Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

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Building Game Worlds 130
U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N
been working on an RPG yesterday, today you may be working on more of a
third-person action game. Yet, even this scenario is changing, as developers are becoming
more and more genre-focused. Part of this is due to game scope and complexity.
Once you build technologies that support RTS creation, it’s easier and more
powerful to focus on RTS titles. Can you really do “everything” well in a fiercely
competitive industry? Probably not.
Game titles are “grown” into life by developers and often change directions entirely
along the way. Sometimes, after two or three directions, the title is ultimately
cancelled and your 16 months of work is packaged up for delivery into storage.
Staying competitive in game development requires the ability to react quickly and
remain available to constant change.
INTERVIEW WITH AARON ODLAND
Aaron Odland has produced game and web entertainment content based on many familiar licensed
properties for Disney Channel and Disney Online. He earned a B.S. in radio, TV, film from
Northwestern University and subsequently found work with Jellyvision, the Chicago-based creators of
the “You Don’t Know Jack” series of games. He is currently pursuing an interest in landscape
architecture and swears that this isn’t as disconnected from game development as it sounds.
TM: What is the primary difference between working on games you enjoy playing and building
games for a wide web audience?
AO: I have found that when I play games on the PC, I have certain expectations about the quality
of sound, graphics, controls, etc. based on the platform. The same is true for my expectations when
playing a console game or when playing an old arcade game. The expectations are always different.
The problem I have found with online content is that I’m usually playing on a PC platform where I
have these high production-value expectations, and current data connections don’t really allow for
most server-delivered, web-based game content to meet those expectations. So, we’re sent back to the
days of 8-bit Nintendo on the same PC that is allowing us to play Unreal II.
TM: How do you orient game design for a wide audience made up primarily of younger players?
AO: You can’t really clump all younger players into the same group when talking about game
design. Preschoolers are quite different than preteens. I think you need to pick a specific age range
when developing a game and focus on making the best piece of content for that group.
TM: What are some of the challenges you faced in working with licensed content?
AO: In some ways, I have found that working with licensed characters works very well for the short
production timeframe that is characteristic of most online games that I have contributed to. You don’t
have to spend time on character design, and that certainly helps move things along. Of course, when
working with third-party developers, there is time required to educate them about the property so they
can understand it better. I have also found that working with licensed content involving real actors can
present more challenges than working with animated characters.
Image approval is generally required, and the task of getting unique, new images for a piece of
web content often seems out of the question due to budget and time concerns. So, the challenge
becomes hunting down alternative sources of images, audio clips, etc. that might be able to suit
your needs.