The Types of Game Machines

Most game concepts should be fairly independent of the target platform. If you start thinking too early about the machine and its capabilities, you run the risk of designing a "technology-driven game," a notion that is discussed a little later in the chapter. Still, some genres of game are better suited to one kind of machine than another. It's valuable to know the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of machines and, even more important, how they are used by their owners .

Home Game Consoles

A home game console is usually set up in the living room or a child's bedroom. The player sits on a couch holding a dedicated controller in both hands, 3 to 6 feet away from a relatively low-resolution display, the television. This means that games designed for the home console machine cannot be as intricate as the typical PC game. The graphics have to be simpler and bolder, and the control method and user interface must be manageable with the provided controller. The kind of precision pointing that's possible with a mouse is much more difficult with most controllers, even those with analog joysticks. However, you are guaranteed that every machine will ship with a standardized controller; you don't have to cope with the huge variety of controllers and joysticks that are available for the PC.

Because the television is designed to be seen by several people at once, and because the console usually allows for at least two controllers, console machines are excellent for multiplayer games in which all the players look at the same screen. This means that every player can see what every other player is doing on the screen, which is a consideration in the design of some games. On the other hand, until recently, home consoles had no hard disk drives , so there was little space in which to store data between games. Games designed for consoles weren't very customizable and couldn't save complex states.

Home consoles tend to have very powerful graphics-display chips but slower central processing units and less RAM than personal computers. Because they sell for $200 “$300, the manufacturer has to cut the hardware design to the bone to keep the cost down. This means that as computing devices, they are less powerful than personal computers and more difficult to program. On the other hand, their low price means that there are far more of them around, and a larger market for their games.

Personal Computers

A personal computer is usually set up away from the communal living space, on a computer desk. In this case, the player has a keyboard, a mouse, possibly a joystick, and (more rarely) a dedicated game controller like those on console machines. The player sits 12 to 18 inches away from a relatively small (compared to the television) high-resolution display. The high resolution means that the game can have subtle, detailed graphics. The mouse allows precision pointing and a more complex user interface. The keyboard enables the player to enter text conveniently and send messages to other players over a network, something that is nearly impossible with console machines.

The personal computer is quite awkward for more than one person to use. The controls of a PC are all designed for one individual, and even the furniture it usually sits on ”a desk ”is intended for a solitary use. PC games are rarely designed for more than one person to play on a single machine. On the other hand, a PC is very likely to be connected to the Internet, while consoles are just now beginning to get this capability. The PC is still the machine of choice for multiplayer networked games, but this could change soon.

The great boon of PC development is that anyone can program one; you don't have to get a license from the manufacturer or buy an expensive development station. Consequently, PCs are at the cutting edge of innovation in computer gaming. They're the platform of choice for small-scale , low-demand projects; interactive art; and other experimental forms of interactive entertainment.

The great bane of PC development is that no two machines are alike; because they're customizable, there are millions of possible configurations. In the early days of the game industry, this was a real nightmare for programmers. Fortunately, the Windows and Macintosh operating systems have solved many of these problems by isolating the programs from the hardware. Still, games tend to "push" the machine a lot harder than other applications, and configuration conflicts still occur.

Handheld Game Machines

Handheld game machines are a hugely popular and very inexpensive form of entertainment, mainly used by children. A given model is absolutely standard; there's no room for customization at all. These machines normally have a very limited number of controls and a very small LCD screen. They have little or no capacity to store data between games. Their CPUs are weak and slow by modern standards.

Many cheap handheld machines offer a fixed set of games that are built in, but the more versatile ones, such as the Game Boy Advance, accept games stored on ROM cartridges. Cartridges store far, far less data than the CD-ROMs or DVD discs that home consoles and computers use. Designing for a cartridge machine places severe limits on the amount of video, audio, graphics, and animation that you can include in the game. Because they're solid-state electronics, though, the data on a cartridge is available instantly. There's no delay for it to load the way there is with optical media devices.

The handheld game market is very lucrative, but creating a game for one will severely test your skills as a designer. With no room for fancy graphics or movies, you must rely on pure gameplay alone to provide the entertainment.

Other Devices

Games are showing up on all sorts of other devices these days. The more specialized the device is, the more important it is to have a clear understanding of its technical limitations and its audience. Text-based messaging on cellular telephones might breathe new life into a niche genre , the text MUD (multiuser dungeon or domain). Airlines are starting to build video games into their seats. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are a great new platform for small, simple games. Video gambling machines are an entire industry unto themselves , one in which the random-number algorithms you use are closely monitored by state regulators. And, of course, there are arcade machines. Arcade games are subject to strange design limitations not seen on other devices. They have to maximize what the operators call "coin drop" ”the amount of money that people put in through the front. Arcade operators care little for richness, depth, and the aesthetic qualities of a game as long as it makes a lot of money for them. This requires some fine balancing. If a game is too hard, people will abandon it in disgust, but if it is too easy, they will be able to play for a long time without putting any more money in.

Because these devices occupy niche markets with peculiar restrictions, we won't be addressing them in detail. This is a book about game design in general, so we concentrate on games for all-purpose game machines: home consoles and personal computers.