A use case is a methodology used in system analysis to identify, clarify, and organize system requirements - TechTarget
I am going to be concentrating on the game Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (A.K.A. PES 2008) and the way in which, the user interacts with the game.
For this, I am going to be showing you 4 individual Use Cases that are completely focused on showing the interaction within PES 2008. These Use Cases are entitled; Player input, Game Object Interaction, Display System and Audion Interaction.
Use Case 1 - Player Input
This use case is to show the steps that a user/player of the game will go through, in order to achieve interaction within the game. If you look at the image below, you will notice that obviously the 1st two steps are simply to turn on the gaming console and select the game in order to start up the game process.
Most game processes are the same these days, by which I mean; selecting single or multiplayer and if a sports type game, then what type of game/match the user will wish to play.
Use Case 2 - Game Object Interaction
This Use Case is being used to display the type of interaction that occurs within the game between all 'game objects'.
Game objects can be anything from the football, players or stadium itself through to the invisible walls (which in this football game would be the lines of the fooball pitch).
Use Case 3 - Display System
Use Case 3 is being used to show the various visual displays that the user will encounter, whilst playing the game. PES 2008 uses a very simplistic menu system as Konami (the game's creator) wish the football simulation game to have an arcade type feel to it.
By giving the display system an arcade style basically means that the user won't need to worry about over complicated menu's and can get straight into the action and play their friends or against the computer itself. Use Case 4 - Audio Interaction
Audio Interaction can be used during gameplay or even just starting up the game; i.e. when a user selects to start the game - they are normally faced with an introduction movie which will normally be accompanied by music. This Use Case is to display the type of audio interaction that a user would face, whilst playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.
Doom ‘A PC-based first-person shooter where the player controls a space marine in a 3D environment against a horde of bizarre monsters. The gameplay is action based with no strategic or role-playing elements; instead the game depends on bleeding edge technology providing a rush of adrenaline through its aggressive attention to carnage.’ (sic. Bethke, p106)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
This game has been around for many years and each new version brings something new to users eyes. It may simply be improved graphics, or gameplay. The last installed (PES 2008) was huge success which as always was caught in a battle against its rival Fifa 08.
These two football simulation games have been going head-to-head against each other for a very long time, and at first Fifa was dominating the football simulation section. Now though, Pro Evolution Soccer games (also known as World Winning 11 as it is originally produced in Japan by Konami) has been beating Fifa sales for the last 5 years, until recently.
PES 2009 bring to the user, a new level of realism as they have tried to make full use of the 'next-gen' technologies (eg: Playstaion 3, XBox 360). One of the original things about Pro Evoluation Soccer titles, is that they have always tried to be as life-like to the free flowing movement of football as much as possible; as opposed to Fifa titles, which tend to have a very 'arcade' feeling to the game. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 is exhilirating to the user by using a fast paced style to the game of football, allowing the user(s) to have end-to-end action to their desires.
"there’s no doubting that PES 2009 is the most fun football game on the market." - IGN.com
Impact of concept Using the game 'Pro Evolution Soccer 2009' as the main example, we are going to be looking at how the concept of the game has had an impact on different areas. The concept of the entire game is to be a 'realistic football simulation' game, while the aim is to bring the user into the game, as a team player - rather than having the user as the centre of attention.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 features hundreds of football players from across the world, and they have been designed to look as real to life as possible, as well as Stadiums, crowd chants, football kits and footballs themselves. All of this data needs to be modelled. So we would need concept art of players, kits, balls, boots and stadiums. After this development stage, 3D Modelling, animation and movement would need to be done in order to have the basic concept of the game.
Artificial Intelligence is the key aspect in PES 2009, allowing the user to take control of one player on a team of 11. Whilst the user has control of this one player the AI is taking control of the team, referee and psychics within the game. If there wasn't any AI within PES 2009 the user could take control of a player, but their would be no reactions from his team players or opposing side; they would simply, cease playing football.
How parts of the game are affected by the impact of the concept
Audio All of the sound effects (Crowd chants, player voices, ball sounds, players tackling, collision sounds etc). Everything plays it's part in PES 2009 and the crowd singing is as much as part of the game as the football itself. The Crowd needs to roar when their team scores, it needs to be big, powerful and raw to make the user feel as if they are standing in the middle of a stadium.
