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:• pj16@cornell.edu