Game Design: Theory & Practice- P20 pptx

Beta: The state games reach after passing through Alpha, and the last step before a
game is published or otherwise released to the public. In Beta, changes made to a game
are supposed to be strictly limited to bug fixes. Some developers define Beta to be
when they first have what they consider to be a release candidate. See also Alpha and
Release Candidate.
Bible: Used in the gaming industry to refer to various reference materials used during
a game’s development. See Art Bible and Story Bible.
Boss Monster: An enemy in a game, though not necessarily a “monster” per se,
which is much larger or simply more difficult to defeat than the other opponents in the
game. Typically boss monsters are placed at the end of levels and provide a climax for
that level’s gameplay.
’Bot: Short for “robot,” this refers to artificial intelligence agents that are designed to
appear to play similarly to humans, typically designed to work in first-person shooter
death-match games. Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament both feature ’bots as the
player’s only opposition in the single-player game.
BSP: Short for Binary Space Partition. A method for storing and rendering 3D space
which involves dividing the world into a tree of space partitions, most famously used in
id Software’s games Doom and Quake.
Builder Games: One term used to describe games in which the player is responsible
for building lasting structures in the game-world. In a sense, in builder games, the play-
ers are responsible for the level design. Examples of this type of game are SimCity,
Civilization, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and The Sims.
Burn Rate: The amount of money a company, typically a developer, spends in a
month to keep itself in business. This typically includes all of the employees’ salaries,
rent, utilities, and other persistent expenses. Sometimes publishers will try to fund a
developer only to the extent of its burn rate, so that the developer does not have any
spare cash and remains forever beholden to the publisher.
Candidate: See Release Candidate.
Capture the Flag: A game involving two teams, both of which have a flag. The flag
is kept at a specific location and possibly guarded, while the players on both teams try
to grab the other team’s flag through stealth or brute force. In computer games, this is

often a game variant offered in first-person shooter multi-player cooperative games,
such as Quake or Unreal.
Choke-Point: A point in a game past which a player can progress only by passing
through a particular area, completing a particular puzzle, or defeating a particular mon
-
ster. Often the areas preceding and following a choke-point allow the player more
freedom of play, while the choke-point presents a task the player absolutely must
accomplish before proceeding.
548 Glossary
TEAMFLY

Team-Fly
®

Classic Arcade Game: Does not necessarily mean a game that is a classic, but any
game which was released during the early period of arcade games or which exhibits the
traits typical of those games. Classic arcade games include simple, single-screen-player
games such as Space Invaders, Centipede, Robotron 2084,orPac-Man. Classic arcade
game is defined more fully in Chapter 4. See also Arcade Game.
Code: When used in reference to games, code is the lines of text that programmers
enter into the computer and which the computer then compiles into the functional
game. A talented programmer is sometimes referred to as a code-jockey.
Color: Beyond the obvious definition, in terms of game design this may also refer to
the specific content and setting of a game. Monopoly, for instance, includes the street
names of Atlantic City and a depression era real-estate mogul theme as a means of pro
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viding color. Color is separate from the gameplay itself.
Concept Document: Also known as a pitch document. This is a short document that
includes text and concept sketches and that is used to initially sell the idea of a project
to a publisher or other financier. A concept document gives the reader an idea of what
the game will involve without including sufficient detail to actually develop the game.
If accepted, the concept document is usually expanded into the design document.
Concept Sketch: A sketch of a particular game art asset which is used to show some-
one what the art will look like, approximately, before that graphic or model is actually
created. May also be a sketch of a scene from the game as it will appear once the game
is functional.
Creative Services: A deceptively titled wing of the publisher which is typically in
charge of creating the box art and other advertisements and logos for a game.

Critical Path: The path that the player is expected and encouraged to follow when
moving through a game or a particular level. Somewhat reminiscent of the yellow brick
road in The Wizard of Oz.
CRPG: A computer version of a role-playing game. See also Role-Playing Game.
CTF: Typically refers to Capture the Flag multi-player games, though it may also
refer to Valve Software’s Classic Team Fortress game. See Capture the Flag.
Cut-Scene: A non-interactive portion of a game typically used to communicate to the
player information about the game’s story line, sometimes involving pre-rendered or
live action full-motion video, other times using the game’s real-time graphics engine.
Cut-scenes often come between levels in a game, and are sometimes used as rewards
for the player having finished a particularly challenging portion of the game.
Death March: When a development team, particularly the programmers, works
every waking moment on a project for a long period of time, typically trying to make an
unachievable deadline of some sort. Often the death march is entered into thinking it
will be over soon enough, but it then drags on long beyond what anyone thought
possible.
Glossary 549
Death-Match: A multi-player game in which the players’ only goals are to kill each
other. Usually refers to games of that sort in first-person shooters such as Doom,
Unreal, or Duke Nukem 3D.
Design Document: The textual reference used in developing a game which attempts
to describe in detail every important aspect of the game’s design. Sometimes referred to
as the Functional Specification. Described more completely in Chapter 17, “The Design
Document.”
DM: Depending on context, see Dungeon Master or Death-Match.
Dungeon Master: The term for the Game Master used in conjunction with Dungeons
& Dragons games. See Game Master.
Engine: The core code that handles the most basic functionality of the game, but not
including the code which governs specific gameplay functionality. Sometimes the
engine is split up into the rendering engine, the sound engine, the behavior engine, and

so forth. Each of these components can be considered to be part of the game’s engine as
a whole. Engines are typically more general than a particular game, which allows them
to be reused for multiple different projects. However, some developers use the term
Engine to refer to the entirety of a game’s source code. For example, id Software has
licensed their Quake engine for use in a broad range of games, from Half-Life to Sol-
dier of Fortune to Heavy Metal: FAKK 2.
Finite State Machine: See State-Based AI.
First-Person Shooter: The type of game exemplified by Doom, Half-Life, Unreal,
Marathon, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D. In first-person shooters, the player’s perspec-
tive of the world is from the first person and her objective is to shoot everything in
sight, though some first-person shooters offer some subtle variations on this goal.
Flight Simulator: Often shortened to flight sim, this is a type of game which
attempts to model the flight of a real-world aircraft. The amount of realism involved
varies from game to game; some games are extremely realistic and difficult, while oth
-
ers prevent the player from crashing entirely. Examples include Microsoft Flight
Simulator, F-15 Strike Eagle, Flight Unlimited, and Hellcats Over the Pacific.
FMV: See Full-Motion Video.
Focus: A brief, three- to five-sentence description of the most important concepts
guiding a game’s development. Described in detail in Chapter 5, “Focus.”
FPS: Depending on the context, this may refer to the first-person shooter genre of
games or to the frames per second that the game’s engine is currently rendering. See
First-Person Shooter.
FSM: Stands for finite state machine. See State-Based AI.
Full-Motion Video: Any non-real-time graphics in a game which are displayed
quickly in a sequential order to create a movie-like effect. Full-motion video can be of
550 Glossary
live actors, computer-generated environments, or a combination of the two.
Functional Specification: The sister document to the Technical Specification, in that
it describes how the game will function from the user’s perspective, as opposed to how

