I’ve talked a lot about the environment in games recently. Last week I talked about the weather in games, and how it doesn’t really effect you. This week I’d like to take it from the other direction when looking at animals, they effect you too much compared to the real world.
The issue is that animals aren’t really part of the environment. Typically if you encounter an animal in a game it’ll be attempting to kill or hinder you in some way. Tigers will leap at you, dogs will try to bite you, spiders will pump you full of deadly toxins. You’ll rarely see a monkey scamper across your path, or some birds flutter from a tree as your gunfire startles them. I know that, like weather, that’s a lot to model but I’m not asking quite as much as I am with weather.
With animals you could easily get away with a few pre-scripted encounters to build tension. Imagine a horror game set in the jungle. As some huge beast you can’t see chases you down the local creatures scatter, perhaps giving you some indication of the beasts location. That’s a fairly simple example, but it’s a lot more involved than “and now the tiger pounces on you”.
I am of course missing out the third option, which is pets. I don’t know of a lot of games that actually feature pets, Fable II is the only one the springs to mind immediately. Whilst it’s not building animals into the environment, at least it’s a bit more interesting than being attacked.
Perhaps an interesting pet mechanic would be taming an animal, perhaps even taming one that attacks you in a similar style to capturing Pokémon. Of course the taming process would probably be a bit more involved than stuffing your potential pet into a tiny ball, but the same general idea could apply.
Would you like to tame a pet in a game? Would you at least like animals to go a bit deeper than just an enemy type? Lets your opinions spill forth.
Deathbrin
Animals have been feeling rather comfortably in strategy games, too (and i’m not talking Impossible Creatures (aka Sigma), of course ;)). Take Stronghold for an example – a lion would eat a, well, deer; just as a hungry pack of lions would encounter your developing camp and hunt your fellow people as well; there are also less notable but no less adorable chicken species, and mules who serve as stone carriers. I can’t remember clear, but i think Age of Empires had a similar mechanic.
Deathbrin
The (questionably) most notable pet, was of course, your own custom species and with a custom character developed solely by your single hand – in the game Black & White (which had a few unsuccessful sequels). The zebra, lion, or whatever thing was huge and had equal amounts of personality which you could shape to your own. A rather brilliant example of using animals in games.
Deathbrin
Where’s the tiger from btw, Raen? I’m quite sure i’ve never seen a ferocious tiger jumping on you in any game i played.