Everywhere has gone all quiet SClobby, forum and now Angels blog.
Group games are fun (IF you can get 3 other mates and they don't just say "I didn't know about it" when the occassion arises)
Funny thing is even the most crappy games can have a fairly good multiplayer (Bomberman 64), it's you and your friends that make it fun.

There was a Lost Vikings sequel on the Saturn, but I know that isn't the point. Games that require players to work together in groups are usually great fun, a DC example being Sonic Shuffle which is probably best in the 2 vs 2 mini-games.

I'll have more to say soon.

This is kinda unrelated, but...

I'd love to see a new version of "Lost Vikings", from the SNES and MD heyday. It would have to be 2D still though, so as not to ruin it. Anyway, with new technology we could see hundreds of levels in the same style, but get this: simultaneous multi player! The first version had it, but it didn't work very well because the second player had to share a screen. However, now we could see new puzzles requiring all 3 vikings at the same time, like using the combined weights of 2/3 vikings (each with different weights) for pressing a button, etc.

Isnt this ideas

Hey I know perfectly fine well accents mess stuff up but these are just ideas.
Obviously in an ideal world it would work fine.
Okay lets take out the voice regognition thing and just leave it as text. Dont you think an online RPG where you need to get help from other people is more fun than just NPC'S. Plus you can help others and its not like everyone is gonna get stuck at the same bit and if that did happen then Im sure a NPC could help out

FPS team commands ? Why waste your breath. No one listens :P

It could be a good idea for games like Operation Flashpoint where you could tell your squad what to do.

Team Fortress 2 is going to use it and the new CS patch due out in about a month will include VR but this will probably cause more problems.

I mean lets say some stupid 12 year old gets his hand on a mic ? Is he gonna say "Watch out sniper on rooftop " or "HAHAH S*** F*** ARSE "

But for Clans it could be useful.

You describe about 5 different online RPGs that are available now. Personally, these kind of games are life killers as well as being monotonous affairs. But that's just my opinion.

Using real-time voices at all disolves the fantasy of online play. A well made game immerses us in it's world, not us forcing reality back in. Why use a translator to turn what you've said into a different language when your voice isn't even the end product...you may as well just type it and let the computer generate it. Same results, but a more logical approach. And, yes, it's already been done.

The accent problem will never be solved, at least not for a good few years yet. I don't think voice recognition is ever really going to live up to the hype distilled in it since the early 90s. Sure, it'd be great to have StarTrek-style computers to relay commands to, like 'Lights on', 'Send subspace message...', 'Update my blog' and so on, but it's never ever going to be superior to any kind of manual input interface. As for games, it's usefulness is limited but it may have a future in FPS for simple team commands, but beyond that i'm not so sure.

I don't think we're really missing out with 'Seaman'...I was more bothered about 'Hey you, Pikachu!'...

No can do...

Sorry GM, but a translator would never work. The main reason? Accents.

Whether it be irate rednecks in middle America or dumb scousers in NW England, their voices would never be recognised all by the same program. That's why Seaman (ha ha) was never released in the UK.

Personally, if there is a new PSO (i.e. PSO2 not PSO ver2), I would like to see multi-levelled areas such as Zelda 64 (but executed differently), and more intelligent combat systems, which are more based on skill then experiance (but where experiance still plays an important role).

Sweet

I was just think earlier of what I belive would be a really cool game

It would be a massive online RPG like PSO but instead of typing to say things you would chat into a microphone and some built in translator would translate it.
Also there would be few NPC's. These people would give you the basic outline to a quest but then its up to you to work out how to do it. If you get really stuck then you would have to ask other players. You could work in groups or on your own.
And there would be secret hidden quests that you can find or ask other players how to find.

So it would be like your average online RPG only you dont get much help from NPC's. I think it would work well for a while but what if the game became unpopular and people stopped playing ? Then there would be fewer people online to get help from. Still whilst people are intrested it would be good.

I think it would work well on X-Box becuase then new levels and stuff could be downloaded to the hard drive.

Interesting Reads Part I

From planetDC:

"While browsing at DC Emulation I noticed a very cool post that GameDev.net have whipped up a guide to Dreamcast programming. The guide lets you know about all tools (which are FREE) that you will need for programming your own games for the Dreamcast. So if you are into programming (or just curious) hit this link to get your start developing your own Dreamcast games."

