Chapter 9

Contemporary Game Design (1996–Present)

New Hardware for Real-Time 3D Gaming

The momentum behind real-time, polygon-based 3D games began as a jog in the early 1990s (see Chapter 8) and became a sprint by the decade’s end. New hardware upgrades for IBM compatible computers changed the fundamental nature of PC gaming, taking it from its methodical, turn-based roots and transforming it into a preeminent platform for fast-paced 3D games. Intel’s 1993 Pentium processor, a much faster chip relative to the earlier 386 and 486 processors, made much of this transition possible, as it was better designed for calculating complex 3D images. The Pentium and its successor, the Pentium II, became standard requirements for 3D computer games of the mid to late 1990s. The demand for peak performance also led to a market for consumer model 3D-accelerated graphics cards, which made certain 3D games run faster. Although 3D-accelerated graphics cards were initially a luxury for enthusiasts, they became a required component for gaming by the early 2000s.

The hardware for home consoles, too, was changing. Between 1994 and 1996, Sega, Sony, and Nintendo each released a new “fifth-generation” home console. Sony’s entrance into the home console market with the 1994 PlayStation proved to be a disruptive event for both Nintendo and Sega. Developers, long loyal to the two gaming giants, became interested in Sony’s platform after seeing its 3D capabilities, which provided sufficient power for games, and its large storage capacity CDs that allowed the use of video without special add-ons (see Chapter 8). The cartridges for the 1996 Nintendo 64, though able to load game data faster than CDs, paled in terms of storage capacity and required developers to resort to a number of tricks to provide the desired game experience. Sega meanwhile, attempted to compete in the 3D-focused fifth generation with its 1995 CD-based Saturn console. The unit’s performance, however, was lackluster. An unusual hardware design made it difficult for game developers to take full advantage of 3D applications, which further exacerbated Sega’s problems in the console market. With the leading hardware and software developers firmly committed to 3D visuals delivered in real time, interest in 2D games began to rapidly evaporate.

3D Game Design in the Late 1990s

Platforming and Adventure Games in Full 3D

Character-based action games, such as 2D platformers, became staples of the game industry as they helped build brand identity (see Chapter 7). The prospect of “upgrading” these 2D games into full 3D was enticing for both developers and players; however, it posed problems related to views of the game space, level design, and the fundamental movement-based gameplay. Although a number of developers in the late 1980s and early 1990s experimented with gameplay from 3D or pseudo-3D perspectives, the first major set of fully 3D character-based action games was Nintendo’s Super Mario 64 (1996), Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot (1996), and Core Design’s Tomb Raider (1996). These titles helped lay the groundwork for subsequent 3D games as they required their developers to rethink inherited assumptions and develop new design solutions.

Nintendo’s Super Mario 64, overseen by Shigeru Miyamoto, not only translated the essence of its 2D predecessors, but also took advantage of the new possibilities offered by 3D space. Super Mario 64 featured many of the traditional Mario game elements such as distinctive game worlds, collecting coins, and discovering hidden areas, but did so with a unique sense of looseness that inspired playful exploration. Arcade-influenced design concepts, intended to promote a fast turnaround of players and encourage repeat play—timed levels, the accumulation of score, one hit death—were completely removed. Players, instead, were invited to experience the simple pleasure of unhindered movement through 3D space: Mario could walk, run, jump, slide, flip, climb, swim, ricochet off surfaces, and even fly through the air (Figure 9.1).

These athletic interactions were supported by multi-tiered game levels that maximized their space by containing up to six different objectives that were completed over several visits. These objectives ranged from defeating a boss character to winning a race against a computer-controlled opponent. Coin collecting, ever a staple of the franchise, became an excuse to explore every 3D nook and cranny in detail and helped make the game spaces feel alive as players always had something to do. Each completed objective yielded a special star currency that was used to unlock more of the game’s levels. Although previous games like Super Mario World allowed players to repeat levels in order to attain different rewards, repeating levels was essential for Super Mario 64, as the game contained 15 main levels; a number that on the surface was significantly lower than the franchise’s preceding 2D games. Reusing the levels for alternative objectives, thus, helped maximize the gameplay and familiarize the player with the 3D spaces.

The game’s large range of movement options in 3D space required that Super Mario 64 have a different type of controller, one capable of reading greater nuance. The Nintendo 64’s unique three-pronged controller (Figure 8.7) was developed in tandem with Super Mario 64 and met the game’s input needs. Although it featured several new buttons, the central analog stick was the most important for input. The traditional directional pad measured a discrete number of states that were either “on” or “off.” The analog stick, in contrast, allowed nearly an infinite number of states, creating a remarkable degree of precision for moving in 3D environments. In Super Mario 64, this meant Mario’s movement became even more intuitive. Pushing the stick slightly in any direction made Mario walk; pushing it all the way accelerated him to a run.

Even with analog control, the typical Mario-based gameplay of jumping on enemies to defeat them was more difficult to execute in a 3D environment—especially for those unfamiliar with 3D gameplay. The player was thus given more spatially friendly attacks: the ability to slide into or punch and kick enemies while a set of “hit points” permitted players to misjudge distances or run into the enemy multiple times before losing a life. Since these actions in Super Mario 64 required a high degree of spatial awareness, the game included a system that allowed players to dynamically switch between three distinct camera modes: following Mario, fixed in place, or orbiting around Mario by using the directional arrows of the controller. Although far from the first instance of player controlled cameras in 3D space, this consideration became a major point of investigation for subsequent games and had ramifications for the design of future controllers as well.

Crash Bandicoot, by American developer, Naughty Dog, was released on Sony’s PlayStation a few months after Super Mario 64 and represented a more literal translation of 2D platformer gameplay to a 3D console. The game introduced the animal character Crash, a spastic bandicoot that became Sony’s answer to Mario and Sonic. Like Nintendo’s platformer games, the player guided the character through themed levels, collecting objects and discovering secret places in an attempt to rescue Crash’s bandicoot girlfriend. Levels in Crash Bandicoot, unlike the open architectural spaces of Super Mario 64, limited lateral player movement and closely resembled the long, linear levels of 2D platformers. Certain game spaces even shifted the non-controllable camera from the predominant behind the character view to a more familiar horizontal, side scrolling perspective. These decisions stemmed from a concern for the player’s ability to adapt to 3D spaces, as well as finding ways to acquaint players with the game’s orange marsupial mascot. The limitation of player movement enabled Naughty Dog to add more detail to the environment, which, along with unique and sophisticated programming techniques, resulted in the game’s lush, jungle setting.

