Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
must think about how she looks and also about how she behaves: what actions she
is capable of, what emotions her face and body language can register, and what
kind of language and vocabulary she uses. Chapter 6, “Character Development,”
discusses these issues in depth.
DEFINING THE GAME WORLD
The game world is where your game takes place, and defining it can be an enor-
mous task. If the game world is based on the real world (as in a flight simulator, for
example), then you can use photographs and maps of real places in order to create
its appearance. But if it's a fantasy or science fiction world, you have to rely on your
imagination. And establishing the look and feel is only part of the task. There are
many dimensions to a game world: physical, temporal, environmental, emotional,
and ethical. All these qualities exist to serve and support the gameplay of your
game, but they also entertain in their own right. Chapter 4 addresses these issues.
DESIGNING THE CORE MECHANICS
Once you have a sense of the kinds of challenges and actions that you want to
include in the primary gameplay mode, you can begin thinking about how the core
mechanics create those challenges and implement the actions. For example, if you
plan to challenge the player to accumulate money, you have to define where the
money comes from and what the player has to do to get hold of it. If you challenge
the player to play a sport, you must think about all the athletic characteristics—
speed, strength, acceleration, accuracy, and so on—that sport requires. If your
challenges involve symbolic rather than numeric relationships, as in a puzzle game,
you have to think about what those symbols are and how they are manipulated.
Chapter 10 explains how to create this critical part of your game.
CREATING ADDITIONAL MODES
As you decide upon your game concept, you may realize that you need more
than one gameplay mode—for example, you want to include separate strategic
and tactical modes in a war game or manage income and expenditures in a busi-
ness simulation. Or you may discover that you need additional modes while you
are defining the primary gameplay mode and core mechanics. Now that you're in
the elaboration stage, design the additional modes: their perspective, interaction
model, and gameplay. You must also document what causes your game to move
from mode to mode—the structure of your game, as described earlier in this chapter.
Do not create additional modes unnecessarily. Every extra mode requires more
design work, more artwork, more programming, and more testing. It also compli-
cates your game. Each mode should add to the player's entertainment and serve an
important purpose that the game genuinely needs.
