Jastiv "what is wrong with this game is design, but its like I can't put my finger on exactly why it sucks."
Indeed. Same thought all the time. It bugs me so much I usually end up doing in-depth analysis of a game I don't even really enjoy that much. Ugh! Fortunately, I often come to a satisfying conclusion about what parts of the design are bad and how I might go about fixing them in my own games. No idea if my conclusions would actually be effective though. At least not until I publish my games and see how the players feel about them. :/
邪悪 "Programmer, writer, artist - it all doesn't matter. People who play games every day since childhood will always be the best game designers"
I agree that being a gamer is more relevant to becoming a good game designer than being a programmer is. Though I'd say there is still a big gap between "gamer who wants to be a game designer" and "actually decent game designer".
"Just make a party of ranged damage dealers and focus fire / AoE fire everyone to death. Works every time."
I have seen this a lot, but I have played a lot of games where this is definitely a losing strategy. Most of the single-digit Final Fantasies allow you to spec out your entire party as ranged/AoE, but it tends to be a drawback more than an advantage in my opinion. Although DCSS is not a party-based RPG, I challenge you to beat the game as a ranger or AoE mage. Not because the ranged classes are under-powered, but because the game is IMHO properly balanced across multiple play styles. Perhaps that is the key here; If every player can blow through even the toughest enemies with ease using the ranged/AoE party, sure the game is poorly designed. But if some players can, yet others find that strategy undesireable, then I would say the game is well designed; it caters to different play styles in different ways.
You mentioned Might and Magic. Reading advice from other pro gamers on M&M6/7, the conventional wisdom is to avoid playing as druids at all costs; "they're worthless". However, when I tried a party of all druids, they quickly became unbelievably overpowered. Far more so than any other party combination I've heard of. With 4x more mana than health, I was able to do some rediculous things like casting Inferno more than an archer would shoot arrows. (Inferno being rather costly top tier spell) I could clear out entire end-game dungeons without running out of mana. Evil didn't stand a chance. Yes, that does fall into the "ranged damage dealers and AoE fire everyone to death" tactic, but my point is -in this case- it is a path everyone else considered the most difficult. Maybe some of the games are broken, but others are designed to have "different strokes for different folks". :)
withthelove "... identifying why a game doesn't work is one of the toughest challenges in game development. Of course, when a game's not working, anyone can rattle off the 50 things that are all wrong and they hate about it, but identifying the one or two things that actually need to be changed to make the game work? That's a much harder skill to come by."
Yes. This. It is easy to say "this is a poor design. I would have made it better." Harder to determine how it could be better without breaking some other game mechanic. Harder still to actually implement such an 'improved mechanic' and have your own players like it more than the other game's version of it.
chasersgaming "...This was lost because of its randomly generated platform Levels."
I see this a lot, actually. Sometimes the unlimited chaotic potential of RNG is more fun for the game dev than it is for the player. As Jastiv hints at, no randomly generated content is ever going be better crafted than what a manually designed level can be. On the other hand, even the most amazingly hand-crafted levels are not going to still be exciting and new after the 4th playthrough. Random levels have the potential to be novel and exciting on repeat playthroughs, but they can still get old pretty fast if the RNG is bland.
Jastiv: "...how long that will take depends mostly on how much variety there is to begin with."
Yes, though I would add that it's not just about component versatility. The rules of the RNG have to be carefully crafted and heavily restricted so that any randomly crafted level is still interesting and exciting. Just throwing chaos at a game without restrition results in levels that aren't just uninteresting, they're unplayable. Platforms that appear too far apart to be reached, Exits embedded behind impassable walls, etc. Obviously rules have to be applied that prevent this, but rules also need to be applied that prevent bland level generation.
I think a lot of game devs use RNG to save time and effort, but a properly designed random level generator takes more effort and more time than 10 carefully hand-crafted levels do. Here are 6 different randomly generated mazes: They are all very different both in their style and the solutions to navigate through them. Yet the fact remains they all feel same-y to the player. There is nothing in them that inspires wonder and exploration. Sure, the solution is different for all 6, but the player experience is the same boring trudge they did the first time through. This is not an argument against RNG. I love games with RNG levels. But they'd better have really well-designed generation rules.
Site code hasn't changed since your last submission.
I didn't see any log entries in the last couple days of your submission attempts. When was the last time you tried to upload something via TOR? What account were you using? If you are willing to give it another try, let me know when you do so I can check the server logs for messages about it. :)
If you're not creating a game, what would you be using the quest content for?
