Gropwel, you have worked on a combat system (in a Spiderman game).

Does working on the combat system include thinking about the explanation of this system, or were you only working on the system and someone else was working on how to explain it to the gamer?

2nd question about the same topic: were you able to be as innovative as you wanted, or did the producer or publisher give you limits/boundries (for example: make the combat look/play like game x)?

That's a very interesting question!

In game design everything is about teaching. Everything can make perfect sense in your head but the real work is about making it about just as clear in about anybody else's mind. Learning is fun!

The designer is usually the best at determining what needs to be taught. Then he sets his learning curve in motion and ask production for necessary assets and HUD element, voice overs, upgrade system, mechanic distribution, etc... validate everything, keep testing with people who never played the game to see what information is getting across, and which one is just falling flat in pain on the pavement.

But the best is when you have a playtest lab at your disposal. The designer can sit with ergonomics and playtest experts to really design an experience where learning is completely blending with gameplay and the player is learning without realizing it or reading a single line of text. Then you're really having a blast.

This is not always how it goes though unfortunately but more studios are beginning to understand the value of consistent user playtesting.

Your game is usually well understood when playtests are not painful to watch anymore. :P

As for your second question the answer would be no from 99% of all designers. When making games for money I found it works best when you do the effort to forget about your own personal preferences and desires and really embrace what the product is meant to be, both as a brand of the company and towards players expectations. My goal is to provide delightful satisfaction to everyone involved with the product. I use my creativity mostly to improve system designs or wherever I need to provide an answer that my first two aspects are not providing, which is not so often.

My own needs for creativity happens in my basement, figuring out construct, drawing, writing and playing music. Actually if I can get a damn menu system to work my game would be flying by now... anybody is up 50 bucks for an event sheet?

Sorry, side tracking here... so best advice to new developers, don't expect work in big studios to satisfy your own desires of creativity, do this at home, you'll be much happier and efficient that way.

And I think we really did something great with Edge of Time combat system. See for yourself! :)

no, definitly I won't escape it, I gotta become a master of the lists and array and selection cycle and functions... could barely get the list object to work...

Damn it's hard, is it common around here to pay a fellow comrad to build an event sheet for a buyer?

Hi GSPforChrist !

I have to apologize, due to some experiences in the past I keep my professional network to people I worked with or that I know personally. It sucks, I'm sorry... it there are other ways I can help I'd be happy to.

It's been a while since I heard of Future Soldier. These folks must be very eager to release that game!

hmm yes, yes, yes... applying the condition directly on the object. I could point to the enemy family so it'd pick any enemy class object that is selected. I was thinking too abstract.

Then I could check all players, give the action function to the fastest one, switch his turn off, start the loop again, etc...

Now to see if I can make it happen! Thanks a lot Kyatric, once again. :)

Hi!

I've been able to figure out a prototype method for a simple turn based RPG combat system that works in one versus one. But I'm having a hell of a hard time figuring out how I would manage battles with one versus multiple enemies, any enemy type in any order, following turns, etc...

Like there are a couple orders I'd like to give, how in construct would you say things like:

"select the enemy at this position, whatever type of enemy it is, and attack him/make him attack, use these values to figure out the result"

"take the speed value of all player and non player character in play and apply this formula to then write a list of order of attacks"

"the enemy at this spot is this particular type of enemy which has these statistic parameters"

Not expecting a complete logic course 101 but just wondering if you guys could give me a trail or a hint or two that could unblock me. Just a general method idea on how to structure all this and where should I focus my attention. I've been on this one for the past week, so any help is really appreciated!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38319441/RPGtest1.exe

Need the INI:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38319441/StringTable.ini

Bless you!

edit: more clarity

Nah we only produce video games... :P

Oh and look who's here, little Jesper!

Credits to my amazing gf. This is our first son so far!

Say hi!

Hi all! Good evening!

What about game length? What do you think, would be a good gameplay length for a single player game, not rpg, say side-scroller? Are there any statistics, how much time people spend playing daily, according to their age, and how long they usually stay with one game? And what's todays average player age?

If you're asking for a game say, made by an army of one, I would say scope for something you are just absolutely certainly certain that you can achieve. We are actually 3 people working on my game and I'd be just extatic if we can wrap that little 15 - 20 minutes level of good RPG gameplay and story I have in mind.

What's a good game lenght... if the game is good it kinda stops when it was meant to. Even with close to no story there is still sometimes something the game designer is saying. A life story. Every one of us is a small kid that's celebrating hommages to the Video Games Gods that created us. Ok that was way too deep, I guess I just can't answer this question!

According to this CNN article player's average age now is 38.

That's just awesome. All thanks to Nintendo. It takes a lot of older folks to weight in against the armies of young gamers. Wii/DS is the best moves in video games history in my opinion.

Honor to be here.

Thanks for this thread, very informative and interesting! I'm curious as to how you would start a game in general? How many meeting are there before people actually start making it?

Honor is mine! I have to take this occasion to congratulate and thank you guys for the colossal effort that brought Construct to where it is today. I hope Odin will grant me the opportunities to make great games with it. :D

As for starting a game it varies extremely for each company and type of project. On one side you can have ports that are already late before announced, in that case pre-prod can last a month or two, just to figure out how the heck we're going to pull this through.

Nowadays the tendency is to have longer conception and preprod periods to have the most solid base possible to build upon. I'm talking generally 6 to 8 months with a dozen full time devs. Once you start production, there is no question unanswered and you just start dishing out levels and assets as fast as possible on solid builds to be able to polish your product as much as possible. Most modern block busters are more about quality of execution than pure innovation, although that is be called to change soon to welcome the next generation.

And at the other end you got endless conceptions... those are the worst. Insecurity to take risks leads to a vicious circle of uncertain designs, hopefully leading to small prototypes, a very long chain of validations, waiting for a mandate, trying again, changing direction... it can last for years and almost all the time ends badly.

Also, a question: how hard do you find it is to complete a project?

Professionally it's the hardest part, but also the most satisfying. Stuff that used to be crappy turns awesome, the team gets all energetic and work crazy shifts, often hyped (or depressed) by the gamer community first impressions. This is where the strongest bonds are build but also when the abscesses usually blow up as well. :S

Personnally it's incredibly more difficult as time goes by. Never got the time! Forget about money, time is the most precious thing. So it's kind of like giving birth, I guess. Once I get something done it's just that amazing bolt of satisfaction that you quickly get addicted to, proving that you still got it. I highly recommend it! :D

Thts wierd.The official ubisoft site shows Montreal studios lol.

http://www.ubi.com/UK/Games/Info.aspx?pId=5457

Basterds! Happens all the time.

But no honnestly Quebec did all the handheld versions and I worked on all of them. Had a blast making all the Iceberg levels as well as a whale that had a very long intestine.

That's cool! I'll PM you.