Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
gameplay-related actions that players can perform in game worlds; they vary from
the simple and concrete, such as
fire weapon
, to those as complex and abstract as
send covert operatives to arouse antigovernment sentiment in a hostile nation
—which the
player could do in
Balance of Power
by choosing a single item on a menu. Study
other games in the genre you have chosen to see what actions they support.
The interaction model that you have chosen for a particular gameplay mode
determines a lot about the kinds of actions available in that mode. If you use an
avatar-based interaction model, then the actions available to the player, for the
most part, consist of influencing the game world through the avatar. In games
using a multipresent model, the player acts indirectly by issuing commands to
units, which themselves act within the game world (as in real-time strategy games),
or acts directly on features of the world itself (as in construction and management
simulations and god games).
Don't expect a one-to-one mapping between actions and challenges; many games
include a large number of types of challenges but only a small number of actions,
leaving the player to figure out how to use the actions in various combinations to
surmount each challenge. Puzzles frequently do this. Faced with a scrambled
Rubik's Cube, the player can take only one action: She can rotate one face of the
cube 90 degrees. The solution to the puzzle consists entirely of making similar
rotations.
Games offer many challenges but limited numbers of actions for two reasons. First,
if you give the player a large number of actions to choose from, you must also pro-
vide a large user interface, which can be confusing to the player and increase the
difficulty of learning the game. (If you implement a context-sensitive interface that
chooses the correct action for the user based on context, you don't give the player
the freedom to try interesting combinations.) Second, a large number of actions
usually requires a large number of animations to display them all. This makes the
game expensive to develop.
Many great games implement only a small number of actions but still let the player
use them to overcome a wide variety of challenges. If you are imaginative enough,
the challenges will be so interesting that the player will never notice.
DEFINING YOUR ACTIONS
To define the actions that you'll implement, begin by think ing about the player's
role in the game. At the concept stage of your project, you asked, “What is the
player going to do?” You should have some general answers to that question. Now
it's time to go into detail for each gameplay mode. Begin with the primary mode.
If you wrote, “In the primary gameplay mode, the player will drive a car,” think
about exactly what actions driving entails. Pressing the accelerator, turning the
steering wheel, and braking, of course, but what else? Shifting the gears? Turning
on the lights? Using the handbrake? Some of the actions you decide on may have
to do with challenges; others will simply be another part of the role.
