Tweet
Today on delphi forums:
Let me help clarify things here.
There's been a lot of speculation using the terms "simplification" and "dumbing down." We are removing a few elements of the game that didn't work and are streamlining a few more. But you should not read into this the negative implication that we're taking a machete to the design. We're not. I know that some folks are concerned that it won't be anything at all like the game that's been described previously. I can assure you that the changes are not nearly as drastic as you fear.
With IFP's, for example, it's a combination of implementability and playability. The intent of IFPs was to limit what you could do in the game. Unfortunately, two problems cropped up. First, it became really difficult to include IFP-related user interface elements that didn't annoy the heck out of the users. It's one thing to provide interesting mechanisms to focus the player's attention, but quite another to interrupt the flow of the game experience constantly and ask the player if they're sure they want to dedicate an IFP to a particular task. We all liked the idea of the galactic scope of ideas and IFPs -- it just had a problem when we tried to implement it.
Later, we worked out a simplified system for using IFPs on only certain actions that the player would take. This ran into a different problem: we ended up using IFPs for some parts of the game and not others, which felt inconsistent. I tried to make it work, but in the end there were problems with the user experience again.
Bottom line: we liked the feature but it had to go. Fortunately, contrary to the recent speculations, this didn't actually involve significant code changes. We're working now on other ways to be sure the game is properly balanced, and don't anticipate any problems working them through. In the end, we'll end up with a game that has a similar philosophical approach but simpler way of achieving it. We already have a plan.
Back to the original issue of "dumbing down," let me say again that we're not giving the game a lobotomy. It's still very deep and very wide. In the coming weeks and months, we'll be talking a lot more about the details. But the goal isn't to kill off chunks of the game that are already in there. It's mostly to make them easier to use. What that means is displaying data in readily understood forms instead of raw, hard-to-understand data dumps. It also means taking buttons off certain screens and putting them in more appropriate places. In a few cases, it means eliminating screens that just didn't do a lot for the game.
I hope that helps to clarify what we're doing. I know folks are worried, but I'd encourage you to keep an open mind and keep asking questions. We'll be happy to explain as we solidify our decisions.
Thanks.
Bill Fisher, Executive Producer
There's been a lot of speculation using the terms "simplification" and "dumbing down." We are removing a few elements of the game that didn't work and are streamlining a few more. But you should not read into this the negative implication that we're taking a machete to the design. We're not. I know that some folks are concerned that it won't be anything at all like the game that's been described previously. I can assure you that the changes are not nearly as drastic as you fear.
With IFP's, for example, it's a combination of implementability and playability. The intent of IFPs was to limit what you could do in the game. Unfortunately, two problems cropped up. First, it became really difficult to include IFP-related user interface elements that didn't annoy the heck out of the users. It's one thing to provide interesting mechanisms to focus the player's attention, but quite another to interrupt the flow of the game experience constantly and ask the player if they're sure they want to dedicate an IFP to a particular task. We all liked the idea of the galactic scope of ideas and IFPs -- it just had a problem when we tried to implement it.
Later, we worked out a simplified system for using IFPs on only certain actions that the player would take. This ran into a different problem: we ended up using IFPs for some parts of the game and not others, which felt inconsistent. I tried to make it work, but in the end there were problems with the user experience again.
Bottom line: we liked the feature but it had to go. Fortunately, contrary to the recent speculations, this didn't actually involve significant code changes. We're working now on other ways to be sure the game is properly balanced, and don't anticipate any problems working them through. In the end, we'll end up with a game that has a similar philosophical approach but simpler way of achieving it. We already have a plan.
Back to the original issue of "dumbing down," let me say again that we're not giving the game a lobotomy. It's still very deep and very wide. In the coming weeks and months, we'll be talking a lot more about the details. But the goal isn't to kill off chunks of the game that are already in there. It's mostly to make them easier to use. What that means is displaying data in readily understood forms instead of raw, hard-to-understand data dumps. It also means taking buttons off certain screens and putting them in more appropriate places. In a few cases, it means eliminating screens that just didn't do a lot for the game.
I hope that helps to clarify what we're doing. I know folks are worried, but I'd encourage you to keep an open mind and keep asking questions. We'll be happy to explain as we solidify our decisions.
Thanks.
Bill Fisher, Executive Producer
Comment