How Game Design factored into the World Building of Necropolis PD
With the release of my debut novel Necropolis PD only a few
weeks away, I thought I’d talk about the processes that brought the book
to life, or at least some of the influences that played a hand in its creation.
The first topic I’ll discuss is how my experience in game design factored into
the creation of the world of Necropolis PD.
I’ve been designing games professionally for over 20 years.
I’ve helped make computer games, console games, first-person shooters,
platformers, massively-multiplayer online games, role-playing games and more.
When designing a world for a game, it’s important to keep in mind that as the
designer, I am responsible for defining all the rules of the world. As the
designer, I am teaching the player how they can interact with the environment.
If I want them to jump, I have to show them how high and how far they can jump,
if they can double-jump, if they can grab onto ledges and pull themselves up.
This has to be consistent from level-to-level, I can’t suddenly change the
distance they can jump in the level without a good explanation. If the game
allows the character to swim, there needs to be clearly defined parameters for
how fast the character can swim, if they get tired, how long they can hold
their breath. Even walking and running is something that needs to be defined so
that the player can understand the limitations of their interaction with the
environment.
The Toy Box Mode in Toy Story 3
Another important decision is how to introduce each of the
game mechanics to the player so they have time to learn and process all the
information. Dumping every possible gameplay option on the player at the same
time is overwhelming. Hitting the player with walls of text describing every
aspect of every mechanic is confusing. It’s better to dole them out
individually and allow the player to learn each, one at a time, before moving
on to the next. And even when introducing a new gameplay mechanic to a player,
it’s more engaging to show them its use rather than simply explaining it.
The Boat Level from Far Cry
These are considerations I make when designing games. How
does this apply to writing a story?
As I began constructing the world of Necropolis PD, I had to
understand the limits of everything I was introducing to the story. There are
vampires, ghosts, revenants, all kinds of undead. What are their abilities,
their weaknesses? What are their wants and desires? Why are some stronger than
others? Why do they do what they do? This place they call home, where is it?
What are the rules? Is there magic? If there is, how does that work? Are there
monsters, or things that had never at any point called themselves human? What
happens when I throw an ordinary person into the mix? I need to know these
things, and I have to stick to them once I define them. I can’t make a rule and
then change it later simply to make a particular scene work, I need to follow
my own rules.
In the same way I introduce new gameplay mechanics in a
game, I don’t want to simply drop a huge info dump in my story to try and
explain everything. That’s boring. I need to show how things work in order for
the reader to understand the limits and dangers of everything. If every undead
creature in Necropolis PD is an unstoppable killing machine that can’t be
harmed, a mortal has no chance against them. If there is a magic spell that
solves every problem, there is no real danger or complication that can’t be
overcome.
That was the big challenge I faced in writing the story of
Necropolis PD: defining the rules of the setting and then figuring out how to
properly introduce everything to the reader. The world I’m creating is
unfamiliar and strange, how do I make it understandable and relatable? One of
the big ways I chose to introduce this all to the reader was through my main
protagonist, Jacob Green. Using him as the point-of-view character limits the
amount of information relayed to the reader. Since the book is told through a
first-person narrative, the reader doesn’t know any more than the main
character, and he is learning as he goes.
I can’t go into too many specifics without spoiling some of
the twists and turns the story takes. Rest assured, even if Jacob doesn’t
always know what’s going on in the weird world around him, I have built the
story, characters and world around him in the same way I build the game worlds
I’ve been creating for decades.
Comments
Champion Soccer the best running games online for free !
War Stars Medical Emergency- Play free games!
Jumping Joe- Action games for kids!
See more:https://2playergamesonline.blogspot.com
See more: ABCya 6 games!