1. CGMB345 Game Design Genre-Specific Game Design Issues

2. CGMB345 Game Design 2 Action Games n Keeping the player moving and involved. n Important skills - hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes. n Deep thinking is less required.  Action-adventure - puzzle solving abilities.  Action games benefit from tactical or strategic thinking abilities.

3. CGMB345 Game Design 3 Action Games Pac-Man (Maze) Metal Slug (Shooter) Mario 64 (Platform) UT2004 (FPS)

4. CGMB345 Game Design 4 Action Games: Point of View n Having a good point of view is crucial.  Player should see the action well in order to respond to it. n Typically have a choice of first or third person. n First-person:  Faster paced and more immersive, but cannot easily “identify” with the character. n Third-person:  Good for action-adventure games - better see the character as he or she is being controlled.  Better identify with character, important if emphasis in the game is placed on the main character (e.g. Lara Croft, Mario, …).

5. CGMB345 Game Design 5 Action Games: Point of View Screen shot from Splinter Cell. A very impressive game, but some people found they spent as much time moving the viewpoint as moving their character.

6. CGMB345 Game Design 6 Action Games: Point of View Screen shot from Dino Crisis 3. The action in this game is pretty intense … it’s a shame that the horrible camera angles prevent you from seeing most of it though!

7. CGMB345 Game Design 7 Action Games: Level Design n Good level design is crucial.  Visually appealing and functional, not sacrificing the speed of action just for looks.  Reflect the story behind the game.  Well structured and able to regulate the flow of action in the game. n Often it is careful balancing act. n More on level design later!

8. CGMB345 Game Design 8 Action Games: Weapons n Weapons are often an important part.  Appropriate to the setting.  Interesting characteristics that encourage players to use them.  Be well balanced.  Synchronized with the difficulty of opponents faced in the game.  Accompanied by good special effects, both in terms of graphics and sound.

9. CGMB345 Game Design 9 Action Games: Weapons Screen shot of Potty Pigeon. With a name like Potty Pigeon, you just know what your weapon against those cars is going to be …

10. CGMB345 Game Design 10 Action Games: Weapons Screen shot from Unreal Tournament 2003. There is nothing quite like the feeling of carrying around a weapon that fires miniature nuclear warheads. A very cool weapon.

11. CGMB345 Game Design 11 Action Games: Weapons Screen shot from Armed & Dangerous. This game had some really unique and interesting weapons. What’s not to like about a land shark gun?

12. CGMB345 Game Design 12 Action Games: The Game Engine n Build your own, or license one from a developer or middleware provider? n Building your own …  Get exactly the features and functionality you need for your game.  Costly in time and money to develop. n Licensing an engine …  Usually cheaper than developing your own, and you don’t lose time in the process.  Often get lots of features, some you don’t need.

13. CGMB345 Game Design 13 Action Games: The Game Engine Screen shot from Crytek’s Cryengine game engine editor.

14. CGMB345 Game Design 14 Action Games: The Game Engine Screen shots and movies from Epic’s Unreal 3 engine.

15. CGMB345 Game Design 15 Action Games: The Game Engine n Issues to consider in choosing an engine to license:  Ease of use.  Cross-platform capabilities.  Look-and-feel.  Support.  Availability.  Extendibility.  Cost.

16. CGMB345 Game Design 16 Role-Playing Games n These games revolve around characters, story, and combat.  Make sure these elements are done right! n Take place in large expansive worlds. n Frequently played over dozens or even hundreds of hours.  Players spend a lot of time playing, important that things like the user interface are done very well.

17. CGMB345 Game Design 17 Role-Playing Games (RPGs) Fable Star Wars KOTOR IIPaper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Final Fantasy X Fable

18. CGMB345 Game Design 18 Role-Playing Games: Character Growth n Characters should begin weak and vulnerable.  Gain strength and abilities via encounters and alliances.  In the end, they able to handle any villain. n Players should have choices.  What attributes their characters possess.  Must be limits on their choices to ensure balance in the game.  Players should also be able to choose to let the game do all of this for them. n Players - personally attached to their characters.

