OMCIFER'S PROFILE

Some of the artists that I listen to from time to time have been mentioned, but I want to go ahead and put the Swedish chiptune group Slagsmalsklubben out there, definitely check some of their work if you haven't already.

I thought my right eye was worse than my left, but tinkering around proves that my left eye is slightly worse. Apparently your vision is calculated by the inverse of the focal point in meters. Fine text and details come into to focus for me around 7 inches, which is about 1/5-1/6 of a meter, which is about 5-6 diopters of correction, considering my better eye is most likely compensating for the other, this is about right.

author=Lucy_Fox
By this time I'm at -10 on both eyes. :(

Yipes! I should get a comprehensive eye exam done. Fortunately, I think my vision is damn near stabilized for the time being, at least until older age starts wearing on me. Hopefully Ill be one of the lucky few whos nearsightedness improves over time.

Hype juts out to me because, I'll admit, I DO download games because of hype, and its not solely because a game is more popular, but that I am more likely to know of its presence if it has been hyped.

Once I am actually on a games entry, and can judge what I see, graphics catch my eye, but what hooks me in are a games features, how they are implemented, and if the game embodies a set of features which I feel would make it a fun game, then Ill give it a whirl.

Game scores have a fair influence on my decision, too. A game which has a bad, or some bad ratings doesn't necessarily mean that its going to be an awful game, and the converse is true with good ratings - I usually think that games with good ratings across the board, must be doing something right, however. Scores are iffy in these communities because a game can be scored on technical merit and not actually be a fun game, as is the case with games that have implemented custom systems with relatively complex code. Sure, that's cool, but is the game fun to play?

This is a loaded question, but id like to try and answer it.

In short, there's no objective wright or wrong answer to this, as it depends on personal preference, but I think we can peel away a rational way to look at it without throwing it all to opinion.

In short, a games graphics can enhance the overall quality, and a good game made better, but you can not take a shoddy game and make it good by adding good graphics. Graphics serve to enhance the game, not build it. The essence of what makes a game appealing in the sense of what makes it a fun game isnt because of visual appeal. Still, in the same way that looking at a piece of artwork is pleasurable, or listening to a well-written composition, so do these things make a game all that much more pleasurable when you play them, and see the artwork or listen to the music.

Theres also distraction due to graphical errors, inconsistencies, and these can interfere with the gameplay. E.g. a graphical glitch can act as a hurdle by saying, causing a trap to be invisible which should be visible to the player. This is really sidetracking, I think, and doesnt deal with the question of whether aesthetically pleasing games have any bearing on the games quality.

The easiest way to look at this is through a case study, where you look at games that are generally considered fun, not fun, and are on both sides of the graphical camp in terms of games that are pretty, and games that arent. I.e. general consensus fun games that arent visually appealing, and bad ones that are, which reverts back to what I said about bad games not being redeemable through how beautiful they may or may not be. Also, take into consideration better art style, or more polygons, and how theyd affect the game.

I love the hand-drawn style of games like Astal for the Sega Saturn or Braid. These games visually appeal to me in the same way that anything else would on the same level. The games may hold more meaning to me by having the artistic merit, but not are not necessarily more fun. Meaning and fun are two mutually exclusive properties of games, but are often lumped together, which is a mistake. I think that this is probably the biggest take-home message here, in that "matter" is in a sense of how you ascribe what matters in the game; whether or not it is meaningful, or fun, which graphics affect one but not necessarily the other. Then, how do you derive fun? Are meaningful games fun? Are fun games meaningful? Ask yourself that, they arent always the same thing,

Technical "beauty" and art direction are totally different. Astal isnt technically impressive by todays standards, but is still a relevantly beautiful game. On the flip side, the rendering of a gritty war zone in Call of Duty may be technically impressive, but we generally wouldnt consider a war zone to be a piece of art in person, which leads to something else to mention.

How do we judge art? How do we judge beauty? Why are these things meaningful to us? What aspect of art appeals to human beings and our appreciation of it?

When art depicts reality, we are usually awestruck by the design, impressed that one can symbolize reality through "art".

If an artist were to sketch a lifelike image of someone thats unattractive, most people would probably admire the similarities, no matter the subject, the same thing applies to video games - right?

I just streamed my thoughts here, there's probably a lot of incohesiveness around my post, jumbled thoughts, fragments, puzzle pieces, I dont know what you want to call them. I just think that the bigger picture is not confuse meaning and fun, and how art not necessarily affects a games meaning, but how it can put a spike through the gameplay in terms of how it affects you actually playing the game. If you can nail these things down, then I think youve answered the question.

This article contains some useful tidbits of advice, including adhering to a consistent theme and planning out the dungeon logistics. I will admit, though, that I was half-expecting to read more on the theory of proper dungeon design as opposed to the process, e.g. how layout affects the dungeon, weaving puzzles and other features in, etc. but this is most likely more on my part than yours.

Also,

Ex. battle>puzzle>reward, is a good set of 3 different content types. It challenges the hero/player physically (battles) and mentally (puzzles) and rewards them afterwards for their efforts, which positively conditions them into doing the same thing again. Using the prize of chests as an incentive for players to complete challenging tasks.

I don't know if this is a matter of phrasing, but the player shouldn't face physical challenges in the game, it should all be a mental process. On that note, a dungeon that's void of puzzles could slide MORE SO as long as the battles encourage proper preparation and choice of execution to succeed; otherwise, it's a mindless enter-key spamfest that far too many games are afflicted with. I actually feel that dungeon design is the meat and potatoes of the game, so I don't entirely advocate this.

Liberty
One thing I actually talked about with someone recently was how I tend to create paths that lead no-where while they prefer to make mostly straight paths. I like me some dead-ends or just off-shoots of the main passage way through the dungeons. This is because I like to make exploration a priority and getting lost a possibility and going the wrong way quite likely - it can lead to unexpected benefits.

*Followed by picture references*

I don't know, I personally find this type of design to be frustrating. I realize that this is subjective, but if the player is led astray by dead paths too often, they will probably begin to become annoyed and tired of playing. This isn't entirely in a vacuum and the less-beaten path can be reinforced through rewards, but too much pure vanity just isn't something that I'm fond of. I think that path intersection as opposed to linearity is important because it's conducive to gameplay diversity and, consequently, enhances the player's individual experience. If you're striving for realism, this is an alternate option. There's rarely a single path to a location in actuality, and it's better than dead end paths that don't lead to anything. Additionally, people tend to prefer the discovery process, which is another nail to linearity. If you tell someone that they only have to get from point A to point B with no hint of exploration in the middle, chocked with boring battles, they're likely to just stop playing all together.