JOBS IN VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT: WORKING SO OTHERS CAN PLAY
Introduction
Occupations Behind The Screens
Game Designers
Artists
Sound designers
Programmers
Game testers
Other occupations
Making games: fun. But not always
Late night & big risks
Internship: Beta Test Your Career
Competing for positionsExploring further
INTRODUCTION
You may find it hard to believe, but playing video games could be the first step to a career. Thousands of workers who develop video games for a living say their passion for playing is what drew them to their jobs. “I’ve always loved games,” says Hugh Riley, a game artist. “Making them is a dream come true.”
A love of games is an advantage in an industry whose stock and trade is fun and fantasy. But game development jobs also require serious skills. Only highly qualified people find jobs.
There are video games for every taste: sports, action, adventure, strategy, simulation, and education. Games are made for personal computers, consoles, arcades, and the Internet. Games even add excitement to some retail websites and electronic organizers.
Demand for video games is rising, and the industry is growing. Sales of game software generated more than $ 6 billion last year, according to NPD Interactive Entertainment Service, a market research group based in New York. More than 19,000 new games were showcased at the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. And according to a Coopers and Lymbrand study for the Interactive Software Developers Association, employement in the average development company grew by 20 percent in last year with about 50,000 people working in video game development.
Most games are developed in small studios and then shipped to publishers who advertise and distribute them. In this chapter, I’ll tell you about development stages of a video game, from concept to completion. You’ll get to know the common development occupations, some of the advantages and disadvantages of a development career, and how to get started in industry.
I hope this chapter will help you to make decision about your career choice. As you have passed three semesters of your course, now this is the right time to analyze your capabilities and shortcomings.
OCCUPATIONS BEHIND THE SCREENS
Job titles and duties of video game developers vary by game genre and company organization. Job change rapidly as new technologies emerge. “Games are the Wild West of the computer industry,” says Chris Ulm, an assistant director at Oddworld Inhabitants in San Luis Obispo, California. “There is no set way of organizing companies. Everyone does it differently.”
But there are some similarities. In every development studio, the people who make video games comprise four main teams: design, artistic, programming, and testing. The design team writes the game concept, character interactions, and gameplay elements. The artistic team creates images and composes music and sound. The programming team plans and codes software. And the testing team finds errors in the game before it is published.
GAME DESIGNERS
“Designers create fun,” says Christina McGavrin, a game designer at Maxis Studios- a divison of Electronic Arts – in Walnut Creek, California. Game designers write the blueprint of the game. They decide the mission, theme, and rules of play. If the game is engrossing, designers have done their job well.
Most development teams have a lead game designer, who is responsible for the overall concept and feel of the game. Level designers work with artists and programmers to lay out smaller sections of the game. Writer-designers write game text and dialogue. Some also write manuals and hint books.
The early stage of game design involves brainstorming, collaboration, and revision. Designers test their ideas by writing short scripts and narratives and sketching rough story boards. The storyboards describe the action of the game with a sequence of pictures. As their concepts solidify, designers supervise the production of working video game demonstrations.
After the designer decides on the game concept, they write a detailed plan, called a designed document. This document lays out every aspect of the game. It includes maps of each game setting and flow charts to show how events in the game unfold. Everything the player might see, do, or hear is described somewhere in this document.
Designers are storytellers, with a twist: they invent a plot but they let the player control the story and decide the outcome. They create a web of possibilities, and the player chooses a path.
Image: Designers test ideas by writing short scripts and narratives.
A video game’s design involves over time. New ideas lead to new levels, special features, and secret additions and shortcuts called codes. One of the most difficult parts of designing is deciding what to leave out. Designers edit and add to the design document throughout development.
A designer’s main concern is to make the game entertaining and irresistible. We have to understand what makes a game fun. It’s our job to connect with the player. But understanding fun is not as easy as it sounds. Lots of people can say whether a game is good, but they can’t quantify what makes it good. And harder still is recreating the effect.
Designers often challenge players by devising puzzles to solve or enemies to defeat. If a game is too easy, the designers make puzzles and enemies more cunning. The goal is to increase the game’s difficulty as the player gains new skills- to make a game easy to learn but hard to master.
The place and rhythm of a video game are also critical to its success. Designers decide how quickly players move and how often they encounter obstacles and other characters. If the pace is too slow, the game is boring. If the pace is too fast, the game is confusing.
Designers work with artists, programmers, and musicians throughout development. In fact, sometimes a designer is also the lead programmer, artist, or producer. But even if designers have other duties, their role is unique. They oversee the entire game playing experience, instead of concentrating on one element. Artists might want to paint beautifully intricate art, and that’s good, but if art slows down the game too much, it cannot be used.
Skills and Training:
Communication is one of a designer’s most important skills. You need a strong ability to write to communicate ideas, and to persuade. Creative writing, English, theater, and other liberal arts classes help many designers to strengthen those skills. Designers also have to be good managers. They lead the development team and make sure it implements the game concept. They incorporate many people’s ideas into a single product.
Designers need technical skills as well: they need to understand computer programming and software design. To be a good designer, you have to understand how games work. Designers have to be able to understand the technical hurdles that a programmers face.
Most designers earn a college degree. The most common degree concentrations are English, art, and computer science. However, a designer’s most significant training comes from experience. “There is no such thing as an entry-level designer,” says Mark Keeper, manager of product development at Blizzard Entertainment in San Mateo, California. Designers usually begin their careers as game artists, programmers, testers, or producers.
Earnings:
Industry sources suggest that designers’ salaries vary widely. Survey by placement companies found that annual salaries for writers and designers usually ranged from $35,000 to $75,000 in 1998 and 1999.
Like other entertainment occupations, earnings depend, in part, on worker reputation. A few of the most prominent designers earn large sums; the rest earn less. The wide range of salaries also reflects the varying job responsibilities designers have.
ARTISTS
Nothing grabs a player’s attention faster than the images on the screen. Artists create those graphics. During the concept stages of development, concept artists draw sketches and storyboards to illustrate and embellish the designers’ ideas. Artists later create all the artwork the design document the design document calls for, including creatures, settings, vehicles, and icons. All artists work under the direction of an artistic lead.
Video games are either two or three dimensions or a combination of both. In a 2-D game, artists draw images on paper and scan them into computer. In a 3-D game, artists build images within the computer. Most new games have 3-D components.
There are three main types of 3-D artists: Character artists and animators, background modelers, and texture artists.
Character artist and animator:
Character artist design and build creatures, including the one the player “becomes”. Animators make those creatures move. Sometimes, the same person does both tasks.
Character artists begin by sketching the creatures on paper or a white board. “We try to make the game look the way the designers intend, but at the same time, we have a tremendous amount of creative freedom.,” says Riley, formerly a lead character artist at Bethesda Softworks in Rockville.
When they have completed the creature’s basic design, artists build it within the computer, using modeling software. They start with simple shapes, called primitive polygons. They twist, stretch, and combine the polygons until they have a skeleton covered with a wire mesh. As Riley, a 3-D modeler describes it, “We sculpt with digital clay.”
The character looks like a figure made of wire. Then, the artist covers the character’s mesh with a virtual skin and adds color.
Making static creatures and objects move is an animator’s job. “I’m given a scene and told what my character has to do, who it will interact with, and where it is in the story,” says Angie Jones, an animator at Oddworld Inhabitants.
When making an action sequence, she positions the creature by moving the bones within its mesh. She sets up key poses, and the computer fills in the others according to the timing she selects.
Animators often use real-world creatures as guides to create natural-looking movement. Animals make good guides; game creatures often are patterned after ostriches or horses. But people are important models, too. “Understanding human anatomy is important, even if your creatures aren’t human,” says Jones. You have to be sure you’re moving the muscles in a realistic way.
Animation is more than creating natural motion, though. It takes skill in dramatics. Using facial expressions and body language, animators imbue characters with personalities, says Jones. “If I’m working on a scene with a lot of dialogue, I play the recording track many times. I’m listening for the words and inflections. I want to understand the emotions behind the movement in the scene.
Animators create two kinds of action sequences: cut scenes, the short movies that play at predetermined times in the game, and player-controlled action, such as running, jumping, or talking. During cut scenes, animators can make the action as detailed and complicated as they’d like. But when the player is in control, the animator is more constrained: the player must be able to produce most movements with a joystick, button, or menu selection.
Two techniques for creating and animating objects combine computer graphics with real-world elements. In one technique, artists and production technicians build fiberglass or clay sculptures and scan them into a digital model. The model is then painted and animated in the computer.
In the other technique, developers use actors along with animators to create some action sequences. Actors perform motions with sensors attached to their bodies. The sensors record their positions. Artists use the data to animate computer characters. This motion-capture method is most often used in sports games.
Background Artist or Modeler:
When player find themselves on alien planets or in theme parks, football stadiums, or other settings, they have background artists to thank for the view.
Background artists, sometimes called modelers, create video game settings. “I’m building playgrounds for the characters,’’ says Michael Kirkbirde, a background artist at Bethesda Softworks. “We draw and construct environments that fit the game.”
Background artists begin by making sketches of the background suggested in the design document. Then, they draft an accurately proportioned version on graph paper, “The scale has to be correct,” says Kirkbride. “Otherwise, you could make a structure too large or too small for the size of the characters.” Once they are satisfied with the drawings, artists mold the environment shape by shape, using the computer as a virtual movie set.
For example, artists creating a laboratory might use rectangles to form the walls, ceilings, windows, and doors; then shape circles and cylinders into counters, stools, and sinks; and finally, add any objects players will be able to pick up, such as test tubes, calculators, or fire extinguishers. A player would be able to walk around furniture and move through the lab in any direction.
Then, the artists add lights or spotlights to cast pools of brightness and shadow over the environment. They adjust the color and intensity of the lights to evoke a particular mood or time of day.
With 2-D games, backgrounds are not built within the computer. They are sketched with pen and paper, scanned into the computer, and colored. Each setting is drawn many times to capture different perspectives and fields of view.
Texture Artist:
These artists add detail to the surfaces of 3D art. By adding texture to a wall, for example, they make it look like brick, plaster, or stone. They might make a creature’s eyes shiny and wet and its cheeks matte like skin.
Texture artists take a photograph or paint a picture of a surface they need. Then they scan it into the computer. Finally, they wrap the picture around the object in a process called texture mapping.
Image: Concept artists draw storyboards to illustrate designer’s ideas
Some surface art requires detailed painting. For example, paintings of circuit boards or computer keyboards can be draped onto flat ledges.
All game artists have to contend with the technical constraints imposed by arcade machines, consoles, and personal computers. These playback devices have limited memory and processing power. Each element of the game is competing for a piece of memory and power.
When the image on the screen changes, the game software retrieves data from its database and redraws the image. This takes time. The more complicated the image, the more time it takes to render. To cope, game artists try to use the fewest possible polygons. They want to fool the eye into seeing more detail than is actually there.
Skills and Training:
Games artists need a visual imagination. They find inspiration by observing nature, studying movies, comics and fine art; and experimenting with new ideas.
Game artists must also be able to apply basic math concepts, especially when working on 3D games. “When you add a third axis, you really have to understand geometry.” Says Jones.
Artists working in 3D should know how to use modeling and animation software and should be able to teach themselves new features and techniques. Ability to communicate with programmers is another must.
Most people in these occupations have formal training in fine arts or art-related subjects, such as animation or industrial design. They study drawing, painting, color theory, sculpture, and graphic design. Those with bachelor’s degrees are usually more likely to be hired. “It is very important to get a traditional education in the arts,” says Jones. “The degree of artistic skill required is rising.” With each new game, players expect better art.
SOUND DESIGNERS
Sound designers compose the music and sound in a game. Without them, creaky doors, squealing tires, and roaring dinosaurs would be silent. And their musical compositions intensify the player’s experiences. “I like taking a product that already looks good and adding some extra excitement,” says Andy Frazzier, a freelance sound designer in Boston. “Sound draws players in and makes games more real.”
Sound designers work closely with the game designers. Game designers describe the mood they want, often citing movies scores or popular musicians. The sound designer uses these analogies to discover what the designer wants.
Video game music should mesh with setting and plot. “I always have to consider where the player is in the story and how the music will affect his or her mood,” says Frazzier. He uses musical techniques to evoke emotions.
For Stephen Rippy, music director at Ensemble Studios in Dallas, composing appropriate music begins with research. “All of our games are based in history,” he says. “The settings are civilizations that actually existed, so the first thing I do is research the period. If the game takes place in medieval Japan, I go find music from setting.”
Unlike movie composers, sound designers don’t know what the characters will be doing as the music plays. Their music has to be simpler than movies scores because it should not interfere with dialogue or action noises.
Rippy and Frazzier both compose music using a keyboard attached to a computer. With the keyboard, they simulate instruments. They command one-piece orchestras.
Sound designers also create sound effects. They add ambient noise, such as chirping forest creatures, dripping faucets, and distant conversation. Other sounds are triggered by an event, such as the swoosh of a basketball as it falls through the net.
Sound designers are given a list of sounds the game needs. They construct each effect by modifying an existing sound from a CD library or by finding and recording the sound themselves.
Image: To create sound effects, sound designers modify an existing noise or find and record it themselves.
An important part of the job is to find creative ways to make sound. To produce the twang of a catapult, for example, Rippy laid a ruler across the edge of a table and hit it. An engineer recorded the noise, and Ripply edited it using computer software.
Sound designers edit almost every sound they use: they might lower a pitch, add an echo, and loop the sound to make it longer, or mix it with other sounds.
They balance realism with the entertainment value of exaggeration, routinely sweetening natural sounds for dramatic effect. When choosing noises, sound designers also have to be aware of the game-playing environment. When designing for arcades, for example, they make effects loud and simple. For a home system, sounds can be more complex.
Skills and Training:
Sound designers should be musically creative. They spend time listening to all types of music and usually learn to play at least one instrument.
Training in audio engineering also is helpful because sound designers mix and record sound and dialogue. Some technical schools and community provide formal training, but most sound designers learn audio engineering skills on the job.
Sound designers also need to learn the basics of computer hardware and software to predict how their compositions will sound to the player. Some arcade speakers, for example, distort certain pitches and tones.
Many sound designers have a bachelor’s degree in music. They study music theory and composition. Some have education in film scoring.
