Common Sense Corner

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

A quote: "You can't DIE in the demo!"

In essence, today's common sense is... don't make a demo version of your game so hard that the player can barely win. And don't make it so your demo kills you off every time you open a closet! Or have a monster give you Game Over for catching up to you, and make the player start all over!
If you're making a demo, make sure the people can get a feel for your game without feeling TOO pressured to get things right.

Boss too strong? Make him a little weaker! Give more items to help beat him! It's a demo, not Impossible Mode!*

Closets kill you because Jeff the Killer stares at you? Don't make it a Game Over! Just have them teleport to the beginning of the room! Or save the "Death" for the final closet of the demo!

Keep things simple with your demo, you don't want to scare people away from the final product after a horrifyingly bad experience!
And make sure you do at least a simple bugtest your demo, too. You don't want to look like a simpleton when you open up your menu and there's something wrong already! It makes you look bad!   
And check your spelling and grammar. Have someone proofread if you're not sure of something yourself, especially if the language you are releasing in isn't your first language! Believe it or not, there are people that do this FOR FREE.**

And finally...

Make your demo a decent length. 20-45 minutes is normally a good demo length, giving someone time to explore and get a feel for what you're going for.
You don't want to make your "Demo" be a 10-hour extravaganza of story. 
You can pick a point on where you want the demo to be, and pick a point where it ends shortly after. Leave out stuff if you want. Your choice.

Example: 
Janine Pirouette Shaniquadonna meets Jackson Maikuru in OneOneZero Forest, and they have to fight off a few bad guys. Small talking scene after, Maikuru joins Shaniquadonna. 
They go into town afterwards, and you get to free roam around town to buy things, invade houses and break their pots for Rupees, etc. You then go to the mayor's house, and he turns out to be The Evil Incarnate, battling you! After the battle, Shaniquadonna and Maikuru are downed, and The Evil Incarnate laughs. 
You see a ninja behind some boxes moving towards The Evil Incarnate.
Fade to black. Thank the player for playing. 



Notes for scripters and the like: 
Tech demos or script demos aren't too much different from a regular game demo, but there are different approaches to it.
If you're doing a tech or script demo, you can do whatever you want, but don't feel you have to go overboard with a 20-hour GAME. Short and sweet can do it, with random sprites around in a circle with the aspects of your tech given a role with each. 
Or, a little more lengthy demo with a short story can do it as well. 
For an example, check out The Great DerVVulfman's demos if you want to see how one can use short stories to keep you occupied while being in awe of the incredible aspects of the scripts!

* Unless you're trying to create a REALLY tough game, in which case, go for it.
** Proofreaders are everywhere if you know where to look. Just ask for one.

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

Time for some more common sense!   


Today's common sense is entitled...

NO REASON TO BE HERE... YET!

Why would you make it so you can pick up something totally random when you have no idea what it is? 

Example:

Marvin Montel Omnom by himself walks into a secret lab he found in Bratztown, the town next to the one where he's supposed to be right now, and happened across a Vial of Triangularium that he picks up. He doesn't know what Triangularium is, and there were about 50 other vials, but it's what he picked up. And now that he has that, he can kill the evil Leapfrog McGee 5 towns over! He also picked up the Key to Crystal Lair in the lab by removing a floor panel, but uhh... what's the Crystal Lair? Marvin Montel don't know! Marvin don't know nothin' 'bout dat! And neither does the player! But the description on the Triangularium says "We can face Leapfrog with this if we use it on Miranda!" and the description of the key says "Use to enter the Crystal Lair below Mr. Finalboss's Taco Shack."


Should be obvious what happened, right? Make sure Marvin can't waltz into a room and pick up whatever as if he knows what he's doing if he shouldn't at that point. He doesn't learn what Triangularium is for a long time, and he learns it's at the lab LATER! And who's Miranda?! Spoiler alert?! He's still alone! And who's Leapfrog?! COME ON!!!

Marvin also doesn't know that the key to the Crystal Lair is in the floor panel until before he's about to face Mr. Finalboss and is told by an oracle of South Oracle Lane Road.

So uhh... Conditional branches, people. Can't pick up the random vial until you know what you're looking for. Otherwise, it says "Lots of vials of peculiar liquids".
Or the key is in the floor panel, but to Marvin, it's just a floor panel with no words whatsoever until AFTER you find out what's under it. Not something to remove and find a key under because removing floor panels is a hobby he apparently has.   

