Hi Dark: To be honest I have never tried Zero Site, but I take your point. I guess others have tried creating random levels/missions, and of course a number of accessible games do have add-ons of one kind or another. Lone Wolf has about a hundred extra missions besides those that ship with the game, Rail Racer had a track editor and various user created tracks, and of course Top Speed had a number of user created add-ons as well.
However, you are right. A lot of replay value and challenge comes from good design mechanics. That's precisely where a lot of audio game developers are very weak. Most of them are very amateur programmers at best, and even worse many of them have never played a mainstream game themselves so have no idea how to compare their work to a game like Super Metroid or Megaman. They just don't have the prerequisite experience to judge such a thing themselves. Even for those of us who have played such games aren't necessarily able to come up with some design mechanics as good as those in some mainstream games. I am not saying it can't be done, it certainly can, only that I have a college education, took classes on computer programming, but I was never given a crash course in designing game mechanics. I've read some game programming books, of course, but those examples were simple examples to illustrate a point rather than to educate the new programmer how to truly get the same design mechanics of Mario Brothers, Megaman, Metroid, or any other classic game. I guess it is left up to the developer to figure that out on his or her own. The point I'm getting at here is a educational one. There are plenty of people willing to make audio games, and although they try they just don't know enough to create a game as good as some other mainstream games you find more challenging and more competitive. Not sure what the answer is, but I think that is a fair assessment of the problem. On 1/1/14, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > I agree that both addons and random content would be good, though Draconis > isn't the only audio game developer who have tried this, look at Zero site > and the addon for the game (an addon which actually adds randomly generating > > missions). > > I will say however there is another serious factor in audio games which > removes replay value. > > There are mainstream games like super metroid ormega man x that I have > played innumerable times, know where every item is etc, yet I find I replay > > them far more than something like shades or Gma tank commander, and a game > like Marrio brothers I am still! going back to occasionally just to see if I > > can finish the levels I've not done yet. > > When I ask myself what makes a game like marrio brothers more replayable > than something like Shades, the answer I come up with is design mechanics. > > One faq writer (brian sulpher, who's name gamefaqs devotees may recognize), > > once said of the game Donkey Kong Country 2 on the snes something like > "even though I've been through this game hundreds of times, I find myself > being surprised by enemies, needing to really practice to get past a boss or > > being taken by surprise" (it's in his dkc2 faq if people want to check). > > This to me is part of the appeal of mechanically well designed games, that > they have a game engine nd mechanics which are like a sport or a musical > instrument. They require the player not merely to learn and react to > stimulai, but to train her/his reflexes up to a point that the character > movement and engine are mentally ingraned. This is one arguement I've heard > > from retro gamers as well, that games these days are easier because they > require less split second judgement in the game. > > Some audio games have of course come close to this sort of mechanic, > particularly games like lone wolf or swamp, however many haven't. though I > > regard Shades of doom as a completely well designed game, once you know > where monsters are and can turn and attack them quickly your pretty much > through. There is no need for example to adjust to the way your own > character moves,to assess monster movements in different areas, or to allow > > weapon fire time to hit a given monster. > > this is because fundamentally with the lack of information available in > audio most of the games have worked on a stimulus response model, and also > why most of the audio games I find myself replaying and being surprised by > are not action titles but games like castaways, time of conflict or entombed > > that do not basically require the players reflexes. > > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
