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Replay-ability   (Read 13563 times)
Old Post December 20, 2007, 09:31:22 pm
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Administrator Shining Spammer *

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Replay-ability
Hi, I've been playing Aveyond recently and noticed something that almost gives it replay-ability and it's such a simple thing!

Early in the game you _choose_ your main spells.  You don't find out what the other spells do throughout the game.  Further on in the game you get given extra spells, however you do sort of always wonder what those spells are like.

Now, in Aveyond you can save your game at any moment so you could try all of the spells out, so it ALMOST gives replay-ability.  I'm sure with set save points you could force the player into having to play a whole stack of battles before being able to choose some spells or abilities and THEN being able to save, to deter them from just choosing spells trying them out and redoing the whole set of battles.

This concept sort of happened with the chessboard battle in SF2 in which you choose 2 characters.

Perhaps something similar with a few character choices or spell choices early on in the game could really effect the way you fight battles, and grow a major desire to play the game again with a different combination.

Programming in a huge plot choice early on is always difficult as you almost have to code in two whole different storylines just for 2 endings, however if you're just talking team members or spells - then they only really effect how the player is playing the game, not what people say to you or where the game takes you.

~Elvenfyre


Old Post December 26, 2007, 09:23:50 am
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Re: Replay-ability
A very smart idea, which does add to the replayability imho. Exclusive choices are often good to begin with, actually. Multiple possibilities for promotion, for example, or different party relations that unlock new sections of plot Smiley.

Overfilling the player with stats tend to reduce the playability, unless the player can really use those stats to his strategic advantage. Which is not nearly always the case if you ask me..

Devlyn

Great news for Shining fangame developers! Wink

Correcting your non-working <img> tags since 1982 Wink


New Post December 27, 2007, 07:32:03 pm
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Blahian *

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Re: Replay-ability
Exclusive choices do add to replayability but they also add to the task of added coding/resources creation. E.g. creating more sprites and animation for different promotions. These task the indy game developer more if he relies on himself or a small team to do the work.

I've been considering purchasing aveyond also btw. How does it play like?

Abstract thoughts and unintelligible emotions


New Post December 28, 2007, 03:03:41 pm
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Administrator Shining Spammer *

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Re: Replay-ability
in aveyond you wander around like shining force, but on encountering a battle you can have up to 4 party members fighting at once.  there is no distance to cross, you pretty much decide what your team members will do against which opponent(all are reachable because it is as if you are standing toe-to-toe with your foe) and then it decides what the opponent will do and the battle turn ensues, if someone is left standing on both sides, you do this again until a victor emerges.

The game does have a lot of quests, but the good news is that only a couple of the main plot quests are actually tricky.  side quests can be helpful but are generally much more difficult unless you happen to go to places in just the right order.  I ended up with a bunch of side quests in my quest log i tried to do at the end of the game.

Weapons are pretty funky, although learning how to best use your characters takes a while.  there are an awful lot of items for different amounts of healing but this just adds to the "oo what is this new goodie" phenomenon.

Oh, there are multiple endings so make sure you save your game at the end!

~Elvenfyre


New Post December 29, 2007, 06:55:23 pm
#5
Ty
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Re: Replay-ability
I think a common solution to add replay value is multiple endings, but it's quite resource intensive and you need to keep track of how the story is branching. It works, but I think there are simpler methods - especially the "new goodie" way Wink

One RPG I've played plenty of times is Skies of Arcadia, which has a few little bits that help make it replayable:

1) Lots of hidden "discoveries" to make, with their own bit of history
2) Hidden characters to find. They can be used on your ship and the end credits describe what happens to them after the story. Undiscovered characters have a blank page, so you know how many you need to find. Giving them some story also works nicely.
3) Freedom of movement. You can fly around as you like. As you get upgrades, new areas are opened up and old areas have new bits to find.

I like the idea of multiple side quests, but I'd like them to have an effect on the story. MMORPG style quests of "kill x beasts for y gold" aren't as good as "rescue my daughter and I'll make you a sword" or something similar.

Aveyond 2 is being released in January, and it's very good. I don't want to pimp my website too much, but I'll be selling it and hopefully doing another interview with the creator (so if you have questions for her PM me and I'll see what I can do).


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