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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperDesignSingle Screen Arcade Game Design
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z84c00
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« on: November 23, 2014, 08:27:43 PM »

Hi All,

Bit of an odd topic, considering games have moved away from the 'short' arcade formula to a more long-term, epic formula but I was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of any good books on those classic arcade game designs.
Simple games like the classics such as Donkey Kong, Defender, Galaga, etc. are all (at first sight) extremely simple and straight forward but usually have one or more multiple difficulty ramps that are all there to take a player's money. Like I said, odd request.. While some of this stuff is pretty straightforward, just curious if this has been documented anywhere..

[edit: bumped into this http://gamifique.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/5-game-design-theory-and-practice.pdf, which goes into the mechanics of centipede in chapter 4, which is an interesting read. Despite the simple mechanics, it's extremely well balanced]

-Z8
« Last Edit: November 23, 2014, 09:00:42 PM by z84c00 » Logged
Netsu
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« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2014, 03:16:11 AM »

I don't really know about any written references, but here are excelent modern arcade games that I think are worth analyzing if you want to make one yourself:

Super Crate Box (very good mechanics design)
Super Hexagon
Samurai Gunn (a versus game)
Ultratron
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z84c00
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« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2014, 07:24:13 AM »

Super Create Box is a great example of this. Super simple design but extremely tough yet it never feels unfair. I'll check out the others. Thanks!

-Z8
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DrDerekDoctors
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« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2014, 07:31:42 AM »

I think there's a lot to be said for a bit of MAMEing as research, looking at the latterday titles like Bubble Bobble, Pang, Parasol Stars (PC Engine, not arcade), Berlin Wall, Snow Bros, etc, as they were very compelling. It's a style of game I love myself and I'll be doing on once my current project is finished.
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gunswordfist
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« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2014, 11:08:09 PM »

this makes me want to play some of those games.
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valrus
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« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2014, 11:48:05 PM »

Here's a very detailed analysis of Pac-Man: http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html

hardcoregaming101.net has some in-depth coverage of some of the old arcade classics, including details on things like what aspects change as the levels go up.  (Or don't: apparently Q-bert didn't get any harder after a certain number of levels, and expert players could just keep playing indefinitely.)
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Netsu
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« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2014, 12:34:58 AM »

Also Canabalt and Luftrausers.
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shellbot
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« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2014, 05:07:53 AM »

Balding Quest is another one. A bit lesser know, but it is a great single-screen platformer. Also, open-source!
It's been inspiration fodder of mine for years.

Maybe I'll contribute to the project one day (even though it's been dead for years)
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z84c00
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« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2014, 02:49:16 PM »

Nice thing with single screens is that a player has a complete picture of what's going on, which is both an advantage and, to a certain degree for designers, a disadvantage.

Either way though, simplicity makes for some interesting gameplay mechanics...

-Z8
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The Translocator
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« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2014, 06:24:29 AM »

Wait until after the current Ludum Dare and play all the games.

Quote
The Ludum Dare 31 Theme is: Entire Game on One Screen
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