Earnings:
Many sound designers are contract workers who charge a fee for every minute of music they complete. A few receive royalties if the sound track is released as a separate CD or as part of a television score. Job search agency survey show experienced composers earn from $45,000 to $70,000 annually.
PROGRAMMERS
Game programmers are software engineers who plan and write video game software. They turn ideas, art, and music into a game that works.
When designers describe an event in the game, programmers translate the idea into mathematical equations the computer understands. As a vehicle physics programmer for a racing game by Angel Studios in Carlsbad, California, Santiago Beccera wrote algorithms for the movement of cars in his game. The algorithms describe how the cars turn corners; how quickly they accelerate, decelerate, and stop; and how they react to crashes. “The mathematician we were working with understood the physics of the car,” he says. “The designer knew how it should feel to the player. I was balancing the two.”
Game programmers control the speed and placement of art and sound. They control how high a car flies over a jump, for example. In a low gravity environment, like space, programmers might instruct the computer to move the car to a higher position to make the jump bouncier.
Game programmers search for the most efficient way to write software. They need to accomplish as much as possible with the fewest possible instructions and a fast processing time. A slightly faster program could give artists hundreds of additional polygons to use or game designers room for more features. Online and 3D games make speed even more critical.
Video game software needs to be flexible as well as fast. Good programmers write code that can be changed without destroying the game. Some gamers have features allowing players to add new levels and effects. If a program is sufficiently flexible, large parts of the software can be used in other games.
There are many specialists on a programming team – including engine, artificial intelligence, graphics, sound, and tool programmers - each handling a different aspect of programming games. “Programmers deal with graphics, artificial intelligence, user interfaces, the Internet – there are so many different kinds of problems to solve,” says designer and former lead programmer McGavrin. These programmers all work under a lead programmer or technical director.
Engine Programmers write the software that makes video games run. Graphics engine programmers, for example, control how graphics are stored and reproduced by the computers. As part of this job, they might write a collision program to prevent objects from moving through each other when they touch.
They might also write a culling program to find and eliminate unnecessary pieces of art, like skin hidden under clothing or details of a far away object. The fewer polygons rendered, the faster the game. Recently, engine programmers have tried to make video games automatically reduce their level of detail when they run on a slow computer.
Artificial Intelligence Programmers write code to make computer-controlled characters act realistically. They write a set of rules to dictate how characters react to the player.
Because space is limited in video game software, game artificial intelligence has been rudimentary in the past. But faster computers are making better artificial intelligence possible.
Graphics Programmers work with artists to perfect the playback of animations. Sound Programmers work with sound designers in the same way. They might improve the game’s authenticity by adding random sounds to a repeating sound loop.
Tool Programmers write software for artists, designers, and sound designers to use within the development studio. Some of these software tools convert art, sound, and game play into data what will work in the game. Other tools help developers to edit their work and see how it will look when the game is finished.
To make the development process easier, tool programmers tweak their tools and add helpful features. Other members of the team come to them with wish lists and suggestions.
Image: Developing strong math skills help programmers help describe a video game’s object’s movement through space.
Skills and Training:
Because they are translating ideas into numerical equations, programmers need strong math skills. “In high school and college, I took as much math as I could,” says Becerra. “I use ideas from trigonometry. Linear algebra, and analytical geometry all the time.” These subjects teach programmers to describe how the objects in a video game move through space and hone programmers’ ability to manipulate numbers.
Game programmers should learn C and C++, as these are the programming languages most often used in the industry. Many jobs also require assembly language.
Standard change quickly in the industry, programmers need to learn new languages and techniques throughout their careers.
Most game programmers have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, although some major in related subjects such as cognitive science and electrical engineering. Those working on complex problems, such as a new artificial intelligence system, sometimes have advanced degrees.
Earnings:
Hardware and software engineers – across all industries earned an average of $59,850 in 2000. Programmers across all industries earned an average of $47,550. This data is not specifically for video game industry. However, most game programmers fall into the category of computer engineers because they design game software or apply mathematical theory to solve programming problems. Many entry-level game programmers who spend their time coding software rather than designing it or applying theory fall into the category of programmer.
According to job search agency surveys, experienced game programmers usually earn a base salary of between $60,000 and $80,000 annually. Lead programmers earn more.
GAME TESTERS
Testers play games for a living. They find errors in video game software before it is shipped to stores. They play each part of a game, trying to ferret out graphic glitches, computer crashes, and other bugs. “I play games most of the day,” says Cory Nelson, a testing manager at Interplay Entertainment Corporation in Irvine, California.
Most of the problems testers find are technical: characters who walk through walls, artwork or sound that disappears, or a game level that won’t load. Other problems are with gameplay. “If you spend two hours getting past a monster and only earn two points, there is something wrong.” says Nelson. Testers identify places that are too hard, too easy, or too confusing.
Image: Testers identify the problems in a video game before it is release to the public.
Testers write reports describing each problem they find. “When you find a problem, you retrace your steps until you track down exactly what caused it,” says Don Ramakers, a tester at Interplay. Programmers have to reproduce the bugs before they fix them.
Video games are tested methodically to increase the chances of finding a bug. This might involve playing one part of the game repeatedly. “Most of the time, what I do doesn’t feel like a job,” says Ramakers. “I love playing games. But when I’m going through the same level for the 20th time, it starts to feel like a job.”
Sometimes, testers have a hand in fixing the problems they find. They can make design suggestions. For some video games, they might control the strength of characters in the game. They adjust the strengths until the game is most fun and propose their selections to the development team.
Skills and Training:
Testers should be able to communicate clearly. The bug reports that testers write must be concise and easy to understand. Some companies require applicants to submit a brief writing sample.
Testers should also be technologically astute. They use database software to type, organize, and track bug reports. Video game testing does not require formal education, but some testers are encouraged to earn computer technician certificates.
Image: Customer service workers answer questions or provide hints for beating the game.
Most importantly, testers have to be expert game players. They need good dexterity and coordination. This is especially important when testing difficult levels. Testing is impossible if you cannot keep your character in the game. The best testers have experience playing many kinds of video games. Game publishers prefer testers with versatility.
OTHER OCCUPATIONS
Development studios need many other occupations to keep the business running. The following are a few of the most common, presented in order in which they usually are involved in a video game’s development.
· Producers keep the video game on schedule and within budget, coordinate testing, and keep team members informed of each other’s progress.
· Intellectual Property Lawyers help developers copyright their games and secure patents for new programming tools.
· Market Analysts identify the video game’s target audience, find ways to increase consumer demand, and conduct focus groups.
· Two kinds of customer service workers answer phone calls and emails from players. Game Counselors give players hints on beating the game. Technical Support Workers, sometimes called Computer Support Workers, answer questions about hardware and software problems.
· Foreign Language Translators convert a video game’s text and dialogue to other languages so that game can be sold worldwide.
MAKING GAMES: FUN BUT NOT ALWAYS
Video game developers like many things about their jobs. The chance to be creative and the excitement of making a fun product are just a couple. However, like every job, development has downsides.
Thrills, perks and the bonus round:
Developers love the thrill of trying to do what no one has ever done before. “I’m always trying to solve some problem with the game,” says Beccera. “I cannot wait to got to work and figure it out. It’s the most exciting programming job there is.” Michael Saladino, the lead programmer at Presto studios in San Diego, California agrees. “I get paid to solve puzzles I’d like to solve anyway,” he says.
Jones, a computer animator works on puzzles of a different sort. “There are many ways to do something,” She says. “I love to find the best way to combine art with technology.”
Video game studios also offer casual work environments. Many video game companies offer perks for workers, such as free sodas, subsidized lunches, and onsite gyms etc.
Studios offer traditional benefits as well. Many give workers stock options, health insurance, vacation pay, and bonuses for completing a game.
The best rewards are not financial, though. When a video game hits the shelves, developers see people enjoying what they have made. “Kids are so impressed when I tell them what I do,” says Jones. And video game players of all ages are vocal with their praise. “When fans like your work,” says Frazzier, “they let you know right away.” Successful developers are deluged with fan e-mails.
LATE NIGHT & BIG RISKS
Game development is not always so glamorous. You may spend late nights playing video games, but developers spend late night making them. They work evenings and weekends to meet deadlines. “I’ve put in 12-hour days or stayed until 2 or 3 in the morning,” says Beccera. Riley kept a sleeping bag under his desk at Bethesda Softworks. “I’m practically living here by the end of a project,” he says.
Testers’ work schedules are especially irregular, usually including nights or weekends. Many work part time, and most are hired for only one game. Small developing studios bring in teams for short periods. Large publishing houses have a year-round staff.
Making video games may also bring disappointment. Despite all the hard work that goes into creating them, many games never make it to the stores. “Only a small percentage of games are published,” says Becerra. “That can be demoralizing.”
Frequent job changes are another drawback. Many game development companies are small startups, where the work lasts only as long as a single project. Workers must be prepared to work for many companies throughout their careers.
Jumping into the entry level
Preparing for a career in video game development starts early. Developers say that high school and college students should get a well-rounded education. Students should study math to hone their reasoning skills and study writing and liberal arts to nurture their creativity. Finding opportunity to work as a member of a team is also useful.
After high school, students need education and training specific to the game occupation they want to pursue as a career. Most of these occupations require training in computer programming or the arts. People who want to develop video games usually need some experience before they land their first job. Many people begin as hobbyists. They learn how by reading books and websites. Participating in class projects or internships is also a good way to get experience.
When applying for jobs, candidates are expected to demonstrate their skills. Artists and sound designers compile short demo reels of their best work. They send the demo and resume to employers.
Image: Because game developers work in teams, aspiring developers should try to get team-oriented experience.
Programmers too, often send a few small pieces of software they have written. “We look for some kind of programming experience,” says Keeper. “Most people have programmed something in college. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a game, just a small piece of software that works.”
Testing is another occupation of entry into the development job market. Because little or no specialized training is requited, testing is one of the easiest ways to gain industry experience. And because much of the work is part time, students can work as testers while attending school.
Experienced testers may become managers or team leaders. They organize and track the work of other testers, allowing the team’s time to find the most destructive bugs.
Testing is often a stepping stone to other occupations. Some testers move into producer or project management positions. Those with right training sometimes make the leap into artistic or programming jobs.
INTERNSHIP: Beta Test Your Career
College internships are one of the best ways to start a career in video game development. An internship will help you to confirm your interest and help you secure a permanent job when the time comes.
Game development studios value experience. Many developers start out as interns for that reason. “We need people who can contribute to the team right away,” says Saladino, a programmer, designer, and former intern. “We’ve had a lot of success with interns.”
An intern’s work varies by occupation. Art students might draw icons and textures and add color to 3D models. Sound students might help to record sounds and to gather and create sound effects. And programming students might write code for one function in the game or help the graphics programmer import graphics into the game.
Many students intern after their junior year in college, but timing is flexible. Saladino started interning after his first year in college. Beccera began his internship while working on a master’s degree.
You should look for opportunities at least 6 months before you want to work as intern. Game company websites, Internet job boards, newspaper classified advertisements, and career counseling offices are good places to find openings.
COMPETING FOR POSITIONS
The video game industry is highly competitive. Entry-level sound designers have the most difficulty finding jobs because most designers are hired for only a short time during the later phases of development. The importance and prestige of music in video games is growing, but, for now, there are few jobs. Some sound designers supplement game development work with other scoring jobs.
However, some occupations are easier to enter. Qualified programmers, especially those with 3D skills or artificial intelligence expertise, are in high demand. Also in demand are artists with experience using the latest modeling and animation software. They are the most likely to find jobs. Artists without mush experience working in 3D often start out in texture mapping jobs.
Where do you live, too, affects your chances of finding a development job. In US most video game companies are located in California, Illinois, Washington, Texas, Maryland, and Massachusetts. In India, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Gurgaon, Delhi are the places where you can find a job in gaming. There are websites on Internet, from where you can find list of gaming companies.
EXPLORING FURTHER
To learn more about video game development, visit your public library for books about programming, animation and game design. Some libraries also subscribe to industry magazines. In India, you should read “SKOAR” magazine for latest reviews of games and interviews, articles about gaming.
Career counseling offices are another good source of information. Counselors may be able to help you find internship, volunteer, and job shadowing opportunities. And they can help you choose appropriate courses.
The Internet also has a wealth of information about video game jobs. There are many sites dealing with game development.
Best of Luck for a career in gaming! :)
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
(11) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (yet to write2)
(11) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
............................................
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1. What is Artificial Intelligence?
2. What is Turing Test?
3. What is Path Finding method/technique of Artificial Intelligence?
4. What is "Flood Fill" or "A*" method/technique of Artificial Intelligence?
5. What is an Expert System?
6. What is Fuzzy Logic/
7. What is Neural Network?
8. What is Genetic Algorithm?
9. What is Deterministic Algorithm? (Random Motion, Pattern, Tracking)
............................................
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1. What is Artificial Intelligence?
2. What is Turing Test?
3. What is Path Finding method/technique of Artificial Intelligence?
4. What is "Flood Fill" or "A*" method/technique of Artificial Intelligence?
5. What is an Expert System?
6. What is Fuzzy Logic/
7. What is Neural Network?
8. What is Genetic Algorithm?
9. What is Deterministic Algorithm? (Random Motion, Pattern, Tracking)
(10) GAME REVIEW: PAC MAN
GAME REVIEW: PAC MAN
"PACMAN", a name of old release in video-game kingdom, is come to NGPC now! Same as "Puyo Pop", this release seems producing urgently. The orange single warning page is found after opening the box, instead of attaching inside the manual. I believe the further releases will be packed in this way.
In my memory, a 3D arcade version was released about 10 years ago! It was a great idea and great way to reproduce the title in this way. It is unbelievable that it draws back to 2D in this amazing machine now. Too simple. However, it may bring NGPC to intrude the all-age market because of this simple. Besides, this prefect conversion proves that NAMCO will make great release fastidiously in future, even the simple thing.
Graphic:
C+Simple! Pacman is a yellow dot only. Just like the character in 20 years ago. Most of the items are made from simple geometry. The monsters are better since their "legs" and eyes are moved smoothly. Fullscreen mode is very precise while Scroll mode is very smooth in pan.
Sound: BIt should be wonder why sound section would have high marks. The BGM (actually, it should not be music) is some simple tone and will be changed according to different situation. The action sound is also simple rhythm. But when they combined together, it will make the player psych up, even the viewer!
