tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post1426363376625074935..comments2023-05-20T12:08:52.031+02:00Comments on In The Games Of Madness: The Five Foundational Design Pillars Of SOMAFrictional Gameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00278352641328669040noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-54162002942447439162014-02-20T22:13:52.228+01:002014-02-20T22:13:52.228+01:00I'm so glad that every monster has an unique A...I'm so glad that every monster has an unique AI! What killed Amnesia for me a little was the fact that I knew how the monsters worked. I knew that music signified their presence and state and how to outsmart them (stand on a table for example).<br /><br />I'd love it so much to have the music be more dynamic, so not just sudden change to the monster's theme and once the monster is gone the music is too.<br /><br />Also love the way you detailed out the environments, the engine looks just as great as it should and I hope the game will have all the customizability and replayability! :)DoubleThinkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13711157183022638992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-84911740739489717012014-01-04T01:51:00.669+01:002014-01-04T01:51:00.669+01:00This may have already been asked/answered, or the ...This may have already been asked/answered, or the answer is right under my nose, but who is writing the story? Is it one person or is it a team? As in, the guy who designs monsters is making a Cthulu type creature, so he wants a pit full of water and water is related to the womb, where consciousness is first born, so the story is edited to speak to that element, etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-22215234662809928172013-12-29T17:23:35.009+01:002013-12-29T17:23:35.009+01:00Bink\Smacker video is suppose to have better video...Bink\Smacker video is suppose to have better video codec compression, though - right? Also I think I'm getting a hint of deferred rendering system From Sir Thomas. Either radosity or some global illumination. Puzzles, Monsters and Scares...Oh my! :)Paul Skertichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08847926381362390002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-65644999617644506922013-12-18T12:53:29.405+01:002013-12-18T12:53:29.405+01:00@Thomas
Thank you, I got it now that what you mea...@Thomas<br /><br />Thank you, I got it now that what you meant was about telegraphing the obvious upcoming events to the players explicit clues like finding an open arena-like place or an obvious hiding spot conveniently placed after having been on a long path without nowhere to hide. I agree with that about realistically functional environments and I'm specially agains "puzzle" confrontations in that aspect.<br /><br />@Anonymous<br /><br />Your first paragraph seems to assume the player never played any Video-Game in their entire lives or at most only played Action Power-Fantasies and nothing else. The second part already exists and is more common than you might imagine, but it's also underused because it changes the way the designer controls the experience. As Video-Games are trying too hard to mimic static Fiction of late, dynamic systems are chosen to be left out in favor of the linearity of scripted events and puzzles.Luis Guimarãeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00718753383788485628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-12748528762108485012013-12-18T03:40:23.548+01:002013-12-18T03:40:23.548+01:00And this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPa...And this one:<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPanW0QWhAAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-70935566324445332202013-12-18T03:33:43.211+01:002013-12-18T03:33:43.211+01:00These real life robots demos almost look like vira...These real life robots demos almost look like viral videos for SOMA; check it out:<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3fmFTtP9g<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ<br /><br />I understand that the company that made them, Boston Dynamics, was brought recently by Google.<br /><br />Pure awesomeness.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-83490699313332798362013-12-17T13:58:21.917+01:002013-12-17T13:58:21.917+01:00Hey Thomas.Do you exactly know system requiements ...Hey Thomas.Do you exactly know system requiements of Soma?<br />I hope Soma requiements are similiar to Amnesia. :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01844418166195518083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-5191619842541683332013-12-17T13:33:35.929+01:002013-12-17T13:33:35.929+01:00This also provides an opportunity try a new approa...This also provides an opportunity try a new approach in creating dramatic encounters in the game. For example, consider a scenario where the player actually get's attacked by a monster - and yet, there are no obvious week spots, the player has no idea about what to expect, and it appears that the monster is significantly more powerful than the player, and yet the player must somehow struggle for survival (I'm avoiding the term "do battle" on purpose).