That's also where I'm running into a little trouble, aside from learning and
retaining the BGT scripting language of course. Granted given the crap I've
had to deal with in my life over the last couple months that last is
understandable. But even if I develop relatively simple games to start with
I'd want them to be of quality. A few of my current ideas are ones I tried
to implement using the flop known as Audio Game Maker. Namely audio versions
of Frogs and Flies and Adventure both of which were favorite games of mine
on the Atari2600. The problem would be keeping the relative simplicity of
the original games while keeping them as engaging as possible. games
But thou must!
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Ward
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 6:13 PM
To: Gamers Discussion list
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Quality verses quantity of games.
Hi Dark,
Oh, definitely. A pore design is a pore design no matter how many
great programmers are there to write the game. In the case of the
newbie programmers writing games in BGT its a case of pore design and
lack of experience combined I think.
I'll use Shooting Range as a simple example here. Shooting Range
reminds me a bit like Duck Hunt accept for the fact it lacks all of
the challenge and replay value. In Duck Hunt the ducks steadily get
faster and faster each level you move up, and eventually you get more
ducks on the screen as well. In Shooting Range it is a constant rate
of speed and the number of targets never changes. This is a case where
a little forethought and a bit of planning could have made Shooting
Range a fun little game if it had similar challenges as Duck Hunt but
did not. I don't know if that is because the developer had never
played games like Duck Hunt before so didn't have anything to compare
it to, or was too interested in writing a practice game to really
develop it beyond the preliminary version we got. Either way Shooting
Range was a game that had potential, but failed to amount to anything
because it lacked a little planning and a few more features.
In any case design issues does seem to be the problem with many of the
simple practice games being developed in BGT. I don't want to be too
critical here since I know in many cases it is the developer's first
or second attempt at developing a game and are still trying to learn
the tools and language as well as design a game from the ground up so
I don't want to be too hard on them. Unfortunately, a lot of that can
be avoided just by getting back to basics and write down notes, plan
out a game level by level, before jumping in and coding it which I
believe is what some of the newbies do. They are so eager to be
writing a game they just start writing the game before they know what
the game is about, how it works, and what each level is like, etc.
What we end up with is a half baked game that could have been better
if the developer just spend a week or so planning things out before
writing it.
Cheers!
On 4/15/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi tom.
Both facts are true, indeed I'd put several of Ian's games over commercial
examples such as those by azabat and american printing house for quality
simply because they are so well designed for what they are.
In terms of new programmers that also makes sense and is why in fact on
audiogames.net we draw a distinction betwene practice games and actual
projects.
That being said there is a design question too. Take Tarzan Junior as an
example. This was I believe Philip's fourth game, indeed I think he was
still about 16 when he wrote it, however he obviously sat down and
considdered carefully matters such as enemy placement, how the enemies
would
sound as they came forward, use of multiple weapons, he even got voice
acting assistance. Rather than just throwing a bunch of things at the
player, the way I've seen some games designed with bgt do, Philip sat down
and carefully thought what! would make a good game, where those elements
could be placeed and delivered something which, while not in quality up to
the standard of his later work is certainly way above the average practice
game, indeed I myself bought tj back in the day since I thought ten
dollars
was a fair enough price for that level of quality.
this is not as much about programmer, as about pure game design,
considdering what challenges a player has to face, what elements make a
good
game and what elements are needed, certainly iv'e seen developers try and
create commercial projects without those elements that have not worked.
Thus, while I totally agree about programming experience, there is a bit
more I think involved specifically in game design, and it's often that
aspect as much as the programming that gets in the way, indeed the two are
linked since programming gives you the tools while design tells you what
to
do with them and you really need both.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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