Game Design: Seven Ways to Make Mazes Suck Less
Maze (n): A confusing intricate network of passages.

The maze is a popular old-school gaming standard. It's a gameplay device that sounds awesome on paper, especially for adventures and RPGs. It's a navigational challenge, requiring problem-solving and memory skills. It's alternative gameplay to supplement existing mechanics, and most importantly it is EASY to implement! What's not to like?

The first maze appearance in a video game that I'm familiar with was in the original Colossal Cave Adventure by Will Crowther and Don Woods. There were two mazes: the little twisty maze of passages all alike were created by Crowther, and Woods created the maze where all the passages were different. It was then, in the 1970s, that players first began experiencing the joy of mazes in computer games. And I believe it was then, in the 1970s, that players discovered the truth about mazes in computer games:

Mazes suck.

I don't know if I ever actually recall anybody talking about how FUN the maze was in a video game. On the other hand, I have heard several people trash mazes as their least favorite element of some games. Sure, they sound good on paper. But I think the key word in the definition above is "confusing." Being confused isn't all that fun, in general. Mazes - especially with a mouse-eye, first-person view - are confusing by nature and pretty dang un-fun.

However, emerging from temporary confusion is a lot of fun. Actually solving the maze, like solving any challenging puzzle, feels terrific. The threat of getting lost and confused is kinda fun too. Just as the threat of permadeath in many roguelikes is part of what makes them fun. But in both cases, it is a Sword of Damocles situation. It's the threat, not the event, that's fun. The tease of danger of becoming hopelessly lost adds a certain intellectual thrill. We're going in, and don't know how we're going to escape. That's fun.

But when the threat is fulfilled, and the player really does feel lost? Not so much fun.

Is it possible to capture the two "fun" aspects of mazes - the thrill of the risk of becoming lost, and the satisfaction of solving the intellectual puzzle offered by mazes - while mitigating the actual problems of becoming lost? And when you do that, does the maze lose it's "maze-ness?" Does it at that point become just a... map?

I've been pondering this working on Frayed Knights, as I was working on on the minotaur's lair a couple of weeks ago. Minotaurs, based on tradition as old as ancient Greece (back when there was just ONE Minotaur!), lair inside of mazes. But mazes... uh, suck. So what is a poor game designer to do?

While some of these ideas came too late for me to feed into my minotaur maze design, I had a few thoughts on how to at least improve things. If a game, for whatever reason, must include a maze-like sequence, here are some basic rules-of-thumb to make mazes and maze-like areas suck less:

1. The idea is to tease the player with the possibility of getting lost. Something that looks like a maze, acts like a maze, and threatens to be a maze will function just as well.

2. Mazes should be small. A big maze could be made up of some easy-to-recognize landmark areas connecting smaller mazes and still feel like a big maze.

3. The maze itself - traveling from point A to point B - should almost never be used as the principle gameplay element in any part of the game. Trying to challenge the player by a maze alone leads to hopelessly convoluted mazes. Instead, designers should use simpler mazes to supplement some other game mechanic.

4. If possible, it should be easier to escape the maze than to solve it. Having an easy exit / reset button is a Good Thing (found in a Tales of Monkey Island episode).

5. Adding a vertical element to a maze can make it feel FAR more confusing and complex than it really is. If used carefully, it can add to the fun and challenging puzzle-solving aspect without adding to the bad "I'm totally lost, this game sucks!" aspect very much.

6. A first-person perspective makes any maze ten harder (statistic pulled out of thin air). Any other form of limited visibility preventing the player from seeing the entire maze at once will also make it more difficult.

7. Once the player has solved the maze, avoid requiring her to "re-solve" or backtrack through the maze again. Have shortcuts or bypasses unlock for key locations once they have been discovered.

And here's a bonus eighth tip:

* Any map can become a "maze" in the worst way very easily if not carefully designed. A good map should contain plenty of landmarks, avoid excessive repetition of similar geometry, and never let the player stray too far from "focal points" to guide progress. In other words, they should be kept tight, clear, and distinctive. (RPG Maker users, take note!)

And yes, I keep learning that last one the hard way. But I keep finding other indie game designers doing the same thing.

Bottom Line: Mazes, in general, still suck. But I believe that, used carefully, maze-like game mechanics can still be salvaged to make fun games.

Labels: Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:22 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Making Culturally Meaningful Games
DanC writes about three false constraints which are holding the industry back from making "culturally meaningful games."

Lost Garden: Three False Constraints

Labels: Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:49 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
David Bowie: My Real Name is David Jones
This is cool.