Sound: BIt should be wonder why sound section would have high marks. The BGM (actually, it should not be music) is some simple tone and will be changed according to different situation. The action sound is also simple rhythm. But when they combined together, it will make the player psych up, even the viewer!
Gameplay:
B-Everyone should know how to play, even non-video-games followers. Eat all pellets in the maze and it will jump to next level. All levels have same maze. The difficult level has shorter time for power-pullets. However, the huge experience for producing the monsters AI from NAMCO pulls this game from the abyss. The "Coffee Break" amination will appear after each 2 or 3 levels. NGPCs joystick controller brings the advantage on this game. 2pcs "CrossRing" are enclosed for optimization on 4-direction. Overall, the control is good. Thank SNK!
Overall:
B-I had a single game console with VFD for "Pacman" when I was young. There were 2 joysticks available. But now, it is regretful that NAMCO just release this title for NGPC second to the old. I believe there should have some improvement on graphic and gameplay, i.e. 3D characters, different maze, 2 players, card collecting, extra function etc. This title seems to be shameful in 90's. However, since it is simple, I suggest it for all kids and Pacman's fans.
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(10) GAME ANALYSIS - CENTIPEDE
GAME ANALYSIS: CENTIPEDE
Designed by Ed Logg with Donna Bailey
Released in 1981
One can think of the classic arcade game as a form of the computer game, in the same way that a silent slapstick comedy is a form of film or the hard-boiled detective novel is a form of literature. The classic arcade game form fell out of favor with the commercial gaming companies pretty much as soon as the technology was available to move beyond it. However, many independent game developers still work on classic arcade games either for their own amusement or to be released as freeware or shareware titles. Many of these labors of love are imitations of established classic arcade games, but many others are interesting experiments in new gameplay. There remains something uniquely compelling about the form, and the fact that one does not need to have a sophisticated 3D engine to make a wonderfully entertaining classic arcade game helps to make the form an appealing one in which to work.
It bears mentioning that when I refer to the classic arcade game, I do not mean to imply that all classic arcade games are classics. Many of them are quite bad. As with any media, the old arcade games that are remembered and talked about decades after their release tend to be the best ones, thus creating the false impression of a “golden age.” The bad arcade games have fallen between the cracks of history. The term “classic arcade game” refers to the form as a classic one, not to the games themselves, just as one might refer to “classical music.” Surely the term “arcade game” is not limiting enough, since this would seem to include every game found in an arcade, including modern racing, gun, and fighting games, none of which are what I consider to be part of the form I am concerned with here.
The classic arcade game form had its commercial and creative heyday in the late 1970s through the early 1980s, when machines exhibiting the form lined the arcades. Looking at the games as a whole, one can come up with a series of traits that they all shared. Some of these aspects of the form may have been arrived at because of the commercial considerations of the arcades. The thought was to get a player to easily understand a game, so that by the end of his very first game he had a good sense of how the game worked and what was necessary for success. Second, a player’s game, even the game of an expert, could not last very long, since any one player had only paid a quarter, and if the game only earned a single quarter in a half hour, it would not be profitable to operate. Players needed to be sucked in to replay the games, to keep plunking in quarters. As a result, in some ways the arcade games had to be more refined than home games are today. Once the player has purchased a home game, often for at least a hundred times the cost of a single arcade game play, the sale is completed. If he is not completely disgusted with the game he is unlikely to return it. Features such as scoring and high-score tables only served to increase the arcade game’s addictive nature and encourage players to keep spending money.
In addition, the technical restrictions of the day limited what the games could do, and thereby influenced what the game could accomplish in terms of gameplay. Had the designers had the RAM and processing power to include fully scrolling game-worlds that were many times the size of the screen, they probably would have. If the games had been able to replay full-motion video of some sort, perhaps the designers would have incorporated more story line into the games. But the fact remains that a unique genre of computer games emerged, and if the commercial and technical limitations shaped the form, so be it. Just as early films had to work with the limitations of silence and short running times, computer game designers were limited in what they could create, and were able to come up with brilliant games nonetheless. Often, working within a series of strict constraints forces artists to focus their creativity in a fashion which leads to better work than if they could do anything they wanted.
One key ingredient to many classic arcade games was their wild variation in gameplay styles. Centipede, Missile Command, Pac-Man, and Frogger are as different from each other as they possibly could be. Many classic arcade games featured variations on a theme: Centipede, Space Invaders, Galaga, and Tempest all revolved around the idea of shooting at a descending onslaught of enemies. However, the gameplay variations these games embraced are far more radical than the tiny amount of variation one will find in modern games, which are more content to endlessly clone already-proven gaming genres. Despite the wild variety of gameplay that can be found in classic arcade games, one can still look back on these games as a collective, as an artistic movement in the brief history of computer games. By analyzing the form’s shared traits, modern game designers can learn a lot about how they can make their own games more compelling experiences for the player.
Tempest is one of many classic arcade games that is centered on shooting at enemies which keep getting
closer. Tempest is memorable because of the many unique twists included.
CLASSIC ARCADE GAME TRAITS
Single Screen Play: In a classic arcade game, the bulk of the gameplay takes place on a single screen, with the player maneuvering his game-world surrogate around that screen, sometimes only in a portion of that screen. This was done, no doubt, in part because of technological limitations. But it also has very important artistic ramifications on the game’s design: the player, at any time, is able to see the entire game-world, and can make his decisions with a full knowledge of the state of that game-world. Obviously, empowering the player with that kind of information seriously impacts the gameplay. Many of the games in the classic arcade game form would include more than one screen’s worth of gameplay by switching play-fields or modifying existing ones to create additional “levels.” Examples of this include Joust, Pac-Man, and Mario Bros. Though these games may have included more than a single screen in the entire game, at any one time the player’s game-world still consisted of just that one screen.
Infinite Play:
The player can play the game forever. There is no ending to the game, and hence no winning it either. This was done in part to allow players to challenge themselves, to see how long they could play on a single quarter. Players can never say, “I beat Asteroids,” and hence players are always able to keep playing, to keep putting in quarters. At the same time, having an unwinnable game makes every game a defeat for the player. Every game ends with the player’s death, and hence is a kind of tragedy. Having an unwinnable game also necessitates making a game that can continuously get harder and harder for the player, hence a game design with a continuous, infinite ramping up of difficulty. With the advent of the home market, game publishers no longer wanted players to play a single game forever. Instead they want players to finish the games they have and buy another one. This is one reason why it is rare to see a game with infinite play any more.
Multiple Lives: Typically, classic arcade games allow the player a finite number of lives, or a number of “tries” at the game before her game is over. Perhaps derived from pinball games, which had been providing the player with three or five balls for decades, multiple lives allowed the novice player a chance to learn the game’s mechanics before the game was over. Given adequate chances to try to figure out how the game works, the player is more likely to want to play again if she made progress from one life to the next. Having lives enables the game to provide another reward incentive for the player playing well: extra lives. Having multiple lives also sets up a game where dying once is not necessarily the end of the game, and encourages players to take risks they might not otherwise.
Scoring/High Scores:
Almost all classic arcade games included a scoring feature through which the player would accumulate points for accomplishing different objectives in the game. For example, in Centipede, the player gets 1 point for destroying a mushroom, 10 points for a centipede segment, 100 points for a centipede head, and 1000 points for a scorpion. Another classic arcade game component with origins in the world of pinball, the score allows the player to ascertain how well they did at the game, since winning the game is impossible. The high-score table was introduced in order to allow players to enter their initials next to their score, which would then be ranked in a table of scores so players could see just how good they were. The game would remember the table as long as it stayed plugged in, with some games, such as Centipede, even remembering the high-score list or some portion of it once unplugged. The high-score table enabled the classic arcade games to exploit one of the key motivations for playing games—“bragging rights.” A player could point out her name in the high-score table to her friends as a way of proving her mettle. Friends could compete with each other (almost all of the games included two-player modes, where players switch off playing) to see who could get the higher score.
Easy-to-Learn, Simple Gameplay:
Classic arcade games were easy for players to learn, impossible (or at least very difficult) to master. Someone could walk up to a game of Centipede, plunk in his quarter, and by his third life have a good idea of how the game functioned and how he might play better. Why the player died was always completely apparent to the player. There were typically no “special moves” involving large combinations of buttons which the player had to learn through trial and error. There were few games with tricky concepts such as “health” or “shields” or “power-ups.” Again, commercial considerations were probably a factor in making these games simple to learn. At the time of their initial introduction, there was no established market of computer game players and there were few arcades. The games wound up in pizza parlors and bars, where any person might walk up to one and try it out. These novice players might be scared away if the game were too complex or baffling. Of course, simple does not always mean “limited” or “bad” gameplay; it can also mean “elegant” and “refined.”
No Story:
Classic arcade games almost universally eschewed the notion of trying to “tell a story” of any sort, just as many modern arcade games continue to do. The games always had a setting the player could easily recognize and relate to, many of them revolving around science fiction themes, though others dabbled in war, fantasy, and sports, among others. Many, such as Pac-Man and Q*Bert, created their own, unique settings, keeping up with the rampant creativity found in their gameplay. The classic arcade game designers did not feel required to flesh out their game-worlds, to concoct explanations for why the player was shooting at a given target or eating a certain type of dot, and the games did not suffer for it.
Even though the action in Sinistar did not take place only on one screen, it is still considered to be an example of the classic arcade game form.
Of course, some games broke some of the above rules of the form, yet they can still be considered classic arcade games. For example, Sinistar and Defender both included scrolling game-worlds for the player to travel through, with the player unable to see all aspects of the game-world at any one time. Indeed, on first inspection, Battlezone seems entirely the odd man out among early classic arcade games. Yet, if one looks at the traits above, one will discover that it featured infinite play, multiple lives, and scoring, was easy to learn, and had almost no story. All three of these games included mechanics which, by and large, were adherent to the classic arcade game form. Thus we can still group them with games like Space Invadersand Asteroids, games which follow all the rules laid out above.
Being one of the defining games of the form, Centipede follows all of the aspects of the classic arcade game form listed above. Though not a very complex game by today’s standards, the marvel of Centipede is how all of the different gameplay elements work together to create a uniquely challenging game. Nothing in Centipede is out of place, nothing is inconsistent, nothing is unbalanced. To analyze Centipede is to attempt to understand how to design the perfect game.
One of the great advantages to working on a game for the arcades is that the designer has complete control over the type of device the player will use to control the game. On the PC, the designer can only count on the player having a keyboard and a mouse, while on a console, the designer must work with the standard controller that comes with that particular console. The arcade designer (budget constraints notwithstanding) is able to pick the best type of control for the game, and provide the player with that control system. The designer can then create the game around those controls, precisely balancing the game to work perfectly with that input method. Centipede does this expertly, providing the player with an extremely precise analog control device in the form of a trackball. This is ideally suited to moving the player’s shooter ship around on the bottom of the screen. Players can move the ship quickly or slowly, whatever the situation calls for. For many fans of Centipede, the excellent controller is one of the first things they remember about the game.
The player’s shooter in Centipede is more mobile than in Space Invaders, since it can move up and down in addition to moving sideways. Pictured here: Centipede.
The shooter is extremely responsive to the player’s manipulation of the trackball, with the player being able to easily and intuitively understand the relationship between her manipulation of the trackball and the shooter’s movement. Centipede was no doubt inspired by other classic arcade games, such as Space Invaders, which feature the player’s game-world surrogate locked at the bottom of the screen, allowed only to move left, move right, and shoot. Centipede takes that idiom one step further: the player is still trapped at the bottom of the screen, but the shooter can move within a six-row vertical space. This allows the player to avoid enemies that might be on the bottom row. At the same time, the shooter can still only shoot forward, so enemies that get behind the ship cannot be destroyed. Aside from the trackball, the only other control the player has is a button for firing the shooter’s laser-type weapon. The game allows an infinitely fast rate of fire, but only one shot can be on the screen at a time which means the player has to think beyond just holding down the fire button constantly. If the player moves the shooter directly below a mushroom she can hold down the fire button and quickly shoot the mushroom four times, thus destroying it. But at the top of the screen, where the player cannot maneuver the ship, destroying a mushroom takes much longer, since the player must wait for each shot to hit the mushroom before another shot can be fired. If the player’s shot is in the midst of traveling to a faraway target, she will be unable to shoot again in order to take out a divebombing enemy. The player must plan her shots carefully, a design element that adds more depth to the game’s mechanics.
INTERCONNECTEDNESS
One of the great strengths of Centipede is how well all the different elements of the gameplay fit together. Consider the different enemy insects that try to kill the player.
The centipede winds its way down the screen from the top of the screen to the player’s area at the bottom, moving horizontally. The centipede appears as either a lone twelve-segment centipede or as a shorter centipede accompanied by a number of single heads. At the start of a wave, the number of centipede segments on the screen always totals twelve. Next is the spider, which moves in a diagonal, bouncing pattern across the bottom of the screen, passing in and out of the player’s area. Then comes the flea, which plummets vertically, straight down toward the player.
There is nothing terribly sophisticated about any of the movement patterns of these insects. Indeed, the flea and the centipede, once they have appeared in the play-field, follow a completely predictable pattern as they approach the player’s area. The spider has a more random nature to its zigzagging movement, but even it does nothing to actually pursue the player. Therefore, once the player has played the game just a few times, he has a completely reliable set of expectations about how these enemies will attack him. Fighting any one of these creatures by itself would provide very little challenge for the player. Yet, when they function together they combine to create uniquely challenging situations for the player. With any one of these adversaries missing, the game’s challenge would be significantly diminished, if not removed altogether.
Each of the insects in the game also has a unique relationship to the mushrooms, which fill the game’s play-field. The primary reason for the existence of the mushrooms is to speed up the centipede’s progress to the bottom of the screen. Every time a centipede bumps into a mushroom, it turns down to the next row below, as if it had run into the edge of the play-field. Thus, once the screen becomes packed with mushrooms, the centipede will get to the bottom of the play-field extremely quickly. Once at the bottom of the screen, the centipede moves back and forth inside the player’s area, posing a great danger to the player. So, it behooves the player to do everything he can to destroy the mushrooms on the play-field, even though the mushrooms themselves do not pose a direct threat. Further complicating matters, every time the player shoots a segment of the centipede it leaves a mushroom where it died. Thus, wiping out a twelve-segment centipede leaves a big cluster of mushrooms with which the player must contend.
