Could you please stop bumping these really ancient threads? You aren't supposed to necro-post, esp. if you aren't adding something really significant to the conversation.
I really don't see how riding a dragon would be OP. I mean, by that point, you have gathered all the resources, built up your empire, and took on the end. What are you going to do with a dragon thats so OP? Fly places quicker? That seems like a fun reward. Explore easier? Thats not a bad thing. Swoop down and obliterate mobs? So what?
I saw a youtube video of someone who had modded the game to spawn an enderdragon in the overworld, and ride it. And even though the dragon was just flying around randomly, and occasionally flying through the ground, riding it looked great.
I couldn't care less about a trophy drop. If I am going to go through the effort of reaching the end and slaying a dragon, I want more than a fancy block saying I did it.
If I get stuck in a game, I will often have a dream where I figure out what to do, then play through the rest of the game. Of course, being a dream, none of it ever makes any sense, nor has any bearing on what I actually need to accomplish in the game.
An example of bad(or not the best) voice acting would be the dynamically spliced radio chatter in arma 2:
(target THATman at FARFRONT, enemyTANKatCLOSErear) :laugh.gif:
(this only happens due to a technical limitation though, there would be too many unique sound files if they recorded each possible line individuality)
These articles are simply awesome, excellent work! :smile.gif:
Still, it sounds like there could have been more work into making them sound coherent. That is the type of thing where you need to seriously consider if that is truly what you should be doing. I haven't played that game, so I can't truly say whether the added value is worth the awkwardness.
I agreed that the system could use improvement, however gold requirements are not among the needed adjustments right now. Well, gold needed to go uphill needs adjustment, but I'd classify that as part of another issue.
I find wayy more Iron than gold. and I like zombie pigmen, they don't attack me so I don't attack them. That and they keep Ghasts from spawning, right? Wait, how exactly did Ghast's spawning change? that is on topic :smile.gif:
Yes, you find a lot more iron than gold, but you need very little gold to keep a minetrack powered at max speed.
Honestly, I agree with you on this one. Unless you've got a ton of gold, there is no reliable way to make a decent rail system. And even still it doesn't go that fast. and the mobs. And the fact that notch was seriously lazy with cart physics... if your cart is going full speed and your cart goes off the rail it loses all momentum. :dry.gif:
I've run the math. As long as you are harvesting iron at the gold level, you should get more than enough gold to power any rail system you could construct with the iron that you mine. This seems to hold up in practice, since I've made kilometer's of tracks, and once I got past the first few batches and long-term probabilities trends became rel event, I've always had plenty of gold to use. And that was before zombie pigmen dropped gold nuggets.
Basically, by the time you have a ton of iron to make the rail system, you should have a ton of gold to power it.
Though I do agree, the cart system could be vastly improved.
I decided to make an addition. I'll reproduce it here for convenience:
As part of "don't trap the player in an unsolvable state", keep information that the player needs accessible. For example, if a character tells the player a password, don't rely on the player remembering it or writing it down when it is said. Make sure there is some way to access it. That could mean the player can ask the character "Hey, what was that password again?", which at the very least keeps the avenue of information open. What can work even better is if the player's character will remember it. This could mean writing it on piece of paper which is added to the inventory for future reference, having a specific Notes functionality built in to store conversations and codes, or even having them enter the password themselves. This has the advantage of keeping the information available, even if accessing it's source is not practical, and it adds a convenience factor. How precisely you handle it depends on your precise design. Entering a code you already know isn't exactly thrilling gameplay, however knowing that you need to use that code on that keypad can be part of the puzzle. Manually entering it also opens up more possibilities to introduce a puzzle between the given information and what must actually be entered.
On the subject of entering codes, the interface to do so should be convenient. Letting the player simply type it in, even if it is primarily a point and click game, is the most convenient. However, if the game is mouse-driven, the keyboard should never become necessary, but it can serve as a convenient alternative. a clickable numpad is intuitive and easy to use. A click-to-increment digit counter can be annoying. This is where you have digits(or letter) of the code displayed, and by clicking on them you can increment them forwards. However, even on a basic numeric code this is somewhat annoying. The code 5283 takes 4 clicks on a numpad. It takes 14 on a click-to-increment counter, assuming no misclicks. If you click once to many times on any digit, that is an extra 10 clicks. This is even more annoying if you have letters, or even worse an alphanumeric code. If you involve capitals, the number of clicks quickly balloons. Having arrows to increment or decrement the digit helps, vastly reducing the penalty for a misclick and allowing digits to be selected backwards. This makes 5283 into 9 clicks. Still, Its not exactly a great interace, though it is woefully common in room escape games. The increment/decrement with pure numbers isn't too bad, though.