Twenty-Year-Old David Bowie, in 1967, received his first fan letter from an American, and was so excited he immediately jumped on a typewriter to write a response. Oh, if he'd only known....! It's a very personal, human peek at a guy who would soon become a rock 'n roll superstar.

Letter from David Bowie: My Real Name is David Jones

Labels: music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Indie RPG News Round-Up, 2 Dec 2009
More indie RPG news than you can... uh.... well, just more indie RPG news... We've got some free games to talk about this time, the end of one series, the beginning of another, and a nice mix of some western (or really unique) RPGs with some ever-popular jRPG-style indie games.

Avernum 6
It's now out, for the Mac. Windows gamers will have to wait until March. The graphics have been greatly improved from previous games (no doubt Jeff Vogel has been receiving pressure from the Eschalon: Book 1 fans...). While we Windows gamers are waiting, Vogel has some thoughts on the final game of his long-running series here.

Din's Curse
Steven Peeler has an update on the Ranger class for this upcoming RPG. Each class in Din's Curse has a number of specialties within the class - three for the core classes, and two for the hybrids. The ranger class has three specialties: Druid, Archer, and Hunter. You can read more about them here: Din's Curse Classes. There's also a fun blog post on earthquakes in the game.

Telepath RPG: Servants of God
The maker of Telepath Psy Arena 2 is working on a full-bore RPG set in the same world, using the same style of tactics-heavy combat. Those who crave something other than plain ol' Medieval European Fantasy, take note. You can play the constantly-in-development demo version here. And here's the trailer:



PARG: A Post-Apocalyptic Roleplaying Game
PARG is just what it stands for - a Post-Apocalyptic Roleplaying Game. It's a single-player only RPG using an isometric 2D perspective, and using turn-based tactical combat. Man - have I ever heard of a game like this before? It is also intended as a non-profit, open-source (Python / FIFE) project. Normally I wouldn't give something like this a high chance of completion, but they are targeting their first tech-demo release in a few weeks. So hopefully this one will be a pleasant surprise.

Scars of War
Gareth has an article up about Banes. Banes are not typical monsters in RPGs. Actually, a lot about Scars of War sounds non-typical. But these entities cannot be defeated directly through any kind of combat. It sounds like banes are kind of like hauntings - you can't just deal with the physical(ish) manifestation, but actually hunt down and resolve the root cause of the bane's existence. It looks interesting, and I'll be fascinated to see how it resolves in actual gameplay.

Cyclopean
It has an engine! And an update! With less than a year from the last update! It might actually become weekly! While it's still much, much earlier in development than I usually pay attention to, I'm putting some faith into Iron Tower Studios to crack the whip here. And I'm just thrilled to see an indie game (someday!) appear embracing the old Call of Cthulhu feel. I hope.

Asguaard
The most prolific indie jRPG studio around has released their latest title, Asguaard. I've not played it yet, but it seems to be a stand-alone title as opposed to a part of a series. From the website:

Welcome to the magical world of Asguaard where Fairies, Dwarves and legendary creatures live together in relative peace.

Yet their future is about to be torn apart.

Somewhere, somehow, the Pandora Box has been opened. A series of devestating plagues each worse than the previous are on their way tearing apart the lands and creatures before them. The magical inhabitants are powerless to prevent the tragedy yet there is just one chance.

A committee of Fairies gather at Asguaard's highest village - their immense task is to summon a creature able to achieve miracles, a creature read about in the oldest of books, a creature that is in posession of something that the Asguaard kind can only dream of and hold in awe. The possession is a soul and the creature - a human.

Come join the fight for Asguaard, a tale of friendship, passion and heroism.

* 100+ hours of gameplay
* 100+ skills to learn
* 500+ locations to explore
* 150+ secret rooms to find

Yeesh, that's a big game!

Download Asguaard

Awakening and Myth Xaran
Awakening and Myth Xaran are RPG Maker / jRPG-style games from Florida-based Exodus Studio. Started by Rebecca Long in 2007, Exodus Studio focuses on faith-based and family-friendly games set in fantasy settings.

Awakening is an RPG Maker / jRPG style "faith-based RPG with a compelling story that draws upon the themes and concepts of the book of Galatians in the Holy Bible." It's a free game, and promises to be first of a series entitled, "The Guardian's Wing Chronicles."

