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Computer games are a relatively new innovation in the overall scheme of things. They have been around in different forms since the beginning of computers and in a lot of ways were essential in the route that computers have taken in becoming a part of our every day lives. A good deal has been written on the design of computer games, but I'm a firm believer that there can never be too much written about a complex subject and computer games design is a very complex subject.
Before I get started in my exploration of the design of computer games I'd like to suggest that if you haven't already read the articles/book by Chris Crawford's The Art of Computer Game Design which can be found at:
The Art of Computer Game Design
I also suggest you read Greg Costikyan's I Have No Words and I Must Design, which can be found at:
I Have No Words and I Must Design
Both of these documents should be taken as required reading for anyone wishing to design computer games. While this article does not immediately build on the above articles in my opinion the best way to learn a subject is to start out with the definitions first.
However you will not miss anything if you read this article first.
I break down computer games in to 5 elements. Those are graphics, sound, interface, gameplay and story. I'll briefly go over a definition of each one and then go into each one more deeply. While these may seem self-explanatory I'm going to define them anyway just so that we are all on the same page.
Graphics
Graphics consist of any images that are displayed and any effects that are performed on them. This includes 3D objects, textures, 2D tiles, 2D full-screen shots, Full Motion Video (FMV), statistics informational overlays and anything else that the player will see.
Sound
Sound consists of any music or sound effects that are played during the game. This includes starting music, CD music, MIDI, MOD tracks, Foley effects (environmental sound), and sound effects.
Interface
The interface is anything that the player has to use or have direct contact with in order to play the game. The interface is not as straightforward as the above definitions as it goes beyond simply the mouse/keyboard/joystick, which is only the first contact the game has with the player. The interface includes graphics that the player must click on, menu systems that the player must navigate through and game control systems such how to steer or control the pieces in the game. Half of a game's "AI" (Artificial Intelligence) is also related to interface.
Gameplay
Gameplay is a fuzzy term. It encompasses how fun the game is, how immersive it is and the length of playability. The second half of the game's AI is related to gameplay.
Story
The game's story include any background before the game starts, all information the player gains during the game or when they win and any information they learn about characters in the game.
A brief message about AI
AI in games is not the usually same as scientific AI that you may have heard about. Although quite recently some game developers have been using real AI forms such as Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms in games they are predominately not used in games yet as they normally require more time and processing power then can be currently allotted to them. What game's AI is instead is just the behaviors of objects in the game to simulate their intelligence.
A brief message about Immersiveness
The way I define immersiveness is the ability of a game to capture the player's attention and make him feel like he is actually in the game. Books and movies have immersive qualities as they can make their audience feel involved in the story by immersing them in the story's world and making them empathize with the characters. In designing games you must try to use the known methods of immersion that books and movies use as well as qualities that are unique to computer games.
Graphics are the first thing that will strike a player (or potential player) when they see your game. The style and design of your graphics should immediately tell the viewer as much as you can about your game. Graphics are the first level of immersion your player will experience as he can imagine himself in the world you have drawn for him.
Newer, better, faster, bigger
Graphics are the fastest evolving point of any game today. Every year the standards are raised significantly for the cutting edge of graphics. It is not only the graphically intensive games that have to keep up though. As the level of the best game gets closer to reality the lowest acceptable graphics are also raised.
In designing your game you need to plan on where you want to be on this scale. If your priority is in having the best 3D graphics of any game unless you have programmers specifically put aside for writing non-graphical material you will have a hard time keeping up with the latest 3D trends and writing a decent game at the same time. If you do have the resources to create both a cutting edge 3D engine and a good game you will still have a trade off. Most likely the 3D engine will take up so much of your processor time that you will be very limited in what kind of game you will have behind your graphics.
2D games have an immediate advantage in this regard as drawing 2D screens are almost always significantly less then 3D. If you want your game to be centered on gameplay and your game's internals rather than a fancy 3D interface this is still a viable option.
As of August 1998, 2D games have held the top positions in sales in the PC market as well so they are long from being a dead medium.
