Video game developers confess their hidden tricks about your favorite games at last - Games Arena

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Wednesday, 6 September 2017

Video game developers confess their hidden tricks about your favorite games at last



First shots from an enemy in BioShock always miss




Irrational Games/2K Games

Jennifer Scheurle opened up a can of game-design whoopass on Thursday.
Scheurle, a designer with Opaque Space (whose current project is the virtual reality gameEarthlight) tossed out an open question on Twitter that will make you question what really is underneath the hood of your favorite game.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
Assassin's Creed and Doom value the last bit of health as more hit points than the rest of it to encourage a feeling of *JUST* surviving.

Given the chance to confess their sins of rubber-banding, regenerating boss health or worse, many developers took it.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
Is it ok to mention something we're proud of in our own game? :P In Firewatch, a player not responding to dialogue prompt is a noted choice

Ng (the lead artist for Firewatch) went on to explain that ignoring someone in Firewatch had a consequence and thus made other characters “real.”

Is it ok to mention something we're proud of in our own game? :P In Firewatch, a player not responding to dialogue prompt is a noted choice
the game reacts to non-response, and it helps create a feeling that ignoring someone has social consequence and the other person is "real"

Ever wonder if ratings were meaningful? Alex Trowers, a designer for the racing/car-combat game Hi-Octane on the original PlayStation, also confessed his sins.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
Not a mechanic persee, but in Hi Octane we simply displayed different stats for vehicles without ever actually changing them under the hood

Paul Hellquist, designer on BioShock, admitted to goosing the player’s health meter to contrive desperate confrontations.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In Bioshock if you would have taken your last pt of dmg you instead were invuln for abt 1-2 sec so you get more "barely survived" moments.

Then Rick Lesley, a designer for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, confessed to the same thing:

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In Shadow of Mordor, I would add additional health back to dueling uruk, to artificially extend their fight a bit, for spectacle!

Developer Chevy Ray revealed that there is a thumb on the scale when applying the law of gravity.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
We have a term called "coyote time" for when the player walks off a platformer ledge and presses jump too late, but the jump still works

Tommy Thompson revealed the secret of Alien: Isolation.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
The Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation has two brains one that always knows where you are and gives hints to the second that controls the body :D

and Left 4 Dead.

F.E.A.R's AI dialogue is selected by the NPC doing an action, then it tells another NPC to say it. Making it look like they communicate.
Oh and Left 4 Dead keeps you on edge by deliberately targeting the player either farthest from the group or who has received less aggro.

Sometimes, it isn’t about the game’s design. Lee Perry, a gameplay designer on Gears of WarGears of War 2 and 3, offered this fact.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In Gears, found out 90% of first time players don't play a second multiplayer match if they don't get a kill. That first game's important...

Even Ken Levine jumped in with this jaw-dropper:

In System Shock we made your last bullet do double damage, similar trick to the last bit of health thing.
First shots from an enemy against you in BioShock always missed...that was the design, think it got fully implemented. No "out of blue!"


Steve Thornton, who has worked on five different LEGO video games for Traveller’s Tales, spilled these beans:

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In some LEGO games, ranged enemies have hit/miss probability - on a miss the projectiles are offset but also have no collision just in case
On and on it goes.
It’s like finding out Santa Claus does not exist, but still admiring the lengths to which Mom and Dad went to preserve his myth. There’s much more within the original thread.
But I am still waiting for Bob Whitehead to admit that he tried to make it impossible to throw a perfect game in Hardball! on the Commodore 64. Tried. Because I threw one anyway.





Irrational Games/2K Games

Jennifer Scheurle opened up a can of game-design whoopass on Thursday.
Scheurle, a designer with Opaque Space (whose current project is the virtual reality gameEarthlight) tossed out an open question on Twitter that will make you question what really is underneath the hood of your favorite game.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
Assassin's Creed and Doom value the last bit of health as more hit points than the rest of it to encourage a feeling of *JUST* surviving.
Given the chance to confess their sins of rubber-banding, regenerating boss health or worse, many developers took it.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
Is it ok to mention something we're proud of in our own game? :P In Firewatch, a player not responding to dialogue prompt is a noted choice

Ng (the lead artist for Firewatch) went on to explain that ignoring someone in Firewatch had a consequence and thus made other characters “real.”

Is it ok to mention something we're proud of in our own game? :P In Firewatch, a player not responding to dialogue prompt is a noted choice
the game reacts to non-response, and it helps create a feeling that ignoring someone has social consequence and the other person is "real"

Ever wonder if ratings were meaningful? Alex Trowers, a designer for the racing/car-combat game Hi-Octane on the original PlayStation, also confessed his sins.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
Not a mechanic persee, but in Hi Octane we simply displayed different stats for vehicles without ever actually changing them under the hood

Paul Hellquist, designer on BioShock, admitted to goosing the player’s health meter to contrive desperate confrontations.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In Bioshock if you would have taken your last pt of dmg you instead were invuln for abt 1-2 sec so you get more "barely survived" moments.

Then Rick Lesley, a designer for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, confessed to the same thing:

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In Shadow of Mordor, I would add additional health back to dueling uruk, to artificially extend their fight a bit, for spectacle!

Developer Chevy Ray revealed that there is a thumb on the scale when applying the law of gravity.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
We have a term called "coyote time" for when the player walks off a platformer ledge and presses jump too late, but the jump still works

Tommy Thompson revealed the secret of Alien: Isolation.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
The Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation has two brains one that always knows where you are and gives hints to the second that controls the body :D

and Left 4 Dead.

F.E.A.R's AI dialogue is selected by the NPC doing an action, then it tells another NPC to say it. Making it look like they communicate.
Oh and Left 4 Dead keeps you on edge by deliberately targeting the player either farthest from the group or who has received less aggro.
Sometimes, it isn’t about the game’s design. Lee Perry, a gameplay designer on Gears of WarGears of War 2 and 3, offered this fact.

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In Gears, found out 90% of first time players don't play a second multiplayer match if they don't get a kill. That first game's important...


Even Ken Levine jumped in with this jaw-dropper:

In System Shock we made your last bullet do double damage, similar trick to the last bit of health thing.
First shots from an enemy against you in BioShock always missed...that was the design, think it got fully implemented. No "out of blue!"
Steve Thornton, who has worked on five different LEGO video games for Traveller’s Tales, spilled these beans:

Hey , tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are hidden from the player to get across a certain feeling. Example:
In some LEGO games, ranged enemies have hit/miss probability - on a miss the projectiles are offset but also have no collision just in case

On and on it goes.
It’s like finding out Santa Claus does not exist, but still admiring the lengths to which Mom and Dad went to preserve his myth. There’s much more within the original thread.
But I am still waiting for Bob Whitehead to admit that he tried to make it impossible to throw a perfect game in Hardball! on the Commodore 64. Tried. Because I threw one anyway.

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