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| Players will engage in a primary pattern, they will feel they have a purpose to complete this pattern and they like to feel progress. All games will have this and its how you make these three things balance out. At Silkjade we will look at the pattern and make sure its a real fun pattern. We will add in items and or tasks that give the player a purpose to complete the patterns. Then we will give the player a sense of progress by adding in levels to complete. Pattern In World of warcraft the pattern is to apply damage or to heal damage. Pretty simple and when you break down all the numbers it comes down to this a 80 % chance of applying X amount of damage (or healing it). Now as a designer you have to develop a set of ways the player does this pattern that is fun. In Mario you run, jump, collect and spit fire balls. Also the pattern will loop and the players can go loopy. The good news is once a pattern is fun the player can loop in it until they feel "its fun but whats the purpose of this". Purpose The purpose in world of warcraft comes in the form of challenges presented by non player characters and player characters. So if the player completes the task of defeating a NPC or PC they will receive a reward, but they first have to complete thier characters purpose. Also a reward is the satisfaction of being successful at completing the pattern. In WOW I was a healer so by completing my purpose to heal I would be rewarded. Progress So the player completes the pattern loop (which is fun first or no deal) then they feel a sense of purpose because they completed something or defeated something. They then can receive a reward and the avatar improves. In World of Warcraft a nice big experience bar shows how the player is going. Also the player can see immediate changes to their character when items are equipped. The completion of levels gives the player progress on a grander scale. Purpose comes and goes (like defeating a PVP player) but the reward from the honour points in the form of a item gives the player a sense of greater progress beyond the sense of purpose. Healing and feeling a purpose to heal is ok for a while but everyone wants the be rewarded with payment. The most simplest and probably required rewards is score and or a completion pathway. |
Game Play the 3P0
Game Assets
Game Style
| You have to have style and the game needs to be dressed up nice. The music, programming and artwork have to come together to create a style. Be consistent with your style and understand the tastes of your target market. Bright, colourful and friendly artwork is important for casual players. The casual market has a lot of female players so be aware of their "needs" and what they like. The style set in the design document sets the feel for the whole game. Look at World of Warcraft with its cartoon style. The cartoon style I feel has a broad appeal. Have ease of use, a board art style, depth of game play and your onto a winner (maybe :) ). Main Points
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| All games have assets. So now that your aware of what the pattern, purpose and progress the player will engage in you need to map out the assets. Also now that you know what style of art,features and music you want you need to write it down. Assets like art can be bought in, also music and even a story written by a writer. At Silkjade we map out the basic "must have screens" and create the place holder art for the whole game (takes 2 to 8 hours for a puzzle games placeholder art) 1. Splash Screen 2. Loading Screen: Loading bar 3. Main Menu Screen: Buttons, Backdrop, Button case, Change player panel 4. Options Screen: Buttons, slider, Options pop up panel 5. High Score Screen: Buttons, Score panel 6. Credits page: Buttons, Credits text 7. Main game screen: Buttons, special effects, game board 8. Game Objects: Items, objects, creatures, characters, 9. Story mode map: Buttons, Map icons 10. Level art: Level Backgrounds, Maps, Game Completions screen After we complete the design document we create all the place holder art (all of it required!). Also we add in place holder music and place holder sound effects. The only part to do in production is for the coder to glue it all together and to bring the game to life. Also we produce the final set of art which is just cut and pasted over the top of the place holder art. 1. Complete Design Document 2. All the required Place holder art 3. All the required Place holder music The place holder art does not have to be flash at all. In fact you want to spend the least amount of time on it. Concept art is to get the style right and place holder art is to define the objects position in the game. Exit button is exit-1.png and is 100 X 50 pixels etc... |
