ID:265748
 Jun 25 2007, 4:31 am
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For the past few months I have been developing the core for my new game, however the constant complaint I get from people who log in is that my graphics are not up to par. It seems like before I ever get a chance to showcase the high quality of content and playable value of the various systems offered the lack of eye candy is sufficient enough to squelch interest, is this true enough to warrant me hiring an artist for all the content I need?
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I totally agree. Usually what some programmers, or atleast myself, do is make a few stand-in icons and program the whole game (while making a list of what needs to be icon-ed or icon_state-d) before implementing any good graphics in.
Sometimes, the game with a crappy graphics and a good game/player base would get offers from icon artists to work on the game so you spend less time looking and offering. (On the other hand, be weary as well. If someone is a mapper or an icon artist and requests the code, NEVER GIVE IT TO THEM. in the case that they are trying to see how it will look like on the map, create a modified turf code file and a copy of the map (modified if needed) so they don't see any critical data... and so they don't leak your game as well). | |
Thank you both for your input, especially for your advice ghost. Although I have been around long enough to know better, I could just as easily be vulerable enough to lose my game. The community is what gives byond so much of its appeal and value. Anyways, shifting topics, what kind of skill systems do people find appealing?
For the longest time I have loved the idea of blacksmithing and mining, because of the economical fun and because of the power it gives over the rest of the adventuring population. But I know the buck doesnt stop there. I have been thinking back to my days of UO on what skill sets and systems I found fun and I wonder what should I implement in my game and what new non UO specific skills should I create or implement? Presently here is a running list of what I have; Blacksmithing and Mining (completed, will add more items as systems are implemented for other forms of combat) Fishing (completed; but not with the complexity of deep sea fishing, treasure hunting or special items) Cooking (completed but not fleshed out ie, only fish can be cooked at this point) The groundwork for; Healing - item based bandage or herb use and higher level spells for healing will be covered by this skill Magic/Magery - damage infliction and lower level healing spells will be covered under this. Elemental Mastery (not this name per say, but generally, each of the 4 elements and maybe a few more will have their own skill area in the magery tree, the magery skill will cover lower powered spells and each of these skills will allow the higher level and more powereful spells in their own branch) Archery (waiting on my targeting system) 3-4 more weaponry skills with their own craftable weapons alchemy (item conversion and item enchantment) herbalism (potions, or exaustable enchantments) taming, sub-skill animal lore musicianship and its various barding skills (distant future) hiding (this should be interesting) stealth (very interesting) stealing locked chests of treasure and the lockpicking skill 2 more magic based trees seperate from the magery skill an evaluating intelligence equivelant that buff's the power of a spell woodcutting or lumberjacking carpentry (crafting decoration or tools) fletching (awaits archery) tailoring farming (a unique system for making money, will work with housing, plots of land and time based crops and or animals for the basic materials behind tailoring or cooking) the hard part will be to balance the economy, the various weapon and magic skills and the use of items or enchanted objects so that crafters will be very useful. What am I missing? I know these are high goals, and I don't expect them to be done within the year, I will extract the urgent goals to give the game the greatest play value as soon as possible and go from there. I have realized that no one magic element gives a game great value, but what should I do first to get players in the front door so to speak? | |
Well. Ideally, today's culture is starting to "worship" sleeker designs, and better looking things. You don't just see someone go pick up an old battered down car, over a new one (unless they really.. can't afford it). Anyhow, I get what you're saying by "Next-Gen" Video Games are getting too watered-down with Graphics, and not in Game Play. As this may be relevant to some games, I don't think it's true to all. I've seen many newer games that have Next-Gen Graphics, that are nice and sleek and good, and have awesome Game Play.
Some examples would include: Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy XII, Gears of War, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion / Shimmering Isle. Those are also just examples, I'm sure there are many other games that use Good Eye-Candy Graphics, and incorporate suitable Game Play. | |
Wow, thats alot to put into one game... NICE ^_^
I know that dont answer your question though... sorry :( | |
That's why I bought the Wii.
Sadly though, most of the world believes a game is a game only if NPC's have at very least 400 bajillion polygons. And that's just on the breasts (assuming the NPC is female.) I get sick of Wii reviews saying crap like "The graphics are not next generation." when the game is very very fun. For example, Twilight Princess. It has excellent graphics, next generation or not. Hell, it would still be fun if it were 2D. | |
I believe we are digressing into a console discussion. I understand what you all mean about the graphics vs gameplay topic, but in our specific case - BYONDers aren't looking for 3d 30million dollar video games, otherwise they wouldn't be here. For a game on BYOND should I invest time and or money in graphics or will my gameplay be sufficient?
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While it doesn't matter in terms of how fun your game is, it certainly doesn't hurt to have it look good AND play good at the same time.
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yep, your right but some people who dont have money or friends with good developing skills (wether it be coding-mapping-iconing) what im trying to say is some people could be good at coding and just that or mapping or just iconing (or any conjunction of the three) what im saying is "No one... NO ONE person will be able to bring a super game together by themselfs" and thats that, by super game i mean great graphics and great gameplay.
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Perilous Knight wrote:
For a game on BYOND should I invest time and or money in graphics or will my gameplay be sufficient? As stated before it really depends on who you want to attract. What I would do is to try throwing it in alpha once it is near finished with the gameplay aspect and just make some icons for placeholders. See how many people you can attract with just the gameplay and then make/get some nice icons and release it into a beta (along with bug fixes). Just make sure that you do not make to cruddy graphics for place holders, at least have them resemble what they represent. | |
Personally, I've never cared much about graphics, and I've consistently found that the best games have crummy graphics because the game developers put all their effort into the game itself rather than the pictures representing everything. (Check out www.rpgwo.com and www.stone-age-online.com for a few examples of what I mean). I shy away from 3D games and modern console games because they put so much of their energy into making it look nice, which takes away from the game itself. I'm not really sure I understand why people care so much about graphics - it's all just pixels representing the game itself, right? As long as it's understandable, what does it matter which pixels they use?