According to the website, Myth Xaran is set within the world of Exodus, which is "a place of mystery and intrigue. Similarly, the will of the gods hold no limits beyond a mortal's understanding. Within a darkened sect of the world, a new light shines upon an effigy of paradise through the eyes of an unknowing tortured soul. With this promised new creation given to him, life also begins -- and a chapter is ready to be written." It is also free, which is

Both games, using RPG Maker, are unfortunately Windows-only. But they are both free, so there's no complaining about the price. I haven't played either one yet, so feel free to chime in.

Cute Knight / Cute Knight Kingdom
Cute Knight Kingdom is out. It's good. I'm once again getting in touch with my inner independently-minded eighteen-year-old girl. Or something. And managing sin, dream, and my massively awesome fighting skills. Being able to spook enemies instead of killing (or taming) them is awesome, and saves on sin. It's basically everything that was cool about the original game, writ larger.

Speaking of the original game, Cute Knight Deluxe is now available for a reduced price. Which is likewise awesome.

Cute Knight Deluxe is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Cute Knight Kingdom is currently Windows-only (I believe this is only a temporary limitation).


Aaand - that's all I have for now. I'm sure RPG fans and creators will be quick to let me know what I've missed... so have at it!

Labels: Indie RPG News

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:58 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Playing From Memory
I used to be the best Jet Moto player in the world.

This isn't idle speculation or boasting. Literally, demonstrably, empirically, and usually uncontestedly (at least until Nate Pendleton, our lead tester, started gunning for my crown), I was the best. Granted, only a few dozen people in the world had played the full game at that point, as it hadn't yet been released. But that's immaterial, don't you think?

Anyway, over the holiday weekend my youngest daughter broke out the game and began playing it on the PS2. So I joined her. Much to my chagrin, she nearly beat me on one level. Then we played my favorite (and, back in the day, my best) level, Nightmare. It's the one at the end of this trailer:



I definitely didn't have what it takes anymore. I guess a dozen years of almost no practice can do that to you. But while I ran into some troublesome parts of the track where I repeatedly screwed up, I was rather astonished by what I didn't screw up. Some kind of muscle-memory took over along many parts of the track, and I found myself repeating long-forgotten but long-ingrained movements to navigate trickier spots in the track. I didn't even remember what it was I was doing - if I thought about it, I'd screw up.

It's not the only time that's happened. While I now suck horribly at the old arcade game Shinobi (a game I used to beat on a single quarter), I do find myself making a lot of old moves and following old patterns I've consciously forgotten. It's a weird feeling.

Has that ever happened to you?

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:07 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Playing Pathfinder
We had our first game of Pathfinder on Friday - the "spiritual successor" to Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition. Well, it was the first for most of us - a couple of people in our group have already been playing it for a little while.

I'm playing a gnomish illusionist (wizard w/ illusion school speciality), rather than my usual rogue preference. So it'd be new to me either way. I mean, an illusionist is like the rogue of wizards, isn't it?

At first blush - after playing 3.x for several years (both pen & paper and in Neverwinter Nights) - I felt that the game feels like a continuation of 3.5. The differences were small but definitely "gotchas" if you weren't paying attention. A few changes that stood out in a 1st level game:

#1 - Everybody seemed to have a lot more non-combat skills to do stuff with. I think this was principally due to the consolidation of skills (for example, "Spot", "Search," and "Listen" are all "Perception" now). And the elimination of certain "skill point taxes" like Concentration (Concentration checks are level-based, now, effectively giving it to you for free).

#2 - As a specialist wizard (especially given a gnome's special abilities), I never seemed to run out of spells. Besides once-per-day gnomish abilities for Prestidigitation, Dancing Lights, and Ghost Sound, I also had three cantrips, one first-level spell due to my level, one additional first-level spell due to my intelligence score, and an additional Illusion-only 1st level spell slot due to my specialization. Then - because of my specialization - I had six uses per day of a Blinding Ray. Oh, and there's an option (which I chose) to have a bound object rather than a familiar, which results in one more daily spell of any (available) level that doesn't even need to be prepared in advance. This is a far cry from the old 1st edition days when a first-level magic-user had Magic Missile and Light.

#3 - A cleric's Channel Energy + Selective Channeling... WOW! At lower levels, at least, this really makes a huge difference in the game. I'd say this is game-imbalancing, but frankly D&D has always been a meatgrinder at low levels, and this may bring the low-level game more in-line with the mid-level games in terms of survivability and party stamina. More significantly, clerics are allowed to cast something other than Cure Light Wounds at the very low levels. I think this also places a greater burden on clerics, as charisma is a very, very important secondary stat (as it was already becoming for clerics in 3.x)

#4 - Making characters was no less complex than it was in 3.5. Except skill selection. Skill selection was definitely easier as there was no need to divvy up 4x points at level one anymore. But otherwise, it's still a pretty detailed (and, unfortunately, error-prone) process.