the programmer will implement that functionality. In game development, typically
referred to as the Design Document. See also Design Document.
Fuzzy Logic: A type of AI that introduces some degree of randomness into the deci
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sion making process. This means that, given the exact same inputs, an AI agent will
make different decisions based on chance.
Game: The Oxford Universal Dictionary includes a number of definitions for
“game.” The definition we are most interested in for this book reads as follows: “A
diversion of the nature of a contest, played according to rules, and decided by superior
skill, strength, or good fortune.” To rephrase, a game presents an entertaining challenge
to the player or players, a challenge which the player or players can understand and
may be able to succeed at using their wits, dexterity, luck, or some combination thereof.
To expand, in order for that challenge to be meaningful, the player must be presented
with a number of interesting choices for how to succeed at the game, and those choices
must be non-trivial. And in order for the challenge to be truly meaningful, the game
must define the criterion for success. This excludes “software toys” such as SimCity
from being games. Of course, one could write an entire book about the nature of a
game, but this is not that book.
Game Design: The game design establishes the shape and form of the gameplay in a
game. The game design may be communicated through a design document, or it may
only exist in the head of the implementors of the game. See also Gameplay.
Game Designer: The game designer is the person on a project who is responsible for
establishing the form of the gameplay through the game design. See also Gameplay and
Game Design.
Game Engine: See Engine.
Game Flow: The chain of events that make up the playing of a given game. A game
can be said to flow between its action, exploration, puzzle-solving, and storytelling
components. The proportional amount of time spent in each of these components and
the pace at which the game takes place contributes to its overall flow.
Game Master: In a pen and paper role-playing game, the game master is the player

who governs the actions of all of the other players in the game-world. The game master
often has also dreamt up the adventures that the players are going on, and continues to
dynamically create this story as the players navigate through it.
Game Mechanic: A specific way in which a part of the gameplay is implemented.
For instance, the mechanic for doing an attack-jump in Crash Bandicoot is to hold
down the “down” or “crouch” button while in mid-jump. The mechanic for sending a
unit to a new location in WarCraft is to click on the unit in question with the left mouse
Glossary 551
button, move the pointer to the desired position on the map, and then to click there with
the right mouse button. The gameplay as a whole is made up of a number of different
game mechanics combined together.
Gameplay: The gameplay is the component that distinguishes games from all other
artistic mediums. The gameplay defines how the player is able to interact with the
game-world and how that game-world will react to his actions. One could consider the
gameplay to be the degree and nature of a game’s interactivity. Of course many differ
-
ent people have different definitions for gameplay, but as far as this book is concerned,
gameplay does not include the game’s story, graphics, sound, or music. This is easy to
understand if one recalls that gameplay is what separates games from other artistic
mediums; each of these components is found in literature, film, or theater. Gameplay
also does not include the code used to make the game run, the game’s engine, though
that engine does necessarily implement the gameplay. The gameplay, however, could be
implemented using a completely different engine while remaining identical.
Game-World: This is the space in which a game takes place. In a board game such
as The Settlers of Catan, the game-world is represented by the board the game takes
place on. For a sports game, the game-world is the real-world but is limited to the
extent of the field the game is played on. For a role-playing game, the game-world is
maintained within the imaginations of the game master and the players. For a computer
game, this is a “virtual” space which is stored in the computer’s memory and which the
players can view via the computer screen. The actions the player makes in a game are

limited to the game-world, as are the reactions of either the game itself or the other
players.
GM: Depending on the context, see Gold Master or Game Master.
Going Gold: The time when a team completes a game and is thereby able to create
the Gold Master which is sent to the duplicators. See also Gold Master.
Gold Candidate: See Release Candidate.
Gold Master: The version of the game, typically recorded onto gold CDs, which is
going to be used by the duplicator to create copies of the actual shipping game. In other
words, the final version of the game.
Graphical User Interface: This is any communications method the player has of
interacting with the computer that is primarily graphical in nature. For instance, the
Macintosh has always had a graphical user interface, as opposed to the text-oriented
one available in MS-DOS or UNIX. Games use GUIs for starting up new games, load
-
ing saved games, and choosing other options from the main menu, but also for
communicating information to the player not readily apparent from their view of the
game-world: the player character’s health, currently equipped weapon, amount of
ammo, number of lives, score, and so forth.
GUI: See Graphical User Interface.
552 Glossary
Heads Up Display: A type of graphical user interface which is overlaid on top of the
player’s game-world view. This may include the player character’s health, a mini-map
of the area, or radar of some sort, and typically communicates vital information to
which the player must always have easy access. Heads up displays take their name from
the displays used by jet fighter pilots, which constantly convey crucial flying informa
-
tion to those pilots while they are navigating the plane. See also Graphical User
Interface.
High Concept: An idea for a game which attempts to merge disparate types of
gameplay or setting into one game, without regard to whether those different ideas will

work well together. An example might be making a first-person shooter which is also a
racing game, or a wargame which includes a golf simulator. Usually synonymous with
“bad concept.”
HUD: See Heads Up Display.
IF: See Interactive Fiction.
IK: See Inverse Kinematics.
Input/Output: Often shortened to I/O, this refers to the systems a computer uses to
allow the player to input information (typically a keyboard and a mouse) in combina-
tion with how it communicates information back out to the user (typically the monitor).
In terms of computer games, the I/O refers to the controls with which the player manip-
ulates the game and the way the game then communicates to the player the current
nature of the game-world.
Interactive: An interaction is when two systems, be they a human and a human, a
human and a computer, or a computer and a computer, are mutually active in a given
process. For instance, a television show is not interactive, since only the television out
-
puts data and completely ignores whatever the user/audience does. A conversation
between two people is interactive, however, since both parties listen to what the other
has to say and will then say something related or in response to that. As another exam
-
ple, a strict lecture is not interactive since the lecturer reads a prepared speech without
any input from the audience. A discussion group, however, is interactive, since the pro
-
fessor or leader of the discussion will answer the students’ questions and listen to and
evaluate their ideas. Games are interactive since they allow both the player and the
computer to determine the shape of that particular game. Computer games are not being
especially interactive when they play long cut-scenes over which the player has no
control.
Interactive Fiction: A term originally coined by Infocom, which is an alternate
name for text adventures. Some people use interactive fiction to describe any games

which use text to describe scenes and include a text parser, even if graphics are also
included. See also Text Adventure.
Glossary 553
Interactive Movie: A term coined by those working in games who wish to call their
profession something more glamorous than what it is, similarly to how the comic book
industry sometimes attempts to call some of its longer and more sophisticated works
“graphic novels.” Typically, interactive movies involve more and longer cut-scenes than
your average game. Unfortunately, the makers of so-called “interactive movies” typi
-
cally add more movie than they do interactivity, resulting in works which are almost
always not very good movies and lack the interactivity to be good games.
Inverse Kinematics: An animation technique whereby a joint in a character’s skele
-
ton is moved to a desired location and the joints that depend on or are influenced by
that joint are automatically moved to the correct location. For example, if animating a
humanoid, the hand could be moved toward a door handle and the elbow and shoulder
would automatically move to reasonable positions. See also Skeletal Animation.
I/O: See Input/Output.
Isometric: Isometric is defined to mean “equality of measure,” particularly in refer-
ence to drawing objects. If one were isometrically drawing a cube from a distance with
one of the points of the cube pointing directly toward the viewer, the lines of the cube
would all be of the same length and would not use any foreshortening. Games such as
Civilization II, SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, and StarCraft are drawn isometrically.
This allows a game to be drawn from a somewhat 3D overhead view which can then be
scrolled around in all directions, without actually needing to involve a 3D rendering
engine. The perspective on the world is technically wrong, but players do not seem to
mind. Also referred to as a “three-quarters” view of the game world.
LAN: An acronym for a Local Area Network. These networks typically consist of a
small number of computers in a specific area networked to each other but not necessar
-

