Hi Michael, Exactly. Montezuma's Revenge is what I would call a classic side-scroller since the purpose was to emulate originality. If I were however going to invent my own side-scroller I can think of several ways in which to randomize the elements some. One way is to create several different versions of say the layout of a level and have the game randomly load one each time that game is played. As a result items doors, etc would appear in new locations each time. Other random elements could be how much a health pickup gives you, how much damage your weapon does to the enemy, how much damage an enemy does to you, and so on. there are ways of making side-scrollers totally unique or at the least make it different enough you won't repeat the same game twice in a row. it is all in the design.
Michael Fair wrote: > There are plenty of ways to add longevity and replay value to sidescrollers. > The genre of game doesn't demand they be linear or devoid of randomness. You > just have to keep in mind the prospect of the computer setting up impossibly > hard challenges and build in rules conserning what can be placed where. One > way might be to have a large stock of pre-designed sections of levels which > could be fitted together randomly. Another would be to have rules the > computer used to entirely create each level. There are plenty of other > things you can do as well. You could have secret and entirely optional > sections of a game which are hard to discover. For instance, think about the > warps in Mario. Say the entrances to them were in certain spots which didn't > change as they apparently are in Mario. Now, let's suppose that the square > they're on only occasionally generates a slight bleep, mystical swish or > other such indication of their existance, perhaps once every twenty or > thirty seconds. You might play many times before you hit upon that exact > spot even after noticing the sonic clue. If other things such as monsters > could be in different places as well as perhaps treasures which made their > own sounds and forced you to play differently, you can have much of your > levels remain essentially the same while still having the player's > experience alter each time. It all comes down to how much thought and effort > is put into something like that. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
