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Chapter 1: Building Great iOS Games
✓ Happy players feel in control. A lot of the fun in computer games is
found in the pleasure of taking and manipulating the game world.
• In first-person shooter games (combat-based games in which you
have direct control over the way you move and the direction you
look in), this manipulation takes the form of running around and
shooting things. The player has control over what lives or dies in
the game world but needs to be mindful of the dangers present in
that world.
• In strategy games, the player manipulates the world by sending
units out to do battle, but also needs to be mindful of how and
where to allocate these resources.
In either case, a good game gives the players the feeling of control
by reacting quickly to their input in a way that reflects what the
player wants.
✓ Happy players get surprised. A game that’s exactly the same every time
has no replay value. A game in which you can anticipate enemy behavior
after only a few seconds gets boring very fast. And so, another important
component of a good game’s fun factor is the amount that it surprises
the player.
An acceptable definition of fun itself could be pleasure with surprises.
By combining the pleasure of being in control with an element of
random chance, you can ensure that your game is neither too predict-
able nor too random.
✓ Happy players find patterns. As people play a good game, certain pat-
terns of behavior emerge in the way they play. For example, in first-
person shooters, the best players sidestep around corners, rather than
turn around them, because sidestepping means that they can imme-
diately aim and shoot at any threat around the corner. Clever game
developers notice these patterns of play and find ways to improve the
player’s experience of them.
Designing a Good Game
Although jumping straight into code and getting down to building a game
is exciting, clear and concise design is incredibly important in game devel-
opment (perhaps even more so than it is to application development).
Designing a game is a very rewarding experience. Although the frameworks
and tools provided by Apple’s iOS Software Development Kit (SDK) are vital
to the process of building an iPhone or iPad game, knowing what you’re going
to build before you touch the SDK is just as vital.
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