Profile for DreamGuy
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | DreamGuy |
| Member number | 5415 |
| Title | Warrior |
| Postcount | 62 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Article - Rollick in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Thursday, March 10 2005 09:13
Profile
quote:Simple, you make the events that happen largely time-based instead of location-based. You've got scripting, use it. quote:By picking words that actually have nothing to do with what you were arguing, great... quote:Well, then the people in the BoA community ought to learn what word really means instead of trying to change the meanings of other words. quote:Oh, rightttt... because someone who hasn't yet released a game for BoE or BoE cannot possibly have other game design experience elsewhere. I've got plenty of other experience, and I've read the documentation and have been working with that knowledge so am aware of most of the techinical limitations. I'm sorry, but the people here talking about linearity and not knowing what the word means, claiming that things are impossible just because they have never done it, pretending that they are better designers than Jeff and so forth and so on are just play-acting at being designers, because they can't be bothered to learn the basic concepts of game design. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - Rollick in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Thursday, March 10 2005 09:13
Profile
quote:Simple, you make the events that happen largely time-based instead of location-based. You've got scripting, use it. quote:By picking words that actually have nothing to do with what you were arguing, great... quote:Well, then the people in the BoA community ought to learn what word really means instead of trying to change the meanings of other words. quote:Oh, rightttt... because someone who hasn't yet released a game for BoE or BoE cannot possibly have other game design experience elsewhere. I've got plenty of other experience, and I've read the documentation and have been working with that knowledge so am aware of most of the techinical limitations. I'm sorry, but the people here talking about linearity and not knowing what the word means, claiming that things are impossible just because they have never done it, pretending that they are better designers than Jeff and so forth and so on are just play-acting at being designers, because they can't be bothered to learn the basic concepts of game design. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - Rollick in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Wednesday, March 9 2005 08:57
Profile
Dear Lord, now people are trying to change the definitions of words. Great. The description above for "Grit" is what linearity is. It's what the word means. A scenario that is gritty by the normal meaning of that word is something that tries to be edgy realistic instead of fantastic. Gritty would be things like having to have food to eat (insteafd of it just being something to allow you rest in the outdoors to heal and restore energy) or else you die, needing water, having to sleep regularly, getting infected from rusty swords, flame spells causing wooden structures to burn and trap you, shopkeepers that aren't paying you tons of money for whatever junk you bring in with an endless supply of gold, and a conspicuous lack of do-gooders here and there. Something can be gritty and non-linear. Something can be fantastic and linear. Linear is where choices are taken away from players, where there is a small selection of things to do and options to take. I think what Thuryl is trying to get at here is a claim for dynamic scenarios or something where the story moves along and you can't dawdle and must react to what's going on. Of course those can be either linear or nonlinear as well. Inexperienced designers may find that a lot easier with very linear scenarios, but that's not the only way to do it. And, either way, consistently shutting off most of the options for players is bad, whether it's part of the plot or whether it's part of the battle tactics. In the meantime though, I suggest Thuryl go read up on creative writing and game design resources on other sites and so fort. It sounds like he's just going from what he thinks up and how he mistakenly believes words to be used instead of reading the the wealth of information on these topics that exists outside of these boards. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - Rollick in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Wednesday, March 9 2005 08:57
Profile
Dear Lord, now people are trying to change the definitions of words. Great. The description above for "Grit" is what linearity is. It's what the word means. A scenario that is gritty by the normal meaning of that word is something that tries to be edgy realistic instead of fantastic. Gritty would be things like having to have food to eat (insteafd of it just being something to allow you rest in the outdoors to heal and restore energy) or else you die, needing water, having to sleep regularly, getting infected from rusty swords, flame spells causing wooden structures to burn and trap you, shopkeepers that aren't paying you tons of money for whatever junk you bring in with an endless supply of gold, and a conspicuous lack of do-gooders here and there. Something can be gritty and non-linear. Something can be fantastic and linear. Linear is where choices are taken away from players, where