Level Up.pdf

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100 LEVEL 5 The Three Cs, Part 1—Character • Twirl, reload or “ shoulder ” weapon • Stretch and jog in place • Glance around or be startled at an imagined noise • Shiver with cold or wipe sweat from their brow • Knock dirt from the soles of their shoes • Adjust armor or pack • Crack neck or pop knuckles • Play air guitar or do a little dance • Check a map or guide or talk on a cell phone • Whistle and rock on heels as if waiting • Eat or drink something • Scratch self in embarrassing location • Check watch • Yawn or fall asleep. Might as Well Jump Of all of the basic moves in video gaming, the jump is the most mysterious, the most majestic, and the most misunderstood. In order for us to fully understand the jump, let us take a look at one with the help of my patented “ slo - mo ” graphic.
Might as Well Jump 101 1. The player is at rest: this is when the player is walking, running, and so on. 2. The player presses the action button. The jump has to happen immediately, as so many jumps are the player ’ s response to danger. In some cases, the jump may need a brief animation to sell the anticipation of the leap, but this animation should be kept as short as possible. 3. Make sure the jump rises to the maximum height quickly. A. Should the player be given the opportunity to do a double jump, allow them to do so before reaching the apex (top height) of the jump. Any time after the apex feels weird. 4. Falling is like jumping in reverse. Don ’ t make the fall last too long or it will feel “ fl oaty ” , which is a negative sensation to the player and screws with the player ’ s sense of metrics — unless the player has some sort of power- up or ability that allows them to glide or float down to safety. 5. The landing can take a little longer than the jump, but it needs to “ stick ” to make it feel good and solid. I am not a fan of jumps that end in skids or slides as it is easy for a player to make a jump and still slide off the edge of a platform. This is one instance where I have found that “ game physics ” works better than “ real world physics. ” Let ’ s take a second to talk about physics. Should you model your game physics on the real world or use “ game ” physics? Or should you abandon the laws of physics entirely? Good questions! And you better know the answer! Since Sir Isaac Newton did all of the hard work back in 1687, one would assume this would be easy, right? Real world physics are based on the laws of physics we live with every day. But a certain fidelity to real life is necessary to sell real world physics, and trying to create something that precisely emulates real world physics usually ends up inferior to something tweaked. For example, gravity in games is not 9.8 m/s 2 no matter what the real world says. In fact, some games even use different gravitational constants on different objects! This is where game physics come into play. The programmers “ tweak ” the real - world values to fit the gameplay needs. Running speeds, jumping heights and distances, and collision bounciness always feel better when adjusted. Most people in the real world can ’ t jump higher than their own waist, while the average platform game character can easily double their own height in a single bound.
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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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28 LEVEL 2 Ideas • Space Panic’
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30 LEVEL 2 Ideas them credit for. O
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32 LEVEL 2 Ideas 3. Something to wr
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34 LEVEL 2 Ideas Breaking Writer
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36 LEVEL 2 Ideas others are clear l
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38 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story 2. Our
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40 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story 6. An
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42 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story they s
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44 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story The Tr
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46 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story What d
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48 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story Howeve
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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 and 102: The Beat Chart The Beat Chart 77 Th
Page 103 and 104: Above All, Don’t Be a Schmuck 79
Page 105 and 106: Level 4’s Universal Truths and Cl
Page 107 and 108: T LeveI 5 The Three Cs, Part 1 —
Page 109 and 110: Personality: Do We Really Need Anot
Page 111 and 112: Personality: Do We Really Need Anot
Page 113 and 114: Let’s Get Personal 89 an internat
Page 115 and 116: Let’s Get Personal While video ga
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 123: The Art of Doing Nothing 99 When yo
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Page 129 and 130: What Goes Up, Must Fall Down 105 Jo
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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
Page 137 and 138: We Are Not Alone 113 While companio
Page 139 and 140: We Are Not Alone 115 Scout Engineer
Page 141 and 142: Who Are the People in Your Neighbor
Page 143: Level 5’s Universal Truths and Cl
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150 LEVEL 6 The Three Cs, Part 2—
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152 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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