Think Like a Player!
From the beginning of any playthrough of the game, the author knows what things happen when, why they happen and what they mean. They even know things that don't appear in the game at all. By contrast, the player knows only what they've seen so far, plus anything they guess or speculate (which may well be totally wrong). The rest of this article talks about some specific problems caused by clashes between these two mindsets, and how, as an author, to create a better game by thinking more like a player. Some of the things I mention overlap with things I've discussed previously in my How to Write a Great Game article; if you're interested in seeing more design discussion from me I suggest reading that. Thanks is also due to Stephen Granade's article The Player Will Get It Wrong, which covers a number of the same issues I discuss here, from the perspective of one specific author and several games. --Dan Shiovitz --Think Like a Player! ( Home Page for Dan Shiovitz)
Recent Related Entries
Famous Programmers From Adleman to ZimmermannLook who's up there with Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper:Famous women programmers are Adele Goldberg, who worked at Xerox PARC laboratory and wrote a number of SmallTalk books, Grace Hopper, a pioneer in the field who wrote the first compiler,...
Immune Attack
Federation of American Scientists (FAS) makes a First-Person Shooter (FPS). Whoever wrote the description of the game won't get a job at PC Gamer anytime soon, but the game itself looks interesting.Players navigate a nanobot through a 3D environment of...
Go Ahead, Steal My Car
The Chronicle Review ponders the effects of Grand Theft Auto IV:You need to be honest with yourself. Go outside and find a locked car -- or go to the back alley where missile launchers hover in a glowing light waiting for...
Top 5 Introductory Interactive Fiction Games from 1UP.com
Scott Sharkey:Often called a dead genre, interactive fiction continues to flourish long after reaching the end of its commercial lifespan. In the decades since whiz-bang graphics drew away the attention of the masses, hundreds of games have continued to evolve...
Hypertext '08 Poster Presentation: Charlie Hargood, A Thematic Model for Narrative Generation
Because I'm unfamiliar with the poster paper genre, my own textual bias made me want to read all the text on the poster before I was ready to listen to the presenter's explanation. A couple times I had to tell...
Leave a comment