for emphasizing one over the other.QuakeandQuake II, for instance, were both praised
for their solid network play while being lambasted for their lackluster single-player
games. Many other games seem to add multi-player support as an afterthought, hoping
to get another bullet point on the back of the box.Centipede 3Dis a good example of this,
where multi-player was added late in the project as a marketing consideration, and
almost no design time was spent making it any fun.
Bungie’s well-publicized strategy for making a game that excels in both the single-
and multi-player arenas is worth noting. After they have established the core engine
technology for their game, getting the networking functional is the next step. Once it
works, the entire team starts playing network games, and keeps playing them until
they are fun. At this point no work has begun on the single-player game, and the team is
entirely focused on enhancing the network play experience. Only after the networking
game’s core design is completed does the team start work on the single-player game.
However, this is not to say that the single-player game is rushed. Instead, this tech-
nique forces the team to have rock-solid preproduction completed before time is spent
on the single-player game. This means that the entire team knows what “works” and
makes the game fun before any solo levels are even created, resulting in less rework on
those levels and leading to more entertaining levels in the final product.
It is because the team has spent so much time playing the multi-player game that
the net games have the depth to hold up over time. If the team were creating a shallow
experience, they would quickly grow tired of it.Myth’s multi-player allows for many dif-
ferent game types with a variety of goals, all of which require different playing styles.
The interesting pre-game unit trading system allows players to think up their own
“killer” team, much like players ofMagic: The Gatheringspend time developing the
perfect deck of cards. Team play, where multiple players control one set of allied units
and go up against another team, opens up many possibilities for strategies too complex
for a single person to pull off. It is because of the time Bungie’s development team
spent playing the multi-player game that it has such impressive staying power.
A Cohesive Whole..............................
Mythis also littered with little design touches that add a certain luster to the solid foun-
dation of the core design. Whereas missions in other RTS games exist as separate,
self-contained play-spaces, inMyththe missions become a part of the whole due to the
use of “veteran” units. These units, if they survive a given battle, will be available for
players to use on the next level, and their skills will be noticeably stronger than the
greenhorn units. This makes players treat those units with special care, expending the
greenhorns on more dangerous explorations. Another nice touch is the ability of the
units to leave footprints in the terrain, which adds an interesting element to tracking
down enemies on snow-covered levels. The variety of missions available provides a
much more diverse set of goals than many other RTS games, causing players to modify
their gameplay style drastically from level to level.
Of course,Mythis not without its problems, even if one can accept the challenging
controls and staggeringly difficult levels. Clicking around the overhead map sometimes
causes the camera to rotate in ways players do not expect, possibly throwing off their
orientation in the world and completely breaking their immersion. The overhead map is
304 Chapter 16: Game Analysis:Myth: The Fallen Lords