Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
User Interface Design
The biggest challenge in designing the user interface of a vehicle simulator is in
mapping the vehicle's real controls to those available on the target machine. For
serious simulations, analog controls are essential; the binary D-pads of older hand-
held controllers don't allow the kind of precision the player needs to steer accurately.
At one time, console machines simply couldn't support serious simulations, but
now that most console machines offer analog joysticks, mapping the controls of a
race car to those of a home console machine presents less of a problem.
Vehicle simulations benefit from motion-sensing controllers almost as much as
sports games do. Use their tilt sensors to serve as a steering wheel, and their but-
tons for acceleration and braking. Don't require the player to turn them by more
than about 90 degrees in either direction from the central, neutral position,
though. As drivers we can turn a real steering wheel hand-over-hand because it's
circular and fixed in place by the steering column, but the iPhone and Wii control-
lers are rectangular and not attached to anything. It would be awkward for the
player to reposition his hands on them during play.
DON'T RELY ON EXTRA-COST CONTROLLERS
Force-feedback joysticks, throttles, control yokes, steering wheels, and pedals (rudder
for planes, and gas and brake for cars) all help immensely, and serious players will have
them. You can greatly improve the quality of the simulation experience for such players
by supporting them. However, don't design
—
and, more important, don't tune
—
your
game with a presumption that your players will have this kind of hardware. Your game
should be an enjoyable experience even with only a standard console controller or a mouse
and keyboard. If it's not, you've severely limited your audience, and reviewers are bound
to slam it. You may ignore this advice if you ship the special controller with the game, as
Guitar Hero
does, but such an approach will raise the price of your game substantially.
SIMPLIFICATIONS
Military flight simulators always require some simplification from the real thing;
you will have to decide how much. Real military pilots require months or years of
training, much of it spent sitting in classrooms. Because you want your players to
be able to fly the planes within a few minutes of installing the software, you have
to make considerable compromises in the realism of the games. You will almost cer-
tainly want to reduce the number of instruments in the cockpit and the number of
functions that some of them perform.
Flight simulators commonly simplify navigation as well. Modern planes have
global positioning systems, but World War I and II pilots still needed celestial navi-
gation skills; they plotted their courses by the stars at night and by landmarks or
dead reckoning during the daytime. Because this isn't the most exciting thing
about flying, it's acceptable to just give the player a map.
