First Person Shooter Design

From YoYoGames Wiki

Better games are usually produced when the creator designs them with pencil and paper first. All big games nowadays are designed thoroughly before they even begin to code them. In this article I'm going to give you a few hints and tips for how to design a successful FPS (First-Person-Shooter, who doesn't know that!).If you have Registered Game Maker 6.x or you have Game Maker 7 Pro then you have the functionality to create 3D games. This functionality is powerful if used correctly, and makes it possible to create a FPS game.

Now not all FPSs succeed and one of the main reasons why a FPS may not succeed is because the developer(s) have not spent enough time actually designing them. A well thought-out plan is usually necessary for any game but I'm talking about FPSs and now I'm going to tell you what makes an FPSs look and feel like a masterpiece.

One of the things you should think about is the weapon/powerup balance. You could either choose that all weapons/powerups are equally balanced with their pros and cons, or you could make the better weapons/powerups harder to come by. Usually a mix of both of these points combined works really well, especially when thinking about making your game multiplayer. Weapons/Powerups that are way too strong against other ones when playing multiplayer will most defiantly frustrate other players and may even take the skill away from the game. Moving away from FPSs for a minute Mario Kart DS' weapon/powerup system makes it so the worst players (the ones coming last in the race) will be able to obtain the strongest weapons/powerups, while the winning racers will only be able to get the weakest weapons/powerups. Balancing weapons/powerups in this way removes a lot of the skill in the game because players that are clearly worse will be able to get weapons/powerups to even come first in a race. Choosing to code your FPS' like this would make the game more easy to play, but it would certainly decrease the amount of skill needed to actually emerge victorious. Giving all players a fair chance to get the best weapons/powerups is the best approach in my opinion.

Now the levels, or maps, which you choose to use depends on your game type, levels if you want to make a hardcore single player mode, or maps if you want to make a hardcore multiplayer mode, choose both to make it a hardcore game. The difference is this: levels are a form of progression through the game from one to the next linking there predecessor which developers usually tie in a story line to keep the player hooked; a map is simply a very well-designed environment on which there is usually no right way to go. Maps are often aimed at the multiplayer aspect of a game and if you plan to make your FPS online well-designed maps are key to it's survival on the Internet. Games like Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike are good examples of this. As I said before about using both maps and levels, have a good intensive single player game and a competitive online mode and it's pretty much a hit before release.

Maps/Levels that are just 'drawn' in 3D but do not possess multiple z levels are not as invigorating as ones not. It's not as hard as you may think. A few 3D tutorials from ThatGamesGuy should do the trick, his tutorials are top notch. A fully 3D environment gives the game an edge, especially if its a Game Maker game, but not crucial. To conclude this article I'll briefly summarize what you need to keep in your head, an inventive single player mode and a competitive multiplayer mode stirred for 5 months with a healthy dose of graphical eyecandy and a good helping of long nights solving errors, bake for a week and you'll have an excellent professional FPS with the people playing online to back it up. Enjoy but watch out it: may contain nuts.