Level Up.pdf

The Art of Doing Nothing
99
When you make your character move stealthily, make it a significant
difference in speed. It ’ s the same principle as walking vs running. A creep
is useful if the player is ducking or is behind cover, is getting into position to
snipe, or for humor such as when the character is trying not to wake a sleeping
dragon. The creep move should be a mode that the player can activate at
any time, but a creep works best when it is given some context.
But creeping aside, I think that the instinct to make stealth gameplay
automatically equal a slow - moving character is incorrect. Have you ever
seen a SWAT team member or ninja move around? They don ’ t really creep
as much as move in short bursts. Stealth comes into play when they have to
wait or hide as something happens or some clueless guard with a very
slitable neck passes by. This is where the tension that defines good stealth
gameplay comes from. The gameplay of waiting. We’ ll talk more about
stealth combat gameplay later.
The Art of Doing Nothing
Even slower than stealth gameplay is no gameplay. However, just because
the character is standing still doesn ’ t mean he has to do nothing. An idle
is an animation that plays while a character isn ’ t moving, triggered after
a few seconds of the player being idle. Did you see that? How the word
describing the player ’ s in - action is also the name of the move? Pretty clever,
those early video game designers.
While idles were probably in other games before, the first idle that made an
impression on me was in Sonic the Hedgehog. When the player stopped
running, Sonic would look out at the player with an annoyed look on his face
and tap his foot impatiently. That guy wanted to run! Pretty soon humorous
idles were a staple of platform games through the 1990s. But they aren ’ t
just for laughs; an idle can convey personality and even a little narrative to
the player. At the very least it provides some movement on the screen even
when nothing else is going on. Keep in mind, other than adding character or
humor, idles (usually) have no gameplay benefit whatsoever. You don ’ t gain
ammo, experience or money by being idle7 . That ’ s ok, some things should
just be for fun.
Remember, when creating idles you don ’ t want to create long and involved
animations, as the player can press a button at any time and interrupt the
idle. In fact, any idle that creates a poor transition into the player ’ s moves
will cause a problem, no matter what the length. Keep them short and
snappy. Don ’ t have any ideas for idles? Here are a few to start with:
7 Some more recent games do allow you to gain back health for being idle, but that ’ s just a
by - product of not being shot at and has nothing to do with the idle itself.