When creating a Gamoteca game, one of the key elements that affect game flow are Preconditions.
On the game editor, you will notice that you are able to add a screen after screen using the (+) button when hovering over the screen, which automatically adds a precondition for the previous screen to have been completed.
If no preconditions are set for a screen, the screen will 'float' to the top, and will be displayed immediately for the player when the game starts, e.g. the first screen usually does not have a pre-condition.
Preconditions are a useful way to connect screens and create a game flow. For example, Screen 2 must be connected and positioned after Screen 1. This will ensure that Screen 2 is displayed only after Screen 1 has been completed and so on with every screen.
Otherwise, when a user is playing the game, all the screens will appear at the same time.
Preconditions for one player
Let’s take a look at how to create simple Preconditions for one player.
If you look at the previous image, you can see there is the first screen ‘Screen 1: Introduce yourself in a 1 min video’. That screen should be followed by ‘Screen 2’. To ensure that, we have to follow these steps:
1. Open Screen 2
2. On the screen editor, scroll down to the bottom, to the ‘Behaviour’ section, in that section, there's a ‘Preconditions’ menu.
3. On the first drop-down menu, we must select the player, in this case, we have to select Player A.
4. On the second drop-down menu, we select which screen has had to be completed for Screen 2 to show up. So we select ‘Screen 1: Introduce yourself in a 1 min video’.
5. Click save
6. On the Game Design Editor, hover your mouse over ‘Screen 2’, you will see that ‘Screen 1: Introduce yourself in a 1 min video’ lights up in green. This means that you have successfully connected Screen 2 to Screen 1 using the preconditions.
Preconditions across players
Now that you have learned to use preconditions for the same player, let’s see how preconditions can be used across multiple players. In the above example, we used the preconditions to create a simple sequential game flow for Player A, but what happens when the game flow is intertwined between the players?
In the above example, both players record a video introducing themselves on Screen 1, and on Screen 2 they should be able to watch their partner’s video.
This means that in order for Player A to see Player‘s B introduction, Player B should have finished recording their video and clicked Complete on Screen 2. To create that, we need to use Preconditions.
1. Let’s open ‘Screen 2: Take a look at your partner’s introduction’ for Player A.
2. First, we must Quote Player B’s introduction on the Quote answer from the other screen menu. Under the Quote answer menu, select ‘Player B: Screen 1: Introduce yourself in a 1 min video’. This will make the video of Player B to show in Player A’s Screen 2. Read more about Quoting here.
3. Under the ‘Behaviour’ section, you can see the previously set precondition for Screen 1.
4. We will add a second precondition to indicate that Player B has recorded their video on Screen 1.
5. Click on ‘Add Precondition’
6. On the first menu, select Player B
7.On the second menu, select ‘Screen 1: Introduce yourself in a 1 min video’
8. For the “relation” option select ‘AND’, because we want both preconditions to have been met. Player 1 should have completed Screen 1 AND Player 2 should have finished their respective Screen 1 as well.
9. Click Save
10. Back on the Game Editor, you can hover your mouse over Player A’s Screen 2, and you will see that both dependent screens (Player A’s ‘Screen 1: Introduce yourself in a 1 min video’ and Player B’s ‘Screen 1: Introduce yourself in a 1 min video’ light up in green meaning that you have successfully implemented the preconditions.
11. Repeat the process for Player B’s Screen 2.