Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The first really successful computerized construction and management simulation
was
SimCity,
which proved that computer games don't need high-speed action or
violence to succeed.
SimCity
succeeds in part because it does not have these proper-
ties and, therefore, appeals to a broad audience. We'll examine
SimCity
in some
detail later in the chapter.
CMSs let the player construct and manage some organized system that he can build
up from constituent parts—a city, a building, an anthill, or whatever the game per-
mits him to design. Most CMSs offer two sets of tools: one set for building and one
set for managing. Building is generally considered easy, but managing can be tricky
indeed.
The Player's Role
When designing any game, the first question you have to ask yourself is: What is
the player going to do? The answer to this question usually takes the form of a clear
statement of the player's role in the game: pilot, adventurer, irradiated hedgehog,
and so on. In a CMS, however, it's not as easy to define the player's role because
that role seldom corresponds to an actual activity in real life. The mayor of a city
doesn't really lay out its streets or make zoning decisions personally.
A CMS appeals to the player because he gets to make something of his own.
Working carefully, tending and tweaking, he can build a tiny settlement on the
banks of the Tiber and turn it into the glorious city that was Rome. Not the origi-
nal Rome or the game designer's Rome but
the player's
Rome—Rome as it would
have been if the player had been in command. The desire to create is in the heart
of all CMS players. To design a good construction and management simulation,
understand that desire.
Progression
Unlike most other genres, CMSs usually don't include progression from level to
level or a story of any kind. They may offer a set of scenarios for the player to play
in, with varying degrees of difficulty, but one scenario doesn't necessarily have any
relationship to the previous or next one.
Because many CMSs don't impose a victory condition, there's little sense of prog-
ress toward an end. In fact, many CMSs don't necessarily end at all. As long as the
player avoids the loss condition (typically bankruptcy), the game can go on forever.