there is a small selection of things to do and options to take. I think what Thuryl is trying to get at here is a claim for dynamic scenarios or something where the story moves along and you can't dawdle and must react to what's going on. Of course those can be either linear or nonlinear as well. Inexperienced designers may find that a lot easier with very linear scenarios, but that's not the only way to do it. And, either way, consistently shutting off most of the options for players is bad, whether it's part of the plot or whether it's part of the battle tactics. In the meantime though, I suggest Thuryl go read up on creative writing and game design resources on other sites and so fort. It sounds like he's just going from what he thinks up and how he mistakenly believes words to be used instead of reading the the wealth of information on these topics that exists outside of these boards. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Concentrated Linearity Debate (New Voices Welcome to Participate and Vote) in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, March 7 2005 06:08
Profile
Yes, Greek plays using Deus ex machina devices are pretty much the textbook example of poor plotting. Not all of them used that device, and the ones who did were soundly ridiculed for it, both at the time and later. And trying to clarify that it's impossible to make BoA games nonlinear and still dramatic but maybe it's possible in other games is still wrong, because there are no technical limitations in BoA that affect that sort of thing. If anything, designers are positively floating in options in BoA, with flags that can keep track of tons of different choices, towns that can be hooked together any which way, scripts that allow extensive modificiations and can adjust what happens when based upon the party's level, and so forth. And, heck, the examples of linearity we've been talking about aren't really questions of not having the time to build in options. The designers specifically spent time coding things to remove options from the players. Extensive time and effort was taken to make the whole things extremely linear and exactly the way the programmer wanted, going so far as to turn off spells, make spells that are normally effective in certain situations completely ineffectual there so that a plot point can be shoved in the player's face, and so forth. And, Kel, Jeff's scenarios are like a thousand times less linear than yours. It's all about options. Where you go, in what order, the choices you can make in combat/dialog/shopping, who you help and who you don't (sidequests, factions) and so forth. Your Bahs scenario has next to none of any of that. You make people go from specific encounter to specific encounter following only one strategy in fighting anything (pure mindless hack and slash, with an occasional bless altar thrown in) with no alternate routes or ways of doing anything. Pretty much the whole way through if you choose not to do the obvious thing you are intended to do in front of you and look for something else to do, the whole thing grinds to an immediate halt, because there is nothing else, anywhere at anytime. If you are claiming that Jeff's scenarios are just as linear you either just no have no concept of what the word means or are seriously in some major denial. And, for crying out loud, restricting the combat down to only one option is not "challenging," especially since the option you end up doing is not only blindingly obvious and the expected norm (haste/slash/heal, repeat) but even frequently spelled out to you on screen (go into combat mode now... look for something in the southwest to stop the ghosts, etc.) But then I'm repeating what was already explained in the emails. It's a rather simple concept to grasp, so I don't get why it's such a difficulty, other than sheer stubborn self-interest. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Backwater Calls submitted. in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Sunday, March 6 2005 20:27
Profile
I haven't finished this one yet, up to just about going into the demon fort, but I have run into all sorts of bugs. I don't know which of these are fixed, but here it goes: *All human party, altar on island didn't work. *The crazy dead wizard never asks me for any items like a bathead or anything, but I can go spell unlock the door and go to the trapdoor, wehre it tells me "just like he said, it's here" but he never said it was there. And he offers me the cheap prices but I tried for the good armor, found I was carrying too much, stopped to move items around to have enough weight and went back and prices went back to insanely high again. *I also cannot see the mayor at all, no matter what I do. I showed the thing to Bear and he disappears and the guard wouldn't let me in. After that Bear never gives the option to discuss the amulet again. *I killed the sliths on the hill, killed the ones in the mine, came out and a text box popped up claiming that soldiers were attacking sliths on the hill and I'd better get there and help... but of course they weren;t because they were dead already. *That town near the sliths seems to frequently give me all the answers to every dialog all at once. When I went into the pub, the people drinking there simulateously responded politely, responded rudely AND thanked me for killing the sliths even before I did. *Similarly, the code for giving answers based upon having a slith in the main party gets triggered when I have