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Software Game Design Issues

Software Game Design Issues. Peter L. Jackson School of O.R. and I.E. Cornell University. What makes for a good game?. Fast, fun, and understandable Pleasing to the eye and to the touch Competitive: nontrivial but not impossible Social: stimulates interaction

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Software Game Design Issues

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  1. Software Game Design Issues Peter L. Jackson School of O.R. and I.E. Cornell University

  2. What makes for a good game? • Fast, fun, and understandable • Pleasing to the eye and to the touch • Competitive: nontrivial but not impossible • Social: stimulates interaction • Relevant: connects with the real world • Skill-building: not pure chance or autoplay

  3. Overview • Evolution of game software elements: a personal history • Examples from 7 games • Towards a data-driven game interface • Network game architecture • Game software design recommendations • Game design recommendations

  4. The Mfg. Operations Game Menu buttons Text-based screen Large font List-limited inputs

  5. The Distribution Game Menu Simple score Few inputs Graphical analysis Animated pictorial state of system Multi-purpose screen sections Button control

  6. The Transportation Game Multiple cascaded screens Drag and drop interaction

  7. Process Optimization Menu buttons replace menus Multi-purpose screen sections High impact art Diverse inputs with pictorial clues Graphical analysis Quick help text line

  8. The M.F.D. Pull Game Animated pictorial state of system Multi-purpose screen sections Message line Quick help text line Centralized control panel

  9. Situations Flavor the Game The Manufacturing Operations Game The M.F.D. Pull Game

  10. Commercial Game Screen: “Deadlock” Iconic menu buttons Pseudo 3-D view with high impact animated art Multiple screen sections

  11. The M.F.D. THRUPUT Game Pseudo 3-D view with high impact animated art Graphical analysis from database query Quick help text line Query control dialog Menu button panel Centralized control and dialog panel Multi-purpose screen sections

  12. The M.F.D. Thruput Game Cyclical game sequence control

  13. The Engineering Factory Large font status row Multi-purpose screen sections Variable size Menu button panel High impact art section Quick help text line Centralized control and dialog area Variable size

  14. The Engineering Factory Graphical analysis from database query: networks and multi-level axes Drill-down list for query control Multi-purpose screen sections Centralized dialog panel

  15. Situations Flavor the Game Rich text format document view; document stored in database 3-D rotational view

  16. Towards a Data-Driven Game Interface • Game components are becoming standard • Programming and layout is repetitive • Data are coming from relational databases • Put component descriptions in database too • Databases provide both data and instructions on how to display data • Graphs, lists, tree lists, dialogs, control panels, rich text documents, images • Result: game interface is more generic

  17. Towards a Data-Driven Game Interface Tables and queries define complex charts Queries define multi-level indices Tables define dialogs

  18. Network Game Architecture Server Game database executes game Map database describes game Clients Clients interact with game database

  19. Game Software Design Recommendations • Use multi-purpose screen sections • Reserve a section for a centralized control panel (even if it blocks view) • Make next steps obvious: eg. cycle • Use high impact art • Illustrate situations • Animate resource states • Customize buttons • (Hire an artist) • Don’t try to be funny: play it straight

  20. Game Software Design Recommendations (cont’d) • Represent state of system pictorially • Animate resource state changes • Show history in graphical form • Display status in large font • (for instructor to see) • Plan for different screen resolutions • Use iconic menu buttons rather than menus • Add tool help text (balloons or text line)

  21. Game Design Recommendations • Identify a small number of decision variables in a repetitive decision problem • Prefer low-level decision to high-level • eg. Next city to visit rather than which TSP algorithm to use • Flavor the game with situations • Break monotony of repetitive problem • Illustrate complex problems but treat them as exceptions • Keep scoring (and tradeoffs) simple

  22. For More Information • Web page • http:///www.orie.cornell.edu/~jackson • E-mail: • pj16@cornell.edu

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