SHINAN'S PROFILE

There are a couple of things that tend to make me a bit uneasy. One is the atmospheric background stuff. Diaries, tape recordings, things that show that something happened here before. For example a game that is very non-scary otherwise, Portal, has got a moment where you go through the facade of the levels and into the background with the writing on the walls. There's something tragic about what is beyond that and while not exactly scary it gives a certain amount of... uneasiness with the whole thing.

Another one is the things appearing and disappearing. Preferably not in a scary flashbang way (Although the effect of a lightning and in the flash you see a shape that is not there in the dark rarely fails) but instead in a silent way. You walk by and something small happens. But it's somehow accentuated. Portraits whose eyes follow you. A book that falls over when you walk over a certain floorboard (and when you come back the book is standing up again).

The third is carousel music. Of course it can easily be overdone but the whole thing with childhood innocence and stuff makes music boxes and children particularily scary. Of course this is usually scary in the sad way. There's a hint of innocence lost when you stare at the ghost of a child who is crying and shouting out for a parent that will never come while the music box is playing.

The fourth scary thing is the Coming of the Inevitable. This is more of the jump variety but it can also be used greatly in more silent areas. There's a monster or something and it is hunting you and it will never stop. You're locked in a room and you hear the claws scratching the doors and there's no way out. The wait. It's usually the wait that kills you. Once the monster's through the door all scary stuff goes away and is replaced by either a pure panic or a bit of calculating fighting. The Inevitable is usually great if combined with the first thing (diaries and hints) since it builds up the monster and you may hear all kinds of things about it before you actually encounter it.

In horror less is usually more. The less you see or understand of what is hunting you the more scary it is. A big disgusting tentacled monster isn't scary in the least, except for the initial panic of meeting it.

Which I guess brings me on the topic of panic. Which is also a good thing. However the thing to remember with panic and games is to make the panic object big and scary and hard enough to warrant a bit of "OH MY FUCKING GOD!" but still not ever be so hard that it'll actually kill the player. Since the scare factor always goes down for each time you have to meet the monster. In horror games Trial and Error is the worst way to go. The way to keep up suspence is by having the game easy enough that the player will never have to replay a section while keeping it hard enough to always keep the player on his toes. (This is really damn hard to accomplish. But I think, for example, that the Resident Evil games do this very well. Except for the more recent games with Quick-Time Events that kill you outright)

And speaking of panic the best moment of panic I've ever encountered must be the Werewolf in Vampire - Bloodlines. It's an unstoppable juggernaught that you have to run away from for a certain amount of time. And when you lock yourself in the bathroom and hear that thing pounding the door with no way to escape you most certainly feel that panic...

For RPGs it's Choice and Consequence. And an interesting setting will always make me more interested. (So if it isn't high fantasy or space opera I'm more inclined to be interested)

The other obvious one is "fun". It's sort of the stock answer since there's no point playing a game if you don't enjoy it. (So the more important thing is to think about "what makes you enjoy the game?")

Since the topic title actually said gaming I'll go into non-RPG territory. (Actually since it said gaming I might throw in board games just for the hell of it. But I guess not since it was posted in videogames subforum...) Of course it's hard to say what is the most important part. It really changes a lot depending on genres and the expectations these genres give.

I guess... Uh... It should have good controls. If I feel I can't do what I need to do and the controls are unresponsive I'll have a hard time playing a game. Except for some multiplayer games where you can play with friends and just laugh and have a good time while cursing the controls together.

I also think more games should have humour... But it's not really important is it.

I like Feld's, it's a bit more... sensational. myers' is fairly clinical you could say. However I prefer myers' content since it has articles and stuff in "this week on RMN". I think (following what WIP has said for RMN3) that in a "This Week on RMN" article/newspost the games released this week should come first, then submitted articles/tutorial and forum threads last.

I guess the biggest game was probably Super Mario Bros 3. I don't have any real specific memories of it though. But I remember things around it. A review in a magazine I read, my school backpack was Mario 3-themed. And all that stuff. It was a huge game :D

Super Mario Bros was my first game when I was seven. And it played a fair part in that whole thingie.

Oh and Zelda. And Snake Rattle'n Roll. And Tecmo World Cup. And Nintendo World Cup. And Blood Bowl. And Drakar och Demoner. And Sword of Hope. And Link's Awakening. And Prince of Persia.

GODDAMN SO MANY GAMES.

So. I'm the only one who likes the fact that this page is RPGs first and other genres second (but not discouraged)?

I mean it's not like "this is not an RPG it doesn't belong here" but more "I focus mostly on RPGs and here are other people who do the same."

To be honest I'm primarily an RPG maker. When I make games I think in RPG-terms. To me this page is interesting because of the RPG-focus (well actually it's all nostalgic reasons...). If this was a more general game making site I'd probably be less interested or interested in a completely different way.


I think rpgmaker.net is a good name and to me it is a brand name. Of course it's sad that the brand name is wasted on something that might not want to be associated with RPGs...