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
may end up degrading the game’s performance or running speed to a degree that is
way too slow to be any fun to play. This won’t do at all, because when the lights go
off at night and Junior gets tucked into his racecar bed, it’s all about the fun!
Chugging frame rates are not fun. Remember that a game level is a self-contained section
of the entire game experience, and each particular level will have its own unique
performance challenges.
Frame rate refers to the speed at which a single frame can be redrawn to the screen
following another frame; kind of like a flipbook animation. How fast can you make
the pages flip? That’s your frame rate. A “chugging” frame rate is a frame rate that is
too slow to provide adequate game play performance or satisfaction. You want as
much visual pop as possible, while maintaining fundamental performance. This is
the crux and crisis point. Let the trade-offs begin! At its simplest, for modern 3-D
games, the more stuff you put in the scene that uses polygons on drawing the scene,
the more performance speed you stand to lose.
Also, what works in traditional architecture doesn’t necessarily make for compelling
game environments. Generally, interior levels—such as the inside of a castle—can
be adapted from real architecture and “bent” into game shape. You want
architecture that makes sense as a level layout, but you also want architecture that’s
fun (and fast) to navigate or move around in. So, it often helps to start with an existing
reference point, like the floor plan of a castle, and then tweak and modify it into
game shape. Or, you can start with something entirely new if you wish. Either way,
you’ll need solid reference material.
The nice part about working in the digital world is that you can combine bits and
pieces of architecture from several different castles to build the ultimate castle interior.
If you tried to build the real thing, it would fall apart like a sand castle in the surf,
but it sure looks good. No matter what game genre you’re building for, it always
helps to start with a reference point and then adapt and refine it for gameplay. In fact,
gameplay itself should determine level layout. Remember, environment supports
play, but play is the deciding factor.
Basic Environmental Design
In a networked multiplayer environment, characteristic of many of the games made
today, it makes sense to consider a couple of simple ideas about layout. After all, if
you’re going to have several players roaming a level or arena, you will want to consider
carefully how they’re going to navigate your map.
Entry and Exit
In general, bottlenecks and dead-ends don’t work too well in a multiplayer environment.
However, this is considered a “soft” rule because there are always exceptions.
For example, someone may point out a case in which a bottleneck makes for a perfect