Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Is Your Primary Mechanic Working?
As soon as possible at the beginning of your building phase, it’s important to ask this
very question. But, be fair-minded. Give your game a chance to get to the state where
it’s appropriate to ask this question. If it’s not working, consider why it is not working.
Is the concept sinking in execution? Are the software tools you’re using simply
not capable of executing your team’s design ideas? Are the programming requirements
heading into orbit?
Despite doing the mental work, the previsualization, the picturing of gameplay in
your mind from the beginning, is the game simply not fun in the ways you assumed it
would be? Every developer runs through these mental checks and challenges. You
have to ask these questions early. If the primary mechanic, as defined by your game
heartbeat, is not working, you now must make the decisions about instant evolution
or rejection. Most teams, due to development pressure, must find a way to evolve the
game toward success in every meaningful way possible, to fix those things that can be
fixed to make for a better play experience. This is a best-effort situation.
Are Your Level Goals Enhancing Your Game Vision?
C H A P T E R 2
Throughout the game development process, a team is constantly verifying its goals
for a game. Whether you’re building maps, levels, or missions for your genre game,
your team will benefit from taking a close look at how well the “meat” of your levels
is helping to enhance your game vision, or serve your game heartbeat. If there are elements
to your levels that are derailing the experience, you will want to cut them. This
is why it’s so important to try to understand, as a team, what your game is going to
be … the defining elements.
Simplicity is a virtue in games and other places. If your level has too many subgoals—
if every time the player accomplishes something another little subeffort is tacked on
(“Now go do this …”)—the effect of having goals in the level tends to be diminished.
Keep the goals as clear as possible at all times. If you don’t, players will soon feel disconnected
and start to ask themselves “What was I supposed to do again?”
Don’t break the experience into a million pieces by forcing the player to do things
that distract from the fun they’re trying to have. Most games hinge on an action element.
If you’re stopping the action every other minute, the game will feel jarring.
CASE STUDY COMMENTS ON LEVEL
EXECUTION
In 1997, I was working on an action-oriented RTS for the Sony PlayStation. The
game had many missions, with several pursuit goals per mission. At the time, it didn’t
feel like we tried to over-reach on the number of goals per mission. We definitely didn’t
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Level Planning and Building