Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
volume. The engine determines which piece should be most clearly heard depend-
ing on what happens in the game.
Dialog and Voiceover Narration
Just about any kind of game can use spoken material to provide information,
whether it's narration, dialog, commentary in sports games, units responding to
orders in strategy games, and so on. From a user interface standpoint, you should
be aware of two key things that set spoken words apart from other forms of audio
feedback:
Repetitive spoken content rapidly becomes tiresome.
The longer the sentence,
the worse the problem. To solve this, write and record multiple versions for each
line that is likely to be repeated. You may frequently repeat short clips such as “Aye
aye, sir” and “Strike three!” (though you should still record several variants), but if
you want to deliver a longer sentence such as, “Sire, your peasants are revolting!”
you must either have a large number of variants available or, better yet, play the
sentence only once when the problem first occurs and then use visual feedback for
as long as the problem continues.
Writing and acting
must be
good.
You cannot emphasize this enough to your
writers and audio people. The quality of writing in the vast majority of games
ranges from terrible to barely passable, and the voice acting is frequently worse
than the writing. Players tolerate a sound effect that's not quite right, but an actor
who can't act instantly destroys immersion. Don't use actors whose voices don't
work thematically with the material, either. You wouldn't use the voice of an
Englishman in a game set in the Old West, so don't use an American in a game
set in medieval times. The American accent didn't exist then. Don't try to get an
actor to fake a foreign accent, either; hire a native speaker.
TIP
For more infor-
mation on writing for
games, read
Game
Writing: Narrative Skills
for Videogames
, edited
by Chris Bateman
(Bateman, 2006).
Input Devices
So far, this topic has placed little emphasis on the game machine's hardware,
because the variety of processors, display screens, data storage, and audio devices
makes it impossible to address the topic comprehensively. In the case of input
devices, however, certain standards have evolved. It is critically important that
you understand the capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of the various devices
because they constitute the means by which your player will actually project his
commands into the game. Designing for them well makes the difference between
seamless gameplay and a frustrating experience.
This section concentrates on the most common types of input devices for hand-
held, PC, and console games—the sorts normally shipped with the machine. It
doesn't address extra-cost items such as flight control yokes, steering wheels, rudder
