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Game Design

Chapter 1: Basic Game Flow
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It is important to have some sort of framework in mind when trying to develop a game. As a game designer, there is more to it than just the game's mechanics. A proper flow in the game is required.
 
This write up introduces to a basic game flow or structure of a game that may be considered. Throughout this write up, we will also explore how we can use a common tool, such as Microsoft Excel to create a simple prototype using some basic knowledge in Visual Basic scripting. 
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A lot of times, we can get very excited, and quickly dive into the game engine and prototype something out. Games are more than just that. 
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Since games are a form of interactive entertainment, it is important that  the game you are trying to develop has some sort of structure. A lot of times, we forget about this. Without a good structure, users or players of your game will have a hard time navigating your game. A clear game flow might be needed as a way of guiding the player's interaction with you game.
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Consider this basic structure below:
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1) The player starts off from the Main Menu
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2) The player has 2 options
  • Go into the Game (3a)
  • Go to the Options Menu  (3b)
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3a)  If the player goes into the Game, the player is give another 2 options
  • Go back to the Main Menu (2)
  • Go to the Options Menu (4)
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3b) If the player goes into the Options Menu, the player is given 1 option 
  • Go back to the Main Menu (2)
 
4) If the player goes into the Options Menu​
the player is give 1 option
  • Go back to the Game (3a)
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You can refer to this structure in the diagram below for a better understanding following the colour coded arrows.
Now that we have a basic flow for our game, we can proceed to prototype this structure out so that we put our idea into practice . This is the main part I feel that often designers lack or leave. I believe that with simple applications, we can quickly prototype this out and present this to perhaps a programmer who can help fine-tune this prototype.
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In the next chapter, we will begin applying this using the Visual Basic Editor that can be found with Microsoft Excel.
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