Summary

The core gameplay of action games has remained essentially unchanged since the earliest days of the industry. We can learn fundamental lessons from old games such as Pac-Man or Gauntlet as effectively as from more recent action games such as Sonic Dash, even though gameplay may be more complex nowadays and the structure of the game has shifted. The essence of the action game remains unchanged—fast and furious, emphasizing physical skill under time pressure.

In fact, the biggest change in action games as they’ve developed over two decades is in complexity of graphics. Only those designers who have understood the fundamental nature of action games have made the transition successfully, and they have done this in spite of—not because of—the more sophisticated graphical capabilities of the newer platforms.

Design Practice Case Study

Choose an action game that you believe, from your own experience of playing it, is an excellent example of the genre (or use one your instructor assigns). Write a report documenting the features that place it into this genre as opposed to another one and explaining why you believe it is superior to others of its kind. Be sure to cover at least the following areas:

• Describe each gameplay mode in a few sentences, and document the structure of the game.

• Document the gameplay in the primary gameplay mode, including both challenges and actions. For each challenge that you document, indicate what class it belongs to: physical, logical, exploration, pattern recognition, and so on.

• Describe the user interface in the primary gameplay mode, including the camera model and interaction model. Note important indicators that appear on the screen and discuss how they improve the playing experience.

• Indicate resources, sources, conversions, and drains in the core mechanics.

The design questions in the next section may help you to think about these issues. In your report, use screen shots to illustrate your points. End the case study with suggestions for improvement or, if you feel the game cannot be improved, suggestions for additional features that might be fun to have in the game.

Alternatively, choose a game that you believe is particularly bad. Do the same case study, explaining what is wrong and how it could be improved.

A case study is neither a review nor a design document; it is an analysis. You are not attempting to reverse-engineer the entire game but simply to explain how it works in a general way. Your instructor will tell you the desired scope of the assignment; I recommend from five to twenty pages.

Design Practice Questions

As you design an action game, consider the following questions:

1. To which of the subgenres of action games do you think your game belongs? Is it a platform game, fighting game, fast puzzle game, or music/rhythm game? Is it a hybrid of two or more of these? Is it a hybrid with other genres, such as an action-adventure? Or does it belong to no standard subgenre at all?

2. Is the world (not the display mechanism) essentially 2D or 3D? If the world is 2D, should the display mechanism be 2D also, or would the gameplay benefit from 3D graphics?

3. If the world is 2D, will the whole world be visible on the screen, or will it scroll? If it scrolls, in which direction(s) does it scroll?

4. Does the player need a mini-map to see key off-screen elements of the world before they arrive on-screen? What about an automap for allowing him to record where he has been?

5. What physical challenges will the game incorporate and under what circumstances? Speed and reaction time? Accurate steering and aiming? Timing and rhythm? Combo moves?

6. Will enemies appear in waves? Will there be monster generators or wildcard enemies to break up the regular progression of the waves?

7. Will the game be broken into levels? What things will make one level different from another (landscape, enemies, speed, perspective, and so on)? What about the aesthetic style of things such as music and architecture? Will levels end with bosses?

8. How will the avatar’s life be managed: as fixed numbers of lives, energy bars, or some combination? Can the player obtain more lives? If so, how?

9. What powerups will there be, if any? For each one you plan to incorporate, do the following: state what it does, what it looks like, what it sounds like when activated, how or where it is to be found or obtained, how common or rare it is, how long its effect lasts, and how the player will be able to identify it (by sight and the sound it makes).

10. Will the game give the player clues that allow him to anticipate challenges, or must the player depend entirely on trial and error to learn his way through?

11. Does the game involve exploring unknown territory? If so, how linear or nonlinear will it be?

12. Is there a feature that prevents the player from having to start over from the beginning? What is it—saving and reloading, checkpoints, or something else?

13. Is the player going to collect anything, in either large or small numbers? Can collected items be exchanged for anything useful, or is the player awarded anything when particular thresholds are reached?

14. Is there a scoring mechanism? If so, how is it computed? Does it serve any function besides giving the player a record of achievement?

15. What locked doors will there be, and what keys will open them?

16. Will the game have, or need, a tutorial mode? If not, how steep do you want the learning curve to be?

17. Does the game have a victory condition other than simple survival? What is it?