Styles of Display
Every game will have its own distinct display mode but there are generally categories or styles of different displays. Games such as Command & Conquer and Starcraft have an overhead terrain display while Doom and Quake have a first person perspective and Civilization have an overview map display. For every genre of game there are at least one typical style of displaying the information. As a game designer you have to decide how you will display the information to your player.
Every game wants to be different, but at the same time if you are too different then the learning curve to learn how to control your game may be too high and you may lose potential players. Like almost everything in life this is a tradeoff and will simply take testing to figure out what works best for your game.
The Balance of Graphics
Graphics control how your player is going to perceive your world. If you choose the wrong type of graphics for your game you are going to frustrate the player and destroy the immersiveness of your game.
An example of how you can have a graphics balance problem is the driving game Sega Rally for the Sega Saturn. Sega Rally has very good graphics, the cars look clear and crisp and the track looks fairly life like. However, the control for the cars are cartoonish at best. Every turn you make you power slide, you are constantly sliding. This bears no resemblance to what it is actually like to drive a car at all. Granted simulating car controls on a game pad is difficult but much closer designs have been implemented before. The real problem here is not the graphics, or the controls. If they matched each other this would not be a problem, the problem comes in when the graphics are realistic and the controls are unrealistic. Had the graphics been cartoonish the game would have fit together and there would still be an immersiveness to the game.
These types of balances are needed in all aspects of games. This goes to say that the graphics and sound as well. The more your whole game fits together correctly the more likely the player will become immersed in your creation.
Sound is just as crucial as any other point in your game. Often this is ignored, usually because of the fact that you can create a game without sound, whereas you cannot really create a game without art or a program. Unfortunately this has left a lot of games with shoddy sound and the game overall has suffered for it. Designers are no longer stuck with the beeps of the 70s and 80s, they now have the capabilities are CD quality music and sound effects and can finally use them.
Sound is more immersive than graphics
ThatÆs right. Sound is more immersive than graphics. While graphics will draw you in to a scene, the sound going on in the background will create a reality in the player's mind that can never be done with graphics alone. An example that sound engineers often use to help draw attention to how sound is important is to take an example such as the movie Jaws.
In Jaws you have a shark that swims around indiscriminately feeding on low budget actors. If you were to watch Jaws without any music you would have a series of long shots of an ocean with a boat on it. Suddenly a shark would pop out and eat someone. Aah, aah, scary.
With the music in Jaws you can feel the tension rising, the music grips you and forces you to watch the water. The music's tempo increases and you move to the edge of your seat in anticipation of the shark's charge. Right before the big attack the music drops low and the BLAMMO, the shark lunges out and there are shark teeth, license plates and blood everywhere as the entire audience lets out one loud communal scream of terror.
Why?
When a player is playing your game they are looking at the graphics. They are paying attention to what's going on in the screen. They are consciously aware of the graphics good and bad points. They are not paying attention to the explosions to see if they can hear static in them because they are in the background. They donÆt try to figure out when an Alien jumps out of someone's stomach if the sound effect man used a jar of Vaseline and scooped it out quickly to make that disgusting sound that can send shivers down their spine. All of this is going on without them paying any attention to it.
In technical terms the sound is going straight to their "subconscious mind" while the visual parts of the game are being picked at by the "conscious mind". To explain this detail simply, what they are not paying attention to is affecting them more because they're not paying attention to it.
While all 5 aspects to video games are important, this one you, as a designer, need to pay special attention to. This is the connection between the player and the game. The graphics may impress them, the sound may wow them, but if there isn't a properly designed interface they may as well be watching a movie.
Where do I start?
Start with physical controls. What is the player going to have to touch to get information to the game? How easy is it going to be for the user to play with these controls?
While using a mouse and keyboard together to play Quake is a good system for advanced Quake-aholics, it will kill your game if a player with less coordination steps up to try. Most people in the world can't use their hands in this kind of fashion. Most people in the world can't maneuver properly through Quake/Doom/Descent or any other 3D game. They bump into walls, get stuck, get frustrated and quit.
