Plan for Clint S. Brewer

I've been working heavily on the magic system for UnEarthed Gods this week....

I've been working heavily on the magic system for UnEarthed Gods this week. It's extremely satisfying to finally get some of the core gameplay stuff working that I designed a while ago. I know I should have prototyped this stuff earlier, but I'm finally to the point with all the backbone of the game in place, and a certain level of mastery over the scripting system and engine, that I can get these ideas done quickly the way I want.

I'm a beginner when it comes to designing gameplay, and this week's work lead me to a realization about gameplay and automation.

-----------------------------
mirrored from devdiary at UnEarthed Games.

Let the Player Make the Decision Jul 21

As some of my gameplay ideas come into reality I'm realizing some things just don't work as I thought they would. I started doing some things automatically. For instance, if you try to use a healing spell, but are already at full health, then I don't cast the spell.

The thought of this seemed nice to me. If I don't need to use that magical energy then don't use it. Thanks game.

But in practice it feels like the game is making decisions for me, holding my hand. Decisions like this need to be left up to the player. This gives us (the players) a chance to learn about the world and a chance to make a decision. Which is part of the fun of the whole thing.

This type of problem becomes apparent as soon as you play the game, but there can be a lot of time between the fleshing out of gameplay ideas and the actual prototype test of the idea.

The trick is realizing when something is an interesting decision the player should make, and when something is just a tedious task that should be automated.
-------------------------

-clint