Re: Instant Death


Mon, 6 Mar 1995 17:40:55 GMT

Neil K. Guy (neilg@kits.sfu.ca) wrote:
: Over the past few weeks I've downloaded three or four free or
: shareware games from ftp.gmd.de. And have been very disappointed by
: all of them. Why? Because all of them killed my character without any
: real warning after a handful of turns.

Could you be a bit more specific, even if it means including spoiler
warnings?

: Am I the only one old-fashioned enough to find this damned tiresome
: and rather rude on the part of the author? I really wish that more
: people would read Graham Nelson's excellent list of game suggestions
: in his bill of rights... dropping dead of starvation after 2 minutes
: or being frozen to death or mauled by a monster after stepping through
: a doorway isn't my idea of fun.

True, it's not. But, if used sparingly, and if the program includes an
"UNDO" feature, it isn't so bad, IMHO. For example, in a game I've been
working on (although it's nowhere near completion), there is only one
location in the game where the player can die immediately upon entry, and
that's only because you're supposed to get a ride through the territory.
The game warns you that it's hostile territory in the room description, and
the player can always use the "UNDO" command, so it doesn't strike me as
being unfair.

As for food, I've attempted a somewhat different approach in my game. Your
character starts out with a pack of supplies and automatically eats whenever
he gets hungry (provided he's not in a life-or-death situation at the time).
This eliminates the need to keep track of how long it's been since your
character has eaten. Of course, the player can always drop the pack, and
THEN he'll starve to death if he doesn't retrieve it soon enough, but there's
plenty of warning given in advance.

: The reason I've posted this to arts and not games is because I'm
: interested in this from an author's perspective. I'm still plugging
: away at my own opus in a rather desultory fashion, but one thing I've
: been trying to avoid is the Instant Death Syndrome. You can die in my
: game if you leap off cliffs or kick electrified rail lines, but you
: don't die just by typing "e" one too many times. But given all these
: other games with IDS I'm wondering if it's a problem. Do people care?

I care. I don't like dying without any warning any more than you do. But
if used sparingly, and if some sort of notice is given in advance, it can be
a good technique.

Just my opinions. Post agreements or flames as you like.

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| C. E. Forman -- ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu |
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