your design to accommodate this restriction. It should be no surprise that the
best-designed games are often ones that did not use the most cutting-edge technology
available when they were released.
If the technology is simply not ready, I know a number of game designers who start
off prototyping their game using technology from a previous project. It is rare that tech-
nology will actually make or break a game design, though it may make or break the
game itself. But technology, as unpredictable as it may sometimes be, is still more of a
known quantity than game design, so it makes sense not to worry about it when you are
first prototyping your game. Since the first few areas you create should probably be
thrown away later anyway, it is not that wasteful to get them working using a technol-
ogy that you will eventually throw away as well.
In recent years engine licensing has become much more common in the industry.
This takes the form of using technology from a specific game such asHalf-Lifeor
Unrealor from a technology-only company that creates more robust engines designed
to work for a variety of projects on a variety of platforms; examples include Criterion’s
Renderware and NDL’s Gamebryo. The proliferation of licensed engines means that
the majority of projects no longer need to wait for their technology to be built and more
and more game developers have the luxury of starting out knowing what they will and
will not be able to accomplish technically.
Incremental Steps ............................
Once your technology is to a point where you can start developing the gameplay as I
mentioned earlier, try to break down the game design into the most fundamental tasks
that need to be accomplished and then the tasks that build on those. For example, sup-
pose you are building an action game in which players navigate a humanoid character
around the game-world, fighting insurance agents with a flyswatter while collecting
kiwi fruits. Getting the player’s navigation system working is a logical first task to
tackle. First, get the character moving forward and backward and turning, allowing for
Chapter 15: Getting the Gameplay Working 287
Licensing technology
can be a tremendous
boon to game
development, and is
becoming increasingly
common. Pictured here:
the oft-licensedUnreal
engine being used in
Unreal Tournament
2004.