Book Image

Practical Game Design

By : Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci
Book Image

Practical Game Design

By: Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci

Overview of this book

If you are looking for an up-to-date and highly applicable guide to game design, then you have come to the right place! Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of game design with this book, written by two highly experienced industry professionals to share their profound insights as well as give valuable advice on creating games across genres and development platforms. Practical Game Design covers the basics of game design one piece at a time. Starting with learning how to conceptualize a game idea and present it to the development team, you will gradually move on to devising a design plan for the whole project and adapting solutions from other games. You will also discover how to produce original game mechanics without relying on existing reference material, and test and eliminate anticipated design risks. You will then design elements that compose the playtime of a game, followed by making game mechanics, content, and interface accessible to all players. You will also find out how to simultaneously ensure that the gameplay mechanics and content are working as intended. As the book reaches its final chapters, you will learn to wrap up a game ahead of its release date, work through the different challenges of designing free-to-play games, and understand how to significantly improve their quality through iteration, polishing and playtesting.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Chapter 10. Characters

It is time to see how characters are created and managed in the game world. When talking about characters, it is the game designer's responsibility to translate into gameplay what characters are, what they do, and what their skills, abilities, and behaviors might be. It is no coincidence that we discussed Narrative and how to write characters first in Chapter 8, Games and Stories. Even for the simplest character, a few lines are required to answer some basic questions. These answers, no matter how simple or basic, are going to have a deep impact on the player's perception of the game world.

Take Space Invaders, for example:

The main characters in Space Invaders: the invading aliens and your ship!

It features only four types of enemies: small, medium, and large invaders and the UFO ship. Nonetheless, writing who these characters are, where they are from, and why they are there is crucial to determining their design and implementation. All the invaders have the same speed...