Two great game design articles catch my attention lately:
Level Design Lessons: Face On Mars: An article talking about great level design consideration when creating levels. LINK.
A Circular Wall? Reformulating the Fourth Wall for Video Games: Talks about take the game out of the boundaries of the hardware. LINK.
Enjoy.
There is a common mistake think that games for little children are cheaper than games that are targeted for other audiences because the game mechanics are simpler.
Children under five years old don’t know how to read, so the information that usually is on text must be voice acted. That means that you have to pay an actor in order to get those assets and that is a big part of the budget that can easily overpass the development cost.
The “bunny town” games from the Disney page is a good example of this: LINK
The above link can’t be accessed from all places due to geotargetting. If that is your case, try the following link, in Spanish: LINK
Keep that in mind when designing a game targeted for children under 5 years old.
I have had several jobs. Banks, software consulting, Video Game Studios and so on.
So, I have had several bosses too. One of the aspects of my bosses that I always like when was present, and also one of what I miss more when is not there, is what I call the “always there” habit. That means that my boss was always there when I need him.
In my current job, my boss is always there. When I come to the office, he is already there. When I go home, he stays (I think that he has a sleeping bag under his desk).*
If you are a boss, always stay close to your team. Teams need leaders. Don’t throw the objectives and wait that the team take all the decisions needed by voting or meetings.
A person with the capability and the vision to solve ties in the opinions is needed more often that you think.
* Don’t take me wrong, I disapprove crunch time and extra hours.
I remember a chat with an old friend that tells me something about the game Portal, from Valve. He says that during the play testing sessions, the players get bored after 15 or 30 minutes of playing. The game was very flat.
The game designers solve the problem adding a story to the game. That keep hooked the players to the game. They solve the puzzles only to see “what happens”.
One of the most powerful tool to add narrative to the game are the scripted events. That is pieces of code embedded into the levels that triggers events when something happens. Like the player crossing a door or destroying something by shooting.
You can make, for example, that a door shut just behind after crossing it, or a building goes down by shooting a gunpowder barrel.
A good example of this is the Half Life series, they are full of scripted events. That makes the game full of memorable events.
Bottom line: Add memorable moments to your game by scripting events. Don’t let it flat.
English Readers: The rest of the site is in English, go fot it!
Fue bastante complicado sacar esta edición del diario del domingo ya que estoy preparando material para presentar en Objeto a, donde se expondrá mi trabajo junto con el de muchos otros artistas plásticos.
Así que, aunque un poco tarde…
…ACA ESTA LA CARNE!
Evacuation es un juego para iphone que fue hecho originalmente en flash. Otro mas que se suma a la lista de juegos flash que pasa a comercializarse para consolas y dispositivos móviles, entre los que se cuentan N, Dad n Me, Alien Ominid y Flow LINK
Queens es un plataformero muy corto y muy difícil hecho en flixel, un engine para hacer juegos de este tipo. LINK
Flixel es un engine para juegos de plataforma en flash que utilicen pixelart. Soporta parallax colisiones, generacion de niveles y mas. LINK
Nuevos mapas para left 4 dead hechos por la comunidad. LINK
Windowsill es un juego surrealista muy raro. Utiliza técnicas en flash nunca vistas(al menos por mi) LINK
Esto es todo por hoy, adios! y sigan mirando al cielo.
