When last week was "quite a week" because of other companies' potential products, what makes you think that this week isn't also about other companies' unannounced yet completely financed franchises?
I think Lucas Arts nailed it with their second editions of Monkey Island. Why? Because the system is easy to implement and really helpful. If you have to care about a budget and want something helpful, then i would do it this way.
At least until you haven't tried it on your own it sounds more seductive implementing a more clever and subtile system, like that in a specific scene a character recognises that you're without a clue and then gives you some general hint, if this isn't enough he offers more detailed help and so on up to the point where he either tells you what to do or just does it on his own. Sometimes, when you're alone or it just wouldn't make sense that some of the available characters give you a hint, this could be a narrator or your own character thinking about it. It might also be an option to let the environment talk to you by some event leading you into the right direction.
But a more elegant integration doesn't eliminate the problem how to register when a player exactly needs some help and what kind of help he needs and you would have to implement quite some r&d in order to get this done right for a) different kind of situations, b) different kind of players and c) different kind of games. Looking at the games TTG does, i would say these resources are better spent on other aspects in the first place. Logging game progress, like i talked about with the theatre mode could mine some interesting data in the longrun or even enable to tweak things on the run, like: Look, people get stuck in this scene, they click through the hints but still don't progress, therefore, let us alter the hints and update the game. Either this or you just do it right from the start. :O)
Depending on the game, they could use one of the options mentioned before but triggered by the player who informs the game. Hey buddy, i need some help, right now! And then it's better to offer the player some real help, after he passed the more general first option, which might also be adjusted by some options, because after some intimations he might end up being more confused than he was before.
What i found interesting in this respect is that i watched people playing the new Monkey Island games whilst i was in passive sofa mode and once they got stuck, the hint system really helped them. I can't say the same about BTTF. There the hints often were misleading and after some time they just clicked their way immediately to the final hint. So this was either too much and/or not this wisely balanced. I guess proper balancing/writing is an important aspect here. Talking about BTTF, the interface wasn't really good and more in your way.
In any case, keep it simple if you otherwise can't do it right. You know, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
I'm gonna keep this short since the original busy week has been over long ago.
Do you have any plans to release a Modding tool for TellTale Tool? Something like the Source SDK? For creating new content (Like Dear Esther, A Stanley Parable in the Source Engine's case) , not for messing with the game files (Garry's Mod) .
Comments
No, seriously, Walking Dead news FTW.
I think Lucas Arts nailed it with their second editions of Monkey Island. Why? Because the system is easy to implement and really helpful. If you have to care about a budget and want something helpful, then i would do it this way.
At least until you haven't tried it on your own it sounds more seductive implementing a more clever and subtile system, like that in a specific scene a character recognises that you're without a clue and then gives you some general hint, if this isn't enough he offers more detailed help and so on up to the point where he either tells you what to do or just does it on his own. Sometimes, when you're alone or it just wouldn't make sense that some of the available characters give you a hint, this could be a narrator or your own character thinking about it. It might also be an option to let the environment talk to you by some event leading you into the right direction.
But a more elegant integration doesn't eliminate the problem how to register when a player exactly needs some help and what kind of help he needs and you would have to implement quite some r&d in order to get this done right for a) different kind of situations, b) different kind of players and c) different kind of games. Looking at the games TTG does, i would say these resources are better spent on other aspects in the first place. Logging game progress, like i talked about with the theatre mode could mine some interesting data in the longrun or even enable to tweak things on the run, like: Look, people get stuck in this scene, they click through the hints but still don't progress, therefore, let us alter the hints and update the game. Either this or you just do it right from the start. :O)
Depending on the game, they could use one of the options mentioned before but triggered by the player who informs the game. Hey buddy, i need some help, right now! And then it's better to offer the player some real help, after he passed the more general first option, which might also be adjusted by some options, because after some intimations he might end up being more confused than he was before.
What i found interesting in this respect is that i watched people playing the new Monkey Island games whilst i was in passive sofa mode and once they got stuck, the hint system really helped them. I can't say the same about BTTF. There the hints often were misleading and after some time they just clicked their way immediately to the final hint. So this was either too much and/or not this wisely balanced. I guess proper balancing/writing is an important aspect here. Talking about BTTF, the interface wasn't really good and more in your way.
In any case, keep it simple if you otherwise can't do it right. You know, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
I'm gonna keep this short since the original busy week has been over long ago.
Do you have any plans to release a Modding tool for TellTale Tool? Something like the Source SDK? For creating new content (Like Dear Esther, A Stanley Parable in the Source Engine's case) , not for messing with the game files (Garry's Mod) .