ily to the Internet or other networks.
LAN Party: Held when a bunch of friends get together, bring their computers to one
central location, and play multi-player games over them. Typically the fast “Ping” times
allow players to have much faster and more lag-free games than are available over the
Internet or other long-distance networks.
Linear: When the only one way to get from point A to point B is via the line segment
which connects them, we say that the movement is linear. Linear implies a lack of
choice outside of a single dimension: forward or backward. In gaming, a linear game is
one that does not give the player much choice in what he does. For some games, linear
may mean no choice at all, since backward is often not even an option.
Lone Wolf: Term used to describe game developers who do practically everything
themselves in the development of a game: the design, programming, art, sound, and
writing. At the very least, a lone wolf developer must do all of the game’s design and
programming herself. A lone wolf does not typically develop commercially released
software any more, though there are exceptions. For example, Chris Sawyer designed
554 Glossary
and programmed all of RollerCoaster Tycoon by himself, with a contractor completing
the art to his specifications. Though he did not do the art himself, Sawyer can still be
described as a lone wolf developer.
Massively Multi-Player: Strictly, a multi-player game involving a very large number
of people playing it at once, at least 100 or more. Typically such games are also persis
-
tent and played over the Internet. Ultima Online and Ever Quest are examples of
massively multi-player games. See also Multi-Player and Persistent.
Media: Go out and buy Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media. Read it. Come
back only when you fully understand it.
Metagame: According to Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering, the
metagame is “how a game interfaces with life.” This means what the player takes to
and brings away from a particular playing of a game and how that impacts his subse
-

quent playings of that game. This is particularly applicable to multi-player games. Take,
for example, a game of Quake III Arena on the Internet. If one player is known to play
unethically through camping and other undesirable tactics, players will be likely to
make a special effort to eliminate him in subsequent games. This means that the player
may end up losing subsequent games because of his behavior in previous games. This
interaction between the players from game to game is not part of the playing of the
game itself, but is part of the metagame that the playing creates. For another example,
in Magic: The Gathering the time a player spends preparing his deck before a game,
though not part of the game itself, is part of the metagame.
Milestones: A term often used in contracts between publishers and developers. A
milestone is an agreement of how much work on a project will be done at a specific
date, with the publisher only paying the developer when that milestone (usually in the
form of a current build of the game) is delivered to the publisher.
Mod: Short for “modification,” mods are user-created add-ons or changes to an exist
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ing game. Mods were popularized by id Software’s open-architecture policy which
allowed players to make their own levels for Doom. Beyond levels, mods also often
include new AI, new weapons, new art, or some combination of all three, potentially
creating a radically altered gameplay experience from what was found in the original
game.
MUD: Stands for Multi User Dungeon. MUDs resemble a text adventure with heavy
RPG elements in their central play mechanics, with the important difference being that
they take place in persistent, massively multi-player worlds. MUDs were set up and run
by college students starting in the 1980s. Players of the games, when they reached a
high enough experience level or rank, would become the creators of the games’ content
for other, more inexperienced players to explore. The primary interest many players
have in MUDs is the social component, preferring to chat with people they have never
seen before to going on Dungeons & Dragons style adventures. In many ways, Ultima
Online is a carefully regulated graphical MUD. Another popular variant are MOOs,
Glossary 555

which stands for MUD, Object Oriented. In terms of game design, MOOs and MUDs
are identical; only the way they are programmed and set up is different.
Multi-Player: A game that involves more than one player. Today, this typically also
means “networked multi-player” where each player has his own computer and com
-
petes with the other players over a network, such as the Internet.
Non-Linear: Obviously, the opposite of linear. In terms of gaming, this means that
the player is not locked into achieving different goals in a specific order or in achieving
all of the goals she is presented with. Instead, the player is able to move through the
game in a variety of paths and can be successful in a variety of ways. Non-linearity
leaves the player with more choice to play the game her own way. See also Linear and
On a Rail.
Non-Player Character: Any character in a computer game which is not controlled
by the player. Typically this refers to game-world characters who are not hostile to the
player, such as townspeople in an RPG.
NPC: See Non-Player Character.
NURBS: Stands for non-uniform rational B-splines. A 3D graphics technique for cre-
ating curved surfaces, a detailed explanation of which should be sought out in a 3D
graphics programming book.
On a Rail or On Rails: A game is said to be on a rail when a player is forced to
move through the game in a very specific, carefully controlled way, as if he were
locked onto a rail that ran through the game. Games which are said to be “on a rail” or
“on rails” are very linear games. A specific type of game called a “rail shooter” is on
rails to such an extent that the flight path of the player’s vehicle is completely predeter
-
mined, and the player is only able to shoot at targets as they pass by. Rebel Assault is an
example of a rail shooter. See also Linear.
180 Degree Rule: A film technique for cutting a scene that says that the camera must
always stay on one side of a line that extends between the two centers of attention in the
frame. If the camera never rotates anywhere outside of those 180 degrees, the audience

will not become confused by the scene’s cuts from character to character.
Parser: In gaming, often refers to the input method used by text adventures. A parser
takes natural language words or sentences the player enters and translates them into
commands that the game logic can understand. Parsers can become quite sophisticated
while still failing to understand many of the sentences that players attempt to use as
commands. Natural language processing is a major field of AI research, one that is still
far from perfect, so it is no wonder that parsers have as much trouble as they do. A
more modern usage of the term parser is in reference to the interpreter for a game’s
scripting language. See also Text Adventure.
Pathfinding: This is the portion of the AI code which allows an agent to figure out
how to get from one location to another in the game-world. Ideally, pathfinding allows
556 Glossary
the AI agent to avoid getting stuck on obstacles or other agents, yet pathfinding in
many games is less than perfect. There are various algorithms, such as A*, that can be
used for pathfinding which may have different results in terms of efficiency and the
quality of the paths generated, though that is a topic better explored in a book about
programming. See also A*.
PC: May refer either to a game’s player character or to the Intel-based personal com
-
puter originally popularized by IBM and powered by MS-DOS. Also see Player
Character.
Persistent: A persistent game is one which continues running and maintaining the
state of the game-world regardless of whether a particular player is actively playing it
or not. Often persistent games are also massively multi-player, and vice versa. MUDs
were one of the first persistent games, while commercial products such as Ultima
Online and Ever Quest have made persistent games quite popular to mainstream
gamers. See also MUDs.
Pitch Document: See Concept Document.
Place-Holder: Typically refers to sounds or art used in a game while it is in develop-
ment but which the development team plans to replace before the game is released to

the public.
Platform: Often used to describe the different systems a game can be developed for.
Popular gaming platforms past and present include the Apple II, Atari 800, Commodore
64, IBM PC, Commodore Amiga, Macintosh, Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment Sys-
tem, Sega Genesis, and the Sony PlayStation.
Player Character: This is the character the player controls in the game, such as
Mario in Super Mario 64, Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, or the space marine in Doom.
This term is a holdover from pencil and paper RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons.
Player Surrogate: See Surrogate.
Playtesting: A term referring to the process of testing the gameplay of the game to
see how well it plays. Playtesting is different from bug fixing or quality assurance in
general since playtesting focuses on the performance of gameplay itself instead of gen
-
eral bug fixing. See Chapter 23, “Playtesting.”
Port/Porting: The process of converting a game from one gaming platform to
another, such as from the PC to the Macintosh, or from the Sony PlayStation to the
Nintendo 64. Typically, games which are ported are completed on one system first, and
only then brought over to the other system.
PR: See Public Relations.
Pre-Rendered: 3D graphics which are rendered into 2D sprites or images before the
player plays the game. Myst features pre-rendered 3D graphics, while Unreal features
real-time 3D graphics. See also Real-Time 3D.
Glossary 557
Proposal: See Concept Document.
PSX: An abbreviation for Sony’s PlayStation console. Actually based on an early
name for the system, the PlayStation X. Nonetheless, the abbreviation stuck. However,
Sony does not like you calling their newer system the PSX2.
Public Relations: A wing of the marketing department whose primary job is to hype
a company’s upcoming games in the press by readying press releases, screenshots, and
other information. They also can be quite helpful in granting permission to use

