The Life & Times of Mr Gn0me

Twitch.tv Entertainer and Anime Enthusiast

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The one thing to look forward to on Mondays

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Just when I thought I had beaten him...

Highlight taken from Twitch.tv/MrGn0me

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Taken from Twitch.tv/lirik VR is the gaming or the future!

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The essence of my life.

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✍ Teru (from mp100) ?? :O

am i the onlu one who thinks that Teru’s “new hair” looks like Lama?

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Reading some spam email on stream.

http://twitch.tv/mrgn0me

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Best OP of the season

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Why is her head so large? Why?

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Chronology - A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger

It finally released! OCReMix put together a jazz album tribute to this awesome game. Give it a listen. http://chronology.ocremix.org/

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PSA from an office chair trucker.

I stream on TwitchTV every Tuesday and Thursday!

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Finally catching up on my backlog of Summer anime. Thanks a lot Stranger Things and Walking Dead!

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★ 香川悠作 | おおーっ ☆ ✔ republished w/permission

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Level Design - II

Continuing with my level design series I’m going to touch on introductory levels a bit more. I would argue the first level a player is introduced to is the most important level in the game. First impressions are important and the player is going to base their initial opinions on your game based highly on the first level.

So, what makes a good first level? It depends. Every game is different so what you want to accomplish from that first level will be different. Take my last example: Outset Island. That level needed to set the tone, story, characters, and allow the player to become acquainted with the game and mechanics at their own pace. The design of Outset Island enabled that really well. For another example, take the first level from the original Super Mario Bros. The goal of that level is to introduce the player to almost every aspect of the game. You see the Goombas, breakable blocks, power-ups, pits, pipes, etc. The first level is relatively easy and the second one gets suddenly hard. That first level is a tutorial of sorts.

When designing the first level you need to look at the overall aspect of the game and decide what you want that first level to convey. What goal do you want the first level to accomplish? Introduce mechanics? Set the story? Set the tone? Let’s look at a simple level design for a fictional puzzle game I’m “making”.

If you can make out my horrible handwriting, in the top figure I have 3 different floors. The first one introduces the concept of switches, second introduces ladders, pits, and chests. The third, puts everything together. Seems like a good first level, right? Wrong. While this may do a good job at introducing the player to the mechanics, it might also make a more experienced player very bored. Imagine if the first level of SMB did this--introducing you to one aspect each floor. That would be annoying. So in the second figure I put everything into one floor and even designed a puzzle aspect to it. It’s still simple, but it will keep the player interested as well as teach them how the game works.

The most important thing to remember when designing your first level is that you’re designing it for the player. Keep them interested, teach them about the game, and give them a reason to keep playing. And most of all, have fun!

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Level Design - I

When it comes to video games one of the most important aspects is level design. Level design is essentially the planning and building of a level that can be explored by the player. But, it is much more than that. Level design goes in hand with game design. If the level doesn’t fit the game or the game the level, then there are issues. For example, a game about robots probably won’t have a level with castles, knights, and medieval towns. It could, but that would be a little weird.

What about the less extreme examples, however? What are some games with good level design? For this, let’s go to one of my favourite games: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Wind Waker has some excellent level design--contrary to Majora’s Mask, but I’ll go into that another time. Take the first level: Outset Island. Outset Island is a great introductory level, meaning it introduces the player to the game, setting, characters, and conflict. You don’t want to (generally) drop the player in the middle of the game and leave them to figure everything out at once. Let’s take a look at how Outset Island is laid out:

Look at how simple, yet elegant this is designed. The vast sea around the island, the few houses, and the palm trees gives Outset Island a secluded and happy feel to it. This gives the player a peaceful feeling and makes them think they can explore the island at their own pace. Add a couple more houses, or an island nearby, or some enemies and Outset Island will lose what is was designed to do: introduce you to the game. The level is made to be explored. You start out in the watch tower and from there you can see the whole island. The sense you get to explore it wouldn’t be there as strongly if you started out on the ground somewhere. Normally you’d just go where your attention is attracted to.

The player will (almost) always go towards what attracts their attention. By showing the player, having something move, or outright telling them you will attract their attention. And the level designer’s job is to make that something enticing enough for the player. If I want the player to open a treasure chest I have to find a way to attract them to it and make whatever is in the chest enticing enough to make their way through whatever obstacle and open the chest.

With Outset Island, the designer wants to attract the player’s attention to the whole island. And it does this very well through where you start. If you can see the whole island you will want to explore it. It entices you to see what’s in the houses. Makes you wonder what’s in those areas you can’t reach yet.

Next time I’ll go over some bad levels and what I might have done differently with them.

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What I Want from Zelda WiiU

A new trailer for the new Zelda WiiU game was just revealed and it looks very promising. It's been a while since I've been hyped for a new Zelda game. Ever since Wind Waker they have seemed okay at best. Twilight Princess and A Link Between Worlds are certainly not the worst, but they weren't as good as they could have been. And Skyward Sword was pretty bad. For a while Nintendo seemed to be focusing on the same tropes and mechanics for most every game. Ganon is going to destroy Hyrule, Zelda gets kidnapped, Link has to use the power of the triforce to rescue the princess and defeat Ganon. Only a few games have strayed from this. And those games have been good! Majora's Mask was one of the best Zelda games and it didn't have Zelda or Ganon in it. And compared to Ocarina of Time, the bosses were actually difficult. And that brings me to the main topic I want to talk about.

Forget dungeons, forget the same items every game, forget the same characters, what I want most out of this new Zelda is creative, difficult bosses. Majora's Mask had this as did A Link to the Past. The boss fights in those games were actually difficult. Every game after Majora's Mask seemed to have boring, very obviously to beat bosses. Sure, there were some exceptions, but for the most part there weren't very difficult at all. It was always disheartening to solve the puzzles of a difficult dungeon only to be let down by a sub-par boss fight. 

A Link to the Past was, and still is, one of the best Zelda games. The dungeons were innovative, exploring the overworld was fun, and the bosses were difficult. It gave a sense of satisfaction from beating them. Something that, I feel, is missing from current Zelda games.

I've been sleep deprived all week, so hopefully I'm making sense. My point is, I don't really care about how original this new Zelda game is. It looks cool so far and that slow motion bow shooting gave me chills. All I want is to beat a boss and be able to yell at my TV screen "YES, FINALLY! I FREAKING DESERVE THAT HEART PIECE GIMME!"

Seriously though, slooooow motion action shots...yes!

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Life Update

What a crazy year. Since August 2013 I have moved out on my own, bought a new(old) car, spent many, many hours (and much more money) fixing said car, and I got engaged to a wonderful girl. For the past 6 months it has been really busy. Between work, car repairs, wedding planning, and a poor attempt of keeping my apartment clean, I have run behind on some personal projects as well as helping out someone else with their website (JB, I swear I will fix the site issue!!!). I am still trying to nail down time management.

However, after I finish other obligations I plan to continue some of my dropped projects.. My goal for next year is to write some sort of simple game. My only New Year's Resolution!

This was for anyone who cares to read. Have an awesome Christmas!

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MTG Deck: Big Monsters and Mill!

Insane MTG deck. I might have trouble against mill decks...