Voices (Player Dialogue, Crowd Dialogue) these are more short sound clips with the volume of voices lowered a small amount, so the user can just hear what they are saying. Real players or supports would be best suited to state the dialogue for realisim.
Music (Menu music, pause menu, career achievements, celebration cut scences) Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 needs uplifting mid to high tempo music for the menu's to keep the users attention. Whilst in cut-scences it will need celebratory music, possibly classical smpthony (eg: The UEFA Champions League Hymn)
An Audio Programmer would be needed for this game to implement chants, songs, sound effects and music that has been recorded by him/herself into the game.
Visual (Art & Concept Drawing)
Texture, Lighting, Skins, Condition (Animation - 3D motion capture(Crowd & Player Movement), Stadiums, weather conditions, kits, player faces, body type, colours etc).
PES 2009 blends tremendous amounts of visual art together to create a life-like footballing simulation to capture the users mind. The enviroment (Stadium, pitch etc) will need a concept artist; they will create the initial drawings of the enviroment to later on be approved and moved onto a 3D modeller/programmer.
A 3D modeller/programmer will use the concept art draw by implementing them into a computerised 3D-designed world involving the stadiums, grass effects, weather conditions and more. Once this has been completed, the 3D modeller will then to capture the movement and facial animations of real-life footballers using specialist equipment. This will then allow the modeller to create a moving computerised version of the footballer and move towards creating the full concept of the game.
Studio 1 - Exploring games and identifying games concepts
List of games that I am familiar with:
MMORPG City of Heroes - 2 City of Villains - 2
Arcade Fifa 09 - 3 Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 - 3 Wii Sports - 3 Gran Turismo 5 - 4
First Person Shooter (FPS) Call of Duty 4 - 1 Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood - 2 Time Crisis - 3 Area 51 - 3 Doom - 1
Action/Adventure Manhunt - 4 Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Series - 1
Platform Superfrog - 2 Zool - 3 Dizzy the Egg - 3 Alex the Kid - 5 Pac Man - 2
Games Concept Identification
Manhunt – The concept of this game is a very simplistic idea. The general idea of this game is that the user can take control of a convicted murderer and experience true portraits of what it is like to kill people. Although that is the main idea, the developer’s added a slight twist to the game – by creating a storyline that the killer had already been sentenced to death however; conspiracy had occurred and that the convict was given a fake death in order for him to be put into a ‘game’. In this game the convict must fight his way through each level (and sections of levels) by performing gruesome murders. The more gruesome the murder, the more points the convict gets.
Fifa 09 – The main concept is a realistic football simulation game. The developer will be aiming to create as much realism as possible towards the user and creating a clever Artificial-Intelligence (AI) which will control players, decision making, and movement etc of the players that the user isn’t controlling.
Gran Turismo 5 – A realisitic car racing simulation game. Gran Turismo aims to look, feel and react as much as possible to real cars.
City of Heroes – The game concept here, is to create an online role-playing superhero game with a comic book feel. The user is able to create endless costumes for their character, as well as their own size, gender and superhero name with a background story.
Time Crisis – 1st person shooter as a member of a S.W.A.T. police team. The user follows an automatic route set up for them throughout the entire game, however they need to decide to use cover effectively and they must aim using a wired gun instead of a standard controller.
Implementation of Games Concepts
If a game concept is generally followed throughout the entire production of the game itself then I believe the game will be very good. Too many games are released these days that state they are going to do various things and that the general idea is in this direction, and when it comes to the release date; the developers have produced something completely different.
If a games concept is fully explored and thought about carefully then the implementation should go smoothly. For example: If a developer had come up with the idea for a violent FPS game and the gun fired tennis ball’s instead of bullets, or the blood came out as bubbles then the implementation of the game would be extremely poor. It would be this bad, because the developer didn’t explore the game concept to its maximum potential.
I personally believe that the design stage of the implementation is the most important. I believe the design stage plays an extremely important role in the final outcome of a game. This is the stage where everything is thought out, drawn and laid out for people to see what the levels, characters, environments, costumes etc will look like. I think it is the design stage that ‘makes or breaks’ a game.
Use Case 4 - Audio Interaction
