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Chapter 1 ■ IntroduCtIon to Game development
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• Entertaining: Above all, the adventure game should be entertaining. Whether it comes from
humorous interaction, intriguing animation sequences, or intellectual conundrums, game
play and environment must draw the player in and keep him engaged.
• Story/Goal: The game is not a Big Book of Puzzles. The tasks or puzzles should at least have
a logical, mechanical, or physical tie to the world’s defined properties (as in the case of magic
being part of its description) and, preferably, tie in with the premise of the story.
• Object interaction: Interaction with objects is one of the defining features in all aspects of
the genre. Whether the player is allowed to gather objects or must only work with what is
immediately at hand, the typical point-and-click functionality is a mainstay.
• Object-to-object interactivity: A big part of the task-solving component of adventure games
is the player’s ability to combine multiple objects to attain the key that lets him solve a
problem or repair a mechanism in order to move the game forward. While this is not always
present in all adventure games, it is a common feature.
• Conversations: Player dialogue with NPCs (non-player characters) definitely falls under
the bells-and-whistles category, but can be a great addition to your game. Keep in mind that
you don’t want the player to miss any clues within them. For topic choices that don’t contain
clues or pertinent information, be sure to make the replies entertaining, so the player will be
rewarded for his diligence.
• Inventory: Also not a requirement but a much loved component is the inventory system.
In order to allow the player to collect everything that is not nailed down, the game must keep
it all readily available for use. Sophisticated or large games should also provide a means of
scrolling through the player’s stash, in case the onscreen representation of the contents of the
inventory is limited.
• Save/Restore: Unlike many of today’s casual games, even the shorter chapter-style adventure
games are rarely played from start to finish in one sitting. Players may devote an hour or so
in an evening to playing the game, stopping when they are stuck and starting up again when
their mind is fresh. Saving the game is a necessity when the game is expected to give the player
several hours of enjoyment over a period of days or weeks.
• Music and sound effects: As defined by the early graphical games, sound effects helped
reinforce and enhance object interaction. Music not only sets the mood for the individual
worlds or environments but is also commonly used as part of the solution to puzzles or
tasks in game.
• Action objects: Also common to the various derivations of the adventure genre is a means
of identifying interactive objects. In the original text adventures, the interactive objects were
always listed after the general room description. With the shift to graphical adventures, the
player was often forced to search a still image pixel by pixel to find the available objects.
Occasionally, objects could be identified by their lack of anti-aliasing, but with advancing
technology and higher resolution, it became common to change the cursor or highlight the
cursor/action object when the mouse moved over it.
Tips for Completing Your First Game
Even at its simplest, the game-creation process is not trivial. For those of you who have taken game-design courses
where you were required to create a 20+ page design document, it’s time to come back to reality. Unless you have
unlimited funds and a well-seasoned game studio at your beck and call, implementing your grand plan is probably
not going to be realistic. Lock it away and hide the key. Until you know what the engine, your programming skills, and
your art skills are capable of, consider that you are building a prototype. Getting stuck on finish details near the start of