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

[slifer644]

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

1. 5 house villages
Okay, how in the world can a village sustain itself if there are at most (based on my own formula for constructing which is 3 people min. to a house) 15 people? I was a major offender to this ( actually the more I think about what I hate, the more I realize I've done these), not putting much thought into making these villages. Another problem with having only a few houses in a town is that you can't have too many people without making it very unbelievable. For me, a fantasy village shoul have around fifty people, a town should have between 75 to 100 people, and a city should have between (this may sound insane) 100 to 200 people.

2. Boring/ confusing starts
When you start a game you can't just throw someone into it without a little bit of back story (unless your game is mostly a flashback up until halfway through). Having the player guessing what's going on is good, unless their still trying to guess twenty minutes into it, that's when you've gone overboard. The same applies to having the player do the same thing over and over again at the beginning till they reach a certain level and the begin the story. You have to give a little in both story and action to keep the player interested.

3. Underpowered enemies/ overpowered heroes
A big problem with making the enemies easy for the player to kill quickly is that it makes it seem unrealistic. If you're gonna make the fight a human enemy, you should atleast give the enemy the same amount or half that of your weakest character. This will make the battles
more tactical than just pressing the strongest spell you've got once in order to kill them (unless they're a spider or some small creature, cause that does make sense then). The only exception to this rile is if that attack is a finisher attack, cause then you're good.

4. Unoriginal settings/ unoriginal characters
I find that if I start some where that looks alot (alot... Hehehe) like that of a popular game that I've already seen, then that's just laziness. The same goes for characters in that if the the protagonist seems framiliar then it just seems like somebody is trying to get free ideas. The exception to this is if it is a fan game, then you're good. Originality keeps the game flavorful and draws the player into it more.

5. Forgetfulness
It is annoying when you get sent all over a flipping dungeon just to find a stupid that, guess what, you didn't even need in the first place. When the creator forgets that he put in a subquest and then scraps it later without removing what was in that subquest just gets annoying when the player finds it. Its even more frustrating when a player leaves the gameand the forgets what they were doing and can't figure out what they need to do.

You've hears my rants, lets hear yours.

[heisenman]

1. Suspension of disbelief bro :v Also having 50 useless NPCs is not better than having 10 useless NPCs.
2. Flashback/Flashforward introductions are a commong thing in both litterature and movies and not inherently a mistake.
3. I agree but this is 1# genric complaint about almost every RPG ever.
4. There's no such a thing as unoriginal settings, and using an already existing one is not laziness. I agree though many characters seem to be clones of each other but it's mostly poor development than lack of originality.
5. Wut?

Ok, things that are unequivocally wrong for me are:
- Unskippable tutorials.
- Unskippable cutscenes. (Ok, not inherently a mistake but I don't see why not put the option since it's something that could be done easily with events)
- Unskippable minigames.
- Slow text speed.
- Slow walk speed and no run button.
- Fancy fonts for message, commands and HUDs.

EDIT: Actually, I misinterpreted point 2 a little, it's not about fb/ff, and re-reading it I must say I agree with this

Having the player guessing what's going on is good, unless their still trying to guess twenty minutes into it, that's when you've gone overboard.

This post has been edited by heisenman: Feb 15 2012, 04:55 PM

[bulmabriefs144]

1. Ugly VX sprites. Especially the default ones, but 1x1 sprites in general look flat. The heck is wrong with XP that people no longer use it?
2. People who don't understand how to make a proper link.


It goes on the right, not the left. Send a blank file then there'll be a hyperlink thing when you go back to the page. Do it otherwise, and before I even check out the game 9/10 I won't bother downloading since it requires me to copy-paste your broken link.

3. People who have missing files or haven't bothered flagging the game as finished in the settings so I can play without the RTP.

(I'm lucky to even PLAY most rpgmaker games)

4. I don't care about RTP sprites, but I DO CARE that you left it at a default battle setting (except maybe Rpg2k3, since I like the side-scroll). Generally, also I mind if someone has virtually no extra stuff as any cool codes are things I watch out for. Do you have a weather system, party change, bank, and other features, in addition to a working plot?

5. Too short/ too easy. I grew up on Nintendo, not the dumbed-down overly easy Rpgs of today. It doesn't have to be impossible, but it should be at least epic. That said, difficulty should never stem from annoying design (you can't share items, so characters are constantly without a way to heal each other when it actually matters). Challenge should be from either enemy pressure (enemies are fast, and can kill the party in less than 10 hits (but more than one, 1hko is a sign of bad programming except in the case of underleveling) or difficult enemy strategies, or both.

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Feb 16 2012, 12:00 AM