02-07-2007, 08:49 PM
Psychotronic wrote: but I had a tough time maintaining interest in Foggy Forest Mansion because I didn't quite have faith that the required keys were nearby. After about the third time that I missed a hidden key and went back ten rooms checking every nook and cranny trying to find it, I just gave up.
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OH! This brings up an EXCELLENT point. This is a concept demonstrated by the truly *great* games, such as some of the Metroid and Zelda games: if you are going to put the player in a situation where they encounter something new, and won't know how to solve it, LIMIT THEM to a SMALL area of rooms until they figure it out.
Examples:
- Metroid II for GameBoy. There was this one room you go into, and it's completely empty. And you're like, huh? What is this for? And you leave. But you're llimited to a small area, and eventually realize there must be somethign to that empty room, because you've sure as heck checked everything else. So you jump up on top of this thing mounted on the right-hand wall and roll into a ball, and find that there are fake bricks there that you would only find in that spot if you were a ball. And that leads to a whole new giant section to explore. BUT: if the player hadn't been limited to a small area (inclluding the empty room), many wouldn't think to check this room out thoroughly, and backtracked a lot, and gotten very frustrated.
- Another example is Zelda for GameBoy. I don't remember specific examples, but I know that if it gave you a new puzzle you had to solve, often you'd get stuck in the current room until you solved the puzzle. Otherwise, many players wouldn't even realize there's a puzzle too solve in that room.
How this applies to Midnnight Mansion: if you're playing a trick on players, like hiding keys where they typically wouldn't llook for them or see them, then LIMIT THEM to a small area of rooms that they can't get out of until they find those keys. That way, they won't backtrack huge areas of the mansion, searching every nook and cranny, as Psychotronic did, attempting to find those keys, but searching in the wrong place. That can be SO frustrating, and is so easily avoided with good design.
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