Topic

Different forms of playing/participating in the game

I think some of this clashes with your vision for the game, so I hesitate to post, but here are some things I've been thinking about. I think there should be different ways to participate in the game.

I can imagine some people, for example, just wanting to hang out in a coffee shop and be there for chat when their friends drop by. Maybe they would always leave the game "on". (The game as a substitute chat room.) These people may not want to explore endlessly and might want to minimize the repetitive (and let's face it, sometimes tedious) tasks that seem to be the bread and butter of the game.

Other people might want to use the game as a quick diversion during work time, hopping on to play for a bit and then logging off. (The game as a substitute Tetris.) I think the current game style allows for this form of play. But you might consider mini games as an option as well. I realize this is VERY different from the current vision for the game, and would most likely appear as discrete "game rooms" or something if you did ever add it. But it would attract more people than are drawn to the current style of play.

And I don't have as clear a sense of this one yet, but I feel like the game could draw in still more people if there were a way to participate that depended on developing game-playing skills, the way that most console games work. (So I guess this is the game as a substitute console.) Again, I think this is VERY different from the vision for the game and maybe doesn't mesh at all. So many games involve some form of shooting something, and that obviously doesn't mesh here. But as you've done with other things, such as where the pigs just give up some meat without me needing to kill them first, I suspect there are clever ways around. I'm also reminded of Pokemon Snap, where what you were "shooting" was a camera. Very clever -- you still had to get something in your sights and shoot, just like a gun -- but the product was a photograph! And you got more points for what you caught in the picture (e.g., how many rare pokemon, or what the pokemon were doing) and how well centered the subject was, etc.

(Okay, I'll shut up now. :-)

Posted 3 years ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Bring back Flow Tending!
    Posted 3 years ago by Peter Verona Subscriber! | Permalink
  • this would really help for making the game a bit less repetitive, and i think would encourage more casual, return play.

    running around looking for plants to water for two hours wasn't the most fun i've ever had in a game. it would be nice to have mini-games to play when that sort of thing becomes frustrating.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • this would really help for making the game a bit less repetitive, and i think would encourage more casual, return play.

    running around looking for plants to water for two hours wasn't the most fun i've ever had in a game. it would be nice to have mini-games to play when that sort of thing becomes frustrating.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • okay so i did some thinking about this ..

    you've already got this big 'ol platforming engine built. why not build some mini-games around platforming?

    for example, what about "courses"? little levels where you have to race from one end to another and beat a certain time. if you do, you get an item. maybe you could even race against a friend, in the spirit of friendly competition.

    should work as a fun mini-game capable of variation without designing and coding an entirely new game interface.

    what about whack-a-mole? four or five holes in the ground from which something pops up that you have to jump up in the air and stomp. maybe a certain number within a time limit, maybe a certain number in a row. once completed, a nifty item pops out of the hole.

    what about pachinko? [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko ] imagine a whole level where you start at the top of the level [think some of the current ix levels] and you push a ball from the top, which drops down through various ramps and gates and lands in slots that then produce items. maybe on some pachinko levels you'd have to race down alongside the ball to trigger switches to open or close gates that would alter the ball's path.

    all of these mini-games build upon the current platforming engine without requiring massive interface changes, and could be fun, refreshing ways to "shake up" game play.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • (Striatic is full of great ideas!)

    Okay, here's another thing that occurs to me about the game. You all are, I'm sure having a ton of fun CREATING the wonderful game. There must be a way to allow players to also create things.

    Obviously, people want to do this, as can be seen just from the comments about wanting to customize their characters in different ways.

    There are all sorts of ways this could kick in... some people might want to be bloggers/journalists/town criers; others might want to be landscapers or architects or tailors, or Julia Child or genetic engineers.

    And as Brian is thinking about, different forms of this are easier or harder to add to the existing game engine. But I'm throwing the challenge out there anyway: let game players create.
    Posted 3 years ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Good!

    But hmmm ... I wonder what we are doing that gives the impression that anything here clashes or is so very different from the current vision of the game? (I think we need to more strongly make the point that we are only a small fraction of the way through development and are only testing a small subset of functionality at this point.)

    Minigames have been a core part of the vision from the very beginning; they are just not in the game yet (many other core parts aren't either, from groups to the auction house to teleporters). There will be some single player minigames, but the ones we are more excited about are minigames that allow two or more Glitch players to play together: if you have a "copy" of a minigame (think of a chess board and pieces), you can bring it around with you and challenge other players.

    Ideally the actions in these minigames are no totally separate from the big game, but connected (e.g., they require pieces that are found or made in the big game, or beating your high score in a minigame gives you a skill boost in the big game, etc.)

    Anyway, please never feel like you can't propose an idea because (1) it seems hard to implement (we are clever and have the resources), or (2) because you think it is off the course of what we are doing (this is just a glimpse of where we want to go: there will be much more by the time we launch and we'll be working on it for many years). Suggest, request and propose away!
    Posted 3 years ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "I wonder what we are doing that gives the impression that anything here clashes or is so very different from the current vision of the game?"

    many of us played GNE and most of the tested functionality was GNEish, reinforcing certain assumptions we might have about what you are trying to accomplish.

    still, the suggestions themselves suggest that those who have tested the game are open to all kinds of possibilities. obviously something you are doing gives the impression that the game is open ended enough to accept these ideas and is sparking people to think them up.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Excellent suggestions.

    With at least some of the minigames or challenges, there should be sufficiently rewarding rewards or recognition so that those who can't (or won't let themselves) become immersed in Glitch 24/7/365-or-6 will still feel accomplished and jazzed about stopping by whenever they can, and will still feel part of the community, valued by other players and developers alike.

    (Spoken by the woman who spent most of her last night as a single woman barreling around the Glitch test last Thursday, attempting to ignore the pouting being occasionally aimed in her direction by the fellow whom she married the next morning...)
    Posted 3 years ago by Eleanor Rigby Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Congrats, Eleanor!!! (Funny story!)

    Here is my silly thought for the day:
    I was thinking that if I had a pet, it might be fun to be able to train it to do different things. And then that musing carried on to its natural end, and I imagined piggy agility courses. Imagine those little piggies doing the weave poles!

    Or, yeah, not.

    (And maybe if you do really well, your piggy gives up a pork tenderloin... and if you do poorly, it's pork rinds.)
    Posted 3 years ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • pets sound so cute. i'd definitely like a pet. i think it would be good if pets automatically followed you around, looking cute, improving your mood and the mood of those around you. it'd also have abilities you could trigger, like piggies currently do.

    as for training pets, for that i'd rather have robots. you could program a robot to go up and down the street all day, harvesting trees until its basket was full, then going dormant. actually, it'd be cool if you could use a basic in-game programming language to make punch cards. then you could trade or sell or give away the punch cards for people to use in their robots.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Though I always ended up killing my dog in nethack (sorry!) if I did have a pet in Glitch I would promise to take very good care of it. And feed it and walk it and train it so mom doesn't have to.

    I want to echo the sentiment here that it would be a great attraction for me and other by-necessity casual gamers if Glitch had seniority "points" (not actual time spent but longevity), mini-games, and other achievements that kept us engaged and interested/interesting even if we couldn't devote hours and hours building up our characters. (Hubby and I may have spent half of our honeymoon playing Diablo II -- CONGRATS DIANE -- but those times are long gone.)
    Posted 3 years ago by girlhacker Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Dianne, wait, wait what?? :)
    Posted 3 years ago by Delphin Subscriber! | Permalink