Curious game industry thoughts?

DrProfessor

So a few months ago I posted a thread on what college I should go to for my game design interest. Ofcourse I was promptly demoralized, ranted on a little, but helped. Now I have a curious question for the same crowd.

I have plenty of idea's for videogames, you have plenty of idea's for videogames. Idea's like, uhm, say.... Automatically switching weapons or meleeing when your close to a target. Such that shooting and melee are the same button. Now that seems like a helpful feature. I was wondering why interesting things like that don't see the light of day as far as I can tell. Is it becauase it's just to ridiculous or difficult to produce new code from scratch? Or is it because developers like to stick to whats known? Or something else?

I guess I'm just asking why you think new things aren't done outside of the field of indie games. Is it very hard to in-corporate a new mechanic into a game? Or is it just that developers are afraid that once you put a new idea in a main stream game, it will be burned at the steak?

I see the most interesting and beloved games coming out of developers that I've never heard of before hand or that only make a game every 10 years. Like Tera the MMO for example. It is an action MMO done right and it's treading on (fairly) untouched ground. But when I hear about some kind of crazy new system in a Final Fantasy game, it comes with a half furious half delighted uproar about it "Breaking the classic formula". So I'm thinking it's the "afraid of being burned at the steak" thing.

Lilnoobs

I imagine it would be quite annoying to melee when you wanted to shoot and shoot when you wanted to melee.

-Tal

Mass Effect 1 did the melee thing you're talking about. They put it on separate buttons for the sequel so the player has more control over exactly when they want to shoot or melee, which is important in close quarters.

astronautcowboy3

That could be a balance issue. It might make multiplayer too easy if you can shoot, shoot, shoot, crowbar seemlessly. Take, for example, Gears of War, where if you'd like to chainsaw a person in half, they still get a few seconds to shotgun your face off while you rev the engines.

DrProfessor

Huh. Well...
Haven't played mass effect... 's a little embarassing actually. But that was only a random example. I meant to talk more about if people think that games are more or less implementing interesting features or not, and if there's a reason for it if they aren't and if they are, is it hard to?

TychoCelchuuu

"Automatically switching weapons" isn't a new idea. Sorry. It's one of the first things I turn off in games, too (Brink, for example, recently had a free weekend and the first menu item I unchecked was "swap empty weapons automatically"). As -Tal pointed out, a unified shoot/melee button has been done before too, and as Lilnoobs pointed out, it's extremely annoying.

The reason your "idea's" don't see the light of day is twofold.

1) Your argument contains a false premise. Plenty of games are chock full of your idea's.

2) Your idea's aren't actually as good as they seem in your head. Developers tried out the idea's, realized they weren't so great, and took them out (or left them as menu options, as in Brink, or put them in anyways and made me mad, as in Mass Effect).

CaptainNemo

I really want to see more developers implement Valve's unlockable commentaries.

Renzo

Metal Slug is another example of that.

But yeah, it's not about having awesome ideas. It's what makes it into the game that counts.

-Tal

CaptainNemo wrote:

I really want to see more developers implement Valve's unlockable commentaries.

I would pay money for in-game developer commentary.

DrProfessor

TychoCelchuuu wrote:

"Automatically switching weapons" isn't a new idea. Sorry. It's one of the first things I turn off in games, too (Brink, for example, recently had a free weekend and the first menu item I unchecked was "swap empty weapons automatically"). As -Tal pointed out, a unified shoot/melee button has been done before too, and as Lilnoobs pointed out, it's extremely annoying.

The reason your "idea's" don't see the light of day is twofold.

1) Your argument contains a false premise. Plenty of games are chock full of your idea's.

2) Your idea's aren't actually as good as they seem in your head. Developers tried out the idea's, realized they weren't so great, and took them out (or left them as menu options, as in Brink, or put them in anyways and made me mad, as in Mass Effect).

