Basics of Game Design

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Exercises

simply be vague about game play—for example, saying “the party

members can ght with swords and bows as well as magic spells

during combat.” e designers have to explain the workings of me-

lee combat (with hand weapons), ranged combat (with bows), and

magic combat in enough detail so that the programmers can create

the code that enables these actions. But the designer should not try

to manacle the programmers by being too specic early in the design

process until some of the design choices have been tested in proto-

types. As the game takes form, the game mechanics become clearer

and the documentation should be contin ...