Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

FIGURE 4-2
Blind data editor
C H A P T E R 4
to-minute action. NPCs can partner with players to achieve limited objectives. They
can become an ally through a single-player game.
NPCs are put into a scene just like any other actor. Their model, texture, and animation
data is loaded and created at a spawn point. Their properties, hostilities, and
abilities can be set as attributes. Their behavior can be extended by a control script (a
script that defines their behavior) or handled programmatically. Getting an NPC to
behave in the way you intend, and perform the role you have envisioned, normally
comes down to plenty of script writing and tweaking or editing. We’ll look at this
more closely in Chapter 6.
Boss Actors
A boss is a “payoff” bad guy. The boss idea comes from the days when games were
rigidly level-driven, and the payoff for completing a game was defeating the ultimate
boss or ultimate bad guy. Beating smaller bosses (minibosses) was a form of smaller
payoff as players made their way through the game.
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Actors, Props, Items, and Camera Details