the slith following me. So the sculptor asks me to pose for a month, etc. *The messenger that I get from undead overrun town... somebody in the town he goes back to tells me that I should go talk to him and that he's in his house and wants to give me a reward, but I looked through every house there and he isn't in any of them. *When I stole the book from the vampire and he was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, I returned the book, he left, and then I tried to follow him and a text box came up telling me not to go that way because the vamp doesn't know I'm back here. Of course he does, I just was talking to him. Man, and I'm sure there were more too... I should have written them all down... I really like the scenario, but between the numerous spelling errors and bugs I'm finding it hard to believe that any beta testing was done. I hope with the errors that have happened that it's still possible to finish. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Concentrated Linearity Debate (New Voices Welcome to Participate and Vote) in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Sunday, March 6 2005 05:55
Profile
This whole topic is a lost cause, because of the large number of people who apparently just don't get the basics of storytelling or game design. Like the following outrageous statement: quote:No, maybe you aren't capable of it or don't want to be bothered, but that's a long, long ways from being impossible. It clearly is not impossible because other designers on other games do it all the time. If the person who posted this passes as a well-respected designer on these boards, it's no wonder the community is in such a sorry shape. You've got the blind leading the blind. Then we got: quote:Because they are the main characters! The main characters in any story are what the story goes around. A book in which the characters aren't influential and some plot device comes from out of nowhere to make things happen is considered to very poor writing. Perhaps you're familiar with complaints about using a Deus ex machina in a story? If not, perhaps you can imagine how frustrated the star player in a sports game must feel if he's benched and forced to watch everyone else play the game he's supposed to be playing? In a RPG game, the main characters have to be even more influential, because they are directly controlled by the player. The player can't just sit back and watch, he has to make an effort to move the PCs around. If they have no influence and just watch while other people do things (and gab about all the great people they met and all the things they did) you are basically turning the player into a bunch of ineffectual nobodies, which spoils the entire point of these games. Which leads directly into Kel's statement: quote:Considering that you ignored everything I suggested by email and ridiculed the entire concept of letting the players have choices, I'm not going to waste my time making a bunch of suggestions you'll just insult and ignore again. But the basic thing here is that you are all worried about *your* story (background to all the sliths, some vague mysterious with Prophet that we are supposed to worry about but not be able to do anything with during the game) that you don't even consider the PC's story, which is what these kind of games are supopsed to be about. All you have is your cut scenes, repetitive details about the backstory and unsympathetic characters who order the players down tedious fight sequences with no way of making any substantive decisions, being at all creative, or heading off in any direction other than the one the great designer god from the sky continuously points his finger toward. And, again, I already gave you tons of suggestions which you summarily and snottily ignored, so to just now "challenge" me on it is really quite hypocritical. But then vast majority of the posts I've seen from people defending linearity have been more about posturing and ego than actually discussing storytelling or game design, so there's little hope that anything being talked about here will help in any way. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Display partie's location in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Saturday, March 5 2005 07:51
Profile
Ok, so... Why is it important to be able to display the party's location? Is this just to provide any easy way to follow a FAQ giving the walkthrough on how to solve the scenario? Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Display partie's location in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Saturday, March 5 2005 07:51
Profile
Ok, so... Why is it important to be able to display the party's location? Is this just to provide any easy way to follow a FAQ giving the walkthrough on how to solve the scenario? Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| In Defense of Pure Linearity: a Case Study in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Saturday, March 5 2005 07:43
Profile