Tomb Raider, by English developer Core Design represented another early approach to fully 3D games and game spaces. The game focused on adventure and exploration, as the game’s character, archaeologist Lara Croft, avoided traps and searched for treasure in locations ranging from Peru to the lost city of Atlantis. Like Super Mario 64, Tomb Raider featured a range of acrobatic moves that allowed the player to jump, flip, climb, and cling to ledges. These techniques were used to solve the game’s “3D spatial puzzles” which usually required properly timed jumps, followed by a sequence of other moves to reach keys or other items that allowed the player to progress. Tomb Raider, in addition to platforming gameplay, took advantage of its 3D space by including numerous combat segments that involved shooting enemies and dodging in multiple directions. The design of the 3D levels in Tomb Raider struck a balance between elements of Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot: they contained a variety of vertical heights and explorable spaces, but typically followed the form of branching linear paths.

Game spaces and control schemes evolved rapidly throughout the remainder of the decade and into the 2000s, as developers became increasingly ambitious with a better understanding of the nature of 3D gameplay and the capabilities of 3D hardware. One standout example was Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998). Nintendo’s Ocarina of Time, developed by many of the core creators of Super Mario 64, expanded on the 3D platformer’s open, but individual, game levels. Players of Ocarina of Time, like the previous 2D Zelda games, crisscrossed an interconnected game world, descended into dungeons, fought enemies, and collected objects that granted further access to new spaces. As the franchise was heavily reliant on swordplay, the game’s developers created an innovative way of performing accurate attacks in 3D space called the “Z-targeting” system.* The Z-targeting system allowed the player to lock the game camera and orbit around a single enemy. This allowed players the ability to dodge as well as providing the opportunity to design new types of encounters. Variants of the Z-targeting system were widely adopted after Ocarina of Time and appeared in games ranging from the first-person shooter adaption of Metroid, Metroid Prime (2002, Retro Studios), to the unforgiving third-person, action role-playing game Dark Souls (2011, From Software).

First Person in Full 3D

The effects of full 3D graphics were not as dramatic on first-person shooters because they were already partially in 3D (see Chapter 8). They and their technologies were, nonetheless, a major source of the industry’s rapid adoption of 3D graphics and gameplay. Descent (1995, Parallax Software) was an early example of adapting ideas of the first-person shooter to fully 3D graphics. The gameplay took place in outer space mining colonies overrun by malfunctioning robots. Since the player had 360° freedom to move and turn in any direction in zero gravity space, the design of the robot enemies required using 3D polygons as creating 2D sprites to represent each possible angle would have been inefficient and unconvincing. The game levels took advantage of the ability to fly in any direction as they included sets of turns and loops that would not have been used in standard horizontal-based first-person shooters. The novelty of Descent’s gameplay, originating in its 360° control, led to a set of sequels, Descent II (1996, Parallax Software) and Descent III (1999, Outrage Entertainment), as well as the Descent-like Forsaken (1998, Probe Entertainment).

One of the biggest impacts on fully 3D first-person shooters was id Software’s Quake (1996), which used 3D polygons to create spaces, objects, and enemies. The Quake engine, as in id’s earlier games, efficiently processed 3D elements and allowed the game to run at the desired speed. Part of the game’s efficiency stemmed from the highly compressed color palette of browns and grays. Without a wide range of colors, the game could more easily recreate fully 3D environments, however, it also led to criticism of Quake’s “muddy” visuals. Although the original version of the game did not support a 3D graphics card, id created a hardware-accelerated version of Quake called GLQuake in 1997 which enhanced the game’s colors and smoothed out the textures in addition to granting a boost in performance. For Quake’s highly dedicated and competitive multiplayer deathmatch communities, the performance boost afforded by 3D graphics cards in a game based on quick reactions potentially meant the difference between winning and losing, effectively making the cards an essential component for gameplay.

Despite the breakthrough engine technology, little in terms of gameplay and level design separated Quake from partially 3D games like Doom. The game, like its predecessor, emphasized the horizontal plane as the player used the standard first-person shooter control scheme based entirely on the keyboard for movement and actions. While Quake included commands to look up and down, they were not easily triggered through their default key bindings and were infrequently needed despite the fully 3D game space.

First-person shooters after Quake, adjusted rapidly to the new possibilities of fully 3D gameplay. Spatially, games began to include more vertical elements in the level design, as well as hazards that originated above and below the player. As game spaces evolved in later fully 3D first-person shooters such as Quake II (1997, id Software), Hexen II (1997, Raven Software), and Unreal (1998, Epic Games), control schemes shifted away from a reliance on the keyboard’s arrow keys. In place of arrow keys, players used the keyboard’s WASD keys to move on the ground and used the mouse to change the angle and direction of the view. This provided greater precision and allowed the player to quickly react to changes in the surrounding space.

One of the most coherent and seamless uses of 3D space in first-person shooters was Valve Corporation’s Half-Life (1998). Built using a heavily modified version of the Quake engine, Half-Life intertwined narrative and gameplay in ways seldom seen at the time. The game was set in a sprawling, underground research complex devoted to all types of scientific inquiry. After an accident during a physics experiment opened an interdimensional rift to a hostile alien planet, the player as a surviving scientist, attempted to escape from the depths of the sprawling research facility and halt the ensuing alien invasion. Much of the game consisted of navigating maze-like spaces, gathering weapons, avoiding hazards, and shooting, as in other first-person shooters. Half-Life, however, took full advantage of the possibilities offered by a completely 3D game world. Instead of cut scenes or text boxes, the game’s narrative unfolded in space around the player, creating a continuous experience. Characters, friendly and hostile, acted out scenes and spoke dialog that provided information about the game world. Events, such as the dramatic entrance of a helicopter, helped build tension, while the collapse of a ceiling punctuated gameplay. In all cases, the player remained in control.

