Top five mistakes you see in a game, What makes you just look at a game screenshot and just facepalm Options

[Polaris]

Games in the stone-age or in the year 30XX

Come on now, people every single game does not need to have swords, bows and magic. The world's moved on since then and elven armor is useless. Why are so many people going for clubs and hammers, villages of peasants and kingdom magicia? Same goes for futuristic games. I hear about too many mega-mechs and 8 planets and all that. It's getting old. (Pun)

Evil government and other cliche plot choices.

How come this is always the case and the villain is always some oppressing chancelor or some sh*t? It seems like people wouldn't want a government that is so 'evil'...but that's usually the plot of the story. Trying to overthrow it/ soldier says oh no I think I'm fighting for evil and switches sides and leads the rebellion to war.

Stupid decisions

How come character A didn't do action X? Don't make your characters look dumb please.

Clueless/hotheaded/silent/calm hero

I see a lot of heros that act the same. Individuality, please?

Complicated storys that never add up

Please make it easy to understand while having enough depth to keep people playing. This goes for the gameplay as well.

I made the list quick.

[Essenceblade]

Games in the stone-age or in the year 30XX

Come on now, people every single game does not need to have swords, bows and magic. The world's moved on since then and elven armor is useless. Why are so many people going for clubs and hammers, villages of peasants and kingdom magicia? Same goes for futuristic games. I hear about too many mega-mechs and 8 planets and all that. It's getting old. (Pun)

It's not stone age, by the way, I think you mean the early or late Medieval era.

I get your point, but in an game. (Typically RPGs), the "swords and magic" concept is the best idea. How many RPGs do you play which are set in modern time to the future which have this concept? More RPGs are set back in the older times because it allows for greater creativity. You can have a floating island which is bound down by chains of elemental magic in a game that's set more to the past, or a canyon which has waterfalls and geysers which shoot magic from the ground, than present or future. It just makes more sense and feels more "original" when RPGs are set in the past era. The thing is, this doesn't just apply to RPGs either. This applies to ALL games. You either get a futuristic game, with medieval, or late modern concepts (Kind of like FF7). Or a game which is more driven by a Medieval Era, but with futuristic concepts (Kind of like FF12). Every "time era" is just an adaption from something that's already there.

Clueless/hotheaded/silent/calm hero

This is pretty much the basic personalities people branch off for characteristics anyway. In every personality which isn't one of those, you'll see large hints of them anyway. For example. "Hyper or Joyful" characteristics often branch from "Clueless".
"

Here are a few of mine;

Oh yeah, thanks for that: I hate it, HATE HATE HATE it when something is about to happen, the screen flashes white, there's an earthquake, there's a slash sound, there's an explosion, the screen goes back to normal, the the antagonist and protagonist are standing there, and then all of a sudden, this random NPC or someone in your party jumps in the way to take the blow or endure the rupture. There is lengthy dialogue, usually starting with "<name>!" and ending with "<name...>".


Now that's happened, we can go!: I hate it when something happens like a guard blocking you from proceeding to see the king, and he's like "uhohohohoho you can't pass here, <insert toughie wise-crack guard phrase which wants to make you punch the guard in the face>", and then all of a sudden, you turn round. KNOWING that there's no way past, and then "<???> psst, over here!" this npc is hiding behind a wall and calls you over, discusses that there's a secret passage way, or that she (yes, they are usually shes, amirite?) CONVENIENTLY has this pass or card you need. The only condition she asks is that she joins your party for 5 minutes to get in, then you part ways.

Real life areas, right?: I know this isn't entirely common, but I've played games where areas have NO music what so ever. If you've ever played Final Fantasy 11 you'll get what I mean. I mean, I wouldn't even care if its music from another zone or something, at least there's the FEELING there. I just hate it, all I can hear is wind and the characters footstep. A visually appealing environment is nice, soundly appealing music with visually appealing environment is super nice.

