Perilous hearts has some of the delayed attack you mentioned, most notably
the knife and the spear, though I believe the revolver may have a *small*
amount of delay involved in it as well.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "dark" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2014 4:54 PM
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: [Audyssey] Efficiency of judgement and sound sources in games?
Hi.
In writing my recent message about games, I did have a rather odd thought
about audio.
In a game like Super Mario Brothers, (sorry I'm using it as an example
again, but it is just one of the simplest and most mechanically perfect
games ever created), the player needs to avoid a monster by judging when
it
reache's Mario's position and taking appropriate action, be that jumping
on
it's head, moving out of the way or whatever.
Even on a flat surface, the player has to judge the relative speed of the
monster, and how Mario moves with respect to that, indeed I remember the
first time I started that level on super mario brothers that first Goomber
who you meet walking along the screen got me, and indeed even a few times
after that if I tried to jump on his head and was too slow, thus, a
sighted
gamer needs to learn and make judgements about the game elements.
In a side scrolling audio game like superliam or Q9 however, the movement
speed of the monster is always known sinse the player can always hear
where
the monster is and how fast it is going, and needs to only wait until it
gets to the position of the character (usually the center of the sterrio
field). Thus, the player has a significant advantage in judging the
horizontal speed and movement of the monster as compared to the sighted
player sinse the monster's position is always telegraphed, and (thus far),
the player's own character in audio always responds instantly when the
button is hit, moving when the arro is pressed, stopping the instant it is
released, and instantly running when the correct button is held with no
accelleration. similarly, sinse in audio an attack needs to have a sound
signifyer, the player's attacks are always instant, thus meaning a player
is
simply waiting for the monster and then hitting the button, as compared to
the sighted player's need to judge the monster's speed and move their
character or attack accordingly.
I therefore wonder, if by the design of audio games always having monsters
and other game elements needing to telegraph their position by sound, if
we
effectively miss part of game mechanics.
Of course, sounds can be obscured and hidden in the mix, but this is a
long
way from say a sighted player being in a situation tracking several
enemies
and ffailing to caclulate the movment of one, or being so busy
concentrating
on what their character is doing they forget the movements of a particular
enemy.
One way to fix this would be to make the movements and attacks of
characters
far less efficient in audio. For example, at the moment, you can swing
away
in a game like Q9 or Superliam, and hit anything, yet if your attack only
hit at a range in front of you and not close to your character, you'd need
to calculate much more carefully sinse you wouldn't want to risk the
monster
getting inside your range. This is I believe why 2D fps games have been
far
more addictive in audio, sinse there you actually need to aim and
calculate
the range of your attack relative to yoru enemy not just wait and smack.
Similarly, at the moment in audio all attacks are pretty instant, you hit
the button, the sound plays, the attack comes out.
Some games have cooldown on attacks, witness for example the slow rate of
fire of say the shotgun in swamp, however one aspect that has not been
explored are attacks that begin with a wind up sound and then hit when
that
sound is over, meaning a player needs to anticipate the movement of the
monster, and attack according to the relative position of the monster and
when the attack hits.
This was another fun mechanic in blind swordsman I noticed, indeed Blind
swordsman is a great example of a very simple audio concept, but one which
employed many of the mechanics tricks I've thought over the years needed
to
happen in audiogames.
Hope this makes sense.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
Take them to the refirbished chamber that was once bad!
---
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