Here are some randomly selected innovations of recent years that I think have set great examples for other games. These games may not have pioneered the features I discuss, but they're certainly popular representations of those features.
This will be a series that I update with further articles from time to time.
HALO
The oldest innovation I'll mention is Halo's regenerating shield. Many shooter games now have regenerating health, and I think it's a great system. It doesn't just eliminate rationing and enable a wider range of tactics. It also allows players to take more risks, take combat to the edge more often. It offers the thrill of barely surviving and beating the enemy just a moment before your own defeat. Regenerating health isn't always the best health system, but I'd use it more often than not.
Strangely, regenerating health seems to be strongly associated with guns. It could fit a fantasy game like Oblivion or other adventure games just as well.
ASSASSIN'S CREED
Two features in Assassin's Creed stand out. The key to both in context sensitivity.
The first is the climbing and acrobatics. The context-sensitive controls are incredibly simple. Assassin's Creed is one of the few blockbuster adventure games that is truly friendly to people who don't play games often... yet the simple controls are not "dumbed down" and are just as enjoyable for seasoned gamers. The animations are elegant and fluid. And the open setting offers many fresh and interesting structures to climb and cross.
The second feature is the combat. Assassin's Creed has the best swordplay of any game I've played, hands down. Once again -- elegant and interesting. The simple, context-sensitive controls offer a variety of options without demanding that the player remember lots of button combinations or hit some random button at some random time. The same moves that are used against one enemy can be used against simultaneous enemies, but the flow changes. Granted, combat didn't vary enough in the first game, though it seems they're fixing that in the sequel. Batman: Arkham Asylum makes use of a similar combat system, and it's just as gratifying.
One potential for future context sensitivity is to make environmental structures, objects, and conditions more relevant. A single combat animation doesn't have to bound to a single result. A particular move can be more effective on some enemies than on others. One knockback becomes effectively a different experiences from another when one sends the enemy slamming against a wall and the other sends the enemy over a ledge. And animations for events like flinging nearby objects (like in Sid Meier's Pirates! swordfighting) can be well worth the extra work.
SPORE
Spore demonstrated potential for procedural generation, the creation of content by code on-the-fly. Similar systems appear in Diablo 2 and Borderlands. The basic goal is consistently fresh gameplay and endless discovery.
Obviously, fresh isn't always the same as exciting or even surprising. But the existence of less-than-thrilling content can be made fun by context. Just think of the natural world. Not every animal or plant grabs your attention, but the plentiful existence of mundane things like squirrels and common shrubs makes other things more remarkable. And even the mundane can surprise at times. Likewise, few would claim Diablo 2 would have been better if item diversity was exchanged for consistent quality. Spore is not made dull by milder and more predictable creations.
Much more could be done in applying this strategy to setting. It's one thing to replay the same setting under dynamic circumstances. It's quite different to journey through a new setting.
Also, I'd like to see procedural generation applied to NPCs. I'm not talking about dilaog, which requires hand-crafting. But loyalties, motivations, desires and other driving conditions of character could be generated on-the-fly for a world's characters and beasts... made unique for every player.
Showing posts with label models. Show all posts
Showing posts with label models. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
natural models for limited resources
One practice of game developers that sometimes annoys players is repetitive use of creature models. Art assets cost time and money. To stretch their value, developers sometimes apply a new color scheme and new stats to an old model, and voila! a new creature! It's not just a goblin now. No, it's a water goblin!
Well, with a little guidance from God's own handiwork, this method can be made more acceptable to players and perhaps augment gameplay at the same time.
Nature is full of encoded color schemes. Provided a game doesn't provide labels over the heads of its creatures like EQ, variations in color schemes can be used to reward player knowledge and create more depthful gameworlds.
One of the more famous models of real mimicry is the kingsnake/milksnake, which has a striped pattern very similar to that of the coral snake, only with the colors arranged in different order. ("Red on yellow kills a fellow. Red on black, ok Jack", if I remember right). The kingsnake's bite is harmless, but the coral snake is venemous. Thus, two possible mix-ups are if a person avoids the harmless snake for mistaking its color for the venemous snake, or a person might mistake the venemous snake for the harmless one and get into a peck of trouble.
Applying this situation to a game, players could be encouraged to develop an awareness of the gameworld's natural trickery (or paying for a companion with such knowledge) and opportunities are created for interesting encounters. Applied merely to unintelligent creatures, the player might get unwarranted scares or make deadly mistakes, like with the snake example above. Applied to intelligent beings, like a humanoid race, differences in appearance could inform players of community differences (it's the economy-focused Albek tribe, not the war-mongering Magori) which affect gameplay.