It seems you've taken my role.: I've played commercial games where the protagonist loses their shine, and another party member has taken it over. They have more dialogue, literally, they have more dialogue, the things they say are more constructive. I just... I die a little inside once I start to see this happen.

You've played my game, get lost now.: I mean, I'm a guy who likes positive endings and all, but when a positive ending is just that. Just a positive ending, and that's it, I'm like, w-what? I like games where the positive endings show a few scenes of how everyone is doing in a few several years, or even what happens as to how they leave the area they're in. Any thing they have to say besides a silent 5 minutes watching the protagonist fade away, or the antagonist turn to dust?

/endrant.exe

This post has been edited by Essenceblade: Apr 17 2012, 05:50 AM

[rasra]

lol !
This thread funniest and most true I have seen!

[Polaris]

I disagree with what whoever disagreed with me said. Your creativity doesn't have to be limited. Magical things don't have to happen long ago, they can happen at any time you set them. Any good writer can make things work in their story. And what about modern day rpgs? The rpg I write is modern day and it makes for interesting social interactions when modern day people are exposed to magic and such. And by stone age, I'm overexaggerating. It's a certain tone that people have when they are trying to make something funny by overdoing it. What I'm saying is the midieval stuff is overdone. Most of what I had to say was cliche and overdone stuff that I saw too often. Mk pumpkin? I just have to defend my opinion of what's getting old.

[Sailerius]

lol !
This thread funniest and most true I have seen!

Please refrain from posting empty comments like this, as it's considered spam. Try to contribute something meaningful to the conversation.

[Magical_RuNE_Kni...]

Like the title says, what do find in game maker games that just ruin a game for you?

i think i only really have one or two lol:

1. Fantasy-genre game w/ RTP or random internet-ripped ressources. :/
the internet is alright when u credit, but i don't like it when u see ugly white pixels around pictures or they dont look like they belong... lol...
----------
2. characters with Japanese names that aren't Japanese and the game is about ninjas, high school students, or has american values. :I
Not really sure how to describe this, but u know, americanized Jrpgs without really understanding Asian culture...
3. Default window style
4. Unattractive game name
5. Stereotypical characters or characters with the Ralph sprite

[Polaris]

I have some more.

Foolish antagonists
They tell their plans to the player or don't act intelligently when on the offensive or defensive.. they're steryotipical and it's very boring to watch the plot unfold with them.

Know it alls
Characters who know every element of everything or have skills that they shouldn't know. Your street thug shouldn't know how to hack computers or pick up a sword and become a dragon-slaying master.

X is bad but the game doesn't tell you why.
Why is there a hate for something just because? Why does your character hate the government or their rival? How come they just hate some guy just because he look dark or bad?

Why does x mean so much to you?
People overreact too much like one thing someone says makes them so upset. At least make words have an impact. Stupid things people say don't effect people in real life but made up characters are so emotional. Why?

Magic
Every rpg has magic. Can you guys try to make something without magic for once?

Just a few more complaints I have.

[Mustaklaki]

1. Default characters.
Oh, you used Ralph as a your protagonist? This is going to be great....

2. Grammatical issues.
It reminds the player that it was made by a single person, and is not official. It also takes you out of the experience and story and reminds you that it is a game, which ruins immersion.

3. Names
Swords of Talbrithia... Legend of Zontari.... Lands of Luentsha... Dungeons of Dargoth...
Seriously, if you game's title is "Something" of "Something", it already sucks hard.
Names of characters is also something I'm picky about, you should AT LEAST use names that exist in the real world. Just throwing a bunch of letters together because it sounds cool has no historic value in it because it NEVER EXISTED.

4.No scripts.
If your game has no scripts, go back and redo everything. No, really, everything.

5. Rebellions, Anarchy and lame wars.
You know the deal, the player wakes up in military barracks and "Oh hey there's a fight outside against some renegades" or "Hey we're going to take down the government maaaaan!" or even "Rabble rabble rabble! Your king is false king our king is better we will defeat you antagonists! Rabble rabble!"

