Design Practice QUESTIONS

1. What entities and resources will be in the game? Which resources are made upof individual entities (such as a resource of airplanes consisting of individual planesthat the computer can track separately) and which are described by mass nouns(such as water, which cannot be separated into discrete objects)?

The game will contain various flora and fauna that are made up of individual entities. There will also be entities for clouds, rain (as a mass), and the ground surface of the world.

2. What unique entities will be in the game?

The unique nature of the entities in the game would be derived from the player's decisions in the game. The player would have control over the look and behavior of the various flora and fauna encountered.

3. Which entities will actually include other entities as part of their defi nition?(Remember that an avatar may have an inventory, and an inventory containsobjects.)

The clouds would contain the rain.

4. What attributes describe each of the entities that you have identifi ed? Whichattributes are numeric and which are symbolic?

Each entity would have a coordinate position in relation to the game world, a rotation attribute, a lifespan, all of which would be numeric. There would also be an action attribute which would be symbolic.

5. Which entities and resources will be tangible, and which will be intangible?Will any of them change from one state to another, like the resources in Age ofEmpires?

The flora and fauna would be tangible resources.

6. What mechanics govern the relationships among the entities? Remember thatany symbolic entity requires mechanics that determine how it can get into each ofits possible states and how other entities interact with each possible state.

The mechanic of colliding with an entity would cause that entity to perform its action.

7. Are there any global mechanics in the game? What mechanic governs the waythe game changes from mode to mode?

When the player reaches the end of the lifespan for their character without dying prematurely, the player starts a new mode.

8. For each entity and resource, does it come into the game world at a source, ordoes it start off in a game world that does not provide a source for additional entities or resources? If it does come in at a source, what mechanics control theproduction rate of the source?

The entities in the game would reproduce to create more of that entity. The mechanics would be controlled in part with the player's interaction with the entities.

9. For each entity and resource, does it go out of the game world at a drain, or doesit all remain in the game world and never leave? If it does go out at a drain, whatconditions cause it to drain?

Each entity leaves the game at the end of its lifespan or when consumed.

10. What conversion processes exist in your world? What trader processes exist? Doany feedback loops or mutual dependencies exist? What means have you providedto break or prevent deadlocks?

The entities in the game are mutually dependent. The entities must consume other entities in order to live. If the entities all die out, then the game ends.

11. Can your game get into a state of equilibrium, static or dynamic? Does it includeany form of decay or entropy that prevents states of equilibrium from forming?

Each of the entities decays, and must consume other entities to survive causing a dynamic equilibrium.

12. How do mechanics create active challenges? Do you need to establish anymechanics to detect if a challenge has been surmounted?

The constant threat of being consumed by larger entities combined with the need to consume smaller entities creates the active challenge of surviving.

13. How do mechanics implement actions? For each action that may arrive from theuser interface, how do the core mechanics react?

The user interface controls an avatar that causes actions by colliding with entities.

14. For autonomous entities such as nonplayer characters, what mechanics controltheir behavior? What mechanics defi ne their AI?

The mechanics of the AI would consist of searching through the entities in the game world and moving the position of the entity each frame towards the closest entity it is capable of consuming or away from the closest enemy capable of consuming it.