Overall, it was a very positive experience. The system retains 3.5's level of complexity and detail, though it makes some effort to streamline things a bit more so things like grappling and tumbling and disarms aren't all completely custom rules. For the most part, we felt at home with the system, but the differences kept us on our toes.

My question is: Will we see official Pathfinder CRPGs? Shamus may argue that we might not really want to. But I think I have a higher opinion of the other D20-based games (and earlier D&D versions) that made their way to the computer.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:37 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Stonekeep & KOTR For Sale...
Okay, don't let this stop ya from buying some great indie games this weekend, but...

GOG.COM has a few old Interplay titles for sale this weekend, including Stonekeep.

As I recall, this game was at one point nicknamed "Fargo's Folly" internally, and for a while it sounded like it was destined to become permanent vaporware. Like Duke Nukem Forever. Or Prey. Oh, wait, they eventually made Prey. Not that it had much in common with the original project, which was concurrent with the development of the original Unreal.

But after some major overhauls and a massive budget (for the time), it ended up seeing the light of day - and by most accounts turned into a pretty good game, with some significant adventure-game-style puzzle elements. I can't say for sure, because I never played it... though I just picked it up myself. You know, with all my spare time...

Also - this just in - Steam has the original Knights of the Old Republic for sale for 75% off. That's like... uh, $2.50. For those who might not know (there are some casual gamers who do hit this blog, after all...) Knights of the Old Republic = Star Wars Done Bioware Style. This sale will only last for about 20 more hours - though other games will be available tomorrow. So grab it today while you can.

Labels: retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:01 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
A Thanksgiving Story
Happy Thanksgiving 2009, Rampant Games readers in the U.S. For the half or more of you that read from other countries: Happy Thursday!

Thanksgiving is a four-day weekend for many (non-retail) businesses here. Including mine. And it generally means a LOT of fun at the ol' Coyote Den. It wasn't always this way. As a kid, Thanksgiving often meant a feast involving a lot of relatives you really don't like, playing nice, and getting bored stiff. The food was good. The rest was sorta like one of those mandatory team meetings at work where the H.R. department is going over new policy. It needs to be done, but it's not particularly enjoyable. And then we had Thanksgiving leftovers we were eating all the way until Christmas. Hey, not that I am ungrateful for having an abundance of food - but it did get pretty old eating turkey sandwiches, turkey casserole, and ... more turkey... for three weeks straight.

My first Thanksgiving away from home was at college. I was going to school in Utah, lived on the East Coast, and couldn't really afford to fly home and back for a short weekend (especially when I'd be flying back for Christmas only three or four weeks later). So my first Thanksgiving, I spent with some relatives of my roommate.

Worst. Thanksgiving. Ever.

His uncle's family made me believe my own family was actually normal. I was immediately accused (multiple times) upon arrival of trying to smuggle alcohol or drugs into the house. Nevermind that I didn't drink, either. It all went downhill from there. I was pretty uncomortable the whole time. We had Thanksgiving lasagna which was more like soup. I hid most of the day Friday by watching the entire Star Wars trilogy down in their basement on a wide-screen TV... when I wasn't studying. At least I could retreat. While I appreciated them taking me in like they did, it was not much fun.

After that, I decided that staying on campus by myself for Thanksgiving wouldn't be nearly as bad. As it turns out, the following year we had a few other friends in similar situations. Most from our RPG gaming group. We called it the "orphans' Thanksgiving." Anybody we knew who had no place to go could join us. So we all brought food, chipped in together for a turkey, and got together for several straight days of Dungeons & Dragons, boardgames, videos, and eating Thanksgiving leftovers. On Saturday, the leftovers were mostly gone and we were sick of turkey sandwiches anyway, so we all ordered pizza.

It was the Best Thanksgiving Ever. With friends. Hanging out and having a party. And gaming. A lot.

We've been doing pretty much the same thing ever since. Due to all of us having real families now, we actually leave the Thursday of Thanksgiving alone for families (and friends who have no other place to go), though there's still some serious video-game playing that goes on. (Tetris Plus, for the original Playstation, is something of a tradition now). We keep things pretty "open house"-y, relaxed, and casual. Plenty of food, and hey - if things get dull, it's time for some Rock Band!