Again, here we are with yet another post belonging in the BoA editor area whining and complaining that people dare to talk about how to make scenarios better. And I stand behind my statement that Kelandon's choices on how he developed his scenario were pretentious, ego-driven, and not all that good. This is further shown by the way he responded to criticisms. (Things like refusing to add an option to turn off the cutscenes because he considers them the best part and so forth.) If you could put up with Canopy and didn't loathe it with every fiber of your being and actually got some enjoyment out of it, good, it's nice that somebody can. I can't help but be bewildered on the idea that someone liked that, but then there are all sorts of pepole out there. And, if nothing else, those of you who like linear scenarios with poor storytelling are lucky to have found a place where a number of designers are more than happy to give it to you. None of that changes the fact that scenarios can be better, and in some cases could be a lot better, with no more extra time added into the development and so forth if they people making them would take some minimal efforts to read up on what makes scenarios enjoyable, what makes stories coherent and interesting (especially for those focusing the entire thing on the story and not immersiveness or gameplay), providing options, and so forth. There are easy ways to make scenarios enjoyable for lots of different people. Most of the people posting to these boards don't seem to care about any of that. They don't want to improve themselves or the community in general. They don't want to attract new designers, new players, or new ways of doing things (regardless of the fact that these ways aren't even new but old and obvious everywhere else). All they seem to care about is extensive rationalizations of why the way they already do things is perfect and how nothing needs to be changed, even something as simple as following the guidelines on these boards for where different kinds of posts should go and not stealing other people's things. So the boards sit they way they are, with the same people here forever doing the same things over and over and complaining when new people show up unless they stroke their egos about how unbelievably great the scenarios they made are. What a complete waste. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Linear Scenarios v. Non-Linear Scenarios: The doctrine of time = money in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Saturday, March 5 2005 07:10
Profile
The problem with the incoherent and meanspirited rant by the original poster is that it doesn;t make sense as an argument. If you want to put your time into making a scenario, hey, that's fine, but don't get all whiney and insulting when people talk about the fact that scenarios have certain things about them that make them better. If you are offended that your scenario doesn't live up to those standards, that's your problem. I mean, come on, this is just like anything else. If you take your time and try out for American Idol because you think you can sing well enough to be on TV and get a recording contract and you can't, don't get all psychotic on the judges. If you take up painting as a hobby but don't get paid for it and you don't even try to learn the basics of how to do a good job of it, don't go freaking out on people who point out little things like perspective and so forth that artists should use. The basic point here is that people are talking about what makes a good scenario. if you don't care, that's fine, don't make a good one. But don't expect people to lie to you and say it's perfect. And, beyond that, the whole argument of time equals money falls apart on the linearity thing because you can spend the same amount of time developing a non-linear adventure as you do making a linear one. If you choose to spend the same time making a scenario without options, that's your choice, but people are more than free to tell you that the end result is a lot less of a game than it could have been if you had actually put some thought into it. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| how to put on the head in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Friday, March 4 2005 16:47
Profile
Save yourself a couple of extra steps and paste the new graphics into the windows of the old ones when they are open for display on screen. Deleting the old ones, making new ones and then making sure the number matches the ones you deleted is just adding pointless busywork. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - bjlhct2 On Scenario Design pt 1: Linearity in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Thursday, March 3 2005 00:20
Profile
I'm not familiar with the third party BoE scenarios, so I can't say that An Apology "a mediocre and yet pretentious storytelling affair", but I will say that Bahssikava is a pretentious and mediocre storytelling affair. Canopy bludgeoned me with such horrible pretentiousness that I had to quit shortly after starting to play it. The problem with scenario makers claiming that they made all these restricting decisions in order to stay pure to the story is that: A) that's usually just a rationalization because it could have been done differently without changing the story one bit, B) staying pure to the story is sacraficing the game for the player's benefit for the designer's ego, and C) is a complete waste if the person can't make a competent story to begin with. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - Basic Communities and Towns, A Concept in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Thursday, March 3 2005 00:02
Profile
