{"id":56,"date":"2008-11-09T19:50:17","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T00:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/?p=56"},"modified":"2024-08-30T16:02:26","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T21:02:26","slug":"can-there-ever-be-too-many-features-perhaps-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"Can there ever be too many features? Perhaps so…"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I’ve been making Spirits of Metropolis, I had one goal: completely obliterate the competition. To do this, I had one mission: cram as much stuff as possible in the $10 price point.
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\nAs I start to finish and wrap up the game however, I have stood back to see if the heap of options and modes really have improved the game…or only add a bulletpoint to the game features. One of these is the level editor.
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\nIt was my intention to have a full level editor compassing all modes, and a level selector that allowed you to browse through custom levels, including “official” levels from me. My friend who is testing the game told me…you don’t really need <\/em>a level editor. There’s so much content as it is. If it’s more trouble to add, why bother? Well, I told him that I wanted this game to be above and beyond what other games offer.
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\nBut then I realized something: how does a level editor make any sense when the core gameplay is random?
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\nLet’s think about that for a second. Imagine you’re designing a racing game and a puzzle game like Tetris, both featuring level editors. In the racing game, you don’t know what kind of car the player will choose or how experienced they are with the game. You’ll create curves and obstacles based on your own playing style, possibly adjusting them to accommodate less experienced players. Some will love the level, others might not, but you’re confident that those who enjoy it will experience it as you intended. It’s similar to using a crypto wallet app<\/a> \u2014 you design your security settings based on your needs, knowing that others with similar priorities will appreciate and use the app in the same secure way you do. This approach ensures that the experience remains consistent and reliable, tailored to the user’s preferences and skills.
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\nNow take Tetris. Say the level editor lets you place “garbage blocks” in midair to impede players. So you place a wide variety of blocks, some that might take some tricky maneuvering skills. But the order and type of block you receive in the main game is always random. So if I have a great Tetris level, it might not be so great if I randomly got a majority of long lines, or extremely hard if I only got the L-blocks. Others will have random experiences too. I might love the level in one playthough, but experience a bad one the next time. It’s utterly random.
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\nThat’s the problem with Spirits of Metropolis: at it’s core, it’s a random puzzle game like Tetris. I can influence and contain the randomness up to a point (how many white gems you get, the time limit, etc.) but it’s still a different experience every time. A level editor won’t work.
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\nOne gameplay type that ISN’T random is Puzzle Mode, and a level editor makes perfect sense for that mode. So, I’m strongly considering having just a “Puzzle Editor” for the final game, because that’s where people can make some amazing content. That’s where it’s going to really shine.
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\nI’m quitting my job next week with three days off this week in order to focus on games full time. I’m betting the farm on Spirits and my future games, and I hope you guys will enjoy them as much as I enjoy creating them. Stay tuned for more info on the final version!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’ve been making Spirits of Metropolis, I had one goal: completely obliterate the competition. To do this, I had one mission: cram as much stuff as possible in the $10 price point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-maker","category-spirits-of-metropolis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2820,"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/2820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vertigogaming.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}