Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Music.
You won't write the music unless you're also a musician, but you may
well choose the music of your level in conjunction with your game's audio director.
The rhythm of the music helps to set the pace, and its timbre and key help to set
the mood. Generally, but not always, music remains consistent throughout the
level, part of its overall tone.
Ambient audio.
Like music, ambient audio contributes to the overall mood of a
level. Notice how golf games use the sounds of birds singing and crickets chirping
to suggest the peaceful outdoor tranquility of a golf course. The ambient audio can
also vary with place and time, which tells the player something about where he is
and helps him to orient himself. Great steam engines churning create a feeling of
power and danger; owls hooting and foxes crying tell us it's nighttime; the hubbub
of talk and regular cries of vendors put us in a market square.
Special audio effects.
Audio effects naturally do for the ears what visual effects
do for the eyes, and in some respects, provide even more important information.
From inside a car, you can't see the tires losing their grip on the road, but the
squealing sound tells you you're on the edge of danger—you're pushing the vehicle
to its limits.
Progression and Pacing
A large video game—one designed to be played for more than an hour, say—
is almost always divided into a number of levels. If you want the player to
experience those levels in a sequence, they should exhibit
progression
of some kind:
changes from level to level that represent growth in some form, or narrative
advancement, or both.
The
pacing
of a level refers to the frequency at which the player encounters individ-
ual challenges. A fast pace creates
stress
, offering challenges at a rapid rate while
giving the player no opportunity to relax. (Chapter 9 defines stress and discusses
the relationship between
stress
and
difficulty
.) A slow pace offers challenges at a slow
rate and permits the player to take his time about addressing them.
This section of the chapter discusses both progression and pacing, and how to
design them properly.
DESIGNING THE PROGRESSION
Games obviously need to change from level to level, but
how
should they change?
Designer Mike Lopez has written a useful article on the subject in his “Gameplay
Design Fundamentals” column for the
Gamasutra
webzine (Lopez, 2006). He iden-
tifies five game features that should exhibit progression throughout the game; these
serve us as a starting point:
