Messages

31

Engines / Re: I Wanna Be The Studio Engine YoYoYo Edition

« on: January 11, 2016, 03:55:55 PM »

I just realized something.

GS Studio Pro can export to CONSOLES. (playstation 3/4/Vita, Xbox One,)

So all those people who were whining about IWBTG for consoles...

You still have to copyright clear the assets, (i know this removes all the fun) but with this engine, and some effort with controls, it should actually be possible to make I Wanna Be the Console Game.

32

Game Design / Re: RNG in avoidance. Doing it RIGHT.

« on: January 11, 2016, 03:18:19 PM »

With the help of god mode, it's not too hard to just watch the phase play out, and check if there was anywhere something impossible to deal with even from far away.

So it really only takes about 10-15 minutes to do this test.  You only really need to go to 100 if you are truly paranoid about someone memorizing them all.

It's true that trying to prevent impossible stuff inside the pattern itself is a good idea. and sometimes it's doable on purpose, and sometimes by accident.  But sometimes it's not so easy to plan it out.  Going to DotKid mode with small hitboxes is a copout.  Making the pattern impossible proof from the start can also make it predictable, so doing at least one pattern this way is a good way to mess with the player's head, creating a pattern that looks like it could screw you over, but never actually does.

Even if this technique is not used, you should test any random pattern at least that much ANYWAY, to make sure it's not cheap.

I agree that well done static patterns can still be tricky and interesting, but once you figure out what to do, then it always becomes boring.  The purpose of the random one is to make sure that someone can't just clear the game after watching someone else do it.

33

Game Design / RNG in avoidance. Doing it RIGHT.

« on: January 11, 2016, 06:10:23 AM »

A random phase can keep people from falling asleep. so it's a good idea to include them. however, their difficulty can go all over the place, because, well, they are random.  They tend to range from joke to moderately challenging (for the easy ones) and from hard to unfair for the toughest ones.

There is a better way.

Test the phase yourself with user specified seeds. if the seed is too easy, or too hard for you, try a new one.  Once you have collected 50 or 100 seeds of decent difficulty, randomly select a seed to start the pattern off with.

You now have something that cannot be memorized, yet won't give the player a cheap shot, since cheap shots in random patterns are just not fun. (save the cheap shots for static and streaming patterns.) It plays just like a standard random phase, but doesn't ever screw the player over or give a free ride.

I Wanna Clear the Easy Miku is pretty reasonable with it's randomness (if you pay attention you can deal with it all pretty easily). But for the second one, the randomness puts the difficulty all OVER the place, and it suffers for it. While the random barrages that expand from Miku always seem fair, the volcano and the second negi wave are all over the place.  And the small box section can get really rude at times.

Now if you find 50 seeds without discarding any for being too easy or too hard, then you have designed a good random phase, and probably don't need the workaround.