The personal blog of game designer, programmer and Cand. Scient. Informatics, Jimmy Marcus Larsen. Currently working as a game designer at Cego ApS.
August 22, 2007 at 21:58
This might be my last post on Pollen Sonata for quite some time. I have left the project in the hands of others, and for the time being I don’t expect them to finish the game anytime soon. It is very unfortunate that I had to leave the project, but the team couldn’t agree on very much making me lose faith in the project. I have learned a lot though, worked with a commercial game engine, met cool people in the industry and gotten job offers as well. That has to count for something… but I would have preferred to release the game.
For now I will put more time into writing my master’s thesis. That will also include creating a game, and I have a few ideas about how to make that game something to watch out for too.
In other news I’m currently playing Puzzle Quest: Challenge of The Warlords. I can recommend this to anyone who likes puzzle games, but finds the lack of story and setting too boring for long time play. And everyone else too. It’s that great. Really - it is!
August 16, 2007 at 9:18
It’s always easy to point out the mistakes in a game - as a game reviewer I do that all the time. It’s harder to point out what works and even harder to tell precisely why something works. A game designer must be able to do that, if he intends to learn from others. Children of Mana has several serious design issues, but in this post I will write about two of the good design decisions in the game.
Dungeons with multiple but unconnected floors works quite well in a hack n’ slash game. In some games the player has to wander back and forth between several floors to activate switches, but even though there is a puzzle-aspect to doing that, it mostly feels like an artificial way to extend the time spend in a dungeon. I like spatial exploration and back-tracking in some games, but keeping the layout of several floors in mind when the central game mechanic is fighting does not equal fun. In Children of Mana the switch giving access to a new floor is always near the entry to it, and it’s given as a reward for fighting - not for exploring the space of the dungeon. Spatial exploration works in Oblivion because you can overcome obstacles in many ways and hence hone different skills along the way, it works in Metroid because you are rewarded with new skills, but it doesn’t work in games where it is merely added to extend the length of a dungeon.
Don’t tell the player about linearity. When a game is linear it often let the player know about it - if there is only one way to go, or one mission to do it tells the player. Children of Mana does the same, but on a few occasions it forgets and that is actually very enjoyable. That means you get to explore for a reason - asking around and searching for people in the town would have been unnecessary if you knew where to go next. Even though the designer decided the route, there is no need to break the illusion and tell the player.
August 10, 2007 at 11:00
I have loved The World of Mana since 1994 when I played Secret of Mana - the first game to really touch me. After that I played Mystic Quest - a prequel of sorts for Game Boy and the real sequel Seiken Densetsu 3. Both great games as well. I somehow missed Legend of Mana, and only when Sword of Mana for Game Boy Advance came out I got back with the series. Sword of Mana was supposed to be a remake of Mystic Quest, but in reality it was far from the qualities of the classic - only the graphics had improved.
That might be why my expectations for Children of Mana was quite low. Playing it now though, I feel the developers have learned from their mistakes. The linear world design is still there, but the new quest based structure makes it less tedious. The combat and skill system is a little less trivial and the level design a bit more exiting. With this game as an inspiration, I believe The World of Mana could be a great setting for a new MMORPG. The cute aesthetics might even appeal to an audience untouched by any other MMORPG.
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