B.C.
China where Emperor Shun sup
-
posedly used the game to train his son
for assuming leadership of the state.
Chess has a rich history throughout the
Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and
through to modern times as the most
celebrated game of strategic thinking.
Longer histories of games are
available; the point I am making here is
that games have held an intimate role
in our intellectual growth from the ear
-
liest ages. We modern game makers are
carrying on an honorable, historic role.
Game Genres Satisfy Different Appetites
Electronic games are usually
described by their genre—strat
-
egy, adventure, role-playing,
action, and simulation. These
genres are a direct reflection of
the source material for the game.
Military and sports simulations;
gambling, parlor, and puzzle
games; storytelling; toys; and
children’s games comprise some
of the major branches of influ-
ence for the creation of
electronic games.

8
Chapter 2: Why Make Games?
Background and influences on modern game genres
TEAMFLY
to navigate their tokens around the
board like Monopoly and Candy Land.
These games themselves have been
directly ported as electronic games, but
it is the fast-paced puzzle games like
Tetris that have developed new ground
in this genre.
As I type these words, over
110,000 people are playing straightfor
-
ward conversions of the classic card and
board games online at Microsoft MSN
Gaming Zone (
/>).
These games have entertained families
and friends throughout the ages and
teach deduction, probability, and social
skills. The folks at Silver Creek
Entertainment (

)
have taken the concept of spades and
hearts and have crafted the finest ver
-
sions of these games, complete with a
rich set of features for social interaction
including chat, ratings, and blasting
your opponents with fireballs.
One of the coolest parlors (in my
opinion) happening right now is the

Hardwood Spades
Military and Sports SimulationsMilitary and Sports Simulations
Games have long been providing simu-
lations of real-life experiences that
many of us do not get to experience in
daily life. There are simulations for
white-water kayaking, racing minivans
at night on the streets of Tokyo, fantas-
tic-looking detailed professional football
simulations, skateboarding simulators,
star fighter sims; in short, any sport,
military action, or transportation
method is a good candidate for an elec
-
tronic simulation.
Flight simulators have been the
staple of computer simulations since
the early ’80s. Microsoft enjoys the #1
spot with Microsoft Flight Simulator,
which they release new versions of
every even-numbered year—the latest
being FS 2002 (
/>games/fs2002
). Microsoft Flight Simulator
has a huge following including hun
-
dreds of virtual airlines and air traffic
controllers, and half a dozen or so
books are available for Flight Simulator.
Austin Meyer of Laminar Research

-
ing achievement is perhaps the most
detailed board game ever created:
Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). ASL is
also the most detailed squad-level mili
-
tary board game simulation ever
10
Chapter 2: Why Make Games?
Various windows of the Blitz interface to the Internet Chess Club
A screen shot collage from X-Plane
developed. Countless modules expand
the game and the rules to take into
account the differences of individual
operations in World War II. There are
zillions of rules (and errata!) for every
-
thing from ammo types to night combat
rules. Military buffs have been playing
war games for hundreds of years, but
the developments that led to ASL car
-
ried forward into electronic gaming.
Currently there is a rage going on
about WWII squad games such as
Microsoft’s Close Combat and Cor
-
nered Rat’s World War II: Online. The
most hardcore of them all is Combat
Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin by Bat

assault was a project for
the entire weekend and a bucket of caf
-
feine. We developed the Starfleet
Command series that draws upon this
rich heritage and delivers a compelling
career in one of eight star empires or
pirate cartels. As the players get caught
up in epic struggles between the star
empires, they earn prestige points for
successful completion of their missions,
which can be used to repair their ships,
buy supplies, and upgrade to heavier
class starships. This electronic game
blends a television show telling the
story of exploring the galaxy with the
detail of a war game.
Chapter 2: Why Make Games?
11
A screen shot from the real-time weather display for X-Plane
Virtual airlines from X-Plane
Car racing has been a staple of
games from the days of Monaco GP
and Pole Position in the arcade to the
state-of-the-art Gran Turismo 3 by
Sony. Gran Turismo 3 features hun
-
dreds of hours of gameplay, the most
realistic driving physics model, and
graphics so compelling you can feel the

our imaginations after the sun went
down. With the advent of writing,
authors could now tell stories across
time—longer, deeper stories than a sin
-
gle dry throat could repeat. J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy: Here
we drank wine with nearly immortal
elves, fought epic battles with orcs, and
saved the world from ultimate evil
through careful use of a ring. Science
fiction and fantasy exploded in the
second half of the twentieth century to
become the dominant market of fiction.
Reading a novel is wonderful, but
would it not be better to slay the
dragon yourself and take the loot home
to your castle? In the early ’70s, Gary
Gygax created Dungeons and Dragons
and showed us how to slay the dragon.
Dungeons and Dragons was very spe
-
cial because you did not compete
against the other players; rather you
acted or role-played a character in a fan
-
tasy world. You wrote a backstory for
your elven ranger, what motivated him,
why he must slay the orcs of the Fell
Lands. You then joined up with the

12
Chapter 2: Why Make Games?
mechanics and lavish production values
that brought the Dungeons and
Dragons world of the Forgotten Realms
to life. Diablo stunned the game indus
-
try with the simple and addictive game
-
play of the tight user interface and
online multiplayer dungeon hacking.
Ultima Online was the first commer
-
cially viable massively multiplayer
role-playing game. I spent probably 80
hours of my life there, mining virtual
iron ore to get ahead in a virtual econ
-
omy where I paid a real $10 a month for
the privilege of exploring my mining
fantasies.
Looking back to pen and paper
role-playing games and fantasy fiction, I
am excited to see the future of role-
playing games with the release of
Neverwinter Nights developed by
BioWare, where the tools of game mas
-
tering are part of the game. Scores of
players will participate together in

turing through a hostile, medieval
fantasy world with various characters
very similar to the Talisman board
game. In eighth grade my friend Elliott
Einbinder and I created a wireframe,
first-person maze game; you used the
keyboard to navigate through the maze.
A most embarrassing flaw was in our
maze game: We could not figure out
how to prevent the player from cheat
-
ing and walking through the walls! We
kept asking our computer science
teacher how we could query the video
display to find out if we drew a wall. We
had no concept of a world model and a
display model!
On Money
In this whole discussion I have not
talked about the money to be made in
making games. Game making is both an
art and a science. If you are honest with
yourself, your team, the customer, and
to the game, you will make a great
game. In all art forms, excellence is
always truth.
Honesty, truth, and clarity are all
interrelated, and they are important not
because of moral standards; they are
important because only with the

ize in your mind, something fun you
would like to experience, and you want
to share that experience with others.
14
Chapter 2: Why Make Games?
Chapter 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What Makes Game
Development Hard?
The Importance of Planning
What does it take to make great games?
Brilliantly optimized graphics code?
Stunning sound effects, clever artificial
intelligence routines, lush artwork, or
simply irresistible gameplay? Well, you
need all of that of course, with game-
play one of the most important factors.
However, behind the scenes you are
going to need a trail guide and a map to
get there.
You might be working alone on a
great mod to a commercial game, or
you might be working with an artist on
a cool online card game, or you might
be the director of development at
Blizzard. The size of your project or
your role does not matter; you still
need a plan to create your game.
Why must you have a plan? With
the smallest of projects the plan will
likely be to get a prototype of the game