Seriously... just come up with an original story for once.
I think that's the lesson here, be original and go against the grain. Someone else mentioned MIDI music... yes. Just search up a piano composition or something, as long as you're not going to be selling your game it's legal. Even the RTP music or anything related to that sound just sucks. Music is emotion, and you can get a huge weight on your chest or nostalgia in your heart from hearing one song. As a musician, I know this.

Using RTP tiles I really don't care about, what I do care about is people not being able to use them properly. You make your ground layer, then you use corresponding tile layers after that to build additional layers, and keep going. Then add events to move (Candles, waterfalls, butterflies, fish, swans, birds etc etc).

[eujene_ugly]

1.) Mainstream systems. I had enough of these design only modifications of some systems, especially in the battle systems. Most battle systems are just having the same gameplay, commands, etc. without any modifications like some unique add-ons, abilities, specialties, etc.

2.) Useless NPCs and side quests. What I mean by useless NPCs are that those NPCs that are "just a decoration" in the game. It's okay to place a side quest with no relevance in the game story but helps the players to be stronger, richer, etc.

3.) Boring, expressionless, or text-only story. Some stories are very boring because they did not include some thrilling, romance, comedy, drama, suspense, or just one of those. Also, some games have expressionless faces (unless the character is literally expressionless), especially the RTP ones. Where can you see a happy face in the middle of a very sad scene (unless the speaker recalls some memories of somebody)? Also, those text-only conversation (unless it's an NPC of less importance, at least there's a little) makes the a very few player confuse which characters are talking, even there is the name.

4.) Not challenging or IMPOSSIBRU quest/battles. It's okay to put a super bad-ass playable character in the game but make a very challenging boss battles (optional or not) that will thrill the players and make sure to be at least beatable by some certain conditions, like reducing foe's MP instead of HP to beat the enemy or just survive by a number of turns.

5.) A very very long boring cutscenes. Unless it's a video cutscenes, skippable cutscenes, or cutscenes that are pleasing to the players, having a long cutscenes are very boring and most players nowadays only referred to the graphics and not the story (but I'm not one of them).

[Shaddow]

1: Unoriginality - I realize this has been covered a lot, but what I mean specifically is in fan based games. I'm all for you making a game involving your favorite world, but that does not mean that you have to copy everything exactly. For example, I've seen several games based on anime that just follow the story of the anime. Guess what, if we wanted the anime story we could get it a lot better from the anime itself. If you love the world and the characters, use them, but use them as background to your original story with an original protagonist and even an original antagonist.

It's not that hard, just because you are playing in a Bleach setting does not mean that Ichigo has to be the main character, hell he could just be mentioned, or even a possible side character. It's called creative license, and you should feel free to use it.

2: Trying to hard to please - What I mean by this is a game that is obviously trying to hard to please everyone, this rarely works and ends up with a game that is spread out oddly or just makes no sense. Your game will not appeal to everyone, ever. People have far to different tastes and that is a simple fact. Find your audience, appeal to them and do it well.

3: Lack of Exploration -I don't mean exploration in the game either, I mean just sticking with what is tried and true and not experimenting with other things. Some of the coolest rpgs out there are not pure rpgs. Mass Effect comes to mind as does a game for the Game Boy advanced called Sigma Star Saga, where they combined side scrolling space shooters and rpgs, it was fun and original. Push the bar, you never know how well something is going to work until you try it.

4: Unresolved Story -This is simple, if you are not going to resolve a story plot, do not put it in the game. The exception to this is if it's going to be resolved in a sequel or the game itself is meant to be left in a bit of mystery. If you don't plan to resolve it completely, at least show the players that you intend for this, don't just leave it and have them wondering if they missed something.

