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<H3 ALIGN=CENTER><font color="#FFF800">J</font><font color="#FFF100">&</font><font color="#FFEA00">J</font><font color="#FFE300">'</font><font color="#FFDC00">s</font><font color="#FFD500"> </font><font color="#FFCE00">A</font><font color="#FFC700">r</font><font color="#FFC000">t</font><font color="#FFB900"> </font><font color="#FFB200">O</font><font color="#FFAB00">f</font><font color="#FFA400"> </font><font color="#FF9D00">C</font><font color="#FF9600">o</font><font color="#FF8F00">m</font><font color="#FF8800">p</font><font color="#FF8100">u</font><font color="#FF7A00">t</font><font color="#FF7300">e</font><font color="#FF6C00">r</font><font color="#FF6500"> </font><font color="#FF5E00">G</font><font color="#FF5700">a</font><font color="#FF5000">m</font><font color="#FF4900">e</font><font color="#FF4200"> </font><font color="#FF3B00">D</font><font color="#FF3400">e</font><font color="#FF2D00">s</font><font color="#FF2600">i</font><font color="#FF1F00">g</font><font color="#FF1800">n</font><BR><FONT SIZE=-2>By: <A HREF="mailto:walter.mak@utoronto.ca">Jonathan Mak</a> and <A HREF="mailto:jhust@planetaccess.com">Justin Hust</a></FONT></H3>
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<P>Well, it was late one night, and I had just finished trudging
through a few more pages in "Joystick Nation" (a must read!).
From it, I was teeming with ideas, not specific ideas, but an
idea of what I wanted to design. It would all be an experiment
really, but well, I never found the time to even attempt to
explore these ideas. It was then, while I turned these thoughts
over in my mind that I so happened to glance up at my ICQ list
and was suddenly in a conversation with Justin Hust. That's when
it all started.
<P>Justin and I had conversed before about a few philosophical
topics and it seemed natural that we would finally begin to
dissect the art of computer game design. Through our discussion
we came across a startling discovery. We managed to create a
small set of elements that made up *every* successful game.
These elements were SWARM, SIMPLICITY, STORY, and SIMULATION, and
when combined, made the CONTENT of a game. FORM was also
introduced as a sort of 'glue' to hold it all together. Wait,
I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.
<H3><FONT COLOR=YELLOW><I>The Elements</I></FONT></H3>
<P><I>The Swarm</I>
<P>Okay, let's just rewind the tape a little and relive the days
of Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pacman, etc. Why the heck
were these games so fun? The answer lies in the game's ability
to 'swarm' the player. Think about it. In Space Invaders, you
knew you were going to die. It was just a matter of time before
you shouted HOLY @#%@ and with an upsurge of adrenaline, madly
rushed the controls in a desperate attempt to stay alive.
<P>In Missile Command more missiles started to fall down as your
bullets started to run out and soon (to borrow a lil' bit from
'Joystick Nation') you'd think, "alright, New York, Wisconsin,
SCREW YOU!!! I'm gonna take care of Washington." By then though,
you see fifty million missiles come raining down on poor little
Washington as you hopelessly fire off all your missiles
screaming, "Nooooo!!!" Then it's all over, Washington is gone
and you stick in another quarter.
<P>But what of puzzles? How come old puzzle games like Tetris
are so fun? They were fun because of the exact same reason, the
swarming. This time, instead of blasting space aliens you have
these falling blocks that increase in speed and build up at the
bottom of the screen. Yet, there still remains a feeling that
you're going to lose and that rush at the end when you're on
level 21, mashing all the buttons in hopes of squeezing in just
one more line.
<P>Another little thing about swarming is that in some cases you
need a relief of swarm. This alleviation serves the same purpose
that comic relief does in literature. If you keep building the
tension, pretty soon it'll get boring. So what you do is drop
the tension for a little bit and make the player think, "yep,
yep, who'da'MAN? EH? WHO - DA - MAN!" And then you bomb 'em all
over again. And when you bomb 'em again, it will be even more
spectacular since he's just experienced a moment of calm (this is
contrast we're working with here).
