Okay, so, I have a couple of questions for those of you that have played this sort of game before, which should help some things in the long run here.
First of all, here's what's currently going on, at least for me: My role in this whole thing has started, and I've had a chance to try the (very early) current version of the game. I've seen some things, I've tested some things. Needless to say, I cant mention what they are, which I must admit is darkly amusing, because I can be a bit of a snot that way, cant I... But I've gotten an idea as to the very absolute core basics and how they're probably going to work out. I think it's all very promising, even if there's not much to see at this time as you'd expect. It's looking good.
But anyway, my role in this is a couple of things: I'm doing enemy/boss/whatever attack patterns as I did last time, but I'm finding that this time around plenty of it is also coming up with ideas & suggestions for both parts of the game's engine, and also the actual gameplay mechanics and such. Basically, using stuff like that to help as much as I can, so the devs can get the game as close to their vision of it as possible; and what they've envisioned for it is pretty darned great, I think. I think many of you guys are really going to like this when it's done. Arcen's games are typically pretty high quality... and I cant see this one being an exception to that rule at all.
However, I have a tendancy to use my own bias that I've gained from the sorts of games I play, a bit too much when coming up with stuff like this. For TLF, this fact was just fine: The Obscura were my main job, and they were meant to be overwhelming, intimidating monsters that COULD be fought, but SHOULD be avoided. This fit my typical style of design very well. But this time, that's not what I'm after here. I dont want things I come up with to be super frustrating or just downright annoying. We've all seen that sort of boss in games like this... the ones that dont really add fun or true difficulty to the game, but are JUST annoying, and really nothing more. I'm doing my absolute best to avoid this sort of thing, but it's not always so easy, particularly when the game is still meant to definitely be pretty tough. And while I know a good bit about game design in general and particularly about the genres that are a part of this game, I very definitely dont have even remotely near the experience and overall ability that the devs do. So sometimes, some outside influence can really help.
And that's pretty much what I'm after here. Some thoughts, ideas, and opinions from you guys on games that are of a similar style to what this is. These things can help my overall thought processes in doing all of this, allowing me to more easily keep away from that tendancy to go overboard. Seriously, it'd help a ton, it really would.
So firstly, I'm wondering, for those of you that have at all played games that are in any way similar to this one, is which ones are your favorirtes, and which ones do you just not like at all?
Examples of the sorts of games I mean are Binding of Isaac, Rogue Legacy, Our Darker Purpose, Cryptark, Vagante, Spelunky, and even Arcen's own Valley Without Wind games (both of them). Anything at all like that. Even if it's something really obscure. And yes, I know full well that something like Spelunky isnt even remotely close to being like this game in terms of gameplay, BUT it does use a few concepts that actually do fit what I'm doing, even if the reasons dont appear to make sense when you look at them.
So, for favorites, or ones that you just hate.... what is it about them that puts them into those positions for you? What element stands out the most? What do you think about the style of design for the enemies/monsters/whatever in the game, and their behaviors and the threats they represent? What do you think about the overall pacing of the game, in terms of moment-to-moment stuff like combat? How about the player's movement and overall "feel" of the controls and such? If you find they have high replay value, what is it that keeps you coming back to them?
Again, those may not all seem like they make sense in relation to the specific things I'm doing, but I promise, that info is useful to me. I'm trying to be as helpful in all of this as I can, and any additional info I might learn about stuff like this can really help.... even if it's only a small bit of info, every bit counts for something, and is very much appreciated.
And who knows, the devs might get some ideas out of any answers you guys have as well. Though they're already going off of tons of their own excellent ideas already.