5: Overburdening Yourself -As a game designer it's hard to do everything you could want, and a lot of developers tend to start getting lazy or even giving up on their games because they put too much on themselves, this shows in your game. The purpose of a community like RRR is to find help. If you are struggling with something or just want to help release the burden, then come online and find help. We will help. It may take some time to respond as we all have other projects, but help will happen, don't let the game suffer for this.

Well I guess that's all I have to contribute.

[Chaos17]

I do not agree with the majority of you. You want things that are not fun to do in a game (exept spelling grammar).
Why should we care to know nps's lives and if they do not say anything interesting?
Because the truth, you will stay like 5 or 10 minutes in the village, maybe less.
I hate boring dialogues (small talk) with random npc that bring nothing to the main plot or side quests.

Also stop bashing Final fantasy series, most of them are not about crystals!
They have some gameply that you will never find in any rpg makers games, like the class system in FF1 and FF5.

The important thing is that a game, an rpg should be balanced between story, gameplay and fun.

This post has been edited by Chaos17: Apr 25 2012, 12:30 AM

[Kaust]

I disagree with what whoever disagreed with me said. Your creativity doesn't have to be limited. Magical things don't have to happen long ago, they can happen at any time you set them. Any good writer can make things work in their story. And what about modern day rpgs? The rpg I write is modern day and it makes for interesting social interactions when modern day people are exposed to magic and such. And by stone age, I'm overexaggerating. It's a certain tone that people have when they are trying to make something funny by overdoing it. What I'm saying is the midieval stuff is overdone. Most of what I had to say was cliche and overdone stuff that I saw too often. Mk pumpkin? I just have to defend my opinion of what's getting old.

And I disagree with you who disagree with the original disagreement!
Myth and Magic are and always will be linked with RPGs, same with the scifi jazz, because in general people who like RPGs like those stories. True, not exclusively, and you're right a good writer can make any story good, but that includes boy meets girl meets dragon meets KOfist.
Like I said on my last post here, there is a difference between cliche and convention.

I do not agree with the majority of you. You want things that are not fun to do in a game (exept spelling grammar).
Why should we care to know nps's lives and if they do not say anything interesting?
Because the truth, you will stay like 5 or 10 minutes in the village, maybe less.
I hate boring dialogues (small talk) with random npc that bring nothing to the main plot or side quests.

Also stop bashing Final fantasy series, most of them are not about crystals!
They have some gameply that you will never find in any rpg makers games, like the class system in FF1 and FF5.

The important thing is that a game, an rpg should be balanced between story, gameplay and fun.

This is a game design thread, its about building a more complete game. Fun ideally, but there are more experiences to games than simply enjoyment. Besides, we all know the games where the makers do put in that extra bit of an effort are better, and their better for the reasons people listed. Chiefly balancing the suspension of belief and the little extras like npcs that you want to talk to, because someone put thought into what they said.

[Rast]

Hate to do this, but...

Also stop bashing Final fantasy series, most of them are not about crystals!

FF1 - Elemental crystals played a rather large part in the game's story.
FF3 - Villain drains the Crystals of their power. Major plot device.
FF4 - Villain seeks to collect eight crystals in a plot to take over the world.
FF5 - Villain -destroys- the crystals, heroes work to restore them.
FF7 - Not about crystals specifically, but materia plays a large role and is a close match.

I could probably pull up more examples if I tried. Further more, many of the FF games involve broadly similar plot points, such as rebellion against a major economic, political, or religious power, or a struggle against an evil which threatens to overtake or destroy the world. And as it happens, crystals -have- appeared in just about every FF game, regardless of whether they were a main plot point or not(and in many did play an important part). But this is all off topic. Back on topic, here are a few mistakes I see and dislike:


1) Making useless spells. You know what I'm talking about. Poison, fear, instant death, etc etc. They're those spells that seem like a good idea, but never really work. By the time they do start working, it's much faster to just spam normal attacks because you'll kill the weaker enemies in one hit anyways. This can also apply to status boosting spells that aren't overall useful.