In Centipede, fleas drop toward the bottom of the screen, leaving mushrooms behind them, while spiders eat whatever mushrooms block their movement.
As the flea falls to the bottom of the play-field, it leaves a trail of new mushrooms behind itself, and the only way for the player to stop it is to kill it. The flea only comes on to the play-field if there are less than a certain number of mushrooms on the bottom half of the screen. This way, if the player destroys all the mushrooms closest to him, the flea comes out immediately to lay down more. The spider, the creature that poses the biggest threat to the player, has the side effect that it eats mushrooms. This then presents the player with a quandary: shoot and kill the spider or just try to avoid it so it can take out more mushrooms? Finally, the scorpion, a creature that travels horizontally across the top half of the screen and hence can never collide with and kill the player, poisons the mushrooms it passes under. These poisoned mushrooms affect the centipede differently when it bumps into them. Instead of just turning down to the next row, the centipede will move vertically straight down to the bottom of the screen. So when a centipede hits a poisoned mushroom, the centipede becomes a much more grave threat than it was before.
Once a scorpion has passed by, the player must now expend effort trying to shoot all the poisoned mushrooms at the top of the screen or be prepared to blast the centipedes as they plummet vertically straight toward the player.
So we can see that each of the creatures in the game has a special, unique relationship to the mushrooms. It is the interplay of these relationships that creates the challenge for the player. The more mushrooms the flea drops, the more mushrooms the scorpion has to poison. The spider may take out mushrooms along the bottom of the screen, getting them out of the way of the player, but it may eat so many that the flea starts coming out again. If the player kills the centipede too close to the top of the screen, it will leave a clump of mushrooms which are difficult to destroy at such a distance, and which will cause future centipedes to reach the bottom of the screen at a greater speed. However, if the player waits until the centipede is at the bottom of the screen, the centipede is more likely to kill the player. With the mushrooms almost functioning as puzzle pieces, Centipede becomes something of a hybrid between an arcade shooter and a real-time puzzle game. Indeed, some players were able to develop special strategies that would work to stop the flea from ever coming out, thus making the centipede get to the bottom of the screen less quickly and allowing the player to survive for much longer. It is the interplay of each of the player’s adversaries with these mushrooms and with each other that creates a unique challenge for the player.
ESCALATING TENSION
A big part of the success of Centipede is how it escalates tension over the length of the game. The game actually has peaks and valleys it creates in which tension escalates to an apex and, with the killing of the last centipede segment, relaxes for a moment as the game switches over to the next wave. One small way in which the game escalates tension over a few seconds is through the flea, which is the only enemy in the game the player must shoot twice. When it is shot just once, its speed increases dramatically and the player must quickly shoot it again lest the flea hit the shooter. For that brief speed burst, the player’s tension escalates. In terms of the centipede itself, the game escalates the tension by splitting the centipede each time it is shot. If the player shoots the middle segment of an eleven-segment centipede, it will split into two five-segment centipedes which head in opposite directions. Sure, the player has decreased the total number of segments on the screen by one, but now he has two adversaries to worry about at once. As a result, skilled players will end up going for the head or tail of the centipede to avoid splitting it.
Most of the game’s escalating tension over the course of a wave is derived from the centipede’s approach toward the bottom of the screen and the player’s often frantic efforts to kill it before it gets there. Once a centipede head reaches the bottom of the screen, a special centipede head generator is activated, which spits out additional centipede heads into the player’s area. If the player is unable to kill the centipede before it reaches the bottom of the screen, which has already increased tension by its very approach, that tension is further escalated by the arrival of these extra heads. And those extra heads keep arriving until the player has managed to kill all of the remaining centipede segments on the screen. The rate at which those extra heads come out increases over time, such that if the player takes her time in killing them, additional centipedes will arrive all the faster, making the player still more frantic.
Once the player kills the last segment, the game goes to its next wave, and the centipede is regenerated from the top of the screen. This provides a crucial, temporary reprieve for the player, a moment for her to catch her breath. The player will feel a great rush at having finally defeated the centipede, especially if the extra centipede head generator had been activated. In addition, the newly generated centipede at first appears easier to kill, since it is generated so far from the player’s area.
Over the course of a game of Centipede, mushrooms become more and more tightly packed on the play-field.
Over the course of the player’s entire game, the mushrooms inevitably become more and more packed on the play-field. Once there are more mushrooms toward the bottom of the screen, the player feels lucky if he can just clear all of the mushrooms in the lower half of the play-field. He has no chance of destroying the mushrooms toward the top, since the lower mushrooms block his shots. Similarly, if the scorpion has left any poison mushrooms toward the top of the screen, the player has no chance whatsoever of destroying them, and as a result the centipede dive-bombs the bottom of the screen on every single wave. Far into a game, the top of the play-field becomes a solid wall of mushrooms. As the mushrooms become more and more dense, the centipede gets to the bottom of the screen faster. When the centipede can get to the bottom of the screen extremely quickly, the player’s game is that much faster paced, and he is that much more panicked about destroying the centipede before it reaches the bottom of the screen. This increased mushroom density has the effect of escalating tension not just within a wave as the extra centipede head generator did, but also from wave to wave, since the mushrooms never go away unless the player shoots them.
Centipede also balances its monsters to become harder and harder as the player’s score increases. And since the player’s score can never decrease, the tension escalates over the course of the game. Most obvious is the spider, whose speed approximately doubles once the player’s score reaches 5000 (1000 if the game’s operator has set the game to “hard”). The spider also maneuvers in a smaller and smaller area of the bottom of the screen as the player’s score gets really high, eventually moving only one row out of the player’s six-row area. With the spider thus constrained, it is both more likely to hit the player and less likely for the player to be able to shoot it. Recall that the flea drops from the top of the screen based on the quantity of mushrooms in the bottom half of the screen. When the player starts the game, if there are less than five mushrooms in that area the flea will come down, dropping more as it does so. As the player’s score increases, however, so does the quantity of mushrooms needed to prevent the flea’s appearance. Now the player must leave more and more mushrooms in that space to prevent the flea from coming out and cluttering the top of the screen with mushrooms.
At the start of each wave, the game always generates a total of twelve centipede segments and heads at the top of the screen. This means that if a twelve-segment centipede appears at the top of the screen, that will be the only centipede. If a seven-segment centipede appears, then five other centipede heads will appear as well, thus totaling the magic number of twelve. The more centipedes that appear, the more challenging it is for the player to shoot them all, and the more likely one will sneak to the bottom of the screen. The game starts by releasing a single twelve-segment centipede. In the next wave, a slow eleven-segment centipede appears along with one head. In the following wave, a fast eleven-segment and one head combination arrive. Then a slow ten-segment and two heads appear. With each wave there are a greater number of individual centipedes for the player to keep track of and a greater escalation of tension. The game wraps around once twelve individual heads are spawned, but then the game becomes harder by only spawning fast centipedes.
The player’s death also provides a brief respite from the tension. When the player’s ship is destroyed, the wave starts over and hence the centipede returns to the top of the screen. Before this, however, all of the mushrooms on the screen are reset. This means that all the partially destroyed mushrooms are returned to their undamaged state. But also all of the mushrooms poisoned by the scorpion are returned to their unpoisoned state. Many waves into the game, the increased mushroom density makes shooting poisoned mushrooms all but impossible, and with those poisoned mushrooms in place, the player is bombarded by centipedes hurtling toward him in every single wave. Thus, a player is almost relieved when his shooter is destroyed and all those poisoned mushrooms are removed from the top of the screen. This causes the player’s game to be much more relaxed, at least for the time being.
Centipede’s frantic gameplay keeps the player tense most of the time, though it provides some breaks in the
action during which the player can relax.
Centipede is marvelous at creating and maintaining a tense situation for the player, while still providing brief “breathing periods” within the action. Designers of modern games, who are always concerned with ramping up difficulty for the player, could learn much by analyzing how Centipede keeps the player constantly on his toes without ever unfairly overwhelming him.
ONE PERSON, ONE GAME
Many may scoff at Centipede twenty years after its creation. There is no question that it is a less technically astounding accomplishment than more modern works, and those who do not examine it closely are likely to dismiss it as more of a light diversion instead of a serious game. But what Centipede does, it does with such facility, featuring game mechanics so precisely and perfectly balanced and gameplay so uniquely compelling, that it truly is a marvel of computer game design. One must remember that Centipede was created in the days of the one-person-one-game system, when the development team for a game consisted primarily of one person, in this case Ed Logg. By having one person in total control of a project, where a single talented individual fully understands every last nuance of the game, the final product is much more likely to come out with a clearness of vision and brilliance of execution. Of course, one person can create a terrible game just as easily as a large team, but one must wonder if the lone wolf developer does not have a better chance at creating the perfect game.
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Designed by Ed Logg with Donna Bailey
Released in 1981
One can think of the classic arcade game as a form of the computer game, in the same way that a silent slapstick comedy is a form of film or the hard-boiled detective novel is a form of literature. The classic arcade game form fell out of favor with the commercial gaming companies pretty much as soon as the technology was available to move beyond it. However, many independent game developers still work on classic arcade games either for their own amusement or to be released as freeware or shareware titles. Many of these labors of love are imitations of established classic arcade games, but many others are interesting experiments in new gameplay. There remains something uniquely compelling about the form, and the fact that one does not need to have a sophisticated 3D engine to make a wonderfully entertaining classic arcade game helps to make the form an appealing one in which to work.
It bears mentioning that when I refer to the classic arcade game, I do not mean to imply that all classic arcade games are classics. Many of them are quite bad. As with any media, the old arcade games that are remembered and talked about decades after their release tend to be the best ones, thus creating the false impression of a “golden age.” The bad arcade games have fallen between the cracks of history. The term “classic arcade game” refers to the form as a classic one, not to the games themselves, just as one might refer to “classical music.” Surely the term “arcade game” is not limiting enough, since this would seem to include every game found in an arcade, including modern racing, gun, and fighting games, none of which are what I consider to be part of the form I am concerned with here.
The classic arcade game form had its commercial and creative heyday in the late 1970s through the early 1980s, when machines exhibiting the form lined the arcades. Looking at the games as a whole, one can come up with a series of traits that they all shared. Some of these aspects of the form may have been arrived at because of the commercial considerations of the arcades. The thought was to get a player to easily understand a game, so that by the end of his very first game he had a good sense of how the game worked and what was necessary for success. Second, a player’s game, even the game of an expert, could not last very long, since any one player had only paid a quarter, and if the game only earned a single quarter in a half hour, it would not be profitable to operate. Players needed to be sucked in to replay the games, to keep plunking in quarters. As a result, in some ways the arcade games had to be more refined than home games are today. Once the player has purchased a home game, often for at least a hundred times the cost of a single arcade game play, the sale is completed. If he is not completely disgusted with the game he is unlikely to return it. Features such as scoring and high-score tables only served to increase the arcade game’s addictive nature and encourage players to keep spending money.
In addition, the technical restrictions of the day limited what the games could do, and thereby influenced what the game could accomplish in terms of gameplay. Had the designers had the RAM and processing power to include fully scrolling game-worlds that were many times the size of the screen, they probably would have. If the games had been able to replay full-motion video of some sort, perhaps the designers would have incorporated more story line into the games. But the fact remains that a unique genre of computer games emerged, and if the commercial and technical limitations shaped the form, so be it. Just as early films had to work with the limitations of silence and short running times, computer game designers were limited in what they could create, and were able to come up with brilliant games nonetheless. Often, working within a series of strict constraints forces artists to focus their creativity in a fashion which leads to better work than if they could do anything they wanted.
One key ingredient to many classic arcade games was their wild variation in gameplay styles. Centipede, Missile Command, Pac-Man, and Frogger are as different from each other as they possibly could be. Many classic arcade games featured variations on a theme: Centipede, Space Invaders, Galaga, and Tempest all revolved around the idea of shooting at a descending onslaught of enemies. However, the gameplay variations these games embraced are far more radical than the tiny amount of variation one will find in modern games, which are more content to endlessly clone already-proven gaming genres. Despite the wild variety of gameplay that can be found in classic arcade games, one can still look back on these games as a collective, as an artistic movement in the brief history of computer games. By analyzing the form’s shared traits, modern game designers can learn a lot about how they can make their own games more compelling experiences for the player.
Tempest is one of many classic arcade games that is centered on shooting at enemies which keep getting
closer. Tempest is memorable because of the many unique twists included.
CLASSIC ARCADE GAME TRAITS
Single Screen Play: In a classic arcade game, the bulk of the gameplay takes place on a single screen, with the player maneuvering his game-world surrogate around that screen, sometimes only in a portion of that screen. This was done, no doubt, in part because of technological limitations. But it also has very important artistic ramifications on the game’s design: the player, at any time, is able to see the entire game-world, and can make his decisions with a full knowledge of the state of that game-world. Obviously, empowering the player with that kind of information seriously impacts the gameplay. Many of the games in the classic arcade game form would include more than one screen’s worth of gameplay by switching play-fields or modifying existing ones to create additional “levels.” Examples of this include Joust, Pac-Man, and Mario Bros. Though these games may have included more than a single screen in the entire game, at any one time the player’s game-world still consisted of just that one screen.
Infinite Play:
The player can play the game forever. There is no ending to the game, and hence no winning it either. This was done in part to allow players to challenge themselves, to see how long they could play on a single quarter. Players can never say, “I beat Asteroids,” and hence players are always able to keep playing, to keep putting in quarters. At the same time, having an unwinnable game makes every game a defeat for the player. Every game ends with the player’s death, and hence is a kind of tragedy. Having an unwinnable game also necessitates making a game that can continuously get harder and harder for the player, hence a game design with a continuous, infinite ramping up of difficulty. With the advent of the home market, game publishers no longer wanted players to play a single game forever. Instead they want players to finish the games they have and buy another one. This is one reason why it is rare to see a game with infinite play any more.
Multiple Lives: Typically, classic arcade games allow the player a finite number of lives, or a number of “tries” at the game before her game is over. Perhaps derived from pinball games, which had been providing the player with three or five balls for decades, multiple lives allowed the novice player a chance to learn the game’s mechanics before the game was over. Given adequate chances to try to figure out how the game works, the player is more likely to want to play again if she made progress from one life to the next. Having lives enables the game to provide another reward incentive for the player playing well: extra lives. Having multiple lives also sets up a game where dying once is not necessarily the end of the game, and encourages players to take risks they might not otherwise.