screenshots in books such as this one.
QA: See Quality Assurance.
Quality Assurance: This is the process of testing a game to make sure that it is
bug-free and plays reasonably well. The quality assurance cycle or period is the time
when a nearly complete project is extensively tested just prior to release. In large com
-
panies, the quality assurance department or team are the people who are going to
perform that testing.
Rail, On a: See On a Rail.
Real-Time: Anything that is computed or rendered for the player while he waits,
such as graphics and pathfinding. This differentiates something from being pre-
computed before the actual gameplay is taking place. Can also differentiate a game
from being turn-based. See also Turn-Based.
Real-Time Strategy: A currently popular genre of games, including such titles as
Command & Conquer, WarCraft, Total Annihilation, and Myth: The Fallen Lords. This
term is typically emphasized to differentiate these RTS games from turn-based strategy
games such as Civilization, X-Com: UFO Defense, and Alpha Centauri.
Real-Time 3D: Describes 3D graphics which are rendered while the player is look
-
ing at them, so that as the player moves around the world, many different views of
objects and configurations of the game-world can be generated on the fly. Unreal uses
real-time 3D graphics while Myst uses pre-rendered 3D graphics. See also
Pre-Rendered.
Release Candidate: A build of the game which the development team believes may
be the one that can be shipped. A release candidate is generally tested for at least a few
days, optimally a week or two, to determine if it is bug-free enough to be acceptable to
the publisher. It is not uncommon for a particular product to go through five or more
release candidates.
Role-Playing Game: Games based on the type of gameplay established by pencil
and paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Those original

non-computer-games were so titled because in them players took on the roles of charac
-
ters of their own creation and guided them through a fantasy world. Much of the
gameplay in RPGs depends on the players role-playing these characters who often had
personalities different from their own. Ironically, most computer role-playing games
558 Glossary
TEAMFLY

Team-Fly
®

often contain very little of the role-playing aspect of traditional RPGs, instead choosing
to concentrate on the combat mechanics and fantasy setting.
RPG: See Role-Playing Game.
RT3D: See Real-Time 3D.
RTS: See Real-Time Strategy.
Scripted: In terms of a game, scripted typically refers to AI behaviors that are
planned in advance to allow the AI agents to look clever in specific situations in a level.
Scripted events play the same way every time a player plays a level. Half-Life used
scripted events to produce very impressive gameplay effects that gave the illusion of a
very smart AI system.
Sim: Short for simulator or simulation. See Simulation.
Simulation: In a game described as a simulation, the primary goal of the game’s
designer is to model a real-life system accurately and realistically, instead of simply
making the game as fun as possible. This system could be anything, such as an aircraft
of some kind, a race car, or a city.
Simulator: See Simulation.
Skeletal Animation: An alternative to vertex deformation for 3D animations. With a
skeletal animation system, the game keeps track of an animating character’s skeleton.
The animation then controls this skeleton, moving the animating character’s mesh to
match the skeleton properly. A skeletal animation system has the advantage of causing
animations to take up much less space than when they are animated using a technique
such as vertex deformation, as well as often leading to superior looking animations.
Furthermore, the skeleton can be controlled procedurally for inverse kinematics effects
of various types. See also Vertex Deformation and Inverse Kinematics.
Skin: In gaming, skin refers to the texture set being used on a 3D player character in
a game like Quake III Arena or Unreal Tournament. Players will get to choose what
skin they play the game with either from the default collection that comes with the

game, or by making their own and importing it into the game. This has recently become
popular outside of the realm of first-person shooters in The Sims.
SKU: Stands for stock keeping unit or shelf keeping unit. It is the unique number
associated with every bar code and used by stores to track their inventory. Each unique
version of a game is sometimes referred to as a different SKU. If one game ships for a
number of different platforms, say Macintosh and PC, then each version is a separate
SKU. Similarly, Thief and Thief Gold are two different SKUs, though they are practi
-
cally the same game.
Software Toy: A term coined by Will Wright of Maxis to describe that company’s
first product, SimCity. A software toy is quite similar to a game, except that it defines
no criterion for success. The player is just left to play with the game as she wishes with
-
out ever “winning” or “losing.” Yet a player may make a software toy into a game by
Glossary 559
defining her own personal conditions for success. See also Game.
State-Based AI: A type of AI which uses states for each of its agents. States include
actions such as idle, walking, attacking, and so forth. The AI then switches the agent
from one state to another depending on the conditions of the game-world. May also be
referred to as a finite state machine or FSM.
State Machine: See State-Based AI.
Story Bible: A document that contains all the information available about the story
elements of the game-world. Story bibles can be quite large, especially when working
with properties with established histories, such as the Star Trek or Ultima universes.
These documents are usually used as reference works for the developers during the
game’s creation. Described in detail in Chapter 15, “Game Development
Documentation.”
Surrogate: A term used to describe the entity that the player controls in the game,
also known as the player character or the player’s avatar. See also Avatar and Player
Character.

TDD: See Technical Design Document.
Technical Design Document: This document takes the gameplay as described in the
Design Document and explains how that gameplay will be implemented in more techni-
cal, code-centered terms. As a result, this document is often used primarily by the
programming team. Described in detail in Chapter 15, “Game Development
Documentation.”
Technical Specification: Another name for the Technical Design Document. See Tech-
nical Design Document.
Text Adventure: Text adventures are devoid of graphics and describe the game-
world to the player exclusively through text. Players are then able to interact with the
game-world by typing in natural language sentences in the imperative form stating what
they want their character to do next. The form was made extremely popular by Infocom
in the early 1980s. See also Interactive Fiction.
Three-Quarters View: Typically refers to games that have an isometric view point.
This view can be in any rendering system with an overhead view of the ground where
the camera is oriented at a 45-degree angle from the plane of the ground. See also
Isometric.
Turn-Based: Any game where the computer waits for the player to act before pro
-
ceeding with its own actions. Civilization, for instance, is a turn-based strategy game,
while WarCraft is a real-time strategy game. For some non-computer game examples,
chess is a turn-based game while football (soccer) is real-time. American football is a
bizarre hybrid of real-time and turn-based gameplay.
Turn-Based Strategy: See Turn-Based.
560 Glossary
Vertex Deformation: A 3D animation system where the individual vertices of a
model are moved one by one to new positions for each frame of the animation. This is
the simplest 3D animation method to code for, but has many disadvantages over a skel
-
etal animation system. Sometimes also called key-frame animation. Also see Skeletal

Animation.
Virtual Reality: Technically, virtual reality, or VR, refers to advanced world-
simulation systems at a minimum involving the user wearing a set of goggles with a
small monitor or display device in each eyepiece. This allows the player to get a truly
3D, stereo-vision experience. Also, the VR headset allows the player to turn her head
and have her view of the virtual world change accordingly, to match the new location at
which she is “looking.” VR systems may also involve wearing gloves or full-body suits
which detect the user’s motion and translate that into motion in the virtual world. Vir
-
tual reality is one of the most commonly misused terms in all of computer game
parlance. Many game developers with inflated senses of what they are doing will refer
to their RT3D first-person games as VR when, since they do not involve headsets, they
are really nothing of the kind. Marketing people are particularly fond of misusing and
abusing this term.
VR: See Virtual Reality.
Wargame: When used in reference to computer games, wargame typically refers to
strategy-oriented games which employ gameplay based on pen and paper or board
wargames such as those made by Avalon Hill. Computer wargames almost always sim-
ulate historic battles, typically feature hexagon-based play-fields, and use turn-based
gameplay. Games which are set in historical wars but are not strategic in nature are not
generally referred to as wargames. Classic examples of computer wargames include
Kampfgruppe and Eastern Front (1941), while more modern examples include Panzer
General and Close Combat.
Glossary 561
Selected Bibliography
T
he following references have been a great help to me in solidifying my ideas
about computer games. I list them here as a sort of “recommended reading”
list for those who wish to continue to learn about game design outside the
confines of this book.

