Elements of Game Design: Comparing Pac-man to FEAR Resident Evil 5

The assignment suggested that I compare an old, well known classic like Pacman to the modern survival horror/first person shooter/whatever FEAR. However I have never played the latter (nor do I intend to) so I decided to compare it to a game from a similar series which also happens to be a personal favourite of mine: Resident Evil.

I can say with complete reassurance that Pacman is one of the most well known and popular games to have ever been released. Everyone recognises the main protagonist's partially-eaten pizza shape and his jelly-shaped persuing antagonists. Everyone recognises the noise pacman makes as he swallows the pellets dotted around his maze-like environment. However, what I find even more interesting is how we recognise pacman and his persuers as believable characters.

Why is it that we recognise this brightly coloured object as a character; something that has consciousness. It is because the moment we control the little yellow blighter we project our motives into him, which in turn makes him become us. What motive is this? As is the motive of any competitive game: to win! However, I digress, the objective of the game is to outrun (or even eat) your stalkers and win the game by collecting all the pellets. A highly original idea! (at the time ofcourse) but is it so different from the objective in more modern games.

Resident Evil 5 at the time of its release was truely a milestone for gaming. The graphics had never been better, the gameplay was as exciting and addictive as ever and the environment was unique and imersive. Light years ahead of primitive games such as Pacman!....or was it?

We can agree that graphics, themes and play style are all different between these two games, but let just examine what similarities they share:

• Both games have a primary objective: to avoid/kill the antagonist(s)
• Both games have a main protagonist: in Pacman its the yellow cheese block himself and in Resident Evil 5 its Chris Redfield
• Game play in both games takes place in designed environment in which a pre-determined path must be taken.

So fundamentally, both games are very similar; as can probably be said if I had chosen to compare Pacman to any number of current games. The only change is presentation and production standards. These two entities have gradually expanded as gaming has become more popular and diverse. Resident Evil 5 being a good example as a high-production game with fantastic presentation. These two assets are also important features of game design itself.

Game design is an amalgamation of severel key aspects of design. These include art direction, character and environment. These three aspects of design are normally handled by a large team of skilled artists, programers and usually a single director and head concept artist. Ofcourse when devising Pacman back in the 1980's I'm sure the team was significantly smaller.