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Reverse Engineering Enemy Characters
An equally valid approach to designing game enemies – perhaps more valid – is to decide what function an enemy will provide within the game before you decide what the creature actually is. For instance, rather than asking, "How can we make our crocodile unique and interesting in terms of game mechanics?" you instead ask, "What do we want Enemy X to do or represent in the game?" In the latter practice, you would come up with an idea that you think would be interesting in your game, then retrofit the type of enemy to that idea. For example, think about Quake 2's "medic" enemy; its primary purpose is to heal wounded monsters. This was not executed particularly well since most players never had a chance to realize what was going on, and the guys at id, for some reason, did not focus this unit down to its essence. (Sadly, this creature is interpreted by many player as just another big beast with lots of hit points.) However, as a concept, the medic is quite cool. It works well as an example of how you might first decide what role a unit plays in the game, like "autonomously heal other enemy units so that they might live to antagonize the player anew," then come up with an identity and a look for that unit. (Note: I have no idea which design phase came first in this case, abstract function or fictional/artistic identity.) When you take this more abstract approach, it becomes obvious why so many games are set in "dark-magic land" or "alien dimension x". If you are completely free to create the unit's function first, you end up with some wild behaviors and actions, usually inappropriate for real-world mundane animals or those that are recognizable to the player. (Think Q*bert.) So inversely, setting a game in a completely realistic place restricts the designer a great deal. Either way the creature is designed though, the end result is that when players encounter the crocodiles in our example, the function of the enemy unit is obvious, the game's situation changes somewhat and the player is required to react to a new form of obstacle that behaves in unique and interesting ways. If the game designer accounts for these enemy design features by incorporating several potential methods of reacting, the player can, within the scope of the actions available to him within the game, make informed and useful decisions in response to the crocodile enemy. What’s more, those decisions will be completely different from the decisions made when facing a bear. Imagine if every game’s enemies were designed with such deep consideration? During his hellish early years on the Texas Gulf Coast (surrounded by evil shrimpers and gloomy chemical plants), Harvey's sanity was (narrowly) preserved through years of non-stop gaming and subcultural pursuits. Only through this massive assimilation of SF/Fantasy books, computer/video games, paper RPGs and mope rock did he manage to evolve into the fey being he is today. He makes his home in Austin, Texas because he has a lick of sense. He eats nothing but Tex-Mex and fried seafood, and he is a 6th generation Texan. Harvey can be reached at witchboy@io.com.
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Features
