Basics of Game Design

Terrain Features

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foot. Unit speed is also aected by terrain features on the playeld.

Some terrain is impossible to enter and other terrain slows the pace

of a unit crossing it. As an example, a walking soldier unit normally

moving at a pace of ve feet per second on open ground might have

its movement rate cut in half when slogging through a swamp or try-

ing to cross a stream. Other features block movement completely—

for example, a building wall, chasm, mountainside, or deep river. As

part of the design process, the designer has to gure out what types

of units the player will control and what features on the playeld

will aect ...