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Create consistent ecological patterns for players to learn So, what is the end result of the three guidelines provided above? Ultimately, if you tie creatures visually to their environment, congregate them around resources, and imply that they co-exist within a hierarchical relationship with other creatures, you are weaving the disparate elements of your game world together into one believable whole, which will ultimately mimic the real world—a mess of different elements connected via ecology. That’s not all though. These world building guidelines—assuming they are properly implemented—will spill over into and enhance game play. If you prescribe to the notion that games are essentially about learning and mastering patterns, and I believe most game designers share this assumption, then the ecology of your game world will be another pattern for your players to learn, a pattern that bridges and reinforces the sub-patterns provided your individual encounters on a creature by creature basis. To understand how these guidelines can enhance game play, take the examples used earlier in this article. When you, the savvy player, encounter head crabs in Half Life, you get your shotgun ready, because you know you are going to need something with stopping power to take down any of the lumbering head crab victims that may be lurking nearby. Similarly, in World of Warcraft when you see the chitin towers in the distance, you know that you will soon be fighting silithids, and so you get your area-of-effect attacks ready for the numerous, but fragile, larva that the silithids tend to spawn. And, in the imaginary example of the goblins and the dragons, you as a player are ready for a big fight when you begin to see goblin bones littering a cavern you have just tiptoed into. Ultimately, the three guidelines laid out by this article can be seen as the connective tissue that holds a game world together. The tighter and thicker this connective tissue becomes between, the more believable your game world will feel, and the easier it will be to reach what should be the ultimate goal of all game designers, specifically stellar game play that works on multiple levels.
Remember, over half of the video games available on the market today take place in worlds different from our own. Whether a player descends towards the forlorn planet surface of Zebes (Metroid) or hacks a path through the monster-ridden lands of Ancient Greece (God of War), most games offer a creative escape, a departure from the world of everyday life in favor of a new imaginary setting. Some game worlds are downright alien. Others are hauntingly familiar. Regardless, the best of these worlds are the ones that mimic the patterns and of our world, while still remaining internally consistent with the assumptions, no matter how far-fetched, of the game universe itself. Only then can a player begin to learn and respond to a game’s setting as a dynamic and believable system. |
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