You're actually admitting in public you have an DA account?

That's ~PrettyFuckedUp

what kinda of an indie name is crazy4wii 

Haha... indie name!!! 

[It has nothing to do with how good they are at their job]

That's a really clever way of avoiding the question. Why do you despise people who earn more than 10$ an hour?

I didn't mean to avoid the question, I just didn't see a question there. As for this question, I thought I already explained it: I believe people who do equal work should get equal pay. Women make less than men for equal jobs, just because of their gender; same with minorities for their race or ethnic group, and same with people from poorer countries. It has nothing to do with how good they are at their job, or a system of rewards, or anything like that, it's just giving some people more money for doing the exact same thing exactly as well as other people do it.

I'm a voluntaryist (e.g. basically an anarcho-capitalist) which is about as far from Communism as you can get, I'm not saying people should all be paid the same no matter if they're a dishwasher or a CEO, I'm just saying that two people who are both dishwashers and are equally good at dishwashing and wash the same number of dishes per day should be expected to get about the same money and have the same standard of living. But that's not the case in the world. Some people are privileged just due to where they live, who they know, or what race or gender they are. And anyone who makes about $10 an hour is in a privileged class, those who make ten times what most other people in the world make.

It has everything to do with how good they are at their job.

There are several ways of measuring a success of a game -- Sales, Quality, Longivity, Innovation, Luck etc. A surgeon either loses his/her patient, cures the patient or somewhere inbetween. When there's only one method of measuring success, it's easier to set apart the bad ones from the good ones simply out of performance.

However, If you're better than me at making games but put in 5% of my effort -- I expect you to get payed more because you've clearly spent 2000% more time learning the craft. I performed poorly because of my lack of experience -- yet we hold the same kind work?

I work both on an high profile game development company and a small indie game (2 man team) and I've experienced wiki to be ideal tool for design documentation. Not only is it neat, tidy and easy -- you'll be able to chop it up to specific hotlinks and chunks. I'm in the midst of outlining a prototype game and seeing the flexibility of a wiki-system for documentation is great. Information is usually maintained and updated.

After working with over 10+ projects (as an artist) over the internet -- I've seen the most successful projects atleast having an outlining design document. For a design document to be as helpful as possible, it has to be written very carefully. Without going in depth of each feature, each stat and each possible combination -- that's where you chop it up in another document specifically for data crunching.

Count me in!

To analyze JRPG's without analyzing its' intended market -- Japan -- is cooking without salt. I believe JRPG's are inherently linear and grindy because it's how japanese people want it, whether they realize it or not, they don't want to make bigger decisions: They want a story, with characters (preferably characters they can relate to) and emotions amplified through "cliché". So in effect we have just adopted their way of playing back in the 80's because we didn't have any other substitute (atleast nothing as sophisticated as the japanese story lines were back then).

What has happened in recent years is a crossover where some of the japanese game makers want to make games for the western market as well. Sakaguchi springs to mind, I think Blue Dragon is a good example of how you can make JRPG's more interesting to play. It felt fresh even though a lot of players have complained about repetativeness - it's actually the first JRPG I've finished since Final Fantasy 7.

Western players are raised with a stronger reward system than Japanese players I think (it's infused in our culture). Hence an RPG without satisfying rewards getting bigger and bigger western players lose interest whereas a player from Japan could effectively play a game without big rewards (or increasing rewards).

Personally I am somewhere in between - I can't stand games that is designed poorly, a player should _ALWAYS_ know where he is going. However I can very well play a game just beacause of the characters, their personalities and what it brings to the story.

So if you could fit a story into the actions of the player or give a good story depth with 3 sentances, I'm ALL for it.

I don't really like that stance and I think there are a lot of games that negate it entirely.

Metal Gear Solid, for example. The only thing that really separated it from the pack of action games was the intriguing dialogue sequences every ten minutes. And the boxes.

But the series itself would probably have been forgotten today if it didn't have a strong story element.

I havenn't followed the discussion thus far but I just wanted to reply -- What I was trying to say was that story is due where story is due. As I said, use dialogue where you can elevate the gameplay (metal gear solid) but also skip it if it's not necessary (super metroid).

Story is difficult -- on one hand it's there to support the gameplay and not make the gameplay (unless it's an adventure game where it relies on the story to do the puzzles). In platformers for example -- STOP doing 10 minutes of dialog in every 15 minutes of gameplay, I wanna blow up stuff! So if you could fit a story into the actions of the player or give a good story depth with 3 sentances, I'm ALL for it.

On the other hand everyone loves a good story but stories no one can relate to in games cripple the game more than it helps. Games like metal gear solid would be a mediocre attempt at spy game if it weren't for the stories. It serves both ways -- use story if you can elevate the gameplay experience, if not, keep it at a minimum I'd say.

I'm no composer per se but I've always wanted to take a stab at music creation.. I would've loved to join this sort of competition!!

I like the idea of using color and contrast. I know what it feels like to be thrown into a much darker level in a game and feeling more cautious.

Man I still remember as a kid, the first time you got dropped down in the second level of mario bros.. I was scared shitless!

[Always add the graphical fluff last]

Something I didn't see being mentioned here is the psychological side of level design, how to create an experience for the player more than a "precise course of perfectly measured distances and moving platforms". Of course, I do most of this fluff for myself but in some cases it really sparks some great game mechanic ideas.

A player will automatically feel progression if you him move up or change color from dark to light. If it's vice versa (going form light to dark or down) the player tends to feel less adventorous and more cautious.

Contrast is a great way of making the player alert and a great tool to grab his attention. Remember that the player always want to be led but the less he feels being led, the more fluid the experience feels.

I usually setup a small brief for each level I design, which tend to vary the gameplay, a couple of examples are:

"Create 3 badass scenarios within one level.. then connect them"
"Don't let the player stop and think"
"Let the player explore the surroundings"

From this brief I can usually go ahead and explore the psychological aspect of the level. If I want the player to explore, I want him to become catious -- I would generate a slower gameplay level, making him decend down, darken the colors, make the colors more cold, trying to prepare the player.

Making varied (but consistent) level design is so important to a game, almost more so than the controls.

The most important thing of it all: Always add the graphical fluff last.

Hmm.. There are soo much more stuff but I think it's worth exploring by yourself! I hope my broken english and incohesive thoughts made any sense!^^

I have to say, this is pretty fucking amazing. I didn't find any problem playing it, or bugs.. It felt really polished. Consider what kind of events you'd have to have in this application, it's rather impressive!

Good Luck on sales -- you'll certainly get my dollars!

~B

Really? Who put it there? I want answers!

[Metal Gear Solid-Series]

Hey all! I'm Björn Sörensen, I work professionally as a visual designer in the game industry but are doing my own games on my spare times.

If I would name a few games that have effected me most they would be..

Metal Gear Solid-Series

Blown away by its' amazing character portraits, story development and visual style.

Ico / Shadow of the colossus

Emotions crafted into two games like none before it's time.

Megazeux

It made it possible for a young me to create games. I owe it my career in games today!

Hey guys.. Here's a couple of concepts I've been doing for a project.. PRISMA!





~B