Comments on: Monday Night Live: Devil In The Details

By: dr_pineapple

dr_pineapple — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:09:04 +0000

I wish I had the time to read this :O Gotta read later and comment it then.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:11:28 +0000

Just a fairly bland truism that the more “on-rails” your game is, the easier it is to balance.

By: malakian

malakian — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:02:21 +0000

I dont quite get what you mean with your closing sentence there, mr T. Giving players choices is difficult? Sounds vague AND political!

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 12:19:17 +0000

Good points all round, I feel. I really think that it’s the place of indie developers to take “en vogue” things in the industry (like physics simulation) and actually explore the gameplay possibilities of them fully, rather than simply incorproating them for the sake of a kind of gimmicky appeal.
Ian and I talked a little bit last night about wanting to “do stuff” in games – people always look at a game and say, “But what if I could do this?” and good designers use that curiousity as part of making their game fun. But giving the player choices is always difficult, in that you have to retain balance.

By: malakian

malakian — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:59:09 +0000

THOSE ERRONEUS TAGS WERE DELIBERATE. AS WAS MY POOR SENTENCE STRUCTURE.

By: malakian

malakian — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:57:16 +0000

Very relevant and interesting points there, Davey! Can I call you Davey? Well it’s too late now.

Just the other day I finished the new and hugely rated Gears of War. In one level, you had to shoot some platform supports off, and in another you had to goad this big beast into knocking some pillars down. This I found contextually ridiculous, as everything else in the game would not budge. Instantly this cheapened it for me, as I at least hopped on the train of thought, “well this game boasts to be highly tactical, why can’t i down a wall and fashion a shelter out of the rubble if I can fool some stupid blob into knocking pillars to pieces?”. Five years ago this could be relatively easy to forgive, but when taking into account this is the next generation, I think that its either showing a brick wall for creativity or effort. Seriously, without a few of the nicer textures or shaders, i’m sure the xbox could have pulled it off. I’m getting into a rant about something slightly on a tangent here, but what I’m getting at is that nowadays it seems the world is simply there to [i]look[/i] realistic – until the moment you’re playing it, which I guess is when the manufacturers have done what they need to anyway.

I haven’t heard of your game before, but it certainly looks an interesting concept and I will check it out when I have a free moment. BUNNIES!