Different experiences
The Graveyard
The Graveyard is a new 'game' that was recently released. I would describe it more as an experience than a game though. People say it moved them .. and I have to agree with them. The one thing I would say though, you need to have the patience to play through it all, if you want to get the full experience. If this interests you, I'd say go check it out before you read on ...
What I liked about this demo / game, is the fact that it places you in someones shoes, an unlikely persons shoes in fact. No scared bad ass, or girl in bikini here, but an old lady. The speed she walks at, how she starts to limp after 6 steps, the turning speed. It all fits, and makes you think ... will that be how fast I will walk?
When you finally sit on the bench and the song starts up, I felt as it were her experiences and thoughts, and the trip back down the road makes you look at her face, see her sigh and look around.
This demo does a great job of making this character seem believable, and I think the whole design was based on that. Paying 5 dollars for it is almost to ease your own mind, to end the story. That is a very interesting concept.
Back to UT
But this brings me on a big subject that keeps me busy quite a bit. Experiences. Let me bring this back to level design and more specifically UT3 level design. A map as CTF-Vertebrae gives the player a new experience. It is quite different to play it, than to play any of the other CTF maps.
Some people crave these different surroundings and gameplay styles to spice up their experience. They get a kick out of learning a new map, 'exploring' and finding the sneaky routes, the pick ups etc etc. These people also like to experiment with mutators and mods ... anything to break the trend and spice things up.
Others tend to want to focus on the other players. The map to them is no more than an obstruction between them and their enemies. It is there to create opportunities for them to ambush, or run away. But it should never be hard to learn, because they seem to get the kick from the interaction with the other players, not with the level itself. Learning the map is more of a task, not a joy.
While designing maps, you always run into these situations. When you try something new, most people will not get it immediately, and suggest changes to make it easier to understand. But if you just make a really good, but basic map, it is a lot harder to make it stand out, and can make the player bored quicker, since it doesn't really give any new gameplay twists.
Awhile ago I posted on the BU forums about the CTF maps. And it seemed that a lot more people liked Vertebrae, than there were at the beginning. And a lot more fans of it came forward. I think I personally underestimated the players willingness to play maps they didn't really like at first, and than got used to, and than loved. But it is hard when you make a map. You want everyone to love it, so people will download it or play it more often. If they initially get turned off by it, it could be the end of that map.
Just for the record, I did not create vertebrae, I was lucky enough to work on it in the final stages of development. I started off not liking it because I didn't know my way. But after I worked on it for a bit, i learned the map inside out, and really loved it. To me it is the best map in the game, of the standard gametypes.
The Graveyard is a new 'game' that was recently released. I would describe it more as an experience than a game though. People say it moved them .. and I have to agree with them. The one thing I would say though, you need to have the patience to play through it all, if you want to get the full experience. If this interests you, I'd say go check it out before you read on ...
What I liked about this demo / game, is the fact that it places you in someones shoes, an unlikely persons shoes in fact. No scared bad ass, or girl in bikini here, but an old lady. The speed she walks at, how she starts to limp after 6 steps, the turning speed. It all fits, and makes you think ... will that be how fast I will walk?
When you finally sit on the bench and the song starts up, I felt as it were her experiences and thoughts, and the trip back down the road makes you look at her face, see her sigh and look around.
This demo does a great job of making this character seem believable, and I think the whole design was based on that. Paying 5 dollars for it is almost to ease your own mind, to end the story. That is a very interesting concept.
Back to UT
But this brings me on a big subject that keeps me busy quite a bit. Experiences. Let me bring this back to level design and more specifically UT3 level design. A map as CTF-Vertebrae gives the player a new experience. It is quite different to play it, than to play any of the other CTF maps.
Some people crave these different surroundings and gameplay styles to spice up their experience. They get a kick out of learning a new map, 'exploring' and finding the sneaky routes, the pick ups etc etc. These people also like to experiment with mutators and mods ... anything to break the trend and spice things up.
Others tend to want to focus on the other players. The map to them is no more than an obstruction between them and their enemies. It is there to create opportunities for them to ambush, or run away. But it should never be hard to learn, because they seem to get the kick from the interaction with the other players, not with the level itself. Learning the map is more of a task, not a joy.
While designing maps, you always run into these situations. When you try something new, most people will not get it immediately, and suggest changes to make it easier to understand. But if you just make a really good, but basic map, it is a lot harder to make it stand out, and can make the player bored quicker, since it doesn't really give any new gameplay twists.
Awhile ago I posted on the BU forums about the CTF maps. And it seemed that a lot more people liked Vertebrae, than there were at the beginning. And a lot more fans of it came forward. I think I personally underestimated the players willingness to play maps they didn't really like at first, and than got used to, and than loved. But it is hard when you make a map. You want everyone to love it, so people will download it or play it more often. If they initially get turned off by it, it could be the end of that map.
Just for the record, I did not create vertebrae, I was lucky enough to work on it in the final stages of development. I started off not liking it because I didn't know my way. But after I worked on it for a bit, i learned the map inside out, and really loved it. To me it is the best map in the game, of the standard gametypes.
posted by Checker at
10:25 AM
2 Comments:
Good to see you back online after the BU crash.
A good read, I have had similar experiences with my level design where part me of me thinks game play is king ( which it should be :) ) and the player should be able to jump in and kick ass.
But more often than not those levels are simple in design and have been done before. Not that they suck it's just a bad case of deja vu.
The other side of me thinks I need to push the limits and bring something new to the table in terms of gameplay or visuals to present a new look to an old tradition of DM maps. Usually for this I turn to others for help and ideas to kick my brain into thinking about a how to implement a cool idea.
Cheers...
Yeah man, i love discussing gameplay like that. What is gameplay, learning a map is also gameplay. But when it gets down to playing a 1on1 DM game with a good friend, I want a basic balanced map to play on, so we can test our skills.
I can see the reasoning behind experimental maps, and I love to play them too, but i generally gravitate towards making more straight up maps myself, with little twists at the most.
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