List of Figures

Chapter 1: What Players Want

Death-match style multi-player games are adaptations of single-player shooter experiences. Halo comes with both single-player and multi-player modes.

In Doom II , the player will not expect to be able to start a conversation with the monsters he is attacking.

SimCity 3000 is the third in a series of city simulation software toys, which let users play without giving them a specific goal.

Despite all his fame, Mario does not have a very distinct personality. He is pictured here in Super Mario 64 .

Level designers for 3D action/adventure games, such as Metroid Prime , need to create maps that prevent the player from ever getting permanently stuck behind a piece of architecture.

Chapter 2: Interview: Sid Meier

F-19 Stealth Fighter

Pirates!

Covert Action

Railroad Tycoon

Railroad Tycoon

Civilization

Gettysburg!

Gettysburg!

Civilization

Gettysburg!

F-15 Strike Eagle

Civilization

Chapter 3: Brainstorming a Game Idea: Gameplay, Technology, and Story

The designers of Half-Life smartly used the indoor first-person shooter gameplay established by Quake , the engine licensed for the games creation. Pictured here: Quake II .

Maniac Mansion was the first of the story-centered adventure games from LucasArts to use the SCUMM system.

Levels in Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis were designed around the games story.

Damage Incorporated (pictured) had its origins in the licensed Marathon technology.

The new, 3D version of Centipede was based on the classic bug shooter gameplay found in the original Centipede .

The Suffering originated with the idea of combining shooter gameplay with a distinctly disturbing horror setting.

Chapter 4: Game Analysis: Centipede

Tempest is one of many classic arcade games that is centered on shooting at enemies which keep getting closer. Tempest is memorable because of the many unique twists included.

Even though the action in Sinistar did not take place only on one screen, it is still considered to be an example of the classic arcade game form.

The players shooter in Centipede is more mobile than in Space Invaders , since it can move up and down in addition to moving sideways . Pictured here: Centipede .

In Centipede , fleas drop toward the bottom of the screen, leaving mushrooms behind them, while spiders eat whatever mushrooms block their movement.

Over the course of a game of Centipede , mushrooms become more and more tightly packed on the play-field.

Centipede s frantic gameplay keeps the player tense most of the time, though it provides some breaks in the action during which the player can relax.

Chapter 5: Focus

Your game may be similar to another game such as Tomb Raider , but in your focus you want to describe the game on its own terms and avoid making comparisons to other games.

Though I did not know it at the time of the games development, Odyssey s focus was centered on telling a specific story.

The focus of the 3D version of Centipede was to create a game that captured the arcade game-play of the original Centipede in a three-dimensional, level-based environment.

Chapter 6: Interview: Ed Logg

Asteroids

Super Breakout

Asteroids

Asteroids

Centipede

Centipede

Millipede

Millipede

Gauntlet

Gauntlet II

Xybots

San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing for the Nintendo 64

Dr. Muto

Dr. Muto

Gauntlet Legends

Asteroids

Dr. Muto

The arcade version of San Francisco Rush 2049

Chapter 7: The Elements of Gameplay

The Civilization games are some of the best examples of complex gameplay emerging out of multiple consistent systems running in parallel. Pictured here: Civilization II .

Odyssey is an extremely non-linear game, allowing the player to solve puzzles in whatever order he chooses and to select which quests he wants to go on. The game almost always provides more than one solution to any given puzzle.

Working meaningful non- linearity into The Suffering proved quite challenging.

Having a believable and recognizable environment was a big part of The Suffering s appeal .

Prince of Persia carefully taught the player what to expect of traps such as collapsing floors and sharp spikes.

Deus Ex integrated its training into the game fiction in a very believable way.

Console titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are good at teaching the player how to control the game.

The Diablo series extremely simple controls make them some of the easiest games to learn available. Pictured here: Diablo II .

StarCraft provides the player with a very elegant interface which allows her to issue orders to her units using a variety of techniques.

When the attempt to have unique controls did not work out as planned, The Suffering was changed to emulate control systems from other games.

Oddworld: Abes Oddysee did away with an in-game GUI entirely, giving the player an unobstructed view of the gameworld.

The head at the bottom of the screen in Doom is a well-designed interface element because it communicates the players current health visually.

Chapter 8: Game Analysis: Tetris

Tetris carefully balances action and puzzle elements to create a unique gameplay experience. Pictured here, and throughout this chapter: classic mode in The Next Tetris .

Despite being developed years after classic arcade games had fallen out of style, Tetris s gameplay embodies many of the design principles of that genre of games.

Tetris has a very limited artificial intelligence that randomly picks the blocks which fall into the play-field. Despite its simplicity, this AI provides the perfect challenge for the player.

All of the pieces in Tetris are composed of four squares, each of which shares at least one side with another square. This gives the game an inherent consistency and balance.

Chapter 9: Artificial Intelligence

If a player plays a game of Unreal Tournament and cannot tell whether the opponent is a bot or a human, the bots artificial intelligence has passed the Turing test.

The Sims success is completely dependent on the strength of its artificial intelligence.

In a classic arcade game like Robotron: 2084 , the challenge comes from the sheer number of opponents the player must fight.