Good lifespan

Multiplayer does help. Look at the most popular multiplayer game online. Counter-Strike. For those of you not in the know , get in the know and come back.
Counter-Strike is a Modification for Half-Life. Now lets face facts. Half-Life is a excellent game with a good story and graphics to match but when did you last play the single player mode ?

Its a tottaly liner story with no real hidden secrets. But the multiplayer. Woohoo.

"There's nothing more frustrating than an enjoyable game that can be completed in days."
I completed SA2 in 3 days but Im still going back to it. If it didnt have the Emblem quest or the Chaos I might only dip into it now and then.

Maybe even if it didnt have the Emblem quest.
Something so small can make a lot of difference.

Freedom

This is tricky. Give people too much freedom and they get lost , dont give them enough and they dont come back.

Shenmue is a good example. Although not really that free at least you cant get stuck because Ryo will always ask questions and try and get hints from people.
But in Deus Ex which some claim has more freedom doesnt have this aid.

Claim has more freedom ? Well the plot doesnt change too much really (N.B I havent actually completed it myself but Ive talked to people who have done things differently from me and only had slight changes. For all I know these slight changes could become something MASSIVE at the end of the game. )

The only real freedom is your approch. You know stealhy or all guns blazing.

To me freedom and approch are tottaly different.

Thanks Popdog

For the opening.

So what gives a game a good lifespan?

Detail. Depth. And tons of secrets. On 16-bit machines, most games offered little more on completion than a badly-written text message. If you were lucky, you might get a picture and a special tune, too. One, publisher, however, provided a glowing example of how games should be, with a number of their titles offering just that little bit more for the player to perform after completion. And that company was Nintendo.
Finish Zelda and you could go back and collect every single heart piece. Get to the end of Super Metroid and its likely you'd have missed at least a few a few secrets and almost certainly a number of screens. And so on. Nowadays, however, are taking this 'secrets and extras' to an entirely new level. Concealed novelties. Hidden cheat menus and sometimes the little idiosyncrasies possibly offer more extras.
Its no longer 'optional' to have secrets - its a damn prerequisite. But that doesn't mean taht such features should be added at the expense of the game proper. There's nothing more frustrating than an enjoyable game that can be completed in days.

So 'lifespan' is all about difficulty and rewards?

Hardly. The easiest and best way to add lifespan to any game is to.........ADD A MULTI PLAYER MODE! It's that simple. Multiplayer gaming is so important that it should be taken as read that any competetive theme should have at least a two player mode.

What else improves lifespan?

Freedom helps. While certain games will always operate within rigid frameworks - such as your average racing game - any game that allows players to 'ad lib', as it were, is doing something very right. Exploration, customisation these little things make it all very fun.

What next? Mastery?, graphics? c'mon tell me.

Replay value

This can be incredibly important for some games (Arcade shooters for example ) and not so important for others (FF series )

The difference not being how much fun they are or anything but how long they last.

Get this and that or go that way ?

Skies of Arcadia has something like 60 Discoveries to make and a whole crew to get on your side to fully complete it but RE3 has the path splits.

Which is better ? Im not sure but I think something like RE3 only bigger would be neat. . In one part of RE3 choosing one option over the other ended up being different becuase one way you got 9MM clip or something.

What I wanna see is not just a little detour before you go back onto the normal path but even bigger changes in the long run.

Probably what Shadow of Memories is like.

The Suspense is Killing Me
Yes, a game must have suspense otherwise the effect is never the same. Look at the Resident Evil series like Dark says. They were maybe the first games to really immerse a player in the feeling that something horrible was lurking around the corner and then something like Silent Hill came along where the sound effects were used to optimum levels to up the suspense.

Left or Right? In or Out? To be or not to be?
Having multiple paths through a game is also a good idea because then it gives the gamer incentive to go through it again and see "everything" they missed first time round. You could do it in a Resi Evil 3 sort of way where one key decision at a point in the game influences the ending or you could have it like Shadow of Memories on PS2 where a combination of actions/decisions influences the path you take through the game and ending.

Ah yes BUT....

Remember the immersion post, you don't want to suddenly die for no reason you want to feel in control all the time. I quite like the suspence used in the Res Evil games. You need the suspence in both story and gameplay.

I can't bear the suspence....

Hmmmm....the ultimate games needs to be suspenceful. I love suspence! Of course by suspence I don't mean throw in extra violence or outdoing oneself in ultra-gross. But plain and simple suspence.
Like....you don't know what's coming around that corner but you think you hear something.