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

Time for some more common sense?

I think yes!   

First common sense for today?

MAKE YOUR FINAL BOSS FEEL LIKE A FINAL BOSS!


Is your final boss causing Doomsday? Make them feel like a threat! There's no reason to feel threatened by Private Maloney Andrewey III just because he transformed into a bat inside of a small ice cavern. He fights like a regular bat enemy. The battle theme is the same as every other boss battle theme. That's your final boss?!   

Make it epic. Worthwhile. Why would anyone care about a guy who turns into a bat? And what's special about the battle? It feels the same to me!

Here's an idea:
The world is in danger! Private Maloney Andrewey III used his evil powers to engulf Logtown, the main character's friend's hometown, and make it his domain. When he engulfs a town, everyone inside the town is send into a dark void where they cannot return, and as time goes on, Maloney engulfs other towns, expanding his domain. Only the 2 brothers/ main characters Cane and El Undertakero can defeat him and put a stop to the nonsense! They enter his dark castle and fight their way through hordes of enemies. Perhaps an old boss or two returning from the void they were sent after their defeat earlier in the game.
In the throne room of the castle, they find Private Maloney Andrewey, and he transforms into a giant lionmonkeyturtlefishdog beast, and faces off against the brothers with an epic battle theme to boot! He's very different from other enemies, and he makes you work for the victory. Beat him, and the world is restored. Everyone comes back from the void, happy ending. Yay! 

Without a reason to fight the final boss, there is no reason to bother with ending the game. It isn't rewarding for the troubles of going through the whole game, and you feel like you haven't accomplished anything.
Also, make sure your ending is worth the trouble. If you gave choices through the game, try and make at least one thing different! Perhaps even alternate endings! Got the 7 Runes of Abandon? Perhaps something different happens! Or just a new scene for grabbing the deodorant package in the secret compartment in the airship? 
Don't do what Legaia 2: Duel Saga did. They had MANY choices throughout the game, but you still end up with the same ending no matter what choices were made, and it doesn't feel satisfying in the least. You want the player to feel like what they did MEANT SOMETHING, ya know?
Yeah, you understand. 

....I'm not sure if I've written about this before. Please let me know if I have so I can edit accordingly. There are a lot of posts in the thread 

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

COMMON SENSE TIME!   

Today's Common Sense?

BIG BOSS, LITTLE BOSS, RIVAL, AND THE FUN TIMES!

A game tends to have multiple types of battles. There are the normal battles, boss battles, final battles, fun battles, and still others as well. Perhaps such a thing calls for different battle THEMES?   

A theme for a normal battle, another theme for battles later in the game or in a special area.
A theme for a boss, a theme for a bigger boss, and a theme for your rival? Or is your rival using the "big boss" theme already?
And what about that serious series of battles that all share the same consecutive battle theme that doesn't stop?
Perhaps even the battle against the metal chickens with the goofy battle theme? Or the battle theme against the chocobo ripoffs you totally didn't take from Final Fantasy? 
And as said in the last common sense, a theme for the final boss as well!

Although all of these are up to the ones making the game, many games have many different battle themes. Still others, like Xenosaga, only have one battle theme for boss battles and normal battles, save for a couple special moments of course.
What songs are you using for which battle? What's a big battle, and what's a small one? Will you change the battle theme for that special place or not?

Common sense says it should be on your mind, but the decision is up to you.   

[DerVVulfman]

This is a simple one.

STOP MAKING GAMES WHERE YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO DO 'X' THINGS OR COLLECT 'X' ITEMS TO WIN!!!

Have you ever played a game where you needed to make branching decisions and found you couldn't get through the final chapter because you chose to date 'Yuffie' instead of going on the ferris wheel with 'Tifa' again? Or what about realizing you needed that computer keycard you neglected to pick up just before the cruise liner sank, only to realize it was the pass-key into the final laboratory of Dr. Evil's sanctum?

Yeah, decisions such as these may have consequences. But don't make it so the game is literally impossible to beat. Gameplay decisions should change the outcome, but not make it impossible. And you should at least have alternatives when you need to get items to win the game, or at least allow the player to backtrack if possible.

