Defining Awesome

About 2 months ago I came to an important realization. Actually I don’t feel I thought of it, it sort of found me. These are game design principles. Universal and guaranteed to just work. The holy grail of game design.

This isn’t anything new and I feel no ownership over the ideas. I did though, come to my own understanding of these principles and it changed how I perceive game making.

It started because of my random interest in random stuff… read more »

Right now the lack of variation in content is more issue. Right now having full armour makes most weapons useless so you can choose two gameplay styles. Melee/Shotgun or Railgun. Anything else is useless against armoured players. Also everyone is carrying same items…

This quote by whitebear on the LD forums got me really thinking. It is true. I want Link-Dead to have tons of stuff to play with. Yet, it doesn’t matter that there is a lot of inventory to use. Everybody is using the same stuff. For example IED’s are a big part of Wasteminer weapons but nobody uses them because it is quicker to just kill with a pickaxe or shotgun. There is no reason for you in a competitive game to use something that is worse, so the best gun will always be used. The same goes for best load-out, best armor/class setup etc. Finally after a couple weeks of playing everybody will be using the same winning set. Even though there will be lots of content, variety will be killed. It’s like survival of the fittest. It doesn’t matter that a remote IED is cool, it is simply weaker (or harder to use) so it becomes extinct as a weapon of choice. For variety to exist, as well as for competitiveness and FUN to exist: the game must be balanced. read more »

Here is a slightly different more traditional approach.

If you have a good idea that doesn’t involve hit chances please post, I am very interested.

Here is an idea to make aiming and shooting more challenging in a 2D Soldat-like game. Basically the bullets travel in a 2.25D plane instead of just crossing the screen. The bullet fires at the point your mouse cursor is actually at. So to shoot a dude in the head you must aim just like in an FPS – at his head. These pictures explain it all.

The last picture shows why this approach is correct from a realism point of view. It is still to be considered if it is fun and has gameplay value. I’ll definitely try it out in Link-Dead.

I’ve become obsessed by an idea lately. I have to channel it out somehow or else I’ll start making it and Link-Dead will suffer. One way is to write it down, so here it is.

I’m imagining how Link-Dead would be as a single-player game. The way I would do it would be totally different than anything that ever was seen on the gaming market. Half-Life 2 has episodic content. I would do user-created experience-based content.

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The other day I was talking with Sigvatr (link-dead’s graphic artist) and we came up with a brilliant idea. While we were discussing gaming ideas, mainly cooperative multiplayer games, we both agreed that this area of gameplay is very underrated. It also needs more intensity to become really fun. I’m fascinated by the fear of dying you get in games and I’m always seeking for solutions how to magnify this aspect of gameplay. So we came up with this idea.
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In my constant search for modding possibilities I have stumbled upon a technology that will completely transform the way 2D maps are built and look. I’ve been looking for this. Ever since Half-Life 2 got out I’ve seen that FPS games are no longer made for people to mod. Even John Carmack recently at the Quakecon stated that it is no longer possible for a small team to make a decent game by modding. An era for modded FPS games has ended. Welcome to a new era for 2D side-view games and mods.
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Here’s an idea.

This spawned after my brother proposed it, we discussed it intensely and I realized I had a very similar idea years ago while playing Day of defeat, but I never thought of doing that in Soldat or in any other game. Now it seems very intriguing.

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