Friday and Saturday are serious, serious gaming days. All day. It's rough with so many children who need attention, so we take frequent breaks, but we have managed to keep pulling it off. We pool our Thanksgiving leftovers together for munching on throughout both days. And - as is our tradition - we're usually low on food by Saturday evening (and the remaining leftovers are looking a little scary), so we all pitch in for pizza. And we don't find ourselves eating Thanksgiving leftovers all the way to Christmas.

So, for Thanksgiving, I am thankful for a lot of things. I'm lucky to have a good job in these conditions. I have health, a wonderful family, and I live in an awesome era of history in a great country. But for me, this holiday has come to mean three things that I really value in life: Family, friends, and fun. It's a time to be happy.

I hope you are, too.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:13 PM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
The Gamers - Dorkness Rising
We got the DVD "The Gamers - Dorkness Rising" from Netflix yesterday, and watched it last night.

I will be buying the DVD shortly. It was... excellent.

Okay, a qualified excellent. It could have been cut by about 15 minutes (especially the ninja / pirate pizza delivery sequence), and it's very obviously a low-budget production by film-school grad types. Still, it is better (and longer, with less foul language) than it's also-awesome predecessor, The Gamers.

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising is a parody of pen-and-paper roleplaying gaming. But it's a loving parody - in a similar vein to the most-excellent-comic Knights of the Dinner Table. It alternates perspective between the in-game characters and story, and the story of the players themselves in the real-world. It is particularly fun to see the effects of rules, retcons, and silly things players try to pull off in a game play out in the game world. But where that was pretty much all there was to the first movie, this one goes a bit further. Buried within the good-natured ribbing of things like male players playing female characters, asian-style monks in European fantasy settings, the bard class, and critical failure rolls, there is an underlying story of the players themselves and why we love these games.

And if you are a pen-and-paper Role-Playing Gamer, you simply Must See This Film. That's all there is to it. Even computer / MMO RPG players who have never rolled a 20-sided die in their life may still find a lot to enjoy here. If you have seen the previous movie, you may enjoy a few of the "inside" jokes thrown around referring to it, but otherwise this movie stands on its own.

And here's a trailer so you know what I'm talking about:



Enjoy!

Labels: Geek Life, Movies, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:32 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Reconnoitering Cute Knight Kingdom
I bought Cute Knight Kingdom the other night. Good thing I'm all secure in my masculinity and stuff like that. Because - like the original Cute Knight - I gotta admit it's good.

I don't know if I'll ever get to the point where I can run through an entire game in 90 minutes or so like I did in the original. Maybe it's just my inexperience, but games in Cute Knight Kingdom seem to be a bit ... meatier. Still not super-long, mind you - maybe 2x the time to cover three years? Again, I played through Cute Knight / Cute Knight Deluxe many, many times and felt I had much of it "down." I'm still learning the ropes of CKK.

Yeah, there are butterfly silhouettes in the inventory screen. Hey, Hanako, maybe you can add a "beard" option or something for us guys, with an alternate inventory screen with sword imagery or something? Still, while the game is targeted more for players of the feminine persuasion (er, excuse me, Georgina maintains that it's really targeted for an audience of HERSELF, and leaves that open to interpretation beyond as to who might enjoy it beyond that), there's a lot to like here for any player.

Okay - for those new to the whole Cute Knight thing... this is a game that borrows ideas from life-sim type games (especially Princess Maker) and old-school RPGs. You play a girl who has three years to seek out her destiny. Now, nevermind the fact that nobody has their destiny fully figured out at 21 (or 51) - this is fantasy we're talking about here. So your goals are to:

1. Survive and become self-sufficient (at least in Kingdom you can always go back home to your adopted parent's home to crash for free)
2. Don't give up on your dreams and hope (represented by the "dream" statistic, which increases with success, but decreases with failure and fatigue --- I think)
3. Work and educate yourself to improve your ability to succeed in endeavors
4. Seek out life experiences (story arcs) that may guide you towards a particular destiny

The game ends with failure (if you let your Dream score fall to zero), at the culmination of a storyline goal, or at the end of three years. The ending is based on events or on your character's combination of skills and stats at the end of three years. There's no glass ceiling in Cute Knight Kingdom - while I've not verified it, it looks like you can even become queen over all the land. That's a pretty sweet advancement opportunity.

