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Ready... Set... Compile!
In this chapter we will discuss some of the necessary elements of a game. Some of these ideas are going to seem very obvious to you, but you would be surprised at how often the obvious is overlooked. I'll start by listing the elements of a good game, and then I want you to get to work. When you have your game up and running, come back and look at this check list. Make sure you didn't miss anything important.Necessary Elements of a Game
So you probably thought all you needed to write a game was a fast game engine that did a few tricks like z-buffering and flicker-free scrolling, didn't you? Admit it, you did a few fast blits and you thought you were well on your way to being a game developer. Well study this list again. There is a long way to go between making a game engine and making a game.
Title The title should say something about the game, and should also jump out and grab the player. It should make your game stand out from the 16 billion other games. Choosing a title is difficult. Good luck.
Title Screen Believe it or not, the first game I wrote (back in 1987) didn't have one of these. I don't know why, I just forgot it. Put a title screen on your game. Title screens are important, because they set the mood for the whole game. This is where you make your first impression. Make it nice. If you don't know where to begin working on your game, this is a good place to start. If you can display a title screen, that means you have leaped over some major hurdles. You have created your first piece of artwork, using some kind of paint or art program. You have set the video mode to a graphics mode. You have displayed the graphic in the chosen video mode. Congratulations, you have accomplished something.
If you need help setting the video mode and displaying the graphic file, don't panic. Grab a copy of Fastgraph to make this first step very easy.
Credits ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS give yourself credit. Do it even if you are humble. Do it because I am telling you to do it. You may put credits wherever it artistically suits your fancy. Credits can go on a screen by themselves, or on the title screen, or on an exit screen, or on all three places. They should go in the manual too. More about this in Chapter 8.
Give everybody who worked on your game credit, within reason. Your artist and musician should definitely get credit. If a beta tester is particularly helpful, you might mention him with a "special thanks to". It is not necessary to give your tools credit, unless you feel they are especially wonderful. Some people give Fastgraph credit in their games, but most people do not. If you use a particularly good rendering program to create your artwork, you can mention it if you like. It is not customary to give credit to Microsoft for the operating system, or to Borland or Watcom for the compiler. But otherwise, giving credit where it is due generates goodwill, and tends to come back to you.
Intro Some kind of intro sequence greatly helps many types of games. Whether the intro involves elaborate cinematics, a text narration of the storyline, or just a static screen that sets the mood, your game will benefit from an introduction. Be careful when using elaborate introductions, though. They tend to get old. Allow the user to press a key to bypass the intro sequence if it is long. Also, you may want to give the player the option of viewing the intro again, perhaps by selecting a menu item. Give the user a chance to impress his friends by running through the intro sequence again.
Control Panel Put some thought into how the player will control the game. The player should be able to pause and resume the game, start a new game, turn the music off and on, display high scores and instructions, and perhaps even print the order form if the game is shareware. An attractive, innovative control panel is more interesting than a plain Windows menu, but the Windows menu is more familiar and will be easier for novice users to navigate. Experiment with this.
User Interface The user interface is not the same as the control panel. A control panel may pop up as needed, but a user interface is necessary to control the game play and exists throughout the execution of the game. Elements of the user interface include keyboard, mouse and joystick control as well as menus and score panels.
Help Screens Help screens need to be designed carefully. They should be helpful. They should also be easy to get to. Try to anticipate where your users are going to have trouble, and give them the help they need.
Mouse Cursor Why would you want to stick with a boring old arrow-shaped mouse cursor when a whole world of images is available to you? Some developers like to change the shape of the mouse cursor when the mouse moves over an active area of the screen, or "hot spot".
Music and sound Modern games are expected to support sound cards. Windows makes this task a bit easier, although there are DOS sound and music toolkits available. The irony is, most people turn off the music when they play a game. People like to listen to their own music on their home stereo system. But if music is not available, your game will be considered substandard and unprofessional. Go figure.
Art You need art. Don't try to do all the art and programming yourself. Make friends with a good artist. Treat your artist well. If your artist has trouble with things like VGA palettes, write palette matching utilities and work around him. For articles on palette matching utilities, refer to my other web page.
Storyline Not all games need a storyline. Usually adventure games and action games have storylines. But even a puzzle game can benefit from a good storyline. Consider Rings of the Magi. It's a simple puzzle game where you push tokens around and clear the board by matching pairs. The game would play the same with or without a storyline, but the author chose to include a story about magicians and their apprentices, and a mythical land graphically displayed in the opening cinematics. This simple game won Computer Gaming World's puzzle game of the year award .
Playability A game needs to capture the imagination of the player. It needs to be fun. It needs to be easy enough that even a novice can start playing and challenging enough that it can't be beat in the first hour. Desiging a game with excellent playability is the essence of game development. Good luck with this.
Levels Many types of games have levels. Put the easy levels first, to hook the user in and convince him he is capable of mastering the game. Then put in some hard levels to keep the user from getting bored. Games with levels lend themselves well to many kinds of marketing strategies, including shareware distribution, add-ons, sequels, and demos.
Utilities If you are going to have levels, you will need a level editor. Similarly, if you are going to use sprites, you will need to acquire (or write) a sprite editor. You will also probably need things like palette matching programs, and programs to organize and compress your data files. Utilities tend to be specific to the game you are working on. In other words, plan on writing some utilities yourself, because chances are you will not be able to find, buy or download all the utilities you need.
Demo Mode Demo modes have various functions. They can be used as selling tools, tutorials, cheats, or screen savers. Not all games lend themselves to demo modes, but those that do benefit greatly from their inclusion.
