Kismet

In my game, I plan to use Kismet to add text to my game, as their is a conversation between the player and another character, and the player thinks out loud at various points. I also plan to have a stone wall that vanishes, and doors that open. I'm not sure yet whether I can get them to work, but these are my plans.

Design Document.

1. Why do you think there is so much variation in the structure of each design document?

A design document is very specific to the game it's about and the designer, so there is no right way to write one. Each Design document has been made the way it has for a reason.

2. How much technical information is contained within the design documents? Would a programmer be able to pick up any of these design documents and create the gameplay based on only the information presented within the design document?

I think a programmer could make the level designed in Technomancy, as there are pictures of the map, as well as decriptions of the overworld. Captain claw had a much smaller description of the worlds, so whiole a programmer could make it, it is unlikely that it would match up with the picture in the designers head. It has very good descriptions of the fighting though, so the characters and combat would be easy to do just using the design document. In comparison, Technomancy has very little description of characters or combat points, merely listing them and moving on. The most descriptive it gets on characters is that the Shadow warrior is female.

3. Discuss a few good points about these example documents, and then identify a few areas which you would improve in your own design document. For example, you may want to reduce some of the long paragraphs of text in some documents and present that same information as a bullet list to make the information more accessible.

My design document will make good use of bullet points, and try and use short paragraphs, for easy reading.
I'm not sure I'll be able to go into as much detail as these until I've finished the game, as if I plan something to the last detail beforehand, and it ends up not quite working, or looking different, it will drive me crazy. Nobody will need to make my game until I've finished the first version anyway, so in future I plan to make a design document after making the game, to help anyone interested in making it replicate it, but anything I make or design is likely to change part way through, or have bits I didn't plan in advance, as I tend to start off with the rough outline of something and see where it ends up, fleshing it out and filling it in in whatever way makes sense.

Colossal Cave Adventure

This week I played Colossal cave adventure, a text based game, and the first ever adventure game. I have been delayed in posting this, due to CCA not running on my Mac, making it difficult to experience.



Q1. Which elements of the game did you find enjoyable?

I really liked the plot, and the adventure element, combined with random and funny moments and responses. For example, if you type 'blast', it merely responds 'blasting requires Dynamite' which is unavailable in the game, at least as far as I got.





Q2. Which elements of the game did you not find enjoyable?

Occasionally you get in a bit of a loop, and have no clear way of progressing. This get get a little annoying.


Q3. For those elements of the game which you did not enjoy, why do you think the
game has been designed in this way.

It forced you to think about what to do, and use what you'd collected or learned already
in order to proceed.


Q4. At the time this game was originally released why do you think it was so popular?

Nothing like it had ever been made before, and it allowed you to explore a whole new world, collecting items, use logic, and be the hero of what was essentially an adventure novel.


Q5. How does the game attempt to compensate for the lack of graphics?

It describes the scenes rather well, letting you picture all the landscapes in your head. This helps show the ispiration from writers such as Tolkein in the creation of the game, as he was famed for his wonderfully detailed, moving descriptions of middle-earth.


Q6. In terms of the ‘player experience’, does Colossal Cave Adventure offer any
advantages over modern adventure games? Describe your views on this.


Quite a lot of games these days try to fill the screen with as much as they can, and it can be distracting, or difficult to focus on a certain part of it. This game is delightfully simple, and leaves much more up to the imagination.