The Cute Knight series (can you call two games plus an enhanced version a "series?") also includes the "Sin" statistic. This is a big deal for those of us who like to choose a life of monster-bashing and dungeon-exploring. Killing living creatures - especially sentient ones - or engaging in unscrupulous activities in the game increases your Sin rating. There are ways of bringing it down as well. So far, I haven't seen how Sin limits your options in Cute Knight Kingdom yet - but in the first game, it was a pretty significant factor if it got too high (and the "best" ending - along with certain other story opportunities and career options - was only available if you took a walk on the dark side).

Cute Knight Kingdom really expands on Cute Knight's gameplay. It offers significantly more breadth of opportunities, with several towns and locations to explore, multiple dungeons, more job options, and what appears to be a metric buttload of crafting and cooking options. And I've stumbled into a few more general "side-quests" as well. There seems to be a bit more depth as well, particularly as success in training and jobs is now a more interactive experience, as you can choose to sacrifice health or spell points to exert yourself or apply extra concentration to tasks. This can be tricky, as in at least one location (a frontier town), the only beds available were less-than-ideal at the local military barracks, which actually cost you stamina points (and corresponding maximum health) in addition to the 10 gp per night to stay there. While very capitalist of the military to offer them, that sure doesn't convince me that choosing military service is an option I want to pursue with my happy-go-lucky farmhand-turned-dungeon-explorer, Katrina.

I still have a lot of exploring to do. The game's got a lot to it, and though a lot of the activities are repetitive, there seems to be a lot to do and find in this game. And it's definitely not for everybody. It is very "life-sim" heavy, so if you are more of a kick-the-door-in type of RPG fan, it might not be as appealing. It's also very open-ended and relies upon a bunch of smaller story threads rather than a single epic story arc. And - well - it's cute. Just in case the name didn't give that away.

Since playing the first Cute Knight, I have discovered the Persona titles, which also perform a mash-up of Life Sim and RPG. Cute Knight Kingdom is heavier on the life sim, lighter on the RPG, and much more open-ended than the Persona games. I'm not sure which mix I prefer more. But I am finding this RPG "sub-genre" to be really, really addictive and fun. I want more, please.

I have added Cute Knight Kingdom to the Rampant Games store*, and I invite you to give the demo a try. Many of us in the U.S. are enjoying an extended weekend as of tomorrow, so it's a perfect opportunity. The demo only lets you go for six months into your career - pretty much up to the point where things are finally starting to get hopping and you can "get ahead" in life and choosing jobs and training based on where you want to take the Knight, instead of what you need to do to afford anything. It's a good taste of the game overall, though unfortunately it's also (IMO) the most difficult and least exciting phase of the game. But it's still fun, and gives you a good taste of what's in store.

You can check it out here:

Download Cute Knight Kingdom at Rampant Games!

As always, have fun! And let me know what you think.

(*And I was exhausted and half-asleep when I did it, so please contact me if there's anything awry).

Labels: Cute Knight, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:14 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Muppets Do Bohemian Rhapsody
Too awesome not to share.



Man, I remember the days when the Muppets were a force of nature. This video harkens back to those days. Big time.

Interesting how they avoided singing about killing a man (that WOULD have been disturbing, wouldn't it?), and mentioning Beelzebub.

Labels: Geek Life

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:41 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
On Difficulty Levels
Player-selectable difficulty levels in games, in general, suck.

I do not have a fundamental problem with the idea. My time is at such a premium that I'm really not one who wants a full-on ultra-hardcore emit-blood-sweat-and-tears-for-every-checkpoint-achieved type of player. I played Bioshock on easy (I think) because it was a rental and I just wanted to get through it to the end. Conceptually, difficulty levels are a Good Thing.

But in practice, they suck.

When designers are trying to balance the overall challenge of a game, there are a lot of really clean, easy-to-change, easy-to-program, almost invisible parameters that can be modified to make things work. Like how much damage the player can take before dying. Or how much damage the player does, on the average - which means the enemies fall faster. Some are a little more complicated, like the placement of health or ammo pick-ups.

The problem arises when "difficulty level" uses these same parameters. After all, it's the same one the designers use! But really, all I'm choosing as a player is my level of handicap. Gee, do I want trivial and boring, or do I want punishing and headache-inducing? Neither? Okay, let's choose "Normal" difficulty.

There are two things that bug me about this.

First, but least importantly, is the gamer mindset. As a gamer, I'm always calculating risk (or cost) vs. reward ratios when I'm playing a game, and that includes the difficulty options screen. I'm immediately thinking, "So what do I get if I choose the punishingly hard road?" In general, nuthin'. There's no benefit at all for choosing the hardest difficulty level unless I am such an expert player that anything less challenging makes me fall asleep.