It is generally considered "Fair Use" to copy exerpts of a work for the sake of fandom and news. If allakhazam is some sort of hints and walkthrough site, or a fandom discussion site, they aren't getting sued because it's fair use. If they were to make a separate game and use that content, that's a copyright violation.
"Let's Play" videos for example: They are displaying copyrighted content from games they don't own (sure, they own a copy of the game, but not the copyright), yet the youtubers (usually) don't get hit with a copyright strike because they're showing themselves playing the game, not copying the content to make their own game.
Hey, Dick. I assume you are referring to Cycles Renderer. I'm sure some people have touched it, but rendering with Cycles affects the rendition, not the texture itself. In the context of texturing a 3D model, all textures are images, though not all images are textures. Therefore, yes all textures on this site (and every other site) are simply image files. The "touched" status of Cycles has no bearing on it regardless.
There are some proprietary "texture" file formats that include more than just image information, but such formats are not considered the industry standard definition of "texture". More like "textures with benefits". Let me know if you have additional questions. :)
The proprietary license inside the package says it applies to products marked for personal use, yet none of the assets in the pack are marked as such, so I imagine this license doesn't apply to these assets. However you are correct that it is misleading and I will request the submitter remove or clarify that.
As for the set not being complete, that is actually ok so long as what is being previewed and described is what is actually in the download package.
Art Submission Guidelines: "Your title and preview images must be descriptive of the content you actually uploaded. Specifically, if what you uploaded is a sample of a larger pack, the preview image must describe the art you actually uploaded to OGA, and not the additional art that you are advertising. It is fine to link to the larger pack in your description."
In this case, everything in the package is as "advertised" by the description and preview images. As for charging $5 for the full package, I don't see anywhere on the submission where $5 is being mentioned, only on the submitter's itch.io page. Artists may sell art elsewhere even if they're giving it out for free here on OGA.
OGA FAQ: "Can I still sell art that I've contributed to OpenGameArt.org? Short answer: yes..."
That is allowed so long as the full package is on a separate site and the incomplete package here on OGA is still in a usable form, which I believe it is; no watermarks, tileset is functional albeit limited in scope.
Art Submission Guidelines: "Specifically, if someone must go to a different website to obtain a usable version of your submitted work, we cannot accept it (however, it is perfectly fine to request that someone go to your website)."
A usable version of the content is available here on OGA, so it's not really an issue. Again, the proprietary license is potentially confusing, so I will address that. Again, thank you for bringing this up. :)
Apologies; the participant medal is silver in color. the winner medal is gold in color. I only give one medal per contest per person. If you want the medal you didn't get this time, you'll need to do more contests. :)
I like this discussion. :)
Indeed. Same thought all the time. It bugs me so much I usually end up doing in-depth analysis of a game I don't even really enjoy that much. Ugh! Fortunately, I often come to a satisfying conclusion about what parts of the design are bad and how I might go about fixing them in my own games. No idea if my conclusions would actually be effective though. At least not until I publish my games and see how the players feel about them. :/
I agree that being a gamer is more relevant to becoming a good game designer than being a programmer is. Though I'd say there is still a big gap between "gamer who wants to be a game designer" and "actually decent game designer".
I have seen this a lot, but I have played a lot of games where this is definitely a losing strategy. Most of the single-digit Final Fantasies allow you to spec out your entire party as ranged/AoE, but it tends to be a drawback more than an advantage in my opinion. Although DCSS is not a party-based RPG, I challenge you to beat the game as a ranger or AoE mage. Not because the ranged classes are under-powered, but because the game is IMHO properly balanced across multiple play styles. Perhaps that is the key here; If every player can blow through even the toughest enemies with ease using the ranged/AoE party, sure the game is poorly designed. But if some players can, yet others find that strategy undesireable, then I would say the game is well designed; it caters to different play styles in different ways.
You mentioned Might and Magic. Reading advice from other pro gamers on M&M6/7, the conventional wisdom is to avoid playing as druids at all costs; "they're worthless". However, when I tried a party of all druids, they quickly became unbelievably overpowered. Far more so than any other party combination I've heard of. With 4x more mana than health, I was able to do some rediculous things like casting Inferno more than an archer would shoot arrows. (Inferno being rather costly top tier spell) I could clear out entire end-game dungeons without running out of mana. Evil didn't stand a chance. Yes, that does fall into the "ranged damage dealers and AoE fire everyone to death" tactic, but my point is -in this case- it is a path everyone else considered the most difficult. Maybe some of the games are broken, but others are designed to have "different strokes for different folks". :)
Yes. This. It is easy to say "this is a poor design. I would have made it better." Harder to determine how it could be better without breaking some other game mechanic. Harder still to actually implement such an 'improved mechanic' and have your own players like it more than the other game's version of it.
