1. Game Design 2
Lecture 13: Designing for Platforms
http://www.comu346.com dfarrell@davidlearnsgames.com

2. Errata & News
• Thursday Lecture
• attendance required!
• This week’s labs used
for coursework
• attendance still req’d

3. Designing for Platforms
• It is not always possible to have exactly the
same experience on different platforms.
• Even when it is, it is not always a good
thing.

5. • Deus Ex 2
• one ammo type

6. • Modern Warfare 2
• No dedicated servers

8. PC to Console
• Civilization 4 for PC was re-imagined as
Civilization Revolution for Xbox 360,
Nintendo DS, and later iPhone
• Whilst it would probably be POSSIBLE to
do a direct port, that would fail to consider
the context in which the player is engaged
or the best way to utilise that platform.

9. Console Player Context
• Shorter Sessions
• Further from display
• Less fidelity in controls
• Vs mouse / keyboard
• Less resolution (non hi def TVs)
• Potential new audience

10. Abstracting Systems
• Where an interface must be simpler, one
option is to redesign an underlying system,
either by simplification or abstraction.
• Civ 4 has a unit called a worker. The player
must build this unit then give that unit
order to improve land and build roads.
• Civ Rev has no such unit. The player can
spend money to build a road instead.
• Civ 4 has universal tax - Civ Rev city by city

11. Combining Actions
• In order to further simplicity, look for
opportunities to reduce the number of
actions required from the user.
• Civ 4 has the ability to build boats and then
load those boats with units for exploration
• Civ Rev gives the player one ‘free’ unit on
every boat built

12. Reduce Micromanagement
• Micromanaging the details of a civilisation
takes a significant amount of time and
doesn’t reinforce the streamlined goals of
the Civ Rev design.
• Firaxis made decisions that allow the player
to pay less attention to micromanagement
• workers, ‘happiness’, automatic builds

13. Less Info on Screen
• Providing the interface is intuitive, it may be
possible to retain information but reduce
the amount of information on screen at any
one time.
• On low resolution devices, a larger
percentage of screen is taken up by UI

14. • civ 4 science

15. • xbox normal

16. • xbox with science up
•

17. Control Schemes
• Not having mouse / keyboard on consoles
means that it is necessary to use the
buttons and joysticks to access menus and
other items that would normally be placed
at corners of screen.

18. • civ screen shot with top right icons

19. • xbox ‘back’ button to bring up equivalent
menu

20. Redesign Control Sceme
• PC control scheme vs Console vs iphone

21. Doom
• PC - Mouse and (OR) keyboard
• iPhone 3 Modes
• id aren’t sure what is best
• compromise of flexibility vs convenience

25. To Summarise
• Abstract Systems and Information
• Group similar items
• Reduce micromanagement
• Understand control schemes
• Consider Resolution
• Reduce on screen information
• Be aware of norms and guidelines documents

26. Hands on?