Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
This process of iterative refinement is not an excuse to introduce major changes
into the game late in its development, nor to tweak it endlessly without ever declar-
ing it finished. Your goal is to build and ship a completed product.
THE DANGER OF IRRESOLUTION
The transition from the concept to the elaboration stage of design is a critical time. At
this point, the most important decisions are “set in stone,” so to speak; the foundations
are poured. Some designers are reluctant to make this transition; they say they're “keep-
ing their options open.” They're afraid that they might have made a bad decision or that
they might have overlooked something. The consequences of this irresolution are usually
disastrous. If the most critical details are still shifting as the game goes into full produc-
tion, the development team is never entirely sure what it's trying to build. The designer
keeps coming around and asking for changes that require huge revisions to the code and
content. Production becomes slow and inefficient. It's a sure sign of a lack of vision and
confidence. Projects that get into this quagmire are usually cancelled rather than
completed.
DEFINING THE PRIMARY GAMEPLAY MODE
The first task after you have locked down your concept is to define the primary
gameplay mode of the game, the mode in which the player spends the majority of
his time. Most games have one gameplay mode that is clearly the primary one. In a
car racing game, it's driving the car. Tuning the car up in the shop is a secondary
mode. In war games, the primary gameplay mode is usually tactical—fighting bat-
tles. War games often have a strategic mode as well, in which the player plans
battles or chooses areas to conquer on a map, but he generally spends much less
time doing that than he does fighting.
At this point it's not necessary to define every detail. The main things to work on
are the components that make up the mode: the perspective in which the player
views the game world, the interaction model in which he influences the game
world, the challenges the world presents to him in that mode, and the actions
available to him to overcome those challenges. Get those decisions down on paper,
and then you can move on to the details of exactly how this is to happen.
DESIGNING THE PROTAGONIST
If your game is to have a single main character who is the protagonist (whether or
not the interaction model is avatar-based), it is essential that you design this char-
acter early on. You want the player to like and to identify with the protagonist, to
care about what happens to her. If the perspective you chose for the primary game-
play mode was anything other than first person, the player is going to spend a lot
of time looking at this character, so it's important that she be fun to watch. You
