Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Building Game Worlds
112
U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N
Getting “signature” moves to look right can be a real challenge. Stadiums and venues
get the same treatment. They undergo considerable modeling, texturing, and lighting
revisions to bring them into the game.
You want to ship your sports game with the latest statistical information for that
sport. However, just like game development, sports do not operate in a vacuum:
players get traded, players’ stats change every other night, teams change logos, stadiums
get new corporate sponsors, mascots get revamped, and so on. In an attempt to
bring the player the most exciting and “realistic” experience, you have to try to accommodate
these changes as best you can. It requires considerable detail tracking
and is rarely easy to do.
FIGHTING GAMES
Fighting games of all flavors continue to be popular, with standout titles like Tekken
4 and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance leading the way. Let’s look at some of the design
details that influence the fighting genre:
� Motion-captured fight performances
� Controller tuning
� Fight arenas
� Fighting performance and combos
� Prop utilization
� Multiple fight settings
� Expanded fight modes
Similar to sophisticated sports moves, fight games include elaborate physical performances
from fighters. Again, for the sake of motion fluidity, these performances
sometimes begin by utilizing motion capture. Design-wise, every single move required
for motion capture needs to be planned and accounted for to build the moves
required by your fighting game. Motion-capture sessions can be very expensive, so
you must undertake serious session planning to insure that you will motion-capture
all the moves required by your game design. Figure 5-2 shows a single spreadsheet
sample entry. There can be hundreds of these motions and in-betweens (motions between
motions, or motion segues). You can learn more about motion capture by visiting
the House of Moves web site (www.houseofmoves.com).
Many teams extrapolate each move destined for motion capture from the game
design document into a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel, or they use asset-tracking
software like NXN alienbrain (www.nxn-software.com) to build a motion-capture