....or you're happy...you're humming away...and then...

SUDDENLY ! BAM! You head's been chopped off.

Music can greatly aid a game by adding to suspence.

Ideally suspence should be written right into the story. The story itself should be suspenceful....what's going to happen next? Should I trust this character? I also think multiple paths help a game to be suspenceful. I like it when you are force to make a decision in a middle of the game but you have a choice. It's suspencful because after you make your decision you play that path wondering if it was the right thing to do. That feeling keeps you on your toes.

In a way...one could argue that to a lesser or greater degree all games have suspence. But I'd like to see suspence taken to a whole new level. That brings us back to "instinctive gaming". Where the game is in real time and there are little clues as to the path before you. (See archives for more info on "instinctive gaming" and if you haven't done so already check archives for Cam's ultimate game idea, "Bullet Train".)

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who shies away from programming. But if , in the future, we ever want to make a game, we need to get some programmer buddies. I suppose I'm in no hurry though.

I too would love to be a game reviewer. I'm excellent at being critical while at the same time remaining tactful and polite. I can easily see all sides of an issue. Actually I can be a critic in general.

The Indecipherable Secret Code
I have no real knowledge of programming therefore much as I would love to be a games designer it is very unlikely to happen. Instead I'd prefer to be maybe a games tester (albeit an extremely well-paid one) or maybe better a computer games reviewer. Whether it be for a respected magazine, an Internet site or [heaven forbid] a teletext-based magazine (UK only joke) I would be quite happy to do that. However, I'd probably end up spending more time playing the games than I would reviewing them.

Maximise This
I also saw the new PC game Max Payne in action on Cybernet today and it is looking s-w-e-e-t. The whole "bullet-time" thing has been done to death but it still looks pretty cool and to make a whole game based on the idea is maybe taking a risk. But the graphics are excellent and I'm sure it'll sell loads. I just hope it makes an appearance on the PS2.

So

I'm not 'great' at programming either and programming is not really the part of games design I'm interested in, I would like to either write up the ideas OR be a level designer (my 1st choice). Just because your not good at one aspect doesn't mean you still can't work in the industry.

Yeah forget programming, we can live with ideas

Although I might want to produce a musical score (*please no more music stuff*), no reason we have to make the game, collecting ideas is good enough. For now anyway...

Well....I don't think I would ever be able to make a game....because I don't think I will be good at programming...(although I'll try). I'm more of an ideas person. That's why I started this blog is dump my ideas somewhere so I won't go insane and I can carry on with life. I think I'm better off as some sort of consultant or maybe the music programmer (I may be good at that as I am pretty good in music and mixing). Maybe a team could be put together. But I'll never be able to program anything because I'm a daydreamer. Also, I have a short attention span...already my story is fading from memory...(it was created in 1997). I'm also really starting to think that certain aspects of my story should be torn out and transferred to other people's stories and ideas, ie. Cam's Bullet Train. Well....we'll see.

Oh btw....welcome Solid! Glad to see your posts!

How is that an agurment ?

Your agreeing with what Syphid is saying.

The real geeks are programmers who do all the work but Gates and Carmack are the ones getting all the money

I apologise courdaly for the misquote...it was in fact Ray.

I know this place isn't really intended for SWW-style heated arguments, but I'm affraid I have to disagree with Syphid on a few points.

"Firstly programmers are considered the real 'geeks' of the gaming industry they sit around all day typing in a language than no bugger has a clue about, BUT lets face it Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Jon Carmack (Quake Series) are definetly having the last laugh (chi-ching)."

Gates hasn't written a line of released code himself for some 15 years, and as far as I know has never played a part in the making of any game. As for Carmack, he's a production director and has been for some time. His days as a coder were many, many years ago.
The little guys who actually do the core work are very rarely as idolised or given as much public attention. Miyamoto, Carmack, Romero, Naka, Kojima, Molyneux...these guys are the creative geniuses and will rarely get anywhere near the messy work.

Speaking of Peter Molyneux, I recently read an interview made by him about Black & White. I suppose it's essential reading for all aspiring game creators - the tale of 3 painstaking years working on what would turn out to be a revolutionary piece of software. Approx. 2 million lines of code y'know...



BTW, If anyone's that interested I could probably get hold of a copy of 3D Studio Max...the definitive graphics application for games development. It'd only take forever to learn how to use...