Books
Bogdanovich, Peter. Who The Devil Made It. New York: Knopf, 1997.
A fascinating collection of interviews with classic film directors. Bogdanovich’s
interview style was my model for the interviews conducted in this book.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Bollingen
Foundation Inc., 1949. Reprint, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Campbell’s book is the definitive text on understanding the nature of myths, leg-
ends, and heroic stories from throughout the ages.
Crawford, Chris. The Art of Computer Game Design. Berkeley, CA: Osborne/
McGraw-Hill, 1984.
Crawford’s seminal work was the first book about computer game design and was
the inspiration for this book. Despite its age in computer game industry terms, it
remains largely relevant today. Though it is out of print, it can currently be read in a
number of locations on the Internet, including www.erasmatazz.com.
Hague, James. Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video
Game Programmers. Issaquah, WA: Dadgum Games, 1997.
Hague’s book is an invaluable source of information about what it was like to work
in the gaming industry just as it was starting to establish itself. All information
comes straight from the source through a series of interviews with a broad range of
subjects, including many whose work is discussed in this book: Eugene Jarvis, Dani
Bunten Berry, Dan Gorlin, Brian Moriarty, Ed Rotberg, Chris Crawford, and so on.
The HTML-format book is available from Hague’s company, Dadgum Games, at
www.dadgum.com.
562
McCloud, Scott. Reinventing Comics. New York: Paradox Press, 2000.
________. Understanding Comics. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press,
Inc., 1993.
Though these books are technically about comics, they both provide tremendous
insight about media and art of all kinds. It is fair to say that Understanding Comics
fundamentally changed the way I think about art.

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Co., 1964. Reprint, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.
The definitive book on media of all kinds, a work which takes on new meaning in
the age of the Internet. McLuhan may be a bit obtuse in his writing style, but his
insights are without peer.
Strunk, William and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. New York: Macmillan
Publishing, 1959. Reprint 4th Ed., Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
The Elements of Style remains the last word on clear and concise writing, a book
anyone writing a design document, script, or book about game design would do well
to read.
Periodicals
Computer Gaming World (Ziff Davis Media)
A magazine that has been around almost as long as computer games themselves,
Computer Gaming World remains informative and insightful.
Game Developer (CMP Media, Inc.)
The closest the gaming industry has to a professional journal, which covers all
aspects of game development, including articles on game design.
Next Generation (Imagine Media, Inc.)
A hybrid computer game/console game magazine with an emphasis on cutting-edge
game technology and, sometimes, the theory and people behind the games.
Web Sites
www.mpath.com/dani
A tribute page to the late Dani Bunten Berry, the tremendously gifted designer of
the classic M.U.L.E. Includes some of Berry’s writings about game design and
reflections on her career.
www.costik.com
Greg Costikyan is best known for his pencil and paper game designs, including the
classic games Toon and Paranoia, though he has also done a number of computer
Selected Bibliography 563
games. His web site includes an array of articles he has written, including the very

interesting screed, “I Have No Words & I Must Design.”
www.erasmatazz.com
Chris Crawford’s current home on the web, centered on his interactive storytelling
engine, the Erasmatron. Also includes a vast library of Crawford’s writings about
game design, including everything he ever wrote for the Journal of Computer Game
Design and links to the full text of The Art of Computer Game Design. Required
reading.
www.gamasutra.com
Gamasutra is the sister web site of Game Developer magazine. The site runs origi
-
nal content as well as some reprints from the magazine. Within its pages, a vast
wealth of information is archived and searchable.
www.theinspiracy.com
The home page for Noah Falstein’s game consulting company, The Inspiracy.
Includes a number of articles by Falstein and transcripts of some of his talks at the
Game Developer’s Conference.
564 Selected Bibliography
Index
Page numbers in bold indicate an image of that particular game.
1830,24
2D
adaptation to 3D, 308, 373-374
game-worlds, 381-382
games, 114, 407, 412
graphics, 380
graphics vs. 3D graphics, 306-307, 327, 427
3D
accelerator cards, 249
action games, 136, 141, 374
camera, 451-452, 460

engines, 43-45, 89, 111, 132, 306-308, 369, 427, 460
game-worlds, 16-17, 87, 108-109, 115, 138,
173-176, 211, 373-374, 381, 386-387, 421, 428
games, 110, 114, 383, 407, 450-452
graphics, 152, 380
hardware, 452
modeling packages, 390
vs. 2D games, 7, 77, 89, 114, 407
3D Studio Max, 386-387
7th Guest, The, 221
A
abdicating authorship, 396-398, 400, 409
abstraction vs. representation, 283
Abyss, The, 199
academic conferences, 272
academic techniques, 437
Accolade, 202
accountants, 128-129
action games, xviii, 43, 56, 140-141, 147-149, 172, 306,
352-353, 396, 401
action/adventure games, 44-45, 133, 211, 305, 335,
413-414, 418, 420
action/exploration games, 415, 418-419
active participants, 491
Activision, 187-189, 193, 199, 204-205
actors, 18, 360-361, 371
Adams, Douglas, 182-183
Adams, Scott, 353, 368
adaptation, 182
of non-computer games, 148

story to audience, 217
addictive gameplay, 27-28, 60, 109, 156, 369
Advanced Squirrel Hunting, 261
Adventure, 197
adventure games, xx, 13, 16, 22, 43, 49, 51, 82, 126,
146-147, 179-183, 188, 190, 198, 201-202, 205,
207-208, 211-212, 230, 236-247, 249-250, 285,
298-299, 352-354, 366-368, 396, 408, 413, 429
adventure/RPG games, 237
advertising, 202, 302
Age of Empires, 30, 32, 58, 460
AI, see artificial intelligence
Alexander, Christopher, 454
Alice in Wonderland, 197
Alpha Centauri, 41, 158, 162, 163, 327, 328, 337
alpha, 480
alpha testing, 194
ambient life, 169-170, 329, 365
American Association for Artificial Intelligence, 272
Amiga, 189, 269, 438, 439
Anderson, Tim, 188
animation, 348, 350, 351, 359, 361, 363, 387-388
animators, 340, 371
animé, 300
annual revisions of games, 249
anonymity of player character, 245
anticipatory game design, 122-123, 218
antisocial, 5
Ants, The, 447
AOL, 440

Apple, 191
Apple II, 104, 180, 186-187, 192, 266-267, 349, 372,
376, 435
Apple Invaders, 347
Arabian Nights, 350
arbitrary puzzles, 415
565
arcade games, xvii, xx, 5-6, 15, 45, 53-54, 59-64, 93,
112, 149-151, 161, 179, 189, 227, 435, 485-486
arcades, 111, 113, 149, 93
environment in, 113
architecture, 455
Area 51,112
Arkanoid,114
art assets, 232
art bible, 292-294, 300, 302, 341
art deco, 300
art director, 328
art form, 489
Art Nouveau, 362-363
Art of Computer Game Design, The, 76, 263, 271-272
art team, 333, 335
Arthur, 199
artificial intelligence, 5, 17, 36, 46-47, 87, 100-101,
118-119, 153-154, 158-178, 231, 253, 255, 264, 288,
295, 301, 329-332, 334, 339, 341, 344, 379, 389,
393, 417, 429, 432, 473
cheating, 170
collaborative, 162
dumb actions, 163-164

