Virtual World Note - Week 9

After we got all the game play mechanics, another thing to think about is who is living in this world. Who is the residents of the game world?

- NPCs (villagers, vendors, ...)

- Enemies (Goembas, ....)

- Players (you, others, ...)

- Objects (journals, vending machines, vehicles, signage ..)

- Ambience (animals, ...)

Functional or flavor

Functional: either can or can't interact with that effect the game play

Flavor: things made the game looks more live

The best resident of the game world is the one who can be functional and flavor.

Is the player insider or outside of the world?

It's hard to enforce this. Game designer usually introduce the world the player doesn't know about in the beginning of the game. The purpose is to take player into the game world where he's living in.

How does the other player interact with player?

- synchronous vs asynchronous

In synchronous game play, other player must play at the same time as player. In asynchronous, however, other player can visit other player game at any time. The example for this game play is Zynga's ville series game (FarmVille, CastleVille, CityVille)

- persistent vs temporary

In persistent game play, the action other player takes in player world will affect it permanently. The example is Zynga's ville series game. In other side, the action other player takes in player world will be reset when other player left. The example is Call of Duty.

How does an enemy interact with player?

- attack

- disable/ hinder/ block progress

- tell story/ taunt

- guide

- tells/ warnings

- train

- assistance

How does an enemy interact with world?

- navigation

     - stationary (ex: turret)

     - patrol (control path)

     - state-based decision making (state machine)

     - intelligent (truly intelligent AI is hard)

- emergent behaviors