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Death of child too much for a game? How dark/mature can I go?

author=LouisCyphre
It's your skill as a storyteller and a designer that makes it mature or lends it depth, not the matter at hand. If you're lacking, it will be clear because the scene will become trite or even laughable.


Yes.

Execution above concept always always always.

Dragon's Tear is no more..

I was staring at my notices like... wtf is Among Thieves and when did I subscribe to that?

Task Length (Not Playtime Length)

author=LouisCyphre
Nothing about how to establish a session length? Nothing about how to play around with session length effectively, and how doing so can establish or ease tension in the player?

You're just not getting an answer you want, but they ARE answering. The current consensus is that there is no consensus on preferable playing time for a given segment.

And seeing how you can't accommodate all or even most of your gamers, the only thing you can work with is consistency. Have these relief junctures occur at reasonably similar times.

As for what those relief junctures can be, the most obvious one in RPGs is not save points(because I think you should be able to save very often), but rather healing spots. The end of the previous cycle of attrition.

If you're playing a dungeon crawl, you haven't hit relief until you're back in town selling item drops, repairing/buying equipment, hitting the inn. For action games, there's relief when you complete the level.

You can control it by doing things like limiting inventory. Say you can only hold 10 restorative items. If the gamer is forced to ration, they'll feel the checkpoint relief of seeing the next item shop.

Save points don't offer relief if there's no real threat of failing at the moment or from the section the gamer just survived, or if the gamer has no intention of stopping.

In order to use tension, you must create tension. But I've found in traditional RPGs that this isn't normally used, and that game segments are divided into dungeons and plot progress.

In any case, length of time should be irrelevant(since there's no consensus), and denying the gamer the ability to stop playing doesn't improve the game experience. That's what you can take from the discussion.

=========================================================

What the hell does length of a task have to do with communicating with the gamer? You must explain if you want the discussion to stay on your topic.

For me, the real discussion is building and releasing of tension. In neither case does this have to do with length of time for RPGs. I can play an RPG for 3 hours without feeling any tension whatsoever, or play a game with near zero gameplay like Heavy Rain for 10 minutes and feel immense pressure.

Generally this is more pertinent in action games, being that the gamer is on edge for the entire time before the next break in the action. So being on edge for longer means something.

In RPGs, you're not normally on the alert constantly like in an action involved game. So increasing the time you spend casually playing before a relief doesn't ratchet up the tension.

In essence, I disagree with your assertion that session spacing serves game design. I believe the game design, the degree of difficulty especially, dictate the reasonable period before you need to grant a relief. This is the case for all games. But in RPGs that's only a factor as to not frustrate the gamer, and not as a tool for building tension.

Task Length (Not Playtime Length)

'Session' is definitely the wrong word. Session fits what Max and Infection are describing much moreso. Hence the confusion over the topic.

Anyway, it's important to note that players progress at different paces. So even if two different players want to play exactly an hour, a given segment of the game might take them different amounts of time to complete. This is especially the case if the segment is not linear or requires some sort of skill to advance(of which puzzle solving is included).

Olympics 2012

AALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I love her.

Olympics 2012

Michael Phelps is seriously some kind of badass.

He came into this Olympics unmotivated, flirting with retirement, in the shadow of his longtime rival Lochte who was on top of the swimming world.

Phelps was here as a formality. And he's got 3 golds and 2 silvers.

And Lochte leaves with no fanfare.

Minimap in rpg maker 2k3

Edit: I'm an idiot. I thought you were asking how to make that.

Developer's Spot#1: I'm an NPC, The Role of NPCs in Your Games

Characters are made by their interactions with others or within themselves, if you're privy to their thoughts, explicitly or implicitly.

I make quite the effort applying personalities to my random town NPCs. I'll often give names and faces to some seemingly insignificant NPCs, give them backstories and little memories interacting with the party.

Why? I want the gamer to care if that NPC lives or dies.

It's hard to feel the drama from the threat of losing something important, if there's nothing but bland, nameless NPCs in peril.

It's a design choice to make many town NPCs into fully developed characters. I know I spend in inordinate amount of time making scenarios for characters who have no significance beyond the town they live in, but that's what I want.

Whenever I dive into creating a new town setting, I figure to make at least 10-20 fully developed characters. I open up a notepad and off I go writing them into the story.

I dunno if it's worth the effort, but I think it's better than Bob the Farmer and his weather report.

@Ashley

How big of a town are you talking about? The first major city in my game's got about 200 NPCs to talk to and a similar topic is shared by no more than 3 of them. And yes, this town took me forever to populate. You can always find a way to make them say different things if you feel like it's necessary.

In my case, that meant inventing newer or deeper aspects of world building. There's not just one calamity afflicting the plain townspeople; a lot more happens in their lives. If an evil king locks down the port, how does this affect the traders, fisherman, etc? What are their reactions, opinions? How does your protagonist feel when a cute little girl tells him her dad is abroad and can't come home because of the situation? Is there any added motivation to go do something about it?

If you don't feel like developing a ton of NPCs, LockeZ's idea of consolidating NPC interactions into one person is a solid idea.

One other technique I use in spicing up my NPCs is the idea of recurring miscellaneous persons. I'll give a face and personality to a nameless NPC as he says... whatever it is that he says. In another section of town, you'll see the same NPC, still nameless, saying something totally different but with the same attitude, tone, personality. It's supposed to be a totally different person, but to the gamer, it'll feel like its the same guy, since he looks and talks alike. You can feel like you're getting to know the NPCs, even nameless ones, just by thinking "oh this guy again."

People on seem to not be able to handle critique

author=emmych
author=Jparker1984
Also, sorry. I was un aware this has been talked about b4.
well there was this one
and also this one


lol

Anyway, you're certainly not obligated to respond to every remark.

author=UPRC
I've had a few things brought up in my Blackmoon Prophecy screenshots before but, you know what? Nobody ever mentions these things when they actually play because they're so miniscule, and creators usually roll their eyes when people pick on miniscule parts of a game that don't need to be changed for any reason other than to fit the aesthetic desires of the people doing the commenting. We don't have an obligation to do that because, first and foremost, we're making these games for ourselves. We need to please ourselves before anyone else.

So yeah, critiques on RMN can often come across as needless "do what I am suggesting because I like it more than what you're doing" posts to some creators.


Yeah, this.

And it's not childish to ignore. It's childish to blow up and quit your project and throw away years worth of work, because a few knuckleheads online that you'll never meet ran their mouths.

How big is too big?

author=Instinct
Thanks for the "tips" guys:)


Er, I dunno how it anywhere else, but where I'm from, putting one word in quotes is sarcastically saying that it's not that. In this case, I would read it like you think those tips sucked.

Now, I realize that's not that case, and I think that LockeZ noticed that too, which prompted him to say you're using quotes wrong.

As for download size, I don't much care, but there's certainly people who will care about the size if they're not getting a whole lot out of the game.

I certainly would not recommend reducing your file size at the expense of its quality.