Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

C H A P T E R 1
Building an environment to host gameplay is quite different from building an environment
for visual impact alone. You want both—an environment that hosts
gameplay well and is visually striking. The primary idea here is that for your levels
(first- or third-person games), arenas (death match or player vs. player scenarios),
maps (real-time strategy games or role-playing games), and playfields (action,
twitch, or shooter-style games), you want an environment configured in the right
ways to support your main objective: solid play. If you give little or no thought as to
how best to construct an environment in support of gameplay (for whatever reason,
whether it be a tight development schedule time or resource shortages), the results are
often frustrating and do not support solid play.
So, as you consider function and layout, think about the play mechanics and play
goals you’re trying to build. How you begin to set positions or lay out your play space
will depend on the kind of play mechanic you’re trying to build. Of course, this varies
according to which game genre you are working in.
Start by asking yourself a question: What is my game’s heartbeat? The “heartbeat”
refers to the primary or fundamental game mechanic that lies at the root of
your game. It is your game’s driving force. It is why players will want to play your
game. Always try to keep your game’s heartbeat in mind. No doubt, this heartbeat
will suffer many palpitations and skipped beats along the beating path of game development,
but your game’s heartbeat should be kept in mind to help guide the thousands
of decisions that will be posed to your development team along the way.
If you forget about a game’s heartbeat, the game can grow into a surly five-headed
beast almost overnight, and you’ll be hacking and slashing at your game’s Hydra
heads for some time to come. This is a difficult situation. Many game development
decisions along the development curve will be informed by keeping simple principles
clear in your mind. It’s always a challenge to learn how to do this under real-world resource
constraints. As a team, you will have game direction ideas coming at you from
4002 sources—including those paying for your game development and those who
own the character and world rights you are currently meddling with.
What is the heartbeat? Clear up the answer in your mind. Clear up the answer with
your fellow team members. Act on it.
Although many game developers disagree on the deep details, many game heartbeats
are deceptively simple to express and remain true across genres:
� Kill or be killed by other players or things (examples include Quake III
Arena, Asteroids, and Twisted Metal Black)
� Let me grow my skills, abilities, powers, influence, or recognition in some
way (Everquest and Diablo II)
� Let me control the simulation of a process (Rollercoaster Tycoon and The Sims)
� Take me on an adventure of type X, Y, and Z (Grim Fandango and Myst)
9
Previsualization