Scoring/High Scores:
Almost all classic arcade games included a scoring feature through which the player would accumulate points for accomplishing different objectives in the game. For example, in Centipede, the player gets 1 point for destroying a mushroom, 10 points for a centipede segment, 100 points for a centipede head, and 1000 points for a scorpion. Another classic arcade game component with origins in the world of pinball, the score allows the player to ascertain how well they did at the game, since winning the game is impossible. The high-score table was introduced in order to allow players to enter their initials next to their score, which would then be ranked in a table of scores so players could see just how good they were. The game would remember the table as long as it stayed plugged in, with some games, such as Centipede, even remembering the high-score list or some portion of it once unplugged. The high-score table enabled the classic arcade games to exploit one of the key motivations for playing games—“bragging rights.” A player could point out her name in the high-score table to her friends as a way of proving her mettle. Friends could compete with each other (almost all of the games included two-player modes, where players switch off playing) to see who could get the higher score.
Easy-to-Learn, Simple Gameplay:
Classic arcade games were easy for players to learn, impossible (or at least very difficult) to master. Someone could walk up to a game of Centipede, plunk in his quarter, and by his third life have a good idea of how the game functioned and how he might play better. Why the player died was always completely apparent to the player. There were typically no “special moves” involving large combinations of buttons which the player had to learn through trial and error. There were few games with tricky concepts such as “health” or “shields” or “power-ups.” Again, commercial considerations were probably a factor in making these games simple to learn. At the time of their initial introduction, there was no established market of computer game players and there were few arcades. The games wound up in pizza parlors and bars, where any person might walk up to one and try it out. These novice players might be scared away if the game were too complex or baffling. Of course, simple does not always mean “limited” or “bad” gameplay; it can also mean “elegant” and “refined.”
No Story:
Classic arcade games almost universally eschewed the notion of trying to “tell a story” of any sort, just as many modern arcade games continue to do. The games always had a setting the player could easily recognize and relate to, many of them revolving around science fiction themes, though others dabbled in war, fantasy, and sports, among others. Many, such as Pac-Man and Q*Bert, created their own, unique settings, keeping up with the rampant creativity found in their gameplay. The classic arcade game designers did not feel required to flesh out their game-worlds, to concoct explanations for why the player was shooting at a given target or eating a certain type of dot, and the games did not suffer for it.
Even though the action in Sinistar did not take place only on one screen, it is still considered to be an example of the classic arcade game form.
Of course, some games broke some of the above rules of the form, yet they can still be considered classic arcade games. For example, Sinistar and Defender both included scrolling game-worlds for the player to travel through, with the player unable to see all aspects of the game-world at any one time. Indeed, on first inspection, Battlezone seems entirely the odd man out among early classic arcade games. Yet, if one looks at the traits above, one will discover that it featured infinite play, multiple lives, and scoring, was easy to learn, and had almost no story. All three of these games included mechanics which, by and large, were adherent to the classic arcade game form. Thus we can still group them with games like Space Invadersand Asteroids, games which follow all the rules laid out above.
Being one of the defining games of the form, Centipede follows all of the aspects of the classic arcade game form listed above. Though not a very complex game by today’s standards, the marvel of Centipede is how all of the different gameplay elements work together to create a uniquely challenging game. Nothing in Centipede is out of place, nothing is inconsistent, nothing is unbalanced. To analyze Centipede is to attempt to understand how to design the perfect game.
One of the great advantages to working on a game for the arcades is that the designer has complete control over the type of device the player will use to control the game. On the PC, the designer can only count on the player having a keyboard and a mouse, while on a console, the designer must work with the standard controller that comes with that particular console. The arcade designer (budget constraints notwithstanding) is able to pick the best type of control for the game, and provide the player with that control system. The designer can then create the game around those controls, precisely balancing the game to work perfectly with that input method. Centipede does this expertly, providing the player with an extremely precise analog control device in the form of a trackball. This is ideally suited to moving the player’s shooter ship around on the bottom of the screen. Players can move the ship quickly or slowly, whatever the situation calls for. For many fans of Centipede, the excellent controller is one of the first things they remember about the game.
The player’s shooter in Centipede is more mobile than in Space Invaders, since it can move up and down in addition to moving sideways. Pictured here: Centipede.
The shooter is extremely responsive to the player’s manipulation of the trackball, with the player being able to easily and intuitively understand the relationship between her manipulation of the trackball and the shooter’s movement. Centipede was no doubt inspired by other classic arcade games, such as Space Invaders, which feature the player’s game-world surrogate locked at the bottom of the screen, allowed only to move left, move right, and shoot. Centipede takes that idiom one step further: the player is still trapped at the bottom of the screen, but the shooter can move within a six-row vertical space. This allows the player to avoid enemies that might be on the bottom row. At the same time, the shooter can still only shoot forward, so enemies that get behind the ship cannot be destroyed. Aside from the trackball, the only other control the player has is a button for firing the shooter’s laser-type weapon. The game allows an infinitely fast rate of fire, but only one shot can be on the screen at a time which means the player has to think beyond just holding down the fire button constantly. If the player moves the shooter directly below a mushroom she can hold down the fire button and quickly shoot the mushroom four times, thus destroying it. But at the top of the screen, where the player cannot maneuver the ship, destroying a mushroom takes much longer, since the player must wait for each shot to hit the mushroom before another shot can be fired. If the player’s shot is in the midst of traveling to a faraway target, she will be unable to shoot again in order to take out a divebombing enemy. The player must plan her shots carefully, a design element that adds more depth to the game’s mechanics.
INTERCONNECTEDNESS
One of the great strengths of Centipede is how well all the different elements of the gameplay fit together. Consider the different enemy insects that try to kill the player.
The centipede winds its way down the screen from the top of the screen to the player’s area at the bottom, moving horizontally. The centipede appears as either a lone twelve-segment centipede or as a shorter centipede accompanied by a number of single heads. At the start of a wave, the number of centipede segments on the screen always totals twelve. Next is the spider, which moves in a diagonal, bouncing pattern across the bottom of the screen, passing in and out of the player’s area. Then comes the flea, which plummets vertically, straight down toward the player.
There is nothing terribly sophisticated about any of the movement patterns of these insects. Indeed, the flea and the centipede, once they have appeared in the play-field, follow a completely predictable pattern as they approach the player’s area. The spider has a more random nature to its zigzagging movement, but even it does nothing to actually pursue the player. Therefore, once the player has played the game just a few times, he has a completely reliable set of expectations about how these enemies will attack him. Fighting any one of these creatures by itself would provide very little challenge for the player. Yet, when they function together they combine to create uniquely challenging situations for the player. With any one of these adversaries missing, the game’s challenge would be significantly diminished, if not removed altogether.
Each of the insects in the game also has a unique relationship to the mushrooms, which fill the game’s play-field. The primary reason for the existence of the mushrooms is to speed up the centipede’s progress to the bottom of the screen. Every time a centipede bumps into a mushroom, it turns down to the next row below, as if it had run into the edge of the play-field. Thus, once the screen becomes packed with mushrooms, the centipede will get to the bottom of the play-field extremely quickly. Once at the bottom of the screen, the centipede moves back and forth inside the player’s area, posing a great danger to the player. So, it behooves the player to do everything he can to destroy the mushrooms on the play-field, even though the mushrooms themselves do not pose a direct threat. Further complicating matters, every time the player shoots a segment of the centipede it leaves a mushroom where it died. Thus, wiping out a twelve-segment centipede leaves a big cluster of mushrooms with which the player must contend.
In Centipede, fleas drop toward the bottom of the screen, leaving mushrooms behind them, while spiders eat whatever mushrooms block their movement.
As the flea falls to the bottom of the play-field, it leaves a trail of new mushrooms behind itself, and the only way for the player to stop it is to kill it. The flea only comes on to the play-field if there are less than a certain number of mushrooms on the bottom half of the screen. This way, if the player destroys all the mushrooms closest to him, the flea comes out immediately to lay down more. The spider, the creature that poses the biggest threat to the player, has the side effect that it eats mushrooms. This then presents the player with a quandary: shoot and kill the spider or just try to avoid it so it can take out more mushrooms? Finally, the scorpion, a creature that travels horizontally across the top half of the screen and hence can never collide with and kill the player, poisons the mushrooms it passes under. These poisoned mushrooms affect the centipede differently when it bumps into them. Instead of just turning down to the next row, the centipede will move vertically straight down to the bottom of the screen. So when a centipede hits a poisoned mushroom, the centipede becomes a much more grave threat than it was before.
Once a scorpion has passed by, the player must now expend effort trying to shoot all the poisoned mushrooms at the top of the screen or be prepared to blast the centipedes as they plummet vertically straight toward the player.
So we can see that each of the creatures in the game has a special, unique relationship to the mushrooms. It is the interplay of these relationships that creates the challenge for the player. The more mushrooms the flea drops, the more mushrooms the scorpion has to poison. The spider may take out mushrooms along the bottom of the screen, getting them out of the way of the player, but it may eat so many that the flea starts coming out again. If the player kills the centipede too close to the top of the screen, it will leave a clump of mushrooms which are difficult to destroy at such a distance, and which will cause future centipedes to reach the bottom of the screen at a greater speed. However, if the player waits until the centipede is at the bottom of the screen, the centipede is more likely to kill the player. With the mushrooms almost functioning as puzzle pieces, Centipede becomes something of a hybrid between an arcade shooter and a real-time puzzle game. Indeed, some players were able to develop special strategies that would work to stop the flea from ever coming out, thus making the centipede get to the bottom of the screen less quickly and allowing the player to survive for much longer. It is the interplay of each of the player’s adversaries with these mushrooms and with each other that creates a unique challenge for the player.
ESCALATING TENSION
A big part of the success of Centipede is how it escalates tension over the length of the game. The game actually has peaks and valleys it creates in which tension escalates to an apex and, with the killing of the last centipede segment, relaxes for a moment as the game switches over to the next wave. One small way in which the game escalates tension over a few seconds is through the flea, which is the only enemy in the game the player must shoot twice. When it is shot just once, its speed increases dramatically and the player must quickly shoot it again lest the flea hit the shooter. For that brief speed burst, the player’s tension escalates. In terms of the centipede itself, the game escalates the tension by splitting the centipede each time it is shot. If the player shoots the middle segment of an eleven-segment centipede, it will split into two five-segment centipedes which head in opposite directions. Sure, the player has decreased the total number of segments on the screen by one, but now he has two adversaries to worry about at once. As a result, skilled players will end up going for the head or tail of the centipede to avoid splitting it.
Most of the game’s escalating tension over the course of a wave is derived from the centipede’s approach toward the bottom of the screen and the player’s often frantic efforts to kill it before it gets there. Once a centipede head reaches the bottom of the screen, a special centipede head generator is activated, which spits out additional centipede heads into the player’s area. If the player is unable to kill the centipede before it reaches the bottom of the screen, which has already increased tension by its very approach, that tension is further escalated by the arrival of these extra heads. And those extra heads keep arriving until the player has managed to kill all of the remaining centipede segments on the screen. The rate at which those extra heads come out increases over time, such that if the player takes her time in killing them, additional centipedes will arrive all the faster, making the player still more frantic.
Once the player kills the last segment, the game goes to its next wave, and the centipede is regenerated from the top of the screen. This provides a crucial, temporary reprieve for the player, a moment for her to catch her breath. The player will feel a great rush at having finally defeated the centipede, especially if the extra centipede head generator had been activated. In addition, the newly generated centipede at first appears easier to kill, since it is generated so far from the player’s area.
Over the course of a game of Centipede, mushrooms become more and more tightly packed on the play-field.
Over the course of the player’s entire game, the mushrooms inevitably become more and more packed on the play-field. Once there are more mushrooms toward the bottom of the screen, the player feels lucky if he can just clear all of the mushrooms in the lower half of the play-field. He has no chance of destroying the mushrooms toward the top, since the lower mushrooms block his shots. Similarly, if the scorpion has left any poison mushrooms toward the top of the screen, the player has no chance whatsoever of destroying them, and as a result the centipede dive-bombs the bottom of the screen on every single wave. Far into a game, the top of the play-field becomes a solid wall of mushrooms. As the mushrooms become more and more dense, the centipede gets to the bottom of the screen faster. When the centipede can get to the bottom of the screen extremely quickly, the player’s game is that much faster paced, and he is that much more panicked about destroying the centipede before it reaches the bottom of the screen. This increased mushroom density has the effect of escalating tension not just within a wave as the extra centipede head generator did, but also from wave to wave, since the mushrooms never go away unless the player shoots them.
Centipede also balances its monsters to become harder and harder as the player’s score increases. And since the player’s score can never decrease, the tension escalates over the course of the game. Most obvious is the spider, whose speed approximately doubles once the player’s score reaches 5000 (1000 if the game’s operator has set the game to “hard”). The spider also maneuvers in a smaller and smaller area of the bottom of the screen as the player’s score gets really high, eventually moving only one row out of the player’s six-row area. With the spider thus constrained, it is both more likely to hit the player and less likely for the player to be able to shoot it. Recall that the flea drops from the top of the screen based on the quantity of mushrooms in the bottom half of the screen. When the player starts the game, if there are less than five mushrooms in that area the flea will come down, dropping more as it does so. As the player’s score increases, however, so does the quantity of mushrooms needed to prevent the flea’s appearance. Now the player must leave more and more mushrooms in that space to prevent the flea from coming out and cluttering the top of the screen with mushrooms.
At the start of each wave, the game always generates a total of twelve centipede segments and heads at the top of the screen. This means that if a twelve-segment centipede appears at the top of the screen, that will be the only centipede. If a seven-segment centipede appears, then five other centipede heads will appear as well, thus totaling the magic number of twelve. The more centipedes that appear, the more challenging it is for the player to shoot them all, and the more likely one will sneak to the bottom of the screen. The game starts by releasing a single twelve-segment centipede. In the next wave, a slow eleven-segment centipede appears along with one head. In the following wave, a fast eleven-segment and one head combination arrive. Then a slow ten-segment and two heads appear. With each wave there are a greater number of individual centipedes for the player to keep track of and a greater escalation of tension. The game wraps around once twelve individual heads are spawned, but then the game becomes harder by only spawning fast centipedes.
