So, I was checking my twitter feed the other day. Just like everyday when I walk past the grocery store and before the bus stop, just after getting something for lunch. And I saw a fellow dev started tweeting about how damage is represented in games.
I continued walking towards the office and when I arrived I checked again. There was some really interesting answers, game suggestions and interesting debate overall. so I tweeted my way into the conversation.
Although I've been thinking about this particular topic for about 6 years now, I always put it aside because I wasn't able to come up with core mechanic, an environment and a theme to complement it and make it feel complete.
But because of that conversation I felt like I should investigate into it again and try to document or prototype something. So, because of the time constrains and the volume of work I have, I've decided to have some free days and write down something about this:
So, a few years ago I was a bit frustrated with how every enemy or boss in a videogame had their health bars to represent how much longer they could be in combat. Well, that's not the way to put it. I was frustrated that, for example, you swung a blade against a giant the only thing you could cause was a particle effect to appear and the draining of a determined quantity of its health bar.
Nothing on the skin, nothing about its behaviour. Nothing more than that. Nothing at all about it's behaviour would change. Aside from the traditional change of attack type or the final boss phase.
It was bothering me that there was wound, no scar left behind, no change in the animations or in the acting of the enemy.
Imagine how tactical it would be if we could make a game where making cuts in the legs of giants (and we could actually get that as feedback), would make them move slower or not even move at all, or fall in their knees.
Imagine if we could introduce mood changes relative to their actual combat situation. Continuing with the same example, what if those cuts annoyed the giant, and from that point on he became enraged until he cleared the area. What if those changes carried on with that unit?
These kind of theories were developed a little bit in the recent Shadows of Mordor and their Nemesis system. But what I feel that this is just scratching the surface. What this kind of system (meaning the imaginary one I'm describing) is becoming a standard for all encounters in a game. This systems would make the world and its inhabitants more believable. It would enhance the foundations of the game and make the suspension of disbelief much more harder to break.
The same way the destructible environments blew our minds when we first saw them, this would change the mechanics and narrative of games in so many micro and macro levels.
I feel there's much more I could write about it. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people will think this is just a quick text where I puked my thoughts on.
And they'd be right.
Nevertheless, I still think this is one of the most important ways the videogames can move forward and be able to create new experiences. And that we need to get this figured out mechanically first in order to develop a world and a theme around it.
Nothing more to say for now. See ya everyone!
J.
I continued walking towards the office and when I arrived I checked again. There was some really interesting answers, game suggestions and interesting debate overall. so I tweeted my way into the conversation.
Although I've been thinking about this particular topic for about 6 years now, I always put it aside because I wasn't able to come up with core mechanic, an environment and a theme to complement it and make it feel complete.
But because of that conversation I felt like I should investigate into it again and try to document or prototype something. So, because of the time constrains and the volume of work I have, I've decided to have some free days and write down something about this:
So, a few years ago I was a bit frustrated with how every enemy or boss in a videogame had their health bars to represent how much longer they could be in combat. Well, that's not the way to put it. I was frustrated that, for example, you swung a blade against a giant the only thing you could cause was a particle effect to appear and the draining of a determined quantity of its health bar.
Nothing on the skin, nothing about its behaviour. Nothing more than that. Nothing at all about it's behaviour would change. Aside from the traditional change of attack type or the final boss phase.
It was bothering me that there was wound, no scar left behind, no change in the animations or in the acting of the enemy.
Imagine how tactical it would be if we could make a game where making cuts in the legs of giants (and we could actually get that as feedback), would make them move slower or not even move at all, or fall in their knees.
Imagine if we could introduce mood changes relative to their actual combat situation. Continuing with the same example, what if those cuts annoyed the giant, and from that point on he became enraged until he cleared the area. What if those changes carried on with that unit?
These kind of theories were developed a little bit in the recent Shadows of Mordor and their Nemesis system. But what I feel that this is just scratching the surface. What this kind of system (meaning the imaginary one I'm describing) is becoming a standard for all encounters in a game. This systems would make the world and its inhabitants more believable. It would enhance the foundations of the game and make the suspension of disbelief much more harder to break.
The same way the destructible environments blew our minds when we first saw them, this would change the mechanics and narrative of games in so many micro and macro levels.
I feel there's much more I could write about it. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people will think this is just a quick text where I puked my thoughts on.
And they'd be right.
Nevertheless, I still think this is one of the most important ways the videogames can move forward and be able to create new experiences. And that we need to get this figured out mechanically first in order to develop a world and a theme around it.
Nothing more to say for now. See ya everyone!
J.