<br /><br />Now, the goal is to make the player <em>feel</em> as if this encounter is really dramatic, and as if the struggle is really hard, and as if the player controls his own actions, while actually, for the duration of the scene, letting the game itself to take over significant portion of the control. So, you would build some kind of special-purpose encounter mechanics, that would analyze the player's actions and execute the scene as long as the player is doing something meaningful, and let the player die if he freezes in place, or does something significantly stupid (given the context), and then somehow integrate that kind of mechanics with the main, general purpose mechanics that appear throughout the game.<br /><br />It's kind of "experimental", but I'd really like to see someone try something like that in a game.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-62412683960306092232013-12-17T07:53:15.264+01:002013-12-17T07:53:15.264+01:00A big thing is to get rid of common tropes such as...A big thing is to get rid of common tropes such as:<br /><br />- Enemies being introduced in cut-scene like manners.<br /><br />- They have patterns that are obviously meant to be a challenge.<br /><br />- They signal weak spots in a very unnatural fashion<br /><br />- Environment is clearly built for a specific encounter.<br /><br />- Just generally, that an encounter is setup like some sort of arena created specifically to have a battle (weapons or not) with a certain creature.<br /><br />And this ties into the notion that players need to be more observant and not just rely on the game telling them when things are becoming dangerous and clearly signal what is dangerous and what is not.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02945983378935089787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-77051265961339743352013-12-17T04:39:05.567+01:002013-12-17T04:39:05.567+01:00I suppose he meant it in the sense that the game w...I suppose he meant it in the sense that the game world, and the events unfolding before you, and your previous experience obtained through the earlier hours of the game should be designed so that they guide your decisions about how to behave in certain situations and during various encounters. If implemented correctly, that can only be a good thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-18381167195427717292013-12-16T17:50:03.177+01:002013-12-16T17:50:03.177+01:00"...if they get hints that a dangerous creatu..."...if they get hints that a dangerous creature is approaching, they need to figure out that hiding is the best course of action by themselves."<br /><br />Is that even possible to "figure out" what's the core mechanic and the only and optimal strategy ("best course of action") of a game? An optimal strategy indicates that there's no need to figure anything out. Figuring out when and where to hide sounds more like it.<br /><br />Ps: I know the article is more talking about how mainstream design makes it so there's a guy behind you to keep saying "you have to hide under the bed nain!!", but that's an even more patronizing situation also caused by breaking out of the mold those games conform to, where the supposed stealth sections come of as a sudden change in what the game plays like for the rest of it.Luis Guimarãeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00718753383788485628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-23311939071668941352013-12-15T20:42:13.669+01:002013-12-15T20:42:13.669+01:00That is our plan!That is our plan!Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02945983378935089787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-40550142942918991662013-12-15T20:41:59.272+01:002013-12-15T20:41:59.272+01:00Not exactly like Doom 3, but pretty close. Current...Not exactly like Doom 3, but pretty close. Currently we zoom in on the displays a bit, locked the view and show a mouse. In Doom 3 used them with your cross hair pretty much. Reason for not doing it the D3 way is that some of the displays where small or awkward positions and the normal in-game view was not very good.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02945983378935089787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-20237056511942653432013-12-15T19:43:45.356+01:002013-12-15T19:43:45.356+01:00¿Are those screens interactive displays ala Doom 3...¿Are those screens interactive displays ala Doom 3? Please tell me they are.Nouserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03764504781560322749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-33353328958519640372013-12-15T15:39:34.063+01:002013-12-15T15:39:34.063+01:00Awesome! :-)Awesome! :-)The Bright Sidehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441238663732481000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-75673486982227127412013-12-14T16:52:37.545+01:002013-12-14T16:52:37.545+01:00Please, let us see that you will continue supporti...Please, let us see that you will continue supporting Linux as a platform!<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-25868646069364197992013-12-14T12:10:41.056+01:002013-12-14T12:10:41.056+01:00Some incoherend thoughts:
