ways. Movies with sad end-
ings aren't fun in the conventional sense, but they're still entertaining. Although
we say that we make games, what we in fact make is interactive entertainment. The
potential of our medium to explore emotions and the human condition is much
greater than the term
fun game
allows for. A good game is entertainment that
involves the player on a number of levels.
All that said, however, bear in mind that most publishers and players want fun. Too
many inexperienced designers are actually more interested in showing how clever
they are than in making sure the player has a good time; they place their own cre-
ative agenda before the player's enjoyment. As a designer, you must master the
ability to create fun—light enjoyment—before you move on to more complex emo-
tional issues. Addressing unpleasant or painful emotions successfully is a greater
aesthetic challenge and is commercially risky besides.
YOU CAN'T PAINT EMOTION BY NUMBERS
The idea that games should include more emotional content and should inspire
more emotions in players has been gaining ground in the game industry for several
years. Unfortunately, this has produced a tendency to look for quick and easy ways
to do it, mostly by relying on clichés. The young man whose family is killed and
who is obsessed by his desire for revenge or the beautiful princess who needs to be
rescued both belong more to fairy tales than to modern fiction. That may be all right
if your game aspires to nothing more, but it won't do if you're trying to create an
experience with any subtlety. Contrast, for example, the simple themes of the early
animation films and the more psychologically rich stories in the recent Pixar films.
Beware of topics or articles that offer simple formulas for emotional manipulation:
“If you want to make the player feel X, just do Y to the protagonist.” An imagina-
tive and novel approach to influencing the players' feelings requires the talents of a
skilled storyteller. Paint-by-numbers emotional content has all the sensitivity and
nuance of paint-by-numbers art.
The Ethical Dimension
The ethical dimension of a game world defines what right and wrong mean within
the context of that world. At first glance, this might seem kind of silly—it's only a
game, so there's no need to talk about ethics. But most games that have a setting,
a fantasy component, also have an ethical system that defines how the player is
supposed to behave. As a designer, you are the god of the game's world, and you
establish its morality. When you tell a player that he must perform certain actions
to win the game, you are defining those actions as good or desirable. Likewise,
when you say that the player must avoid certain actions, you are defining them as
bad or undesirable. The players who come into the world must adopt your stan-
dards or they will lose the game.
