Blog Archives
HUD-less Design of Assassin’s Creed 1
Until the release of Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed 1 was my favourite of the series. But even Black Flag doesn’t have what made the first game truly special. Neither did II, Brotherhood, Revelations, III, Unity, Rogue or Syndicate. One can say, ‘Sure Stas, the first Assassin’s Creed has interesting ideas, great atmosphere, story, and provided a base for the franchise, but it got repetitive and boring, surely the rest of the series is a big improvement over it?’ Well… in a way yes. But in a way no. After all, ‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted.’ There is one amazing thing in the first Assassin’s Creed that elevates the experience to a different level of immersion and none of its sequels has it. I’m talking about HUD-less design.
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Creating Great Experience with Flawed Mechanics
Whenever we as designers play games, we always look at them from analytical standpoint. What works? What doesn’t? Why? And of course, ‘What I would have changed to make it better?’ This is a very important exercise that keeps our brain always ticking and trying to improve oneself. That said, there is one big flaw with that last question – a lot of times it’s not something we can put to practice mid-development. During analysis, we have the advantage of calm environment and knowing the final result, something that’s absent when developing a game. It’s messy, there’s a whole lot the team needs to do, and there are times when they absolutely know how to improve certain parts of the game, but can’t. Time restrictions, priorities, other issues. So what exercise would help to prepare for that? Well, a much less perfectionist question: ‘How to make a great experience with problematic parts?’
The 5 Extra Coins in Hearthstone
Hearthstone is probably my second most-played game ever, the first one being Evil Islands which I was playing for about 8 years straight, so it’s hard to beat that, but Hearthstone – I did some calculations, and I probably have spent somewhere 600-700 hours in it so far during the past two years. At the least. So, naturally, I would like to talk about it.
Teslagrad and Progress Gating
A little story. I was playing and enjoying Teslagrad. And then, unexpectedly, the pathway to the last section of the game appears to be blocked by a door that can be opened only if you have 15 scrolls, which are hidden and tricky to get collectibles. I had only 3, there was nothing indicating that those scrolls are needed for anything else other than a bonus (for example, there’s a secret ending if you collect all 36 of them, which is perfectly fine). So to get the rest I’d have to go back through all the locations I’ve been to and search for those scrolls. That made me quit in frustration. In retrospect, I have overreacted, however I still don’t agree with the design decision. There’s nothing wrong with the idea of locking content behind collectibles (and to a certain audience there’s nothing wrong in how Teslagrad does it), but I want to talk about how such gating can be made less frustrating for a bigger audience.
Pacing in Puzzle Games on the Example of Portal 2
Time to get messages on this blog going again. Today I want to talk about Portals. Mostly Portal 2. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, ‘Hey, Stas, is this one of those obligatory posts about Portal’s smart level design and learning curve and the way it teaches you to overcome obstacles?’ And my answer to you would be, no. It is not. It’s about something different, as you probably could gather by the title, though related in a way.
Shadow of Mordor: Focus in games and downsides of the Nemesis system
I’ve beaten recently Shadow of Mordor. It’s pretty damn good. Tolkien-wise, dig deep enough and you’ll find contradictions to the lore (though, considering that it’s in the universe of the movie, one might argue that doesn’t necessarily count), but it’s a fun and visceral open-world game. And I think it’s a perfect example for a topic I wanted to talk about: focus in games.
Assassin’s Creed Series Stealth Viability Analysis
Being a more or less active part of Assassin’s Creed fan community, there are several things I noticed that are, one might say, constant among quite a big number of its members. For example, a lot of people say newer Assassin’s Creed installments that take place post-1700 don’t feel like a real Assassin’s Creed game because guns (and that’s despite the fact that our protagonist got a gun in Assassin’s Creed II, and our enemies received firearms in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood… oh, the irony).
One other thing that I see quite often is how the latest 2013 installment, Black Flag, is not assassin-y enough. That as a bombastic pirate adventure with a considerable naval part it’s a Pirate’s Creed rather than an Assassin’s Creed. One of the biggest reasons cited would be lack of stealth in comparison to previous games (Ezio’s trilogy especially, supposedly).
So I got curious. Whenever possible, I play Assassin’s Creed the stealthy way, and I remember quite a lot of stealth in Black Flag. So I wanted to compare how often stealth is a viable option in each of the games. And here are the results, a full spread sheet worth of information. Oh, and Assassin’s Creed IV has got the most stealth possibilities in the whole series, just so you know.
Here’s the link to the Google Spread sheet
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Assassin’s Creed III – Lee’s Last Stand and the Combat System
Hey, guys. Sorry for quite an absence, but I’m back to wrap up my Assassin’s Creed III level design analysis series. Really, there are only two levels left that I want to talk about: Hostile Negotiations and Lee’s Last Stand. I’ll start with Lee’s Last Stand, because it’s got the boss battle, and… this post will be much more about the combat system that it’s going to be about level design, though. As usual, spoilers.
(sorry in advance for the lack of any screens in this post to vary it up visually)
Assassin’s Creed III – Chasing Lee (and Parkour Mechanics Analysis)
Hi, guys. Today, I’m going to talk about Mission 2 of Sequence 12 – Chasing Lee. And just in general about how to design an engaging chase parkour sequence with Assassin’s Creed III mechanics. Spoilers.
Stanislav Costiuc 