Additionally, if the code entered is in any way "constructed" from clues, keep the code persistent between being entered. If you are finding clues like "the 3rd digit is 5", then let the player keep their notes directly on the lock. Let them go in, set the 3rd digit to 5, and leave, and have it stay set till they look at it again. For any combination, always consider whether it is better to present the player with a clean slate to enter the code from scratch, or to give them a persistent code to toy with. Both have their place. A reset button is also convenient way to reset the code to its default state, allowing you to get the benefits of a persistent code, while keeping the benefit of a fresh slate. Esp if the puzzle is one where returning to the default state is tricky, having a reset button is a huge convenience.
In what way is it less of a sandbox? RPG and sandbox are not mutaually exclusive(in fact, I think they are highly compatible), and more RPG elements does not remove sandbox elements. So, what is making minecraft less of a sandbox?
The subtitle of this thread is misleading, it could be applied to most of your previous articles. Simply audio/visuals would be better, I think.
Well written as always, though. How many do you plan on writing? I'm sure this has been suggested before, but how about an article on Story/Plot?
I was planning on writing more, and will probably expand on it later, but I ran out of time before I had to go someplace. I don't have a set number I'm planning on, I just write them as topics occur to me. A story/plot one is definitely coming though.
However, this does not mean that good graphics won't enhance the experience of playing the game. This does not mean that every game needs ultra-realistic HD graphics. Style and aesthetics are more important. If going to HD graphics ruins your aesthetic, then it is not a graphical improvement. Look at plants vs. zombies. Very stylized, cartoony graphics. If you replaced it with 3d-rendered, realistic models, it would not make the game look better. The aesthetic is part of the game. Choosing a proper aesthetic is important, and it visually sets the tone for the experience.
The visuals also help involve the player in the experience. If you took fallout, and replaced the main character with a knight in armor, the guns with water pistols, the enemies with lego structures, and the scenery with a rave-like world of lights and color, but kept all of the gameplay mechanics the same, you would be radically altering the experience of playing the game. The game itself would be the same, but the tone would be destroyed, and it would impact the player's enjoyment.
Sound is also crucial to creating a game's experience, something most people tend to overlook or downplay. I divide this into 3 parts - sound effects, voice acting, and music.
Sound effects- sound effects create the soundscape of the game. proper sound effects help cement it as a proper world. Everything from the sound of birds in the trees, to the sound of the wooden walkway under your feet, to the distressed moans of your enemy. The player may not even notice some of the sound effects- they are simply part of the experience. You don't consciously notice that walking onto the boardwalk makes a board sound, but it fits in and makes the experience that much richer. Sound effects are also a great way of providing feedback to the player. You are out of ammo, and your gun clicks. You hit an enemy, and receive an auditory confirmation. You are charging an attack, and the sound tells you its ready. Your health is low, an you hear a heartbeat, simultaneously raising the tension and warning the player they are close to death. The player can't look at everything on the screen at the same time, and audio cues convey information that would not be convenient to show visually. This often works best in conjunction with visualfeedback- your low healthbar throbs, there is a splurt of blood when you hit the enemy, etc.
Voice acting - not always applicable, but if you do have voice acting, good voice acting can be the difference between a character seeming real and believable and them seeming like a cardboard cutout. Good voice acting conveys the character's emotion. Bad voice acting conveys the words, but destroys the emotional context. It is better to have no voice acting than bad voice acting. If the dialogue is pure text, the reader can still interpret the inflection and emotion into it. Bad voice acting is simply destructive.
Music- Music is key. Music sets the emotional tone of the game. Be it a nice, peaceful piece as the player toys around in a sandbox, or an action packed piece as you are blasting aliens to bits, the music helps get the player into the proper emotional context to enjoy the game.
In Mass Effect, there is a part near the end where you need to get to a certain place quickly. The fate of the universe is ridding on your shoulders. You get into your vehicle, ride down a fairly boring stretch of road for a while, and get to where you need to go. As it is, that section is fairly boring. However, if they had put on some suitably epic music, it would have felt like you where riding on to glory.
To demonstrate the impact music can have, watch this. If music can have that impact on something like that, imagine what it does for something that is already awesome.