What's the solution to this? You have to know your target audience, who you think and want to play your game. Once you know this you have a starting place. If you want a game that even beginners can play, and thus your game will have a wider appeal, then you have to create an interface that is initially simple.
I'm not saying you can't have more complex options, but if you want people to play your game who are not already gamers then you have to make it possible for them to get into it.
Simplicity is the key
The key to any interface is in its simplicity. You want buttons that are next to each other to have similar functions. Without this level of organization in your interface your game can become difficult to play and that is the ultimate breach in immersiveness.
I'll use Doom's interface as an example for a good interface. Doom uses the arrow keys to move the player around the world. This is intuitive; the arrow keys have arrows and only arrows on them. Using the numeric keypad is not intuitive to beginning players. First off there are numbers there and the arrows are not all bunched together. What's worse is that a lot of games have used the number pad in an even more unintuitive manner by bunching up keys such as the 1,2,3,5 keys. Where 1 is left, 3 is right, 5 is forward and 2 is back. While this is the same combination as the arrow keys a lot of beginners will have problems with this.
To keep an interface simple you have to think about someone who has never used a computer before and you are trying to explain what to do. You want to group things in ways that make sense and keep the controls down to an absolute minimum.
Doom's firing interface was also simple. You press the CTRL key and you fire. The reason this is an optimal key to use is because it is in the place that the player's left hand can easily reach while his right in on the arrow keys.
The point of this example is to allow you see the reasoning behind creating a simple interface not just to suggest using this one. It is often a good idea to use interfaces that have already been tested and approved by other games and then modify them so that your game works similarly. This will keep the learning needed and confusion down for your players.
Configurability
It's good to have a lot of options in your game that players can configure. This way they can tune your game in ways that suit them better than the shipped configuration. However, configuring is for advanced players, not beginners. Do not expect or ask your beginning players to configure anything you can avoid. They may not understand the implications of what you're asking them and all they want to do is play the game.
Do not expect your players to pick up your manual before they start your game. Design everything so that the first time user can figure things out without ever touching your manual. When designing your standard interface find the options that are the easiest to use for the greatest amount of players, this may not always be the same as the easiest for advanced players.
Interface AI
Where the interface and game AI combine is how your game handles and interprets player input.
When the player in Command & Conquer selects a unit and then tells it to go a destination he is expecting it to go the same way he would go to that destination from the unit's position. This is an important key to remember. Most of game AI is about the player's expectations. You are trying to simulate things that happen in real life in your game. The moment that you start deviating from the player's expected reactions you are breaking the immersiveness.
Losing immersiveness with the interface is actually worse then losing immersiveness with any of the other elements of a game. When a player is playing a game they are connecting with it. They are using the game's controls as an extended portion of their body, in much the same way as a baseball player uses the bat or glove as an extension of his body during a baseball game. When your game's interface is not allowing the player to do what he wants or expects to do then you are creating a barrier between the game and the player.
This results in the player fighting the interface to play the game, and nothing could make the player angrier at your game or walk away faster then an interface that isn't letting him play. If you have ever been in an arcade when a joystick or button wasn't functioning properly I'm sure you've seen someone who was really into their game flip out and kick the hell out of the machine because they lost the game over an interface glitch.
Games can create special bonds between their players that other mediums can not. There is a connection to games, or even characters inside of a game, that binds a player to it. This has been witnessed time and again in games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, players flocked to their games and whole pecking orders were developed solely on playing skill. This is a special property of games and you need to be aware of it and try to use it in your game.
The elusive gameplay... Gameplay is like a bridge between fun and the player. It is not only for games where the player plays against the computer, but is also for multi-player games where two or more people play against each other. The game is going to provide a type of interaction with something, whether it is a set of rules like Solitaire, or a difficult and overcoming odds situation like Quake single player, or the strategy of another player such as Chess.
How do you create good gameplay?