2) I just teleported. Oh, I did it again. AKA villains that can seemingly freely teleport. You'll be walking along and then they'll appear in front of you, only to vanish shortly after. Now, I know in a lot of games an Escape spell exists that allows players to teleport to the last visited town or the like. The teleporting away doesn't bug me, so much as the fact that they're -so- much more powerful than you AND can teleport to you instantly, yet too stupid to just take you out there.


3) Generic card-carrying villains. This has been mentioned before, but deserves a special mention. Why do all villains have to be hell-bent on destroying/taking over the world with absolutely no motive, aside from a stock tragic past(if anything)? Really, it'd be nice to see a villain who has a good reason to be a villain, and evil henchmen who have a good reason to support those heinous crimes(and -not- some sob story about how that villain took them in and saved them, or just a standard "I'm just evil." response).

[Pinky]

I can't say I have not made any mistakes that made people facepalm when they saw them.



1.One major mistake that bugs me too death is overpowered enemies at the beggining of the game that are nearly impossible to defeat.

2. Other mistakes that really get on my nerves when the person who made game forgot to fix a script error and the game crashes. How can I possibly play their game if it has a script error?

3. I know some people my disagree but I do not like unattractive artwork that looks they they just made it in paint. They should take their time to neat it up in photo shop, gimp or paint tool sai.

4. Spelling errors! I don't like them! Even though I make then sometimes.

5. Unbeleivable poor story development sometimes.

This post has been edited by Pinky: Apr 30 2012, 05:54 AM

[Lato]

Hm ill have to agree with the first post about towns but ill add a bit to that. First of all towns can be big or small of course as long as they are BELIEVABLE! That said, sadly there are not many...if any games I can think of that even brother trying to show this, and I hate it!, and what makes me hate it most of all is even the PROS! do this like crazy, squaresoft is the biggest offender of this, when you see an amazing game like Final Fantasy crisis core and then the terrible town system they just threw in there it made me crazy!, Kingdom hearts to!, Do these ppl think that townspeople dont live in houses anymore!?

Now I can understand here in RRR were not like pro game makers so I dont get as made when I play and game here and they dont really try on the towns, but they should! I try to spend time doing my towns better but I do need to do alot more then I have been as do we all!

Oh and you have to have a world map! I hate playing games that are just cutscene to cutscene! I want a rpg experience!

[Kaust]

Do these ppl think that townspeople dont live in houses anymore!?

Nope they just started giving them locks
I agree towns where you cant enter anything are an annoyance (especially as in KH you are carrying a pretty large key about) but they are better than a town with an inn, an armourer and a couple of houses. Overall there's probably a similar amount of buildings you can actually enter in a model of either town, one just happens to look a lot fuller and a lot more like a city (country towns should remain a sparser). Buildings you cant enter aren't inherently empty, obviously in-game they are, but they excuse inexplicable aspects of the city such as the economy, being taken care of behind closed doors, so to speak. And lets be honest does the hero really have time to interact with every single person from A to B or take an interest in home decoration while he's out saving the world?

[Lato]

Do these ppl think that townspeople dont live in houses anymore!?

Nope they just started giving them locks
I agree towns where you cant enter anything are an annoyance (especially as in KH you are carrying a pretty large key about) but they are better than a town with an inn, an armourer and a couple of houses. Overall there's probably a similar amount of buildings you can actually enter in a model of either town, one just happens to look a lot fuller and a lot more like a city (country towns should remain a sparser). Buildings you cant enter aren't inherently empty, obviously in-game they are, but they excuse inexplicable aspects of the city such as the economy, being taken care of behind closed doors, so to speak. And lets be honest does the hero really have time to interact with every single person from A to B or take an interest in home decoration while he's out saving the world?

Why does he have to be saving the world? He could have all the time in the world you never know.

