Adventure Games - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 568

Permanently highlighted objects. The active objects in a scene appear perma-
nently highlighted to make them stand out from the background. You can do this
in a number of ways; for example, make them slightly brighter than the rest of the
scene or surround them by a line of light or dark pixels. The moment the scene
appears on the screen, the player can tell which objects are active. It's convenient,
if artificial. Children's games often use this method.
Dynamically highlighted objects. The active objects in a scene normally look
like part of the background but appear highlighted when the mouse cursor passes
over them. You can, for example, change the shape of the mouse cursor, have the
object light up, or have the object's name appear momentarily. It still requires the
player to do some hunting, but hunting is much easier than hunting and clicking;
a quick wave of the cursor tells the player if there's an active object nearby.
Focus-of-attention highlighting. This mechanism is typically used with hand-
held controllers when the player doesn't have a cursor. As the avatar moves around,
the focus of his attention changes depending on the direction he is looking. Whatever
active object lies directly in front of him commands the focus of his attention and
appears highlighted. When he turns away, this highlighting disappears. If two active
objects are close together, however, the player may find it tricky to point the avatar
in exactly the right direction to put the focus of attention on the desired object.
ONE-BUTTON ACTIONS
In a graphic adventure game played with a handheld controller, designers often
assign one button of the controller to a generic use or manipulate function. The
player moves the avatar near the object and presses the use button for obvious
functions such as opening a door or throwing a switch; the player can always count
on the button to do the right thing with an object, whatever that might be. Some
mouse-based games use a similar mechanism, such that clicking an object causes
the appropriate action. Players find such games easy to play because there's no
guessing about what can be done. However, because there can be only one action
per object, this method doesn't allow the designer to do as much to challenge the
player's lateral thinking.
MENU-DRIVEN ACTIONS
A number of games use a menu to allow the player to select which action to take
and which object to manipulate (see Figure 19.9 ). This gives the player a clear pic-
ture of available choices, but the presence of the menu makes the game feel more
like a software tool and less like a fantasy adventure.
In another variant, right-clicking an object makes a pop-up menu appear, showing
a series of icons that represent the actions take , use , examine , and possibly others
(see Figure 19.10 ). The player left-clicks one of the icons to perform the desired
action. This mechanism in effect shows the player all the available verbs that can
be used with that particular object and lets him pick one .