View Full Version : A Quick Questionare for a Future Project
Kharrak
20-10-2009, 10:08 AM
So, with some extra time I will be having in these next few months, I've decided to start working more productively on a game idea I've been musing over for a while now, and as such I would like to do a small tidbit of research - assuming people actually reply to this thread :P
Firstly, the game in question will be a side scroller/platform shooter, think Contra, Megaman X/Zero franchise, and/or Metal Slug, so the questions will be asked in this light.
I'm also looking for answers pertaining more to personal preference, taste, and/or experiencet over design philosophies, though the latter is still valuable.
Anyway, on with the questions:
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Question 1
If the game were co op, featuring two characters, would you prefer both characters to be male, female, or one male and the other female?
Question 2
Assuming one male and one female, if one were to be melee focussed and the other were to be ranged, which gender would you assign to which role?
Question 3
Would you prefer two characters to have differing roles/playstyles, or would you prefer them to be homogenous (the difference between the two being purely aesthetic)?
Question 4
There is no Question 4.
Question 5
Looking back at past platform shooters, which enemies did you find to be:
(a) Enjoyable/satisfying to kill
(b) particularly unenjoyable/non satisfying to kill
(b) Well implemented in their intended role, and fun to combat
(c) Badly implemented in their intended role, but still fun to combat
(d) Well implemented in their intended role, but not fun to combat
(e) Badly implemented in their intended role, and not fun to combat.
Question 6
(a) Which bosses and mid-bosses have you found to be particularly enjoyable to overcome?
(b) Which bosses and mid-bosses have you found to be overly deterring in their difficulty and/or design?
Question 7
Questions 5 and 6, though applying to any game, not specifically side scrolling/platform shooters.
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So... uh, yeah, if one is willing and able to fill this out, I would be both interested and appreciative, thanks :p
.
dammit
20-10-2009, 11:49 AM
Question 1
I'd prefer both characters to be female or both male. Often when games have one of each, stereotypes become common place.
Question 2
I'd flip a coin. Maybe make a change from the trend towards having the female ranged and male as melee and swap the two.
Question 3
I'd prefer them to be different just to make the game more dynamic.
Leaving the rest out for now.
Bonezmann
20-10-2009, 12:08 PM
I don't really care about gender in games, so it doesn't bother me.
I'll just start at 5 and answer the qurstions I can. ;)
5a) All enemies in metal Slug, the animation was just awesome.
7) (6A) All the bosses/midway bosses in DMC3. They were rediculously hard to beat.
Will add more as I can think of them. :)
DukeOFprunes
20-10-2009, 12:28 PM
Question 1:
ROBOTS!
Question 2:
ROBOTS! They can do it all, baby!
Question 3:
See [Question 2]
Question 4:
;_;
Question 5-7:
An umbrella answer - with boss fights you always need to be able, with skill, to defeat it without dying. Don't make it too easy either, but cheap attacks (like something that fills the entire screen with bullets with no way of avoiding the attack or preventing it) a plainly frustrating.
Castlevania bosses are all excellent, some of the best I've encountered in gaming and they all give you leeway - if you observe their movements.
Death in Castlevania is always considered a majorly hard boss (he usually precedes the end boss Dracula) - check out how this dude does not take a scratch or waste a single movement in fighting him.
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For smaller enemies, you need a range from easies to those that force you to maximise all of your mobility, evasion and attack skills.
Nandrew
20-10-2009, 06:56 PM
Question 1-3: Tough female melee fighter, agile and spry male ranger. Do precisely the opposite of what pretty much everybody else does. It would be refreshing.
Question 4: Well, crap.
Question 5: I always love three particular enemy types:
-Slow and soaking.
-Weak and en mass grunts that one can mow down (though careful about spamming for the sake of it)
-An enemy that a character has to dodge or block at least once before its "weak spot" is revealed.
I despise:
-Excessively jumpy or flying enemies. These can be implemented well, sure, but I hate them.
-Enemies that latch onto you and force you to shake them off. It just slows down the action.
I also find it charming when a game occasionally decides to throw in a "blinking" enemy: one who approaches you from the front, then abruptly dashes behind you and attempts to attack from the rear.