The player’s death also provides a brief respite from the tension. When the player’s ship is destroyed, the wave starts over and hence the centipede returns to the top of the screen. Before this, however, all of the mushrooms on the screen are reset. This means that all the partially destroyed mushrooms are returned to their undamaged state. But also all of the mushrooms poisoned by the scorpion are returned to their unpoisoned state. Many waves into the game, the increased mushroom density makes shooting poisoned mushrooms all but impossible, and with those poisoned mushrooms in place, the player is bombarded by centipedes hurtling toward him in every single wave. Thus, a player is almost relieved when his shooter is destroyed and all those poisoned mushrooms are removed from the top of the screen. This causes the player’s game to be much more relaxed, at least for the time being.
Centipede’s frantic gameplay keeps the player tense most of the time, though it provides some breaks in the
action during which the player can relax.
Centipede is marvelous at creating and maintaining a tense situation for the player, while still providing brief “breathing periods” within the action. Designers of modern games, who are always concerned with ramping up difficulty for the player, could learn much by analyzing how Centipede keeps the player constantly on his toes without ever unfairly overwhelming him.
ONE PERSON, ONE GAME
Many may scoff at Centipede twenty years after its creation. There is no question that it is a less technically astounding accomplishment than more modern works, and those who do not examine it closely are likely to dismiss it as more of a light diversion instead of a serious game. But what Centipede does, it does with such facility, featuring game mechanics so precisely and perfectly balanced and gameplay so uniquely compelling, that it truly is a marvel of computer game design. One must remember that Centipede was created in the days of the one-person-one-game system, when the development team for a game consisted primarily of one person, in this case Ed Logg. By having one person in total control of a project, where a single talented individual fully understands every last nuance of the game, the final product is much more likely to come out with a clearness of vision and brilliance of execution. Of course, one person can create a terrible game just as easily as a large team, but one must wonder if the lone wolf developer does not have a better chance at creating the perfect game.
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(10) GAME ANALYSIS - TETRIS
Contents:
Game Analysis: Tetris
Game Analysis: Centipede
Game Review: Pac Man
GAME ANALYSIS: TETRIS
DESIGNED BY ALEXEY PAJITNOV, RELEASED IN 1987
Few games are as universally well respected by game developers as Tetris. Often when a game becomes as popular as Tetris has, with versions for every system imaginable and untold millions in sales, gaming professionals start complaining about what a poor game it is. Myst is a good example of this. On its release, the title received near universal praise from the gaming press for being a fun adventure game in a beautifully conceived world. Game developers themselves, though not quite as enthusiastic, still thought it was a good game. Multiple millions of copies later with years spent on the best-seller charts, the same gaming press found reason to start hating the game and its amazing continued popularity. Game developers are particularly loud in voicing their dislike for the game. Is the game worse now? No, of course not. Do gaming professionals, press and developers alike, resent the game for its sales? It would appear so. But this is not the case with Tetris. Tetris conquered the world in terms of popularity, yet one is hard pressed to find anyone with a negative comment about the game. What is it about Tetris that makes the game immune to criticism? It would appear something about the game’s simplicity and clearness of design vision makes even the most cynical game developer concede the game’s greatness. Contrary to what happened with Myst, when Tetris was first released, most of the gaming press dwelled on the game’s origins in Russia and seemed underwhelmed, or at least unexcited, by the title’s gameplay. The game was so simple, its technology so lacking in razzle-dazzle that, perhaps, the press found themselves incapable of writing enthusiastically about the game—at least at first. Now that the game is an undisputed classic, any game critic will be happy to tell you about the hundreds of hours she spent blissfully lost in the game.
Gameplay in Tetris is exceedingly uncomplicated. The game-world is a tall, rectangular, 2D box. Blocks appear at the top of the box. The blocks are made up of four squares arranged in every possible pattern where all the squares share at least one side with another square. The blocks then slowly fall to the bottom of the box, and the player is able to move these blocks to the left and right, or rotate the piece in 90 degree increments. Once the player hits an obstruction, either the bottom of the box or another piece, the block stops moving, the player loses control of the block, and another piece appears at the top of the screen which the player can now control. When the blocks at the bottom of the screen form a horizontal line across the rectangle, that line of squares disappears, and any squares above that line move down one row. The player’s game is over once incomplete rows of the blocks fill up the rectangle and subsequent pieces are prevented from entering the play-field.
PUZZLE GAME OR ACTION GAME?
Tetris is often referred to as a puzzle game, and for good reason. Tetris has elements obviously reminiscent of a puzzle, with the player needing to find how blocks best fit together. In this way the game is similar to a right-angle jigsaw puzzle, or any number of other “organize these geometrical shapes in this small space” puzzles. An even better comparison would be the traditional game pentomino, from which Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris’s designer, is supposed to have drawn inspiration. In pentomino, one must take twelve different shaped pieces, each made out of five squares, and fit them into a square box. One can see the similarities, but at the same time Tetris changes the game into something entirely different, something entirely more challenging and compelling. Pajitnov could have just as easily made a direct adaptation of pentomino to the computer, as many other developers have done for jigsaw puzzles or “sliding number”-type puzzles. This might have been an entertaining program, though perhaps not as fun as the actual game itself since part of the fun of pentomino is the tactile nature of manipulating the blocks. But by taking the puzzle and changing it into a game that could only happen on the computer,
Pajitnov ended up creating a unique new game, which is far more entertaining than the original.
Many times when members of the computer game intelligentsia refer to a game as being a puzzle game, they do so with derision. For them a puzzle game is one that presents a series of static puzzles to the player, puzzles which never change and never react to the player’s actions. They argue that a game must provide a reaction to the player’s actions, and an opponent for the player to compete against. Hence, the critics would say, these so-called “puzzle games” are not really games at all, but just puzzles. Furthermore, often the puzzles found in these games have only one solution, further limiting the player’s interactive experience. Examples would include most all adventure games, such as Zork, Myst, or even Grim Fandango, games that, though they provide the player with a world to explore and challenging puzzles to complete, do nothing to create a unique experience for the player.
Tetris carefully balances action and puzzle elements to create a unique gameplay experience. Pictured here, and throughout this chapter: classic mode in The Next Tetris.
But Tetris is never criticized for this problem, because it so brilliantly combines the mechanics of a puzzle game with the mechanics of an action game in order to create a truly compelling gameplay experience. Thus everyone who plays Tetris, each time they play it, has a unique experience. One action game mechanic Tetris uses is the sense of an ever-approaching threat that the player has to address in a limited amount of time. In Centipede this threat is the anthropod winding its way down from the top of the screen. In Tetris it is the block dropping from above. If the player does not move and rotate the piece before it reaches the bottom of the screen, and if the player does not determine an optimal placement for this piece, the piece may get stuck in a location that blocks off lower rows from being completed, and the player gets one or more lines closer to ending his game. As gameplay progresses, the speed at which these blocks fall from the top of the screen increases, thus increasing the challenge for the player and ramping up the difficulty over the course of the game.
Another similarity between Tetris and action games that further distinguishes it from other puzzle games is the variety of gameplay situations Tetris can create: each game a player plays is unique. The play mechanics set up an infinitely large number of unique games, with each move the player decides to make influencing the rest of her game. The way a piece is positioned into the blocks already at the bottom of the screen directly impacts where the next piece can be placed. Should the player fill up the four-block-long slot with only two blocks from an upsidedown “L”-shaped piece? Or should she hold out, waiting for that desperately needed “I”-shaped piece? The “L” will not fill the slot completely, but no one knows how long it will be until the “I” piece arrives. In other cases the player may have a number of different positions in which to put a piece, and the player must think ahead, figuring out if she puts a piece in a given slot what sort of slots that will leave available for later pieces. The player constantly has to consider where future blocks will or will not be able to fit. A player may learn to recognize certain piece configurations, but every game is sufficiently unique that no player can be completely prepared for the challenges she may face.
TETRIS AS A CLASSIC ARCADE GAME
Indeed, there are many indications that Tetris is an example of what I call the “classic arcade game” form. This is despite the fact that it was not originally conceived for gameplay in the arcades (though its rampant popularity eventually led to its arrival there), and that it was created years after the classic arcade game form had stopped being used by professional arcade game developers. Looking over the list of classic arcade game qualities such as Single Screen Play, Infinite Play, Multiple Lives, Scoring/High Scores, Easy-to-Learn, Simple Gameplay, No Story etc. we can see just how Tetris fits the guiding principles of the form.
Single Screen Play: Of course, Tetris takes place on only one screen. The player is able to view the entire game-world at one time and make informed decisions about what he wants to do with a given piece based on that. There is no exploration component to the game, no way to really surprise the player (beyond what piece appears next), so the layer has all the information he needs to be successful at the game, and has nothing to blame but himself for failure.
Infinite Play: Tetris allows the player to keep playing until, through her own bad decisions, the blocks reach the top of the box. Every game ends in defeat, and no one can truly say she has “beaten” the game. Players can always find ways to improve their Tetris playing ability. This is a crucial difference between Tetris and a traditional puzzle. Once a player has solved a puzzle, if she remembers how she did it the first time, the puzzle will no longer present any challenge to her. People usually do not enjoy doing puzzles multiple times, whereas a well-designed game can be replayed forever. Tetris is just such a game.
Multiple Lives: Unlike most classic arcade games, the original Tetris implementation only offers the player one life. Once the blocks reach the top of the box, the player’s game is over. The design of the game, however, allows the player to see that he is doing poorly while not defeating him instantly. As the blocks stack up at the bottom of the rectangle, the player sees the mistakes he is making and has time to figure out how to better line up the blocks before his game is over. So, while Tetris does not offer the player multiple lives, it does give him a chance to learn the game well enough to achieve some minor successes before forcing him to start over.Despite being developed years after classic arcade games had fallen out of style, Tetris’s gameplay embodies many of the design principles of that genre of games.
Scoring/High Scores: Tetris uses a model for giving the player a score and recording it in a high-score table which is directly taken from the system used in games like Asteroids or Galaga. Indeed, since the game cannot be defeated, it is the possibility of achieving a higher score that can become the player’s true impetus to play the game again.
Easy-to-Learn, Simple Gameplay: Tetris truly excels in how simple and obvious its game mechanics are. The player really only needs three buttons in order to play the game successfully, and these all translate into obvious results on the screen. This means that virtually anyone, regardless of how familiar they are with computer games, can walk up to the game and start playing it immediately. However, a player will never be able to fully master the game due to the game’s ramping-up difficulty and the potential for infinitely long games.
No Story: Tetris has even less story than most classic arcade games, and is the case most often cited by people who want to point out that games do not need stories to be compelling for the player. The only sort of setting Tetris has is its origins in Russia, which has been used for various aesthetic effects in the different incarnations of the game. The first PC version of the game, as published by Spectrum Holobyte, included backdrops behind the gameplay that involved different scenes from Russian life, and the music sounded vaguely Slavic in origin. But once people learned what a great game Tetris was, subsequent implementations of the game, such as the one for the Nintendo Gameboy, had no Russian theme to them and had no setting or story at all. The game did not suffer one bit for this lack of story. Indeed, Tetris’s total lack of setting may actually be something that separates it from the classic arcade games, which all made an attempt to be grounded in a fantasy world of some sort, whether it was outer space in Galaga, insects in a garden in Centipede, or funky ghosts chasing a little yellow man around in Pac-Man. Tetris has no such pretensions, and thus stands out.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Another similarity between Tetris and classic arcade games is that none of those games relied on their technology to impress the player. For CAGs, the graphics the arcade machines in the early ’80s could produce were so lackluster compared to what players would find in other media, such as movies or television, that players had to be drawn in by something else. As a result, the gameplay had to be truly captivating for these games to survive. Despite the fact that much more sophisticated graphics were available by the time Tetris was released in the West in the late ’80s, the game did not need fancier graphics and stuck to a very simple 2D implementation. Tetris’s gameplay is so strong that it does not matter how technologically simple its implementation may be, the game is still wildly entertaining.
The implementation of Tetris is so simple that many aspiring game programmers start out by making a Tetris clone. Indeed, numerous companies have attempted to add fancy graphical effects to the game, including making it 3D. The first of these was probably Welltris, a sequel of sorts to Tetris, designed by Pajitnov. In Welltris, a 3D “well” takes the place of the Tetris box. Tetris-style pieces (though not always of four blocks) fall down along the sides of the well and must be lined up into rows on the bottom. The gameplay was considerably more complex without being particularly more fun or challenging. As a result, players were uninterested, and went back to the simplicity of the original. Many subsequent Tetris knockoffs attempted to make “improvements” on the original, either through fancy effects or special pieces of various sorts. None of these attempts were particularly successful, and players continued to want to return to the original.
The attempts to add technological sophistication to Tetris failed, not just commercially but also artistically. The enhanced technology added to these knockoff products was actually detrimental to the original game design, polluting its purity and making the game lose its elegance and fun in the process. Of course, the moral to the story is that enhanced technology is not necessarily beneficial to a given game, and game designers must be wary when the whiz-bang engine effects start to get in the way of what makes the game entertaining in the first place.
While Tetris may have not needed much in the way of computer technology to function, it is worth pointing out that there could be no Tetris without a computer. Tetris is not a game adapted from a pen and paper or board game, but rather something that only can exist in a world carefully controlled and governed by a computer. As mentioned previously, Pajitnov is said to have drawn his inspiration from the non-computer puzzle game pentomino. In adapting it to the computer,
Pajitnov changed it into a form which could exist only on a computer. The descending of the pieces from the top of the screen at a steady rate, the way they can interact with the pieces already at the bottom of the screen, and the random way in which pieces become available to the player are all operations only a computer program could provide while still allowing for an entertaining experience for the player. These are all tasks the computer performs expertly, and it was brilliant of Pajitnov to think to add them to his game.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
All the game has in terms of AI is the random number generator that picks the next piece to enter the play-field. However, the game mechanics are such that this random number is enough to completely change each game, presenting the player with unique challenges after every piece is dropped. Since the randomness ensures that the player never knows what the next piece will be, he is forced to play the piece in a way that is optimal for whatever one of the seven pieces comes along next. (Many incarnations of Tetris include a “next” feature, which shows the player the next piece that will come onto the play-field, a feature which does make the game a bit easier. Even when using this, however, players still do not know what the next-next-piece will be, hence they are still just making an educated guess as to where to stick the currently falling block.) If gameplay is about opposition, meaning an opponent providing a challenge to which the player must react, and if in solitaire computer games that opponent is the computer, then the fact that a random number generator provides all the challenge in Tetris demonstrates an important point. The AI the player faces only needs to be as smart as the game mechanics require. An AI needs to present the player with a situation that will challenge him, and it really does not matter how the AI arrives at that challenge. It could be as complicated as the AI for a deep strategy game like Civilization, or it could be as simple as the random piece picker found in Tetris. What matters is that the AI matches up with the game mechanics to sufficiently challenge the player.
