Majeure - Design Concepts in Off Topic

ID:118423
 
Sep 11 2011, 4:45 pm
Keywords: majeure
I have a some design concepts that I think would really make this game a lot more fun and challenging to complete with a 100% collection rate.

Here's a list of a few that I've really been thinking about!

*Per-World Completion Rankings
Basically what this will do is it will show you where you're missing collectables (Which by the way can range from simply jewels you missed to actual upgrades, as they all count equally)

*Health Barriers
You must have 100% life to pass. Placed at the end of difficult platforming sections and house potent but optional equipment.

*Save Points
Save points are actually a pillar in the game that you press down when you're near it and it saves your progress. If you die, you return to the last save point you visited.

*Air Currents
With a certain item, you can float up these slowly to reach different areas.

*Respawning Creatures
When you kill a creature, it is only dead until you leave the room. If you come back, the enemy will also be back.

And finally, here's the list of currently planned collectables/equipment:
Feel free to interpret their use at your own will and share what you think each will be used for! :P

*40 Golden Scarabs
*32 Archon Hearts
*10 Soul Salves
*7 Remedies
*3 Barbed Arrows
*3 Winged Charms
*1 Platinum Circlet
*1 Tin Ring
*1 Fire Essence
*1 Ice Essence
*1 Peridot Pendant
*1 Maple Sapling
*Other 50% of completion is Jewels
#1 Sep 11 2011, 4:57 pm
Not bad =P
#2 Sep 11 2011, 5:07 pm
reminds me of haveing to get all the collectables and gems to get the final part of spyro

if your going to do the collectible thing make a bonus stage or a prize or something .
maybe a hat?????
#3 Sep 11 2011, 5:47 pm
100% health barrier seems kind of dickish, if you want them to get through without taking a hit, just make everything inside that path a 1 hit kill. It could be workable if your controls are just fantastically perfect, but otherwise I foresee lots of frustration and annoyance on the player's end.

Otherwise it seems pretty standard for games with an emphasis on item collection.
#4 Sep 11 2011, 5:56 pm
@Robertbanks2: The point of the heart barriers aren't to impede the actual game story. There won't be a single heart barrier that you absolutely NEED to pass to progress through the game, only to get optional stuff.
And they won't be -THAT- evil. Just to add a bit more challenge and reply value.
#5 Sep 11 2011, 5:57 pm
Ya the 100% health thing seems like it would be a super annoyance.

#6 Sep 11 2011, 6:11 pm
It's not so much an issue getting past them as an issue with the way they're handled. If you get through a situation, you should be rewarded, not told that you have to go back and do it again perfectly or piss off. If the things in the path to these heart barriers simply instant killed you or just warped you back to the start, there wouldn't be that moment where the player is told that they have to go back and do it again.

Of course, you could also go back and say "Hey, there's a heart barrier ahead, don't get hit!", but then you still expect the player to start over any time they take a hit anyway, since there is no reason to continue afterwards, so why allow them to?

It also just makes more sense in context. Why would someone put a moderately heavily guarded hallway leading to a scanner that rejects you if you have so much as a scuff on your boot when they could just as easily stuff it full of guards and instant kill traps?

Of course, none of this addresses the issue of how good the controls are, but I suppose we'll have to see about that when the demo comes out.
#7 Sep 11 2011, 8:43 pm
Instead of 100% health barriers, why not have health-based warp rewards. For example if you passed an area with only 50% health, it would warp you to a zone with a few small rewards, as opposed to 75% in which you would have a few larger rewards, and finally 100% where you'd have a lot of good rewards.

This way the hardcore players can still feel rewarded, but the more casual players can still feel appreciated too.
#8 Sep 11 2011, 9:10 pm
I think people aren't thinking of the exact use for the heart barriers, they're a way of making the game so you can't bulldoze through the game and get everything.

You get rewarded through the game continuously with jewels and the occasional upgrade as you kill enemies and discover new areas. The heart barriers just add something different for dedicated completionist players to put their time to.

It's not like there's going to be ridiculously long and hard segments that just end in a heart barrier, it'll be more like there'll be a one-to-two screen long challenge that once you get to the end and have a good idea how to make it through without any problems you see the heart barrier and realize that you could do this section really easily without getting hurt, and so you do and you are rewarded. You could have just ignored the barrier and continued on with the adventure, but curiosity has picked your mind and now you want to know what is on the other side of that barrier.
#9 Sep 11 2011, 9:22 pm
Oasiscircle wrote:
I think people aren't thinking of the exact use for the heart barriers, they're a way of making the game so you can't bulldoze through the game and get everything.

As opposed to not having them and being able to bulldoze?

You get rewarded through the game continuously with jewels and the occasional upgrade as you kill enemies and discover new areas. The heart barriers just add something different for dedicated completionist players to put their time to.

The problem here is, nobody in their right mind is ever going to not-do them. It's as optional as adding a 10c surcharge to a dollar chocolate bar in order to get one free. Nobody wouldn't take the offer, regardless of how optional it is. Heck it's so optional it's practically mandatory.

It's not like there's going to be ridiculously long and hard segments that just end in a heart barrier, it'll be more like there'll be a one-to-two screen long challenge that once you get to the end and have a good idea how to make it through without any problems you see the heart barrier and realize that you could do this section really easily without getting hurt, and so you do and you are rewarded. You could have just ignored the barrier and continued on with the adventure, but curiosity has picked your mind and now you want to know what is on the other side of that barrier.

This is exactly the kind of place you would WANT to put them, those hard places where a hardcore player would spend hours working on to complete it 100%, as opposed to a few small quick and easy jumps that anyone can accomplish.

I'm not sure you yourself quite understand your idea, if I may be so bold.

No offence intended.
#10 Sep 12 2011, 5:10 am
They would be placed in progressively "harder" segments as the game goes on, but I believe Robertbanks was concerned that if the segments leading up to the heart barrier were too long the player would become frustrated with having to redo the segment.

I'd like the segments to be short-medium segments of increased platforming challenge leading up to the heart barrier.
#11 Sep 12 2011, 9:36 pm
Yeah.
If I had a challenge, it would be much better if I could restart the level without going through some menu to choose to restart it.
The other thing is that if I was aware of these, I might be too concerned with my health, and I would be trying to beat every level 100% health on the first try.

So, the only other thing would be not letting it be beaten on the first try, or making it a separate play option that insta-kills you if you get hit.
#12 Sep 13 2011, 5:26 am
Or I could just make a sign that shows you when a heart-barrier segment begins. ;)
#13 Sep 13 2011, 5:57 am
Oasiscircle wrote:
Or I could just make a sign that shows you when a heart-barrier segment begins. ;)

What if instead you had- after the section, a 'Heart Challenge'. The Heart challenge would warp you to before the specific area began, and at any point you could return to the Heart Challenge point if you just wanted to continue. Obviously completeing the section got you the bonus.
#14 Sep 13 2011, 8:38 am
Looks nice but since I have lost faith in BYOND developers I won't be getting excited on anything until the game is actually released.
#15 Sep 13 2011, 4:05 pm
Enzuigiri wrote:
Looks nice but since I have lost faith in BYOND developers I won't be getting excited on anything until the game is actually released.

Why have you lost faith?