19. CGMB345 Game Design 19 Role-Playing Games: Character Growth Screen shot from The Tales of Trolls and Treasures, an open source RPG project. This is a shot of a character/party generator screen.

20. CGMB345 Game Design 20 Role-Playing Games: Statistics n Statistics play a critical role in this genre.  The attributes of each game element must be specified, as well as its interactions with other elements. n Players like this aspect of the game - micromanage everything.  Others get into the action and adventure, and skip over the micromanagement.  Allow both styles of play. n Statistics - heart of this kind of game, but hide them in the player doesn’t want to be involved with them.

21. CGMB345 Game Design 21 Role-Playing Games: Statistics Screen shot from Final Fantasy X-2. Statistics can be as simple as hit points or magic points, but can also be more detailed and complex.

22. CGMB345 Game Design 22 Role-Playing Games: Story n The story in an RPG is important.  Story is delivered and told through a series of quests or missions.  Explore the world and learn more about its inhabitants. n Should the story be linear or nonlinear?  Small number or cluster of quests or missions at a time.  Player has a choice in how the story unfolds, but isn’t overwhelmed by too many choices.  Have several immediate goals, one or two midterm goals, and one final goal.

23. CGMB345 Game Design 23 Role-Playing Games: Story Screen shot from Final Fantasy X-2. The Final Fantasy series has always been known for its elaborate and interesting story lines.

24. CGMB345 Game Design 24 Role-Playing Games: Combat n Combat plays a key role in RPGs.  Interface should handles encounters gracefully and gives player a feeling of control.  Give the player a chance to make meaningful choices in combat situations.  Give them the chance to learn and master combat.  The first hour of gameplay is the most crucial … if hard to learn and player killed again and again - player frustrated and give up.

25. CGMB345 Game Design 25 Role-Playing Games: Combat Screen shot from Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes. This is an action-RPG with some interesting combat and magic systems.

26. CGMB345 Game Design 26 Adventure Games n Adventure games are primarily defined by - their story and puzzle elements. n If either one is done poorly, the game will suffer greatly as a result.

27. CGMB345 Game Design 27 Adventure Games Zork I (Text Adventure) Tomb Raider (Action-Adventure) Myst V: End of Ages (Graphical Adventure)

28. CGMB345 Game Design 28 Adventure Games: Story n Need to have a good story. n Game designer to decides the story is.  Decide what the story is about and build the player’s activities.  Create interesting people, in interesting places, doing interesting things.

29. CGMB345 Game Design 29 Adventure Games: Story Screen shot from the Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. It has a very interesting story that unfolds as you progress through this action-adventure.

30. CGMB345 Game Design 30 Adventure Games: Puzzles n After the story is developed, place obstacles between the player and their goals.  Obstacles are puzzles.  Must flow naturally from the setting and story. n A good puzzle - provides a pleasant, temporary frustration that leads to that moment of inspiration when the puzzle is solved. n A bad puzzle - leaves the player angry, resentful, frustrated, and distrustful of the game and its designer.

31. CGMB345 Game Design 31 Adventure Games: Puzzles Screen shot from Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb. This action- adventure has many puzzles to solve, including when to use Indy’s trademark whip to get to that unreachable platform.

32. CGMB345 Game Design 32 Adventure Games: Puzzles n Some quick tips on puzzle design:  Be appropriate to the setting. Be reasonable for the obstacle to be there, and when it is solved, the player should know why the solution worked.  Puzzle ideas can be derived from the villain of the story  The puzzles must make sense - player should have enough clues in advance to solve them.  It is a storytelling opportunity. Each puzzle should somehow advance the story.

33. CGMB345 Game Design 33 Adventure Games: Interface n The interface must be kept simple.  Player should do as much as possible with a minimum amount of effort.  Interface with basic functionality than one that has many features that is harder to use. n Keep in mind the things the player will need to do in solving the puzzles to advance the story along.  Exploration, communicating with other characters, examining the environment, object-on-object interactions, using inventory, and so on.

34. CGMB345 Game Design 34 Adventure Games: Interface Screen shot from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. This action-adventure game has a simple interface that does not get in the way of either the fighting or puzzle sequences.