Tetris has a very limited artificial intelligence that randomly picks the blocks which fall into the playfield. Despite its simplicity, this AI provides the perfect challenge for the player.
The random nature of which pieces arrive at the top of the screen might suggest to the reader that success at Tetris is just luck. If the pieces a player gets are random, how can different players’ scores be compared against one another? The key point to realize here is that, over time, the randomness of the pieces evens out. Just as die rolls in a board game even out over the course of the game, the random pieces passed to the player in Tetris end up functioning as if they were not random at all. Since there are only seven types of pieces, none with more than four blocks, and since the player (at least initially) has a large space in which to manipulate them, the randomness keeps the game from becoming predictable while still making one player’s game comparable to another’s. Over the course of a game, a player will get a few hundred pieces. The number of times the player gets just the piece she was looking for is evened out by the times she does not get the piece she wants. It may be that the player will fail to get exactly the right piece at the right time and that, since the player’s box is already full of pieces, the player’s game ends as a result. However, in order to get to a situation where she could not use whatever piece was given to her, the player had already made a number of mistakes to put herself in such a perilous situation. In the end, the random piece picker found in Tetris provides a fair, consistent challenge to all players.
ESCALATING TENSION
Tetris is very ruthless in the way it escalates tension throughout the player’s game. Unlike a game such as Centipede, the player gets no reprieve when a wave ends, nor does he get the ability to “start fresh” when he loses a life. In Tetris the player “dies” when the box fills up with pieces that fail to make complete rows, and his game is over, period. This means that the player must be constantly on his guard, constantly considering what to do with a piece before it reaches the bottom of the screen. Even a fast-paced game such as Doom provides the player with plenty of respites from the action. In that first-person shooter, there are safe corners to hide in and rooms where, once all the threats have been eliminated, the player can wait indefinitely without being threatened. Tetris never lets up and constantly confronts the player with a new challenge that must be addressed.
The only reprieve the player finds in Tetris is when she “battles her way back” from a tricky situation. Say the player has dropped some blocks in bad locations, thereby blocking off uncompleted rows below. Now the player’s game is harder because she has less space and time to manipulate her pieces before they are stopped at the bottom of the screen. The game’s tension has escalated as a result of the player’s mistakes. Now the player may be able, through careful placing of subsequent pieces, to erase the poorly placed bricks and finally complete the rows below. Now the game’s tension has decreased and the player is back to where she was, with more space and time to manipulate the falling pieces. The player feels a sense of accomplishment and relief. She is able to relax momentarily, knowing she has a “clean slate” to work with once again. Of course, this only lasts until the player makes another mistake, and then the game’s tension increases once again.
Further escalating the game’s tension is the acceleration of the speed at which the pieces fall over the course of the game. When the player’s score increases above certain specific amounts, the pieces in the game start moving at a faster rate, which makes the game more nerve-racking for the player. Since the pieces fall faster down the board, the player has less time to figure out the best position for a given piece, and also less time to manipulate the piece into that position. At the game’s fastest speed, most players will be incapable of placing a piece in an ideal location, and with a piece in the wrong place the game only gets harder. Just before the speed increases, the player might start to feel that he has mastered the game and could play Tetris indefinitely. But when the speed increases, whatever sort of rhythm the player had established is thrown off. Now the player needs to do everything he was doing before, only faster.
Once the player starts making mistakes in Tetris, these mistakes compound, making the game harder and harder to play. As the player fails to create rows at the bottom of the screen, the player has less and less space in which to manipulate his pieces. When the player accidentally drops a piece in the wrong location, that piece may block rows below from being completed, and will make it harder to maneuver subsequent pieces around that ill-placed piece. When the player tries to hold out for an “I”-shaped piece to fill a narrow column of empty spots, the player will have to keep placing other pieces in perhaps less-than-perfect locations until that piece randomly arrives. In all these ways, Tetris penalizes the player for failure. Instead of giving the player a chance to catch up as some computer games do, Tetris just punishes her, making it even harder to come back from errors made previously. Further complicating matters are the bonus points the player receives for removing four rows all at once with an “I” piece. With this tactic, the game tempts the player into taking potentially game-ending risks.
SIMPLICITY AND SYMMETRY
Tetris, as has been discussed, is a very simple game. A big part of its success is due to its simplicity and that it is so easy to learn while being so relentlessly challenging. The player does not need to learn any special moves in order to play the game. There are a very small number of keys used by the game, and those keys produce very obvious results on the screen. It is interesting to look at the pieces used in Tetris. They are all composed of four squares, and, in fact, the seven different types of pieces used in the game represent every possible combination of four squares, where each square must share a side with another square in its group. Since the player can rotate the pieces to whatever orientation he wants, there are only seven truly unique combinations of squares possible.
All of the pieces in Tetris are composed of four squares, each of which shares at least one side with another square. This gives the game an inherent consistency and balance.
It has been reported that Pajitnov, in creating Tetris, originally considered using pieces consisting of five squares combined into twelve unique pieces. Indeed, the pentomino game from which Pajitnov drew his inspiration used twelve five-square pieces. Pajitnov soon realized that this was too many different pieces to have to manipulate in Tetris’s high-pressure setting, where the player has a limited amount of time to find a perfect fit for a given piece. Certainly a game using five-square pieces could have been challenging in its own way, and perhaps a slower falling speed and larger play-field could have compensated for the added complexity of the larger pieces. But would it have been Tetris? No. Would it have been as fun and addictive as Tetris? Probably not. At some point a complexity level begins to stifle the core nature of a game, and confuses players instead of challenging them. Using five instead of four squares ruined the simplicity Pajitnov was striving for, and as a result he reduced the number of squares a piece could have.
There are actually thirteen unique combinations of five squares possible, where each square shares a side with another square. So it would appear that the original pentomino game, with its twelve blocks, did not use a complete set of pieces. I have never tried pentomino, so I have no idea how much fun that puzzle may be. Part of what makes Tetris so elegant is the completeness of its pieces. Every possible permutation of four squares with squares sharing sides is used in the game. Remove any one of the pieces from Tetris and the game’s balance would suffer. When playing, players will find themselves presented with situations that cry out for certain pieces. Certain arrangements of the blocks on the bottom of the screen leave holes that can only be perfectly filled by a specific Tetris piece. Part of what lends Tetris its balance is the fact that Pajitnov was wise enough to include each piece possible, thus providing a piece for every type of gap. The natural completeness and symmetry of the pieces available to the player in Tetris is a crucial component of its balance.
TEN YEARS ON, WHO WOULD PUBLISH TETRIS?
One must wonder, if Tetris were created today, what publisher would be willing to publish it. Originally Tetris was sold as “the game from Russia” and was attached to art and music of a similar nature, almost as a gesture to our new friends in what was then the U.S.S.R. Had Tetris been dreamed up by a kid in a garage in Iowa one wonders if it ever would have been published at all. (One would like to be optimistic and think that he would have been able to code it up, release it as shareware on the Internet, and the game’s fame would still have been assured.) Tetris is the ultimate in low-technology gameplay, and many game publishers simply refuse to publish games that do not utilize the latest in computer graphics wizardry. After all, where will they find the pretty screenshots for the back of the box? The game lacks any sort of story or even setting; another absolute must for the people in marketing. What sort of copy will they write in their ads? Indeed, it is a testament to Tetris’s brilliant gameplay that it cannot be adequately described in any amount of words, much less in a catchy one-liner. Even looking at a static screenshot of Tetris is a thoroughly unexciting experience, one which cannot hope to communicate the game’s sublime art. Gameplay is an elusive subject for manipulators of the written word; it must be experienced to be understood.
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Game Analysis: Tetris
Game Analysis: Centipede
Game Review: Pac Man
GAME ANALYSIS: TETRIS
DESIGNED BY ALEXEY PAJITNOV, RELEASED IN 1987
Few games are as universally well respected by game developers as Tetris. Often when a game becomes as popular as Tetris has, with versions for every system imaginable and untold millions in sales, gaming professionals start complaining about what a poor game it is. Myst is a good example of this. On its release, the title received near universal praise from the gaming press for being a fun adventure game in a beautifully conceived world. Game developers themselves, though not quite as enthusiastic, still thought it was a good game. Multiple millions of copies later with years spent on the best-seller charts, the same gaming press found reason to start hating the game and its amazing continued popularity. Game developers are particularly loud in voicing their dislike for the game. Is the game worse now? No, of course not. Do gaming professionals, press and developers alike, resent the game for its sales? It would appear so. But this is not the case with Tetris. Tetris conquered the world in terms of popularity, yet one is hard pressed to find anyone with a negative comment about the game. What is it about Tetris that makes the game immune to criticism? It would appear something about the game’s simplicity and clearness of design vision makes even the most cynical game developer concede the game’s greatness. Contrary to what happened with Myst, when Tetris was first released, most of the gaming press dwelled on the game’s origins in Russia and seemed underwhelmed, or at least unexcited, by the title’s gameplay. The game was so simple, its technology so lacking in razzle-dazzle that, perhaps, the press found themselves incapable of writing enthusiastically about the game—at least at first. Now that the game is an undisputed classic, any game critic will be happy to tell you about the hundreds of hours she spent blissfully lost in the game.
Gameplay in Tetris is exceedingly uncomplicated. The game-world is a tall, rectangular, 2D box. Blocks appear at the top of the box. The blocks are made up of four squares arranged in every possible pattern where all the squares share at least one side with another square. The blocks then slowly fall to the bottom of the box, and the player is able to move these blocks to the left and right, or rotate the piece in 90 degree increments. Once the player hits an obstruction, either the bottom of the box or another piece, the block stops moving, the player loses control of the block, and another piece appears at the top of the screen which the player can now control. When the blocks at the bottom of the screen form a horizontal line across the rectangle, that line of squares disappears, and any squares above that line move down one row. The player’s game is over once incomplete rows of the blocks fill up the rectangle and subsequent pieces are prevented from entering the play-field.
PUZZLE GAME OR ACTION GAME?
Tetris is often referred to as a puzzle game, and for good reason. Tetris has elements obviously reminiscent of a puzzle, with the player needing to find how blocks best fit together. In this way the game is similar to a right-angle jigsaw puzzle, or any number of other “organize these geometrical shapes in this small space” puzzles. An even better comparison would be the traditional game pentomino, from which Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris’s designer, is supposed to have drawn inspiration. In pentomino, one must take twelve different shaped pieces, each made out of five squares, and fit them into a square box. One can see the similarities, but at the same time Tetris changes the game into something entirely different, something entirely more challenging and compelling. Pajitnov could have just as easily made a direct adaptation of pentomino to the computer, as many other developers have done for jigsaw puzzles or “sliding number”-type puzzles. This might have been an entertaining program, though perhaps not as fun as the actual game itself since part of the fun of pentomino is the tactile nature of manipulating the blocks. But by taking the puzzle and changing it into a game that could only happen on the computer,
Pajitnov ended up creating a unique new game, which is far more entertaining than the original.
Many times when members of the computer game intelligentsia refer to a game as being a puzzle game, they do so with derision. For them a puzzle game is one that presents a series of static puzzles to the player, puzzles which never change and never react to the player’s actions. They argue that a game must provide a reaction to the player’s actions, and an opponent for the player to compete against. Hence, the critics would say, these so-called “puzzle games” are not really games at all, but just puzzles. Furthermore, often the puzzles found in these games have only one solution, further limiting the player’s interactive experience. Examples would include most all adventure games, such as Zork, Myst, or even Grim Fandango, games that, though they provide the player with a world to explore and challenging puzzles to complete, do nothing to create a unique experience for the player.
Tetris carefully balances action and puzzle elements to create a unique gameplay experience. Pictured here, and throughout this chapter: classic mode in The Next Tetris.
But Tetris is never criticized for this problem, because it so brilliantly combines the mechanics of a puzzle game with the mechanics of an action game in order to create a truly compelling gameplay experience. Thus everyone who plays Tetris, each time they play it, has a unique experience. One action game mechanic Tetris uses is the sense of an ever-approaching threat that the player has to address in a limited amount of time. In Centipede this threat is the anthropod winding its way down from the top of the screen. In Tetris it is the block dropping from above. If the player does not move and rotate the piece before it reaches the bottom of the screen, and if the player does not determine an optimal placement for this piece, the piece may get stuck in a location that blocks off lower rows from being completed, and the player gets one or more lines closer to ending his game. As gameplay progresses, the speed at which these blocks fall from the top of the screen increases, thus increasing the challenge for the player and ramping up the difficulty over the course of the game.
Another similarity between Tetris and action games that further distinguishes it from other puzzle games is the variety of gameplay situations Tetris can create: each game a player plays is unique. The play mechanics set up an infinitely large number of unique games, with each move the player decides to make influencing the rest of her game. The way a piece is positioned into the blocks already at the bottom of the screen directly impacts where the next piece can be placed. Should the player fill up the four-block-long slot with only two blocks from an upsidedown “L”-shaped piece? Or should she hold out, waiting for that desperately needed “I”-shaped piece? The “L” will not fill the slot completely, but no one knows how long it will be until the “I” piece arrives. In other cases the player may have a number of different positions in which to put a piece, and the player must think ahead, figuring out if she puts a piece in a given slot what sort of slots that will leave available for later pieces. The player constantly has to consider where future blocks will or will not be able to fit. A player may learn to recognize certain piece configurations, but every game is sufficiently unique that no player can be completely prepared for the challenges she may face.
TETRIS AS A CLASSIC ARCADE GAME
Indeed, there are many indications that Tetris is an example of what I call the “classic arcade game” form. This is despite the fact that it was not originally conceived for gameplay in the arcades (though its rampant popularity eventually led to its arrival there), and that it was created years after the classic arcade game form had stopped being used by professional arcade game developers. Looking over the list of classic arcade game qualities such as Single Screen Play, Infinite Play, Multiple Lives, Scoring/High Scores, Easy-to-Learn, Simple Gameplay, No Story etc. we can see just how Tetris fits the guiding principles of the form.
