Action Games - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 401

falling off cliffs, involves selecting particular creatures and assigning tasks to them
that influence the way the others move, all under time pressure.
FIGURE 13.5 Frogger and Frogger 3D
Game Features
Action games provide a good field in which to study many features also found in
other genres because the simplicity of action games means that the issues aren't
obscured by other considerations. Action games tend to set simple, obvious goals
and offer clear, direct ways to reach them (although the goals may be difficult to
achieve).
Although 2D action games are no longer the state of the art technically, if you are a
student, you will probably be asked to build a simple 2D action game as your first
project. This is a great place to start, providing you with practice using—and a way
to demonstrate your grasp of—the fundamentals of game design. You can easily
build small 2D action games with very little programming by using the free Game
Maker tool from YoYo Games. Download it at www.yoyogames.com.
Progression
Level progression in action games tends to be linear. Once the player completes
all levels, she has won the whole game. (There are exceptions; in Spyro the Dragon ,
the player has a choice of levels at any given time. Completing some levels unlocks
others not previously available.) Within a level, progress may be linear (the player
can go only forward or back) or nonlinear (the player has some freedom to choose
her own path). Occasionally a linear level includes a hidden shortcut that, when
discovered, allows the player to jump ahead, bypassing many obstacles and dangers.