Some insight from a game designer

[Sativarg]

The word failure is from the article and I tried to shorten the title for the heading. I bollixed it up and I'm sorry.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7262202.stm

 

 

 

But, he (Peter Molyneux) says, his games have had a fundamental flaw.

 

"For a long time I made games I mistook adding complexity for being a good thing," he says.

 

"In actual fact I kept adding new features and new features to a game when I should have been fixing something deep down in the guts of the game that was slightly wrong."

 

Molyneux is famous for adding features and for layering on options and opportunities for gamers.

 

"What I feel more and more as I get more and more experienced is that if I can make something really simple, give gamers a highly-polished experience, then I have succeeded.

 

"A lot of the time it is making things simpler but much, much richer."

 

The story is short but interesting. No?

 

"I am the luckiest man alive because I get to have my dreams made real by 150 of the most brilliant people."

[TheTerminator2004]

So he admits that he has made a few mistakes in the past, and has learned from them. What's wrong with that? If anything, I'd have thought that was a good thing.

 

And its not like hes the only dev to have thought more = better, anyway - that seems to be what most developers think. The fact that he has realised that more doesnt = better simply indicates good things for Fable 2.

[Sativarg]

What's wrong with that?

As usual I managed to misrepresent what I was intending. :wallbash:

Of course you are correct. My attempt at irony or sarcasm in the title was lame. But now that is set in stone and I will have to try to make amends.

[TheTerminator2004]

What were you trying to say? I sometimes have a habit of missing quite obvious things, so it could just be me being stupid. ;)

[Sativarg]

What were you trying to say? I sometimes have a habit of missing quite obvious things, so it could just be me being stupid. ;)

Just that even great game designers can learn from experience and that adding features is not always a good thing.

 

I get My Oblivion so modded up that I have mods I don't hardly use because I am to lazy to learn all the key strokes and strategies. Simple is good.

[Vagrant0]

Simple is good.

No. Simple is what made Oblivion such a piece of garbage compared to Morrowind. They simplified way too much, and made a game that you'd have to be almost mentally challenged to fail at. They simplified too much. As is Fable is a fairly simple game, which makes it less fun since all you're doing is spamming keystrokes at later times. Unfortunately when game makers talk about keeping things simple, they usually mean scaling back aspects of the game that provide diversity. Look at what a piece games like NWN have become compared to their predecessors like Baulders Gate and even Planescape Torment (dispite the how simplified things are). They've simplified it to the point where you no longer need to think and plan out what you're doing, you just hit a few buttons and get an instant win.

 

Sure, you can have too much in some cases, but most of those cases are either with projects that have alot of updates over a long period of time (the sims) or are products which have totally lost sight of what the game is about by adding those features (mostly modded games). Your typical produced game simply doesn't have enough time and money to spend in little side features to make it to where they become excessive. And companies usually avoid falling into that because they are more focused on the main product as it is what people are buying the game for.

 

Using mods as an example is flawed reasoning. Mods are made by non-professionals, and often are more concerned with just getting one aspect done, ignoring how well that aspect is being controlled. When you compound this by using several such mods, it's only natural that youll have issues developing. The fact that few mod teams talk to eachother to work out compatability, and there is often a lack of reference guides for mods doesn't make it easier.

 

If a produced game has issues with controls, it's usually throughout the game, and not just with a few tacked on extras.

[Sativarg]

Ya I guess I'm just trying to sound like I know something I ain't got no Idea about. I should keep my stupid opinions to myself.

What can you expect from an idiot that lives in a tin shed and enjoys playing Sacrifice by himself. I have no life and no future and I think I can think. I woke up this morning and saw a "good" IMHO article about a game developer. I put it here because I thought it might be interesting to someone not because I wanted to debate about why I put it here.. I am out of coffee and my head hurts like hell so I'm not thinking for C>R>A>P>. So, if you want, just report the stupid post and have it removed.

[Dark0ne]

I think what Pete meant to say is that he wants to sell more games and believes making things simple is what sells games. He's probably right. Oblivion sold well, TF2 sold well, Portal sold well, HL2 sold well, etc.

 

We do seem to be going through a "casual gamer" phase at the moment and some developers are going to be jumping on the bandwagon for $$$.

[Crisb92]

Let us hope then that Yahtzee will not be correct in his, if I remember correctly, prediction of the arcadey games such as peggle becoming the norm, as developers spend less time and money developing games that may not be as good as their predecessors, but sell many times as well. Thank you, "Console 'tards."

 

Chris. (Not being serious, really, I'm not.)

[Marcus Wolfe]

The trick to making a good game is making it simple if you want it and complex if you want it. Take most fighting games for instance. Sure, you can probably beat the game by random button mashing, and have fun doing that. But, if you try, you can used advanced combos to decimate your enemies.