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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 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Software Game Design Issues
Software Game Design Issues
Peter L. JacksonSchool of O.R. and I.E.
Cornell University
What makes for a good game?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
OverviewOverview
• 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 GameThe Mfg. Operations Game
Text-based screen
Large font
Menu buttons
List-limited inputs
The Distribution GameThe Distribution Game
Simple score
Few inputs
Button control
Graphical analysis
Multi-purpose screen sections
Menu
Animated pictorial state of system
The Transportation GameThe Transportation Game
Drag and drop interaction
Multiple cascaded screens
Process OptimizationProcess OptimizationMenu buttons replace menus
High impact art
Graphical analysis
Diverse inputs with pictorial clues
Quick help text line
Multi-purpose screen sections
The M.F.D. Pull GameThe M.F.D. Pull Game
Centralized control panel
Multi-purpose screen sections
Animated pictorial state of system
Quick help text line
Message line
Situations Flavor the GameSituations Flavor the Game The
Manufacturing Operations Game
The M.F.D. Pull Game
Commercial Game Screen: “Deadlock”Commercial Game Screen: “Deadlock”
Pseudo 3-D view with high impact animated art
Iconic menu buttons
Multiple screen sections
The M.F.D. THRUPUT GameThe M.F.D. THRUPUT Game
Pseudo 3-D view with high impact animated art
Graphical analysis from database query
Query control dialog
Menu button panelMulti-purpose
screen sections
Quick help text line
Centralized control and dialog panel
The M.F.D. Thruput GameThe M.F.D. Thruput Game
Cyclical game sequence control
The Engineering FactoryThe Engineering Factory
Large font status row
Menu button panel
High impact art section
Variable size
Centralized control and dialog area
Multi-purpose screen sections
Quick help text line Variable
size
The Engineering FactoryThe Engineering Factory
Graphical analysis from database query: networks and multi-level axes
Drill-downlist for query control
Centralized dialog panel
Multi-purpose screen sections
Situations Flavor the GameSituations Flavor the Game
Rich text format document view; document stored in database
3-D rotational view
Towards a Data-Driven Game InterfaceTowards 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 InterfaceTowards a Data-Driven Game Interface
Queries define multi-level indices
Tables define dialogs
Tables and queries define complex charts
Network Game ArchitectureNetwork Game Architecture
Server
Clients
Game database executes game
Map database describes game
Clients interact with game database
Game Software Design RecommendationsGame 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)
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 RecommendationsGame 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 InformationFor More Information
• Web page • http:///www.orie.cornell.edu/~jackson
• E-mail:• [email protected]