Developing a challenging AI for a turn -based strategy game such as Alpha Centauri can be quite difficult since the player is supposed to be fighting opponents with roughly the same strengths and weaknesses as himself.

When fighting aliens in a game such as Marathon 2 , the player has lowered expectations of how smart these enemies will be.

The only AI Tetris needs is a random number generator. Pictured here: classic mode in The Next Tetris .

In Damage Incorporated , the AI the players teammates exhibit plays a crucial role in telling the games story.

In The Suffering , the AI for the companion NPCs changed their behavior based on the actions of the player character.

Getting the AI agents in Damage Incorporated to work properly required many changes to the levels.

In a game with teammates, such as Damage Incorporated , the failure of the AI agents to work as the player expects seriously impedes the players ability to play the game.

The Suffering used a lot of scripted AI actions to make the enemies and companions appear more intelligent than they actually were.

Chapter 10: Interview: Steve Meretzky

Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Girls

Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerers Appliance

Superhero League of Hoboken

Superhero League of Hoboken

Hodj n Podj

The Space Bar

The Space Bar

Chapter 11: Storytelling

The story is so central to Myst that it is hard to imagine the game without it.

Though Max Payne used in-game storytelling through its settings and mission design, much of the story line was effectively communicated through the out-of-game, non-interactive cutscenes and comic book interludes.

Cut-scenes in Karateka are all handled using the game engine, resulting in a seamless visual experience for the player.

The Last Express clever save game system allows the player to turn back game-time in order to rewatch cut-scenes or play parts of the game again.

Though The Suffering did use a lot of in-game storytelling techniques, it also included cut-scenes when necessary.

The Marathon games allow players to log onto computer terminals scattered throughout the levels, where they can read more about the games complex story. Pictured here: Marathon 2 .

Though The Suffering did use some cut-scenes, a lot of storytelling was done using in-game storytelling techniques.

Despite being perhaps the most famous computer game character in existence, Mario has a relatively undefined personality. Pictured here: Super Mario Sunshine .

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time featured a very well-written and strong designers story, making it more important than the players story.

Much of the story in The Suffering needs to be found by player exploration.

Damage Incorparated s story was created to fit around the gameplay and technology.

Titles like SimCity allow players to truly tell their own story, with barely any guidance from the designer.

Chapter 12: Game Analysis: Loom

Loom s game mechanics are focused on telling the games story.

Loom keeps its interface as simple as possible by having the player interact with the game-world by using only the mouse.

If the player plays Loom in the expert setting, the musical notes on the distaff disappear, making the game significantly harder.

Much of Loom s success rides on the strength of its fantastic and whimsical story.

Loom s gameplay centers on the player solving simple yet elegant puzzles. Once solved , the puzzles do not provide much replay value.

Chapter 13: Multi-Player

Many early multi-player games, such as Smash TV , confined two players to the same portion of the game-world.

Massively multi-player persistent online games such as Dark Age of Camelot create elaborate virtual worlds in which players can fully immerse themselves .

With its front-mounted weapons, Mario Kart is an excellent implementation of negative feedback keeping races close between competing players. Pictured here: Mario Kart: Double Dash .

Battlefield 1942 requires players to work together to be truly successful, creating a unique experience that cannot be replicated in a single-player game.

The original Ultima Online had many hostile users known as playerkillers who made the game especially challenging for newer players.

With a split-screen multi-player experience, as found in Mario Kart: Double Dash , you are almost guaranteed a very social experience for players.

At times, waging multiplayer war in Battlefield 1942 can be extremely immersive.

When developing Halo , Bungie concentrated on developing the multiplayer game first, before moving on to the singleplayer levels.

After The Sims Online had launched, the team at Maxis used player metrics to uncover player exploits.

Chapter 14: Interview: Chris Crawford

Balance of Power

Balance of Power II: The 1990 Edition

Trust & Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot

Balance of Power II: The 1990 Edition

Guns & Butter

Balance of the Planet

Balance of the Planet

The Corporate Meeting story-world in the Erasmatron

Trust & Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot

Chapter 15: Getting the Gameplay Working

Doom offered gameplay so different from any game that came before it that the games development was something of a bold experiment.

Keeping the development documentation light and using placeholder art kept Odyssey s development extremely organic.

Licensing technology can be a tremendous boon to game development, and is becoming increasingly common. Pictured here: the oft-licensed Unreal engine being used in Unreal Tournament 2004 .

The first network level made for Damage Incorporated , pictured here, was also the worst one in the game. It would have been better to scrap it and construct a new one.

Game developers do their best work when working on games they care about and enjoy. The excellent Grim Fandango appears to be a perfect example.

Chapter 16: Game Analysis: Myth: The Fallen Lords

All the way back to his second game, Pathways into Darkness , Jason Jones games have exploited technology to create new gameplay experiences.

Using its 3D terrain engine, Myth added new gameplay elements to the real-time strategy genre.

Myth s gameplay is entirely focused on tactical combat, leaving out the resource management found in many other RTS games.

Myth tells a compelling story through a combination of mission briefings, level design, and gameplay.

