🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <tholle16.717966724@ursa>, tholle16@ursa.calvin.edu (Tim Hollebeek) writes:
|> Ok, here is an article that should get everyone thinking.

I hope so!
 
|> I write two types of games:
|> 	1) Powerful, inventive, nifty, well-thought out games with
|> 	      excellent story lines
|> 	2) Graphically attractive, colorful, simple games
|> 
|> A few observations:
|> Type 1 games are hard to program, need good algorithms and alot of
|> thought and creativity.  I usually give up before their done because
|> they take a long time to get them to a stage where they are even
|> playable.
|> 
|> Type 2 games are easy to make.  All you need is an good idea for the
|> concept of the game.
|> 

As a game player, I appreciate type 1 a LOT more than type 2.  Sure, 
lots of people play type 2, but the people who play a type 1 game are
really hooked for a long time.  Examples of games I love(d):  Pirates!, 
Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, SimCity, Ultima 4, Ultima 5, King's Quest.
If you look at the King's Quest series, they've turned from type 1 games
into type 2 games, and I don't play the new ones because they're just
graphics.  I might as well be looking at Unreal.  :)  Maybe it's just me,
because I don't like Wolfenstein3D either (it's just graphics in my
opinion).

For the type 2 games, I agree, that if you have a good concept, then it
can be a great game, but ... "All you need is a good idea for the 
concept of the game" seems to be much harder than it looks.  It's sometimes
hard to judge how much fun a game will be...


|> Now, I have made two of the second types of games recently, and many
|> people I know are horribly addicted to them.  So my advice is:  forget
|> the extremely cool random dungeon generator with artificially
|> intelligent monsters which will never work well anyway, and work on the
|> interface and game concept.  Think about it.

I've thought about it, and I thought of Wing Commander 2:  if the enemies
just fly around randomly, shooting you, it would be no fun.  BUT .. with
the "artificial intelligence" they put in, after a few minutes of my 
dodging by turing in certain ways, they shoot off to my side and hit
me when I turned!  It really seems like they're more "real" when they're
trying harder to beat you (without cheating), and it makes the game more
fun (to me).

Perhaps we should come up with more types of games, too -- 1 and 2
(the types you write) aren't enough for all the games out there.  For
example, what about nethack?  It has awful graphics (all text, no color), 
virtually no story line (as far as I can tell), and the monsters are non-
intelligent, but it's addictive!


Just my $0.01,

	Amit

-- 
/\\ Amit J Patel, amitp@owlnet.rice.edu
\\/ I think I'm at Rice University