Why Game? 1 - TextFiles.com

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so what’s the point of saving after having a discussion anyway? Of course, such a unique system is open to abuse. The final section of the game - which leads to the final guardian and the ending - will take no longer than 45 minutes to complete assuming you start from that original shrine visited earlier, and assuming, of course, that you have all the knowledge needed to locate and defeat said enemy. The chances of stumbling across this accidentally are virtually zero, but there will always be the temptation for some to skip out on the 40+ hours of questing, visit GameFAQs for spoilers, and then rush ahead and complete the game in under an hour. There are ways to avoid such things, but the great hope is that the reason for purchasing the game is not what you find at the end, but rather the journey you take to get there. Plus, of course, the final area can have a quiz designed to test if you’d actually played that far yourself. For example, there may be a section mid-way that features some antics on a wrecked pirate ship; a doppelganger of the ship may be pres- ent at the end, and if the player doesn’t use his foreknowledge of said area, then it’s instantly Game Over. The trick to would be subtlety; perhaps it’s an entirely different ship, but hopefully the player will heed the warnings of a naviga- tor’s ghost met previously, who clearly states the rules for navigating all future ships. The point is that they remember and work out what needs doing. Knowledge is key in this game and this key is worth more than all the Gil in Midgar. Another element that slows sequence- breaking is the presence of red herrings designed to lead people astray when experi- menting. If only key elements pertaining to the quest exist, it may eventually become fairly easy to stumble across solutions. If you find a giant statue hidden in the desert, it must obvi- ously have some importance later on - unless of course the game is riddled with things to side- track the player. Just for fun, why not include a wholly superfluous city floating in the sky? When players see it, they will be gripped by curiosity, 62 The Gamer’s Quarter Issue #3 desperate to see how it fits into the main quest. Of course, exploring it will yield little more than narrative explanations, but such things should keep players guessing at to what happens next, and encourage them to “stick to the path” that they are given. On the flipside, such things could encourage longevity. Since once the main quest is beaten, dedicated players will be curious to find the truth behind so many things hinted at past the main path. In the same way that people were fascinated by the airships and distant lands they couldn’t reach in Shadow of the Beast and the ghost city in GTA, so will they be interested in the city in the sky. Some may baulk at such ideas, arguing that there would be no replay value to such a game, but I argue the replay value would be greater than in any similar game. In other RPGs, great set pieces – such as the coastline battle in FF7 - may require a dozen hours of play time to reach. But in Szczepaniak’s Grand Quest, all your favourite set-piece events are no more than 15-30 minutes away from the start, meaning you can easily relive “the great battle of unholy vengeance” that occurs mid-game atop a floating battle fortress without having to play through everything else again. The final game would be delicate, dripping with atmosphere, and be pure and ergonomic with regards to controls, real-time combat and inventory management. An ethereal atmosphere such as that in Otogi, Zelda, or Shadow of Colossus would be key, since without clear achievements such as leveling and item acquisi- tion, the player would need to be motivated by a sense of exploration and the innate joy received from piecing together clues. It would almost be like a Sherlock Holmes mystery for the modern day, with each clue leading onto another, eventually forming a whole picture. Of course, once you have a certain clue, you can skip past all those that came before when you next switch on your ’Cube. Sadly, such a game will never be made. Can you imagine pitching it to a publisher? “Well, it’s like an RPG, but not. And it’s
huge, but there’s no save game option or in- struction manual. But it’s really cool, since you can start the game and complete it in 30 minutes. Even though there are 40 hours of game- play. And none of that crap with gold, or leveling up, or a million different items. It’s pure, you see? Pure energy, pure time, pure space, man.” If they don’t accuse you of insanity and revoke your game designer license after that, I’d be very surprised. Today’s publishers want sure fire hits - things people can relate to without having to experience them first. This is why ev- ery second design brief submitted today begins with “It’s like GTA, but different.” There remain, of course, problems with people abusing the system then feeling cheated and claiming the game doesn’t provide enough value for your money. Not to mention, you would need one hell of a designer for the kind of 18 month development hell that this would require. Remember, for such a concept to work, the actual design and layout would need to be absolutely perfect. Despite the world of problems with this concept, it continues to prove a fascination for me. Like a piece of glass glinting in the sun that you can’t quite seem to take your eyes off of. Perhaps as gaming evolves, such unusual ideas may have the chance to get made. An RPG Without Saves 63
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Why Game? 1
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Table Of Contents 4 - How Nippon Ic
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Editor In Chief: Managing Editor: A
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acter turn took less time, without
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what goes into a video game is not
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America have any plans to procure t
Page 13 and 14: to approach them. We have a great w
Page 15 and 16: desperately sought after collectabl
Page 17 and 18: that. Innit?” I sighed before inh
Page 19 and 20: company of the Fiddich family I let
Page 21 and 22: into the Electronics Boutique where
Page 23 and 24: much more consistent, possibly even
Page 25 and 26: Half-Life 2 - PC M. O’Connor The
Page 27 and 28: very inappropriate phrase. It’s n
Page 29 and 30: Anamoly Discrimination Force S^2 -
Page 37 and 38: time-strategy title set in outer sp
Page 39 and 40: of destroying a bunch of other tiny
Page 41 and 42: than one-hundred percent on tests t
Page 43 and 44: So, where are we now? Starcraft’s
Page 45 and 46: I Like to Watch Ancil Anthropy When
Page 47 and 48: ourselves.” When games left the a
Page 49 and 50: in response. There were many images
Page 51 and 52: Part 5: The True Quest for Secrets
Page 53 and 54: Guilty Pleasures XXX 51
Page 55 and 56: An Exercise in Creativity by The Ga
Page 57 and 58: possible suicides. Pressing Start w
Page 59 and 60: them to be precise, and for each, t
Page 61 and 62: e kind of like a puzzle game where
Page 63: minutes to complete this dungeon, w
Page 67 and 68: friends with Dachshunds. I was usin
Page 69 and 70: ack down on the ground. I picked ba
Page 71 and 72: petting her, she gives a little gro
Page 73 and 74: of that for me. Regardless, I still
Page 75 and 76: staples. That magazine contained an
Page 77 and 78: us we had to wake up early the next
Page 79 and 80: I’m pretty good at SMB3. I can be
Page 81 and 82: Age twenty-five... where was I? I
Page 83 and 84: a planetarium. We enjoyed the atmos
Page 85 and 86: My birthday drew near without cerem
Page 87 and 88: through whatever means necessary. G
Page 89 and 90: tenaciously, though maybe not execu
Page 91 and 92: guitar. He had a wife (who time lat
Page 93 and 94: Killer 7 Crossword 91
Page 95 and 96: Actually, Bubble Bobble is from the
Page 97 and 98: task. When we became friends when I
Page 99 and 100: Wesson’s guns, but I couldn’t a
Page 101 and 102: the island? Earlier, I spent a good
Page 103 and 104: character is incidental to the abov
Page 105 and 106: This high quality is a sign of the
Page 107 and 108: chain-combo, the game slows down sl
Page 109 and 110: Concluded on Page 124... Guilty Ple
Page 111 and 112: gazillion copies, barring some unfo
Page 113 and 114: Anything but Shredder. Shortly ther
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together through each person’s de
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still haunt my life, but that’s b
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external defenses, then enter Earth
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an entire stage long. Surprised? Yo
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Morality and Emulation on the PSP B
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tion and - as a final nail in the c
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Guilty Pleasures XXX 125
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Guilty Pleasures XXX 127
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Back Cover 129
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