35. CGMB345 Game Design 35 Adventure Games: Linearity vs. Nonlinearity n Players should be able to make meaningful choices. n Too many choices, however, cause player to get lost. n A good solution is to design a linear series of open environments.  Player has many activities that can be pursued in any order.  When done, the designer closes off the area, does some storytelling, and moves to the next area.

36. CGMB345 Game Design 36 Adventure Games: Linearity vs. Nonlinearity Screen shot from Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick. This game has many tasks in each open level, managed by a “to-do list”. There is some linearity between tasks to maintain the story line, but the player has a lot of choice.

37. CGMB345 Game Design 37 Adventure Games: Exploration n Players are curious … they should be given the chance to explore the game world, within the confines of the story. n Do not give total access to everything at once.  It can be overwhelming and they could get lost.  It leaves nothing left as a surprise to explore. n Use access to new places as  Reward for completing puzzles and  To show the user that progress is being made.

38. CGMB345 Game Design 38 Adventure Games: Exploration Screen shot from Zork I. Perhaps nowhere else is more exploration possible in a game than a good old fashioned text adventure.

39. CGMB345 Game Design 39 Strategy Games n Balance is key to strategy games.  Unless exact symmetry is being used, this will require thousands of hours of play testing.  There will likely be a continuous loop of playing, tweaking, more playing, more tweaking, and so on. n Have a playable version of the game early to permit play balancing. n This balance applies to everything, including strategies and approaches used in the game.  If one strategy always succeeds against all others, the game will cease being fun to play.

40. CGMB345 Game Design 40 Strategy Games Starcraft Command and Conquer Rome: Total War Full Spectrum Warrior Age of Empires III

41. CGMB345 Game Design 41 Strategy Games: Resources n The amount of raw material must be balanced.  Too much, and players will never have to make hard decisions about it.  Too little, and players will worry too much about this aspect of the game, and not enjoy it. n Spread throughout the environment to ensure each player has reasonable access to the resources. n Rate of resource consumption and unit production must be balanced across players and units.

42. CGMB345 Game Design 42 Strategy Games: Resources Images from Warcraft III. The peasant, peon, acolyte, and wisp are the basic resource collectors/builders of the different races of the game. The peasant and peon are more traditional gatherers and builders, collecting the gold and lumber resources for their teams and constructing buildings. The acolyte and wisp rely on magic and summoning to put a different spin on the whole resource collection and building process.

43. CGMB345 Game Design 43 Strategy Games: Teams n Many earlier strategy games have two teams of opposing forces, but more modern ones tend to have more. n Each team in the game must have an equal chance to win. n A good strategy player should be able to lead any side to victory - teams must be well balanced.

44. CGMB345 Game Design 44 Strategy Games: Teams Screen shot from Warcraft III. This game featured four different races, all of which were well-balanced against the other.

45. CGMB345 Game Design 45 Strategy Games: Units and Weapons n Weapon and unit strength is important.  All using the same weapon, it is likely too strong - be made less effective.  One is always ignored - it should be made better. n Distinguishing characteristics, both visually and functionally. n The same units and weapons should not be given to all sides.  Each side should have a defensive weapon  Helps to maintain balance in the game.

46. CGMB345 Game Design 46 Strategy Games: Units and Weapons Image from Warcraft III. This is a picture of the Meat Wagon, a unit of the Undead race. It can collect corpses from the field of battle and store them for future reanimation, or can use its Meat-A-Pult™ to fling them back at the enemy. This is a good siege weapon, but is open to up-close melee attacks, or attacks from the air. Like all Blizzard games, the units in Warcraft III are unique and well-balanced.

47. CGMB345 Game Design 47 Strategy Games: Realism vs. Fun n Fun overrides realism. n Even though units in a game often have real-world counterparts, it might be more fun or better balanced to have slightly different behaviour. n Start with the real world in defining such behaviour, but ultimately, the game must be fun!

48. CGMB345 Game Design 48 Strategy Games: Realism vs. Fun Screen shot from Starcraft. Siege tanks have some interesting characteristics that make their use more fun and interesting, even if they are not as realistic or behave the same as real-world tanks.