OK, first off, these types of articles belong in the Blades of Avernum editor section, not here. This folder is about playing the games, not making them. Don't worry there, most everyone screws that up royally, including the long-timers. (I'm not sure why the moderators don't move them though.) Second, the numbers for town sizes are unrealistically large. It sounds like you took them from a modern source describing modern cities, or from some place doing the same (perhaps D&D, as I believe they had equally silly numbers). "Harvesting" isn't the best name for a group that gets goods that can't be replaced, as that's an agricultural term. Also, lumber wwouldn't technically have to be this type, as it can be replaced like other crops, it's just that most people don't bother because it's future generations that end up losing out. My main comment, though, is: OK, so why do we care? If this is all about designing towns for BoA scenarios, you are missing out on the practical end of things. How would you suggest people use this info to help create communities in the game? What potential plot points does it raise? How does this affect distance from each other, who lives where, who you can talk to, what quests you can do, how the buildings are set up, etc.? Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - bjlhct2 On Scenario Design pt 1: Linearity in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Wednesday, March 2 2005 07:12
Profile
Saying that linear scenarios aren't bad because your characters would naturally choose to do what the designer expects you to do is making some horribly bad assumptions. Not everyone thinks the same way. What the designer thinks is logical often is not to the rest of the world (and TM's philosophy is a good example there). While I dislike cut scenes, I loathe linear game design. It's not that my hatred of cut scenes is making me hate linear games unfairly. Cut scenes end eventually (and,an in some cases, excrutiatingly long time after they should) and go back to the game. If the scenario itself is linear, the only way to win is not to play. And the arguing that the plot is linear because there is only one logical way to do things is a really circular argument. You're putting the scenario together, so it's not like you couldn't come up with other ways of doing things. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - bjlhct2 On Scenario Design pt 1: Linearity in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Wednesday, March 2 2005 00:32
Profile
The only way I would agree with PoD's sentence: "However, the more freedom that the designer gives the player, the more disjointed and generic the events of the scenario are going to become" is if the word "bad" is placed before "designer". Good designers can have drama and avoid linearity. In fact, I would say that linearity is less dramatic than non-linearity just in general. The more obvious the linearity is, the more obvious that it's just a game, which spoils any drama that's trying to be set up. Drama comes from believeable characters and believable choices. Watching little text bubbles pop out of your characters mouth saying things they wouldn't see is not dramatic, it's pantomime. Running a scenario where there is one goal and all the steps to get to that goal fall down in line one after another so that you just do in order the things you know the creator wants you to do is not dramatic, it's going through the motions. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| how to develop a scenario? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, February 28 2005 22:31
Profile
Just off the top of my head, the editor needs: Tooltips for all those tiny buttons (you know, so a description of what it is pops up if you hover over it). I am only now after weeks of playing with it starting to get the hang of it. The option for placing items from the item and creature menus to be stickly and continue placing the same thing until you choose another tool... Or just a better selection process for those in general. They don't seem to be grouped logically (I'd love to have all the non-weapon, no value junk tools in one place, all the undead in the same area, and so forth), and the menus are a pain to scroll through. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| how to develop a scenario? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, February 28 2005 22:31
Profile
Just off the top of my head, the editor needs: Tooltips for all those tiny buttons (you know, so a description of what it is pops up if you hover over it). I am only now after weeks of playing with it starting to get the hang of it. The option for placing items from the item and creature menus to be stickly and continue placing the same thing until you choose another tool... Or just a better selection process for those in general. They don't seem to be grouped logically (I'd love to have all the non-weapon, no value junk tools in one place, all the undead in the same area, and so forth), and the menus are a pain to scroll through. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Archmage Ascension progress in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, February 28 2005 22:19
Profile
And there seems to be a problem with the internal logic: How can a level 1 character just decide to become the next archmage and hope realistically to accomplish it? If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. But then part of that objection is due to the basic underlying assumption with these games in general that the PCs advance in power extremely quickly while everyone else stands totally frozen in their competency level. Either way, you should scale back your expectations by several orders of magnitude. It's a tremendous amount of work to make a scenario where a player can be expected to advance even 20 levels. 100+ levels strikes me as hopelessly unrealistic. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Archmage Ascension progress in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, February 28 2005 22:19
