Studio 2 a | Exploring Games and Identifying Games Concepts 2

Specifics of how different parts of the game are impacted by the concept

Threadspace: Hyperbol
Since Threadspace: Hyperbol features so many different projectiles to select from and fire, we need an intuitive user interface design. We need user interface design and testing. The user-interface needs to be self-explanatory so we need 2D art. For example, in Threadspace: Hyperbol, the player can select projectiles using pictures onscreen, using the number keys (the projectiles are divided into 6 sections, so you press the relevant number key x number of times (e.g., two times for the second in that section) or by setting custom hotkeys. The team members used to achieve this could involve User Interface Designers, 2D Artists and Usability Testers.

A large majority of the game-play depends on the reaction time of the player, so network latency needs to be as low as possible; this could be achieved by making the code as efficient as possible and providing servers geographically close to the players. This would would be the role of a Network Programmer.

The Sims
In The Sims a large majority of the gameplay involves interacting with NPCs (non-playable characters) either directly or indirectly. This requires that the game includes the capacity for AI. This was achieved using a variety of statistics attributed to each NPC and storing inter-relations, such as how attracted they are to each other and how tired, how hungry, etc. This would be implemented by an AI Programmer.

There are also a large amount of 3D graphics involved which need to be attractive and in-scale. This requires work from Concept Artists and 3D Graphics Programmers.