[claimed to be one of the best movies of 2009]

Would Zombieland fit well into this category, seeing how it was one claimed to be one of the best movies of 2009?

By Super Joe?

http://vimeo.com/4022128
A video of an early 90s ID software. Featuring a preview of Doom and a senile Robert Prince.

What's this doing here? This was definitely worth a new thread!

Yeah, that in itself is not a story -- it's just an event. It would be like describing Die Hard as "John McClane is visiting his wife at her workplace when the phone lines get disconnected" -- you're not mentioning why they get disconnected, who his enemies are, what they want and what he wants. I understand that you don't want to spoil the entire story, but you need to hook people with an interesting premise or they'll never bother to listen to the entire story (i.e. buy the game). Mystery is good, too much mystery is dull.

"Police officer John McClane is the only man able to stop a group of terrorists when they take an entire skyscraper as hostage... including his wife." See?


EDIT: I think that one of the reasons that I'm focusing so much on the story aspect is that the game as presented and the first minute of the trailer kinda gives an RPG/adventure vibe. It's not often these days that top-down 2D games are "just" combat games, they're often RPG maker games with worlds to explore and a story to unfold. If this was a shmup or street fighter game, I'd probably not care too much about the story, but you do setup an inciting incident that points to there being a story. Even in Diablo, which is mostly hack and slash, we almost know from just the title what the goal of the game is: kill Diablo. Without a clear goal (not necessarily a complex story, just a goal!), even the most amazing game mechanics can feel pointless to the player.

The text describing the game seems kinda messy and uninformative to me. Let's break it down:

It was just another ordinary day for Lima. Though unexpectedly, the routine chore of picking apples, will send Lima into a dangerous journey.

This doesn't really tell me much about the game for one main reason: it's very vague. A "dangerous journey" doesn't conjure up images in the mind of the reader because there aren't any specifics. Where does this dangerous journey take place? In dark dungeons? Forbidden forests? Why is it dangerous? Because of the enemies? Because of the hostile environment? Also, you don't mention what Lima's motivation is. The game is called Lima's Quest, but what is this quest about? Getting back to her normal world? Finding the five crystals that will bring peace to the land? I don't know from that description.

Labyrinthica: The quest of Lima, is a single player, melee focused action game. You use both your weapon and shield to battle, though using a sword is not always the only way to harm enemies! Unlike similar control scheme games, Lima does not have a dominant projectile weapon. That makes most battles focus on melee combat, better be nimble or Lima will not prevail.

The last paragraph was very vague and general, but then you suddenly jump into very specific game mechanics. It's like there's a paragraph missing between these two to bridge the very general and the very specific information.

There are random factors in Labyrinthica, the mazes or each potion type's color change randomly in every new game. Try not not to make Lima drink that poison potion, or try not to throw a healing potion on an enemy.

Again, this is almost too specifically describing game mechanics, since we have no context for these mechanics.

The boss battles will require you to use both your wits and your reflexes. Let's see if you can make it through them.

Make it through them to do what? To just face another boss? To get closer to returning Lima to her home world? You need to mention the overarching goal of the game, or there is no context for these game mechanics. Plus, it's all very vague and general again. Boss battles "require me to use my wit and reflexes". Pretty much all boss battles do. That tells me nothing. Who are the bosses? What do they look like? Why am I fighting them? Why are they fighting me? How many are there?

And I have to agree about that trailer. It's slooooow. And who is your target audience here? 'Cause the first minute of that trailer seems to be aiming at very young children, definitely pre-teens and mostly girls, I'd think. That grandfatherly voice-over and the accompanying images give a very children's book like vibe. Which is fine if that's what you're going for. But just remember that most pre-teens aren't able to purchase a game online on their own, so you've got quite a hurdle there.

And the intro music cuts off abruptly when you start showing actual gameplay, which makes it seem very unprofessional. If you can afford it, I'd advise you to get a professional or someone with editing experience to do the trailer for you. A bad trailer is actually worse than no trailer at all, in my opinion.

Anyway, I hope this doesn't come off as to harsh. I think we'd all just like you to have better sales!


EDIT: I see it's actually called "The Quest of Lima" and not "Lima's Quest". Which brings me to another point: You need to capitalize "quest" in the game name and also "lima" in the webpage title. It may seem like minor details, but mistakes like these give the page an amateur vibe.

[of]

George B does not know how to manage a company and should of hired someone else. 20 million down the drain without producing anything is beyond acceptable, it shows tendencies of being a complete idiot.

He should of stuck with Quake 2 instead of trying to reboot the project over, and over, and over.

Should have, should have, for fuck's sake!

Sorry, that's a pet peeve of mine...

It's not a bad thing for me personally, since I was never all that invested in Duke Nukem Forever coming out, but it's generally always a bad thing when a lot of people put a lot of work into something and 14 years later have nothing to show for it. Imagine being one of the guys having worked on this game for that long and all that work is just a complete and utter waste. I think I'd be going insane...

Yeah, I kinda scratched my head at that line as well.

Yeah, but just Christopher Hitler, so it's not that big a deal...

And you call yourself a gamer?










Oh, wait. You call yourself jrjellybean. Never mind, then.

Nachos all the way for me!

Dammit! Forgot about nachos!

EDIT: Or Notch-o's to keep on topic.

But how would that benefit 3D Realms, as they were licensing other companies' engines...

*borrows tinfoil hat*

Unless there was a second shooter!

When going to the movies: popcorn or candy? I prefer candy. Popcorn quickly gets bland.

Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem

An attempt at an inside story, although mostly off the record cause of ongoing lawsuits.

Thanks for linking this. I guess the moral of the tale is that it's more important for a game to actually be finished than being the best game on the best engine ever.

[A:]

Every time I've seen you post (and your post history as akuryo is no different), it was overly negative, harsh and non-constructive criticism of something or someone, which leads me to believe you're either A: a very obvious troll or B: just a plain idiot.

C: All of the above.

Like i said, i wanted to expose my opinions. This is starting to be everyone against me in a big war where i totally have no chance. So let this die.

So now people should let the thread die because they disagree with you? Sorry, that's not how this thing works.

Wait, you got banned from a forum? Isn't that, like, un-Australian, or something?

I really like the style of this game. Oh, and your two youtube links go to the same trailer.

Looks neat. But isn't it odd to name the game Razor 2 if the first was never released?

Wow, that sucks. Especially not knowing if you die from it now or in 40 years. I certainly wish him the best of luck.

Fair enough. It was the mental skills versus motor skills thing I was disagreeing with.

Yeah, I was probably unclear on that as well. I didn't mean to imply that a good story required higher mental skills from the player and that players of FPS games were unable to appreciate them. I was throwing out there that maybe adventure games where you are exploring a world and objects and interacting with NPCs (mental actions, mostly, as they're not reaction based) lends itself better to classic storytelling because the actions the player is doing are closer related to the story's narrative (or at least can be). Whereas the killing of enemies in action games (mostly a motor action) is often pretty far removed from the narrative of those games' stories.

In Bioshock, for example, you're mostly killing people in various cool ways. You get the story told almost as a separate layer on top of doing these actions through audio logs and radio communication (that the player receives passively). In an adventure game like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, you're talking to people, snatching objects from archeological digs, travelling to different locations and exploring them. Here what the player is doing is the story, instead of something parallel to the story. Does that make any sense?

Was kidding.

Oh. Well, facepalm for me I guess.