DIGITAL GAME PROG I Large-Scale Design Process Part 2

8 Areas of Design: 1. Game Play Modes During the construction stage, you need to expand the concept to define each of the gameplay modes: Primary gameplay mode – what the player must achieve as a goal of the game or level. Secondary gameplay mode – other objectives or activities the player completes for additional rewards. Example: primary – navigation of the platform to collect coins. Secondary – collecting a key to open a chest.

8 Areas of Design: Game Play Modes Primary & Secondary modes are defined as: - Interaction between characters, obstacles, & challenges - Controls -Abilities needed to overcome the challenges - Perspective of the game - Movement within the game world.

8 Areas of Design: 2. Protagonist & Character Dev. Protagonist: the main character of the game. Antagonist: the character who opposes the protagonist. Protagonist needs to be empowered with the abilities & tools needed to overcome the obstacles & challenges defined in the gameplay. The physical characteristics need to be defined (tall/short, thin/muscular, boy/girl, poses, facial expressions, body language, attitude) Character Development

8 Areas of Design: 3. Game World The game world holds the elements the characters can interact with and conquer. With the main characters in place, you need to design the entire game world – sketch the buildings, trees, plants, people, cars, pets, etc Each asset must be drawn and every object made from scratch. Then, every object is redrawn from a different angle or perspective to move with the player.

8 Areas of Design: 4. Core Mechanics Core mechanics enforces the rules of the game an incorporates other “system-shall” commands. A system-shall command is a statement that tells what the system is allowed to do. Examples: “the system shall total all the points a player receives” OR “the system shall switch to the secondary gameplay mode of shopping when the player enters the market”. These commands help present challenges and obstacles and regulate the action off screen.

8 Areas of Design: Core Mechanics The game engine is the programming platform used to create and run a game. All aspects of the core mechanics must be defined before you can build a single level. Think of the core mechanics as how things are permitted to function. You need to know how everything is going to act and react before you can put it all together in a level. Once all of the objects in the game have their properties, movement, and abilities defined, then a level designer an assemble them to create a game.

8 Areas of Design: 5. Mode Elaboration This is the adding of secondary gameplay modes for better immersion and storytelling. Example: one level in a role-playing game may have – Exploration mode, Quest mode, Shopping mode and Battle mode. Each addition of a new mode enhances the game experience, but adds to the programming.

8 Areas of Design: 6. Story Elaboration This is writing out the concept to put all pieces of the story together. The storyboard MUST detail: - what happened to the protagonist before the play level - what happens during the play level - what outcome or objective has been achieved at the conclusion of the play level. The story usually follows a linear progression.

8 Areas of Design: Story Elaboration Any activities needed for the story that do not occur in a level must be created as a cut scene. A cut scene is a short video presentation, usually placed between levels or at checkpoints in a level, and used to occupy the player while the game loads a new portion of the programming. Once the storyboard is complete with levels and cut- scenes it’s time to build the levels to tell the story.

8 Areas of Design: 7. Level Design The goal is to program all interacts needed to take the protagonist through each level of the story. The first playable level is the prototype version of the game that allows someone to play and test all of the interactions in the game. Other levels typically do not redefine the rules of the game or the core mechanics. User interface design is important part of level design

8 Areas of Design: 8. Testing & Debugging This phase is time to focus on finding problems and making the product polished for the customers. Professional game testers will play the latest iteration of the game and note every glitch and imperfection. Companies take this job very seriously – a bad game will get bad publicity, the company who made the game will lose money, and the designers may lose their jobs.