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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperDesignTalk About an Interesting Design Element of a Game You're Playing
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Author Topic: Talk About an Interesting Design Element of a Game You're Playing  (Read 2151 times)
Alec S.
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« on: May 20, 2016, 10:08:33 AM »

Think of this as the more critical companion to the "What are you playing" thread.  Specifically, this thread is to post design elements that you find cool, interesting or compelling about the game you're currently playing.

I, for instance, am currently playing Dark Souls 2 (Yeah, I know, I'm one behind [two if you count Bloodborne]).  I'm really fond of the level transformations.  In other words, a number of levels have devices in them that change some part of the level, usually the boss arena.  The levers in Heide's Towr of Flame that increase the space (and remove the risk of falling of the edge) of the boss arena, the brazier in No Man's Wharf, the windmill in Earthen Peak, ect....  It makes it so that taking your time to explore the area directly makes your main run easier.
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« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2016, 10:18:46 AM »

The way that The Witness teaches without saying a word. I often see people making comments on the design of Mario games, and how the first stage of Mario Bross teaches the player, but The Witness takes this philosophy to another level.
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« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2016, 11:40:09 AM »

I love Hyper Light Drifter's ammunition system. Rather than having a stock that gets depleted, or weapons that have to cool down after use, or just infinite ammo, guns recharge a little bit each time you land a successful melee attack. All guns share the same charge bar, and use different amounts of it per shot depending on their type. It creates interesting risk/reward scenarios where shooting from a safe distance is only an option for so long before you have to get up close and deal damage another way, but it's still always available, even if it's a few sword slashes away.
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« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2016, 03:42:58 PM »

imbroglio is a roguelike on a 4x4 grid with changing walls where the spaces of the grid are your weapons. that means that e.g. if you're standing on an axe space while attacking a monster, you'll attack it with an axe, if you're standing on a bow space you'll use a bow etc. you can build your weapon grid yourself before a game, with some restrictions. your weapons also level up when you kill enemies with them. this is a mechanic that i don't think exists in any other game.

there's a kind of loose semi rock-paper-scissors thing going on with which weapons are best against which enemies so you'll have to make strategic decisions about which weapons to level up, which you do by positioning yourself carefully and exploiting enemy movement patters.

this game gets a metric fuckton of depth out of what basically amounts to pushing a pawn around a 4x4 grid.
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« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2016, 11:41:55 PM »

Hey I like this thread concept!

This is a small part of Enter the Gungeon but I absolutely love flipping tables. It's such a small thing but adds a ton to a bullet hell game. Instead of having to dodge roll all the time, flipped tables can provide alternative cover. It changes the flow of the game significantly as you aren't having to be constantly moving and dodging to stay alive. It changes enemy behavior too as they can flip tables and hide from your bullets as well.
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« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2016, 12:42:27 AM »

I'm playing Gabriel Knight right now.


It's mostly standard Point and Click fare, but I do like that the protagonist is carrying a tape recorder and records all conversations. This means you can go back and re-experience any plot-relevant information that you maybe accidentally fast forwarded or forgot about and frees up the characters to die or refuse talking to you etc. without leaving you stranded.
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Alevice
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« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2016, 07:24:02 AM »

I love Hyper Light Drifter's ammunition system. Rather than having a stock that gets depleted, or weapons that have to cool down after use, or just infinite ammo, guns recharge a little bit each time you land a successful melee attack. All guns share the same charge bar, and use different amounts of it per shot depending on their type. It creates interesting risk/reward scenarios where shooting from a safe distance is only an option for so long before you have to get up close and deal damage another way, but it's still always available, even if it's a few sword slashes away.
have you played downwell?
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« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2016, 08:16:41 AM »

I love Hyper Light Drifter's ammunition system.(...)
have you played downwell?

Exactly what I thought. I really love the fact each weapon consumes a different amount of ammo from shared pool, and that reloading is triggered by landing. I was hooked by the game and managed to beat it. But the hard mode just tore me to pieces... Screamy
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« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2016, 03:05:12 AM »

I'm currently playing "Dungeon of the Endless" and I'm stunned by the gameplay itself. They managed to mix roguelike dungeon exploration with strategy elements. This is the first game in ages of which I can say: "I have never played anything like this before".
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quantumpotato
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« Reply #9 on: September 01, 2016, 05:57:48 AM »

imbroglio is a roguelike on a 4x4 grid with changing walls where the spaces of the grid are your weapons. that means that e.g. if you're standing on an axe space while attacking a monster, you'll attack it with an axe, if you're standing on a bow space you'll use a bow etc. you can build your weapon grid yourself before a game, with some restrictions. your weapons also level up when you kill enemies with them. this is a mechanic that i don't think exists in any other game.

there's a kind of loose semi rock-paper-scissors thing going on with which weapons are best against which enemies so you'll have to make strategic decisions about which weapons to level up, which you do by positioning yourself carefully and exploiting enemy movement patters.

this game gets a metric fuckton of depth out of what basically amounts to pushing a pawn around a 4x4 grid.

Yes. Thanks to Silber convincing me to give this game a shot past my first few runs. It's fantastic.

https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=56122.0;topicseen

I've been playing narwhale.io. I gave the developer code for gamepad support and they put it in which is awesome. Playing with a gamepad made me seriously notice how troublesome the "turn speed" mechanic is. You're a narwhale trying to boost-stab other narwhales but you can't turn instantly. If you could, the game would be super twitch-reactionary.

