Category: Game Design

The Design of Everyday Games analyzes Advance Wars and what makes it so much fun to play, even with older technology and gameplay.

The argument is that Advance Wars is incredibly rich and yet is not complex. You press a single button to do almost any action, unlike some games that have a different key mapped to do even the most similar things. Advance Wars is enjoyable, has plenty of variety, and yet doesn’t require too much brain power just to interface with it. You don’t have to think too hard about what physical action to take, leaving you more brain cycles to concentrate on playing the game.

There isn’t a focus on the engine, either. The game is more or less the same as it was when it was first released, and it is still fun because it was improved. It didn’t change drastically to allow for the latest tech. The game dictated the tech needed, not the other way around.

If your game isn’t as good as it should be, maybe you shouldn’t be asking yourself what you can add.

Maybe you should be asking yourself what you can cut.

I didn’t know if he was still writing them, but Ernest Adams has just published The Designer’s Notebook: ‘Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie!’ VII. The series has always been enjoyable and informative.

In this installment, he focuses quite a bit on interface issues. I haven’t played a lot of the example games listed, but I couldn’t believe that you couldn’t configure the controls for Driver until after you finish the first race. And if your game does allow the player to configure the controls, let the player have some way to save and load the configuration!

Adams also announced the new edition of the book “Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings on Game Design”, which has a new name, Fundamentals of Game Design.

Game Idea:
Creation and Destruction

Premise
Maintain the Balance by keeping good and evil in equal parts.

Huh?
I don’t remember how I conceived of this idea, but basically I thought, “What if there was a constant battle between Good and Evil, and whenever that balance was tipped too far to one side or another, chaos resulted? What if it was actually harmonious for Good and Evil to exist together?”

Possible Game Here?
One possibility is that there are a certain number of angels and demons. Perhaps their relative numbers are important. In that case, your job is to make sure that any increase or decrease on one side gets matched on the other. If an angel is born, you must find a way to spawn a new demon. If a devil is slain, you need to do something that results in the destruction of an angel. You might even be able to convert one to the other. An angel is a pure being, so if it does something wrong, it becomes a demon. There is no halfway with these beings. It’s all or nothing. The death of two demons could be balanced out by converting one angel into a demon.

What if the population wasn’t as important as the number of good or bad works they do? Perhaps the proximity of a being to more densely populated areas will result in more activities of the being’s persuasion. An angel in downtown New York will result in more good works than an angel in a rural community. A demon in a sports stadium can wreak more havoc than one in a remote mountain cave. The strategic placement of various beings can help to tilt the scales towards Good or Evil. Perhaps it isn’t the placement of the beings themselves so much as the converting elements mentioned above. Either way, the point is that the effect on the human population from the actions count the most.

Perhaps you take the role as a warrior for one side or the other. Maybe the balancing element is a problem, and both sides want to settle the score once and for all. You can recruit humans to your side. Their actions can influence their peers, so finding charismatic humans is very important, but you’ll also want a strong will to avoid losing them to the other side. Actual battles might take place between the humans since the angels and demons can’t do anything directly. On the other hand, if they could fight each other directly, maybe the battles take place on the shoulders of the individual humans.

What if Good and Evil had to join forces? What reason would they have to do so? Would there be some third force, such as Non-belief? Would they need to work together to convince Humanity that they still exist? Can they still do so without fighting each other?

Summary
I think Good vs Evil is a very familiar topic to most people. While some games, like Populous or Black & White, cover the story in similar ways, I think there is more that can be done with it.

Game Idea:
Daddy Long Legs

Premise:
Creation with incredibly long legs, using them when moving about.

Huh?:
I thought about the idea of a spidery figure that moved very quickly, dodging attacks or obstacles while moving wherever it had to go. I don’t know if there was an actual spider that inspired me or if it just popped into my head.

Possible Game Here?
Imagine an overhead view of the environment. Your character is a spidery figure with its legs attached to the far edges of the screen. That’s right. The feet don’t move; however, the body does. When you click on a spot, the body moves from wherever it was to that spot. There. I’ve just described the basic interface to the game.

