Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Building Game Worlds
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U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N
AF: It varies based on the context and goal of the behavior, but it generally starts with defining
what the ultimate goal is and expanding from there. As many situations as possible should be thought
of, and what the most optimal actions would be in those situations, until a fairly complete mapping
can be constructed. Then these situations will be play-tested and the actions adjusted until the best
solution is found. An example would be making a unit look at the position, direction, and velocity of all
other units around it to take an action. It might cause a forward in a soccer game to make a move up
the middle of the field, or cause a soldier unit to shift its position in line with the other units.
TM: What advice would you have for those with a technical fear of scripting?
AF: Scripting can be technically challenging, but the only way to overcome technical fear of scripting
is to delve into it and try to get a handle on it. It requires motivation and self-discipline to be able to
learn enough about scripting to get over the initial hump, but there’s a lot of examples available online
and many scripting engines available to work with.
TM: What games motivate and inspire you?
AF: I’m a fan of games that make the player think. One of my most favorite games has been the
Zelda series, which is to me the perfect combination of action, exploration, adventure, and puzzle
solving. I’m not that interested in first-person shooters, or mindless action games, but prefer a game
that puts the player in control of their environment and lets them choose what kind of activity they
want to do.
TM: Can scripting become more visual?
AF: Perhaps a tool could be constructed that would allow a scripter to drag and drop script
elements and see how that affects the game in a visual way. It would be a challenging tool to create,
as the seamless interaction between scripting and a visual display would be a hard problem to solve.
Scripting can likely never become completely visual, since most games will require custom scripts, but
default behaviors could be created that would be available in a visual library.
TM: Are you excited by wireless games?
AF: I’ve been working with wireless technology APIs for a couple of years now and it’s been very
exciting to finally see the phones come out that fully implement these APIs. The technology available
today really only allows for limited games, but the sheer amount of cell phones that are out there and
that will be sold in the coming years will make it one of the most prevalent platforms available for
game development.
TM: Do smaller-scope games often require scripting?
AF: It depends on the type of game, but usually smaller games will not require scripting. Smaller
games are usually written to run on more limited platforms, and since scripting languages generally
consume a lot of memory, they are often inappropriate for smaller games. There are some situations
where scripting may be appropriate for smaller games, especially if scripting means being able to load
variables from external sources.