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Monday Screenshot 4/20: Adding Clutter

Raptisoft
edited April 2015 in Solomon's Games
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On clutter:  One of the problems I find with modern games is that often they do *so much work* on graphics (and often at the expense of gameplay) that it's difficult to see where you can and can't walk, what you can and can't do.  At the same time, if you have no clutter at all, your dungeons look empty and boring, which was the big complaint I got in the original iPhone Solomon's Keep (it wasn't artistry, but device limitations that forced that on me).

So what I'm trying to do with New Keep is find a nice point where clutter is realistic, but not distracting, and breaks up the content of the dungeon sufficiently to make it interesting to look at and help you keep your place.  I consider the game Diablo 1 to basically have mastered this concept, and I'm trying to capture that feel.

Comments

  • xglsuperbounce
    I love it. I don't know how easily this would be done but in some other games I have played crates and barrels could be broken, dropping a few gold (much less than a chest of course, like 1-10). Or potions or small things like that. I think deep into the dungeon it would pay off as you could be running low on potions after youve cleared the floor you might go back and break all of them hoping for an extra potion or something 
  • Raptisoft
    Yep, they're breakable... but I might end up rolling that back.  They don't look good unless they leave a lot of fragments around after being broken, and that's a whooole lotta polygons to leave laying around...
  • xglsuperbounce
    I am assuming this one will be on pc as well as the smartphones? Possibly have a good amount of fragments on pc and on the smartphones just have like 2-3 big ones.  
  • Raptisoft
    In doing other games, I've found that usually the solution you don't expect is the one that works... so I hope to get something going where smartphones and PCs can run the same code.

    Smartphones are getting fast now, though...
  • xglsuperbounce
    Yeah most phones are faster than my laptop O.O

    I bought my laptop at the beginning of the school year, it is literally the worst piece of technology that was ever created. It lags when I move the mouse too quickly, or try to use the 2 finger gesture scroll thing. Its really sad. 
  • Raptisoft
    That's probably not your laptop, it's probably a bloatware operating system!  What's it got, Windows 8?
  • xglsuperbounce
    Yup. I hate windows 8 so much. But really it's that as well as it only having a 1.4Ghz processor and it having 2 cores (physical, no hyperthreading either.) Typing this message on my laptop, froze for about 2 minutes halfway in.
  • TheDorkLord

    " Typing this message on my laptop, froze for about 2 minutes halfway in. "


    Dear Lord!!!

  • windslayer
    Are those wooden things treasure chests or barrels? They look a little dull for chests.
  • Raptisoft
    Crates and barrels, they're just various bits of refuse that have been flung into a corner or against a wall for lack of anyplace else to store them.
  • vvllaadd99vvllaadd99
    edited April 2015
    Ah, evil villains and their excess barrels. Maybe make some explosive, that look very similar so that the player may accidentally blow themselves up, or kill an extra baddie or two. On that note, maybe water patches, where things in it take extra lightning damage, and oil patches where things in it take extra fire damage? You never know when the villain may have a leaky wall!
  • xglsuperbounce
    I remember in a game called FATE for windows it was like preloaded on the computer with like the wild tangent games had exploding barrels. I loved that game ha. I'm kind of hoping that this is in the same genre as that which is seems so thus far. 

    I think one of the things I liked most about FATE was that you could always get better. Games like Skyrim (not saying that it's the same type of game or anything) really made me mad because the levelling up system was extremely messed up. Every skill would influence your combat level, so if you grinded like pickpocketing to 100 early in game your combat would go up alot. This would have been okay if the monsters didn't level up with you but they do! So gaining levels in Skyrim is literally useless because I have just as much trouble if not more with a dragon at a higher level than I did in the beginning of the game. Luckily I have been able to install a bunch of mods to counteract this. I'm not arguing that after leveling up the game should be easy, but killing something like a bear should be easy after leveling up quite a bit, yet some higher level dragons may still be a challenge and impossible without leveling up. 

    In FATE there was a level cap of I think 100, but you could always gain more skill points which influenced your combat in less drastic ways and you could gain them by leveling up (until level 100) as well as doing quests or finding special altar things. Along with that the fact that you could always obtain better weapons was really cool. There was someone in a village who would enchant your items for you, as you had more enchantments on your item the gold cost to enchant would get extremely high, as to not be overpowered. 

    I think something I would like to see in Keep would be in addition to the original story mode with 13 (or whatever number it would be on this new game) floors, is an endurance mode. Infinite dungeons that get increasingly more difficult and larger. I can also see how this could be similar to boneyard, but I think with proper gameplay elements it could provide a different experience than boneyard and be a very good game mode. 

    </rant>
  • xglsuperbounce
    I also support vvllaadd99's suggestion of leaky oil barrels and cracked walls with the rain seeping in.
  • Avantir_ChaosfireAvantir_Chaosfire
    I also support vvlaad99's suggestion, with the addition that the presence of burning skeletons or fire arrows should ignite and explode barrels, hurting both enemies and players. Much like in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2.
  • Raptisoft
    What is planned right now, re: cracks in walls, etc... is there will be certain weak places in the Keep that open up into bonus areas. 

    For instance, you might run into a door protected by a force field, and approaching it, it'll say "It's some kind of ether force field.  It looks like a level 5 Magic Missile bolt would short it out."  Or "it appears to be a pile of rubble blocking something.  A warrior with Level 8 weapon's skill might be able to lever it out."




  • xglsuperbounce
    I really like that idea, it would give people a reason to train the skills of other classes, like a wizard training their weapons skill.
  • windslayer
    Wait, since the levels are randomly generated, if I don't have the required skill in my playthrough I won't be able to access that hidden areas ever again?
  • xglsuperbounce
    If you continued up the floors and gained the skills you could go back down to the floor and go inside if I am understanding correctly. 
    I think that's a good thing as it will give a reason to train skills that are not in your class. 
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