Myth s developers paid a lot of attention to detail, which helped to create a deep gameplay experience.

Chapter 17: Game Development Documentation

When writing a competitive analysis, you will need to include a discussion and potentially screenshots from the leaders in your titles genre. For an RTS title, youd almost certainly want to discuss WarCraft III .

Games that feature a lot of branching conversations, such as Deus Ex , often include a scripting language specifically for implementing the dialog.

Chapter 18: Interview: Jordan Mechner

Karateka

Karateka

Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia

The Last Express

The Last Express

The Last Express

The Last Express

The Last Express

The Last Express

Karateka

The Last Express

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia

Chapter 19: The Design Document

Though comparisons to existing games, such as the oft-cited Super Mario 64 , may be appropriate in the design document, the designer should be careful to fully explain what she means by the comparison.

Sequels are often able to use a Game Mechanics section in their design documents that is identical or extremely similar to the original game. Pictured here: Thief II .

RPGs such as Diablo II often start the game with the player creating her character. Of course this will need to be fully described in the design document.

Describing the variety of puzzle components found in a game such as Prince of Persia is appropriate in the Game Mechanics section.

The GUI is extremely important to games such as Alpha Centauri , and will need to be thoroughly described in the design document.

In games such as Doom II , the player mechanics and the behavior of the AI agents are discrete enough to be described in separate sections of the design document.

Describing the collaborative tactics the AI will use is very important in the design document for strategy games such as WarCraft II.

The design document for Diablo II might contain separate Game Elements sections for describing the players spells and skills.

Free-form strategy games such as the SimCity series will not require a Game Progression section, since what happens during the game is entirely determined by the players choices and the game mechanics. Pictured here: SimCity 2000 .

The design document for a first-person shooter, such as Halo , would be extremely different from one used for a strategy game.

Chapter 20: Game Analysis: The Sims

The Sims provides a framework upon which players can author their own stories.

Though the subject matter of The Sims may seem pedestrian, the game is so fascinating because it provides players with a safe world in which to experiment.

The Sims has an extremely intuitive interface that includes multiple ways for the player to accomplish the same action.

The sims have some intelligence of their own, which frees up the player from having to worry about every last detail of their lives.

Chapter 21: Designing Design Tools

The simple levels found in early games such as Defender did not require a sophisticated level editor to be created.

The view provided in the Zoner level editor for Odyssey was perfectly suited to editing a 2D world.

Bungies Forge level editor for the Marathon engine included a visual mode where the designer could actually maneuver through his level exactly as a player would in the game.

Surreal Softwares Riot Engine Level Editor allows the designer to tweak all sorts of settings for different game-world entities.

The StarCraft Campaign Editor allows for easy scripting using triggers and a simple point-and-click interface.

Blizzards WarCraft III World Editor automatically sets up transitions between different types of landscape textures, thereby saving designers a lot of work.

Chapter 22: Interview: Will Wright

SimCity

SimCity

SimCity

SimEarth

SimEarth

SimAnt

SimAnt

SimCity 2000

SimCopter

SimCity 3000

The Sims

The Sims

The Sims

The Sims

The Sims

The Sims Online

The Sims Online

The Sims Online

The Sims Online

SimCopter

The Sims

Chapter 23: Level Design

Joust made simple changes to its game-world to produce different levels.

In a game like The Suffering , the story and levels are so tightly interwoven that the levels cannot be reordered and still make any sense.

A level for the latest revision of the sophisticated Unreal engine requires significantly more work than one for a simpler 2D game. As a result, making changes to an Unreal level is significantly more time consuming. Pictured here: Unreal Tournament 2004 .

As far back as Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Miyamotos games have included exploration as a key gameplay component.

In a historical game such as Gettysburg! , the gameplay is very much tied to a particular story from history.

The flow of a level of a real-time strategy game like WarCraft is less defined than in an action/exploration game: combat encounters can take place all over the map.

In racing games such as the San Francisco Rush series, players are given sub-goals through checkpoints, which award more time. Pictured here: San Francisco Rush: The Rock Alcatraz Edition .

Before starting development on an action/exploration game such as those found in the Tomb Raider series, it is important to have a clearly defined set of moves for the player.

As game engines become more sophisticated, the amount of time required to build a level increases dramatically. For example, a professional level using the Quake III Arena engine will easily take weeks to complete.

Setting up the gameplay in a level from a game like Duke Nukem 3D consists of placing monsters and weapons, and configuring puzzles.

Chapter 25: Playtesting

Many first- impression testers were used to refine and perfect the interface in The Sims .

Balancing in The Suffering took place very late in development.

The Marathon games were tested for difficulty by forcing the development team to play through the game on the hardest difficulty setting using only the weakest weapon, the fist. Pictured here: Marathon 2 .

When released, Tetris was an extremely unique game. Chances are, an early focus group for the game would have gone terribly. Pictured here: classic mode in The Next Tetris .

Chapter 26: Interview: Doug Church

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds

Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds

System Shock

System Shock

System Shock

System Shock

System Shock

Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds

Thief

Thief

Thief

Thief

Thief

Deus Ex

Thief: Deadly Shadows