iPhone Game Development - Chris Craft [112]
Understanding Game Design: Strategy
Some turn-based games carry an element of luck, but the best ones are all about strategy. For example, as you saw in Chapter 3, chess is a turn-based game where strategy rules. In chess, players are equally yoked and one does not have an advantage over the other, nor does luck really play a part. Players' moves are based on strategic decisions and not by the roll of the dice or the luck of the draw. The element of strategy is probably one of the reasons this game has stood the test of time. Even though there are only half a dozen different pieces on the board, players develop thousands of different strategies for playing the game.
Tip
A game that requires strategy will hold your players' interest much longer than a game based on luck. Make it your goal to create a game that encourages players to develop and devise strategies. A rich set of rules, boundaries, and options will equip players with the tools necessary to develop personalized strategies they can use to defeat their opponents.
While there is some strategy involved, it's not a strong point of classic tic-tac-toe, because players soon discover what the optimal move is in every situation. If two players know the strategy, their game will always end in a tie. If players had more options, they could mix it up a little and begin to develop more than one strategy to throw at their opponent. This allows players to surprise each other by changing their angle of attack. The lesson here is to make sure your game has enough depth. Challenge your players, help them develop strategy, and you'll keep them coming back for more.
If you look at the current version of Amuck-Tac-Toe, you will see that it is not your typical version of tic-tac-toe (Figure 8.4).
In the design process of the Amuck-Tac-Toe game, we chose to follow the advice we are offering here. Amuck-Tac-Toe is a spiced-up version of classic tic-tac-toe. This was done in an effort to create the additional opportunity for players to develop strategy. We expanded the board to four-by-four. If a player gets three Xs or Os in a row, she scores a point instead of winning. When the board has been filled, the player with the most points wins.
FIGURE 8.4
As you can see, Amuck-Tac-Toe is not your typical version of tic-tac-toe.
After some test runs on paper, it became obvious that the player who moves first always has the upper hand in the game and can always win. In order to balance the game more, a special cancel move was added. This move can be used by each player once during the game. Here's how the cancel move works. When a player decides to use the cancel move, she chooses a square that the opposing player occupies. For example, if your opponent is using Xs, the cancel move must be placed on a square that already has an X in it. When the cancel move is placed, the X square is converted to the cancel symbol (a circle with a slash through it, shown in Figure 8.5). Now that square will be ignored for the remainder of the game. Neither player can use that square again.
FIGURE 8.5
Amuck-Tac-Toe after a player uses the special cancel move to cancel one of the opponent's squares
Simple changes like these are often enough to add a little extra dimension to a classic pastime. See if you can devise your own strategies to add even more variety and depth to the game.
Choosing Your Connection Options
Turn-based games afford you a great deal of flexibility when it comes to connectivity options. Most of the time the information necessary to represent a game can be transported and stored with ease. When developing turn-based games, the game state carries a smaller footprint, the latency becomes negligible, and reliable messaging becomes the norm. Here are just a few of your many different connection options:
Head-to-head
Peer-to-peer
Web services
Push notification
Head-to-head
Head-to-head