Taking it to the next level, a nice little game that has only meta-game. A nice tongue-in-cheek comment about how games sometimes rely too much on achievements to make them replayable.
I love the "found the main menu" achievement. Not knowing what you're doing, there are about 30 achievements in the first 20 seconds.
Have fun !
http://armorgames.com/play/2893/achievement-unlocked
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
About Mega Man 9
I wanted to talk a little bit about Mega Man 9. This game was a revelation to me. I had played Mega Man X, but no other Mega Man games, and i was curious about how they could do a new one and use the old 8-bit style with it. This was what made me look into the game. I got past that aesthetic side pretty quickly. There are two things i want to talk about: Difficulty and Level design.
The hook was, maybe surprisingly, the gameplay. It's so simple, and yet its very complex at the same time. Moreso than earlier Mega Man games for what I am able to see, having now played some of the earlier ones. The levels and challenges are designed so every different weapon (or device) can help you with a little something else than shooting bad guys.
I guess in that regard, Mega Man is not really innovative. The levels are, though. From the no-gravity sections from the 3rd Wily castle to the columns of lava you have to solidify or die in the 1st one, or even the twisting capsules in Tornado Man stage. All levels had a twist to them.
About those weapons, they all have a very specific role in the gameplay in tandem with the level design. The Concrete Shot, for example, solidifies lava, but also makes a hard place for you to walk for a second before they vanish. Take Mega Man X for example, all guns had a different patterns, yes, but none of them were more useful in any other situation than the Mega Blaster. If I recall correctly, there was one place where the charged ice shotgun was useful to get a power up. That's it. Maybe the developers' mistake at that point was that the main blaster was stronger and more useful than all other weapons, because apart from the usual weakness (Acid shot kills eagle boss, so on) the weapons stayed unused for the most time.
The developers had to make up for the lack in graphics and gameplay with the inventive levels. That's something that is crucial to the success of this game.
Second thing that interests me is the difficulty level for this game. I think that games nowadays are cakewalks. I would say my level at games is average high. I'm good at pretty much all games. Except in pc shooters, I'm almost never the best player in a game. But games aren't really hard anymore, and I know it's not me being good. It's the game makers making it easy because they don't want people to be angry at their games. Or something. The example I have in mind right now is Uncharted, which was excellent, but so easy. No challenge at all there. Just walking, shooting the dudes, and climbing around. If you stay put for too long, the game tells you where to go.
In that sense, Mega Man 9 was fresh to me.
Now this game is really hard. Really hard. I had to trial and error alot of the screens. Learn from mistakes, and learn patterns, and small tricks to get better. Of course I can say in retrospect, that I sucked at the game, but the thing is, its only hard before you actually get what does what, and how it does it. Apart from the occasionnal kneejerk (instadeath that you can't predict the fist time, without knowing it's there) all of the challenges were learnable and logial with their solutions.
Yet, even though the game has no respect for the player, you get to know everything about it, continue after continue, and by the time you finish all 8 stages, you can't help but have an incredible sense of accomplishment...
But then, the Wily stages are there waiting for you to break down completly or finally perfect your grip over the game mechanics... and complete the game.
The hook was, maybe surprisingly, the gameplay. It's so simple, and yet its very complex at the same time. Moreso than earlier Mega Man games for what I am able to see, having now played some of the earlier ones. The levels and challenges are designed so every different weapon (or device) can help you with a little something else than shooting bad guys.
I guess in that regard, Mega Man is not really innovative. The levels are, though. From the no-gravity sections from the 3rd Wily castle to the columns of lava you have to solidify or die in the 1st one, or even the twisting capsules in Tornado Man stage. All levels had a twist to them.
About those weapons, they all have a very specific role in the gameplay in tandem with the level design. The Concrete Shot, for example, solidifies lava, but also makes a hard place for you to walk for a second before they vanish. Take Mega Man X for example, all guns had a different patterns, yes, but none of them were more useful in any other situation than the Mega Blaster. If I recall correctly, there was one place where the charged ice shotgun was useful to get a power up. That's it. Maybe the developers' mistake at that point was that the main blaster was stronger and more useful than all other weapons, because apart from the usual weakness (Acid shot kills eagle boss, so on) the weapons stayed unused for the most time.
The developers had to make up for the lack in graphics and gameplay with the inventive levels. That's something that is crucial to the success of this game.
Second thing that interests me is the difficulty level for this game. I think that games nowadays are cakewalks. I would say my level at games is average high. I'm good at pretty much all games. Except in pc shooters, I'm almost never the best player in a game. But games aren't really hard anymore, and I know it's not me being good. It's the game makers making it easy because they don't want people to be angry at their games. Or something. The example I have in mind right now is Uncharted, which was excellent, but so easy. No challenge at all there. Just walking, shooting the dudes, and climbing around. If you stay put for too long, the game tells you where to go.
In that sense, Mega Man 9 was fresh to me.
Now this game is really hard. Really hard. I had to trial and error alot of the screens. Learn from mistakes, and learn patterns, and small tricks to get better. Of course I can say in retrospect, that I sucked at the game, but the thing is, its only hard before you actually get what does what, and how it does it. Apart from the occasionnal kneejerk (instadeath that you can't predict the fist time, without knowing it's there) all of the challenges were learnable and logial with their solutions.
Yet, even though the game has no respect for the player, you get to know everything about it, continue after continue, and by the time you finish all 8 stages, you can't help but have an incredible sense of accomplishment...
But then, the Wily stages are there waiting for you to break down completly or finally perfect your grip over the game mechanics... and complete the game.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Game design : everyday !
Ah yes, the ever problematic first post. What am I going to talk about, right ?
...
My passion has always been video games. Some love big cars, others sports and so on... me, it's video games. Their history, their creation, their evolution, their perception in what some call "everyday life", as if it life was segmented like that.
Humans play games since life exists, and video games are just an extent of the possibilities brought by the computerized era. Be it to share knowledge and experiences, vent, or simply have fun among friends. Games are (or should always be) part of a social live. Consciously or not. Life's a game in which you need to step up to the challenge.
Video games have to let go of the video part and must rely on being GAMES first. An social experience strenghtening relationships in our lives. Gaming alone is just not as fun !.
This first post is a little bit introspective... more concrete ideas and tangibles reflexions on various subjects related to game design are going to pop up in the next few days, weeks, depending on how hard school is on my.
see you soon, people who are not yet reading my blog !
...
My passion has always been video games. Some love big cars, others sports and so on... me, it's video games. Their history, their creation, their evolution, their perception in what some call "everyday life", as if it life was segmented like that.
Humans play games since life exists, and video games are just an extent of the possibilities brought by the computerized era. Be it to share knowledge and experiences, vent, or simply have fun among friends. Games are (or should always be) part of a social live. Consciously or not. Life's a game in which you need to step up to the challenge.
Video games have to let go of the video part and must rely on being GAMES first. An social experience strenghtening relationships in our lives. Gaming alone is just not as fun !.
This first post is a little bit introspective... more concrete ideas and tangibles reflexions on various subjects related to game design are going to pop up in the next few days, weeks, depending on how hard school is on my.
see you soon, people who are not yet reading my blog !
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