Level Up.pdf

168 LEVEL 7 The Three Cs, Part 3—Controls
player ’ s timing and the game becomes too frustrating to play. Guitar
Hero even allows the player to adjust the lag to match the player ’ s skill
level.
• An issue with on - line games is latency: a communication delay in the
time it takes for game data to be received and decoded. Latency can
cause lag or in worse cases, control lock- up, sound distortion, game
freeze, or crashes. This is less of a design issue and more of a
programming issue, as tightly written code prevents unnecessary
transmission of data that can cause latency issues.
• Keep your player ’ s movements broad. Precise and subtle motions tend
not to register on the game cameras.
• When drawing shapes or glyphs, keep the shapes simple, like circles,
triangles, and lines. Even seemingly uncomplicated shapes like figures
of eight and squares can get misinterpreted by motion - detecting
controllers.
• Don ’ t overdo it. Already many motion - controlled games are getting
dinged for being “waggle - fests” , where the designers make every game
action use the motion control for the sake of it. Make your game controls
a mix of traditional analog stick, button press, and controller motions.
Congratulations! You ’ ve mastered the Three Cs! But how are you going to
communicate these newly minted design ideas to the player? Come with me
to the remarkable Level 8 …
Level 7 ’ s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas:
• Let ergonomics play a role in designing control schemes.
• Consider assigning control functions thematically.
• Consider emulating control schemes of other games in
the same genre. Familiarity relieves confusion.
• As the button is pressed, the action should happen.
• Use negative responses as well as positive ones.
• Give your player a break to avoid “ gamer ’ s thumb ” and
other health problems (take a break yourself while you
are at it).