game design - theory and practice

TEAMFLY Team-Fly ® Game Design: Theory & Practice Richard Rouse III Illustrations by Steve Ogden Atomic Sam character designed by Richard Rouse III and Steve Ogden Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rouse, Richard. Game design: theory & practice / by Richard Rouse III ; illustrations by Steve Ogden. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-55622-735-3 (pbk.) 1. Computer games—Programming. I. Title. QA76.76.C672 R69 2000 794.8'1526—dc21 00-053436 CIP © 2001, Wordware Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2320 Los Rios Boulevard Plano, Texas 75074 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from Wordware Publishing, Inc. Printed in the United States of America ISBN 1-55622-735-3 10987654321 0011 Product names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies. All inquiries for volume purchases of this book should be addressed to Wordware Publishing, Inc., at the above address. Telephone inquiries may be made by calling: (972) 423-0090 ii Copyright Notices Atomic Sam design document and images ™ and ©1999-2000 Richard Rouse III. Atomic Sam character designed by Richard Rouse III and Steve Ogden. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Portions of Chapter 18: Interview: Jordan Mechner originally appeared in Inside Mac Games magazine. Used with kind permission. Images from Duke Nukem 3D ® and © 2000 3D Realms Entertainment. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from the 3D version of Centipede ® and © 2000 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Though the game is referred to as “Centipede 3D” in this book in order to differentiate it from the older game, its proper name is simply “Centipede.” Images from Super Breakout, Asteroids, Centipede, Millipede, and Tempest ® or ™ and © 2000 Atari Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from WarCraft, WarCraft II, StarCraft, and Diablo II ® or ™ and © 2000 Blizzard Enter- tainment. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Hodj ’n’ Podj and The Space Bar © 2000 Boffo Games. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Pathways into Darkness, Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity, and Myth: The Fallen Lords ® or ™ and © 2000 Bungie Software Products Corporation. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Balance of Power, Trust and Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot, Balance of Power II: The 1990 Edition, Guns & Butter, Balance of the Planet, and the Erasmatron ® or ™ and © 2000 Chris Crawford. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Myst ® and ©1993 Cyan, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider II, and Thief II ® or ™ and © 2000 Eidos Interactive. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Unreal and Unreal Tournament ® or ™ and © 2000 Epic Games. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Sid Meier’s Gettysburg! and Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri ™ and © 2000 Firaxis Games. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Doom, Doom II, Quake II, and Quake III Arena ® and © 2000 id Software. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Spellcasting 101 © 1990 Legend Entertainment Company, Spellcasting 201 © 1991 Legend Entertainment Company, and Superhero League of Hoboken © 1994 Legend Entertain - ment Company. All rights reserved. Used with the kind permission of Infogrames, Inc. iii Images from Maniac Mansion, Loom, and Grim Fandango ® or ™ and © 2000 LucasArts Enter - tainment Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Used with kind authorization. Images from SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt, SimCity 2000, SimCopter, SimCity 3000, and The Sims ® and © 2000 Maxis, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Karateka, Prince of Persia, and The Last Express ® or ™ and © 2000 Jordan Mechner. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from F-15 Strike Fighter, Pirates!, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Covert Action, Railroad Tycoon, Civilization, and Civilization II ® or ™ and © 2000 Microprose, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Gauntlet ® , Gauntlet II ® , Xybots™, San Francisco Rush: The Rock - Alcatraz Edi - tion™, San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing ® , San Francisco Rush 2049™, and Gauntlet Legends ® © 2000 Midway Games West, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Defender ® , Robotron: 2048 ® , Joust ® , and Sinistar ® © 2000 Midway Amusement Games, LLC. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ® and © 2000 Nintendo of America. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Oddworld: Abe’s Oddyssee ® and © 1995-2000 Oddworld Inhabitants, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ® designate trademarks of Oddworld Inhabitants. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis™ and © 2000 Richard Rouse III. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from Damage Incorporated™ and © 2000 Richard Rouse III and MacSoft. