Post ALqrQBvk5RLfBiTANE by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
(DIR) More posts by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
(DIR) Post #ALqrQ0zakmtLGTBaLY by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T07:47:38Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
If you're making a meticulously handcrafted game, you know what kind of experience it should offer but also its limits.If you're making a set of coherent rules from which complex behaviour may emerge, you can only speculate about the potential experiences.Sometimes you discover interesting emergent mechanics you want to build handcrafted experiences on top of. Sometimes you have a specific idea and wish to explore how it interacts with some set of rules.A big rule in worldbuilding is Consistency. Once you have established a set of rules, don't break them. This goes equally for game mechanics. The player is supposed to learn the rules and play by them; if they're inconsistent, the player may feel frustrated and the world shallow.Don't introduce rules you feel compelled to manipulate into serving your vision. If you find yourself doing this, odds are you're not only working with a flawed set of premises but also writing bad code.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQ2cGiTQKIiHzGq by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T08:25:28Z
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When working on top of a system which has emerged from a set of rules, focus your creativity into working from within the framework established by these sets of rules. The framework does not limit your creativity, it directs it.You can always change, add and remove rules to form a new system if you find yourself creatively inhibited by a current one.This philosophy does not make it easier to make a game. It is easier to break your own rules, handwave inconsistencies away and shift the burden of making sense of it all onto the prospective players.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQ4JCQLMHY9NmpE by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T09:42:48Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Fun vs. Realism is a false dichotomy and an obscurantism.Do not mistake working within an established logical framework for "sacrificing fun for realism". For that matter, do not conflate consistency with realism. Realism is emulating real-world behaviour. Consistency is playing by your own rules, defining your own coherent universe and populating it. "Fun" is an emergent property of an interactive system defined by a set of rules.If one set of rules makes a system fun to interact with and a different set of rules makes a different system fun in a different way, you have two systems that are fun to interact with. That's two universes; two games.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQ5hLG4GRrJga5w by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T10:00:30Z
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It can be a very interesting and rewarding process to explore ways of combining aspects of multiple fun mechanics into a system defined by rules consistent with each. Some systems are irreconcilable and that's OK. It's OK for them to exist separately. A single game doesn't need to feature all of the fun mechanics you could possibly think of.I like birds and I like space. I will not make a space game with space birds because that makes no sense. Since that doesn't make sense, I'm forced to either abandon the idea of combining birds and space or find some intersection that retains aspects of both. An example of such an intersection might be a game set in a massive spin-gravity spaceship that has birds able to fly in its internal zero-g atmosphere.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQ79jpyZaNfylzk by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T10:07:56Z
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“A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.”- Frederik Pohl
(DIR) Post #ALqrQ8fgChiX51vnQ8 by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T10:23:14Z
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This is the spirit that forms the core of my philosophy when it comes to worldbuilding and game design. It's relatively easy to invent and imagine a fun game mechanic. The interesting and challenging part is searching for a set of rules from which it emerges (or is allowed to exist), and discovering what other emergent properties and mechanics such a system has.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQ8trLz3ln0Z7WS by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T11:58:43Z
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I'm gonna continue this rant. I hate arguments like this:> Sound in space doesn't make sense and this game/movie/series would be better without it.> It's there because it's cool and that's more important than realism! Lasers and explosions yeahhhh!! 😎 use your imagination bro, pretend they simulate it in their helmets or whatever> That's not how it's portrayed and the rule of cool is stupid.> That's just like your opinion, man 😎 suspension of disbelief, just ignore itStar Wars fans are the worst. I just can't interact with them. Can't visit their communities without needing a timeout from the internet shortly after. Star Citizen fanbase is a worthy contender.*Their* lack of imagination is so painfully apparent. Asserting that a space opera needs sound in space is as absurd as asserting that a comedy needs a laugh track. They're crutches for hacks.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQA3T3kL7N64J8a by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T11:13:26Z
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Stop special casing your game code. It smells and almost invariably makes everything worse. If you need to temporarily bypass certain behaviour to achieve an effect, you likely have a fundamental problem to solve.Capitalism makes you do things like this because artistic integrity doesn't hold any value in a capitalist framework. Don't think like a capitalist when working with art.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQAfOmigHGjobGC by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T12:20:42Z
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You also don't need aerodynamic ships, see The Expanse.Not saying every sci-fi universe needs to be hard, but FFS it wouldn't hurt to level with reality a bit, especially when not featuring absurd physics and pseudo-science would actually improve quality and cultural value.Sci-fi is supposed to be a window into the world of science. It's half of the genre's name! Many fantasy worlds are more coherent than Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and most other so-called sci-fi. All of those Star*s only serve to twist people's expectations of what space is like, how technology works and what 'alien' could possibly mean.It wouldn't hurt to include a scientific advisor in your multi-million dollar budget you money-grubbing twats.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQBbtHFT8C9BJQm by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T11:25:26Z
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Sorry if my rambling doesn't make sense outside my own head or came across as unsolicited criticism of anyone's creative work. Not sure I managed to translate my thoughts into language losslessly enough compressed or with sufficient disclaimers of subjectivity, not being entitled to any particular quality in other people's personal projects, etc.If you make things for yourself, you do whatever the fuck you please! I don't know all the answers or what value it holds for you. My rant stems from personal pet-peeves with public/collaborative projects, commercial products and general malpractice/anti-patterns in fiction and game dev industry.
(DIR) Post #ALqrQBvk5RLfBiTANE by sudoreboot@sunbeam.city
2022-07-25T13:18:19Z
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Apparently the original quote and its source is unknown. Whatever. The sentiment has been echoed through many places.