Emack ha scritto gio, 26 agosto 2004 alle 01:42
da http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archiv es/game_culture/2004/08/the_ten_trendies t_concepts_in_game_design.html
The ten trendiest concepts in game design
Like every other entertainment sector, the videogame industry is prone to sudden fads and fashions that seem to spring out of nowhere, take the scene by storm, and then disappear only to be replaced by more advanced technologies, or better ideas, or something really silly.
With this in mind, I’ve carefully surveyed the current industry and come up with ten concepts that no game design studio can afford to overlook. Feel free to add your own. Or take issue with mine.
1. Normal mapping
This powerful graphics technique is all the rage at the moment – although only the Xbox and high-end PC graphics cards are really up to the job. A ‘normal map’ is like a holographic texture map that contains 3D information that is only revealed by the reflection of light on the surface. When you place a normal map onto a simple shape, the end result is an object that looks much more detailed than it actually is. Games like Doom 3, Far Cry and Chronicles of Riddick make impressive use of the technique.
2. Sandbox gameplay
Sandbox is the new ‘non-linear’ - a favourite buzzword for open-ended game design. The analogy, of course, refers to a sandpit in a kids playground where you can do whatever you like (as long as it involves a bucket and spade presumably). The key example of sandbox gameplay is Grand Theft Auto, which provides complete freedom of exploration between the structured missions. Since the success of Vice City, everyone is trying open-ended gameplay. As a result, the dole office is full of unemployed end-of-level bosses.
3. Crime
The biggest trend in gaming at the moment, mainly due to the success of GTA. We’ve had hired assassins (Hitman), cockney gangsters (The Getaway) snuff movie murder (Manhunt) and the Mafia (erm, Mafia), and we’ll soon see robbery (Acclaim’s The Last Job) and another LA gang thriller (25 To Life from Eidos). Boardrooms across the globe are right now trying to work out the next big crime concept. Unfortunately, all that’s left are pick-pocketing, jay-walking and indecent exposure.
4. Street Racing
All the big driving genres – arcade, rally, F1 – have been done to death, so developers, already fascinated by crime and edgy urban themes, have turned to street racing: the popular culture of taking your Mum's Citroen Saxo, sticking a massive spoiler on it and then annoying tax-payers by racing around the one way system at three in the morning. Several current games enable players to buy a piece of junk and then "mod" it so that it becomes… a piece of junk with lowered suspension and bucket seats. Most popular at the moment are Need for Speed Underground and Midnight Club 2 by Rockstar. New kids on the block include the very in-depth Juiced and Street Racing Syndicate from Namco.
5. Mass battles
Once, shoot-em’-ups were about the lone crusader taking on swarms of enemies, the odds stacked against him like spent cartridges. Now, Battlefield 1942, State of Emergency and Call of Duty have popularised the concept of en masse team fighting. It’s not just you anymore, it’s you and a whole AI army willing to leg it directly into the line of fire while you cower at the back with a sniper rifle. As for multiplayer gaming, forget 16 player deathmatches, think 64 player team battles taking place over hundreds of acres of land. Men of Valor and Star Wars: Battlefront are the latest to sign up.
6. Physics
The huge processing power of today’s high spec PCs and games consoles means that developers are able to explore realistic physics in more depth and detail than ever before. Take racing games like Burnout 3, for example: each vehicle has dozens of deformation points where damage is shown on the chassis in the event of a crash. This damage is relative to the exact impact point and the force of impact. You also get actual chassis parts flying across the road – and of course, the trajectory of each piece is calculated in real-time.
Another trendy concept is rag doll physics, an attempt to simulate the flexibility of human body movement, again in real-time. The most obvious use is in shooters like Splinter Cell 3. When an enemy is hit by a bullet, they stagger backwards, their arms flail and legs buckle, and the effect is localised depending on the exact point of impact. Bodies will also react to environments, rolling down stairs rather than lying awkwardly in mid-air. EA’s boxing sim Fight Night 2004 also uses rag doll physics to create realistic reactions to punches.
The most respected physics engine at the moment is published by US company Havok. The website provides a handy guide to current game physics if you want to learn more. Which I’m sure you do.
7. Bloom lighting
Blooming is a technique that simulates the corona, or blur, that surrounds bright light sources like street lamps or polished metal. It’s achieve by effectively taking a snapshot of all the lights in one frame of the videogame image, and then downsampling until the image loses much of its information, before laying the bloom image back over the original lighting. Got that? Doom3, Halo and Burnout all make noticeable use of the technique.
8. Dynamic soundtracks
A musical soundtrack that actually reacts to the onscreen action, altering in intensity when the player comes into danger, rather than merely tinkling along in the background. Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory, Metroid Prime and even Ashen on the N-Gage employ this technique. It’s slightly more imaginative then merely filling the disc with licensed songs – although that’s very popular at the moment too (see much of EA’s current output especially Burnout 3, and, of course, GTA Vice City).
9. Historical accuracy
Once the preserve of sad PC strategy titles, history has become a major videogame theme. It is conceivable that a generation of gamers knows more about the Second World War from playing Battlefield 1942, than they ever learned at school. EA’s first-person shooter takes in key flashpoints like Operation Market Garden and El Alamein, while PC shooter Brothers in Arms is based around a true story, following the initial days of the invasion of Normandy. Other titles such as Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and Codename: Panzers take in other major battles. The Vietnam War and Desert Storm have since come in for similar treatment.
10. Party gaming
Since the launch of the PlayStation in 1994, Sony Computer Entertainment has been leading the charge to re-brand gaming as a legitimate element of youth culture alongside pop music, movies and getting pregnant. This process began with Wipeout, the 1995 futuristic racer loaded with licensed tunes by the likes of the Chemical Brothers. Later, the cute cartoon music title Pa Rappa the Rappa went further by attracting a genuinely unisex mainstream audience. Things are more sophisticated now with dancing games like Dance UK and Sony’s EyeToy titles becoming party favourites among teenagers who might play no other form of videogame.
Now SingStar and soon to be released hip-hop karaoke sim Get On Da Mic, encourage participants to sing as well as dance, projecting their images onto the TV screen. Toying ever-so-gently with our sick, celebrity-obsessed minds, these social games are going to become more and more important over the next few years as the industry courts a wider audience. Eventually, the strands of mainstream interactive entertainment will merge. Combine the EyeToy camera peripheral with a broadband connection and you have the biggest talent show imaginable. Or a million Big Brother shows happening online simultaneously. You can decide for yourself which is the most nightmarish.
Posted by Keith Stuart at 02:21 PM