Half-Life accomplished its narrative feats through a heavy reliance on scripted sequences, preset behaviors of the environment or characters triggered by the player’s presence. This contrasted with the roaming monsters and static levels of earlier games, as scripted sequences allowed developers to ensure that certain segments of gameplay played out identically each time. Scripted sequences, in addition to relaying the game’s narrative, guided the player toward goals that would be difficult to communicate without breaking immersion. Half-Life also featured numerous spatial-oriented puzzles that utilized the 3D space to a higher degree than its predecessors. Some puzzles centered on activating objects, such as a rocket booster, by triggering a specific sequence of scattered inputs; others required the player to assemble a makeshift platform of crates to bypass electrified water.

Games like Star Wars: Jedi Knight—Dark Forces II (1997, LucasArts), meanwhile, pursued novel directions that combined first- and third-­person perspectives in full 3D. Jedi Knight, a sequel to the 2D sprite/3D space Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995, LucasArts), expanded first-person shooter conventions by including the iconic Star Wars lightsaber and its cinematic range of attacks and defense. Since dynamic melee combat was difficult to control and appreciate in a first-person perspective, the game switched to a third-person perspective that allowed the player to see the game character and enemies in space (Figure 9.3). It also incorporated mechanics for character development such as upgrading abilities with The Force as well as a morality system based on the “light side” and “dark side”—elements that connected the game to trends of hybridization with role-playing game systems.

Other directions for full 3D included a focus on tactical gameplay involving methodically planned actions as seen in strategy games, which ran counter to the prevailing trends of the fast-paced “twitch” gameplay of mainline first-person shooters. The first-person shooters by Red Storm Entertainment, a game studio co-founded by American novelist Tom Clancy, used tactical gameplay to add a degree of sober realism to a genre dominated by exotic weapons and monsters. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six (1998), centered on the missions of an elite anti-terrorist strike force. The game’s design attempted to simulate the reality of armed combat, reflecting Clancy’s literary focus on the tactical elements of modern warfare: running made accurate shooting difficult and a single bullet could kill. This “tactical first-person shooter” required the player to meticulously plan a route through each map and take into account their role as a squad member. Success, thus, required precisely executed actions. Rainbow Six became a major franchise and was later joined by Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon (2001), another first-person shooter that emphasized tactical gameplay.

Hybrid First-Person Shooter/Role-Playing Games at the Turn of the Millennium

The popularity of first-person shooters led to a number of unique design concepts that blended elements from several game genres. Role-playing game systems, in particular, were well suited for this mode of presentation as many dungeon crawling CRPGs were already presented from a first-­person perspective (see Chapters 2 and 6). Early 2D sprite/3D space hybrids included Strife (1996, Rogue Entertainment) as well as many of the games form Looking Glass Studios (see below). In the later 1990s, developers took advantage of rapidly evolving 3D technologies by making the environments themselves an important part of role playing.

Looking Glass Studios and Its Offshoots

Looking Glass Studios was principally important for introducing new types of first-person 3D gameplay. While the studio created a number of innovative technologies, it was primarily known as a design-focused developer. Its reputation was established through the 2D sprite/3D space Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss from 1992 (see Chapter 8), Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993) and the sci-fi-themed System Shock (1994).* Looking Glass Studios continued to focus on game design with Thief: The Dark Project (1998), a title that proved to be a significant departure for fully 3D first-person games. Rather than clearing large rooms of enemies, as in Doom and Quake, players of Thief were discouraged from direct confrontation as the player was unable to withstand large amounts of damage. The game was designed for stealth-based gameplay that required a keen awareness of sound and the strategic use of shadows to navigate a darkly lit, medieval-themed world. A variety of arrows performed useful actions such as extinguishing torches, distracting enemies, and dampening the sound of footsteps. Players used cunning to slip past patrolling guards and undead foes, and were given nonlethal options for subduing enemies.

Each of the game’s levels contained quests that ranged from stealing objects to escaping from captivity. The game-level design added another dimension to the play: it allowed the player to utilize multiple paths toward each mission’s goal. Players, thus, had an uncommon degree of choice for how to approach the game’s challenges. The game’s minimal interface primarily consisted of an indicator that showed the player’s degree of visibility to enemies and provided a high degree of immersion as it moved away from the information-dense windows seen in earlier FPSs and dungeon crawling CRPGs.

Looking Glass Studio’s willingness to pursue 3D game concepts outside of established genres was continued by a number of its employees who departed the studio for new opportunities. Irrational Games was a studio formed in 1997 by former Looking Glass Studios developers Ken Levine, Robert Fermier, and Jonathan Chey. Amiably collaborating with their former employer and using the technology that powered Thief, Irrational Games released the highly acclaimed sci-fi horror game, System Shock 2 in 1999 (Figure 9.4). System Shock 2 was set on a derelict spaceship after a parasitic alien virus infected the crew and turned them into hostile hosts. The player, a lone soldier suffering from amnesia, was tasked with finding a way to stop the infection. The game drew heavily from CRPGs, which led to an uncommonly rich set of game systems for a first-person shooter: the player chose one of three character specializations, each with differences for gameplay. Players were able to upgrade physical stats and individual skills in areas such as weapons, psychic powers, and computer hacking ability; an inventory allowed them to collect items, some needing research prior to use; weapons required repair after repeated use and could be modified to change function.

In addition to cinematic cut scenes for narrative exposition, the game’s simple but atmospheric environments drew the player in and told a story that allowed players to piece together the game world’s events. For instance, living quarters with bloodstains and furniture serving as a makeshift blockade suggested a desperate, but doomed last stand. Many of the scenes included audio log devices with short monologs by crewmembers, a feature directly inherited from the first System Shock and ultimately related to the text-based notes found on dungeon floors of CRPGs of the 1980s and 1990s. These audio log “breadcrumbs,” together with scripted sequences that featured ghostly apparitions of crewmembers re-enacting moments of their lives, helped relay the story visually, aurally, and spatially. These narrative techniques, as well as character development, became signature elements in Irrational Games’ later first-person shooters, BioShock (2007), BioShock 2 (2010), and BioShock Infinite (2013).

The cyberpunk-themed Deus Ex (2000, Ion Storm*) represented a high point for the design of hybrid role-playing/first-person shooter games and proved to be influential on later titles. The player, as a member of a futuristic, anti-terrorist organization, undertook missions to disrupt the activities of hostile groups. The player learned, through the course of play, of larger machinations involving conspiracy groups such as the Illuminati and Majestic 12, which led to a narrative based on gray areas of tangled alliances.