Unfortunately gameplay is not quantifiable like an interface. There is no comparison to the interface being grouped simply and everything being easy to reach and intuitive. I can however offer some insight in to concepts that games have used to create challenging and fun gameplay.
Balance
Once again we find ourselves faced with balancing the game. If the game is unbalanced then is it most likely going to be less fun for the side that feels the weight of that unbalance.
Does this mean that everything has to have an equal? No, it means that overall the game will be balanced in a large scale. For instance in the game of Risk different countries get different allotments of units every turn based on their territory. If a player has captured the USSR they will receive as much as twice the units of another country. However there is also a downside, since Russia is so large it can be attacked on many fronts. Distributing troops evenly across all the borders spreads the owner very thin thus leaving him vulnerable to attack. As you can see, this is a balance that not all of the parts are equally balanced but the sum of them is.
Tradeoffs
Tradeoffs are really a subclass of balance. Allowing the user to do give something up in order for a greater gain is a thrilling aspect of gaming. It shows the user their mastery of the game by being able to trick their opponent to take a small victory for a large price. An example of an action game that properly used tradeoffs is Street Fighter 2. At points in this game you could allow your opponent to hit you and as soon as his move ended you could throw him for a much greater damage then was done to you. Use of these techniques often responded with a lot of emotional activity from the onlookers and players of the game, as it can truly be gripping to play in such tight and competitive circumstances.
Easy to start but hard to master
The games that I have seen succeed over and over again are the games that anyone could walk up off the street and play, but to really play well takes a great deal of work. The interface allows the player to grow into the game.
A perfect example of this is Street Fighter 2 (SF2). SF2 allows anyone to play for the first time and theoretically they can beat an extremely good player, just by hitting buttons and intuitively moving around. The controls for SF2 are impeccable, they are fluid and allow you to move from one move to another in a very graceful manner once you and your hand learn the timing of it. SF2 is one of the rare games that scales to all levels of players.
An example of a good game with a poor interface is Mortal Kombat (MK). While hard core fans may disagree MK's interface is not fluid, instead it feels very contrived. You need to move the controls in non-intuitive motions and long combinations to pull of more than the simplest of moves. Also, an experienced MK player will destroy any new player without ever breaking a sweat, often without ever even being touched. MK is not a bad game, but its interface is not simple and thus not ideal for design idealism.
Variety
Player's do not like to do the same thing over and over again. Games that players appear to be doing the same thing over and over again may actually be deceiving. Something is going on that allows them renewed enjoyment with each game or they would stop playing.
To use Quake death matches as an example, these players run around killing each other over and over again for hours, sometimes with only a few seconds of gameplay between deaths. To the casual onlooker this may seem like a tedious time wasting event at best, but to the players there is an interaction taking place for supremacy and companionship at the same time.
The players are fighting to see who is the best and at the same time they enjoy the rival company of other people who have similar interests with them.
AI in Gameplay
The difference between game AI in the interface and game AI in gameplay is that the interface AI controls what the player is trying to do and gameplay AI controls how computer plays against the player.
Gameplay AI will control enemy units and try to figure out what the player is doing and how to beat him. Oddly enough, one of the first arcade games invented also had a fairly interesting game AI, PacMan.
PacMan had 4 enemies, all of which had their own priorities. One of the ghosts would follow you where ever you went. One of the ghosts would try to intercept you by cutting you off at a future juncture or heading through the tunnel with you. Another one of the ghosts would try head to the nearest power pellet so you couldn't get it and the last ghost (Blinky) would just wander around aimlessly.
If you think about it, these are pretty good tactics for game designed in the late 70s and honestly these are pretty good tactics period. There are games that have been made within the last year whose enemies didn't operate with half as much "intelligence".
You need to start your game AI think as if you were making the decisions yourself. If you were in the situation what would you do? If you were the character in the situation and that would cause you to react differently then you as yourself would act, what would you do?
If you ask yourself these questions in every circumstance you come up against you will most likely end up with some pretty intelligent looking AI, simply because it's making choices the player might have made in the same situation.
