Level Up.pdf

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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).
Level 7’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas 169 • Camera - relative controls or character - relative controls? Pick one and stick with it. • Avoid creating controls that are contrary to the game ’ s visuals. • Use the game controller ’ s special features to make your controls more intuitive to the player. • Beware of lag and latency issues. • Player ’ s movement with motion controllers should be broad and mimic reality.
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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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50 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story game.
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52 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story Death
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54 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story Comedi
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56 LEVEL 3 Writing the Story great
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58 LEVEL 4 You Can Design a Game, B
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The Game Design Document (and the A
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The Beat Chart The Beat Chart 77 Th
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Above All, Don’t Be a Schmuck 79
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Level 4’s Universal Truths and Cl
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T LeveI 5 The Three Cs, Part 1 —
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Personality: Do We Really Need Anot
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Personality: Do We Really Need Anot
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Let’s Get Personal 89 an internat
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Let’s Get Personal While video ga
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Finally, We Talk about Gameplay 93
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Why Walk When You Can Run? 95 The t
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Why Walk When You Can Run? 97 with
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The Art of Doing Nothing 99 When yo
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Might as Well Jump 101 1. The playe
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Might as Well Jump 103 The target t
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What Goes Up, Must Fall Down 105 Jo
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What Goes Up, Must Fall Down 107
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Be Kind to Our Four-Legged Friends
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We Are Not Alone 111 player, who is
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We Are Not Alone 113 While companio
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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
Page 146 and 147: 122 LEVEL 6 The Three Cs, Part 2—
Page 179 and 180: T Levei 7 The Three Cs, Part 3 —
Page 181 and 182: The Three Cs, Part 3—Controls 157
Page 183 and 184: Dance, Monkey, Dance 159 • While
Page 185 and 186: Dance, Monkey, Dance 161 • Clasp
Page 187 and 188: Dance, Monkey, Dance 163 Maximo ’
Page 189 and 190: Character or Camera Relative? 165 W
Page 191: Shake, Rattle and Roll 167 characte
Page 196 and 197: 172 LEVEL 8 Sign Language—HUD and
Page 205 and 206: Icon Has Cheezburger? 181 The first
Page 207 and 208: Don’t Get QTE 183 • Red cross:
Page 209 and 210: HUDs, and Where to Stick ‘Em 185
Page 211 and 212: There Are Other Screens Than the HU
Page 213 and 214: The Pause that Refreshes 189 • Th
Page 215 and 216: The Pause that Refreshes 191 screen
Page 217 and 218: The Pause that Refreshes 193 • Fi
Page 219 and 220: A Final Word on Fonts 195 out of th
Page 221 and 222: T LeveI 9 Everything I Learned Abou
Page 223 and 224: Everything I Learned about Level De
Page 225 and 226: The Top 10 Cliché Video Game Theme
Page 231 and 232: The Name Game 207 While designing M
Page 239 and 240: Relic Raider beat chart The Beat Ch
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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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