Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Design Practice
QUESTIONS
1.
How do you plan to deal with the issue of new players arriving in the middle of
a long game? Get rid of the victory condition, or find a way to make sure that play-
ers are matched with those of similar ability?
2.
What will happen to the gameplay when a player vanishes? How will it affect
the other players' experience of the game (what they see and hear)? Does it disrupt
the balance of the game? Will it make the challenges easier or harder? Is the game
even meaningful anymore?
3.
What happens to the game's score when a player vanishes? Is the game still fair?
4.
Does your game offer a player an advantage of some kind for intentionally dis-
connecting himself (whether by preventing himself from losing or by sealing his
own victory)? Is there any way to minimize this without penalizing players who
are disconnected accidentally?
5.
In a turn-based game, what mechanism will you use to prevent a player from
stalling play for the other players? Set a time limit? Allow simultaneous turns?
Implement a reasonable default if the player does nothing?
6.
If you offer a chat mechanism, what features will you implement to keep it civil?
Filters? A complaint system? An ignore system? Or will your game require moder-
ated chat spaces?
7.
Is your game designed to prevent (or alleviate) collusion? Because you can't pre-
vent players from talking to each other on the phone as they play, how will you
address this? Or can you design your game in such a way that collusion is part of
the gameplay, as in
Diplomacy
?