Profile
And there seems to be a problem with the internal logic: How can a level 1 character just decide to become the next archmage and hope realistically to accomplish it? If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. But then part of that objection is due to the basic underlying assumption with these games in general that the PCs advance in power extremely quickly while everyone else stands totally frozen in their competency level. Either way, you should scale back your expectations by several orders of magnitude. It's a tremendous amount of work to make a scenario where a player can be expected to advance even 20 levels. 100+ levels strikes me as hopelessly unrealistic. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - Party vs. Designer in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, February 28 2005 19:59
Profile
quote:That's not unbalanced, that's a natural result of the way the spell works. If you didn't like it then you should have designed the character differently. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Scenarios in Development in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, February 28 2005 19:48
Profile
I'm in preliminary stages of working on something, so I hope to not be all talk and no show, but I haven't dived into the scripting too far and don't know how well I'll manage that part. I've got custom graphics, objects, towns and other things in the works already though. And of course lots of people start things and don't get anywhere, so who knows if anything of mine will ever see the light of day. I might try for small pieces released individually and then sew them together later or something. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - bjlhct2 On Scenario Design pt 1: Linearity in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Monday, February 28 2005 04:02
Profile
quote:Uh, actually, the Choose Your Own Adventure Books are still fairly linear, in that you only get a very limited number of choices and they are dictated to you in a simplistic fashion. There's very little sense of immersiveness into characters for choosing real options, you just get to branch off at a limited number of points. quote:This argument doesn't make any sense. If you don't want to bother with a scenario unless you explore it all completely on the first time through, then why on earth are you going through the motions of playing a computer game? Read a book or rent a movie if you are so against the idea of there being more to something than you can get out of it with a minimal amount of effort. Or just have Kel and TM make a bunch of cutscenes for you to watch, it amounts to the same thing. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| Article - bjlhct2 On Scenario Design pt 1: Linearity in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Sunday, February 27 2005 19:27
Profile
I would say (and have said) that linearity is always a bad thing, but that some of it is necessary to hold the whole thing together. The better you can hide it or make the explanations logical for the setting, the less bad it turns out to be. Of course many people don't try to hide it. Multiple unavoidable several minute long cutscenes with cheesey dialog and nothing you don't know already is an example of linearity that slashes you across the face until you bleed. Regarding the idea that I'd like the best Blade of Exiles scenarios if I played them: Very doubtful, based upon comments I've seen on them and the "design" philosophy their creators tout on these boards. As far as changing my tune, absolutely not. I know what I know from countless years of playing, GMing and designing RPGs and games. It's possible that some of those scenarios are enjoyable despite their linearity, but they certainly aren't enjoyable because of them. As far as the supposed most successful RPG franchise being Final Fantasy, I think that depends upon what you mean by successful RPG. I'd say the most successful RPG franchise would be Dungeons & Dragons, pen and paper version. But that does bring up an interesting point. A lot of games are quite linear. They probably don't even count as RPGs, other than for the misuse of the term by marketing departments, but they exist. Some game designers have a lot of success aiming for less sophistacted players, ones used to sitting and watching TV all day and not having any interaction. To them, dialog boxes are a waste of time, puzzles are a waste of time, all they want to do is kill colored pixels on screen. Anything else is a massive disappointment. If that's your target audience then, yes, stick with strongly linear scenarios. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |
| how to develop a scenario? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 5415
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written Sunday, February 27 2005 04:40
Profile
Err, yeah... the tutorial that comes with the BoA editor documentation is so short it's nearly nonexistent. I really don't see how anyone who hopes to design scenarios could consider it too lengthy. It needed to be at least 10 times longer and actually cover scripting to some extent to be of much use. Posts: 62 | Registered: Thursday, January 20 2005 08:00 |