The design of Deus Ex emphasized allowing the player to drive the gameplay, a feature motivated by executive producer and director Warren Spector’s dissatisfaction with the linear nature of role-playing games. Drawing from his career as a producer for System Shock, the Ultima Underworld games, and titles in the Wing Commander and Ultima series, Spector and game designer Harvey Smith employed an organic approach to gameplay in Deus Ex. In more traditional CRPGs, character progression was represented by gradual increases in numbers such as hit points or ability scores. Deus Ex replaced this system with a simplified set of skills and abilities that demonstrated immediate and obvious improvements. The game’s levels contained many choice-based features that allowed players to freely switch between the aggressive “guns blazing” style of Quake and the stealthy and nonconfrontational style of Thief. Locked doors could be opened in different ways: picking the lock, hacking the computer that controlled the door, or using explosives to destroy it. All of these gameplay choices carried different risks and were modified by the player’s particular character progression. This ultimately provided a form of role-playing that maximized player control and proved to be a pivotal shift in developer attitudes about game design.

Cinematic Perspectives at the Turn of the Millennium

One of the most difficult challenges in adapting to 3D space was the presentation of the game space itself. Many fully 3D third-person games of the period were played from a camera position that followed the character through space, seen in games like Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, the 3D adaption of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Adventure (1998, Sonic Team), and skateboard trick simulator, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999, Neversoft Entertainment). An alternative to the character-following camera presented the game space from multiple camera angles while the character moved through it.

Resident Evil (1996, Capcom), a zombie-themed survival game, similar to Alone in the Dark (see Chapter 8), employed perspectives influenced by horror films. Resident Evil was initially intended to be fully 3D, like other third-person games mentioned above. Problems associated with memory constraints and the difficulty of development for the then new PlayStation console, however, limited this vision. The game employed backgrounds consisting of static, pre-rendered, 3D images as a concession and required multiple camera perspectives since the images could not be presented from an infinite number of angles, as in a fully 3D game space. This was an advantage, however, as the fixed cameras helped build tension by presenting the space from unsettling angles, employing views that induced claustrophobia. In several instances, camera angles were deliberately set to obscure the presence of enemies, leading to the game’s famous use of “jump scares.” Another survival horror game, Silent Hill (1999, Team Silent), centered on unraveling the mysteries of a town perpetually shrouded in a dense fog. The game was fully 3D and allowed a player to explore the town, using the character-following camera associated with other third-person games. This view, however, was combined with unsettling, dynamic pans and tilts once the player entered narrow alleys or indoor spaces which contributed to the game’s eerie psychological sense of horror.

One of the most sophisticated examples of cinematic space was Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid (1998, Konami Computer Entertainment Japan), a 3D adaption of his earlier MSX computer game Metal Gear (1987, Konami). Metal Gear Solid, like its 2D predecessor, was based on infiltrating and avoiding detection by patrolling guards, rather than a strict focus on action elements. The game used a complex set of cameras that tracked with the player’s movement and presented the game from a top-down perspective, which emphasized the gameplay’s tactical nature and recalled the original 8-bit game perspective. As the player entered and exited spaces, peered around corners, and crawled into air vents, the camera automatically changed its perspective through quick zooms, tilts, and cuts that gave the player the best view of the game space. The effect of these constant but smooth transitions created a feeling of continuous space while allowing the game to integrate cinematic intensity into the gameplay itself.

LucasArts brought its expertise in adventure games to a fully 3D world with the 1998 Day of the Dead-themed and film noir-inspired, Grim Fandango (Figure 9.5). Led by developer Tim Schafer, it featured many of the traditional elements of the adventure game genre: a cast of unique characters, engrossing narrative, and puzzle-based gameplay. Grim Fandango, however, departed from convention by offering an alternative to the typical practice of roving with a mouse cursor, looking for the game’s various “hot spots.” Instead, keyboard controls moved Manny Calavera, a grim reaper/travel agent for the dead, through pre-rendered 3D spaces. The game used an innovative system that turned Manny’s head toward important objects as he approached them, indicating their interactivity to the player. The lack of interface plus multi-camera presentation of the game space led to a decidedly cinematic experience. Unfortunately, the heyday of the adventure genre was rapidly passing in favor of action games in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This translated to poor sales for Grim Fandango despite glowing reviews. LucasArts, meanwhile, shifted away from adventure games in the years following, as Star Wars properties dominated the company in the early 2000s.

Games like BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003, BioWare Corporation), injected a feeling of the cinematic into the role-playing game genre through modifying the traditional concept of a combat round. Combat rounds were a structure found in the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons that typically limited combatants to one action per round. Combat continued among the survivors of each round until hostilities ceased through death or other means. In Knights of the Old Republic, each combatant’s turn was executed at regular intervals regardless of the actions of others, uncoupling actions from rounds. At any time, the player could pause gameplay, view the surroundings, and issue a sequence of specific actions to a party character and watch the results automatically play out. Thus, the combat sequences of Knights of the Old Republic exhibited a dramatic cinematic quality with lightsaber strikes and blaster fire happening simultaneously but allowing the player to engage in strategic decision-making (Figure 9.6).

Games and Game Design in the New Millennium

Changes in the Industry

The industry changed significantly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Teams of a dozen or less people made games like Doom and Super Mario 64, but swelled to teams of hundreds in the 2000s as the larger scope of games required increasingly specialized knowledge. Game publishers undertook a massive buying campaign, which merged smaller studios and restricted pathways for game publication. Game budgets grew larger and development time expanded to 2–3 year cycles. The result was greater risk and more pressure to produce successful games, leading many developers to seek more conventional projects that guaranteed a return on investment. Developers also reduced their focus, becoming inseparable from certain franchises and types of gameplay. In this context, consoles emerged as a driving force for the industry. Although PCs provided the highest performance for 3D games throughout the 2000s, significant cost increases for game-related components and limited knowledge about hardware configurations among the general population stunted mass-market appeal. Consoles were comparatively easier to operate and their improved 3D capabilities after the 2000s narrowed the gap with PCs.