[Shaddow]

Do these ppl think that townspeople dont live in houses anymore!?

Nope they just started giving them locks
I agree towns where you cant enter anything are an annoyance (especially as in KH you are carrying a pretty large key about) but they are better than a town with an inn, an armourer and a couple of houses. Overall there's probably a similar amount of buildings you can actually enter in a model of either town, one just happens to look a lot fuller and a lot more like a city (country towns should remain a sparser). Buildings you cant enter aren't inherently empty, obviously in-game they are, but they excuse inexplicable aspects of the city such as the economy, being taken care of behind closed doors, so to speak. And lets be honest does the hero really have time to interact with every single person from A to B or take an interest in home decoration while he's out saving the world?

Why does he have to be saving the world? He could have all the time in the world you never know.

If he is saving the world he DOES have all the time in the world, as it's coming to an end.

On a slightly more topic related note. I disagree that towns should be huge, they should correctly represent their size, though. If you enter a giant kingdom that is the center of your world, you better have more then three or four houses. I don't even mind if the town stretches two-four maps as that really helps the scope. I don't believe you should have something to do in every house, or that there should always be an npc inside. I'm sure they have just as many important things to do during the day as the player.

It should feel real though, I dislike when towns have npcs doing the same thing 24/7, this is why I am such a fan of time systems. Maybe the npc is outside working on the farm during the day, and you can actually find them in their house at night. On the same not of realism though, why would they not call the town guard when a complete stranger wanders into their house at night? A few minor things can really improve a game over having a ton of pointless houses, imo.

[Polaris]

Do these ppl think that townspeople dont live in houses anymore!?

Nope they just started giving them locks
I agree towns where you cant enter anything are an annoyance (especially as in KH you are carrying a pretty large key about) but they are better than a town with an inn, an armourer and a couple of houses. Overall there's probably a similar amount of buildings you can actually enter in a model of either town, one just happens to look a lot fuller and a lot more like a city (country towns should remain a sparser). Buildings you cant enter aren't inherently empty, obviously in-game they are, but they excuse inexplicable aspects of the city such as the economy, being taken care of behind closed doors, so to speak. And lets be honest does the hero really have time to interact with every single person from A to B or take an interest in home decoration while he's out saving the world?

Why does he have to be saving the world? He could have all the time in the world you never know.

If he is saving the world he DOES have all the time in the world, as it's coming to an end.

On a slightly more topic related note. I disagree that towns should be huge, they should correctly represent their size, though. If you enter a giant kingdom that is the center of your world, you better have more then three or four houses. I don't even mind if the town stretches two-four maps as that really helps the scope. I don't believe you should have something to do in every house, or that there should always be an npc inside. I'm sure they have just as many important things to do during the day as the player.

It should feel real though, I dislike when towns have npcs doing the same thing 24/7, this is why I am such a fan of time systems. Maybe the npc is outside working on the farm during the day, and you can actually find them in their house at night. On the same not of realism though, why would they not call the town guard when a complete stranger wanders into their house at night? A few minor things can really improve a game over having a ton of pointless houses, imo.

Every main character has a sword, there's a strong guy, there's a 'witch' or a cleric...

How come characters' fates are set in stone, they're not allowed to become xfor what reasone? How come you can't have the main character become a cleric and such? Why!?

I didn't get any answer even though I said why a couple of times.

[Rast]

Every main character has a sword, there's a strong guy, there's a 'witch' or a cleric...

How come characters' fates are set in stone, they're not allowed to become xfor what reasone? How come you can't have the main character become a cleric and such? Why!?

I didn't get any answer even though I said why a couple of times.

Because Heroes prefer swords.

But really, it's probably laziness and/or not supporting such a system. Lots of games(commercial or not) tend to just assign each character a class and avoid the hassle of giving them all a unique appearance for each class/etc. They'd much rather stick with the well known stock characters we're all familiar with.