09.07.07
Teamwork
Here’s a thought: If you’re going to make a game where the player is part of a team (perhaps even an elite team) and is supposed to follow or even lead this team around on complicated missions, would you please not spend 3/4 of the game throwing excuses at the player for breaking up the team and sending the player along on his or her own!?
Republic Commando, you did well - you let me stay with the team almost all the time and even order them around. Have a twinkie. Elite Force 2, SHAME ON YOU! SHAME! NO TWINKIE!
And as for F.E.A.R. … let’s not even go there.
Smike said,
September 24, 2007 at 20:41
“We need to study those film and TV introductions and learn how to do them too.”
Perhaps, Mr. Adams, you should CHOOSE A BETTER EXAMPLE.
Holy hell. I sincerely hope that no one learns from the “exchange” provided on the bottom of THIS PAGE.
Please, no one learn from that PARTICULAR section. Ignore it and you’ll be better off. My god, the horror - if that’s what passes as a good game intro…
[This is why me stays aways from teh game theory.]
Jonas said,
September 24, 2007 at 20:50
That is a pretty bad example, but the point itself is really good in my not-nearly-humble-enough opinion. Amnesia has become the biggest clichée in the big book of game design, and if I ever play a single game again where the protagonist wakes up at the beginning with complete memory loss, I will immediately eject the DVD and eat it.
We should clearly not learn from The Sandbaggers, but we could do well to learn a vital lesson from Half-Life 2 or Deus Ex: Namely that it doesn’t matter if the player knows the a lot less about the setting or his own character’s history, as long as the information appears gradually (and subtly!) through the dialogue and the visual properties of the game world.
Smike said,
September 24, 2007 at 22:10
Yes indeedy-do. Mr. Adams should have consulted you regarding which points to emphasize before writing his article.
Jonas said,
September 24, 2007 at 22:29
Hmm that compliment meant a lot more to me than I think it should. I should probably not look up to you quite as much as I do. I can always turn it back up a notch when you actually get a script filmed.
Smike said,
September 24, 2007 at 23:37
It’s really a good point. I have yet to have anything actually PRODUCED, and that goes to credibility. I had the same issue with a couple fellows I followed, who at the time I was learning from them really hadn’t done anything popular or made any significant money. Of course, they’re all shockingly popular now, and millionaires, and have several houses, and one is even on the “A-list.” But if I HAD been wrong about them I could have been getting all kinds of really bad information. I just always figured I was right - no matter their status at the time - because they consistently made sense and wrote great stuff. When you hit it big, there are those who are surprised and want to know you and work with you just because you’re in the news. And then there are those who aren’t surprised in the LEAST, because they always knew. Life’s funny. I just try to trust my gut and go with what works.
Jonas said,
September 25, 2007 at 00:06
Well it’s not like I sat down and made a huge spreadsheet full of names of people who might or might not make it big in the foreseeable future and then singled you out as the guy to put my money on. I’m unlikely to ever receive personal screenwriting advice from Lawrence Kasdan, so you’re my only shot Smike. You better get rich soon or I’ll be very disappointed in you.
Smike said,
September 25, 2007 at 00:09
OOOOOOOOOOOO, KAY.