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
Is this level of reduction and simplicity even useful? Definitely. Your heartbeat
might combine a couple of these statements, but be careful. Most successful games
don’t go too wide with their heartbeat statements. You should be able to reduce your
game’s heartbeat to one or two sentences at most. Don’t try and be everything to everybody.
How do simple statements like these have any power in an age of never-ending
technological advance and gaming possibility? All I can say is, there is great
power in reduction sometimes.
How do you use a heartbeat statement? After you have defined your heartbeat
statement, you and your development team should evaluate the potential of each
feature, function, mode, asset, or ability based on whether it adds to or subtracts
from accomplishing your heartbeat statement. Game building is exploration. You
may not know until you try it, but you can limit the pursuit of “peripheral ideas” by
checking your idea for a feature or function against your game heartbeat. If it doesn’t
move you closer to presenting your heartbeat statement for the player, then
don’t bother with it. If it does, then weigh its true impact further and consider its
feasibility.
Keep in mind that building a next-generation game is a team function. You will be
working as a team member to help establish the heartbeat for your game. You will
not be working in solitude sending down “heartbeat” declarations from your throne,
after servants have set up an afternoon tea. In other words, part of the game design
process itself is learning how to work as a team to reach a “buy-in” or group agreement
for the game heartbeat. Each team member will bring their own particular
game experience, orientation, and passions to lend support or rejection for game direction
ideas. Normally, game producers and designers help to guide this process
through many iterations and revisions toward establishing a clear game heartbeat—a
game heartbeat vision that an entire team can share and charge toward.
With respect to function, start by asking yourself the following questions:
� Are you building a game where competitive racing gives players the ability to
enhance and customize their vehicle over a series or race circuit?
� Are you building a game based on collection and combat with offense and
defense?
� Are you building a game based on simulating a growth process?
Knowing the game heartbeat is fundamental and will help answer these questions.
Establish the heartbeat first and build from there. The heartbeat will help inform the
details. It will help determine the function. It will help show you how to build and
evolve the right kind of environment in the right ways for your game.