Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
system can grow constructively and profitably of its own accord, there's no reason
for the player to interfere. This is the player's primary challenge: figuring out how
to produce growth using the many (metaphorical) levers and knobs that you pro-
vide via the core mechanics. In effect, the player is himself an element of the
economy, and growth depends on his active participation.
Figure 10.1 shows that, during play, the core mechanics present challenges to the
player and accept actions from the player, both mediated by the user interface. So
far, our discussion has concentrated on the core mechanics as a description of a sys-
tem, without addressing the role of the player. The core mechanics manage the
gameplay of the game, implementing all player actions and many challenges. This
section discusses how that works.
Challenges and the Core Mechanics
The core mechanics implement the mechanisms by which most challenges operate,
and they perform tests to see whether a challenge has been surmounted. The chal-
lenges that the core mechanics present may appear at any level of the challenge
hierarchy, from atomic challenges to the victory condition for the entire game.
Remember that the level design actually specifies the type and placement of indi-
vidual challenges for each level, but the core mechanics implement challenges, if
necessary, when the player encounters them.
NOTE
Passive chal-
lenges do not require
mechanics to operate,
though level designers
may want to establish
a condition to detect
when the challenge
has been surmounted.
PASSI VE CHALLENGES
Suppose the level designers want to set up a purely static obstacle as a challenge,
such as a wall that the avatar must climb over in an action game. You would not
need to create an entity to represent the wall or a mechanic to present the chal-
lenge itself; the wall would simply be an unchanging feature of the landscape. The
mechanics play a role in implementing the action the player takes to meet the chal-
lenge (climbing) but play no role in presenting the challenge itself. This type of
challenge is called a
passive challenge
.
If the level designers need to detect that a player has conquered a passive challenge
(in order to give a reward, perhaps), they design a special event that occurs when
the avatar arrives on the other side of the wall—that is, when the avatar's location
attributes meet a condition that the level designers establish. Otherwise, the play-
er's presence on the other side implies success, which doesn't require any special
mechanics.
