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Software Game Design Issues Peter L. Jackson School of O.R. and I.E. Cornell University What makes for a good game? • • • • • • Fast, fun, and understandable Pleasing to the eye and to the touch Competitive: nontrivial but not impossible Social: stimulates interaction Relevant: connects with the real world Skill-building: not pure chance or autoplay Overview • Evolution of game software elements: a personal history • Examples from 7 games • • • • Towards a data-driven game interface Network game architecture Game software design recommendations Game design recommendations The Mfg. Operations Game Menu buttons Text-based screen Large font List-limited inputs The Distribution Game Menu Simple score Few inputs Graphical analysis Animated pictorial state of system Button control Multi-purpose screen sections The Transportation Game Multiple cascaded screens Drag and drop interaction Process Optimization Menu buttons replace menus Multi-purpose screen sections High impact art Diverse inputs with pictorial clues Graphical analysis Quick help text line The M.F.D. Pull Game Animated pictorial state of system Multi-purpose screen sections Message line Quick help text line Centralized control panel Situations Flavor the Game The Manufacturing Operations Game The M.F.D. Pull Game Commercial Game Screen: “Deadlock” Iconic menu buttons Pseudo 3-D view with high impact animated art Multiple screen sections The M.F.D. THRUPUT Game Pseudo 3-D view with high impact animated art Quick help text line Multi-purpose screen sections Centralized control and dialog panel Query control dialog Graphical analysis from database query Menu button panel The M.F.D. Thruput Game Cyclical game sequence control The Engineering Factory Large font status row Multipurpose screen sections Variable size Menu button panel Quick help text line High impact art section Variable size Centralized control and dialog area The Engineering Factory Graphical analysis from database query: networks and multilevel axes Drill-down list for query control Multipurpose screen sections Centralized dialog panel Situations Flavor the Game Rich text format document view; document stored in database 3-D rotational view Towards a Data-Driven Game Interface • Game components are becoming standard • Programming and layout is repetitive • Data are coming from relational databases • Put component descriptions in database too • Databases provide both data and instructions on how to display data • Graphs, lists, tree lists, dialogs, control panels, rich text documents, images • Result: game interface is more generic Towards a Data-Driven Game Interface Tables and queries define complex charts Tables define dialogs Queries define multi-level indices Network Game Architecture Server Game database executes game Map database describes game Clients Clients interact with game database Game Software Design Recommendations • Use multi-purpose screen sections • Reserve a section for a centralized control panel (even if it blocks view) • Make next steps obvious: eg. cycle • Use high impact art • • • • Illustrate situations Animate resource states Customize buttons (Hire an artist) • Don’t try to be funny: play it straight Game Software Design Recommendations (cont’d) • Represent state of system pictorially • Animate resource state changes • Show history in graphical form • Display status in large font • (for instructor to see) • Plan for different screen resolutions • Use iconic menu buttons rather than menus • Add tool help text (balloons or text line) Game Design Recommendations • Identify a small number of decision variables in a repetitive decision problem • Prefer low-level decision to high-level • eg. Next city to visit rather than which TSP algorithm to use • Flavor the game with situations • Break monotony of repetitive problem • Illustrate complex problems but treat them as exceptions • Keep scoring (and tradeoffs) simple For More Information • Web page • http:///www.orie.cornell.edu/~jackson • E-mail: • [email protected]