Gaming Hacks

Chapter 6. Playing Around the Game Engine

Hacks 63-78

For some people, the game’s the thing. For others, finding new uses for the game engine is more interesting. There’s a reason people use DOOM for system administration and Quake for architectural ideas. That’s also the idea behind machinima , movies made using game engines and characters as settings and actors.

Even if you’ve already saved the princess, defeated the evil elder god, or arranged hundreds of thousands of lines of falling colored blocks, there’s still a second game—bending the rules of the game as far as you can. Maybe breaking the rules can breathe new life into your favorite game, whether editing your save files or finding new gameplay ideas the designers never intended. That can take the form of making your characters invincible, weaker, richer, stronger, or weirder than anyone ever intended. Maybe you’ll play through the game as quickly as possible or finish with the weakest character possible.

Whatever your idea, there’s certainly more fun to have being untraditional.