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from the Riot Engine Level Editor © 2000 Surreal Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Images from The Next Tetris™ and © 1999 Elorg, sublicensed to Hasbro Interactive, Inc. by The Tetris Company. Tetris © 1987 Elorg. Original Concept & Design by Alexey Pajitnov. The Next Tetris™ licensed to The Tetris Company and sublicensed to Hasbro Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. iv Dedication To my parents, Richard and Regina Rouse v Acknowledgments Thanks to Steve Ogden for bringing Atomic Sam to life and providing the bril - liant illustrations which enliven these pages. Thanks to James Hague, Ian Parberry, and Margaret Rogers for looking over my work and providing me with the invaluable feedback and support which have improved this book tremendously. Thanks to Chris Crawford, Ed Logg, Jordan Mechner, Sid Meier, Steve Meretzky, and Will Wright for graciously subjecting themselves to my endless questioning. To quote Mr. Wright, I’m “pretty thorough.” Thanks to Jim Hill, Wes Beckwith, Beth Kohler, Kellie Henderson, Martha McCuller, Alan McCuller, and everyone at Wordware for making this book become a reality. For their help with this book, thanks to Benson Russell, John Scott Lewinski, Ari Feldman, Laura J. Mixon-Gould, Jeff Buccelatto, Jayson Hill, Laura Pokrifka, Josh Moore, Lisa Sokulski, Dan Harnett, Steffan Levine, Susan Wooley, Chris Brandkamp, Kelley Gilmore, Lindsay Riehl, Patrick Buechner, Scott Miller, Greg Rizzer, Lori Mezoff, Jenna Mitchell, Ericka Shawcross, Maryanne Lataif, Bryce Baer, Bob Bates, James Conner, Lisa Tensfeldt, Paula Cook, Donald Knapp, and Diana Fuentes. Special thanks to Margaret Rogers, June Oshiro and Matt Bockol, Ben Young, Alain and Annalisa Roy, Gail Jabbour, Amy Schiller, Katie Young & Eric Pidkameny, Rafael Brown, Eloise Pasachoff, Mark Bullock and Jane Miller, Dave Rouse, Linda, Bob and Grayson Starner, Jamie Rouse, Alan Patmore and everyone at Surreal, the Leaping Lizard crew, Brian Rice, Lee Waggoner, Pat Alphonso, Clay Heaton, Alex Dunne, Gordon Cameron, Tuncer Deniz, Bart Farkas, Peter Tamte, Nate Birkholtz, Al Schilling, Cindy Swanson and everyone at MacSoft, Doug Zartman, Alex Seropian, Jason Jones, Jim McNally, Jeff O’Connor, Ira Harmon, Gordon Marsh, Chuck Schuldiner, Glenn Fabry, and Derek Riggs. About the AuthorAbout the Author Richard Rouse III is a computer game designer, programmer, and writer at Surreal Software (www.surreal.com). Rouse has been designing games professionally for over seven years and has played a lead design role in the development of games for the PC, Macintosh, Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation, and PlayStation 2. His credits include Centipede 3D, Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis, and Damage Incor - porated. At Surreal he currently spends all his waking hours working on a secret PlayStation 2 action/adventure project, while also contributing where he can to Drakan for PlayStation 2. Rouse has written about game design for publications including Game Developer, SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, Gamasutra, and Inside Mac Games. Your FeedbackYour Feedback Your feedback to this book, including corrections, comments, or merely friendly ramblings, is encouraged. Please mail them to the author at rr3@paranoidproductions.com. You will also find the web page for this book, which will be used to track corrections, updates, and other items of interest, at www.paranoidproductions.com. See you there. About the ArtistAbout the Artist Steve Ogden has been an artist, illustrator, and cartoonist for almost 20 years, and miraculously, his right hand shows no sign of dropping off. Among his projects in the digital domain, he has worked on Bally’s Game Magic casino game as well as Centipede 3D, and has just finished a stint as Art Director and Production Lead on Cyan’s realMYST (while finishing the illustrations to this book during the few hours he was supposed to be sleeping). He is now gearing up for work on Cyan’s next game, if they can catch him and chain him to his desk again. To see more of his work, both of the 2D and 3D variety, stop by his web site: www.lunaenter- tainment.com. You can reach him at ogden@ lunaentertainment.com. He is now going to crawl to a beach very far away and sleep for a while. vii Contents Introduction xviii Chapter 1 What Players Want 1 Why Do Players Play? 2 Players Want a Challenge 2 Players Want to Socialize 3 Players Want a Dynamic Solitaire Experience 5 Players Want Bragging Rights 5 Players Want an Emotional Experience 6 Players Want to Fantasize 7 What Do Players Expect? 8 Players Expect a Consistent World 8 Players Expect to Understand the Game-World’s Bounds 9 Players Expect Reasonable Solutions to Work 10 Players Expect Direction 10 Players Expect to Accomplish a Task Incrementally 12 Players Expect to Be Immersed 12 Players Expect to Fail 14 Players Expect a Fair Chance 14 Players Expect to Not Need to Repeat Themselves 15 Players Expect to Not Get Hopelessly Stuck 16 Players Expect to Do, Not to Watch 17 Players Do Not Know What They Want, But They Know It When They See It . 