These differences could be more than just "threatening/non-threatening". They could inform the player of the best approach to different ends (Tribe A is susceptible to intimidation, Tribe B to bribery, Tribe C to foreign jewelry or weapons, etc). The coloration of some insects and amphibians informs birds that they taste disgusting or cause vomiting/sickness in some other way. Likewise, different colored species of one creature model in a game might inform the player that its hide produces poor tailoring results, that it cannot be eaten, or that this particular species can climb trees.
There may be any number of situational clues. An animal's rank among its pack/herd/whatever may be signified by its color pattern. Maybe taking out the leader first causes the others to flee or lose leadership buffs. Some species may be loners, others typically found in small groups, while others typically found in large groups. If a game allowed members of a creature group to dynamically stray short distances from one another, then coloration could add to the player's strategic repertoire by giving the knowledgeable players a means of determining how many allies a target creature is likely to have nearby. Coloration and size may denote the creature's sex, signifying dynamics such as aggressiveness... never mess with a mother guarding her young. =) With humanoids, apparel may signify profession...and thereby threat level, persuasion avenues, etc.
And then there's the obvious use of coloration: camouflage. I have yet to experience an encounter in any game in which camouflage made a creature difficult to detect or pinpoint while moving. Camouflage has many purposes in the real world, one of which is to make it difficult for viewers to focus on and determine the true shape of an animal. Translucent enemies in a few FPS games (ex: Halo) have demonstrated the fun than can be derived from enemies difficult to track.
There are countless opportunities available through stuff already modeled in the real world like this. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Another branch of nature modeling is stuff like a rattlesnake's rattles and the growling of dogs...tension-building warning systems.
Writers are commonly advised to write about what they know, a philosophy which has proven extremely effective for generations. The same advice applies to game developers. The natural world is limitless in models and lessons for environment and character design.
Well, with a little guidance from God's own handiwork, this method can be made more acceptable to players and perhaps augment gameplay at the same time.
Nature is full of encoded color schemes. Provided a game doesn't provide labels over the heads of its creatures like EQ, variations in color schemes can be used to reward player knowledge and create more depthful gameworlds.
One of the more famous models of real mimicry is the kingsnake/milksnake, which has a striped pattern very similar to that of the coral snake, only with the colors arranged in different order. ("Red on yellow kills a fellow. Red on black, ok Jack", if I remember right). The kingsnake's bite is harmless, but the coral snake is venemous. Thus, two possible mix-ups are if a person avoids the harmless snake for mistaking its color for the venemous snake, or a person might mistake the venemous snake for the harmless one and get into a peck of trouble.
Applying this situation to a game, players could be encouraged to develop an awareness of the gameworld's natural trickery (or paying for a companion with such knowledge) and opportunities are created for interesting encounters. Applied merely to unintelligent creatures, the player might get unwarranted scares or make deadly mistakes, like with the snake example above. Applied to intelligent beings, like a humanoid race, differences in appearance could inform players of community differences (it's the economy-focused Albek tribe, not the war-mongering Magori) which affect gameplay.
These differences could be more than just "threatening/non-threatening". They could inform the player of the best approach to different ends (Tribe A is susceptible to intimidation, Tribe B to bribery, Tribe C to foreign jewelry or weapons, etc). The coloration of some insects and amphibians informs birds that they taste disgusting or cause vomiting/sickness in some other way. Likewise, different colored species of one creature model in a game might inform the player that its hide produces poor tailoring results, that it cannot be eaten, or that this particular species can climb trees.
There may be any number of situational clues. An animal's rank among its pack/herd/whatever may be signified by its color pattern. Maybe taking out the leader first causes the others to flee or lose leadership buffs. Some species may be loners, others typically found in small groups, while others typically found in large groups. If a game allowed members of a creature group to dynamically stray short distances from one another, then coloration could add to the player's strategic repertoire by giving the knowledgeable players a means of determining how many allies a target creature is likely to have nearby. Coloration and size may denote the creature's sex, signifying dynamics such as aggressiveness... never mess with a mother guarding her young. =) With humanoids, apparel may signify profession...and thereby threat level, persuasion avenues, etc.
And then there's the obvious use of coloration: camouflage. I have yet to experience an encounter in any game in which camouflage made a creature difficult to detect or pinpoint while moving. Camouflage has many purposes in the real world, one of which is to make it difficult for viewers to focus on and determine the true shape of an animal. Translucent enemies in a few FPS games (ex: Halo) have demonstrated the fun than can be derived from enemies difficult to track.
There are countless opportunities available through stuff already modeled in the real world like this. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Another branch of nature modeling is stuff like a rattlesnake's rattles and the growling of dogs...tension-building warning systems.
Writers are commonly advised to write about what they know, a philosophy which has proven extremely effective for generations. The same advice applies to game developers. The natural world is limitless in models and lessons for environment and character design.
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