Give me something different. Bonus content. An extra level. Even more enemies ( or earlier appearances of tougher enemies) beats "nothing. " Maybe I'm hung up on replayability, but I'd like to have a slightly different experience playing through on hard than on medium rather than just dying more frequently.

And I don't want what feels like an artificial or arbitrary increase in my challenge. Simply making it easier to die is... lame. Again, more enemies is something. Less frequent pick-ups can work, though that also gets frustrating in a hurry.

Better AI is awesome. In an RTS, if changing difficulty only allows the AI to cheat or gives them bonus resources, I'm not a fan. But give me a smarter opponent that will surprise me and give me a more interesting challenge? I'm all over that. This isn't hard to implement in an RPG, either, where enemies might "forget" to use their most effective abilities as often as they should, or pick their targets unwisely ("Let's cast silence on the fighter!").

The problem is that this takes more work. A lot more work. I've never seen a game budget where any consideration at all was placed on difficulty levels, and as a result they were always implemented as an afterthought to fulfill some nebulous bullet-point in the design doc. And so difficulty levels will continue to be implemented in as lame a manner as possible for 99% of games.

And so difficulty levels will continue to suck.

Labels: Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:50 AM (Permalink) 16 comments links to this post

 
RPG Design: Experimenting With Initiative
This weekend I concluded long-running D&D campaign. We've been playing it for about three-and-a-half years. 3.5 edition of D&D, naturally. We normally alternate games so we only end up playing a little over twice a month, and then only for about three hours per session. It's tough having longer games when the majority of our group have children to take care of. So while not quite as impressive as it sounds, it was still a Big Game.

And we have a very big gaming group - ten players if everybody showed up, and that was only because we had to turn down a couple of friends who wanted to join the game later (which feels really, really sucky to do, I should add). Handling initiative for a large number of players is horrible. Third edition tried to streamline matters by removing the die roll every round. Taking the time to roll dice wasn't the killer - it was everything else associated with tracking who goes when.

With such a big group, players would end up chatting and spacing what was going on while waiting for their turn, and then find out that by the time their turn came around, the combat situation had changed and they'd have to re-figure everything out. Which made their turns take even longer. Which encouraged other players to chat and mentally check out while taking their turns. After all - with ten players, if each player takes only three minutes per turn, that's a half-hour waiting to get to do something. And that is not including the wait for the DM to resolve his side of things.

Jockeying for who would go next, with changing initiatives, also took place. You generally wanted the casters with the big area affect spells to go first, along with those casting "buffs," followed by the melee characters rushing in to mix it up. Even without the dice-rolling, initiative order would change in mid-combat, complicating things and sometimes confusing people. Including me!

Then there were all the times we'd lose track of who's turn it was. And as a DM - not being the most organized person in the world - I'd get distracted and forget to keep things moving along swiftly. It was a mess. Combats took forever.

I made an effort to streamline the initiative system, which was met with very reserved tolerance at first. I don't roll for each monster's initiative separately --- to save my own sanity, I have monsters with the same (or very similar) initiative modifier all go as a group. At most, the monsters end up broken up into three initiative groups.

What I gradually came to realize is that what order you went within your party was largely cooperative and unimportant. What was important was whether or not you got to go before your enemies.

So I decided to put players into initiative "groups" as well. Against one unified group of monsters, the party would be divided into "group one" and "group two." Then, within the players' initiative groups, I let them decide among themselves who is going first. At first, we worried that this would slow things down, as deciding order could turn into a lengthy debate.

In practice, this was not the case at all. I estimate that this sped up combat by about 20% or so. While not a complete revolution, it's a substantial improvement. The increased speed seemed consistent across all character levels. I wouldn't have believed that the transition of turns was actually taking that long - but in our group, it was.

Secondly - and perhaps most importantly - it helped keep the entire group engaged in what was happening in the game. Since it's possible to go at any time during your group's initiative, players stay more involved and attentive to what's going on in the combat. Actions get taken as players are ready to go. They discuss their battle plans as they go with each other a lot more. They get to work tactically much better together. Without increasing the difficulty at all, it increased the number of interesting decisions players could make.

Effectively, this system made combats much more fun. And that is always a big win. I don't know if it would work as well for significantly smaller groups. But for a large group, it was a game saver.

So would this work in computer RPGs? Well, the group-based, single-player RPG is something of a vanishing breed, though the indies and some companies like Atlus have really been bringing it back lately. Traditionally, these games still tend to go by the old "roll dice to determine your order" system. Would something like this be advantageous?