I see this a lot, actually. Sometimes the unlimited chaotic potential of RNG is more fun for the game dev than it is for the player. As Jastiv hints at, no randomly generated content is ever going be better crafted than what a manually designed level can be. On the other hand, even the most amazingly hand-crafted levels are not going to still be exciting and new after the 4th playthrough. Random levels have the potential to be novel and exciting on repeat playthroughs, but they can still get old pretty fast if the RNG is bland.
Yes, though I would add that it's not just about component versatility. The rules of the RNG have to be carefully crafted and heavily restricted so that any randomly crafted level is still interesting and exciting. Just throwing chaos at a game without restrition results in levels that aren't just uninteresting, they're unplayable. Platforms that appear too far apart to be reached, Exits embedded behind impassable walls, etc. Obviously rules have to be applied that prevent this, but rules also need to be applied that prevent bland level generation.
I think a lot of game devs use RNG to save time and effort, but a properly designed random level generator takes more effort and more time than 10 carefully hand-crafted levels do. Here are 6 different randomly generated mazes:
They are all very different both in their style and the solutions to navigate through them. Yet the fact remains they all feel same-y to the player. There is nothing in them that inspires wonder and exploration. Sure, the solution is different for all 6, but the player experience is the same boring trudge they did the first time through. This is not an argument against RNG. I love games with RNG levels. But they'd better have really well-designed generation rules.
Site code hasn't changed since your last submission.
I didn't see any log entries in the last couple days of your submission attempts. When was the last time you tried to upload something via TOR? What account were you using? If you are willing to give it another try, let me know when you do so I can check the server logs for messages about it. :)
If you're not creating a game, what would you be using the quest content for?
It is generally considered "Fair Use" to copy exerpts of a work for the sake of fandom and news. If allakhazam is some sort of hints and walkthrough site, or a fandom discussion site, they aren't getting sued because it's fair use. If they were to make a separate game and use that content, that's a copyright violation.
"Let's Play" videos for example: They are displaying copyrighted content from games they don't own (sure, they own a copy of the game, but not the copyright), yet the youtubers (usually) don't get hit with a copyright strike because they're showing themselves playing the game, not copying the content to make their own game.
Hey, Dick. I assume you are referring to Cycles Renderer. I'm sure some people have touched it, but rendering with Cycles affects the rendition, not the texture itself. In the context of texturing a 3D model, all textures are images, though not all images are textures. Therefore, yes all textures on this site (and every other site) are simply image files. The "touched" status of Cycles has no bearing on it regardless.
There are some proprietary "texture" file formats that include more than just image information, but such formats are not considered the industry standard definition of "texture". More like "textures with benefits". Let me know if you have additional questions. :)
done and done.
Thank you for bringing this up.
The proprietary license inside the package says it applies to products marked for personal use, yet none of the assets in the pack are marked as such, so I imagine this license doesn't apply to these assets. However you are correct that it is misleading and I will request the submitter remove or clarify that.
As for the set not being complete, that is actually ok so long as what is being previewed and described is what is actually in the download package.
In this case, everything in the package is as "advertised" by the description and preview images. As for charging $5 for the full package, I don't see anywhere on the submission where $5 is being mentioned, only on the submitter's itch.io page. Artists may sell art elsewhere even if they're giving it out for free here on OGA.
That is allowed so long as the full package is on a separate site and the incomplete package here on OGA is still in a usable form, which I believe it is; no watermarks, tileset is functional albeit limited in scope.
A usable version of the content is available here on OGA, so it's not really an issue. Again, the proprietary license is potentially confusing, so I will address that. Again, thank you for bringing this up. :)
Apologies; the participant medal is silver in color. the winner medal is gold in color. I only give one medal per contest per person. If you want the medal you didn't get this time, you'll need to do more contests. :)
He's going to have to participate in more contests if he wants the silver as well. :)
Ease up off that shift-key, Onaneehsyu; No need to yell.
Gimp is a great (free) tool you can try for getting your sprites to the desired size. Try this tutorial (just adjust the size down instead of up :)
Congratulations. Medals have been awarded. :)
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