For developers, the open architecture scheme of PCs that allowed multiple types of hardware and software configurations often resulted in compatibility issues that required additional development time. Consoles, with their fixed hardware configurations, eliminated many of these uncertainties and became increasingly attractive for content creators. Arcade games continued to lose influence: expansive 3D worlds enabling player freedom worked against the coin-operated business model based on high difficulty and fast failure. Arcade rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution (1999, Konami), however, played to these strengths. Players became public performers by “dancing” on the machine’s large platform in time with visual cues from the screen. Although games like Dance Dance Revolution and other rhythm-based games were popular on home consoles (Figure 9.7), the general ability of arcade titles to drive direction and innovation on home consoles had come to an end.

New Consoles and the Maturing of Games in the 2000s

Sega’s Exit

Sony’s PlayStation rapidly eroded both Nintendo and Sega’s market share in Japan and North America through the 1990s. Sega, in response, again attempted to leapfrog its competitors with the sixth generation Dreamcast console, launched in Japan in 1998. The Dreamcast was lackluster in Japan due to Sony’s new dominance, its North American launch in 1999, however, was more successful. The Dreamcast’s more advanced hardware was vividly demonstrated in Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue (1999, Sega AM2), an open world, third-person action/role-playing game set in the Japanese city of Yokosuka in 1986. The console’s new abilities allowed the game to replicate many buildings and features from the actual city, including a population that followed daytime and nighttime schedules and weather patterns that conformed to historical data. The degree of interaction was also notable: players could dial individual numbers on a telephone, open cabinet drawers, and even visit an in-game arcade to play some of Yu Suzuki’s earlier games such as Hang-On and Space Harrier. The momentum behind Sega’s Dreamcast in North America, however, quickly evaporated after Sony’s worldwide release of the PlayStation 2 in 2000. With Sega unable to capture the mass market for consoles, the company made the decision to discontinue the Dreamcast in 2001 and completely withdraw from the console market, becoming solely a software developer.

Nintendo introduced the GameCube, its second 3D-capable console, in 2001. It featured games that more fully refined Nintendo’s iconic characters in 3D game worlds. Many of the GameCube’s highly praised games, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001, HAL Laboratory), Mario Party 4 (2002, Hudson Soft Company), and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (2003, Nintendo EAD), featured a strong multiplayer social element, as Nintendo cultivated an identity that was increasingly separate from the “hardcore” games of the PlayStation 2. This was further continued in 2006 with Nintendo’s seventh generation, motion-controlled, Wii console, featuring Wii Sports (2006, Nintendo EAD), as well in 2012, with the eighth generation Wii U. Nintendo also led the handheld game market in the 2000s through its 2004 Nintendo DS and 2011 3DS. Both units consisted of dual screens that recalled the design of Nintendo’s clamshell Game & Watch handhelds of the 1980s. The DS and 3DS were particularly popular in Japan, as they fit well with the country’s reliance on public transportation and small living spaces. The units offered much of the same types of games as their larger television-based cousins; however, their portable nature also allowed them to be ideal for casual gameplay experiences.

Microsoft’s Entry

Sega’s 2001 departure from the console market benefitted both Sony and Nintendo and proved to be perfectly timed for the entrance of Microsoft’s inaugural console, the Xbox. Microsoft’s move into the console market was prompted by a fear that Sony’s PlayStation 2, with its DVD-ROM and other features, would make inroads in the games, home entertainment, and home computer markets, threatening sales of its Windows operating systems. All signs pointed to a mainstream breakout and rapid expansion of the video games market. Microsoft, however, had little direct experience with developing games. Its most notable entertainment software were Windows pack-in games, Solitaire and Minesweeper; while the Flight Simulator series (see Chapter 6) and RTS franchise Age of Empires rounded out Microsoft’s retail presence.

Microsoft had, nonetheless, been connected to PC game development in the 1990s through DirectX, a bundle of software technologies that served as a universal communication tool between games and game-related hardware. One of the components of DirectX was Direct3D, which helped games “speak” the many “languages” of 3D accelerated graphics cards. Without needing to write instructions for individual pieces of hardware, Direct3D and its main competitor, OpenGL,* allowed game developers to focus on creating games and facilitated the PC’s transition to 3D through the 1990s.

The concept behind Microsoft’s Xbox console was to make it function like a PC. It utilized DirectX (which provided inspiration for the console’s name), a Pentium III processor, hard drive, and graphics card. This made it developer friendly and provided the potential for a large library of third-party games. The Xbox was also intended to fulfill home entertainment needs with its DVD-ROM and surround sound capabilities, bringing it into direct competition with Sony’s ambitions for the PlayStation 2. The machine’s built-in broadband modem, at a time when access to broadband Internet in the United States was still extremely limited, signaled a commitment to a future of downloadable content and Internet-based multiplayer gameplay. Although Sega’s Dreamcast featured a built-in dial-up modem for online interaction, the pace of development in Internet infrastructure quickly made its slower speed unattractive.

Microsoft was able to gain an immediate foothold through the Xbox’s military sci-fi, first-person shooter, Halo: Combat Evolved (2001, Bungie). The majority of first-person shooters of the 1990s were developed for home computers prior to Halo, as their 3D graphics capabilities and hard drive storage significantly outperformed their contemporary home consoles. Although the earlier Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation received limited ports of games like Quake and featured notable original titles, such as Golden Eye 007 (1997, Rare) and Medal of Honor (1999, DreamWorks Interactive), games with more complex 3D imagery and gameplay such as Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, and Deus Ex, were not possible on these units. Halo, as a launch title for the Xbox, represented a closing of the gap between console and PC games and helped establish the ascendancy of console-based first-person shooters. Halo further popularized a ­control scheme that appeared earlier in the PlayStation’s Medal of Honor that relied on two analog sticks for control: the left, to move along the ground and the right, to control the horizontal and ­vertical view—a setup that replicated the WASD keyboard and mouse configuration on the PC. This separation of movement and view became the default method of control for console-based 3D games throughout the 2000s and 2010s.

The Proliferation of Open World Gameplay

Sony, nonetheless, become the leader of the console industry in the early 2000s with a large library of third-party-developed games that appealed to a maturing demographic of players in their late teens and 20s. One of the platform’s most successful games was Grand Theft Auto III (2001, Rockstar Games), a cinematic and stylish, third-person crime drama (Figure 9.8). Grand Theft Auto III featured a large borderless city in which players freely chose missions with specific goals or engaged in unstructured sandbox-like gameplay allowing for exploration and experimentation. These signature elements were inherited from the initial 2D top-down, Grand Theft Auto (1997, DMA Design) that, in turn, drew inspiration from games like David Braben and Iain Bell’s space-trading Elite (see Chapter 6).

