Hi! If you have finished lesson 13, here are some more areas that are relevant to Top Down Design. By the time you have finished these you should have a very good idea of what is involved in developing a design and all of your future projects will benefit from good planning! The first step is to sort out your Navigation so that when your game is built it will make sense to a user...and so that you will know where to put things. By now you have a good handle on your game's goals. It is now time to define the game's structure (the foundation on which you build everything else) in terms of how you will move through the game...ie: the games Navigation. Think of the game structure as a skeleton that holds the body together. Without it, your game will be a jumbled up, confusing mess - kind of like an amoeba. Do you want an unorganised, hard-to-use, dumb game? No! You want an evolved, highly structured, and easy-to-use game that can walk upright on its own four legs. Well, something like that anyway...So here are the steps: Step 1: Make a Word Map You can start off by creating a text-based, hierarchical map of the game. Just write out all the steps, what characters and what interactions occur. Step 2: Make an Architectural Map Next you will want to visualize this list. Many people have a hard time seeing something like the game structure listing and translating it to the way the game will work. Architectural blueprints can help. Here is an
example: |
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| Architectural
blueprints are visual representations of the game structure. They are
diagrams showing how elements of the game are grouped and how they link
or relate to one another.
Step 3: Define Navigation How will users use the game? How will they get from one place to another? How do you prevent them from getting lost...for example finishing the game...but not knowing how to start a new game? Defining the navigation system for the game solves these problems. You're well on your way... just one lesson left...go to Grids and Sketches. |
