CRAZE'S PROFILE

Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
a wolf can eat the equivalent of 100 hamburgers in one sitting

who needs PLOT whe nyou ahve GAY PEOPLE
Wakenights
"Save" the "princess" from the "demon"

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World Ease of Use: Interactivity and You

This topic is a reply to a comment thread in the screenshot topic.

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Ashley_Lacure
Alot of items to interact with, the alarm clock allows you to set and alarm to wake up earlier, the chest has a mini game to dig for treasure, and the dresser still allows you to change your clothes.

All thats missing are the lighting effects and shadows I need some help with em.

Craze
ashley please remove the entirely unnecessary PRESS RETURN TO INTERACT image, why is it even there

also I'm guessing we can tell that we are sprinting because... we would be sprinting. So, why is that there?

ELIMINATE CLUTTER.

LockeZ
Making an "interact" icon appear when you stand in front of an object that can be interacted with is something that's been done by almost every game since FF9, and I for one super duper appreciate it. There are very few things I hate more in RPGs than checking every tile in the game trying to figure out what I can search or interact with.

Similarly, I'm guessing the sprint indicator is there to tell you when you *can* sprint, not to tell you when you *are* sprinting. If you can always sprint and it really is just there to tell you that you're sprinting... uh, then yeah, I do agree with Craze, a little silly. I guess if you press a button to toggle sprint instead of holding it down to sprint, then that's slightly justified, but still also slightly silly.

Ashley_Lacure
@Craze: The interact image will stay, its used to tell you what items on the map can actually be configured and used. Also in terms of the sprinting icon I have yet to finish the stamina system but a little green gradient will fill the white similar to DHM's system.

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The Craze Argument:
<2k3 user> any game sucks unless at least three pictures are used in each frame of the game

There are far better ways of identifying what is usable or not in a 2d game (and in a 3d game, but 2d games can do it more easily since they only have the single camera that cannot hide the arbitrary graphical events). For example, sparklies tell you what you can and cannot interact with without needing to walk on every tile! Also, you could just inform the player: <sister> "go up to your mirror to change your outfit!" There's also more direct use of graphics, like, all red things can be used - but obviously that requires a stylistic change.

If the goal is to lower the amount of move-and-click repetition to see if anything can be interacted with, your game needs to have a much better system of telling the player what is and what isn't usable. With your system, you still need to walk to up to everything - defeating the purpose of the system beyond the 2k3r idea of ALL THE PICTURES!!!

Hey, I'm not the only one saying this: http://rpgmaker.net/articles/6/

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So, how do you feel about Ashley_Lacure's system/LockeZ's argument/my counter/etc.?
How have games helped you interact with the world in your game, other people's games, commercial games, etc.?
Are there better ways than the Ashley/FF9 method (my negative opinion should be obvious), or is it fine?
Has a lack of knowledge about interactivity ever frustrated you in a game? How?

This is an incredibly important part of game design across almost all genres, so I'm quite interested in this discussion!

A Civil Garden Party ~ 2k3 Discussion

Hey guys, let's have a civil discussion about something that will make people groan:

RPGMaker 2000/2003.

If you use it, why do you still use it? Have you ever thought about switching to a different maker? If so, why have you not? If you have tried a later maker, what made you go back? If you're an "excellent eventer," why not try your hand at scripting, which is similar (still entirely logic-based!) but immensely more flexible?

Ignoring Ignorance: Um, what.

...why was my civil and noninflammatory question about the new ignore function randomly trashed? I'm very interested in discussing it as part of this community and the atmosphere RMN is trying to move toward. (Note: unexplained deletion of threads does not add to a positive atmosphere.)

Ignoring: Why?

So, can somebody give me a good reason why we should have the ignore function? It sounds like a great way to mess up threads and hurt the community as a whole.

Real Social Issues in Videogames

Persona 2: Innocent Sin has this dude, Eikichi Mishina (also known as Michelle/Michel):



He's a punk rock teenager who does his make-up and hair in the school bathrooms, then undoes it before going home to his conservative father. He's a fairly normal teenage kid (aside from fighting Hitler's baptized robots with a machine gun in his guitar case), dealing with his place in the world and how to get the most chicks. (Also, you should buy P2:IS's PSP remake, although ChaosProductions and I just bought the last copies off of Amazon...).

Eikichi is an RPG character who's dealing with real issues; this is not to demean "traditional" storylines in games, but even the minute details rarely seem to stray from the fantastic to the mundane. I'm not interested in discussing whether or not the balance needs to be shifted; what I want to know is what are some videogame takes on mundane issues done poorly and done well?

Craze is in your Mind

Let's Mapping! (With Craze?)

LET'S MAPPING! GOGOGO!

(Nessy/Nessiah/Archiea_Nessiah wanted me to do some videos of my VX mapping. Use this... however you wish, I guess. I'll be showing various areas from Codename: Harbetteer as I map them.)



Death and Antagonism: Cool Villains

Hey guys, let's talk about cool indie villains! You don't have to follow my format exactly, but an image and link would be badass. We've had topics like this before I'm pretty sure, but a quick search didn't pull anything recent up. So, let's gogogo!

Remember to mark spoilers appropriately, and that not all examples have to be from RPGs.

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Augustus (Last Scenario)
"Well, that was a stupid move. But then, you never were very bright, were you?"

Augustus is a major villain for the first half of Last Scenario and a true magnificent bastard. His motives are based in his resentment toward others who achieve power due to birth or marriage while he is a self-made man; he is incredibly American in this sense. He uses the power and contacts that he has formed to begin usurping more political power, but eventually his own scheming comes full circle.

He is interesting as an RPG villain because he is involved with the party and the plot as a whole, but is also surprisingly distant; you see a lot of him, but it's a "meanwhile, at the castle..." situation. You never fight him, only his subordinates, and you are not the one to kill him. He is both a frustrating and incredible villain.

Chuck Disapproves: Craze as a Supervillain

Craze is now a supervillain.

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Chuck was still a good friend of Craze and Ned, even though Ned made an unintentional big whoops as a child and then, in the recent past, dumped his childhood sweetheart (Chuck) upon meeting Craze. Chuck understood and complied for two reasons: one, she always knew that the Piemaker was too fruity to not be a homosexual, and two, Craze was not the living dead (not the undead, as Ned thinks the term is foul and untrue). There could be intimate relations between Craze and Ned that did not involve bodybags.

Craze (in his new supervillain suit) stepped out onto the balcony of their three-way apartment, and Chuck looked him up and down disapprovingly, until...

Ban Rick Perry



Please. It's like vigilante justice. Do it for the Craze, and preach it for the freedom of everybody.

http://youtu.be/0PAJNntoRgA