49. CGMB345 Game Design 49 Strategy Games: Artificial Intelligence n Artificial intelligence in strategy games is important.  If the computer always takes the same strategy or makes the same choices, the game will soon cease to be fun.  It can be difficult to balance the difficulty of the game … the computer should neither be too easy or too difficult to defeat. n Game designers must be clear on what behaviour is appropriate in certain game situations.  A certain amount of randomness is good too!

50. CGMB345 Game Design 50 Strategy Games: Artificial Intelligence Screen shot from Warcraft II. When playing multiplayer games against the AI, there was little variation in the AI’s tactics. Consequently, the game in this mode was usually easy to beat, once the pattern was identified.

51. CGMB345 Game Design 51 Strategy Games: Testing n Since balance is critically important to strategy games, so is testing.  An improperly balanced strategy game ceases to be fun quickly. n Inside testing is crucial. n If resources exist to support it, open beta testing with real end users can be incredibly useful as well. n The more testing, the better!

52. CGMB345 Game Design 52 Strategy Games: Missions n Organize each mission around a single premise. n Variety is important … change the themes and structure of missions throughout the game. n Quality is also more important than quantity.  It is better to have fewer missions that are well done with a lot of variety than lots of missions where the players keep doing the same things over and over again, and gets bored as a result. n Make sure the player understands the objectives of each mission.  A cut scene is good at doing this.

53. CGMB345 Game Design 53 Strategy Games: Missions Screen shot from Warcraft III. A quest is assigned. There are a wide variety of missions and quests in the game, most of which are quite entertaining.

54. CGMB345 Game Design 54 Simulations n Require a substantial amount of depth.  Research is required in developing simulations. n Focus on one piece of equipment or activity and emphasize on the experience it need to provide.  If you do not capture this well, your simulation is in big trouble.

55. CGMB345 Game Design 55 Simulations Microsoft Flight SimulatorGran Turismo 4

56. CGMB345 Game Design 56 Simulations: Hard-Core vs. Casual n Tune the reality of your game according to audience. n For the hard-core …  No detail is too small to get right.  Accurate physics model.  Close to real life as possible. n For the casual gamer …  They want to get in and go with minimal fuss.  They want simplifications, in controls and elsewhere.  They should be able to have some measure of immediate success; total mastery should require knowing the finer points of the game.

57. CGMB345 Game Design 57 Simulations: Hard-Core vs. Casual Screen shot from X-Plane, showing lift and drag vectors calculated in real time. This game has a devoted community of flight enthusiasts and developers who are striving to make it the most realistic flight simulator ever. In fact, flight characteristics are calculated in real time from aircraft design data, not static tables like Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.

58. CGMB345 Game Design 58 Simulations: Hard-Core vs. Casual Screen shot from World Racing. Even the most casual gamer won’t forgive the lack of realism in this game. The planes, helicopters, trees, and people in this game can all be driven through!

59. CGMB345 Game Design 59 Simulations: Hard-Core vs. Casual Screen shot from Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Not to be outdone by World Racing, this takes realism in this genre to a new low.

60. CGMB345 Game Design 60 Simulations: Interface n More functionality, more complex the interface becomes. n Interface should be kept as simple as possible, however.  Lot of controls and options, but the interface should still look clean.  Interface is cluttered, game will become difficult to use.

61. CGMB345 Game Design 61 Simulations: Interface Picture of Microsoft Flight Simulator on 9 computers and 13 monitors. Wideview software was used to split the game image. Such a nice interface that the player even needed a seatbelt to be strapped in place!

62. CGMB345 Game Design 62 Simulations: Interface Picture of the Real Virtual Car. Not to be outdone, racing fans have built a racing simulator in a Renault Megane, complete with steering wheel, pedals, a gear shifter, and gauges that work!

63. CGMB345 Game Design 63 Simulations: Keep it Fun n Whether the simulation is hard-core or casual, it cannot afford to be boring!  Not just about operating the machinery or equipment being simulated.  Must still have something interesting to do in the game. n Entertain the player.  Use audio, visual, and tactile feedback to engage of the player’s senses to immerse the player in the simulation experience.

64. CGMB345 Game Design 64 Sports Games n Play sports games - fans of the sport. n Well versed in the rules of the game, its history, current athletes. n Good portrayal of the sport in your game, or they will notice it and will not be pleased otherwise.