environments, 172-174
equal vs. unequal, 161-162, 170-172, 331
flee/retreat, 17, 177, 330, 334
goals of, 160-170
in design document, 321, 332
irrational, 166
overpowering the player, 162
outnumbering the player, 161-162, 170
realism, 171
simple, 160-161
sophistication of, 172, 175-176
stupid, 163-164, 167, 170, 176
unfair advantage, 170
unpredictable, 164-167
artificial stupidity, 178
artists, xix, 76, 83-84, 102, 114, 116, 298, 300, 309,
334, 339, 343, 371, 388, 421
artistic license, 399
Asteroids, 62, 64, 93, 94, 98, 99-100, 100, 104, 114,
120, 151, 347
lurking, 98-99
saucer, 98, 103
Asteroids Deluxe,99
Atari, 93-95, 100, 106-107, 109, 110-114, 265-269, 347
Atari 2600, 95, 100, 104-105, 120, 265-266
Atari 800, 186-187, 266, 290
Atari Program Exchange, 267
Atari Research Division, 268, 271
audience, 191, 203-204, 222, 231, 261-262, 311, 446,
459-460, 465-466, 489

target, 477-478, 482
audio, 220, 242, 364-365, 444
designer, 371
subconscious, 445
vs. visual information, 144
AutoCAD, 451
autonomous behavior, 403
Avalon Hill, 24, 26, 264
Avellar, Norm, 109
Avid, 358
awe-inspiring, 414
B
back-story, 227, 296-297, 300, 338-340
Back-Story Tome, 339-340, 343
Bailey, Donna, 59, 101
balance, 96, 107-108, 157, 367, 417
Balance of Power, 263, 269, 270, 273, 274, 290
Balance of Power II: The 1990 Edition, 273, 276, 277,
290
Balance of the Planet, 278, 279, 290
balancing, 36, 103, 173, 208, 256-257, 334, 341,
385-386, 388, 418, 483-486
adjusting settings and massaging data, 389-390, 466,
484
hooks for, 389-390
iterations through, 484
bandwidth, 207
Barbie, 439
Bard’s Tale, The, 142, 491
Bard’s Tale II, The, 491

Barthelet, Luc, 467
baseball, 408
basketball, 420, 423, 439
Bates, Bob, 199
Battle of Hunter’s Run, 30
Battlezone, 64, 111
behavior modeling, 454
behaviors, 160, 167-169, 177, 219, 225-226, 330-331,
362, 389-390, 455-456
Berez, Joel, 186-187
Berkeley, 95, 454
Berry, Dani, 277-278, 470
beta, 480
beta testing, 194
Beyond Zork, 188, 237, 240
Big Sleep, The, 230-231
566 Index
Bjornson, Edith, 281
Blair Witch Project, The, 185
Blank, Marc, 180, 186-188, 195
Bleszinski, Cliff, 417
blind play, 264
blister packs, 195-196
Blitzkrieg, 264
Blizzard Entertainment, 391-392
“Blowin’ in the Wind,” 273-274
board games, 26, 29, 40-41, 152, 154, 264
Boffo Games, 180, 205
Bogart, Humphrey, 205
Bond, James, 171

Bone, 244
bonus objectives, 425
bounds of game-world, 9-10, 210
bragging rights, 5-6, 63
brainstorming, 94, 101-102, 117, 193, 233
branching conversations, 39, 239, 241, 285, 298
branching stories, 232
branching tree, 366
branding, 38, 191
Braun, Jeff, 438
breadth of gameplay, 396
vs. depth, 401
breaking the experience, 364
Breakout, 94-95, 114
bridge (game of), 3
Broadway, 12
Broderbund, 348-349, 437
BSP engines, 306
BTZ engine, 190
budgets, xxi, 55, 57, 75-76, 83, 85, 115-117, 185-186,
196-197, 200, 205-206, 212, 249-250, 252, 270-271,
295, 301-302, 363, 369-371, 373, 458
builder games, 409, 434
building, 25, 407
a functional area, 256-257
as gameplay, xviii, 379, 400, 408, 451-452
game-worlds, 379
incrementally, 254-256
levels, 251
the game, 254-259

Bungie Software, 313, 384
Bunten, Dan, 277-278, 470
burn rate, 75
Bushnell, Nolan, 94
buttons, 137, 324, 352, 402, 458-459
icons for, 144
C
cabinet art, 227
Cambridge, 186
camera, 258, 308, 327
3D, 451-452, 460
control, 307
following, 374
in level editor, 380-381
Cameron, James, 188
Captain Hero, 449
card games, 189
Carlston, Doug, 348, 439
Carlyle, Thomas, 378
cartoons, 285, 362-363
Castle Wolfenstein, 94, 108
Castles of Doctor Creep, The, 350
casual gamers, 88, 204, 209, 311-312, 451-452,
459-460, 477
CD-ROM games, 207, 220-221, 359
cell animation, 18, 300
cellular automata, 437
censorship, 77
Centipede, xviii, xx, 6, 15, 53-56, 61, 63-72, 65, 67, 69,
71, 86-88, 93-94, 101, 102, 101-103, 110, 114-115,

120, 124-125, 130-132, 142, 149, 151, 154, 159-161,
215, 224, 252-253, 336, 408, 485-486
“Bug Shooter” idea, 94, 101
focus, 86
mushrooms, 55-56, 66-71, 102-103, 124
Centipede (3D version), 50, 53-55, 54, 86, 87-88, 164,
221, 252-253, 258, 313, 383, 386-387, 391, 485-486
focus, 87
level editor, 386-387
Cerny, Mark, 104
challenge, 2-3, 5, 15-16, 125-127, 129, 134, 148-150,
153-155, 160-163, 167, 169-170, 176, 237, 312, 385,
427
changes, 257-259
in development, 342
in game design, 37-38, 261-262, 369, 374-376, 390,
425, 428, 438, 484
outcome of story, 245
Chaplin, Charlie, 197
characters, xix, 13, 75, 182, 193, 198, 211, 215, 217,
219, 224-226, 230-232, 245, 249, 255, 268, 294,
296-297, 322, 330, 340, 342, 352-354, 356, 360-361,
367, 377, 425-426
in design document, 331-332
interaction, 181-182
motivations, 296-297, 354
Index 567
personality, 13
strong personalities, 229-230, 245
checkpoint saving, 16

chess, 3, 125, 163, 288
children gamers, 244
choice trees, 355
choices (player), xviii, 50-51, 58, 125-128, 215, 234,
283, 400, 424-425
consequences of, 366
involvement in, 406
meaningful, 400
off-the-wall, 367
Choose Your Own Adventure, 366
Choplifter, 348
Church, Doug, 396, 406
cinema, see film
Civil War, the, 29, 31
Civilization, 17, 20-21, 24-28, 27, 30-32, 34, 35, 37, 39,
40-41, 43, 124, 130-131, 153, 208, 235, 246-247,
249, 331, 336, 379, 397, 401, 408, 418-419, 434,
487
Civilization (board game), 26
Civilization II, 41, 124, 158
Civilization III,39
classic arcade games, 59-64, 93, 149-151, 161
traits of, 62-64
click-and-drag, 29-30, 139
clicking, 241-243, 246, 402, 459
clone games, xx, 305-306, 347-348, 372-373
Close Combat, 160
Cmiral, Elia, 364-365
Cobb, Ron, 206
“code like hell,” 380

