CATMITTS'S PROFILE

bump or whatever but there's a whole bunch in the Paul Moose In Space World page for some reason http://rpgmaker.net/games/1732/ as well as hexatona's Ghost Voyage review http://rpgmaker.net/games/1694/reviews/815/ . I guess they come in clusters or it's the same guy or something but just letting you guys know

I don't really like either of them and kind of think stuff like that should just exist in the background without being openly articulated. Like you just see the effects of it all without having to deal with pedantic fake history garbage or flashbacks or whatever the fuck, which reduces the world and characters in the game from uh stuff which has the slight incomprehensibility of the real into just some boring list of completely meaningless details. It emphasizes how constructed everything is, I think, and it's basically about showing off how much work you've put into it when really your job as designer is to keep that shit to yourself and orchestrate it all as quietly as possible from behind the scenes. I guess an example of what I mean would be Frank in the film "Blue Velvet" where he obviously has some horrible stuff in his head but you only see glimpses of it, in is eyes or some sudden flash of anger or some seeming non-sequitor, and it makes it a lot more interesting and powerful than just some generic cause-and-effect backstory garbage.

I'm not really arguing that ignorance is bliss or whatever and that explaining things robs them of their power (the mirror stole my souuuuuul) but I do think it's important to recognise whether this kind of explicit worldbuilding stuff actually adds anything important to what you're trying to produce and whether giving the flying eyeball monsters on level 3 some elaborate backstory about genetic experimentation is going to add to their effect or reduce it. Uh, basically I think that doing worldbuilding and backstory right consists of just showing the player bits and pieces and little details to add up into a cohesive and hopefully compelling whole in the mind of the player. These bits and pieces might be part of a huge in-depth structure which you've mapped out in every detail but I think it's important to realise that sometimes revealing this structure comes at a cost of evocativeness (a word??) and overall effect.

Yeah it's standalone but only runs on Windows I think. Also thanks!

rip surly pixel lincoln, viva grimacing tweed snoopy

aaaa what the the hell how come noone said barkley yet http://gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=68488.0