This week I really wanted to crack having systems that interact with each other. I found this great presentation by Randy Smith and Harvey Smith and decided to copy the example they gave and use it as a small test project.
Even though it is very simple it’s amazing the effect just having a few interacting systems can have. It makes everything feel so much more alive.
Once I got that example up and running I set about altering it and working on my own version. I ended up doing a lot more planning up front, which really helped. It’s surprisingly difficult to come up with a simple, but still sufficiently complex system. I found a very useful exercise was to break everything down into Nouns (game objects) and Verbs (actions). I have uploaded a screen shot of the document I used for planning.
This week I have also been thinking about they games I really enjoy and what they have in common. It’s one of the main reasons I wanted to really focus on games interacting systems this week. I’m going to write an article that goes into more detail later on but for now, the games I like tend to feature:
- A Player Toolkit With a Variety of Functions (not just murder)
- Short Session Based
- High Vulnerability to Enemies
- Highly Hostile Environment
- No Upgrades Between Sessions
- Single Mistakes Often Mean Failure
- High Quantity of Interacting Systems
Overall it was a really useful exercise as I would implement a change or additional actor and have no idea how it was going to pan out. Even though the scene was set up the same way by altering my actions as a player there was a different chain reaction, which was really exciting and made me think i might be headed in the right direction.
Gamer24h Editor's Take
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