NEOK'S PROFILE

"GONE: A grim cat with fluff. It has a curling tail and moves flirtively. On the cat is the image of finely designed stripes. BEWARE ITS CLAWS. Mittens is associated with snooze, theft and murder." ... "And the angel said to him, 'Stop hitting yourself!' But he could not stop, for the angel was hitting him with his own hands." ... "Cave Story is a jumping-and-shooting action game. Explore the caves until you reach the ending. You can also save your game and continue from where you left off."
Fake Happy End
In the middle of the sky, stood a... 'tower' of sorts...

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author=Max McGee
(I am just saying it is really bad timing for me; one of the risks of being awesome all the time is that occasionally someone will say "during the next three weeks you get prizes for being awesome!" and it makes me feel like I wasted my awesome by doing it at the wrong time.)


Pretty much this mister Kenton!

(Ignores the fact that he's paying for this out of his own pocket and therefore entitled to whatever terms he damn well pleases.)

In AD 2101, war was beginning. The kingdom of good fought the kingdom of evil, an epic battle which would last aeons. Finally th

author=Max McGee
This definitely falls into the umbrella of conventional wisdom. I think that almost everyone who's serious about making games has grokked this old saw by now.


Buddy, you'd be surprised how often I have to start a game, setup a hotkey script to continually press confirm for me, then wander off and come back 10 minutes later so that I can actually start playing. Literally the only recent game I've not had to do this for is Essence Enforcer, since there's a handy skip text feature. Bless you CP.

In AD 2101, war was beginning. The kingdom of good fought the kingdom of evil, an epic battle which would last aeons. Finally th

Let's talk about game intros. First, a quote I've said somewhere else on this site:

The biggest problem I have with a lot of games that has you sitting through an intro before any gameplay starts is that, I have no reason to 'care' yet about the characters or setting. Of course, this isn't always the case (say the intro starts out with a bang or a really interesting development, that's a good way to catch my focus). But frequently I'm finding I just want to get going with the game, and only after I've gotten a feel for how it plays/ how the characters respond/ developed an attachment to them, do I maybe want to hear about their situation.


Anyone else like this? Typically, most intros will establish a setting, introduce the main character and his/her situation, then maybe drop you into a tutorial or two before finally letting you take proper control and explore the game. Am I alone in thinking this is the absolute worst way to hook your players? Usually when I play a game, I want to do just that: play it. Not sit through a lecture on what some evil kingdom is up to or what this dude had for lunch last week. Of course there's cases where a game opens with an interesting development which then makes me want to pay attention to what else the intro has to say. But personally, I find that to be a rather rare thing indeed.

Thoughts?

Ludonarrative Dissonance In Simulationist Logic 01: Teleporting Items In RPGs

author=Archeia_Nessiah
I found myself having other pressing issues that I want to rant about that game than the inventory.


Understatement of the century!

Morphos Metaphor: Dark Rebellion

author=Neok
So some crits:
- Unskippable/unfastforwardable intro = Me walking off to do something else till it's done and I get control.


Actually, I guess this is a rather unfair criticism for me to make, so let me clarify: The biggest problem I have with a lot of games that has you sitting through an intro before any gameplay starts is that, I have no reason to 'care' yet about the characters or setting. Of course, this isn't always the case (say the intro starts out with a bang or a really interesting development, that's a good way to catch my focus). But frequently I'm finding I just want to get going with the game, and only after I've gotten a feel for how it plays/ how the characters respond/ developed an attachment to them, do I maybe want to hear about their situation.

Admittedly, probably only I'm really this impatient.

What gameplay does Accuracy and Evasion provide?

author=LouisCyphre
Which is the whole point of having inaccurate actions in the player's arsenal. It's a drawback you can assign to a skill that, often, doesn't even occur. By introducing this drawback, you can add other forms of power to the action in question. It's another axis of advantage or drawback you can use to create interesting sets of options for your players. Surely more diverse forms of power can help craft compelling gameplay.


When you select a skill with say, >75% chance of hitting, you do so, assuming it'll hit. Even a skill with only 50%, you might still use with that assumption in mind. So when it doesn't hit, you feel slighted, even though it's working correctly.

On the other hand, select a skill with <25% chance? You never select that unless it's by mistake, or as a last-ditch effort. Yes, there's a chance it'll hit, but people automatically assume it won't, because the chances are so atrocious in their minds.

People are inherently risk-averse. If you want to make a game that encourages rolling dice, you have to make it worth the while. The most obvious way I can think of is to increase the rewards exponential to the risk involved. 100% acc for 1x dmg, or 50% acc for 2.5x dmg, or 25% acc for 6x dmg, etc.

Another way, is to give some kind of return even if you fail. Example being FF6 Setzer's Lagomorph when you fail his slots roll. That said, whenever I roll his slots, I do mostly assuming Lagomorph will be the result, and that's pretty much what most people will assume: the worst case possible outcome on low odds, and the best case possible outcome on high odds.

The third, and one you mentioned, is forcing taking the risk. If you don't play, you lose, because your 100% acc 1x dmg attack won't let you live long enough to get very far. I suppose it's an interesting concept. Most people prefer to be in control of their fates, so it'll push many of them out of their comfort zones.

Fourth? Give players the ability to 'rig the slots'. Press Z rapidly, and that 50% chance goes up >80%. Again, most people prefer to be in control of their fates.

Games that do the concept of acc and eva well? Honestly can't think of any. Even chance-heavy Fire Emblem uses something called true hit mechanics, where acc rates are scaled so that an 80% dodge rate is basically 100%. Nobody likes being screwed over by chance, no matter how small or insignificant, or how vast the pay-off might be.

What gameplay does Accuracy and Evasion provide?

author=LouisCyphre
A lot of what I am reading is "I like risk and reward, but only when it doesn't apply to me."

edit: im dumb


People like it when good things happen to them and bad things happen to not them?

What gameplay does Accuracy and Evasion provide?

I've always liked games where you could buff your evasion up to 50-100% and just be able to dance through a large number of battles taking very few hits.

In general, it should really be more about what's good for the player though. I concur with the FFX example/ having only enemies capable of randomly missing/ having a secondary effect with an accuracy chance as good design.

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Those are SOME buttons.

Also, I thought this was a guy at first, but that probably speaks more about anime tendencies than it does of your art.