Things are coming along nicely

Things are coming along nicely with the first game. Bit of a rocky start, but it's all taking a definite shape and direction now. Our new concept artist Khang Le is great - he could beat me any day of the week :D

I have a lot of things I want to do with this game, the hard part will be figuring out which ones are helpful and which ones are not aiding it. A lot of times you'll see a game that has all sorts of eye candy or spiffy engine features that are great in and of themselves, but don't really do anything for the rest of the game. A feature is useless unless it contributes to the game. The latest super-advanced water rendering is pointless if the rest of the game sucks.

One of the things I wanted to employ that will hopefully benefit our game is a film director's perspective - Hollywood has been making movies for over a hundred years and in that time, they've come up with a lot of very good visual techniques. I believe I'll be able to use a few of them in this game to good effect. And no, not with cut-scenes. You came to play a game, not watch miniature movies. And cut-scenes you can't skip? That is just cruel. As a developer, you should never punish your player. If the player wants to know more about the plot, you can set up the game to allow him to do that if he wishes. Quite a few players aren't that interested in the plot. Forcing them to sit through a five minute movie that pounds in the plot as subtly as sledgehammer seems like punishment to me.

Another thing that's irritated me is screens that show copyright notices, publishers and developers names that can't be skipped. I want to get to the game. If I am curious about particular names, I can click the 'about' section in the menu. Forcing me to sit through it is indeed punishment. Screw that!