Real AI in games
The subject of real AI has come up a lot recently with regards to being placed in computer games. There are several different types of AI's but Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms (or evolution) are normally the two I hear about most. Both of these either seem to require more resources than current machines can offer or take too long to learn and adapt to the players actions and so have rarely been seen in any games.
It is my assertion that for quite some time still making your own AI routines based on your own intelligent decisions will give you better output then having an AI routine eventually do it for you.
Story's have been used extensively in some games, and almost negligibly in others, what's the correct way to do it?
Once again this depends on your game. Given the game Doom a story would have really taken away from the point. It was the first mass market first person shooter and it clung on to something raw in all of its players to just run around shooting things. It was more of an emotion then a game in a lot of ways.
However is still had a story, albeit a very small one.
Not all games can follow Doom in this respect though, while some games are ok or even better without a story, others leave the player feeling like they are in a vacuum. Once again a balance needs to be struck between what type of game you have and how you will present something.
Computer games are not like books or movies in the sense that a lot of genres don't really apply to most video games. I've never seen a "slice of life" video game and think if there was one it would probably be pretty dull. That sort of story is out as well as many others. With the current market such as it is with almost all shooting games I'll stick to some points that may actually help you. If you want to learn more about writing and story development, and I would encourage it, you should really pick up some books on critical writing skills and how to create stories. They have these in generic and screenplay format at most bookstores.
Characters
People tend to identify with other people. A lot of people like to identify with things they would like to be which is why the hero character is so popular. There are many different kinds of hero's though, and more recently the vulnerable hero has come to rise as one of the preferred hero types. What is a vulnerable hero? It's someone who could be an ordinary person but is put in extraordinary circumstances and through fate is forced to survive. More strictly defined it is someone who does something heroic but is not a superman. He will get hurt, he will have doubts about his abilities, he will wish he didn't have to do things, he will be every that the stereotypical tough guy won't do. In short he will be a real person with fears, doubts, good sides and bad.
Creating one, or more, of these is not easy though. Often games borrow from more established works to create their characters, and you may want to do so before you get the hang of it too. If your going to sell your work however it's best to borrow from the classics, since that is where most of modern literary writers borrow from and recycled-recycled work is bound to lose some things in the translation.
I donÆt want to read a ton of things right now
If you haven't already read some classic material that will help you then you can try to make a list of people you know. Write down traits about them. Are they selfish? Are they vain? Do they work out obsessively? Find things that stick out in personalities of people you know and magnify those. Make them controlling aspects in their lives and you could possibly end up with a good dramatic character on your own.
Drama is about magnifying things. It's about taking a magnifying glass and putting it over an aspect of life. By seeing things in an overblown context it's easier to deal with them and on top of that mild things are not nearly as exciting.
Goals
Player's like to feel like their accomplishing something. If you can give them a goal such as saving the world, gaining some great artifact or piece of information or just saving their own lives they feel like they've accomplished something when their done.
Often the plots of games come across as corny or half-baked. This is usually from the implementation and not the story itself. Many stories that have been given public acceptance are basically the same as stories that are laughed at. The difference is in the subtleties of the story, how it is delivered to the player.
Try to make your story so that the extreme things do not stand out too far from anything else. Make sure that you could believe the series of events that happen after your normally unbelievable event. It can be assumed that tomorrow Dog Men from outer space will not invade Earth, but if that is your game's premise following it up with them doing the cha-cha with Clint Eastwood is not going to make any player more receptive to your story.
Attention to detail is one of the other keys of developing a story, do not leave any holes in it, as your player will notice them and they will bother him. If in your story the villain recovers the lost artifact and locks it away in his fortress which is then destroyed the next scene should not contain you finding the artifact in a tree. If this does happen your story then you need an explanation, such as it was blown out of the fortress with the destruction and must have landed there. Highly unlikely, but at least you have covered a plot hole.
The point of this article is not so much to define how to create a good game as it is to show the basic elements and essential keys of computer games. With these you can explore how games work for yourself and come up with your own styles and theory's about how and why things work.