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78 LEVEL 4 You Can Design a Game, But Can You Do the Paperwork? Color map: Green (trees), brown Color map: Red (lava), brown (trees/rock), purples (tombstones) (trees/rock), purples (tombstones) Enemies: Skeleton (basic), sword Enemies: Skeleton (basic), skeleton (red), skeleton (axe), skeleton (axe), sword skeleton ghost, zombie (basic), wooden (red), sword skeleton (blue), coffin, chest mimic skeleton (guardian), zombie (basic), raven, ghost Mechanics: Holy ground, Mechanics: Holy ground, breakable tombstone, breakable breakable tombstone, breakable torch, breakable crypt lid, breakable torch, breakable crypt lid, key rocks, Achille key statue, key lock, statue, key lock, opening gate opening gate (door), opening gate (door), enemy coffin, floating (cave), prize wheel, treasure chest, platform, prize wheel, treasure locked chest, hidden chest, end chest, locked chest, hidden chest, plinth end plinth Hazards: Unholy ground, Achille Hazards: Unholy ground, statue, fall - away ground, skull swinging gate, skull tower, flame tower, breakaway bridge, deep jet, lava pit water, lava pit Power- ups: Koin, koin bag, Power- ups: Koin, koin bag, diamond, death koin, spirit, life up, diamond, death koin, spirit, life up, flametongue, shield recharge, flametongue, shield recharge, sword recharge, half health, full sword recharge, half health, full health, iron key, gold key, armor up health, gold key, armor up Abilities: Second strike, mighty Abilities: Second strike, mighty blow, magic bolt, doomstrike, foot blow, magic bolt, doomstrike, cheese throw shield Economy: 200 koins, 2 death koins Economy: 200 koins, 1 death koin Bonus materials: N/A Bonus materials: N/A Music track: Graveyard 1 Music track: Graveyard 2 When you compare two or more columns of a beat chart together, certain patterns start to emerge regarding the introduction of new enemies, mechanics, items, and abilities. You can then identify deficiencies in the design and start to move elements around. Filling in holes here, shifting bloated areas there. Here are a few things to look out for: • “ Clumping ” : too many new enemies or mechanics being introduced at once. Spread these out over the course of the game. Remember, the first level of the game is always going to have several elements, so it technically doesn ’ t count.
Above All, Don’t Be a Schmuck 79 • “ Samey- ness ” : too many identical combinations of enemies and mechanics. You want to mix things up to keep interaction fresh. • Alternate your time of day and color schemes. If you have too many of the same lighting or color schemes in a row, things are going to feel and look repetitive. • Alternate your music tracks. The player is going to get bored listening to the same music over and over again. • Problems in game economy: make sure players have enough money to buy items to use in the world. Make sure the player doesn ’ t have so much money that it becomes worthless. • Mechanics and enemies should be introduced in conjunction with the items and abilities required to defeat them. • When will the player have “ everything ” in the game? All weapons, all skills, all vehicles, all armor upgrades, etc.? Make sure the player has time to play with them. I try to make sure the player has everything by 75% through the game so the last quarter lets the player use all of their cool stuff. • As a rule of thumb, I try to introduce two or three new mechanics, enemies, and rewards per level. There is some debate as to which is better: a shorter, “ bite - size ” play experience or a longer, more involved one. With the rise of casual gaming, it seems that most players prefer shorter gameplay sessions (averaging around 15 minutes a session). However, this trend may change in a few years if gamers ’ tastes swing back to the hardcore market. What I believe matters the most is that you give your players their money ’ s worth. I usually advise teams to aim for a minimum of 8 to 10 hours of gameplay time for action-based games. This doesn ’ t include replay time or time spent watching cutscenes or reading dialogue. Remember, it never hurts to have more content. If the worst comes to the worst, you can always cut content if you run into production delays. We talk about some tricks to help determine playing time in <strong>Level</strong> 9 . Above All, Don ’ t Be a Schmuck Creating all of these design documents is important but your designs mean nothing if you aren ’ t a responsible game designer. Some of the following advice may seem like common sense, but I ’ ve also learned that common sense isn ’ t always that common:
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Copyright Information Please note t
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This edition first published 2010
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Publisher’s Acknowledgments Some
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viii Contents Level 2 Ideas 23 Idea
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x Contents Level 8 Sign Language—
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xii Contents Level 15 Some Notes on
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About the Author After discovering
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xvi Press Start! You obviously don
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xviii Press Start! video games shou
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xx Press Start! to me. Why would yo
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T LeveI 1 Welcome, N00bs! This chap
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So, let ’ s ask this basic questi
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A Brief History of Video Games Earl
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A Brief History of Video Games A co
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Game Genres Game Genres Over the ye
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Game Genres 11 Puzzle: puzzle games
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Who Makes this Stuff? One programme
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Who Makes this Stuff? many, many sk
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Who Makes this Stuff? 17 problems (
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Writer Have You Thought about Publi
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Have You Thought about Publishing?
