I'm leaving ubisoft next week.
The last 3 years have been really great for me at Ubisoft. I met so many people with a lot of potential and talent.
I learned a great deal from everyone I've worked with from juniors to seniors they all had an impact on what kind of designer I've become.
Ubisoft gave me my first opportunity to work in the video game industry. I got to learn everything I needed to become a good level designer.
I'm leaving ubisoft to try some new things I've always wanted to do.
I've got ideas on my own that I'll try to develop in the next few years.
It's with a certain sadness that I'm leaving many friends who will be missed, but I am happy to go experience something new and totally different...and travel !
see ya guys ;)
vendredi 27 avril 2007
vendredi 6 avril 2007
Game Ramblings : Checkpoints
Just a little rant about checkpoints in games to temporary save the status of players... I think it's great to have checkpoints in games.
Why ?
1- Because I don't feel like doing a 1-hour level all over again because I missed one jump at
the end and died.
2- Because I don't have time to do levels over and over again just because the designer
didn't care if I was a bad player ... and frankly maybe I'm not that good at some games
but I still play them because I like it ... but doing missions over and over again and hear
always the same dialogues and unskippable cinematics...that I can't take!!
3- Because I don't have so much time to play because I have other responsibilities hence I
can't redo missions over and over.
4- Because it's frustrating to have to redo challenges that I had finally passed, but then I fail
the next one and have to redo everything ... man this is painful ...
I understand that some games might have too many checkpoints in them which makes the game really easier since you only start back 2 feet away from where you died every time, but maybe developpers could implement some sort of mechanism where they would know that a certain player dies a lot in a certain area and would enable a checkpoint near this area so the player would only have to start from around this area and not from the start of the level or use difficulty settings to enable or not checkpoints so at the hardest difficulty there would be no checkpoints where as in the easiest settings there would be checkpoints everywhere.
Just my thought on this issue.
Why ?
1- Because I don't feel like doing a 1-hour level all over again because I missed one jump at
the end and died.
2- Because I don't have time to do levels over and over again just because the designer
didn't care if I was a bad player ... and frankly maybe I'm not that good at some games
but I still play them because I like it ... but doing missions over and over again and hear
always the same dialogues and unskippable cinematics...that I can't take!!
3- Because I don't have so much time to play because I have other responsibilities hence I
can't redo missions over and over.
4- Because it's frustrating to have to redo challenges that I had finally passed, but then I fail
the next one and have to redo everything ... man this is painful ...
I understand that some games might have too many checkpoints in them which makes the game really easier since you only start back 2 feet away from where you died every time, but maybe developpers could implement some sort of mechanism where they would know that a certain player dies a lot in a certain area and would enable a checkpoint near this area so the player would only have to start from around this area and not from the start of the level or use difficulty settings to enable or not checkpoints so at the hardest difficulty there would be no checkpoints where as in the easiest settings there would be checkpoints everywhere.
Just my thought on this issue.
Game Ramblings : Game Overs...
Lately I've heard a lot of people say that they liked to die in games or that they miss the old Game Overs in their games because they felt today's games were too easy and they wanted to do levels all over again.
Well I'm a strong believer that Game Over screens are of the past. The game industry has evolved since the 80's and this should be the first step towards that evolution...getting rid of those screens and all that "put another coin in the arcade please" mentality. The Game Over "feature" was used in the arcade to provide arcade game developpers to make money out of kids, but now it's useless to do so.
I've played a game recently that had those Game Over screens : Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles; and I just wanted to put the controller down and never come back to it because this is really want it seems to me that the designers wanted to tell me ... I've bought this game so please don't give me the option to let your game down...
I believe the game developpers must use other strategies to keep players playing their games. Instead of a Game Over screen let the player know they failed,but let them go back to the mission they were doing by using story elements or a different set of animation that lets the player know that they'll come back stronger later ... As an example, in Naruto, I'm fighting against Sasuke and I get beaten because I didn't hit the health button soon enough...so I get a Game Over screen right away...in less than a second...that's not fair for the player since he can't even know what just happened there...let Sasuke talk to Naruto (laugh at him, taunt him, etc...) or use a cinematic where naruto gets taken back to the village and at the hospital until he can recuperate.
I think we have enough ressources to put that kind of elements in our games and find ingenious ways for the players to feel we care about them and we have put the effort into the game he bought. It's not by letting the players down that the game industry will bring in more players that have never played before.
Well I'm a strong believer that Game Over screens are of the past. The game industry has evolved since the 80's and this should be the first step towards that evolution...getting rid of those screens and all that "put another coin in the arcade please" mentality. The Game Over "feature" was used in the arcade to provide arcade game developpers to make money out of kids, but now it's useless to do so.
I've played a game recently that had those Game Over screens : Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles; and I just wanted to put the controller down and never come back to it because this is really want it seems to me that the designers wanted to tell me ... I've bought this game so please don't give me the option to let your game down...
I believe the game developpers must use other strategies to keep players playing their games. Instead of a Game Over screen let the player know they failed,but let them go back to the mission they were doing by using story elements or a different set of animation that lets the player know that they'll come back stronger later ... As an example, in Naruto, I'm fighting against Sasuke and I get beaten because I didn't hit the health button soon enough...so I get a Game Over screen right away...in less than a second...that's not fair for the player since he can't even know what just happened there...let Sasuke talk to Naruto (laugh at him, taunt him, etc...) or use a cinematic where naruto gets taken back to the village and at the hospital until he can recuperate.
I think we have enough ressources to put that kind of elements in our games and find ingenious ways for the players to feel we care about them and we have put the effort into the game he bought. It's not by letting the players down that the game industry will bring in more players that have never played before.
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