https://youtu.be/30jGWna4-Ns?t=257
So, i thought it was interesting to see how they made a staff-internal demake/prototype of a game they had in production using NES TLOZ-based assets to test out how every object would interact with the other. Sort of a development kit/sandbox for the designers to play around with ideas. It also looks like it could be loads of fun, like a distilled (and different) BoTW experience.
It's interesting to see how things interconnect here.
-You can chop trees to make them into logs
-Logs can be pushed into the river
-Logs float downstream
-But you can also use them as rafts to cross the river or ride them as riverbound transport
-They can catch fire
-Hence, you can transport fire on the river
That in itself sounds like a fun puzzle game to me.
<rant>
Incidentally, in the very next subject in that video, they talk about my second least* favourite feature of BoTW - how lightening is attracted to having metal worn or equipped. I can see how they want you to mind your surroundings and sometimes be forced to use wooden things wich mixes up the experience a bit, but what it essentially comes down to is tedious micromanagement. Thunder means "Pause whatever you're doing, because first you need to interface for the sake of interfacing"-
*The least favourite feature is slipping when climbing and it rains. You can't control the weather, so you have to either
-wait for the sun to come out
-resort to take another path
-have the climb take a lot more time, with the possibility of failing the climb
<slight spoiler>
I get it in zora's domain - they want to present you an interesting gauntlet. But they could've presented it raining too heavily due to the circumstances explained, and just not let it be a thing elsewhere.</s>
</rant>
Another point of interest in these "the making of" video series:
-They logged the trace of their testers (probably what eventually wound up as the path of the hero feature) in order to figure out where people were most likely to go. They then used this data to populate the world with points of interest where their testers didn't go. This really makes sense for this sort of game. One could have thought that for many other types of games, the team would focus their time and budget on detailing the most probable routes, but this would of course be for the worse in an open world.
I suppose emulator recording would yield some interesting insights in nes homebrew development, too, as a complement to interviews/free comments. If you can somehow extract things like when the player takes a hit, loses, drops pace, maybe it can help detect problems and difficulty spikes the tester/s may have overlooked mentioning.
So, i thought it was interesting to see how they made a staff-internal demake/prototype of a game they had in production using NES TLOZ-based assets to test out how every object would interact with the other. Sort of a development kit/sandbox for the designers to play around with ideas. It also looks like it could be loads of fun, like a distilled (and different) BoTW experience.
It's interesting to see how things interconnect here.
-You can chop trees to make them into logs
-Logs can be pushed into the river
-Logs float downstream
-But you can also use them as rafts to cross the river or ride them as riverbound transport
-They can catch fire
-Hence, you can transport fire on the river
That in itself sounds like a fun puzzle game to me.
<rant>
Incidentally, in the very next subject in that video, they talk about my second least* favourite feature of BoTW - how lightening is attracted to having metal worn or equipped. I can see how they want you to mind your surroundings and sometimes be forced to use wooden things wich mixes up the experience a bit, but what it essentially comes down to is tedious micromanagement. Thunder means "Pause whatever you're doing, because first you need to interface for the sake of interfacing"-
*The least favourite feature is slipping when climbing and it rains. You can't control the weather, so you have to either
-wait for the sun to come out
-resort to take another path
-have the climb take a lot more time, with the possibility of failing the climb
<slight spoiler>
I get it in zora's domain - they want to present you an interesting gauntlet. But they could've presented it raining too heavily due to the circumstances explained, and just not let it be a thing elsewhere.</s>
</rant>
Another point of interest in these "the making of" video series:
-They logged the trace of their testers (probably what eventually wound up as the path of the hero feature) in order to figure out where people were most likely to go. They then used this data to populate the world with points of interest where their testers didn't go. This really makes sense for this sort of game. One could have thought that for many other types of games, the team would focus their time and budget on detailing the most probable routes, but this would of course be for the worse in an open world.
I suppose emulator recording would yield some interesting insights in nes homebrew development, too, as a complement to interviews/free comments. If you can somehow extract things like when the player takes a hit, loses, drops pace, maybe it can help detect problems and difficulty spikes the tester/s may have overlooked mentioning.