God Mode Cheat mode that allows the game developer, his best friend, and all the hackers on the internet to obtain all the power, wealth, energy and weapons. This game element is usually dispensable.
Exit Screens Think about your goals when designing your exit screen. In a shareware game, this is an excellent place to ask for the order. In other games, this is a good place to invite the user to come back and play again later. Personally, I don't care for insulting exit screens ("giving up, wimp?") but some people use them, and perhaps they fit in some games.
Documentation The game isn't finished until the paperwork is done. You need to describe how to start the game, how to play the game, common problems, how to order the game (if it is shareware) and where to go for more information and technical support. Also, in an effort to make your documentation interesting, try putting a bit of the storyline in your documentation, or a bit of humor. Proof-read your documentation for accuracy and readibility. Then proof-read it again. Be professional. If you have trouble with this, get help. Ask your beta-testers to look over your documentation, or ask your girlfriend or your mom. Do whatever it takes, but don't skimp on the documentation.
Copyright Put a copyright notice on everything. Put it on the documentation, on the artwork, on the game, and on your web page. Consider registering your copyright. It isn't expensive (around $25) and the benefits usually outweigh the inconvenience. If you have questions about check the U.S. Copyright Office web page , or read a good book on the subject. Better yet, consult an attorney.
Setup Program Just when you thought you were done, you get to start all over again on a whole new program! Isn't game development wonderful? I remember the old days when all your users expected out of you was a GO.BAT. Now they want you to unarchive their files for them, put them in a subdirectory, and add an icon to their Windows desktop. What fun.
Shareware Considerations In addition to the game elements listed above, you will need to keep your marketing strategy in mind if you are writing a shareware game. In particular, remember the user will generally see the software without written instructions, and will often need some help getting started. Also remember the role you are assuming: you are self-publishing software. That means you need to handle the marketing elements as well as the design and development aspects.
READ.ME This would be a good place put instructions on how to download and unzip the file, except that your users will never see it unless they have already downloaded and unzipped the file. Think about it.
File description Most people put the file description in a file called FILE_ID.DIZ This helps sysops (webmasters?) describe your game on bulletin boards or in internet archives. There is a particular format for these files, left over from the days when BBS file descriptions were 40-something characters wide. Whatever.
License Agreement The license agreement states under what circumstances a user can play your game. In the case of a shareware game, this includes how long a user may "evaluate" the game before they must "register" it. Look at other license agreements to see what is standard for games in the market you are targeting. Also read books on the subject. If you are not sure, consult with an attorney, but beware -- not all attorneys understand the nuances of software distribution. Try to find a good, knowledgeable attorney.
Vendor Instructions Take control of how your software is distributed! Your copyright means exactly what it sounds like -- you have the right to determine under what conditions your software may be copied. Take steps to retain and exert that right. At the very least, require that vendors get written permission from you before putting your shareware versions on their CD-ROMs or selling them in retail stores. If your game is in demand, consider requiring royalties from vendors.
Order Form It's not enough just to tell people to register your shareware. You have to tell them how to regester it. Put an order form in your shareware distribution, and make sure it contains all the necessary fields: name, address, title, cost, shipping, and method of payment. Don't make the order form difficult to find. If possible, print it as a menu option in your game, or better yet put it on your exit screen: "Print order form now? Y/N".
Registration Incentives This is vitally important to the success or failure of your shareware business. Give the users a good reason to send you money. Don't just nag them. Give them something of value in return for sending in the order form along with their check. You can give them more levels, another game, printed documentation, or a key that unlocks certain features.
Time limits An unregistered shareware game doesn't have to work forever. After a while, start nagging the user. After another while, your program can stop working. If you want, you can embed the date of first use into the high scores file. Your users can reset the program by deleting the high scores file, but a majority of your users will not be that sophisticated. You might as well keep your security measures simple, because anything can be hacked, and people who are clever enough to hack a sophisticated system will likely not buy your program anyway.
File integrity checks By this I mean something as simple as a CRC check to ensure the integrity of the high scores file. You may want to do this even when there seems to be no obvious need for it. At some time in the future you may want to run a contest as marketing promotion. Your users can email their high scores files to you, and you can check them for integrity. That way you will know if the user is cheating or if he legitimately beat the boss enemy in less than 13 seconds.
Packaging It is not necessary to spend a lot of money on packaging a shareware program. Unlike a product sold in a retail store, the customer will not see the packaging until he has already bought the product. An expensive box with glossy graphics will not increase your sales. On the other hand, you will be showing your game to people, including magazine reviewers and potential publishing partners. You want your packaging to look clean and professional. Put some effort into making a nice disk label and printed manual.
Web Page Virtually all games, shareware and retail, have web pages. Some authors start their web pages before the game is finished, and provide blow-by-blow progress reports as the game is developed. Some authors are better at making web pages than they are at making games. Regardless, you should plan on having at least some kind of web page for your game. It will serve as a marketing tool, as well as a place to refer potential customers, team members, investors and publishers.
Other Marketing You will need to send out press releases and review copies. You will need an attractive web banner to draw users to your site from other sites. You may want to design advertising for magazines or newsletters. Some authors even have brochures. Be clever, and do what you can on a low budget.
But don't get discouraged. You can do it. It may take you a little longer than you expected, but your goal is achievable. Lots of other people have done it, and you can do it too. And guess what? It gets easier with practice. Many of the above elements are reuseable, as is much of the code you write. That's why I recommend your first game be something simple. Get a feel for what kind of effort it takes to put the whole package together, and try not to get bogged down in any single aspect of development.
After you write your first game, don't stop. It is already time to get started on your second game. For some tips on that, consult Chapter 6.
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Are You A Genius? | ||
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This site created and maintained by
Diana Gruber.
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