CodeWarrior, 389
coin-op games, 93-94, 98, 100, 102, 105, 107, 109,
110-112, 119-120, 347
collaboration, 82
artificial intelligence for, 331
between designer and player, 456
in level creation, 433
in storytelling, 396
Colonization, 41, 202
color games, 99
Columbia University, 185
comic books, 220, 280, 362-363, 489
Command & Conquer, 28, 136, 144, 215-216, 219, 221,
240, 284, 305-306, 308
commands, 294
commercial
art form, 198
feasibility, 281-282, 288-289
games, 211, 292
software packages, 386-387
committees, 33, 488
Commodore, 438, 442
Commodore 64, 350, 435
Commodore Pet, 265
communication
through sound, 445
to other game developers, 272-273
to player, 401
with team, 116, 209, 259, 317-318, 320, 433, 466
compelling interactive experiences, 492

complex systems, 122-124, 141, 279
complexity
of engine, 417
of games, 25, 27, 80, 88, 152, 156, 287, 325, 334,
367, 371, 374
of programming tasks, 393
comprehensibility, 23, 25, 60, 279, 441-442
CompuServe, 440
computer games, 137-138, 140
vs. video games, 197, 269-270, 279-280
concept document, 293-294, 302
concept sketches, xix, 300, 343
Conflict in Vietnam,41
confusing the player, 308, 423
consistency, 8-9, 123, 222, 231, 296, 352, 361, 376, 425
console games, 139-140, 249, 409, 460
constellation, 176, 231
constrained space, 353, 408
Consumer Electronics Show, 109
continuous gameplay, 419
Control Data Corp., 95
controllers, 65, 138
controls, xviii, 75, 88-89, 95, 101-103, 109-110, 112,
132-140, 147, 151, 155, 219, 224, 241, 255, 258,
311-312, 314, 324, 333, 338, 344, 352, 357, 374,
376, 473, 475, 477, 479
bad controls, 140
configurable, 140, 380
degree of, 396, 444
multiple ways to achieve the same effect, 138-139

conversations with NPCs, 9-10, 46-48, 50-51, 181-182,
191, 218, 224-226, 239, 246, 275-276, 297-299, 310,
330, 334, 361, 388, 425, 460-461
canned, 457
dynamic, 219
keyword, 298-299
conversions, 93, 104-105, 110, 276-278, 294
568 Index
TEAMFLY

Team-Fly
®

Coppola, Francis Ford, 490
copy protection, 196, 227
Covert Action, 20, 23, 25, 41
Coyote, Wile E. 105-106
Cranford, Michael, 491
Crash Bandicoot, 135, 142-143, 211
Crawford, Chris, 76, 217, 263-290, 292, 398
creation of player characters, 396
creative freedom, 103-104, 185, 265
creativity of player, 245, 265, 352, 441
critical path, 414, 423
cross-cutting, 349, 356
Cruisin’ World, 102, 420
Crusade in Europe,41
crying, 182
Crying Game, The, 185
cult of personality, 38
cut-scenes, 17-18, 39, 167, 219-220, 222-223, 228, 246,
298, 300-301, 310, 346, 355-356, 362, 366
playback, 222-223
skipping, 223
Cyberball, 111
D
Dalai Lama, 185
Damage Incorporated, 50-53, 52, 135, 164, 168, 173,

174, 175, 176, 223, 225-226, 233, 234, 256, 257
Dane, Warrel, 73
Daniels, Bruce, 188
Dark Crystal, The, 244
Dark Forces, 221
Das Boot, 280
Deadline, 131, 179-180, 187, 192, 195
deadlines, 75-76
Deathbounce, 348
death-match, 3, 5, 256-257, 419-420
debugging, 388-389, 463, 473
DEC PDP-11, 187
DEC Rainbow, 192
Decision in the Desert,41
Deer Hunter,41
Defender, 15, 64, 379
depth of gameplay, 35-36, 80, 237, 239, 251, 313, 359,
396, 400-401
design, see game design
design document, 74, 83-85, 106, 117, 193, 251,
253-254, 258, 260-262, 292-296, 300-303, 316-345
artificial intelligence in, 321, 332
assumptions, 328, 331
availability of, 344
characters in, 331-332
communication in, 337
comparisons with other games in, 320
features in, 322
formatting, 318
game elements, 321, 331-334

game mechanics, 321, 323-329, 332, 334
game progression, 321, 332
inauspicious, 338-342
inconsistency, 319
Introduction/Overview/Executive Summary,
320-323, 343
items, 331-332
objects/mechanisms, 331-333
reading, 343-344
revising and updating, 344
sections of, 321-337
standard format, 317, 337
story overview, 320-321, 332, 334-335
system menus, 321, 328, 337-338
table of contents, 318, 321, 339, 343
version number, 344
weight, 343
“designed by a committee, programmed by a horde,” 33
designer’s story, 216-218, 245-246
vs. player’s story, 396-397
designers, see game designers
destruction in games, 442-443
development cycle, xvii, xix, xxi, 84, 176, 193-194,
249-250, 253, 301, 473, 479-480
changes in, 342
chaos of, 249
documentation, xix, 85, 251, 253, 291-303, 316-345
last ten percent, 435-436
Diablo, 32, 136, 201, 240, 324, 325, 333
Diablo II, 137, 325, 333

dialog, in-game, xix, 107, 168, 223, 224-226, 232, 245,
297-300, 310, 342, 351, 354, 356, 365, 429, 460-461
irritating, 230
difficulty, xviii, 15, 89, 103, 104, 126-129, 134,
154-155, 171, 183, 192, 208, 209, 232, 243, 257,
309-310, 312, 314, 335, 424, 475, 477, 481, 484
levels, 208, 242, 486
ramping up, 14, 62, 70, 149, 151, 154-155, 232, 409,
411, 483
“your game is too hard,” 485-486
Dinosaur Game (Sid Meier’s), 31
Diplomacy,3
Dirt Bike,95
Disney, 348, 361, 363
Index 569
Disneyland, 119
dissolves, 358-360
distribution, 185-186
documentation for development, xix, 85, 251, 253,
291-303, 316-345
dominant paradigms, 144-145
Doom, xviii, 2, 3, 5-6, 9-10, 15, 44, 51, 53, 131-132,
143, 144, 154, 161-162, 224, 230, 249, 250, 306,
330, 372-374, 384, 409, 411, 413, 418-420, 422,
427, 468
“head” interface, 143-144
Doom II, 9, 329
Doornbos, Jamie, 453
Dornbrook, Mike, 180, 187
downloadable extensions of games, 458

Dragon Speech, 280
Drakan, 327, 392
dramatic, 217, 287-288
dramatically reasonable, 284-286
dream, the, 234-235, 492
Dreamcast, 93, 120, 388
Driver,7
driving games, 112, 249
Dub Media, 205
Duke Nukem 3D, 429
Dungeon,95
Dungeon Master, 107, 218
Dungeons & Dragons, 107, 217-218
dying, 14-15, 62-63, 70, 102, 150-151, 154, 175, 229,
237, 243, 274, 349, 364, 462, 464
Dylan, Bob, 273-274
E
Earth Day, 278-279
Eastern Front (1941), 263, 266-268, 274, 290
easy-to-learn, 113, 138, 144, 151, 155, 192
easy-to-play, 35, 63, 64, 88-90, 237, 447
eBay, 196
economic simulations, 7-8, 24-26, 82, 130, 444
ecosystems, 443-446
Edith, 450, 463-464, 466
educational games, 278-279, 468, 469
Egyptian Rumba,78
Elderen, Dan Van, 94, 102
Electric Ladyland, 490
Electronic Arts, 112, 182, 202, 277-278, 467