Question 6: What I always find super-duper win is when the player comes a multi-tier boss, or to put it more colloquially: "The bastard that just won't die." You defeat him once, then he immediately runs off to some death machine / recharger / fortified position and hits you even harder. Sonic (the old ones, not this crappy new fad) and Megaman do this well.
This is why I always looooved that ancient Interplay game, Dragon Wars. After a thoroughly EPIC battle against the final boss, you sit panting over his lifeless corpse. Then it becomes not so lifeless, and you realise that you have to fight him AGAIN. And again. Eventually, you're forced to drag his dead body (still constantly bringing itself back to life) to a pit somewhere in hell and chuck him into it. Still one of my favourite videogame bosses EVER, and one that regrettably few people have ever fought. Hell, these spoiler tags probably aren't even necessary for 99% of players. ;_;
What is mandatory, however, is either a predictable boss routine or a random routine which gives you a slight window of opportunity to predict the next attack. And yeah, Castlevania has many, many awesome boss fights.
I'm sticking to archetypes here, specifics would be, well, whatever suits your game style. ;)
dammit
20-10-2009, 07:17 PM
Question 1-3: Tough female melee fighter, agile and spry male ranger. Do precisely the opposite of what pretty much everybody else does. It would be refreshing.
:< Ironically, attempting to do the "opposite of what is expected" actually underlines what "is expected" and thus serves to amplify existing stereotypes. People won't look at a female who doesn't fit the grain and say "oh my, silly me, this stereotype I carry around doesn't work!" but instead say "she's an odd one. must be the exception that proves the rule".
You cannot win in this situation, so it's best to keep both characters the same and make each unique.
Note: I know I answered one question putting a male as a ranged attack and female as a melee but this was because the question dictated that there would be a male and female. Nandrew had the opportunity to choose sexes in the first question and negated that to choosing one male and one female, hence I'm valid in pointing this out.
Nandrew
20-10-2009, 08:10 PM
:< Ironically, attempting to do the "opposite of what is expected" actually underlines what "is expected" and thus serves to amplify existing stereotypes.
Perhaps I'm just viewing the situation through a rosy kaleidoscope of naivete, but I don't care much for that. I just want characters who are different. I don't get to play macho melee females often. Let me do that for a change.
(--EDIT--)
More importantly, I mentioned nothing of expectations. The term was just what "everybody else DOES". ;)
dammit
20-10-2009, 08:19 PM
Perhaps I'm just viewing the situation through a rosy kaleidoscope of naivete, but I don't care much for that. I just want characters who are different. I don't get to play macho melee females often. Let me do that for a change.
(--EDIT--)
More importantly, I mentioned nothing of expectations. The term was just what "everybody else DOES". ;)
"what everybody does" is the norm, thus the expected ;)
also, a macho melee female? :< That's like the antithesis of the timid damsel in distress... which is exactly what I meant. :<<
Edit: Wouldn't you say two females would be more interesting? Perhaps both macho, one ranged and one melee? That I would approve of.
Chippit
21-10-2009, 12:15 AM
"what everybody does" is the norm, thus the expected ;)
also, a macho melee female? :< That's like the antithesis of the timid damsel in distress... which is exactly what I meant. :<<
Edit: Wouldn't you say two females would be more interesting? Perhaps both macho, one ranged and one melee? That I would approve of.
To be fair, while your point is valid, it doesn't really mean that much for the game, because you could always see this situation if you're looking at things in a certain way.
And, conversely, stereotypes can be a good thing. Look at TF2 - every single character is a walking stereotype, and they're also all male. Yet it works there just fine. And it could have worked just as well if all the characters were female, or any combination of the genders, because you can always find a stereotype to fit a particular situation if you know where to look. Does that make it stereotyped, or stylised?
dislekcia
21-10-2009, 12:16 AM
To be dead honest here guys, while this gender stereotype discussion is interesting, I don't think it helps Kharrak make a game ;)
Sure, stereotypes are worth thinking about, but I don't think making it a big deal is worth it. Just have non-human main characters: BOOM, no stereotypes other than what you define yourself. Sorted. You're already playing in a realm of violence: at range = small, light, agile; up close = big, strong, tough. Flip the core ideas around and see what you get: range = big, light -> leverage -> throwing things -> unwieldy for small motions, good at large ones; melee = small, heavy, tough -> highly agile, attack position matters -> lots of small-scale movement, less large-scale stuff.