Details dominated Grand Theft Auto III’s 3D city; all of the game’s vehicles could be driven and showed damage from collisions, inhabitants changed behaviors between day and night, weather patterns affected driving, elevated trains ran on regular schedules, and committing crimes led to intervention by the police. The game’s mature, crime-based narrative combined with the ability to harm or kill the civilians of the city, however, generated considerable controversy that brought issues of violence in videogames back to the forefront of public discourse. The high production values and innovative nature of Grand Theft Auto III, nonetheless, helped propel its developer Rockstar Games to prominence and led to several sequels, one of which, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004, Rockstar Games), was the best-selling game over the lifespan of the PlayStation 2.

Fully 3D, open world games with sandbox elements, thrived on home consoles and PCs throughout the 2000s and 2010s, as new generations of technology allowed larger, more complex spaces. The inherent freedom-based gameplay was highly attractive to players. The first-person medieval-fantasy RPG, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002, Bethesda Game Studios) delivered on the vision established in Bethesda’s The Terminator from 1991 (see Chapter 8), as well as the preceding 2D sprite/3D space RPGs, The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994) and The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall (1996). Other notable open world games of the 2000s included Ubisoft’s period piece franchise, Assassin’s Creed, Volition’s humorously quirky Saints Row series, and Sucker Punch Productions’ superpowered, morality driven InFAMOUS. MMORPGs like Ultima Online (1997, Origin Systems), EverQuest (1999, Sony Online Entertainment), and World of Warcraft (2004, Blizzard Entertainment) too proliferated as the rapid spread of Internet access in the later 1990s and 2000s allowed thousands of players to form organizations and adventuring parties.

Reducing Load Times on Consoles

The amount of data associated with open world games created a technical problem for consoles. Early 3D open world games such as Shenmue typically loaded one sector of game space at a time (such as a specific neighborhood) and loaded another once a border had been reached. The constant display of load screens and gameplay interruptions, however, dispelled the illusion of continuous sprawling cities and landscapes. Disc-based console games of the 2000s remedied this through streaming. With streaming, data for the game’s various sections were read from the disc in the midst of gameplay prior to reaching a border, resulting in the appearance of a seamless open world as seen in games like Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001, Naughty Dog) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005, Team Ico), among others previously mentioned. Many of the open world games featured level design that prevented a player from outrunning the console’s streaming capabilities through including twists and turns in roads or other geographic barriers. Other games looking to reduce load times, but not employing an open world design, such as Metroid Prime and God of War (2005, SCE Santa Monica Studio), featured long hallways, staircases, or elevators between larger spaces that allowed the game data time to stream without interrupting gameplay.

The Emergence of Casual and Mobile Games

As storage capacity and processing power increased in the 2000s, developers tended to skew toward games with longer play sessions and complex narratives. Many catered to players who expected high production quality and intense game experiences. These tendencies among large budget games in the 2000s excluded many in the general population and eventually led to the opening of a new market space for games, described as “casual.” Although definitions of casual games, like independent games (see Chapter 10), are not clear-cut, they are associated with ideas such as shorter lengths of play, broad appeal stemming from accessibility, a de-emphasis of violent gameplay, and a high degree of replayability.

As discussed earlier, Microsoft’s Solitaire and Minesweeper, Maxis’ SimCity and Cyan World’s Myst, captured a wide variety of players outside of traditional marketing demographics. In particular, designer Will Wright built a reputation for open-ended “system simulation toys” with SimCity and other “Sim” games throughout the 1990s. Taking this concept further, Wright designed the life simulator, The Sims (2000, Maxis). This “virtual dollhouse” allowed the player to manage the day-to-day activities of a household of people called “Sims” (Figure 9.9). Like Wright’s early games, The Sims did not have predefined goals, but allowed for free unstructured play through interactions with the game’s many systems. Each of the household’s semiautonomous Sims had different needs, such as food, fun, comfort, and room, which, when met, increased their happiness. Players could direct each Sim to pursue career goals, personal improvement, romantic relationships, and other activities. A key concept involved designing the Sims’ space by buying and placing new items in the house, a form of creative free play limited only by the amount of money in the household. The Sims generated considerable sales. It overtook Myst as the best selling PC game and initiated a successful franchise of other Sims games and expansions throughout the 2000s.

Although The Sims franchise was highly popular and garnered praise, the Internet and advent of mobile smartphones proved crucial for the breakout of casual games in the 2000s. Unlike the systems heavy The Sims, early browser-based casual games worked with a unique set of design constraints dictated by the state of Internet access at the turn of the millennium. Throughout the 1990s and first years of the 2000s, the majority of computer users relied on dial-up connections based on phone lines to access the Internet. The user manually initialized the computer’s modem each time, leading to a series of beeps and static sounds and the phone line’s occupation, for the duration of the connection. The limited speed of dial-up Internet access made the distribution of large files inefficient and unappealing. Mindful of data speeds, game developers sought to make the web more interactive and focused attention on creating small games with simple gameplay, delivered through web portals like MSN Gaming Zone and Yahoo Games.

One of the most successful of these games was PopCap Games’ Bejeweled (2000). Programmed by Jason Kapalka, Bejeweled consisted of an 8 × 8 board of colored gems where the player swapped adjacent tiles to create a sequence of three or more gems of the same color. Once aligned, the gems disappeared and caused the stack above to fall, while a new set of random gems filled in the top. Gameplay continued until the player created a requisite number of matches to proceed to the next level, or could not create any more matches. The game also included a timed option to make matches as quickly as possible. Bejeweled’s “match three” tile-swapping gameplay was based on an earlier game called Shariki (1994) created by Russian programmer Eugene Alemzhin. Bejeweled, however, contained more appealing visuals, animations, and sound effects—features made possible by faster dial-up Internet connections at the turn of the millennium and the development of the Java programming language. Following the game’s appearance on Microsoft’s MSN Internet Gaming Zone web portal, PopCap adopted an unusual business model whereby it sold a “deluxe” copy of the free browser-based game on disc allowing play without an Internet connection (Figure 9.10). The ability to play Bejeweled “offline” appealed to dial-up Internet users and helped establish PopCap Games as a leader in the emerging casual games scene which led to other titles such as Alchemy Deluxe (2001), Zuma Deluxe (2003), and eventually Plants vs. Zombies (2009).