Single Screen Play: Of course, Tetris takes place on only one screen. The player is able to view the entire game-world at one time and make informed decisions about what he wants to do with a given piece based on that. There is no exploration component to the game, no way to really surprise the player (beyond what piece appears next), so the layer has all the information he needs to be successful at the game, and has nothing to blame but himself for failure.
Infinite Play: Tetris allows the player to keep playing until, through her own bad decisions, the blocks reach the top of the box. Every game ends in defeat, and no one can truly say she has “beaten” the game. Players can always find ways to improve their Tetris playing ability. This is a crucial difference between Tetris and a traditional puzzle. Once a player has solved a puzzle, if she remembers how she did it the first time, the puzzle will no longer present any challenge to her. People usually do not enjoy doing puzzles multiple times, whereas a well-designed game can be replayed forever. Tetris is just such a game.
Multiple Lives: Unlike most classic arcade games, the original Tetris implementation only offers the player one life. Once the blocks reach the top of the box, the player’s game is over. The design of the game, however, allows the player to see that he is doing poorly while not defeating him instantly. As the blocks stack up at the bottom of the rectangle, the player sees the mistakes he is making and has time to figure out how to better line up the blocks before his game is over. So, while Tetris does not offer the player multiple lives, it does give him a chance to learn the game well enough to achieve some minor successes before forcing him to start over.Despite being developed years after classic arcade games had fallen out of style, Tetris’s gameplay embodies many of the design principles of that genre of games.
Scoring/High Scores: Tetris uses a model for giving the player a score and recording it in a high-score table which is directly taken from the system used in games like Asteroids or Galaga. Indeed, since the game cannot be defeated, it is the possibility of achieving a higher score that can become the player’s true impetus to play the game again.
Easy-to-Learn, Simple Gameplay: Tetris truly excels in how simple and obvious its game mechanics are. The player really only needs three buttons in order to play the game successfully, and these all translate into obvious results on the screen. This means that virtually anyone, regardless of how familiar they are with computer games, can walk up to the game and start playing it immediately. However, a player will never be able to fully master the game due to the game’s ramping-up difficulty and the potential for infinitely long games.
No Story: Tetris has even less story than most classic arcade games, and is the case most often cited by people who want to point out that games do not need stories to be compelling for the player. The only sort of setting Tetris has is its origins in Russia, which has been used for various aesthetic effects in the different incarnations of the game. The first PC version of the game, as published by Spectrum Holobyte, included backdrops behind the gameplay that involved different scenes from Russian life, and the music sounded vaguely Slavic in origin. But once people learned what a great game Tetris was, subsequent implementations of the game, such as the one for the Nintendo Gameboy, had no Russian theme to them and had no setting or story at all. The game did not suffer one bit for this lack of story. Indeed, Tetris’s total lack of setting may actually be something that separates it from the classic arcade games, which all made an attempt to be grounded in a fantasy world of some sort, whether it was outer space in Galaga, insects in a garden in Centipede, or funky ghosts chasing a little yellow man around in Pac-Man. Tetris has no such pretensions, and thus stands out.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Another similarity between Tetris and classic arcade games is that none of those games relied on their technology to impress the player. For CAGs, the graphics the arcade machines in the early ’80s could produce were so lackluster compared to what players would find in other media, such as movies or television, that players had to be drawn in by something else. As a result, the gameplay had to be truly captivating for these games to survive. Despite the fact that much more sophisticated graphics were available by the time Tetris was released in the West in the late ’80s, the game did not need fancier graphics and stuck to a very simple 2D implementation. Tetris’s gameplay is so strong that it does not matter how technologically simple its implementation may be, the game is still wildly entertaining.
The implementation of Tetris is so simple that many aspiring game programmers start out by making a Tetris clone. Indeed, numerous companies have attempted to add fancy graphical effects to the game, including making it 3D. The first of these was probably Welltris, a sequel of sorts to Tetris, designed by Pajitnov. In Welltris, a 3D “well” takes the place of the Tetris box. Tetris-style pieces (though not always of four blocks) fall down along the sides of the well and must be lined up into rows on the bottom. The gameplay was considerably more complex without being particularly more fun or challenging. As a result, players were uninterested, and went back to the simplicity of the original. Many subsequent Tetris knockoffs attempted to make “improvements” on the original, either through fancy effects or special pieces of various sorts. None of these attempts were particularly successful, and players continued to want to return to the original.
The attempts to add technological sophistication to Tetris failed, not just commercially but also artistically. The enhanced technology added to these knockoff products was actually detrimental to the original game design, polluting its purity and making the game lose its elegance and fun in the process. Of course, the moral to the story is that enhanced technology is not necessarily beneficial to a given game, and game designers must be wary when the whiz-bang engine effects start to get in the way of what makes the game entertaining in the first place.
While Tetris may have not needed much in the way of computer technology to function, it is worth pointing out that there could be no Tetris without a computer. Tetris is not a game adapted from a pen and paper or board game, but rather something that only can exist in a world carefully controlled and governed by a computer. As mentioned previously, Pajitnov is said to have drawn his inspiration from the non-computer puzzle game pentomino. In adapting it to the computer,
Pajitnov changed it into a form which could exist only on a computer. The descending of the pieces from the top of the screen at a steady rate, the way they can interact with the pieces already at the bottom of the screen, and the random way in which pieces become available to the player are all operations only a computer program could provide while still allowing for an entertaining experience for the player. These are all tasks the computer performs expertly, and it was brilliant of Pajitnov to think to add them to his game.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
All the game has in terms of AI is the random number generator that picks the next piece to enter the play-field. However, the game mechanics are such that this random number is enough to completely change each game, presenting the player with unique challenges after every piece is dropped. Since the randomness ensures that the player never knows what the next piece will be, he is forced to play the piece in a way that is optimal for whatever one of the seven pieces comes along next. (Many incarnations of Tetris include a “next” feature, which shows the player the next piece that will come onto the play-field, a feature which does make the game a bit easier. Even when using this, however, players still do not know what the next-next-piece will be, hence they are still just making an educated guess as to where to stick the currently falling block.) If gameplay is about opposition, meaning an opponent providing a challenge to which the player must react, and if in solitaire computer games that opponent is the computer, then the fact that a random number generator provides all the challenge in Tetris demonstrates an important point. The AI the player faces only needs to be as smart as the game mechanics require. An AI needs to present the player with a situation that will challenge him, and it really does not matter how the AI arrives at that challenge. It could be as complicated as the AI for a deep strategy game like Civilization, or it could be as simple as the random piece picker found in Tetris. What matters is that the AI matches up with the game mechanics to sufficiently challenge the player.
Tetris has a very limited artificial intelligence that randomly picks the blocks which fall into the playfield. Despite its simplicity, this AI provides the perfect challenge for the player.
The random nature of which pieces arrive at the top of the screen might suggest to the reader that success at Tetris is just luck. If the pieces a player gets are random, how can different players’ scores be compared against one another? The key point to realize here is that, over time, the randomness of the pieces evens out. Just as die rolls in a board game even out over the course of the game, the random pieces passed to the player in Tetris end up functioning as if they were not random at all. Since there are only seven types of pieces, none with more than four blocks, and since the player (at least initially) has a large space in which to manipulate them, the randomness keeps the game from becoming predictable while still making one player’s game comparable to another’s. Over the course of a game, a player will get a few hundred pieces. The number of times the player gets just the piece she was looking for is evened out by the times she does not get the piece she wants. It may be that the player will fail to get exactly the right piece at the right time and that, since the player’s box is already full of pieces, the player’s game ends as a result. However, in order to get to a situation where she could not use whatever piece was given to her, the player had already made a number of mistakes to put herself in such a perilous situation. In the end, the random piece picker found in Tetris provides a fair, consistent challenge to all players.
ESCALATING TENSION
Tetris is very ruthless in the way it escalates tension throughout the player’s game. Unlike a game such as Centipede, the player gets no reprieve when a wave ends, nor does he get the ability to “start fresh” when he loses a life. In Tetris the player “dies” when the box fills up with pieces that fail to make complete rows, and his game is over, period. This means that the player must be constantly on his guard, constantly considering what to do with a piece before it reaches the bottom of the screen. Even a fast-paced game such as Doom provides the player with plenty of respites from the action. In that first-person shooter, there are safe corners to hide in and rooms where, once all the threats have been eliminated, the player can wait indefinitely without being threatened. Tetris never lets up and constantly confronts the player with a new challenge that must be addressed.
The only reprieve the player finds in Tetris is when she “battles her way back” from a tricky situation. Say the player has dropped some blocks in bad locations, thereby blocking off uncompleted rows below. Now the player’s game is harder because she has less space and time to manipulate her pieces before they are stopped at the bottom of the screen. The game’s tension has escalated as a result of the player’s mistakes. Now the player may be able, through careful placing of subsequent pieces, to erase the poorly placed bricks and finally complete the rows below. Now the game’s tension has decreased and the player is back to where she was, with more space and time to manipulate the falling pieces. The player feels a sense of accomplishment and relief. She is able to relax momentarily, knowing she has a “clean slate” to work with once again. Of course, this only lasts until the player makes another mistake, and then the game’s tension increases once again.
Further escalating the game’s tension is the acceleration of the speed at which the pieces fall over the course of the game. When the player’s score increases above certain specific amounts, the pieces in the game start moving at a faster rate, which makes the game more nerve-racking for the player. Since the pieces fall faster down the board, the player has less time to figure out the best position for a given piece, and also less time to manipulate the piece into that position. At the game’s fastest speed, most players will be incapable of placing a piece in an ideal location, and with a piece in the wrong place the game only gets harder. Just before the speed increases, the player might start to feel that he has mastered the game and could play Tetris indefinitely. But when the speed increases, whatever sort of rhythm the player had established is thrown off. Now the player needs to do everything he was doing before, only faster.
Once the player starts making mistakes in Tetris, these mistakes compound, making the game harder and harder to play. As the player fails to create rows at the bottom of the screen, the player has less and less space in which to manipulate his pieces. When the player accidentally drops a piece in the wrong location, that piece may block rows below from being completed, and will make it harder to maneuver subsequent pieces around that ill-placed piece. When the player tries to hold out for an “I”-shaped piece to fill a narrow column of empty spots, the player will have to keep placing other pieces in perhaps less-than-perfect locations until that piece randomly arrives. In all these ways, Tetris penalizes the player for failure. Instead of giving the player a chance to catch up as some computer games do, Tetris just punishes her, making it even harder to come back from errors made previously. Further complicating matters are the bonus points the player receives for removing four rows all at once with an “I” piece. With this tactic, the game tempts the player into taking potentially game-ending risks.
SIMPLICITY AND SYMMETRY
Tetris, as has been discussed, is a very simple game. A big part of its success is due to its simplicity and that it is so easy to learn while being so relentlessly challenging. The player does not need to learn any special moves in order to play the game. There are a very small number of keys used by the game, and those keys produce very obvious results on the screen. It is interesting to look at the pieces used in Tetris. They are all composed of four squares, and, in fact, the seven different types of pieces used in the game represent every possible combination of four squares, where each square must share a side with another square in its group. Since the player can rotate the pieces to whatever orientation he wants, there are only seven truly unique combinations of squares possible.
All of the pieces in Tetris are composed of four squares, each of which shares at least one side with another square. This gives the game an inherent consistency and balance.
It has been reported that Pajitnov, in creating Tetris, originally considered using pieces consisting of five squares combined into twelve unique pieces. Indeed, the pentomino game from which Pajitnov drew his inspiration used twelve five-square pieces. Pajitnov soon realized that this was too many different pieces to have to manipulate in Tetris’s high-pressure setting, where the player has a limited amount of time to find a perfect fit for a given piece. Certainly a game using five-square pieces could have been challenging in its own way, and perhaps a slower falling speed and larger play-field could have compensated for the added complexity of the larger pieces. But would it have been Tetris? No. Would it have been as fun and addictive as Tetris? Probably not. At some point a complexity level begins to stifle the core nature of a game, and confuses players instead of challenging them. Using five instead of four squares ruined the simplicity Pajitnov was striving for, and as a result he reduced the number of squares a piece could have.
There are actually thirteen unique combinations of five squares possible, where each square shares a side with another square. So it would appear that the original pentomino game, with its twelve blocks, did not use a complete set of pieces. I have never tried pentomino, so I have no idea how much fun that puzzle may be. Part of what makes Tetris so elegant is the completeness of its pieces. Every possible permutation of four squares with squares sharing sides is used in the game. Remove any one of the pieces from Tetris and the game’s balance would suffer. When playing, players will find themselves presented with situations that cry out for certain pieces. Certain arrangements of the blocks on the bottom of the screen leave holes that can only be perfectly filled by a specific Tetris piece. Part of what lends Tetris its balance is the fact that Pajitnov was wise enough to include each piece possible, thus providing a piece for every type of gap. The natural completeness and symmetry of the pieces available to the player in Tetris is a crucial component of its balance.
TEN YEARS ON, WHO WOULD PUBLISH TETRIS?
One must wonder, if Tetris were created today, what publisher would be willing to publish it. Originally Tetris was sold as “the game from Russia” and was attached to art and music of a similar nature, almost as a gesture to our new friends in what was then the U.S.S.R. Had Tetris been dreamed up by a kid in a garage in Iowa one wonders if it ever would have been published at all. (One would like to be optimistic and think that he would have been able to code it up, release it as shareware on the Internet, and the game’s fame would still have been assured.) Tetris is the ultimate in low-technology gameplay, and many game publishers simply refuse to publish games that do not utilize the latest in computer graphics wizardry. After all, where will they find the pretty screenshots for the back of the box? The game lacks any sort of story or even setting; another absolute must for the people in marketing. What sort of copy will they write in their ads? Indeed, it is a testament to Tetris’s brilliant gameplay that it cannot be adequately described in any amount of words, much less in a catchy one-liner. Even looking at a static screenshot of Tetris is a thoroughly unexciting experience, one which cannot hope to communicate the game’s sublime art. Gameplay is an elusive subject for manipulators of the written word; it must be experienced to be understood.
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