Summary

Construction and simulation games are about processes. They fulfill a desire to create and manage a world, and you should make sure to give the player plenty of tools to do it with. Economics plays a primary role in the game mechanics, and if you spend time making a solid economic system, you will find the remainder of the game easier to create. You must consider how the player controls the processes in your game and how he comes to understand the current situation through the UI.

Design Practice Case Study

Choose a CSG that you believe, from your own experience of playing it, is an excellent example of the genre (or use one your instructor assigns). It can be a pure CSG, a hybrid, or a pure business simulation. Write a report documenting the features that place it in 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:

• Determine if this is a purchase-and-place or plan-and-build CSG. Describe any game mechanics that are unique to this game.

• Make a table that documents the resources, sources, and drains available to the player at the start of the game.

• Estimate what percentage of your game-playing time you must spend in maintenance. What percentage must you spend repairing damage from disasters? Does this change as the game progresses or does it remain the same?

• How well does the presentation layer represent the activities of the player and of the inhabitants (if there are any) of the CSG world? Can you easily see if the people are happy? Can you determine quickly and easily, through visuals, if you need to work on maintenance? If not, what method does the game use and does it work well for the player?

• Explore the UI in all the gameplay modes. Is it easy to understand? Does it illustrate the cost or consequences of the player’s actions? For example, consider the interface for building as compared to the interface for increasing taxes in SimCity. How are they different? How can they be changed for the better?

• If the game exists on multiple platforms—especially significantly different platforms, like consoles and smartphones—compare the UIs in both versions and see what has changed. Is one easier to play than the other? Do they feel different either functionally or aesthetically?

• Address the economy of the CSG world. During play, is it clear how your action will impact that economy? Is there an immediate reaction or is it delayed? How does this cause the player to modify her management behavior?

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 can 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; we recommend from five to twenty pages.

Design Practice Questions

1. What process is the player going to manage? What actions will the player take in managing that process?

2. What resources exist in this process? For each resource, how is it produced, consumed, stored, transported, and converted into other resources? Is it tangible, intangible, or a hybrid? Is it limited or unlimited? What determines its production and consumption rates?

3. Which resources can the player manipulate and which can she not?

4. Will the process settle into a balanced state or will it run down if not tended by the player? Will disasters affect it?

5. What will the player be constructing, and what function does the constructed item have? Will objects be purchased whole or planned and built over time? What does each item that the player can construct cost and how long does it take to build?

6. Can the player demolish or sell things that she builds? Does demolition cost or earn resources for the player?

7. Will the game have scenarios with victory conditions? What are they like?

8. What is the player’s perspective and interaction model with the game? Is there a way to get inside the things she builds?

9. What analytical tools are provided to help her understand the workings of the simulation?

10. Is the simulated population modeled as individuals or as a statistical aggregate? If they are individuals, what is their behavior model? Are there multiple types of individuals? Can the player read their minds?

11. Will the game have advisors or some kind of hint or alert system? What will they advise about?

12. Is this game a pure business simulation? Accounting and finance are often considered rather dull, so what makes this compelling? Does the game have a setting? If not, how can it be made visually interesting? Who is the audience for this game? Is it representative of the real world, or is it fictionalized?

13. Is the game a hybrid with other sorts of games? What other elements in the game make it a hybrid (strategic problems, action challenges, puzzles, and so on)? How do they affect the way the game is controlled? Is construction and simulation still the major activity, or a less-significant part of the gameplay?

About the Fundamentals of Game Design E-books

You understand the basic concepts of game design: gameplay, user interfaces, core mechanics, character design, and storytelling. Now you want to know how to apply them to individual game genres. These focused guides give you exactly what you need. They walk you through the process of designing for game genres and show you how to use the right techniques to create fun and challenging experiences for your players.

All of these e-books are available from the Peachpit website at www.peachpit.com/ernestadams.

Fundamentals of Shooter Game Design discusses designing for this huge and specialized market. It examines both the frenetic deathmatch style of play and the stealthier, more tactical approach.

Fundamentals of Action and Arcade Game Design is about the earliest, and still most popular, genre of interactive entertainment: action games. This genre may be divided into numerous subgenres such as fighting games, platformers, and others, which the chapter addresses in as much detail as there is room for. It also looks at the most popular hybrid genre, the action-adventure.

Fundamentals of Music, Dance, and Exercise Game Design addresses a popular new genre that has made gaming more accessible to new players than conventional action games are.

Fundamentals of Strategy Game Design discusses another genre that has been part of gaming since the beginning: strategy games, both real-time and turn-based.

Fundamentals of Role-Playing Game Design is about role-playing games, a natural outgrowth of pencil and paper games such as Dungeons & Dragons.

Fundamentals of Sports Game Design looks at sports games, which have a number of peculiar design challenges. The actual contest itself is designed by others; the trick is to map human athletic activities onto a screen and control devices.

Fundamentals of Vehicle Simulation Design addresses vehicle simulations: cars, planes, boats, and other, more exotic modes of transportation such as tanks.

Fundamentals of Construction and Simulation Game Design is about construction and management simulations in which the player tries to build and maintain something—a city, a theme park, a planet—within the limitations of an economic system.

Fundamentals of Adventure Game Design explores adventure games, an old and unique genre of gaming that continues to earn a great deal of critical attention by its strong storytelling and its visual aesthetics.

Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design examines puzzle games and casual games in general.