TinkerBell
Group: Members
Posts: 25
Joined: June 2002 |
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Posted: June 27 2003, 20:19 |
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Well, we think we have done it now - but what was the point? Agreed, it is a demo - and so the TubeWorld team are probably looking for feedback from the loyal punters. So, if anyone out there is listening, here is our 2p worth:
Basiclly the basic idea/concept behind MusicVR/TubeWorld is truly GREAT! The overall execution is getting better - more powerful graphics cards really help here. I quite like the graphics as it is - but then others don't. Critics should remember what is being attempted here - there is nothing else quite like it and so TubeWorld is a GAMBLE, an ADVENTURE, an EXPERIMENT - not everything will work out, even though quite a lot does. There is tremendous potential in the idea, it is worth doing, but also complicated to implement - it will take time to work it out.
What works: Graphics are getting better. Lets just keep going.
Just being able to fly around - everything is implicit and there is no pre-ordained way to play with it. But some of the landscapes have need for much improvement ... I liked the hilly landscape with the planes in level 2.
Adjustable speed - this is good for more manouverability, to help the player. But then a Cardinal Sin is committed with it: Speed control is a User Interface concept - and so should only be introduced to help the game player feel comfortable. The gameplay itself should NEVER, EVER be dependent upon using a particular speed, as it is in the 3rd level.
What doesn't work:
"Sloppy"/"random" control of the avatars - it's not that much fun, mostly irritating. Agreed, all the same kind of control for all of the avatars is also BORING. So, a halfway house is the need to stage/introduce harder-to-control avatars carefully to allow for training (i.e. start easy and build up). Avatar control must be trainable/learnable in "reasonable" time.
TIME LIMITS (3rd level - The Sea of Bells and the Flying Rossette) and too much "reaction time" stuff. Some of this might be fine, but seriously don't overdo it. [See earlier.]
What we would like more of:
MORE FUN ...
MORE MusicVR! Much, much more ... More connections with some of the original MusicVR themes/ideas (Spaceships, Rings, Cats, Horses, Mysticism, Visual Jokes - you know the stuff! ). The original MusicVR elements had much potential for making crazy connections and what-not. So, we might ask "What does this do?" and "Can this help me do that?", leading to some pretty crazy ideas - but thats the whole fun part. The game could/should exploit MUCH more of that type of thing ...
Puzzles to be solved that take us somewhere, and mean something along the way. Puzzles must be solvable by non-geniuses - otherwise it aint any fun for most of us, just frustrating. At the same time, we should accrue benefit for solving the problem elegently and using our initiative and creativity.
MORE MUSIC! "You can't spell MusicVR without music" - (Corny, I know, ...).
All of the music should be available in some standard commercial format, so reducing the temptation for the hackers to reverse engineer the game to extract the music content. Just commercially release the music anyway - in other words, the music could be composed in symphonic form so that it just happens to contain ALL the game excepts (and loops) somewhere within the main peice. That is quite a challenge to do - but probably satisfying even so. Given the title of the game, it is not too hard to guess where MOST OF the music will be taken from. I just hope that ALL of the game music will be made commercially available in its own right (no exceptions).
Perhaps allow for random mission elements (perhaps with a experience level that is acquired by achievement and the number of plays) which makes repeated runs of the game more addictive and freshly challenging. Once we have done the game once, it is nice for there to be many by-ways, nooks and crannies to explore, getting to interesting places in different ways ...
Introduce constructive elements (like in the original MusicVR) so that we have to build up to something interesting and unobtainable any other way. The paths don't have to be entirely sequential but you get the idea. I like the idea of bringing things/avatars together, but then it should turn into something interesting - a climax of some kind, preferably with a truly marvellous guitar piece!
Eventually, we should be able to go everywhere - no limits. The more we learn about the game, the further we can go. All the constraints/barriers from earlier stages should eventually dissappear, although other ones might appear.
MORE "INTERESTING" AVATARS that can interact with objects in the world in other ways than simply flying around, firing at things and crashing into objects. These interactions should cause things to happen and to change the world in well-defined ways. This could potentially improve the "gameplay" without destroying the basic idea and its simplicity.
For instance, as the MusicVR/TubeWorld genre is supposed to be non-violent, whats all this about "shooting" at warplanes anyway? I suppose they do change into seagulls, but I think there could be equally fun things to do without anyone/anything having to get "shot" as such (Tractor beams, making/building things, etc.) The sky's the limit ...
More configuration options: - joystick & keyboard support. - Display element control - not just screen res. but screen elements also. - Sound elements (i.e. the beeps that indicate barriers).
What we would like less of:
Its too stark, man, at the moment - a bit too austere and rather lacking in life.
INVISIBLE constraints that just go "beep" when you bang into them!!! It is INCREDIBLY irritating to not be able to manipulate the hangglider avatars away from an INVISIBLE barrier. Visual cues are needed (for prediction) - and it should be configurable wether to have audio "beeps" for barriers. What about a gesture/button to "auto correct" the attitude of a viewer/avatar?
In general, random and inconsequential design (i.e. the seven portals in a line, the over elaborated castle), with too many things that lead nowhere, gets irritating after a while. OK, for dramatic tension, you might need some "apparent" red herrings and distraction - but there should be some plot or goal which people can recognise as an ending (which is also a beginning, of course).
What would be truly awesome is to make even the apparent red herrings eventually meaningful, necessary and connected to some stage of the proceedings. After all, we all live in a "small world" these days (and one thats getting smaller) - so everything is connected. Whatever happens, it should take the player a while to figure it out, safe in the knowledge that it can be solved and that there is something interesting at the end of it all.
In terms of "drama" and stage craft, don't bring cannons on stage unless you intend to fire them at some stage ...
Blocky images when you get too close to something (usually the ground ) - this seems to irritate everyone. A better default behaviour would be fade into a standard, but interesting, background if you get too close. This could be what people mean by their accusation of "poor graphics" - in which case it might not be too hard to fix.
What we would really, really like:
As you get nearer to things, the level of detail increases so it feels as though you are getting "inside" and taking a real close look - a shift in scale. This happens in some places in TubeWorld - but not enough. Agreed, this is pretty hard and time-consuming to do - i.e. much more work etc. But it would be well worth it (perhaps some kind of default framework in general helps).
What I'd really like is getting in close to some things would then open up a whole new world/level etc. New vistas open before you ...
Also, pulling out to great height is also a shift in level in which you could enter a new world etc. Small things coalesce into other things which you can manipulate ... (As above, so below - Hermes Trismegistus).
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Obviously, this is just a demo and so you wouldn't reasonably expect all the above here in this version. Hopefully, feedback like this might be helpful to Mike and the team.
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