Probably not in the same way. After all, we're talking about only one player, and the computer can automate the turn transition extremely well (better than us poor humans). But - borrowing once again from wargames - would having initiative be more at a "group" level rather than individual level make combat more interesting?

Maybe the party pools together its initiative bonus (plus random dice rolls) to allow the player to select who in what order - when you absolutely, positively need to get protection from vampires up as fast as possible. In the D&D Miniatures game, the player winning initiative could move two characters - any two - first, with each player alternating movement. Deciding who moves when was not a complicated decision, but it was an interesting one. The order in which units are able to move is often just as important as what they do. It often dictates what they can do.

In the real world, in time-critical situations, the coordination and timing of individual actions is often critical to success. But due to the limitations of the user interface, you don't see much of that in single-player action-RPGs (or RTS games). While the reaction speed of the player, not the character, is usually the issue in these games, could something be done here as well?

Stuff to think about.

Have fun.

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:10 AM (Permalink) 8 comments links to this post

 
Top Ten Texturing Tips
An experienced vet passes on his accumulated knowledge on good 3D texturing:

Top Ten Texturing Tips

Had tip to Edward Maurina (author of the Game Programmer's Guide to Torque) for the link!

Labels: game art

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:12 PM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Games Should Be Easy?
Jeff Vogel has come to the realization that old-school difficulty is not necessarily a good thing:

Make Your Game Easy. Then Make It Easier.

I have a rant brewing about difficulty levels. It's a simple one. Suffice to say that I don't think throwing multiple difficulty levels into the game is, by itself, a miracle cure to appeal to all players. Not even close.

But in general, I agree with his new philosophy which replaced his old, 100% wrong one:

"People will happily forgive a game for being too easy, because it makes them feel badass. If a game is too hard, they will get angry, ragequit, hold a grudge, and never buy your games again."

Sounds about right. Although I think ragequit isn't necessarily the case. People will just give up and not come back, anticipation the frustration they last felt when playing the game. It won't be a vindictive thing. It's just that an occasional butt-kicking might be good for the soul, but only a handful of people will actively seek out the constant experience of a whuppin'. I hear there are special clubs for people like that, but they play different kinds of role-playing games.

Speaking personally - I like to be challenged. But if I'm feeling fully challenged every single minute, I'm gonna get tired of a game quickly. It becomes a source of stress.

But I also get bored if a game is too easy. If I don't find myself forced to actually puzzle my way through some situation at some low level of frequency, I may not come back to the game for a next session. The challenge doesn't have to be excessive and force me to reload. But it should make me exercise some brain cells (even in an action game).

Labels: Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:08 AM (Permalink) 14 comments links to this post

 
Czech Adventure / RPG "Legie" Now In the Coyote's Den
You know, just a few weeks ago I was thinking to myself, "Self, you know what we need? We need more indie Adventure/RPGs where you have to clean up vomit!*"

And then, appearing as if by summons, comes Legie. Legie, meaning "Legion," is a Czech adventure / RPG that starts out with you as an innkeeper's assistant, serving beer and - yes - cleaning up vomit. Most RPGs start you out at the bottom, but Legie has to stoop a little lower, as everybody in this game is already in pretty sad shape. Plague is ravaging the land, the economy is dying, and people are giving up hope. Instead, they seek solace in their alcohol and the local pub - which means you.

And then you run out of beer.

Ah! Quest time! A quest that will take you deep into the neighboring mines, battling enemies, and consuming alcohol. What's not to like?

Legie eschews the trappings of traditional fantasy to tell a story set in the medieval Czech town of Jilemnice. There are no elves, dragons, wizards, or so forth. Or save-the-world quests.

The movement system takes a little getting used to - you move in ten-foot steps in spite of the environment being "true" 3D. The demo, in particular, is all adventure-game style, though it has some RPG elements later on. It is probably not a game that will appeal to brute-force hack-and-slashers. But I have a soft spot for the strange, quirky, and different, and all three seem to apply pretty well to Legie. Plus, it's a 3D, first-person perspective game (and not cute-anime style, WCG!), which also makes it stand out amongst most other indie RPGs these days.

So I've added Legie to the (rapidly expanding!) collection of RPGs for sale at Rampant Games.

As always, give the free demo a try and see what you think:

Download Legie here

* Okay, no, I didn't, but I should have!

Labels: Adventure Games, Game Announcements, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:47 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post