Black & White Game Design, Hendrik Heuer

Company
based in Guildford, Surrey, UK
was founded to make
Black & White
!
founded by Peter Molyneux
!
Published by EA Games on
Windows and Feral Interactive on
Mac OS X

Peter Molyneux
English computer game designer
and game programmer
!
Order of the British Empire

Black & White
Genre: Real-time strategy, God
game
!
released on March 25, 2001, after
missing several deadlines.

Black & White
You take the role of a god, ruling
about people and commanding a
Creature.
!
The game features elements of
strategy and fighting games.

Black & White
The main objective is to destroy
Nemesis
!
To do this, you have to obtain
Creed, which is an energy source
to destroy gods
!
You also have to train your
Creature and help your village

Philosophy
You can decide whether to be a
good god or a bad god.
!
You can either help the people
and stroke your Creature, or you
can punish people and reign
through fear.

Control & Input
Most interaction is done via
mouse
!
Keyboard only plays a minor role

Interface
No interface
!
Only spells who are indicated
visually (cast by mouse gestures)

Control & Input
You can manipulate everything
on the island.
If you pick a tree, it is your choice
to collect for the people or to
throw it at them.

Your village

Devil and angel
- they provide guidance, but they are biased in terms of moral

Space of the game
continuous 3D game.
!
game consists of four islands,
which themselves are not limited
(but surrounded by the sea).

Skill vs. chance
Mostly skill
!
Choosing the right spells, taking
care of village inhabitants,
training Creature

Choosing a Creature

Richard Evans (who also did the
Sims 3)
!
Game Developer Choice Award
for Programming Excellence
!
merged different AI techniques
like perceptron training and
decision tree learning
Artificial Intelligence

A quest

Training your Creature

Main interaction with your
Creature: You punish or reward
(by smacking or stroking).
!
You give the feedback yourself
!
Positive feedback reinforces the
behavior, negative feedback
keeps them from doing it again.
Interaction

Fighting
The Creatures can fight Creatures
of other gods.

Creature fighting

Multiplayer
LAN and WLAN
!
multilateral competition
!
main goal is tower-defense and
defeating all opponents
!
a lot of village building and town-
conquering in the beginning

Gameplay

Reception
Really good reviews
GameSpot 9.3/10
IGN 9.7/10
90% average on Metacritic
!
But also: The most overrated
game of all time (GameSpy)

Critique
I love the philosophical
dimension of the setting
!
Artificial intelligence?!
!
Good gameplay balance due to
the strategic and fighting
elements

The sequels

Questions? Game Design, Hendrik Heuer