Electronic Entertainment Expo, 33, 272
Elements of Style, The, 291
Elliot, Lauren, 350
Ellipsis Special Document, 338-339, 340, 342
Ellison, Harlan, 42-43
embedded help, 401-402, 459
embracing limitations, 46, 54-57, 409
emergence, 123-125
Emotion Engine, The, 288
emotions in games, 6, 75, 182, 268, 286-288, 335,
460-462
Empire, 21, 26, 277
Empire Strikes Back, The, 181
empowerment, 396, 491
Enchanter, 184, 188
end-games, 17
Energy Czar, 290
engine, 43-46, 89, 142, 313, 379, 394, 417, 484
licensed, 46
entity editors, 386
epic stories, 39-40, 80
Erasmatron, 263, 280-289, 285
creation of story-worlds, 281-282
pre-determined ending, 283
story-worlds, 281-282, 285
verbs, 286
escapism, 7, 405
eternal vigilance, 418
ethics, 461-463
Excalibur, 290

expandability, 463-464
expansion packs, 191
expectations (player), 8-19, 131-132, 160-161
experimental games, 185-186, 249, 259, 447, 466
experimentation, 200, 245, 250-251, 253, 259, 399-400
with game design, 372
exploration, xviii, 15-17, 25, 48, 148, 232, 237,
244-245, 255, 413-415, 417-418, 420-421, 426,
428-429, 431, 441, 481
extension of the player, 352
external materials, 219, 227-228
F
F-15 Strike Eagle, 20, 41
F-19 Stealth Fighter, 20, 41
facial expressions, 285
fairness of game-world, 14-15
Fallout, 15, 409, 413
Falstein, Noah, 129-130
fame, 38
familiarity, 139
development team with project, 258
with game-world, 131
with subject matter of game, 398-399
570 Index
family gaming, 204
fan letters, 449
fans, 231, 478
fantasy fulfillment, 7-8, 13
feature-creep, 84
feedback, 12, 35, 94, 141-145, 185, 194, 476, 480,

482-483
between designer and programmer, 259
on game design, 469-470, 474
positive to player, 422
feel of gameplay, 103, 116, 122, 254, 260-262, 384,
428-429, 486, 488
feng shui, 454
field testing, 94-95, 111
fighting games, 101, 112
film, 228, 346, 348, 355, 440, 489
scripts, 298
techniques, 348, 355-356
filming, 357-358
Final Fantasy,33
finishing games, 129
Firaxis, 20, 33, 39
first impressions, 14, 258-259
first-person shooter, xx, 21, 44-45, 48, 131-132, 140,
164, 177, 212, 233-234, 305, 307, 328, 332, 335,
337, 374, 408, 425, 428-429
first-person view, 327, 356
first-time players, 475, 485
Flanagan, Bob, 99, 107
flexible simulation of game elements, 406
Flight Simulator, 435
flight simulators, 20, 37-38, 43, 45, 335, 408
flow of game, 73, 410, 428
flowcharts, 295, 343
Floyd, 181-182
FMV, see full motion video

focus, xix, 74-92, 250, 279, 292, 303, 320, 322,
400-401, 412, 433, 453
change of, 84-88, 456
comparisons in, 79-80
establishing, 74-76
example, 78-79
fleshing out, 83-84
maintaining, 82
present tense, 78
referring to, 83-84, 87
size, 75
sub-focuses, 88-91
using, 91-92
writing it down, 80-81
focus groups, 18-19, 395, 453, 487-488
focused game design, 238-239, 253, 308, 349, 458
food in games, 130-131, 141
football, 103
Football (4-player conversion), 99, 101, 120
foreshadowing, 217
Forester, Jay, 436
Forge, 384, 385
Fossilized Document, 342, 344
franchises, 451, 478
Free Tibet, 185
freedom of player, 129, 284, 397
Freeman, Gordon, 230
Frogger, 53, 61
frustrated linear writers, 228-230
frustrating gameplay, 16-17, 192, 210, 243, 341, 401,

424-425
full motion video, 18, 217, 221, 356, 359-260, 362
fun, 36-37
as sine qua non, 279-280
functional specification, 294
funding, 253-254
fuzzy logic, 166-167
G
Gaia hypothesis, 443, 447
Galaga, 61, 151
game design, xviii-xxii, 122, 124-125, 128, 136, 208,
229-230, 233, 265, 292, 367, 371, 475, 489
anticipatory, 122-123, 218
artificial intelligence, 160
by committee, 488
changes in, 37-38, 261-262, 369, 374-376, 390, 425,
428, 438, 484
elegance, 152
elements of, 145
evolution of, 32, 40, 115
experimenting with, 372
extrapolatory approach to, 279
experience at, 459, 486
goals, 161, 425
modular, 351
open-ended, 457, 461-462
original, 114, 117, 201, 249-250, 348, 371, 374,
404-405, 434
personal, 33
philosophy, 237

rules, 19, 22, 40, 101, 122, 145, 237, 486
simplicity, 93, 97, 147, 151-152, 155-157, 237, 239,
241, 352, 364, 401, 481
Index 571
tools, 378-394
unconventional, 275-276
unexplored territory, 32
uniqueness of, xx, 75, 322, 332
vision, xxi, 118, 147, 303, 337, 344, 433, 487-488
game designers, xvii, xix-xxi, 19-20, 71-72, 74, 76, 83,
93, 102, 125, 128-130, 139-140, 145, 178, 216-217,
227, 232-233, 249-250, 259-261, 277, 289, 292,
299-300, 303, 308, 317, 334, 338, 340, 342,
344-345, 368, 378, 385-386, 388, 396, 401, 411,
414, 418, 420, 425, 429, 431, 458, 470, 473-474,
476, 479, 481, 484-485, 489
designer/programmers, 33-34, 71-72, 82-83, 116,
209, 259-261, 308, 466
vs. programmers, 390-393
Game Developer’s Conference, 129-130, 170, 176, 185,
263, 272-273, 281, 396, 439
game engine, xviii, xxi, 191, 220-221, 249, 251-252,
254, 259-260, 281, 300, 384, 407
“game sense,” 103
GameFX, 203, 206
gameographies, 41, 120, 213, 290, 377, 470
gameplay, xviii-xix, 43-46, 48, 53-57, 61-64, 323
addictive, 27-28, 60, 109, 156, 369
assumptions about, 251
continuous, 419

depth of, 35-36, 80, 237, 239, 251, 313, 359, 396,
400-401
editor, 390
feeling, 103, 116, 122, 254, 260-262, 384, 428, 429,
486, 488
frustrating, 16-17, 192, 210, 243, 341, 401, 424-425
hardwiring, 123
non-linear gameplay, 365-367
variations on, 95, 105, 149, 250, 372
game-world, 75, 215
boundaries, 9-10, 210
characters, 13
conversations, 9-10
editing, 383, 385-388
fairness, 14-15
objects, 387
rules, 114, 361
seamless, 410
understandable, 23, 25, 60, 279, 441-442
gamers, see players
games
definition of, 284-285
elements, 335, 351
emotional involvement in, 247
innovative, 249, 404, 434, 487
length, 205, 208-209, 349
literary, 191, 200
mechanics, 256, 296, 426
modes, 327
naming, 77-78, 186-187, 204-205

people in, 457
playing time, 205, 208-209, 349
progression, 335-336
replaying, 129, 169, 208, 242, 246, 418
repercussions in, 400
simple, 203-204
solitaire, 3, 5, 153, 178, 222, 491
sophisticated, 407
stages in, 335-336
stories, 230-234
storytelling techniques, 218-228
systems, 483
vs. toys, 439-440
waves, 335-336
gamma testing, 194
Garriott, Richard, 316
Gauntlet, 93, 105, 106, 106-108, 111, 114, 117, 120
Gauntlet II, 93, 99, 108, 120
Gauntlet III, 108
Gauntlet Legends, 115
genres, 21-22, 112, 201-202, 354, 367-368, 372-373,
377, 478
Gettysburg!, 20, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 40-41, 139, 416
Gilbert, Ron, 238-239
Glass, Philip, 185
Global Conquest, 277
Global Dilemma: Guns & Butter, The, 277, 278, 290
goal-oriented games, 397
goals, 130, 396-397, 406, 416, 422
accomplishing incrementally, 12

bonus objectives, 425
directed by, 440-441
game-world, 10-12, 101-102
project, 76
of AI, 166
of game design, 268, 280
optional, 423
sub-goals, 422
Godfather, The, 490
God-games, 24, 44
gold master, 249
Goldberg, Rube, 350
golf, 112
Gollop, Julian, 121
572 Index