FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
Action Game Subgenres
Action games fall into a number of subgenres based, like all game genre distinctions, on the kinds of gameplay that they offer. The most familiar and popular action games are shooting games, but the genre also encompasses platform games, fighting games, fast puzzle games, and a broad miscellany of others. Bear in mind that there is no industry standard for these terms, and other authors may refer to these subgenres by other names.
In shooters, the player takes action at a distance, using a ranged weapon. Aiming is therefore a key skill, particularly if the game provides only limited ammunition. In a shooting game, the player must focus attention on two places at once: the area around the avatar, and the target or targets.
We'll look at two broad classes of shooting games: those that take place in a two-dimensional landscape (2D shooters) and those that take place in a threedimensional landscape (3D shooters), of which by far the best-known are the first-person shooters. The "Camera Models" section, later in this chapter, discusses the differences between the first - and third-person perspectives.
The action in 2D shooters takes place in an environment viewed from either a top-down or side-view perspective. Enemies shoot at the avatar, which can be a character or a vehicle, or approach to attack at close quarters. In many of these games the player is under attack by overwhelming numbers of enemies and must shoot them as fast as possible; such games are often called shoot-'em-ups. The player is usually armed with one or more weapons, and some weapons may be better suited to particular enemies than others. It is rare for a 2D shooter to keep track of ammunition (except for particularly powerful types of weapons); instead, the player fires frenetically and indiscriminately. The weapons seldom damage anything except legitimate targets.
2D shooters seldom bother with realistic physics. Projectiles move at a constant speed and in a straight line, unaffected by gravity; vehicles and characters change direction instantaneously, ignoring inertia. These are the conventions of the subgenre, and you change them at your peril.
Some of the older 2D games have endured and remained popular despite their limited graphics—even inspiring modern versions—because they have excellent gameplay. The original Robotron: 2084, released into arcades in 1982, became an instant classic of the genre (see Figure 13.1). The object of this game was to defend the last human family against wave upon wave of killing machines bent on their destruction. A second joystick gave players the ability to shoot independently of
the avatar's direction of movement. The strength of the Robotron gameplay meant that, for many years, updates just weren't needed. In fact, you can still get pixel-perfect versions of Robotron: 2084 for the PC, Game Boy Advance, and other consoles.
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Gauntlet, in its original arcade form, provided an option for cooperative multiplayer play, one of the first games to do so (see Figure 13.2). Each player could take on one of four avatars (Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie, or Elf) and adventure together with the other members of the party through a seemingly endless series of dungeons, searching for treasure and food. This game introduced many of the common action game features we look at later, such as the locked door and key, monster generators, team play, and dungeon exit.
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3D shooting games such as those in the Halo and Half-Life series have become so successful that to a great many younger gamers they are the epitome of the entire medium. Never mind that sports games are more popular than shooters on console machines, and strategy games are more popular on home computers (Entertainment Software Association, 2009); 3D shooters are at the cutting edge of what game hardware can do, and so they have the most dramatic graphics and get the most press. Figure 13.3 indicates just how far 3D shooters have come, from Maze War, an early first - person shooter for the Xerox Star workstation, to the recently released Battlefield 1943.
3D shooters are more realistic than 2D shooters, often presenting familiar, or at least recognizable, worlds. In first-person shooters, the physics of the game is much more like that of the real world. Gravity works correctly (for the most part), sound diminishes with distance, objects cast shadows, and collisions are modeled with a fair level of accuracy. Some of these games, such as Electronic Arts' Black, also implement deformable environments, in which the landscape actually changes shape in response to explosions and other events.
3D shooters use either a first-person perspective (the first-person shooter or FPS), or a third-person perspective, and many now offer both. The first-person perspective is sometimes reserved for the view through a rifle's scope or sights and cannot be used while the avatar is moving. The "Camera Models" section discusses these perspectives and their effect on the player's experience.
3D shooters may be further subdivided:
■ Rail-shooters are so-called because players fight through an enclosed environment that, like a railroad track, has few side branches; the player has few choices to
make and little exploration to do. Play consists of fighting from the beginning to the end. Half-Life is the definitive example.
■ Tactical shooters tend to simulate modern-era special forces teams. They offer realistic weapons and situations, and must be played carefully; they cannot be won with Rambo-style mayhem. Stealth and cover assume a large role. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is a good example.
■ The survival horror class of games uses the power of modern graphics hardware to display disturbingly realistic blood and gore. Exploration takes on a large role in these games. The Silent Hill and Resident Evil series are both widely admired examples.
■ Arena games such as Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament are designed primarily (and sometimes exclusively) for multiplayer deathmatch or team play in a confined area. Much of the design effort goes into balancing the weapons and pow - erups and creating interesting places in which to play. Games such as Battlefield 1942 are their equivalents in outdoor settings, and the latter also permit the players to use vehicles.
An increasing number of single-player 3D shooter games are set in large, open worlds. Such games place few limitations on the player's movement and provide a world populated with large numbers of AI-driven NPC characters, not all of whom are enemies. The Godfather and Grand Theft Auto series are well-known examples, although both of them offer a great deal of non-shooter gameplay. S. T.A. L.K. E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a more conventional shooter set in the 30 kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