65. CGMB345 Game Design 65 Sports Games Salt Lake 2002NHL 2006 Tony Hawk’s American WastelandMadden NFL 2006

66. CGMB345 Game Design 66 Sports Games: Know the Game n Important - rules and traditions of the sport done right.  Consult the official rule book and use it frequently.  Check the history books and follow them. n Let the players change the rules!  Customize the rules or turn off rules that they do not want.

67. CGMB345 Game Design 67 Sports Games: Know the Game Screen shot from High Heat Major League Baseball 2004. Not exactly known as the best baseball game, this game frequently assigns retired player numbers to other game players. For example, on the Yankees, Todd Zeile was given Mickey Mantle's retired number (#7). Fans of the game were not amused.

68. CGMB345 Game Design 68 Sports Games: The Meta-Game n Sport is not just played on the field … but also played from the bench and in the front office.  Coaching decisions.  Management decisions.  Owner decisions. n Nice to have all of these features in a game.  If not included, make sure that the user knows this from the box.

69. CGMB345 Game Design 69 Sports Games: The Meta-Game Screen shot from Madden NFL 2006. This Madden series of football games has long had a good collection of meta-game features.

70. CGMB345 Game Design 70 Sports Games: Licenses n The whole genre is filled with licensing issues. You need written permission to use:  Different stadiums, tracks, and other venues  Team names, logos, uniform design, …  Player names, likenesses, signature moves, … n Licenses cost money and must be cleared by both budget and legal staff.

71. CGMB345 Game Design 71 Sports Games: Licenses Box art from NHL 2006. The circled part in the corner are the official logos for the NHL league and players’ association. Without approval from these two organizations, your hockey game will not get far!

72. CGMB345 Game Design 72 Sports Games: The Look n Sports games lead all other genres in the realistic depiction of human motion.  Incorporate motion capture into your design, schedule, and budget. n Managing the camera is also complex.  Focus on a single part, at times encompass the entire field of play.  Player must be able to see all of the action needed at the time! n Special visuals enhance your game - environment conditions, sweat, hair motion, player attitude, and so on.

73. CGMB345 Game Design 73 Sports Games: The Look Screen shot from NBA Live 2004. For the first time, EA Sports went for a five player team motion capture, to grab all players’ activities at once. This allowed team responses, shifts, rotations, and reactions to events. Apparently, the result was the best looking basketball game ever, according to many reviews.

74. CGMB345 Game Design 74 Sports Games: Features and Interface n Simple interface and well tuned to the sport being played. n Let players update statistics, rosters, and perhaps import their own data into the game. n Include real-word ambience in the game.  Stadium and arena music, spectator noise and activities, and so on.  This will entertain and captivate the player.

75. CGMB345 Game Design 75 Sports Games: Features and Interface Screen shot from FIFA 2006. The fan noises, singing, and other stadium ambience makes you feel like you are part of a real soccer game, and not just a video game.

76. CGMB345 Game Design 76 Fighting Games n Usually simple and direct, yet they can be very engaging.  The goal is create quick bursts of swift and intense action. n The characters and their moves must be well balanced.  If one is unstoppable, everyone will play him.  If another is too weak, no one will.  Either is evidence of poor game design. n Manage the damage inflicted by the characters on each other.  Fights should neither be too short nor too long.

77. CGMB345 Game Design 77 Fighting Games Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance Virtua Fighter 4 Tekken 4 Soul Calibur III Dead or Alive 4

78. CGMB345 Game Design 78 Fighting Games: Visuals n Visuals in fighting games are important.  The focus is tight (on the two fighters, and the portion of the arena they are fighting in) - so they better look good!  Character have a unique look and distinctive moves that are interesting to watch.  Animations be smooth. n Pay attention to weapons and special audio and graphical effects.  They add a lot of impact to the game.

79. CGMB345 Game Design 79 Fighting Games: Visuals Screen shot from Dead or Alive 4. This has some of the best visuals ever seen in a fighting game. You can tell a lot of time and attention went into producing them!

