742 replies to this topic

[Terrified Virus]

AWESOME!!! You didn't miss a thing. Sweet!

[Katuko]

During all this, I'm one door away from a save point that could let me keep the puzzle solved and go straight to the boss, but it's locked because Pixel hates you and everything you stand for. I've fought the boss a grand total of three times and my blood is boiling already.

I've always been able to save that puzzle solution. The door doesn't lock until you are going for the boss, and IIRC, the final computer is right by the entrance. I know I had to retry that boss several times myself, but I never did the door unlock more than once per playthrough.

EDIT: Your posts was half a year old. Meh.

Edited by Katuko, 17 August 2011 - 11:24 PM.

[No Eyed Fsh]

Two things that really annoy me (These apply more to games in general, but they can be applied to GM):

TUTORIALS:

Many, many tutorials out there are horrible. I find that a lot of tutorials are simply a giant wall of txt frontloaded at the very start of the game. It's hard to read, and the people who need it most will skip it. Not to mention that I'll probably forget what it said after I start playing. Large amounts of text and dumping all the tutorial at the start of the game is the absolute worst way to do a tutorial.

Look at Portal. Portal was 90% tutorial, but it was so damn fun that nobody really cared. Same case here. The tutorial has to be given in chunks as the need arises. There's no point teaching the player about the combat system until they get in their first combat battle. It's easier to digest and remember.


ACHIEVEMENTS:

Achievements are actually alright. Well, most of them. There are these really stupid type of achievements which I call "required achievements". They're achievements that you get from simply playing through the plot of the game. They are completely artificial methods of getting the player to keep playing.

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: READ THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF MY RANT

^(that's an example of a requried achievement)

The game should be fun enough to entice the player to keep player without having to use artificial "YOU DID SOMETHING COOL" messages. I have nothing against optional achievements though, that are normally used to increase the play time.

</rant>

[ramses12]

Extra files, other than the one Game Maker compiled exe., that are needed to run the game.

Oh really?
How about these?

• Big file size
• Slow download time
• Slow loading time
• Incapability of patching > newer versions require re-download
• No saved data > use of registry functions and such, which might either mess up the computer or leave junk in it
• Hard to organize game from the programmer's perspective
• Annoying to test game because of slow load time, potentially leads to bugs or less work
• Hard to change parts of the source code; when the game gets big, things start getting crowded if everything is internal

...did I make a clear point?

[masterofhisowndomain]

Look at Portal. Portal was 90% tutorial, but it was so damn fun that nobody really cared. Same case here. The tutorial has to be given in chunks as the need arises. There's no point teaching the player about the combat system until they get in their first combat battle. It's easier to digest and remember.

A tutorial is a about introducing the player to and informing them of the game's most basic elements; I wouldn't call later additional features that must be explained to the player a "tutorial" - otherwise things become ridiculous. What Portal did was introduce the basic principle of the portal gun and then form an entire game out of varying its applications. But that is a feature common to most good games.

However, I agree, tutorials should be integrated into the overall story or gameplay in a way that doesn't feel arbitrary. Similar I suppose, to how in books thethemes and issues are not set up as an aside to the actual narrative (e.g. characters and themes are gradually involved rather than separately explained).

[Enter_Name_Here]

How about when you beat a really hard level, then you get an options screen with two options: Save or Continue? But all they do is make the selected option a different color instead of highlighting it or something, so when you press a key, it just interchanges the color and pretty soon you don't know which is which and you end up quitting by accident and losing progress.
(Lol sorry for the run-on sentence)

[Rusty]

How about when you beat a really hard level, then you get an options screen with two options: Save or Continue? But all they do is make the selected option a different color instead of highlighting it or something, so when you press a key, it just interchanges the color and pretty soon you don't know which is which and you end up quitting by accident and losing progress.
(Lol sorry for the run-on sentence)

Yes, changing the colour of selected text is terrible. What we should have is a massive sign covering half the screen above the selected option saying "THIS KEY IS ACTIVE, THE OTHER ONE IS NOT". Much less annoying. Another option? Don't sell these games to the colourblind.

[GStick]

How about when you beat a really hard level, then you get an options screen with two options: Save or Continue? But all they do is make the selected option a different color instead of highlighting it or something, so when you press a key, it just interchanges the color and pretty soon you don't know which is which and you end up quitting by accident and losing progress.
(Lol sorry for the run-on sentence)

Yes, changing the colour of selected text is terrible. What we should have is a massive sign covering half the screen above the selected option saying "THIS KEY IS ACTIVE, THE OTHER ONE IS NOT". Much less annoying. Another option? Don't sell these games to the colourblind.

