the majority of it was stripped out. Thus the technology was molded to fit the gameplay
desired.
Centipede 3D’s story was the simplest of any of the games I have worked on. In part
this is because one of the traits of a classic arcade game is its lack of any real storytell-
ing. For games likeCentipede,Pac-Man, andSpace Invaders,setting was enough; all the
games needed was a basic premise through which the gameplay could take place. Fur-
thermore, everyone working on theCentipede 3Dproject realized that it was the
simple, addictive gameplay that would draw players intoCentipede 3D, not the story.
The classic arcade style of gameplay simply did not call for it. The primary effect of the
meager story line was to provide a setup and to affect the look of the game, to explain
why the player is flying around blasting centipedes and mushrooms, and why the
game-worlds change in appearance every few levels. Just as the originalCentipedeused
the setting of a garden and bugs to justify the game’s gameplay, so did the remake. In
the end,Centipede 3Dwas all about the gameplay.
The Suffering ...............................
My most recent game,The Suffering, had its origins in a combination of setting and
gameplay. The game’s publisher, Midway, suggested to the game’s developer, Surreal
Software, that they wanted an action game, preferably a shooter, set in a horror milieu.
Surreal was excited at the prospect of working in a horror space, but we were not big
fans of the game mechanics that up until then had dominated the genre. Games such as
Resident EvilandSilent Hill, though very good games, relied on scaring the player by
limiting their ability to look around the environment with the camera, by having awk-
ward and unresponsive controls, by strictly limiting the available ammo, and by using
fairly weak central protagonists. This had the effect of distancing players from the
game, forcing them to think about the camera and controls, and making them realize
that they definitely were not playing themselves. In short, these games were not as
immersive as they could have been, and being big first-person shooter fans we knew
that immersion was fundamental to truly frightening someone. Making the game more
Chapter 3: Brainstorming a Game Idea 51
The new, 3D version of
Centipedewas based on
the classic “bug shooter”
gameplay found in the
originalCentipede.