The lack of instantaneous turn-speed means you can predict that an opponent facing away from you isn't an omnidirectional threat - you can predict they can't harm you without telegraphing their intent.

When 2 narwhales just miss each other, there's an interesting dynamic of turning to rotate your body to either face their body and / or move your body out of the way that their head is facing. It would be fairly mindless if you could just snap into any direction and fire.



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Alec S.
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« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2016, 12:52:48 PM »

I picked up Project Sylpheed for $1 from a bargain bin, not really knowing anything about it.

Turns out it's a space-sim that has a really clever solution to one of my biggest problems with the genre.  In space-sim games, it's really hard to orient yourself in space when there are no static points of reference.  You are a fast-moving ship and you know your position in relation to other fast-moving ships (or the occasional large slow-moving ship), so it often feels like you're not moving, or moving really slowly.  Project Sylpheed solves this problem by having all ships leave behind a really long, brightly colored energy trail.  These serve multiple purposes: they give you basically unmoving (if temporary) points of reference to give you a better sense of your own motion, they make it easier to find other ships, they make it easier to gauge the movements of those other ships, and they make the area you're fighting in more visually interesting.
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« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2016, 02:05:47 PM »

I picked up Project Sylpheed for $1 from a bargain bin, not really knowing anything about it.
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=57729.msg1278772#msg1278772

Good timing, lol.
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Alec S.
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« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2016, 02:07:46 PM »

Oh, hey!
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« Reply #13 on: September 12, 2016, 02:56:51 PM »

Playing Invisible Inc. now, and I like how this game uses conflicting elements to builds tension.

On one hand, it is stealth-based, so the very nature of the genre encourages you to move very methodically, take your time and stay on the safe side. On the other hand, every mission is on a timer that increases the danger you're in every five turns, effectively forcing you into taking risks. This takes you to the best part of the game - making mistakes, panicking, and trying to mitigate the fallout.
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« Reply #14 on: September 12, 2016, 03:19:50 PM »

invisible inc is amazing and should have been way more hyped than it was
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« Reply #15 on: September 12, 2016, 11:32:30 PM »

Tempest and its ability to blur itself of either being a puzzle game or an action shooter.
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quantumpotato
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« Reply #16 on: September 13, 2016, 02:09:28 PM »

I hate idle/clicker games so I made myself play one recently to learn about them.
I've been playing AdVenture Capitalist, mobile version.
What impresses me is how the absurd amount of exponential buffs you get when you do a prestige reset (reset all your stats but with a huge multiplier on points earned), there's a thrill in how ridiculously fast you plow through the game content. Literally thousands of times faster.

That and the theming is very well done - you get multipliers when you buy more businesses that have appropriate names like "Jumbo Shrimp" when you hit 200 shrimp boats or "Free Pens" for your banks. Clever unexpected detail that fits thematically & mechanically: upgrading your newspaper gives "Lemonade Ads" and "Car Wash Ads" and "Pizza Ads" for multipliers on them.
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Alec S.
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« Reply #17 on: October 17, 2016, 08:50:30 PM »

I just finished Rygar: The Legendary Adventure for the PS2.  Really fantastic hidden gem.

It's an early Character Action game, although unlike something like DMC, it's got fairly long, uninterruptible  attack animations somewhat like Dark Souls.  There are three weapons:  One that is fairly slow but can hit at a fairly long range, mostly in a straight line, one that is even slower, but hits in a large area around the player, and one which is fast, but close-range.  The third weapon plays a lot more like other character-action/hack 'n' slash games.  It doesn't have as much of a learning curve in regards to the attack animations.  However, it's the last weapon you unlock.  The game is built around all three of the weapons having their utility, and if the game introduced the quick weapon first, the player probably would have gotten used to it, tried the other weapons, found them to be slow and unwieldy, and cast them aside as worse weapons.  But the game gets you used to the slow attack animations early on, and gives you enough time to get used to them before giving you a faster weapon.
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« Reply #18 on: October 20, 2016, 05:44:54 AM »

Started playing Tokyo Jungle last night, and so far it's been a pretty unique experience. The premise is that humanity has disappeared and feral pets, zoo animals, and race horses have taken to the streets of Tokyo in a battle for survival. Depending on whether you are a predator or herbivore, you'll hunt, fight, stealth your way around the city looking for food and a mate.

A couple of interesting design choices:
  • There's a arcadey 'Survival' mode that you play to unlock chapters in 'Story' mode. After you complete a chapter, you go back to Survival mode to unlock more chapters. Its a really strange way to tying the arcade and story modes together.
  • You keep Survival mode going by finding a mate and having babies. You then play as the babies.
  • You can form a 'pack' of animals, which boosts your attack power, and acts as a store of lives. If the player character animal dies, you'll take control of another member of the pack.
  • Its kind of an open-world game, but also an arcade game. Each survival session lasts for quite a while and you're free to explore the ruins of Tokyo as you search for food and try not to get killed.

It does a pretty good job of building its game mechanics on the premise, while still being an arcade experience with scoring, challenges and all that other gamey stuff.
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« Reply #19 on: October 20, 2016, 08:51:45 AM »

i like tokyo jungle. survival mode far superior to story mode tho. it's one of those games that really need a more polished sequel.
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