80. CGMB345 Game Design 80 Fighting Games: Moves n The player should start with a set of easy-to-learn moves.  Punches, kicks, and blocks.  Walking, running, ducking, and jumping. n Character have special moves that are learned over time and through practice.  Individual moves or combinations.  Finishing moves and signature moves.

81. CGMB345 Game Design 81 Fighting Games: Moves Screen shot from Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. Yup. That looks like a fatality to me!

82. CGMB345 Game Design 82 Fighting Games: The Right Difficulty n Important - get the right level of difficulty into a fighting game.  First attempt, just about any player should be able to defeat the first opponent  Should not be able to get very far until they hone their skills and timing and master more complex moves. n If a game is too hard - players discouraged from playing it. n If it is too easy (no challenge or replay value) - they won’t want to play it either.

83. CGMB345 Game Design 83 Fighting Games: The Right Difficulty Screen shot from Kakuto Chojin. This fighting game for the Xbox is ridiculously easy. On your first try, you can beat every opponent without losing a single match. Trust me … I’ve done it myself!

84. CGMB345 Game Design 84 Fighting Games: The Right Difficulty Screen shot of Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus. On the other end of the spectrum, this game is often criticized as being way too difficult. Even seasoned players can have a lot of trouble getting past the first opponent.

85. CGMB345 Game Design 85 Casual Games n These tend not to be very deep games. n Casual games are often played in short bursts.  On a lunch hour, or break for example.  The player wants to get in, have quick fun, and get out as easily as possible. n A simple and clean interface.  They do not want to be encumbered to play. n If adaptation of a real-world game, it stick to rules, allowing for player customizations as well. n Licensing may also be an issue.

86. CGMB345 Game Design 86 Casual Games Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Minesweeper Solitaire

87. CGMB345 Game Design 87 God Games n You must design a compelling activity that is fun for the player, without forcing a lot of direction on them. n Some important tips:  Huge variety of interesting building blocks to use - if world-building game.  Easy to keep track of everything in the game. Simple interface, and let the player zoom in for detail, or out for the big picture.

88. CGMB345 Game Design 88 God Games The Sims 2 Rollercoaster Tycoon Black & White 2

89. CGMB345 Game Design 89 God Games: More Tips n More tips:  Interface allow player easily jump around the game world.  Graphics should allow the user to easily distinguish between units and convey status information.  The heart of the game is a complex set of interrelated rules and subsystems that determine how the computer reacts to the player.  Instant feedback on all activities.  Occasional disasters.  If the game is real-time, let the player vary the speed of events in the game.

90. CGMB345 Game Design 90 Educational Games n Goal - teach a specific body of knowledge to the player.  You must know what this is at the start and build the game around it, and not the other way around! n Some tips:  Clear goals for the player.  Consult curriculum documents in designing the content of the game.  Targeting the game is important - background knowledge of the player and level of maturity.

91. CGMB345 Game Design 91 Educational Games Disney Learning Adventure Reader Rabbit Carmen Sandiego

92. CGMB345 Game Design 92 Educational Games: More Tips n More tips:  Interactivity is vital to children.  The interface must be simple and clean.  Engage emotions and wrap educational content into goal-oriented behaviour.  Reward and encourage the player often.  Be sure to avoid inappropriate content.

93. CGMB345 Game Design 93 Educational Games: More Tips Screen shot from Typing of the Dead. Based on House of the Dead II, this game can serve as a nice typing tutor. Definitely not for children though! An interesting concept, and a surprisingly fun game.

94. CGMB345 Game Design 94 Puzzle Games n Creating a puzzle that appeals to a wide audience.  Start with the kind of puzzle you like - people have different tastes. n Your goal is to not make the player feel stupid.  Your goal is to provide a challenge, and to help the player overcome the challenge. n Provide a range of difficulties in the puzzle(s), some simple ones and incredibly difficult ones for the expert player.

