36 replies to this topic

[NukeTheCat]

And ninjas! Ninjas makes everything exciting! From teenagers who are mutated turtles to popping balloons.\

Ok, here is a possible scenery I made for your game:

Spoiler

Your bland hero is casually walking in a boring world filled with bland sky, bland ground and bland food.
All of a sudden 100 ninjas fall from the sky and all say 'Hi-ya!' (Not the 'hello you all!' but the 'charging my chakra with random shouting!'
The place suddenly becomes pitch-black dark and can only see your hero's (and ninjas') shoullette (I forgot, is this how you spell it?)
Your HUD is red to show the danger level.
The ninjas' take out nuck-chucks and start swing them around while you take... nothing (that show how bland he is)
Then... your hero dies and ninjas' win. (What you expect?) unless you add a nuke, then you can destroy them all in slow-mo...

This will make a pretty awesome game. Period.

[Yal]

Sheesh, you all know how much I hated the off-topic board on the YYG Sandbox forums.


Anyway, a few things that will make a bland game less bland:

- Draw all graphics yourself
- if you use MIDI music, edit the files with a midi sequencer and replace all instruments with either banjo, Overdrive electric guitar, alto saxophone or steelpans.
- Use the Twenty Percent Rule, aka cram in background objects or minor items/enemies so that no region bigger than 128x96 pixels (for a 640x480 game) is EVER empty of stuff.
- Speaking of that, don't ever make your game 640x480. Make it 480x272.
- Virtually all game maker games has a male white teenager protagonist. Replace the protagonist with an overweight 40-year-old black woman.
- Do not use pure #00000 / #FFFFFF black and white colors, and in general try to keep your colors as gray as possible.
- As for your background objects, have as varied and as many of them as possible. Trees, corals, houses, etc... in general, use LOADS of stuff and don't care if they make sense or not. Take a leaf outta Mario's book and include stuff that's downright insane. For instance the whole shell-bounce-projectile idea, or the hovering [?] blocks; two very iconic main rules of the series, makes no sense whatsoever if you just look at them outside the context. Try to use something like that. An easy way: get a game of another genre, such as say a racing game, and the just take a gimmick from it and port it STRAIGHT AWAY WITHOUT TRYING TO MAKE IT FIT IN.

[NukeTheCat]

Also make celebrity cameo appearances, like, Hatsune Miku or KAITO, or ninjas.
Also another recommendation to the music, either play Nyan Cat, Disappearance of Hatsune Miku, or Two-faced Lovers. -that will get everyone's attention!

[Snail_Man]

<Snip>

I honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.

On topic though, I do like the idea of putting random things in the background. Only 1 in 10 people might notice them, but it will greatly enhance the experience of that 1 person. Adding an interesting character is also a good way to spruce up a game. Don't just have a generic guy, draw something random and crazy. Then look at your drawing, and think about what kind of abilities it would have. For example, draw a weird guy with really long legs, a huge stomach, and wings. Than think about what kind of abilities this guy would have.
"Since he has long legs, he should be able to jump high. He obviously likes eating, due to the stomach, so maybe he can eat enemies or something. Also he might be able to glide down from high places on his wings." Now you have an odd looking character with unique abilities. What more do you need?

[ThatSnail]

screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake screen shake

[9_6]

Add boobs.

[Fihrilkamal]

Add boobs.

The most brilliant idea in this topic!

[thatshelby]

- Do not use pure #00000 / #FFFFFF black and white colors, and in general try to keep your colors as gray as possible.

eeee.... no I disagree.

A lot of newbies have trouble with over saturation - painful colors. But saturation is a color element too! Saturation is an important part of creating contrast... It's really powerful if used correctly.

With that said, I would avoid using painful, supersaturated or totally dry, unsaturated colors.


When shading, keep in mind that you need to change the hue part of the color instead of just saturation and value, like some seem to think. Shift it towards a warmer value (just slightly) for highlights, colder value for shadows. This creates a warmth in the light and a coldness in the shadow... It can be very eerie, if you do it right.

[NukeTheCat]

Ok, serious reply here:

1. Dramatic music - but no choir. In fact your music might as well be a trademark, such as, Mario.

2. Gameplay - It must have a good gameplay. Having another basic turn-based RPG game would be boring, think of something unique.

3. Story - For a game to be interesting get a story. See how Pokemon is sooo successful, it's because they have a good story and one you win the game it start to get boring 'cause no more story after that

4. Graphics - I don't mean perfect graphic but decent ones. Also you can add special effects, like shaking screens or weather. Take Megaman for example, it has too much special effects (e.g. lasers, bullets, blasts...) that it covers up the bad graphics

5. NINJA!!!! - Very important, don't forget this!!!

[Futhark]

Go watch the Not Normal episode from season six of SpongeBob SquarePants.



Then sit in front of your computer, with GM running, and don't be like Mr. Normal.

[thatshelby]

Tweens!

Edited by thatshelby, 28 May 2012 - 05:52 AM.

[roytheshort]

image_blend = random(c_white)

The laziest way to vibrant colour. I use it all the time, nobody noticed what a cheap gimmick it is.

Edited by roytheshort, 28 May 2012 - 09:39 PM.

[TheUltimate]

Pick unique settings for your levels. Abandoned factory and tropical paradise --> Offshore oil rig and mangrove forest. Just like that.

[sciencestick]

Pick unique settings for your levels. Abandoned factory and tropical paradise --> Offshore oil rig and mangrove forest. Just like that.

So that's why Bionic Commando was such a classic... Offshore Oil rig is the first stage.

[DXsmiley]

Add lens flares.

[Boreal]

Tweens!

This is a really good video. The guy that uploaded it also has a ton of other great stuff from the conference (better than GDC in my opinion).

[shinyjiggly]

Give the player cool and interesting things to interact with that have the potential to be used in puzzles. For example, say a certain level has these trees that grow huge, juicy fruit every minute. Now if you could utilize the fruit's slimy juices by throwing it in front of you while running, you could do a power-slide or something.
Sometimes if it is coherent and intriguing enough, function can triumph over form.