Gameplay - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 263

Physical Coordination Challenges
Physical coordination challenges test a player's physical abilities, most commonly
hand-eye coordination. One of the earliest coin-op video games, Pong , required
only this one skill to win. Physical coordination challenges remain a basic compo-
nent of arcade gaming and a significant part of most video games to this day. They
fall into several subcategories, which the following sections discuss.
The absolute difficulty of a physical coordination challenge most frequently relates
to the amount of time pressure the player is under; to make such a challenge easier,
simply give the player more time. Each subcategory addresses exceptions when
they occur.
SPEED AND REACTION TIME
Speed challenges test the player's ability to make rapid inputs on the controls, and
reaction time challenges test his ability to react quickly to events. Both of these
usually appear in combination with other types of challenges, most often other
coordination challenges. You can expect to find speed and reaction time challenges
in platform games, shooters, and fast puzzle games such as Tet r is . From the frenetic
button-banging of Konami's 1983 arcade game Track & Field (two buttons con-
trolled an athlete's legs; the player pressed them alternately to make the athlete
run) to the modern-day frenzy of the latest Quake game, speed and reaction time
challenges perennially please those who have the reflexes for them.
ACCURACY AND PRECISION
Steering and shooting comprise the majority of tests of accuracy or precision,
though you can devise many more. Steering includes navigating characters as well
as vehicles. Usually found in action and action-adventure games, sports games, and
vehicle simulations, accuracy and precision challenges increasingly feature in role-
playing games, such as the Fable series, which include a combat element. Brain
training games, which are intended to sharpen a player's mental and motor skills,
often include accuracy and precision challenges to test the player's hand-eye coor-
dination. Because brain training games are not usually aimed at conventional
gamers, the challenges are seldom characterized as steering or shooting.
Accuracy challenges need not take place within time limits; in a sport such as
archery, athletes may take as long as they want to line up a shot but still face a con-
siderable challenge. To make an accuracy challenge easier or harder, adjust the
degree to which the physics engine in the game forgives errors in the inputs. For
example, the player of an archery game ordinarily needs to position the joystick or
mouse within a particular range of values to hit the bull's-eye; you can make the
game easier by widening that range.