All of these extra's can be classified as "polish", but polish is important. Polish is what will take a good game, and elevate it up into a great experience.
Might be an interesting challenge, although it would be hard to live with so little dirt/grass in the End, and you'd need pumpkin seeds if you want more than one pumpkin. Also, maybe some eggs, otherwise all you'd have to accompany you would be endermen.
It might be even better to spread all but the necessities over the End in places you can only get to later on.
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Could you please stop bumping these really ancient threads? You aren't supposed to necro-post, esp. if you aren't adding something really significant to the conversation.
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I saw a youtube video of someone who had modded the game to spawn an enderdragon in the overworld, and ride it. And even though the dragon was just flying around randomly, and occasionally flying through the ground, riding it looked great.
I couldn't care less about a trophy drop. If I am going to go through the effort of reaching the end and slaying a dragon, I want more than a fancy block saying I did it.
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Wha...
Its the same thing. Every scrap of work that goes into the pre-release is work towards the real update. I don't understand this sentiment.
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Still, it sounds like there could have been more work into making them sound coherent. That is the type of thing where you need to seriously consider if that is truly what you should be doing. I haven't played that game, so I can't truly say whether the added value is worth the awkwardness.
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I agreed that the system could use improvement, however gold requirements are not among the needed adjustments right now. Well, gold needed to go uphill needs adjustment, but I'd classify that as part of another issue.
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Yes, you find a lot more iron than gold, but you need very little gold to keep a minetrack powered at max speed.
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I've run the math. As long as you are harvesting iron at the gold level, you should get more than enough gold to power any rail system you could construct with the iron that you mine. This seems to hold up in practice, since I've made kilometer's of tracks, and once I got past the first few batches and long-term probabilities trends became rel event, I've always had plenty of gold to use. And that was before zombie pigmen dropped gold nuggets.
Basically, by the time you have a ton of iron to make the rail system, you should have a ton of gold to power it.
Though I do agree, the cart system could be vastly improved.
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As part of "don't trap the player in an unsolvable state", keep information that the player needs accessible. For example, if a character tells the player a password, don't rely on the player remembering it or writing it down when it is said. Make sure there is some way to access it. That could mean the player can ask the character "Hey, what was that password again?", which at the very least keeps the avenue of information open. What can work even better is if the player's character will remember it. This could mean writing it on piece of paper which is added to the inventory for future reference, having a specific Notes functionality built in to store conversations and codes, or even having them enter the password themselves. This has the advantage of keeping the information available, even if accessing it's source is not practical, and it adds a convenience factor. How precisely you handle it depends on your precise design. Entering a code you already know isn't exactly thrilling gameplay, however knowing that you need to use that code on that keypad can be part of the puzzle. Manually entering it also opens up more possibilities to introduce a puzzle between the given information and what must actually be entered.
On the subject of entering codes, the interface to do so should be convenient. Letting the player simply type it in, even if it is primarily a point and click game, is the most convenient. However, if the game is mouse-driven, the keyboard should never become necessary, but it can serve as a convenient alternative. a clickable numpad is intuitive and easy to use. A click-to-increment digit counter can be annoying. This is where you have digits(or letter) of the code displayed, and by clicking on them you can increment them forwards. However, even on a basic numeric code this is somewhat annoying. The code 5283 takes 4 clicks on a numpad. It takes 14 on a click-to-increment counter, assuming no misclicks. If you click once to many times on any digit, that is an extra 10 clicks. This is even more annoying if you have letters, or even worse an alphanumeric code. If you involve capitals, the number of clicks quickly balloons. Having arrows to increment or decrement the digit helps, vastly reducing the penalty for a misclick and allowing digits to be selected backwards. This makes 5283 into 9 clicks. Still, Its not exactly a great interace, though it is woefully common in room escape games. The increment/decrement with pure numbers isn't too bad, though.
Additionally, if the code entered is in any way "constructed" from clues, keep the code persistent between being entered. If you are finding clues like "the 3rd digit is 5", then let the player keep their notes directly on the lock. Let them go in, set the 3rd digit to 5, and leave, and have it stay set till they look at it again. For any combination, always consider whether it is better to present the player with a clean slate to enter the code from scratch, or to give them a persistent code to toy with. Both have their place. A reset button is also convenient way to reset the code to its default state, allowing you to get the benefits of a persistent code, while keeping the benefit of a fresh slate. Esp if the puzzle is one where returning to the default state is tricky, having a reset button is a huge convenience.