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T LeveI 2 Ideas Let ’ s talk abou
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Ideas: Where to Get Them and Where
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Page 62 and 63: 38 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story 2. Our
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Page 82 and 83: 58 LEVEL 4 You Can Design a Game, B
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Page 99 and 100: The Game Design Document (and the A
Page 101: The Beat Chart The Beat Chart 77 Th
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Page 109 and 110: Personality: Do We Really Need Anot
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Page 113 and 114: Let’s Get Personal 89 an internat
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Page 117 and 118: Finally, We Talk about Gameplay 93
Page 119 and 120: Why Walk When You Can Run? 95 The t
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Page 133 and 134: Be Kind to Our Four-Legged Friends
Page 135 and 136: We Are Not Alone 111 player, who is
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Page 139 and 140: We Are Not Alone 115 Scout Engineer
Page 141 and 142: Who Are the People in Your Neighbor
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128 LEVEL 6 The Three Cs, Part 2—
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T Levei 7 The Three Cs, Part 3 —
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The Three Cs, Part 3—Controls 157
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Dance, Monkey, Dance 159 • While
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Dance, Monkey, Dance 161 • Clasp
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Dance, Monkey, Dance 163 Maximo ’
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Character or Camera Relative? 165 W
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Shake, Rattle and Roll 167 characte
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Level 7’s Universal Truths and Cl
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172 LEVEL 8 Sign Language—HUD and
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Icon Has Cheezburger? 181 The first
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Don’t Get QTE 183 • Red cross:
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HUDs, and Where to Stick ‘Em 185
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There Are Other Screens Than the HU
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The Pause that Refreshes 189 • Th
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The Pause that Refreshes 191 screen
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The Pause that Refreshes 193 • Fi
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A Final Word on Fonts 195 out of th
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T LeveI 9 Everything I Learned Abou
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Everything I Learned about Level De
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The Top 10 Cliché Video Game Theme
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The Name Game 207 While designing M
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Relic Raider beat chart The Beat Ch
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The Gary Gygax Memorial Mapping Sec
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220 LEVEL 9 Everything I Learned ab
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T Levei 10 The Elements of Combat E
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400 Quatloos on the Newcomer! 245
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400 Quatloos on the Newcomer! 247 C
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400 Quatloos on the Newcomer! 249 L
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400 Quatloos on the Newcomer! 251 Y
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400 Quatloos on the Newcomer! 253 W
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On Moving On Moving 255 If you take
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On Moving 257 Many games allow the
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On Guarding 259 to decide whether a
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State of the Art Bang Bang 261 does
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State of the Art Bang Bang 263 •
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The Best Gun for You 265 Here are a
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The Best Gun for You 267 • Automa
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Run and Gun 269 to a main gun and a
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Not Just Shooting 271 Rail shooter
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Not Just Shooting 273 Wherever ther
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Dammit Jones, Where Doesn’t It Hu
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Death: What is It Good For? 277 the
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Level 10’s Universal Truths and C
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T LeveI 11 They All Want You Dead V
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They All Want You Dead 283 All of t
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A shooter is an enemy that fires a
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They All Want You Dead 287 A telepo
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• A guard and a bomber. While the
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They All Want You Dead 291 Medium s
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They All Want You Dead 293 Let ’
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Bring on the Bad Guys 295 You are w
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Bring on the Bad Guys 297 like a ma
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Bring on the Bad Guys 299 They ’
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Bring on the Bad Guys 301 ricochet.
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Bring on the Bad Guys 303 Leech: th
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I Love Designing Enemies 305 A is f
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I Love Designing Enemies 307 I hate
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I Love Designing Enemies 309 M is f
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I Love Designing Enemies 311 Spaces
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I Love Designing Enemies 313 Behold
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I Hate You to Pieces 315 gets a goo
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Non-Enemy Enemies 317 comes dialogu
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Who’s the Boss? 319 At first glan
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Size Matters 321 father in order to
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Size Matters 323 safe for them to a
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Size Matters 325 When the player gi
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Why Not to Create the World’s Gre
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The Nuts and Bolts of Mechanics 333
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Holy Death Trap! 335 Cranks are lik
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Holy Death Trap! 337 I was designin
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Time to Die Time to Die 339 we are
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The Music of Mechanics 341 Gaming w
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The Music of Mechanics 343 characte
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A Nice Little Calm Spot 345 The whi
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Riddle Me This 347 While Mr. Kim ha
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Riddle Me This 349 another player s
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A Short Word on Minigames and Micro
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T LeveI 13 Now You ’ re Playing w
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Now You’re Playing with Power 357
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Now You’re Playing with Power 359
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“Love Thy Player” 361 Most powe
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“Love Thy Player” 363 the playe
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More Wealth Than You Can Imagine! 3
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382 LEVEL 14 Multiplayer—the More
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T LeveI 15 1 Some Notes on Music Wh
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Some Notes on Music 395 the rights
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Some Notes on Music 397 game? A tra
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Some Notes on Music 399 • Warning
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Sounds Like a Game to Me 401 • We
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Sounds Like a Game to Me 403 Be car
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408 LEVEL 16 Cutscenes, or No One
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418 LEVEL 17 And Now the Hard Part
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430 Continue?
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432 Bonus Level 1 The One-Sheet Sam
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436 Bonus Level 2 The Ten-Page Desi
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446 Bonus Level 3 Game Design Docum
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• Abandoned city • Air/clouds
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• Ship/boat deck/interior • Sky
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T Bonus Levei 7 Enemy Design Templa
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T Bonus Levei 8 Boss Design Templat
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Slide 1: Cover Page T Bonus Levei 9
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Slide 4: Game Story Slide 4: Game S
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Slide 6: Gameplay Summary Slide 6:
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Slide 7: Gameplay details Slide 7:
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Slide 9: Production Specs Slide 9:
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482 Achievement Unlocked: Exactly L
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484 Index boss battles, 319-329 bos
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486 Index Fat Princess, 422 F.E.A.R
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488 Index Little Red Riding Hood, 4
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490 Index resistances/vulnerabiliti
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492 Index walking, 25, 34, 94-97, 2
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