95. CGMB345 Game Design 95 Puzzle Games Tetris Lumines The Incredible MachineZoo Keeper

96. CGMB345 Game Design 96 Serious Games n Serious games are still games, and so they share many of the same design considerations. n Goal is no longer entertainment, there are some differences as well to keep in mind.  “Don’t try and peel the icing off the video game cake and lay it over the liver of learning and expect it to taste the same.” - David Thomas, of Buzzcut.com

97. CGMB345 Game Design 97 Serious Games Screenshots from example serious games from the Serious Games Summit

98. CGMB345 Game Design 98 Serious Games: Reality Trumps Fun? n Entertainment games, fun overrides reality. n Serious games, realism should win out over fun.  Precise, real-world effects might be of overwhelming importance, particularly in military, health, and emergency response applications where lives are at stake.

99. CGMB345 Game Design 99 Serious Games: Reality Trumps Fun? Screen shot from Hazmat: Hotzone. In a serious game like this, you want reality over fun, or else you could have dire consequences in the real world.

100. CGMB345 Game Design 100 Serious Games: Assumptions to Avoid n The latest and greatest hardware is available to players of the game.  This might be true for entertainment games dominated by the hard core, but bad assumption for serious games.  Some serious games will require the latest and greatest in hardware, but it is bad to assume it will be available for all serious games.

101. CGMB345 Game Design 101 Serious Games: Assumptions to Avoid n Players have prior gameplay experience.  True in entertainment, but in serious applications a lot of users will have little or no gameplay experience.  Interfaces and other assumptions must be re-examined - to ensure that games remain accessible to the target audience.

102. CGMB345 Game Design 102 Serious Games: Assumptions to Avoid Screen shot from Hazmat: Hotzone. The interface is kept simple to assist non gamers in playing the game.

103. CGMB345 Game Design 103 Serious Games: Assumptions to Avoid n Bigger is better.  Entertainment games, players play for fun, and so provide as much fun.  Serious game, the intent must be kept in mind and addressed. n Stay focused on the objectives of the game. n Avoid complicating the experience. n Attempting to capture too much in a simulation will lead to schedule misses and cost overruns.

104. CGMB345 Game Design 104 Serious Games: Assumptions to Avoid n Provide short-cuts to fun.  Entertainment games, shortcuts are a good thing to get players into fun quicker: n Includes the use of randomness, time compression, process simplification, headache removal, and perfect communication.  All of these short-cuts, however, introduce deviations from reality, with potentially harmful consequences depending on the nature of the serious game and its overall objectives.

105. CGMB345 Game Design 105 Serious Games: Assumptions to Avoid Screen shot from Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps. Military strategy games like this one have to employ several short-cuts to keep the game flowing nicely. Such short-cuts in a real military simulation could be bad though.

106. CGMB345 Game Design 106 Serious Games: Other Considerations n Testing and progression tracking tends to be important to serious games.  Are the game players getting what they should be getting out of the game? n Does the serious game integrate well within the environment in which it is going to be used?  They should assist existing processes (for education, training, and so on), and not replace them.

107. CGMB345 Game Design 107 Serious Games: Other Considerations n How do you get players to play serious games?  Ideally, players should want to play without being compelled to play by their teachers, parents, employers, and so on.  Want to focus on intrinsic motivations, not just extrinsic motivations!  Usually, this requires relating the experience to the player and their world, and show how this can positively affect their lives.

108. CGMB345 Game Design 108 Online Games n Almost any kind of game can also be online if it allows network play.  Consult the design issues for other genres as necessary. n How will money be made from the game?  Selling game units?  Selling subscriptions to the game?  Pay per play or per hour?  Advertisements? (More likely on web-based games)

109. CGMB345 Game Design 109 Online Games Dark Age of Camelot Ultima Online Everquest II World of Warcraft City of Heroes

110. CGMB345 Game Design 110 Online Games: Stick to the Rules n Everyone in an online game sticks to the game rules.  This not only includes the players, but the provider of the game service. n Violating the game rules has several negative effects on the game:  It breaks the immersive experience being developed and nurtured in the game.  It removes faith that players had in the game to behave according to expectations.  It just is not fair. Plain and simple.

111. CGMB345 Game Design 111 Online Games: Network Services n Would like it to seem as if all players are playing on the local system.  Must reduce lag or latency effects.  If it affects gameplay, it is an issue. If not, you may be able to ignore it. n The game must also allow drop-outs and drop- ins as much as possible. n You must also consider the other services offered with the game.  Updates, new content, player matching, community services, multiple distributed services, and so on.