Ah. Hello again there. Well I'm afraid I can't make an argument against the possibility that I just have horrible ideas except the good ones, which have already been done by other games that I haven't played yet.
Okay, So I wonder where smaller ideas come from. I always wondered who comes up with things like the ways the health bar refills. Like is it talked out in a meeting or does it follow some blue print from the designer? Or are those things just filled in after everything else is balanced out?

Unknown

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Hahnsoo1

CaptainNemo wrote:

I really want to see more developers implement Valve's unlockable commentaries.

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay has this. It's a great, if short, shooter/action game, and the commentary is fun to listen to.

The list of games with audio commentary, though, is depressingly short.

CaptainNemo

-Tal wrote:

CaptainNemo wrote:

I really want to see more developers implement Valve's unlockable commentaries.

I would pay money for in-game developer commentary.

I especially want it for the more cinematic and well written games. A commentary for BioShock Infinite would make me cream my pantaloons.

CaptainNemo

Hahnsoo1 wrote:

CaptainNemo wrote:

I really want to see more developers implement Valve's unlockable commentaries.

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay has this. It's a great, if short, shooter/action game, and the commentary is fun to listen to.

The list of games with audio commentary, though, is depressingly short.

Wait, Stubbs and Alan Wake both had commentaries? Da fuck?

Unknown

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DrProfessor

Yeah, the in game commentary was fun to listen to for a bit, though I won't really trudge all the way back through a game for it. However I had never heard of in game commentary before Portal. Maybe a new standard has been set and games eventually won't go without it. It's pretty interesting watching the ways games as a whole grow.

Unknown

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CaptainNemo

Every Valve game since that has had one. That reminds me, I really ought to finish the Episodes again.

-Tal

Who do you see being burned at the stake for fresh ideas?

vsove

I want to do commentary for games. I would give the best commentary, you guys.

'See, this right here is the scene I did after consuming copious amounts of alcohol. To this day, I have no idea why it works.'

It would be my first and last kick at the can, I'm sure.

'Here is where I thought fellatio would be a good idea. I still don't know why.'

CaptainNemo

vsove, you wrote the Exiled Prince, didn't you?

vsove

CaptainNemo wrote:

vsove, you wrote the Exiled Prince, didn't you?

No, but I took the writing that was there, and I asked myself 'self, what would be the best way to demonstrate the debauchery in this particular room of the house?'

And thus was born the fellatio scene. It took but five hours, yet it shall live forever.

CaptainNemo

I think every game needs a fellatio room, with a developers commentary about said fellatio, and context sensitive screen commands for the skill level and style of fellatio.

DrProfessor

Just games that have been very long running actually. Burned at the steak was strong wording... it's more like... heated up to an uncomfortable degree.

I was just thinking that Final Fantasy tried new things battle systems and skill upgrade systems which are a gamble. And sometimes criticism comes of it. But in retrospect, I can't really say new things aren't being tried and loved by big brands with names like Mario and companies like Valve coming to mind.

Vsove. I say give it a shot, I would play through a game for any amount of hilarious commentary.

Dirtmuncher

CaptainNemo wrote:

I think every game needs a fellatio room, with a developers commentary about said fellatio, and context sensitive screen commands for the skill level and style of fellatio.

Why not a game about fellatio. Make it an MMORPG. Fellatio-online. Different skill-sets for giving and receiving.
"Fellatio-online, you know you want it!"

Malechai

Well the whole ranged attack melee attack at appropriate range thing has been done quite a bit in ZOE. So yeah kojima kinda beat you to the punch along with metal slug and and lords of thunder. Sure there are other games out there too but those are the most memorable.

Chance

-Tal wrote:

CaptainNemo wrote:

I really want to see more developers implement Valve's unlockable commentaries.

I would pay money for in-game developer commentary.

Ferseriously.

SvK

Indie game: small team, low cost, no user expectations.
Established franchise: big team, huge budget, lots of user expectations.
Change risks failure, and the failure of an indie game hurts a lot less than the failure of a big-budget sequel. That's my reasoning for why big games play it safe, and indie games have wacky mechanics.