What that post was saying:

Which of these
Is selected?

[Cyber-seeker]

Make sure that CPU characters in any fighting game have obvious attack methods. This may sound nonsensical, but it most difficult to fight enemies when their attacks are completely impossible to foresee or know how to handle. On my first game, "The 4th Exo Ace," most people accomplished it by brute force: They learned the boss's maneuvers, died, and then combated him (that is, if they could figure out the function of his attacks!).
Make it abundantly clear when attacks are coming (unless they are quick attacks), and make sure that the player knows how to avoid or block them. Also, it helps if the user understands the nature of the attack (a freeze cannon, for instance, doesn't kill you, just slows you down). Enemy attacks need to be well thought out, particularly in platform or action games.

Cyber-seeker

[xhawkeyex]

What I hate is when you play a large game with a lot of amazing features, but it lags so much that eventually the controls become ghost and the player moves itself and won't stop for about twenty seconds! Then there are no settings that people could select and diselect to make the gameplay faster

[blanton]

I know your list was for general things, but one the things that I hate most is a platform game without variable jumping and that allows you to hold jump and continue to jump after already jumping once (im not sure that made any sense. English is my first language so naturally I can't speak it...) Sometime Im going to write a tutorial on making a platform game that doesn't have these "glitches" in them.

You mean like a double jump? lol.

[time-killer-games]

Personally, the lack of a pause feature has got to be perhaps one of the most common annoyances I've encountered with gm games. Also the one you have listed, "using gm default graphics and show_message" has got to be the most annoying thing ever, MUST be more noticeable, like put it in bold at the top of the list.

[Wiiboy4ever]

Awesome list, I agree with a lot of these but the following points to me seem a liiiitle picky and unecessary

Lack of an "attract mode". * {this can be very time consuming, and an opening movie should be enough imo depending on the content of a game}

Not being able to toggle background music and/or sound effects (can slow game down or just be annoying; and if the user turns it off, make sure it STAYS off throughout the WHOLE game). {um, not everyone is experienced enough to do that, and that can require a lot of code depending on the game and what you're asking for exactly.

Extra files, other than the one Game Maker compiled exe., that are needed to run the game. {I use supersound which is the only way I can think of that handles music efficiently with lower file sizes without using typical poorly composed midis, so there's no way that's happening}

Lack of a Restart Level option. {barely any official games have this and it just seems like cheating, and unless the game is glitchy I don't see a real need for it.

Not trying to sound like a troll or anything though - just my opinions - again, this is a really great list!

[Bytewin]

Lack of an attract mode. Are you kidding me? Wow sorry but I can't exactly put an attract mode into my point n click game I am making because... Hmm... I wonder why... Oh yes! There's not exploding things, no shooting, no action, it's about intelligence, and I can't make an attract mode for that, it's just point n click. How is this an annoyance? Even modern shmups don't have those anymore.

But I do agree with the opening sequence. They're usually how the game hooks me.

[lewis96]

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents here :D

When games have names like "The most random game ever." The name should be about something inside the game, not the game itself.

[Lotias]

Oh look, something everyone completely ignored

Actually no, intro movies are fairly hard to make even if their crappy quality. Since there are basically only 2 ways to do them:
1: Make them out of 3D (so it's basically a FMV scene).
2: Draw... yes.. the old fashioned drawing technique
There is number 3... but I'm quite sure that it won't be used much for games: Filming and actual scene with a video camera or camcorder.

He is wrong - you can also use timelines, which are extremely easy to create, and can be extremely effective.

[SEC]

Extra files, other than the one Game Maker compiled exe., that are needed to run the game.

Since GM: Stuido automatically requires extra files, I suppose this one is obsolete.

[LordOfCats]

For me personally is the amount of jumping that you have to do get somewhere or even finish the tutorial. I mean, how are you supposed to like trying to jump from tiny platform to tiny platorm over and over again? Also, I really dislike when the intro is very long, for it loses my interest very quickly. Another thing that I don't like is when people make typos or spelling errors since it looks really unprofessional. A lot of people do not change the loading screen and game icon as well and that annoys me.

Edited by LordOfCats, 29 July 2012 - 04:48 PM.

[nearlyNonexistent]

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents here :D

When games have names like "The most random game ever." The name should be about something inside the game, not the game itself.

What about when the game is mainly about the metagame of the game?

[lewis96]

I guess it could work. But I meant like games that should have normal names