18 A Never-Ending List 19 Chapter 2 Interview: Sid Meier 20 Chapter 3 Brainstorming a Game Idea: Gameplay, Technology, and Story 42 Starting Points 43 Starting with Gameplay 44 Starting with Technology 45 Starting with Story 47 Working with Limitations 50 Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis 50 ix [...]... communicate to him, and it establishes how hard the game will be In short, the game design determines every detail of how the gameplay will function xviii Introduction Who is a Game Designer? By this point it should be obvious what a game designer does: she determines what the nature of the gameplay is by creating the game s design The terms game designer” and game design have been used in such a wide variety... the game design is what determines the form of the gameplay The game design determines what choices the player will be able to make in the game- world and what ramifications those choices will have on the rest of the game The game design determines what win or loss criteria the game may include, how the user will be able to control the game, and what information the game will communicate to him, and it... that good game designers merely copy the work of other game designers Understanding the reasons why other games succeed will bring the designer a more complete understanding of game design as a whole Every game designer should take the games that she finds most compelling and try to examine what makes them tick The examples I include in this book, Centipede, Tetris, Loom, Myth: The Fallen Lords, and The... provide a singleplayer (SP) game in addition to the multi-player (MP) game The SP and MP games are played with nearly the same set of rules and game mechanics But even in these single-player-turned-multi-player games, players like to socialize while playing Anyone who has ever played one of these games over a LAN in a room with a bunch of their friends can testify to this These LAN-fests are usually rich... become dilute and hard to pin down Some seem to refer to game design as being synonymous with game development These people refer to anyone working on a computer game, be they artist, programmer, or producer, as a game designer I prefer a more specific definition, as I have outlined above: the game designer is the person who designs the game, who thereby establishes the shape and nature of the gameplay... a computer game, from establishing the game s focus, to documenting the game s design, to establishing the game s mode of storytelling, to playtesting the near-final product xix Introduction TE AM FL Y These chapters discuss the theory behind game design, and what a designer should strive for in order to create the best game possible The chapters also include discussions of the reality of game development,... aspiring game designer In some ways, I have written this book for myself, for the person I was a decade ago I hope that other people interested in designing games will find this book informative In my humble opinion, it is the game designer who has the most interesting role in the creation of a computer game It is the game s design that dictates the form and shape of the game s gameplay, and this is... game- world These aesthetic and content considerations are elements computer games may share with other media; they are certainly not what differentiates games from those other media Gameplay, remember, is what makes our art form unique What is Game Design? What, then, is game design? Having defined what exactly I mean when I refer to gameplay, the notion of game design is quite easily explained: the game. .. someone needs to do in order to justifiably be called the game s designer is to establish the form of the game s gameplay Indeed, many game designers perform a wide variety of tasks on a project, but their central concern should always be the game design and the gameplay What is in This Book? This book contains a breadth of information about game design, covering as many aspects as possible Of course,... The Sims, are all very unique games And though a given project you are working on may not be similar to any of these games, a lot can be learned from analyzing games of any sort First-person shooter designers have had great success in revitalizing their genre by looking at adventure games Certainly, role-playing game designers have recently learned a lot from arcade game designers Melding in techniques . opin - ion, it is the game designer who has the most interesting role in the creation of a computer game. It is the game s design that dictates the form and shape of the game s gameplay, and this. Storytelling 218 Out-of -Game 219 In -Game 224 External Materials 227 Frustrated Linear Writers 228 Game Stories 230 Non-Linearity 232 Working with the Gameplay 233 The Dream 234 Chapter 12 Game Analysis:. unique. What is Game Design? What, then, is game design? Having defined what exactly I mean when I refer to gameplay, the notion of game design is quite easily explained: the game design is what