The context and design of casual gameplay changed dramatically after Apple’s 2007 iPhone and 2010 iPad tablet computer. These mobile devices provided new forms of interaction in addition to portable computing and Internet connectivity. Multi-touch screens replaced physical buttons and allowed users to tap and swipe their finger anywhere on the screen. Competing smartphone and tablet manufacturers rapidly adopted the multi-touch screens making it the preferred interface for mobile devices. Casual game developers were quick to integrate these new button-less interactions into their games. PopCap’s Bejeweled was among the launch games for the iPhone as the tile-switching mechanic was ideally suited for quick horizontal and vertical swipes rather than cumbersome cursor movement using a phone’s numeric keys. Rovio Entertainment’s physics-based puzzle game, Angry Birds (2009), likewise used swiping to aim and launch colorful bird characters from a slingshot (Figure 9.11). Using unique abilities for each bird type, players destroyed or knocked down structures in an attempt to eliminate a set of green pig targets.

Digital Distribution in the 2000s

Broadband Internet connections rapidly replaced dial-up Internet access in the 2000s, although dial-up was still used in certain sparsely populated areas. Broadband had a significantly larger capacity for data relative to dial-up service, allowing easier delivery of multimedia content, such as video and large files. In addition to speed, broadband connections were “always on,” allowing for a constant stream of data, which led to a sea change in game distribution in the 2000s. In 2003, Half-Life developer Valve launched Steam, a broadband software delivery technology for home computers. Steam, in addition to selling Valve’s games, performed checks that authenticated the legality of the games, helping to reduce software piracy. The system also automatically updated games with the latest patches and fixes, ensuring that all copies of games, such as Counterstrike, then the world’s most popular online game, stayed up to date to prevent cheating and exploitation.

Steam established a significant foothold after the release of Half-Life 2 (2004, Valve), as the game required the service in order to run. Highly successful, Half-Life 2 expanded on its predecessor’s style of continuous interaction through scripted sequences while expanding the feeling of the game’s engrossing environments. It featured elaborate physics-based puzzles and other memorable sequences such as driving a makeshift buggy on an abandoned highway and operating an electromagnetic crane, both of which broke up the well-paced action. Steam, propelled by the overwhelming success of Half-Life 2, began selling games from third-party developers in 2005 and eventually became the largest source for the sale of home computer games. It also played a crucial part in the breakout of independent games (see Chapter 10).

Home consoles also pursued digital distribution. Services that allowed players to download games to their consoles had been in existence since 1981 with PlayCable for Intellivision, followed by numerous other services developed for Atari, Nintendo, and Sega home consoles. Many of these services experienced brief periods of success, but downloadable console games did not reach mass audiences until the explosive growth of broadband Internet. One of the key strategies for the Xbox centered on multiplayer gaming through Microsoft’s online subscription service, Xbox Live. Especially popular with players of Halo, Xbox Live set a precedent for console connectivity in the 2000s as Microsoft managed the online component of games rather than placing the burden of creating network infrastructure on developers. This allowed a more uniform set of online parameters as well as the creation of an Xbox-based gaming community.

Microsoft expanded Xbox Live through the online marketplace, Xbox Live Arcade in 2004. Xbox Live Arcade’s initial success depended on small but continuous purchases made by a large number of customers, just as in the penny arcades of a hundred years earlier. This prompted Xbox Live Arcade to feature short games that required a minimal investment of time to learn and play, such as ports of arcade games from the 1970s through 1990s, as well as games with more casual gameplay, such as Bejeweled. Microsoft relaunched Xbox Live Arcade for the seventh generation Xbox 360 in 2005, closely followed by Sony’s PlayStation Network Store in 2006, and Nintendo’s 2008 Wii Shop Channel. The inherent connectivity of seventh generation home consoles accelerated trends of media convergence: players could purchase and play music, films, television shows, and other digital content. Streaming content from providers like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and others, completed the transformation of video game consoles into true home media devices, a trend that intensified in the eighth generation consoles of the 2010s.

Casual Games and Digital Distribution

Digital distribution allowed casual games to spread to all major mobile platforms as well as social media websites, such as Facebook. Many casual games distributed through online means were designed to follow the “freemium” business model. The freemium business model combined aspects of shareware (see Chapter 8) and elements of arcade game design as it gave away the game for free, but included limits on game features or limits on progress, which could be lessened through in-game microtransactions. The freemium model was successfully used for a number of casual games such as the management-based FarmVille (2009, Zynga) and the tile-swapping, match-three puzzle game Candy Crush Saga (2012, King). Both games employed gated progression: players waited hours to days for crops to grow before harvesting in FarmVille, while certain playfield obstacles prevented players from switching tiles in later stages of Candy Crush Saga. Players could pay a small fee to receive in-game items that subverted the normal rules and allowed instantaneous production of crops or the ability to destroy any tile without switching it.

Although the freemium model was highly influential, the field of casual games became vastly more diverse after the 2008 launch of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play digital distribution hub. This coincided with the boom in independent games (see Chapter 10), as developers were given new channels of distribution and were freed to challenge entrenched notions of game design. A standout example was Monument Valley (2014, ustwo), a 3D puzzle game for mobile devices in which players guided a princess through a series of levels (Figure 9.12). The game’s art and level design, inspired by M.C. Escher’s optical illusions, required a player to consider all surfaces and aligned spaces in order to progress. Unlike puzzle-based games that focused on difficulty, Monument Valley was more of a minimalist aesthetic experience focused on the joy of interaction; a notion influenced by digital design firm ustwo’s background in user experience. Instead of directions and tutorials on how to play, players were invited to discover the game through touch. Sliding and rotating the architectural elements of the game space created pleasing musical notes that blended with Monument Valley’s atmospheric soundtrack. Players could zoom in and not only gaze at the appealing blend of 2D graphic design and 3D architecture in the game space, but also take pictures of it as each level was intended to be an image worthy of framing.