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It seems to work fine for me, but here is the url:
http://d.furaffinity.net/art/mifmaf/1205805898.mifmaf_runboxe.swf
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In what way is it less of a sandbox? RPG and sandbox are not mutaually exclusive(in fact, I think they are highly compatible), and more RPG elements does not remove sandbox elements. So, what is making minecraft less of a sandbox?
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I was planning on writing more, and will probably expand on it later, but I ran out of time before I had to go someplace. I don't have a set number I'm planning on, I just write them as topics occur to me. A story/plot one is definitely coming though.
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Game Design Theory 9 - Crafting an experience
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Game Design Theory 2 - Linearity
Game Design Theory 3 - Leveling and Grinding
Game Design Theory 4 - Complexity
Game Design Theory 5 - Fun
Game Design Theory 6 - Difficulty vs. Challenge
Game Design Theory 7 - Adventure games
Game Design Theory 8 - Level Design
Now, many people will tell you that you don't need good graphics to have a good game. I am among them. As long as your graphics are good enough that they aren't interfering with the game, you can have a wonderful game with awful graphics. I mentioned I grew up with adventure games. Newer adventure games look good, but many of the old ones have pixels so big you can trip over them. People tend to neglect sound in this, buthte same thing applies. You don't need great sound for a game.
However, this does not mean that good graphics won't enhance the experience of playing the game. This does not mean that every game needs ultra-realistic HD graphics. Style and aesthetics are more important. If going to HD graphics ruins your aesthetic, then it is not a graphical improvement. Look at plants vs. zombies. Very stylized, cartoony graphics. If you replaced it with 3d-rendered, realistic models, it would not make the game look better. The aesthetic is part of the game. Choosing a proper aesthetic is important, and it visually sets the tone for the experience.
The visuals also help involve the player in the experience. If you took fallout, and replaced the main character with a knight in armor, the guns with water pistols, the enemies with lego structures, and the scenery with a rave-like world of lights and color, but kept all of the gameplay mechanics the same, you would be radically altering the experience of playing the game. The game itself would be the same, but the tone would be destroyed, and it would impact the player's enjoyment.
Sound is also crucial to creating a game's experience, something most people tend to overlook or downplay. I divide this into 3 parts - sound effects, voice acting, and music.
Sound effects- sound effects create the soundscape of the game. proper sound effects help cement it as a proper world. Everything from the sound of birds in the trees, to the sound of the wooden walkway under your feet, to the distressed moans of your enemy. The player may not even notice some of the sound effects- they are simply part of the experience. You don't consciously notice that walking onto the boardwalk makes a board sound, but it fits in and makes the experience that much richer. Sound effects are also a great way of providing feedback to the player. You are out of ammo, and your gun clicks. You hit an enemy, and receive an auditory confirmation. You are charging an attack, and the sound tells you its ready. Your health is low, an you hear a heartbeat, simultaneously raising the tension and warning the player they are close to death. The player can't look at everything on the screen at the same time, and audio cues convey information that would not be convenient to show visually. This often works best in conjunction with visualfeedback- your low healthbar throbs, there is a splurt of blood when you hit the enemy, etc.
Voice acting - not always applicable, but if you do have voice acting, good voice acting can be the difference between a character seeming real and believable and them seeming like a cardboard cutout. Good voice acting conveys the character's emotion. Bad voice acting conveys the words, but destroys the emotional context. It is better to have no voice acting than bad voice acting. If the dialogue is pure text, the reader can still interpret the inflection and emotion into it. Bad voice acting is simply destructive.
Music- Music is key. Music sets the emotional tone of the game. Be it a nice, peaceful piece as the player toys around in a sandbox, or an action packed piece as you are blasting aliens to bits, the music helps get the player into the proper emotional context to enjoy the game.
In Mass Effect, there is a part near the end where you need to get to a certain place quickly. The fate of the universe is ridding on your shoulders. You get into your vehicle, ride down a fairly boring stretch of road for a while, and get to where you need to go. As it is, that section is fairly boring. However, if they had put on some suitably epic music, it would have felt like you where riding on to glory.
To demonstrate the impact music can have, watch this. If music can have that impact on something like that, imagine what it does for something that is already awesome.
All of these extra's can be classified as "polish", but polish is important. Polish is what will take a good game, and elevate it up into a great experience.
Game Design Theory 10 - Interfaces
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You can craft pumpkins into seeds now.