Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

course, many games feature difficulty settings, and you will tune your map or level
accordingly based on test feedback from players. Remove your ego. Listen to players
openly and honestly.
Risk/reward value simply refers to the premise that a player must take a risk or be
exposed to a hazard in order to receive a reward. This gives the reward value. However,
you must carefully build in balance. If items are too easily obtained, the player
gets no sense of earning or accomplishment. If items are next to impossible to obtain,
the player is not rewarded for their effort and becomes frustrated.
Figure 4-1 illustrates a simple plotting of the risk/reward concept. A small amount
of life or health energy (L) is available to the injured player without confrontation.
The payoff for taking the risk to confront three enemies (E) in an enclosed space is a
collectible (C) and a weapons upgrade (W). This is the classic scenario. You can extrapolate
this idea to numerous scenarios of your own invention. Be sure to use a legend
to plot out these elements on your topographic map, and remember that
play-testing your game will be the ultimate guide to many placement issues.
Risk/reward scenarios set up classic game conflicts. The idea from this point is to
extend conflict vocabulary into new and interesting avenues. Every game developer
is hard at work trying to do this all the time. You can see the evidence in games all the
time with more complex NPC behaviors, more intelligent enemies, and partially destructible
world geometry that allows players to create their own passageways by demolition.
In this case, we have a way to avoid conflict. Need an escape route? Blow a
hole in the wall with a grenade. This creates added play-test issues if a number of wall
FIGURE 4-1
A risk/reward scenario
C H A P T E R 4
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Actors, Props, Items, and Camera Details