posted by Falthorn

I haven't read many developer-direct blog posts regarding game balance, and this one is regarding play balance in Super Puzzle Fighter, once of the most engaging 2-player puzzle games ever conceived.

Hot stuff.

[Link]

posted by Falthorn

pt3
Context Sensitive actions mapped to the same button.

Two disparate actions should not be mapped to the same button. Ideally, each button should be have a theme that pertains to the actions it controls.

IE: The circle button will be used to block, evade or somehow cause you to avoid damage. The X button will cause grievous harm on your enemies, or put parts of your body inside of theirs.

If I press the circle button, I need to know that it will get me the fuck out of harm's way, not cause my character to drop trow because he's within twenty feet of a urinal.

pt.3.a
This should go without saying, but I need to be able to skip your dialog box. Seriously. I don't give a shit if you've lovingly crafted a soliloquy in iambic pentameter with only words whose letters are numeric derivatives of phi and you want to make god-damned sure I read it.
I read faster than a fifth grader, let's pretend that when I press a button, I've got the picture and we should feel free to move on.

posted by Falthorn

These first few will probably come quickly, seeing as how they pop up in 90% of games.

pt 2
Don't make your gameplay objectives really fucking hard and/or batshit insane. I don't have all day to trial and error my way through your shitty design. Either make the objective obvious and contain a discernable pattern, or make it obfuscated but meaningful.

Games that do it right: Most Zelda dungeons

Offenders: Castlevania 2 (Kneel before the mountain), most Zelda Twilight Princess Dungeons

posted by Falthorn

This is the first in a series of posts intended as a thought dump of general ideas of how I'd fix common foibles in game design. This is mostly for my own catalogue of things not to do, but if you don't want to be a douche-bag game designer (DBGD) I'd recommend considering the following. I understand that you can't catch every bug and implement every feature, but having these in mind when making game play descisions and designing mechanics is the first step in not being a DBGD.

1. Don't make the player wait through your delightful and clever interface animation. A player with 2+ hours under his belt will know where he wants to go in your navigation by rote memory. He doesn't need to watch the interface slide, fade, or twirl with jazzy sparkles. Stop wasting the players' lives with Jazzy Sparkle.

1.a I've seen your cutscene, I died, I don't need to fucking sit through it again. I know you've spent a lot of time get the light to reflect of the main character's hair 'just-so', but the frustration I felt getting my ass handed to me a second ago is now achieving a chain combo effect that's preparing to drop a massive amount of counter gems on the enjoyment I was once feeling for your game. LOVE FOR YOU!