Let's say.... a fairly recent (so-called) professionally designed game by VRWERX demands you perform all actions correct from the absolute beginning, lest you never win the game.

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

Welcome to the Common Sense corner, athankya for joinin' us today! 

Since this thread is quite expansive, and covers many topics, I am unsure of whether or not a "Common sense" idea for this thread will have already been said.
If you need a refresher on what we've already discussed, feel free to check through the 8 pages of common sense!   

Now, today's common sense is:
Don't create items to defend against things the enemies don't even do!

Not a single enemy petrifies you, but you've created the Petrification Bangle to defend against it?
No enemy uses Ice attacks, but you have the Ice Shield that nullifies all Ice damage?

WHY?!   

Also, if you've made something weak against something, but the party doesn't have access to that element or ability at all... WHY?!   

REMEMBER! This is all just... Common Sense!

[kyonides]

I disagree with Bounty Hunter Lani this time, even in real life you may get useless items or skills just because you picked what nobody ever needed, plus diverting your enemy by offering junk that seems to be useful is a good tactic to catch them off guard!

Saying that something useless should not be included in a videogame would be quite opinionated. Is it bad to say what crossed your mind? Nah, it's normal, it's just that it's not the only way to handle the so called useless items in a game.

Is common sense dead? Nah, but keep in mind that people now tend to break that common sense on purpose. Does it make sense? Or is it just another way to catch people's attention? Or is it a curious plot device? There seems to be a need to be uncommon or break the sandbox. Is there any actual need to do that? Who knows!? But it's creativity what we are talking about here, perhaps limiting it by not including useless stuff might not let a programmer or scripter or storyboard writer or anybody else find an excuse to offer an updated version of their game, an expansion or some DLC. I know some people here hate DLC's, probably you've got tons of reasons to hate them.

Now talking about status effects or skills, well, it's fun to see how much effort you put to get them only to see you wasted your time! (For the programmer or your friends for sure!) It's also another way to not let you guess what's coming up next. It would be like saying "hey, let's make Lani think a yeti (or jeti) is about to show off to kill her party!" Later on you could find out it was a fire elemental monster instead! Yeah, the enemy has fooled you and there's a higher probability your party will end up with 0 HP. Let's assume you would have triggered the trap then.

[DerVVulfman]

Riddle me this:  If the Final Boss's plan is to blow up the world and everyone in it, do you think his henchmen are going to be keen on the idea?

Fred the Goon:  Um, what?  Did you say blow up the world?   Wait.  I live there!!!


I guess... not so much.    Whatever you do, you have grunts to fight before encountering the boss fights.  And yeah, they should have some level of loyalty to their boss.  But don't make it so they're all happy to die when the world ends.  It's kinda silly. 

Fred the Goon:  Oh, wait.   He has that rocketship waiting for us.  Yes, we get to go on a roadtrip!


Well, I guess it does depend on what might be construed as 'End of the World', right?  One James Bond movie, the bad guy was setting up his own space station with colonists to repopulate the Earth after wiping everyone out.  And in Kingsmen, you have the iPhones from hell!

Fred the Goon:  I never liked cellphones.


That's not to say that the grunts are told the whole story.  If the boss only just decides to do something as disastrous as blow up the earth and has no exit plan, do you think he'd tell the grunts.

Fred the Goon:  Um, Houston?  We have a problem.  THE ROCKETSHIP IS PACKED WITH C-44444!!!   AND WE'RE NOSE-DIVING STRAIGHT TO EARTH!!!!


S....tuff happens.  And you have to have some loner-type Boss that wants to watch the world burn.  The Joker?  Mebby not that bad, because who'd he have left to prank?   Sephiroth thought things needed a total re-do.  And Damian Darkh in Arrow had lost his beloved, and had no henchmen left.

So... If you got goons in your game, let them know what they're getting into.  Because it's just COMMON SENSE that they probably wouldn't agree to blow up the Earth if that's where they live.

[Mel]

An antagonist who just wants to destroy the whole world would need to find companions with the same mindset. People who don't want to live anymore and who hate the world and it's people massively. For whatever reasons...

[DerVVulfman]

Well, either with the same mindset or if they're coerced by way of drugs or mental control, or have no idea they're about to be blown to smithereens.

"But that... is a different story." - The Wizard (Conan the Barbarian © 1982)