Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

C H A P T E R 2
� Use the tools that accompany a licensed engine technology like the Unreal,
Quake, LithTech (www.lithtech.com), Serious Sam (www.croteam.com), or
NDL/NetImmerse (www.netimmerse.com) systems.
� Write your own stand-alone editor to build content for your proprietary engine.
With the time demands placed on developers to provide new and exciting content,
many developers are searching for game construction systems that rely on prefabrication,
modularity, and maximum reuseability. There are also several scaling and
world grid issues to consider, and a wide array of mistakes to try and avoid. Let’s take
a look at each of these concepts in detail.
Prefabricated Geometry and Modularity
Prefabricated geometry is simply geometry built to be used and reused in certain
ways. A spiral staircase that you can use in a scene to transition from floor to floor is
an example of a piece of prefabricated geometry. Its use is obvious—it’s a stairway.
You might see five to ten of these used in different locations throughout a level. A
player might not even recognize it as the same piece used later, once it is retextured
and scaled in size.
Piping system components and door moldings are two examples of prefabricated geometry
that can be reused throughout a game environment. These days, for speed and efficiency,
we have to think about building up environments out of components. Maybe
the door molding can be flipped or mirrored in a scene to become something else. These
prefabricated units become something akin to the 2-D tiles mentioned earlier. They
become pieces in our toy construction set aimed at building up game environments.
Why modularity? Because we need “digital Legos.” Game environments have to
be built quickly and efficiently while offering maximum visual impact and maximum
gameplay support. Development teams are under great pressure to create stunning
worlds in short order. Although it seems obvious, only recently have game developers
started to build tools that maximize efficiency with a “snap-together” Lego-like
functionality. These tools now are essential to deliver large-scale environments.
Although some people may think that modular design is a recipe for repetition,
that is not necessarily true. You can be very creative through crafty use of your construction
pieces. All of your favorite 2-D titles were built with modular tile sets. 3-D
offers new game vistas, but must share some of the same mindset.
Modular world design is a solid solution to several problems. If we didn’t think
modularly, and all environmental features and all prop features were entirely custom
or unique, we would
� Suffer many machine performance issues.
� Constantly be building geometry and texturing, extending schedules, and
burning valuable resources along the way.
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Level Planning and Building