Category: Game Design (Page 9 of 22)

The Ten Rules of Designing an FPS

February 28, 2007 / Damion Schubert

A computer programming student has compiled his top ten list of rules on designing FPS games. I found it intriguing, and have only minor quibbles, although I’m curious what more hardcore FPS players than myself thinks.

One ‘maxim’ that I think is missing: Boss Monster fighting shouldn’t require a different skillset than the rest of the game. Also, players shouldn’t be forced to guess whether or not they’re actually successfully hitting a boss monster — in the final boss monster for Gears of War, for example, there was no apparent feedback that the boss monster was invulnerability when he was surrounded by his shadowbats. There’s few things more disappointing than checking GameFaqs once, and only once, during your play experience.

Come to think of it, call the 11th commandment “Boss monsters shouldn’t suck.” I could rant about boss monsters, especially in FPS games, all day long.

Why I Love the DS

February 28, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Sim City DS is coming to America. Among the new features announced on Kotaku:

Feautures like being able to sign off on proclamations using the stylus as well as put out fires by blowing into the microphone…. I’ve often said that the one thing missing from Sim City was the ability to blow on it.

I find this utterly fascinating, in a “I want to try it, but now I’ll never play this game while in the Doctor’s Waiting room” sort of way.

JBooth on Randomly Created Content

February 12, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Jason Booth has some good things to say about “Procedural Content”, as well as how it continues to be misused by the industry. One snippet that’s great: Continue reading

Mouse Nuts

February 12, 2007 / Damion Schubert

I really liked this story about Guitar Hero, not so much because I’m an admitted GH fanboy, but because it uses the phrase ‘mouse nuts’ to mean, precisely, ‘not a lot of money’.

My old General Manager at Origin used to say this a lot. For him, it was a shorthand way to say, “based on the amount of time we’ve spent talking about this stupid, trivial problem, have we spent more time in employee salaries talking about it than it would have taken to just fix it?”

Jeff Freeman has Lost His Mind

February 7, 2007 / Damion Schubert

… but it’s a fun read.

It’s scary when someone posts something insane, and I agree with it.

My Brief Gears of War Review

January 22, 2007 / Damion Schubert

It sure is… grey.

I Roll My Save vs. Facehuggers

December 14, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Obsidian (the makers of KOTOR 2 and NWN2) are making an Alien/s themed RPG. Presumably a single-player one, but still. I, for one, cannot wait to play the Jerkface Lawyer class!

Alien/s is a property that is clearly ideally suited for more action-oriented gameplay, with numerous examples of that in action, so it will be interesting to see how the game becomes ‘RPGed’. For my money, I probably would have considered a different direction, and focused on making it like horror games like Resident Evil. The original Alien was, after all, a horror film first and foremost.

Brute Force RPGs

December 7, 2006 / Damion Schubert

The Rampant Coyote has a question: Is it possible to design a good RPG that relies less heavily on brute force (i.e. kill everything that moves) and requires more other skills (such as puzzle solving, diplomacy, physics usage)? Given what people expect out of computer RPGs, is it viable to a mass market? Go answer him there.

Mark Rosewater on Game Design

November 20, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Wizards of the Coast have been running an ongoing card design contest – the winner will get to become a design intern – the low man on the totem pole of a Magic the Gathering card team. I’m actually jealous – working on a Magic design is one of my dream gigs. Continue reading

Real Life Rockers and Guitar Hero

November 12, 2006 / Damion Schubert

Wall Street Journal, of all places, has a pretty good story about real-life rock stars who are addicted to Guitar Hero. This amuses me. Guitar Hero is the greatest game ever, because it is so good at wish fulfillment – no other game in history captures the feeling that you’re living your fantasy. So what does it say when real life rock stars find that fantasy so compelling? (Reading the article, what it says is that ‘drummers wish they could be attention-whoring guitarists)

Anyway, amusing Friday quote from the article:

Michael Einziger, the 30-year-old guitarist for the hard-rock band Incubus, says he was “shocked at how hard it was” to play the videogame’s version of his song “Stellar.” He admits he was handily beaten by his then-14-year-old sister, Ruby Aldridge, when the two of them squared off earlier this year. “It doesn’t have anything to do with playing guitar,” Mr. Einziger says. “It’s all rhythmic.”