Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

More documents

Recommendations

Info

good examples. Sports that are engaging and graphics-light make a good fit for the handsets. � Puzzle games or simple matching games These games are a more natural fit for handsets, as long as they don’t require intense calculations or blazing speed. These restrictions, as always, factor directly into your design of a puzzle game. Figure 9-6 shows another example of a puzzle game. These games have the advantage of being graphically “light” and can be configured for simple control using the odd key arrangements available on different cell phone handset models. � Themed quiz games These trivia games (about sports, movies, pop culture, and so on) work well if questions and answers are kept short and responses can be made easily by pressing a number key. These kinds of games can be popular and informative when matched with the right source content to create the questions and answers. FIGURE 9-6 Puzzle/match game by Magnet Island, Inc. C H A P T E R 9 225 Cell Phones and Wireless Gaming
Building Game Worlds 226 U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N Which games don’t work well on cell phone handsets? Well, just about everything else most gamers are used to playing on one portable platform or another. Again, 3-D development is very early, and current physical screen size issues offer some large hurdles. These hurdles will be overcome in time, but for now most developers concentrate on providing content that will perform well and provide for some satisfying play. The goal is to build game content that finds its way to people on their handsets while standing in line at the DMV or sitting in an airport terminal waiting for a flight. Any experience building small games for modest hardware will come in handy in developing these games. I’m even seeing a resurgence of veteran game programmers from the early Atari days coming out of hiding to build cell phone games or update some of their classic libraries for a new era. Multiplay Cell Phone Gaming Several wireless carriers, having experienced some success with single-player standalone games, are pushing developers toward building multiplay cell phone gaming titles. Currently, these are turn-based games that allow players to be matched up to compete. Most turn-based games work well as test subjects in order to start creating this kind of content. Most of these game titles are very early in execution, so there is no way to determine how popular this form of gaming might be, but it seems like the right kind of game could capture a sizeable audience. Mobiles are starting to use Bluetooth (www.bluetooth.com) to enable players to discover other players. For instance, if a player is on a train and wants to play a game, but isn’t close to other players or doesn’t know who or where they are, the player’s phone can broadcast an “Anyone want to play Mortal Kombat?” message to potential players. You can bet that multiple carriers will be looking for the right kind of content to keep their subscribers happy in game offerings. Plenty of content will be focused on capturing and entertaining teenage wireless subscribers. Having a large audience already extremely familiar with gaming is fortunate for game developers, since part of adding value to a wireless subscription service will depend on game content, among other content offerings, to keep subscribers satisfied with the value of their services. Wireless Toy Networks This is an expansion area for some game developers, especially for those that have built game content based on toy licenses. Toy manufacturers appear to be collaborating more frequently with game developers to provide local wireless toy and game entertainment. Some toys feature specific game elements built into the toys in a number of ways, and others offer game interaction among toys as part of a local wireless toy network. Think for a moment about the variety of game experiences available to nextgeneration toys with local wireless command centers. These command centers can be
Page 3 and 4:
A BOUT THE AUTHOR Tom Meigs is a ga
Page 5 and 6:
Brandon A. Nordin Scott Rogers Wend
Page 7 and 8:
This page intentionally left blank
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Building Game Worlds x U L T I M A
Page 13 and 14:
Building Game Worlds xii U L T I M
Page 15 and 16:
Building Game Worlds xiv U L T I M
Page 17 and 18:
Building Game Worlds xvi U L T I M
Page 19 and 20:
Building Game Worlds xviii U L T I
Page 21 and 22:
Building Game Worlds xx U L T I M A
Page 23 and 24:
2 THE game design process begins by
Page 25 and 26:
Building Game Worlds 4 U L T I M A
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
24 AFTER you’ve completed your pr
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
54 FOR a game to be competitive the
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
86 YOU now understand the developme
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Building Game Worlds 100 U L T I M
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
108 UP to this point, we’ve cover
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
130 Building Game Worlds 130 U L T
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
136 SCRIPTING in games gives develo
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
166 ONCE your game environment has
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196: Building Game Worlds 174 174 U L T
Page 197 and 198: Building Game Worlds 176 U L T I M
Page 207 and 208: This page intentionally left blank
Page 209 and 210: 188 A whole new avenue for games ha
Page 225 and 226: 204 Building Game Worlds 204 U L T
Page 237 and 238: 216 ANOTHER new content horizon for
Page 245: Building Game Worlds 224 U L T I M
Page 259 and 260: 238 THERE is a wide and growing ran
Page 287 and 288: 266 AT some point in your skills gr
Page 295 and 296: 274 Building Game Worlds U L T I M
Page 297 and 298:
Page 299 and 300:
Building Game Worlds 278 FIGURE 11-
Page 301 and 302:
Page 303 and 304:
Page 305 and 306:
Page 307 and 308:
286 THIS appendix includes useful r
Page 309 and 310:
Page 311 and 312:
Page 313 and 314:
Page 315 and 316:
Page 317 and 318:
296 MANY types of software tools we
Page 319 and 320:
Page 321 and 322:
Page 323 and 324:
Page 325 and 326:
304 TO assist you to further define
Page 327 and 328:
Page 329 and 330:
Page 331 and 332:
310 I’VE gathered together a few
Page 333 and 334:
Page 335 and 336:
Page 337 and 338:
Page 339 and 340:
Page 341 and 342:
Page 343 and 344:
322 AS a point of reference and as
Page 345 and 346:
Page 347 and 348:
Page 349 and 350:
Page 351 and 352:
Page 353 and 354:
Page 355 and 356:
Page 357 and 358:
Building Game Worlds 336 Baseball s
Page 359 and 360:
Building Game Worlds 338 support so
Page 361 and 362:
Building Game Worlds 340 Geometry a
Page 363 and 364:
Page 365 and 366:
Page 367 and 368:
Building Game Worlds 346 crowd, 146
show all

Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?