Since I’ll be out of commission for a while, I suggest the following as something bigger and better to pick up:
I’ll be checking it out too; I read faster than I write, and this guy has more experience than I do.
So have fun with it, and if it turns out that coming back here is less and less appealing, well, maybe I’ll have to post some pretty pictures to liven up the place.
Later!
It sounds interesting, I will probably restrict myself to the minimum participation mentioned, and not buy the textbook or register for the class.
It is not that I am going to design a game anytime soon or maybe ever, but thinking and talking about it is part of the fun of waiting for a game that comes close.
BTW, I read your comment on the latest news about the upcoming faction change service in WoW in Tobold’s blog.
It could be a worthwhile topic to stir a discussion about something else:
Why are so many people against the ability to change the faction?
They are usually not opposed to name/gender change, but against this.
Why hate people levelling up a char, but are opposed to buying a premade level 80?
I personally would have to level up my char from scratch, as it is MY char and it is important to me. But is this an argument to say people should not be allowed to buy a max level char? They do it anyways, account sales on eBay and so on.
On the other hand, I am a bit concerned that more and more things/services become RMT these days, while the games have a trend to become more and more “F2P”.
Ooo, shiny !
Thanks for reminding me of this. T’was in the favorites that got lost.
Funnily enough, I have the 2 optional books (and read them) already. I’ll get the mandatory one. Can’t hurt.
Longasc, that trend doesn’t bother me, as I’m all for player choice. It’s a fairly radical departure from the norm, but I’m not all that bothered by that, either. Thing is, it’s an option, not something that players would be forced to do. That’s what makes it work for me.
I, for one, would probably still play the leveling game in WoW, for example, since raiding doesn’t interest me. I’d just appreciate the ability to change class/faction/race/whatever instead of grinding up a new alt *if I felt like it*. I would still probably go back and play a Gnome alt from scratch, for example, because I’ve not played one before. Ditto for a Dranei or Blood Elf.
Modran, I’m glad this helps! I have some game design books, but not those. Maybe it’s time to catch up, and I’ll definitely be following the blog.
As its name implies, Scott McCloud’s book is not on game design, but on comic design.
Still, it’s full of insight. And the fact that the book itself is a giant comic makes it possible for him to illustrate what he’s talking about, and makes for a very pleasant reading.
And, this guy can draw something mean, when he set his mind to it, or something very simple, and yet compelling.
He’s good, I can tell you
I loved Scott McCloud’s book. When I started college, I had a professor use it as one of our texts in freshman composition (the entire course was special topics over graphic novels as literature).
The book has a lot of stuff in it that can be related to different fields, and specifically game design and storytelling.
I just read the blog again, and especially “rapid prototyping”.
I cannot wonder but notice that most of Guild Wars problems seem to come from the “implementation – QA – playtesting” part of design.
(I already see all their QA testers coming for me *gulp*)
As if they would lack the time or resources for some MORE iterations!
I think this is the critical part, they have to playtest a video game, and do not play a card game.
Their general vision is always so compelling, but also a bit blurry and in practice many great ideas have fallen short. I dare to say, more playtesting would have prevented that.
Examples are Hero Battles and even the name giving Guild versus Guild match. Both modes are highly unpopular compared to the more casual Alliance Battles who require less players and organization, Hero Battles quickly evolved into a shadow-stepping capping match and IMO simply are not that much fun.
One can also wonder why the initial release of the Domain of Anguish was so unpopular. It was very hard to do, the elite area of all elite areas. But in this case I think that elite was taken literally and if only 5-10% of your players can do it, the area becomes abandoned. It just causes a storm of anger on forums, but well. IMO the area design failed because it begged players to min max to the extreme and “play the system” for maximum effect. This is actually a very good thing, but it also pointed out some flaws of monster AI and game mechanics.
I joined the course, and it turned out I had all three of the books already, so it didn’t cost me anything (yay me). The discussion is interesting, as it is to see what others come up with. I haven’t posted my 15-minute game idea yet, but I have it written down. Just a matter of figuring out the wiki.
I finally did publish my first game design on my blog, starting from the first challenge: do a race to the end game. I spent way more than 15 minutes on that one.
Just need to be tested now…
What do you think?
http://randommiles.blogspot.com/2009/07/game-design-challenge.html
It looks good, if a bit overcomplex, Modran. I made some comments over at your place, and may well make more as I continue to digest the design.
It’s definitely not a game you’d play with young’uns; there’s too much to keep track of, too many pieces to get lost, and too many options during a turn. Sometimes, for board games at least, simple is better.
Still, there’s a nice tension between choosing to gather resources or bother opponents. Once the lava starts flowing, the tension is ratcheted up, which is pretty cool. Do you run and grab a stone or two on the way down, or try some last minute skullduggery to work over your opponents?
Thanks for both your answers, Tesh.
I agree with you, it’s a bit too complicated for everyone. What’s funny is that the second game I designed for these challenges (which I will post soon) has much simpler rules, but I feel the result is a more complex game !
As for the tension, that was the goal I was looking for. Testing will tell me how wrong I am.
As Ian says, test, test, test and test again.
…
Tist tost test?
I’ll just go now…