Hi Dark, Those are some good points. However, as you pointed out some times it is really really really hard to convey a concept or certain activity in audio alone.
For example, one of the things I'm having difficulty with is staircases in the new Tomb Hunter game. Normally the staircase would be cut out of the same limestone as the floors and the blocks that the walls are made out of. That's all well and fine for realism, but from an audio game perspective how do I identify the sound of the staircase from the normal floor without using a totally different surface type. I can't simply use wood, because it was pretty rare in ancient Egypt. Nor would metal, sand, dirt, etc work. I've got other stone step sounds, but none quite as good as those I am using. So I'm sort of stumped how to identify by sound alone that this is a stone staircase and not a part of the floor. I'll probably have to solve that problem by acquiring some alternative stone footstep sounds. While solving something like the stone staircases verses the stone floor has a fairly easy solution some things like replacing a bouncing skull in Montezuma's Revenge isn't immediately apparent. Sometimes the developer just isn't that creative, or an alternative solution didn't occur to him/her. I know I didn't think about the crushers until you mentioned it just now. I just removed the bouncing/jumping skulls, and replaced them with normal ones. Problem solved, but didn't replace it with something equally difficult though. However, if there is a balance to the bouncing skulls in the unreleased levels, levels 7-12, the skulls were invincible. You couldn't destroy them with a sword, and it was pretty dang hard to get through some of those levels. So that probably balanced out and made up for the bouncing skulls. Cheers! On 1/5/12, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > I've actually often thought part of the problem in the developement of some > games is that when some mainstream concept is not possible for whatever > reason, it seems to be just missed out rather than replaced by something to > maintain the complexity. > > for instance in original duckhunt you tracked the ducks flying diagonally on > a large playing field with a light gun, but in Liam's port you just track > them in sterrio and not verticlly. > > Well obviously tracking with a light gun the same as the original game is > not possible, but why not add in something else to compensate, ----- for > instance have the ducks need to be targited vertically like the gorbian > ships in troop 2, or add in a distance factor so that you need to hit the > ducks directly in the center of the field and get points accordingly. > > similarly, in your original monti game, so we can't have bouncing skulls, > well why not put in another hazard that falls from above which you need to > simply avoid, such as some crushes that hammer down from the cieling > intermitantly like the fwomps in mario, sinse avoiding these and! jumping a > skull at the same time would offer a similar spacial exercize to the > bouncing skull. > > Of course, i know part of this is because developing games is simply > difficult, and that a sterrio field does not naturally hold as much > information as a visual one meaning that extra complexity requires extra > coding, but stil I think it'd be something worth thinking about when > creating an action game, how to introduce multiple factors the player needs > to judge into the mix so that the game does not devolve into boppit. > > Pipe 2 is a good example of an attempt at this, though even there I think > more could've been added, for instance more directional hazards similar to > lectricity on pipe levels which you needed to be aware of. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
