These were my comments on 2 recent do/don’t articles at rockpapershotgun
re: do’s and don’ts on rock paper shotgun
These should be numbered and anchored to make it easier to refer to specific ones when we send our hate-mail to developers.
The games that inspired each do/don’t should be mentioned so developers can go re-experience what you’re talking about.
Should also list games that are exceptions.
Each one should have a forum topic started so the RPS community can further elaborate on it.
After a time, a massive poll should be created and word of it spread to every gaming community in the world. Then we can give developers some truly useful feedback.
My do/don’t list:
DO acknowledge that most homes have multiple gamers but only 1 PC or Console.
Therefore, you should allow people to keep their save states and settings in separate “accounts”.
See the early battlefield series, Unreal Tournament 3, and Mass Effect 2.
I have at least 4 RPGs on my system that I haven’t started playing because my brother got the them first and used up half the save slots. When I do play them I’ll probably use even more save slots because I like to go back and replay the most fun 10 minute long parts games over and over (ie: HL2 Hovercraft boss fight, Crysis alien spaceship, etc).
But for use to try to play a game at the same time is a clusterfuck because we can’t remember which save belongs to who.
DO incorporate a toned-down version of Brink’s S.M.A.R.T. system in all future games. I’m so tired of watching thousands of zombies scale 30ft walls, fences, and buildings while my LFD2 characters can barely <strike>climb</strike> hop onto the roof of a car. I don’t expect Coach to be a gymnast! But I do expect him to climb over a chainlink fence if his life depended on it.
DON’T let me kill an enemy by shooting him 4 times in his big toe or pinky finger (HL2)
DO offer optional tutorials to teach us exactly when and how to perform the cool stuff we see in a cutscene. (ie: crysis warhead’s super-speed-jump onto a moving vehicle.)
DO give me the ability to climb trees if there are lot of trees in your game (crysis)
DO let me use an X-box controller (or other). ESPECIALLY IF it’s a console port!
DO let me use a controller and keyboard at the same time.
I like the analog stick for fighting games but a game like Killer Instinct (snes emulator – yes I own the cartridge) is best with 2 rows of 3 buttons. Having to work with 4 buttons and 2 triggers feels awkward. Analog stick + keyboard keys is great.
For less strange example: Wings of prey with an xbox controller is hard. So many attributes need to be controlled. If I could assign some of them to the keyboard (left ctrl, space bar, arrow keys, numpad enter) I’d be able to do most of the work on the controller and do the rest with my feet on the keyboard on the ground.
Possibly a keyboard & trackball on the ground with controller in hand. Don’t judge me.
DO have 2 sets of menus if your game is a console port. For up close pc on desk players have a pc-centric menu. For people with their PC in their entertainment room or bedroom with wireless controls you should include the console menu since we’re probably sitting on a a couch or bed.
FLASH GAME DEVELOPERS!
DO allow me to customize my controls. My 5 and 8 year old neices played dozens of single player pc games for years with WASD(left hand direction) YUIHJK(right hand action) before their mom let them go online unsupervised.
They hate arrow keys (RIGHT hand DIRECTION) spacebar/ZXC (LEFT hand ACTION) as much as any hard core pc gamer.
DO offer 2 player split screen play on PC. The average gamer PC destroys the hardware in a xbox yet console ports never retain their splitscreen co-op/multiplayer. (exception: split/second)
DO give playback controls to cutscenes (pause, play, rewind, fastforward, restart, stop)
DON’T use windows live for anything other than allowing the player to show up as being online to their friends. In Dirt2 they use a part of the LIVE interface to let you save car balance setups. The length of the filename is severly limited and you can’t use spaces!!! WTF! Sucks. That’s something that should have been a part of the native game interface!
DO remake quake 3 with higher polygon counts, higher texture resolutions, a better menu, ragdoll physics, same lighting, same color scheme, same characters, same sound effects, double tap dodge, not double jump, and flesh out the back story I read in a text file somewhere.
500% more people need to write Game Reviews FOR GAME DEVELOPERS.
crysis 2 seems to solve the mounted gun problem by unmounting and carrying it.
I think we can all agree that the water droplets in the new F1 game are totally OK
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-f1-2010/700509
@FLASH GAME DEVELOPERS:
DO: Allow me to rebind keys.
“PC gamers have more buttons. Let them use them!”
While we have lots of buttons we sometimes don’t have enough fingers and/or hand/eye coordination. So, please let us plug in a 2nd keyboard and mouse or trackball that we can use with our feet. Or let a 2nd person use the 2nd keyboard as a player 2 input for fighting games (STREET FIGHTER 4!) if we don’t have controllers.
Re: Ladders
In real life I can look around, turn around, lean back and use both hands to hammer a nail and all sorts of other stuff. In crysis I couldn’t shoot or look around much when on a ladder. Still, the crysis approach to ladders is the best I’ve seen so far. It helps to be able to see your feet.
DO: include the ability to lay flat on the ground and crawl in an FPS. (STUPID SINGULARITY CRATES AND HALF OPEN GARAGE DOORS. I can’t recall moving a crate around that much since Tomb Raider)
DO: include the option of a sihlouette or fully rendered 3d character in the hud that can indicate my curent body position, crouch, prone, standing, sprinting, limping etc (maybe even adjust the lighting to indicate how hidden I am or that I’m taking cover with my back flat against a wall)
DO: let us switch between first person and third person whenever we want. Sometimes you just want to enjoy the scenery the art team spent years building! I can’t count the hours I spend looking at beyond good and evil, quake 1 and quake 3 textures, models & animated shaders up close.
DO: add an option to tweak the severity of head bob, depth of field, and so-called HDRI (bloom) (man I miss quake’s console commands)
Speaking of BLOOM: Do they have NO PHOTOGRAPHERS working at these game companies???
http://thinsoldier.com/_users/thinsoldier/forums/bloom.jpg