Game Visuals and Gameplay Aesthetics in the 2000s and Beyond

The 2000s and 2010s witnessed a rapid evolution in game graphics as each new generation of hardware allowed developers to provide increasingly natural looking visuals. Some games pursued photo-realism outright, but most pursued a mix of stylized visuals with realistic lighting and texture effects. The complexity of 3D game models rose dramatically in both cases, as developers increased the number of polygons to provide more detail and to match new hardware capabilities. Character models in the 2010s, for example, were commonly created using polygon counts in the tens of thousands to hundred thousands. The increase in geometric complexity had a direct impact on how 3D models were constructed as well as how they were animated.

Character models of the mid to late 1990s, for example, were commonly created “by hand” using a few hundred polygons, resulting in the typical “boxy” look of the period’s 3D models. Further, features such as arms and legs, were constructed from discrete pieces of geometry that overlapped with each other. The individual segments were grouped and given animation data, which produced movement. This stood in contrast to the later technique of creating a model made of a continuous set of polygons. To produce animation, characters were rigged using “bones” located inside the model to smoothly deform the high polygon surfaces and simulate actions such as elbow and knee bending (Figure 9.13). Rigging was generally avoided in earlier models since it was more computationally intensive. Further, the limited number of surfaces on low polygon 3D models typically did not bend subtly enough and created undesirable or unnatural effects. The visual differences between low polygon models constructed in segments versus a single high polygon model can be seen in Star Wars: Jedi Knight—Dark Forces 2 (Figure 9.3) and Knights of the Old Republic (Figure 9.6), two games separated by only 6 years. In the later 2000s and 2010s, character models were often created through 3D scans of an actor’s body while motion capture data provided more fluid and lifelike animation.

Realism in Surfaces

3D game visuals prior to the early 2000s relied heavily on color (also sometimes referred to as diffuse maps) that wrapped 2D images on 3D surfaces, to simulate a particular material. The 2D image could be anything; thus, color maps were able to turn the same simple cube into a wooden crate or a metal box. Color maps alone, however, were unconvincing, since surfaces remained flat and relatively featureless because of the low polygon count of early 3D models. The advent of shaders, however, significantly increased visual realism in games as they could alter the appearance of surfaces on 3D models.

Bump maps were one of the earliest shaders that significantly refined game visuals as they simulated subtle surface irregularities and gave the illusion of height and depth on an otherwise flat surface. Statues made of stone, for example, showed pits and rough texture while cloth shirts exhibited the appearance of woven thread. Bump mapping, found as early as the PC-based, first-person, Jurassic Park tie-in Trespasser* (1998, DreamWorks Interactive), was not widely adopted on consoles until after the release of the Xbox and GameCube, which both provided built-in support for the feature. Normal maps provided sharper detail by converting the surface of a high polygon 3D model to a 2D map and overlaying it on a low polygon model. This technique added more visual detail without adding more computation-intensive polygons. Shaders were also used to simulate the effects of light on models and the game environment through specular maps, which controlled the reflective properties of a surface, allowing highlights that automatically reacted to different light intensities (Figure 9.14). Bloom or glow maps simulated the illusion of extremely bright light bleeding past edges, while afterimages produced a motion-blur effect for moving cameras and objects. The effect of bloom maps can be seen in the comparison of the lightsaber effect in Figure 9.3 versus Figure 9.6. Developers of the 2000s also met the growing demand for higher amounts of detail by using 3D scanning techniques to capture the fine points of faces, bodies, objects, and even entire environments. Face scanning, for instance, was used for certain characters of Valve’s Half-Life 2 as well as the Mass Effect series (Figure 9.15). Face scanning also became an integral part of sports games that featured recognizable sports figures such as the Madden NFL franchise.

Film-Like Gameplay in the 2000s

Unlike the film-heavy, interactive movies of the early 1990s (see Chapter 8), game developers of the 2000s sought more unique ways to combine the expressive strengths of film with the interactive aspects of games. Two of the most common cinematic elements in gameplay of the 2000s included quick time events and set pieces. Quick time events made narrative cutscenes more interactive as they incorporated sequences where the player watched actions unfold, but were required to press a certain button within a limited period of time to make progress. Quick time events, often tied to cinematic action sequences, allowed the button presses to resonate with the scene’s tension. Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue* featured segments where the main character chased fleeing criminals through the streets; when prompted by flashing icons, players pressed buttons to dodge pedestrians and vault over obstacles in their path. The consequences of failing quick time events in Shenmue included starting the sequence over again, the alteration of the game’s story, and even player death. Quick time events appeared in games throughout the 2000s and were used in genres ranging from action adventure such as Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007, Naughty Dog) to head-to-head fighting such as Mortal Kombat X (2015, NetherRealm Studios).

Set pieces, meanwhile, were special sequences that added narrative drama and spectacle to gameplay without interrupting it. Set pieces or set piece-like sequences were used in a number of earlier 2D and 3D games such as the lead up to the boss fights in Star Fox, the destruction of the Ceres Space Colony in Super Metroid, and the physics experiment gone wrong in Half-Life. On seventh and eighth generation consoles, set pieces reached more elaborate heights. In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007, Infinity Ward), the player, aboard a helicopter, flees heavy combat only to witness the detonation of a nuclear device. The helicopter spins out of control and crashes; the player crawls through a city full of fire, debris, and collapsing buildings, then dies. Throughout the entire sequence, players maintained partial or complete control, bringing together the cinematic and interactive.

Criticism and Backlash against the Industry

Despite the significant advances in game visuals and game technologies, some developers became unhappy with the direction of the industry. From their perspective, they felt that games had become tantamount to amusement parks and exhibited “film envy” as visual spectacle trumped meaningful game design and gameplay experiences. Looking to advance games beyond current practice, these individuals chose to leave their positions and join the independent game development scene. There, they joined others with like-minded criticism of contemporary game design practices and explored unconventional or novel concepts. Many were attracted to independent games as they offered a sense of ownership over their projects. Smaller in scope, due to limited budgets and team sizes, independent games, nonetheless, steadily grew in popularity during the 2000s and achieved significant milestones in the 2010s. Not all of the energy behind independent games was fueled by a reaction against the practices of big budget game developers and publishers, but for many it was a significant motivator. Chapter 10 discusses elements of the development, directions, and breakout of the independent games scene.