Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE
continued
Scott Kim identifies three key design decisions that he feels make
The Incredible Machine
the prototypical construction puzzle game.
•
Allow the player to build things. This makes
The Incredible Machine
a construction
game and differentiates it from, say,
Tetris
(an action puzzle game) or
Marble Drop
(a
logic game in which the player decides where and when to drop marbles into a mech-
anism). The player is exercising his creativity.
•
Include no real-time decision-making. Constructing the machine and running it take
place in separate modes. The player can take as long as he wants to think about what
he's doing. This is in contrast with
Lemmings
, an excellent game but one that requires
the player to solve its puzzles on the fly. Often if the player doesn't solve the puzzle in
time, he has to start over.
•
Allow players to design their own puzzles. Any time players can build their own ele-
ments, it adds value to the game and helps create a community of devoted fans.
Players can exchange their puzzles by e-mail, post them on web sites, run tourna-
ments, and enjoy all kinds of other activities, all of which constitute free publicity for
the game.
Checking the Victory Condition
Bear in mind that players don't always find the solution to a puzzle the way that
you envisioned when you invented it. There might be more than one path to the
goal. When your game checks to see whether the player solved the puzzle, you
should test only to see whether the player met the victory condition you gave her,
not
that she has done it in the way you expected. Otherwise, you've cheated her,
and she'll be justifiably frustrated. She's managed to get to the correct solution
state, but your game refuses to recognize it.
This problem appears in the game
Interstate '76
, which, while not a puzzle game,
does offer a level containing a puzzle of sorts. The player drives an armed and
armored car in an area enclosed by a concrete wall, and the victory condition for
winning the level states that (among other things) the vehicle must escape the
enclosed area. The game's designers put in a hidden ramp, which they wanted play-
ers to find and use to drive out of the area. However, players discovered another
way to get out: If a player drops a land mine near the wall and then drives toward it
at full speed, the force of the explosion lifts the car high enough to clear the wall,
and the car flies over it and out. Unfortunately, the software doesn't test for the
solution state that the player is given: Is the car outside the wall? Instead, it tests to
see if the player uses the ramp. If a player escapes without using the ramp, the game
