Posts by Steppenwolf

  • Deus Ex 1 too slow paced, not memorable enough

    Quote from Furyo

    As far as not making the games for ourselves as developers I totally agree, but in the end you make it for your publisher not for the players. The publisher dictates what he likes and doesn't and also funds the development studio more often than not. In your position at Grin, I think you would know that. Particularly when your boss said so in a recent interview. At Ubi, this is the exact same thing except we're developers as well as publishers which actually gives us a lot more freedom (I think). For one thing I get to pick which projects I work on, a luxury few studios can give but that generally increases the quality of the games because there starts to be competition for these spots.

    That is only true on the management level. As a creative person you shouldnt work with buissness things in mind. It should be your motivation to make the best game possible - for the players. It's the job of the producers to tell you where your budget and creative limits are and to deal with the needs of the publishers. Of course you shouldnt listen to all the bullshit that comes from the community. You have to filter. That should be clear...

    What i can't stand is when creative people or even fans defend horrible design decissions that were made for buissness reasons. You see this a lot in gaming forums. Someone will start a thread critizicing a shitty design decission and then appears some defender with the argument "but this way it will sell much more, the gamers today only want casual games, there is no audience for complex games anymore etc. bla bla". This always comes of brainwashed to me and has something of preemptive obedience (imo one of the worst character features a person can have). And the saddest thing is it becomes part of a self-fullfilling prophecy because at some point everybody will believe that this is the truth.

    No offence Furyo but your comments sound like you are already somewhat disconnected from the gaming crowd. Personaly i couldnt have fun working on games if i didnt feel the same emotions about games that gamers feel.

  • The only constant in the world is change

    I don't think you can measure this and honestly i think its overcomplicating things to find a "standart". I just follow my intuition.

    Easy example: When i see that someone has a problem to find the right path in my map i will add something to point him in the right direction. It becomes obvious to me that many other players would face similar problems. It would be foolish not to fix something like that. You want to entertain people with your map, not frustrate them. At least that seems logic to me as long as the path is not part of a puzzle.

  • Far Cry 2 review

    So anyone played it yet? What are your opinions. I saw someone playing yesterday. It looked interesting and like a fun game experience but why is it so damn brown? Everybody who came by said how brown it is. The person playing said it was a bit problematic not only from a art perspective but that it also is hard to aim (brown enemys on brown background). I remembered the game looking a lot better at the GC 2007 (was the best looking game on that show imo, even better then Crysis). What happend?

  • The only constant in the world is change

    By "player" i dont mean a single player. More like "the average player". If a couple of people (QA for example) test your map and they all run into similar problems thats what i meant. Then something is wrong with your map from a gameplay perspective and it needs to get fixed. But sometimes its even enough to only see one person playing your map to identify problems. This person who has never played your map before will do strange things that you never thought of but that you rather not want players to do.

  • Deus Ex 1 too slow paced, not memorable enough

    Sentura did i mention that you are the biggest idiot on this forum? You bash each of my posts anyway no matter what i write so take your faked opinions and political correctness and shove it up your ass. You are not more then a troll in my book.

    Some people really have to make a big deal out of everything. I thought it should be clear that my opening post was sarcastic and not meant to offend anyone. Still it contained my actual fear as a fan of Deus Ex that this game might head in the wrong direction. But obviously its more important to some people to discuss the form of a post then its context.

  • The only constant in the world is change

    My experience is: The player is always right.

    You can think your map is the greatest thing ever. But then when you watch people playing and they "don't get it" the problem is on your side only. You make the map for the players not for yourself. Don't stick with layouts and things that only you as the creator seem to understand. Be prepared to change things radically that players dont understand or even to remove them completely. Don't get angry at the players. Next time you will do things differently right from the start. You always win experience.

    Things that only affect visuals of a level are a completely different story tho. If you believe in you as an artist you should stick with what you think looks best as long as it fits in the art direction of the project. Still be open minded for suggestions. Other people can have great visual ideas too.

  • Deus Ex 1 too slow paced, not memorable enough

    Quote from Furyo

    No amount of complaining online about your presumed design choices is going to change anything

    This may be true for your company but is certainly not a universal truth. I know for a fact that Capcom for example always has an open ear for fan complains and rethinks some design decissions if the complains appear appropriate. I witnessed this a couple of times during the development of Bionic Commando.

    Closing eyes and ears is one way for developers/publishers to deal with the community. But its a pretty arrogant one imo. In the end you make the games for the players not for yourself. If you start to hate your audience, ignore them and treat them like idiots who have no idea you should work in a different buissness. Fanboys can be annoying and idiotic but its an privillege to work on something that has fans. Its just too easy to look down on them from your high horse...

    This is my opinion as a professional. I obviously started the thread from the fanboy perspective. Didnt knew that mapcore is a place now where only strictly professional topics are acceptable... You know thers better forums for that. I still see it as a place where i have a lot of friends and where i can talk about things a bit more open.

  • Far Cry 2 review

    I read some negative stuff about the game in swedish gamereactor today. Like that the far distances between objectives destroy all the fun. And that its only so big for the sake of being big. It was a preview only tho. They gave it 2/5 hotness thingies.

    So i guess we have to wait till some more reviews get in.