<P>For example, in Tetris [again], whenever you got a tetris,
and bring the stacks down four lines, you feel really good. You
just rescued an impossible situation, putting yourself back into
the game and you get that upsurge of self-glory. You also get a
moment to calm yourself from all the tension. In Space Invaders,
that calm is also experienced when you kill all but a few of the
guys. Then, when you blast the last one from the line, it all
starts over again. Terror rains down on you twice as hard.
<P>Basically, in a nutshell, it's the feeling in the back of
your mind that you're gonna get whooped eventually -the fun is
whooping everyone else before they whoop you :) Swarming though,
is just one of the elements that make up a fun game, there are
still three more.
<P><I>The Simplicity</I>
<P>All the above games possessed another attribute that
contributed to their fun-factor, and that is their simplicity.
All of those games were very easy to play. In Space Invaders you
were limited to four directional movements (in some versions,
just two) and one shoot button. The gameplay was incredibly
obvious - shoot the baddies before they get you. Simple, and
anyone could play! Pacman is another excellent example of both
swarming and simplicity. All you have to do is grab the lil'
dots. Oh, and those big flashing dots mean you can gobble up the
baddies. Easy!!! I've just explained the game in two simple
sentences and it is precisely this aspect that made those games
great quarter-eaters. Okay, that's fine for these types of
games, but what about RPGs or Adventures? AHA! Well, lemme
explain them right now.
<P><I>The Story</I>
<P>I won't go into this huge, in-depth discussion on RPGs -that
is not the goal of this article. Instead, let's just generally
overview an RPG/Adventure style game. These games focus on
stories (generally). A good story would usually enhances this
type of game. Now the avid reader would be quick to say, "okay
ya lil' punk. You just finished tellin' me 'bout simple and
swarm and how they make such great games. Now you're tellin' me
that games need story too? WHAT THE !#%! Space Invaders had NO,
[i repeat NO!] story!" In which my response would be, "well
technically, it did..." heh, nah just kidding.
<P>Anyways, that avid reader would be 100% correct in stating
that because the more swarm there is, the less of a story is
allowed. Swarm creates action, simple as that. However, swarm
also depends on simplicity to aid it in achieving
flippin'-wicked-fun status. In order to achieve that
flippin'-wicked-fun status though, it must drop everything that
is not needed, and that includes the story.
<P>Anyhow, RPG/Adventure games are not meant to swarm, but to
tell a story. Thus, we can deduce that in a swarm-type of game,
there would be virtually no story. In an RPG/Adventure, there'd
be less swarm, but more story.
<P>"Well, that's great man, but whadda'bout Quake smart guy?" what about quake :)
<P><I>The Simulation</I>
<P>If you know me very well, I often refer to Quake as a
simulation. Now you may think that I'm off my rocker, but that's
probably just because my definition of simulation is different
than yours. My definition is best explained through an example.
Quake Team Fortress is a simulation because you pretend to be
another person. You pretend to be a sniper, a soldier, a heavy
weapons guy, etc. With a strategy game like Jagged Alliance, a
simulation factor still exists. This is because you're
pretending to be a squad leader manoeuvring your mercs into
better position, just like in real life. From the above, you can
begin to see what I mean by simulation.
<P>What simulation does is attempt to create a realistic world
(at least in its context). QuakeTF does this very well. Sniper
rifles act like sniper rifles. Heavy machine guns sound and feel
like a real machine gun, etc. In JA, real world tactics are put
into use (crouching, sneaking up, ambushes, etc.) adding more to
the simulation factor. However, simplicity must be sacrificed in
order to achieve this. For example, in Space Invaders you could
move up, down, left, right and shoot. That's it. But in Quake,
you can walk and run up, down, left right, shoot, zoom in, jump,
etc. Quake is obviously more complicated but that's because it
has tried to simulate a new world.
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