I can think of a number of human gender characterisations there, some normal and some highly counter-intuitive. The point is that gender debates don't help the awesome be playable ;)
Kharrak
21-10-2009, 08:42 AM
Actually, it does help me in a way, since I'm designing the characters (in regards to their appearance) - the perspectives of others contributes in that regard.
For those interested, my initial visualization was that both characters were/are female :P
Interestingly enough, the initial visualization had the ranged character the more bulky silhouette (due to larger guns and ammo), and the melee character being the more slim (a more spry, agile character).
That said, initial tests of the game may see temporary simplified characters, something as simple as, say, Explosion Man, just because it would be easier to animate during the skeleton building periods.
OH! And another question!
Which enemy designs made them fun to kill/see die?
Thanks for the feedback thus far :D
Evolution
21-10-2009, 10:32 AM
Question 1
If the game were co op, featuring two characters, would you prefer both characters to be male, female, or one male and the other female?
Both female, otherwise both male.
Question 2
Assuming one male and one female, if one were to be melee focussed and the other were to be ranged, which gender would you assign to which role?
Male -> melee
Female -> ranged
Would seem weird if it were the other way around.
Question 3
Would you prefer two characters to have differing roles/playstyles, or would you prefer them to be homogenous (the difference between the two being purely aesthetic)?
Definitely different roles and playing styles.
Question 5
Looking back at past platform shooters, which enemies did you find to be:
(a) Enjoyable/satisfying to kill
(b) particularly unenjoyable/non satisfying to kill
(b) Well implemented in their intended role, and fun to combat
(c) Badly implemented in their intended role, but still fun to combat
(d) Well implemented in their intended role, but not fun to combat
(e) Badly implemented in their intended role, and not fun to combat.
a) zombies / demons / creatures / weak minions / machines
b) the ones that just don't die
b) zombies
c) weak minions
d) humans
e) depends on the game
Question 6
(a) Which bosses and mid-bosses have you found to be particularly enjoyable to overcome?
(b) Which bosses and mid-bosses have you found to be overly deterring in their difficulty and/or design?
a) big bosses that fill the whole screen with their presence(epic), bosses that require knowledge of their fighting patterns to kill them
b) some bosses don't hint a way to kill them, this causes a player to struggle for hours, just when they have given up hope, a kid comes and figures it out in a few minutes, really frustrating for gamers
dammit
21-10-2009, 11:28 AM
To be fair, while your point is valid, it doesn't really mean that much for the game, because you could always see this situation if you're looking at things in a certain way.
And, conversely, stereotypes can be a good thing. Look at TF2 - every single character is a walking stereotype, and they're also all male. Yet it works there just fine. And it could have worked just as well if all the characters were female, or any combination of the genders, because you can always find a stereotype to fit a particular situation if you know where to look. Does that make it stereotyped, or stylised?
I think the reason TF2 works is because all the characters are male.
But yeah, moving on ;)
SkinkLizzard
23-10-2009, 11:12 PM
I havent played many platformers or games with decent boss levels
so I'll just answer 1 - 3
1) make the characters one male one female but in shoujo anime style i.e. you'd have to look twice to work out which ones which.
2) this doesn't matter with regards to my answer for the first question seeing as the characters have similar builds. you could even make the range/melee dynamic with both characters capable of both in different situations. have one focus on horizontal linear or sweeping attacks that push enemies back for melee and has a harpoon(or something similar) to skewer multiple clustered enemies from range, whilst the other character has sweeping vertical attacks that throw enemies into the air(shoryuken) and something like sickles on chains for a ranged attack that hooks an enemy and either pulls them forward or slams them into the ground(if they're in the air) and drags them forward. then pull a trine and make the characters tag team interchangeable for combo's
3)differing roles/play styles (I wasn't sure about this originally but after the above question it became clear)
Himmler
26-10-2009, 01:37 PM
Question 1 - 3
Make the player choose male or female, then make them choose a "class", aka RPG's. Maybe have a little more artwork to it, but it is the only way i can think of to make it as equal as possible.
For the rest of the questions, only thing i really loved about megaman, was that you got the weapon of the boss you defeated. Hope this helps.
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