Perhaps there will be obstacles and enemies. Initially it will be easy to dodge them. You just click somewhere, taking care that the path is clear. As more objects fill the screen, you’ll find it harder to make a clear path. What about special items or powerups? Armor could help you to take more damage than you normally could. Speed boosts or time freezes are cliche but valid possibilities. Food could serve a functional purpose by providing health. Alternatively, it could be that the reason the spider is jumping around is to collect the food. Collecting things is fun, right?

Another possibility with this click-to-jump-there game mechanic is to have a samurai or ninja that can also pick up weapons such as swords. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a ninja jump quickly from one side of the room to another, bouncing off of walls with ease, and spinning with a sword that he/she just pulled out of the armory? Click on the spot with the sword, and the ninja will jump there to pick up the weapon. Click on opposite walls multiple times in quick succession, and the ninja will jump back and forth between them, possibly doing fancier moves each time across.

To get back to the idea of long legs as a means of movement, what about a creature with abnormally long legs? It will be able to bend its body down really low, or stand up really tall. Perhaps a side-scroller in which you must control the height of the main body? Duck down to avoid high branches in a forest, or stand tall to allow vehicles to pass underneath you. What if an enemy or obstacle takes out a leg? Do you need to repair it? Do you go on without it?

Stilts? I suppose maintaining balance could be an important aspect of the game. Lean one way or another to avoid falling off of the stilts. Maybe the stilts allow you to access items that are really high up, or they could allow you to climb in through a window easily. Losing the stilts will make such tasks harder.

Summary
Once again, there are a number of game mechanics that can be based on a single idea. Do incredibly long, spidery legs make for good games? Maybe, but I suspect it will depend on the implementation.

Game Idea:
Bird Fight

Premise:
A war between Pigeons, Doves, Ducks, Seagulls, and Humans.

Huh?:
I remember thinking about birds one day. My nickname in college was Pigeon, partly because I’ve had a fascination with these birds that wouldn’t fly away no matter how close you were to them. Even though most people call them rats with wings, they are doves, which almost everyone loves. In any case, I thought, “What if the pigeons and the doves also didn’t like each other?” Eventually I thought of the interaction between those birds and others, as well as with humans, and it wasn’t a stretch to think of a Bird War.

Possible Game Here?
Well, there is the obvious possibility of a strategy game. Whether turn-based or not, Bird War could place you in charge of one of the opposing armies. It would most likely have some comical elements, such as over-the-top weaponry for the Humans or Bird Dropping Cluster Bombs. For each of the birds, eggs would have to be protected at all costs to assure the survival of the species. Humans, of course, would want to eat them or destroy them. Statues could raise the morale of the Humans, but they could also be converted into makeshift bases for the pigeons if neglected. Doves might be able to use their high Adorability to infiltrate Human habitations for intelligence gathering. Ducks? They’ve decided to fight back against hunters and are now armed. The seagulls, on the other hand, are scavengers in parking lots, but they can be hired as mercenaries by the other birds.

What about other kinds of games? An action-adventure? Perhaps you’re a pigeon and you’ve learned of an evil Human plot against all birds. You’re the only one who can warn them. You’ll have to fly through the city to the park and warn the birds there. Birds in the neighboring cities are alerted, but the warning comes too late for one area. The birds nominate you their leader, and you must lead them to safety. Once there, you can regroup and fight back against the Humans.

Puzzle? The setting is a city park. There are certain Food Resources strewn about by people sitting on benches and litterers. You must pick the appropriate birds near the resources so that your side wins the food. Pigeons beat Doves, Doves beat Gulls, Gulls beat Pigeons. Or something. Maybe the birds also create alliances, so Pigeons and Ducks are on the same side. If there are more pigeons and ducks near the food, they get to share the spoils and chase out the doves and gulls.

Summary:
It’s interesting what you can come up with when you take 30 minutes to think about an idea. Bird War can any kind of game, but an inter-species rivalry can lead to some whacky thoughts.