"The player is in c...Some incoherend thoughts:<br />"The player is in charge" probably means that the game needs to use physics engine extensively to allow interaction that does nothing for the story.<br />For puzzles maybe Half-life 2 can be an inspiration, because the great feature of HL2 is that the "story puzzles" emerge from an physics engine that allows a lot of "unstory" interaction: tossing objects around. Another example is the puzzle in Amnesia where the player had to "unbaricade" a door. It is a great puzzle because everything is clear to the player: the problem, the purpose, the interaction.<br />physics engine interaction combined with "Everything is story" could result in a game experience comparable to "Gone Home".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-80800709759576745522013-12-13T21:04:11.653+01:002013-12-13T21:04:11.653+01:00There we go then - the main character is plagued b...There we go then - the main character is plagued by nightmarish visions of video codec compression issues! Terrifying indeed :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15724529912971352205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-35411467168624294832013-12-13T19:23:00.535+01:002013-12-13T19:23:00.535+01:00The light is so low because of video conversion pr...The light is so low because of video conversion problems. We liked it though and kept it for the video. The game has lamps that cast realistically long light ;)Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02945983378935089787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-47602112941160553072013-12-13T17:43:41.491+01:002013-12-13T17:43:41.491+01:00"Love to see the game that you have created a..."Love to see the game that you have created and published though and compare the experiences."<br /><br />You do understand that you just presented a logical fallacy, right? You managed to disown 99,9% of any kind of critique as useless.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-11228386724344968922013-12-13T17:28:37.030+01:002013-12-13T17:28:37.030+01:00Don't worry about it - considering Point 2 on ...Don't worry about it - considering Point 2 on this list is taking the world seriously, and never doing something 'just for the sake of the gameplay', I would have thought they would have that explanation downAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15724529912971352205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-79503215508426968332013-12-13T16:54:09.728+01:002013-12-13T16:54:09.728+01:00Excellent approach, Thomas. I recognized a lot of ...Excellent approach, Thomas. I recognized a lot of the games I played throughout the 1990s in what you wrote. In my opinion, taking the player seriously is a very important element of games, and many modern ones seem to ignore that.<br /><br />I did notice that the lighting in the environment you show is unnaturally low. This kind of darkness made sense in Amnesia, seeing that the light sources were torches and an oil lamp. It was easier to suspend my disbelief and accept the darkness than it is in an environment such as a space station, which realistically would have been designed as a modern working environment. I don't see how anybody could have gotten anything done there with so little light. Are you guys explaining why it's so dim? (e.g. running on emergency power)The Bright Sidehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441238663732481000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-82568170313228329122013-12-13T13:05:57.138+01:002013-12-13T13:05:57.138+01:00Good read. This is very mature game design thinkin...Good read. This is very mature game design thinking.dorobohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13491626989871508754noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-51617106138109816242013-12-13T04:20:57.369+01:002013-12-13T04:20:57.369+01:00Utterly stupid is a pretty strong term. The short...Utterly stupid is a pretty strong term. The short lifespan of the lantern, as a mechanic, gave me a sense of relief when I needed to use it by being able to see, but also giving me a sense of dread because I needed to use it and burn oil. This coupled with the overall feeling of terror was brilliant.<br /><br />The game is not about total realism, nor should it be, the end goal of delivering the experience was achieved. It would have been a fairly boring game if everything were just dark and you couldn't have seen the environments.<br /><br />Love to see the game that you have created and published though and compare the experiences.<br /><br />Yeah, that's what I thought.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15604055106334520710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9193968969153274146.post-47939802488329022702013-12-13T02:53:33.918+01:002013-12-13T02:53:33.918+01:00Hello Thomas, I'd like to ask you a question a...Hello Thomas, I'd like to ask you a question about SOMA. Will the character you play as talk, or will they be silent? I think the silent protagonist has worked really well for your games, especially since you want the player to have their own opinion on what they see and feel through out the game. I know the philosophy on your games is about having the player live through the game and feel like they were truly inside the game, at least for amnesia. Is that your focus for SOMA as well? I'd really love to have an answer when you have a chance. Its that premise that I think makes your games so good. Thanks, and good luck on Soma! :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16524182419760376139noreply@blogger.com