The only real problem with this design is the relatively short amount of time it takes players to find everything, and then the game loses its re playability. Lets, for example, pretend Swamp was filled with these sorts of "keys" which were specifically placed and would unlock other specific areas. If I were to spend 30 hours linking together 50 items with locations, naming them, placing them, and actually designing the new map terrain, I can bet that within a few days 300 players would have already completed the entire thing. These players would be waiting on me to add more. For every hour I spent adding in new items, I would only be occupying the players for maybe 3 or 4.
When we use random items that don't unlock new map content, the 50 items can be created in an hour instead of 30. The same items can also then be found and re-found over and over to keep players entertained. It isn't as much fun, there is no doubt about that, but it's an unfortunate compromise in the battle between developer effort verses hours of player enjoyment. > i was just watching a lets play of > metroid Zero mission, the gameboy advanced remake of the > original metroid game, when it occurred to me that there are > a couple of very simple additions that audio games could > cinclude which would greatly enhance gameplay, additions > that made games like zelda and the metroid series famous. > > Ignoring the 2D aspect (which we've discussed before), there > is the basic formular of such games, a formular that would > translate just as well into for instance an fps game. Your > in a large, freely explorable maze full of monsters. you > have one infinitely useable main weapon (the metroid gun or > Link's sword in the Zelda games), which starts off > comparatively weak. As you progress through the maze you > will come to areas which you cannot pass without a given > item, and items which you can use to pass certain areas, > ---- often requiring you to take note of areas you've passed > and go back. > > "oh, so that special gun upgrade blows up brick walls, ---- > now where did I pass a brick wall before?" > > So collecting these key items and using them to expand the > parts of the maze you can get to forms the bulk of the game, > ---- especially sinse of course there are large and nasty > boss monster to be killed along the way. > > In addition to your main weapon, You also have some limited > use more powerfull items, and scattered around the maze are > expantion packs for those items, items that let you hold > more energy when you start, items that let you have more amo > for limited use items etc. > > These expantions are scattered around the maze, often in far > out of the way places requiring lots of exploring to find, > and it's fully expected that a player won't find all of them > on their first run through the game. > > All of these items are in fixed places rather than appearing > at random, sinse it is the players' ability to > systematically explore the maze, perhaps passing puzzles > along the way that will determine how many expantion items > she/he collects, perhaps with a reward for collecting all of > them, making this a game where you have to try, and learn, > and progress, rather than wait to be randomly lucky with a > monster drop for your items. > > An engine like that employed in shades of doom could well > include these sorts of gameplay elements, indeed there's no > reason why they haven't been used in an audio game thus far, > accept that from what I can gather the fps titles we've had > have tended to be based on randomly occurring items and fast > action, rather than acquiring more and more items and making > your character more powerful as time passes, which is a > shame, sinse the exploration formular is one which is hugely > rewarding to play. > > the only audio games I think that have come close to this > sort of formular are Airic the clerric (though I don't think > Airik had any none usefull items or expantions to collect > that weren't really part of the progression of the game), > sarah, (though there you didn't really grow more powerfull > rather than complete puzzles), and I believe kurt wolf. > > But perhaps this is something Phil, Tom, Aprone, and > other of our devs could considder as a design point, ---- > sinse if the game has many items and a complex map > structure, exploration and gradual acquisition of both key > items and items providing extra power can actually be as > much if not more fun than randomly occurring ones. > > All the best, > > 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.
