The Nature of Time
In a single-player computer game, you maintain a great deal of control over the relationship between game time and real time. Most games run at many times the speed of …
Licenses, Trademarks, and Publicity Rights
Many years ago, small developers could make and sell computer games using names such as NFL and get away with it because the National Football League never knew about it. …
Storytelling
Chapter 7 discusses storytelling at length. This section reiterates a few of the key points and talks about their significance in adventure games, because adventure games rely on storytelling more …
Disadvantages of Online Games
Playing games over a network, especially the Internet, presents the designer with certain disadvantages, as well. This section discusses some of these technical challenges, as well as the ongoing responsibilities …
PLAYERS WHO NEED MAGNIFICATION
Many vision-impaired players simply need everything to be a bit larger. Older players provide a good example; after about age 45, most people need reading glasses—but even reading glasses aren't …
USING SKILL TREES
Skills are usually organized into a skill tree, a growth path analogous to the tech tree that Chapter 14 discussed. As with tech trees, learning a particular skill in the …
Camera Model
The camera model in most vehicle simulations doesn't try to be intelligent; it just offers a variety of fixed perspectives from different angles. Although the game cannot be played from …
ONE-BUTTON ACTIONS
In a graphic adventure game played with a handheld controller, designers often assign one button of the controller to a generic use or manipulate function. The player moves the avatar …
DON’T STORE SENSITIVE DATA ON THE PLAYER’S COMPUTER
A game typically contains two kinds of data about a player. Your game needs to keep settings or preferences about the way the player appears and likes to play, as …
Victory and Loss Conditions
The victory and loss conditions for a match are the same as in the real sport. However, many games that simulate team or league sports offer players a variety of …
Rdventure Games
Adventure games are seldom a technological challenge to build, but what they lack in technological challenges they make up for in creative ones. As the designer of an adventure game, …
Puzzle Games
Puzzles appear in games in several genres. Many single-player computer games contain puzzles; in action games, the player often has to figure out the boss opponent's weakness; adventure games are …
Persistent World Economies
If the players in a persistent world can collect and trade things of value, then the world includes an economy. Chapter 18, "Construction and Management Simulations," discussed economies in some …
Audio Commentary
Most sports games try to reproduce the experience of watching the sport on television. An important part of that experience is hearing the announcers' commentary, or play-by-play. Most TV and …
THE PROBLEM OF DEATH
For many years, game designers have debated the question of whether adventure games should allow the player to make a fatal mistake. Some adventure games proudly advertise on their boxes …
It’s Harder to Suspend Disbelief
For some players, gaming is a form of escapism that takes them away to a magical place, and they want it to stay magical while they're there. To them, it's …
COLORBLIND PLAYERS
Color blindness is a sex-linked genetic disorder primarily affecting men. Total color blindness is quite rare, but one milder form (deuteranomaly) affects about 6 percent of the male population. Persons …
The Game World and Story
Once you know what the player is going to do, you need to think about where he's going to do it. You should design the setting before the story. This …
User Interface Design
The biggest challenge in designing the user interface of a vehicle simulator is in mapping the vehicle's real controls to those available on the target machine. For serious simulations, analog …
MANAGING INVENTORY
Adventure games have always required the player to pick things up and carry them around until they're needed later. Most games present the player with a visible inventory mechanism—usually a …
Persistent Worlds
A good many online games are not really games at all by the definition you learned in Chapter 1, "Games and Video Games." Persistent worlds such as World of Warcraft, …
Opportunities for Creative Play
As sports games are essentially simulations, they offer fewer opportunities for creative play than other genres. However, several do exist: ■ Athlete and team creation. You may give the players …
The Growth of Adventure Games
Adventure games were highly popular in the early days of personal computers. The earliest ones were text-only, which made them inexpensive to develop and allowed great scope for both the …
Scott Kim’s Eight Steps
Scott Kim is a designer who creates puzzles for print media, web sites, and computer games. At the 1999 Game Developer's Conference he gave a lecture entitled "The Art of …
Designing to Rppeal to Particular Groups
In the concept stage of game design, you must choose a target audience for your game, and throughout development you must keep that audience in mind. This appendix briefly addresses …
The Presentation Layer
Sports games offer some of the most beautifully realistic graphics and audio of any genre, and their presentation features borrow heavily from those seen on television. TV sports presentations have …
Challenges
The majority of challenges in an adventure game are conceptual: puzzles that can only be solved by lateral thinking. The following list of a few popular puzzles—of the many types …
Design Issues for Online Gaming
This section addresses some design issues peculiar to online games: the problems presented by players arriving or disappearing during play, the pros and cons of realtime versus turn-based play, things …
Hearing-Impaired Players
To help support hearing-impaired players, consider the following: ■ Display visible cues for audible events. If a car scrapes along a railing, show sparks; when a gun fires, show a …
Story and Spatial Structure
Because adventure games map a story onto a space, they establish a relationship between different locations in the world and different parts of the story. Over the years, the nature …
. The Presentation Layer
Like strategy games, CRPGs have complicated core mechanics, and the player needs access to a large amount of information. In addition to the game world, the player needs to see …
Construction and Management Simulations
Construction and management simulations (CMS) offer players the chance to build things, such as anthills or cities, while operating within economic constraints. In this chapter you'll learn about the gameplay …
Artificial Life and Puzzle Games
This chapter discusses two game genres that aren't as fashionable as the ones already covered: artificial life and puzzle games. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them; some extremely …
How Persistent Worlds Differ from Ordinary Games
Part of the appeal of computer games is the environment in which the player finds herself: a fantasy world where magic really works or behind enemy lines in World War …
Miscellaneous Issues
If you want to, you can invent a completely new sport for your game, but this approach is not always a commercial success. Sports games also include two features not …
