How Games Can Teach You that You're the Most Valuable Asset You have

A while ago, I started a new game in 7 Days to Die. For those who don't know: it's a game similar to Minecraft, just harder and with zombies that tear off your house. I enjoy playing it because of that difficulty.

A New Home

I spent a few hours creating a nice base, grinding all the resources required to make it. The design I was using I have trialed and tested. It provided a good basic shelter.

It was a basically a roofed platform, supported by four pillars, each one about 4 blocks thick. In the middle below the platform, I would usually place some spikes. And when the hordes come, place myself in the middle of the platform with the zeds following me (they will be leaving the pillars alone).

It was a stable design and easy to maintain. Sadly I didn't make any pics.

A Terrible Mistake

And so it was, the base was almost done.  I just got done placing the roof, but I left the blocks in the middle unfinished. I made the base extra large this time to fit my needs.

This turned out to be a terrible mistake.

So it was horde night with an extra dose of zombies that spawn and are out to get you. And the moment I placed a torch in the middle of my platform, my entire house started falling apart.

First the wood in the middle.

Then ate its way to the outside. 

With a horde of +30 zombies down below me.

Leaving only the stone pillars on the edges.

Everything was in vain...

I too, fell down as my house collapsed. I was in shock because the base I spent hours just completely vanished. Including all my stuff I had in my chest, which too was destroyed.

Quite frankly, I ragequit very soon after. I mean, with +30 running zombies going to get you, you can prepare your bum to run or die. Normally the latter. Repeatedly. Because you have limited stamina and the night is long. And that's no fun.

FFS I can't see shit pls help :'((

(Before continuing, you must know that 7 Days to Die has its own skill system. So even if you die, you keep all your skills and crafting recipes.)

...or was it? A Realization

So recently, I got back to this saved game. What happened next is very interesting.

It was still horde night with those many zombies coming for me. Just as I left it. I already died once and respawned somewhere random. My bed at my base collapsed too so I was practically homeless. However as I ran through the night, not knowing where to go or to escape the horde, I had a realization:

• Despite of all materials I lost -
• Despite of the home that I lost -
• Despite of the lost time that I spent gathering and building...

...I still had my skills, my recipes, a partially explored map. The knowledge to create things better and safer.

And then it occurred to me: this is exactly how real life works.

You can lose everything and still have everything - for the sole fact that you still have yourself:

The knowledge, skill, talent to create and rebuild.

You are the most valuable asset you have.

Thanks for reading!

Vote & Help Developing CamoTactics!

Involving the gaming community is important making a great game. For this purpose I have created two polls that allow you to share your thoughts on CamoTactics.

Future Content The first poll is all about future content to be added to the game. You can give it a shot on Google Forms. By filling this out you help me focusing on the feature you would like to play most. Make sure to share your ideas, no matter how silly they may sound! They may lead to other interesting ideas. :)
	Your User Experience The second poll is about your gaming experience with CamoTactics. If you played the game you can submit your feedback here on Google Forms. If you didn't play CamoTactics yet, go do it nao!

Happy voting and thank you for playing CamoTactics!

Why PokemonGo is such a success

Only a few weeks in after its release, PokemonGo has become a hit for gamers world wide. It even goes so far that people are paying less attention and getting themselves hurt and deputies making demands to regulate the game.
 
But what exactly made it such a success?

First off, the player base of Pokemon is huge. Pokemon has been around for decades and influenced generations of gamers and accumulated a vast following during that time. It's a game that can be played with your smartphone everywhere at anytime (that is if the servers aren't shitting the bed). Another side effect is, you also connect with people as they venture to the same Pokemon hotspots as you.

While the gameplay isn't much at the moment, it still taps into the desire of discovery and collecting all Pokemon - or collecting enough Pokemon candy to level up your favorites. What is genius about it is that it takes the act of catching them to real life - no doubt that for some gamers, dreams came true!


So in other words, you have:

• a high accessibility mobile game
• a giant following of fans of all ages
• bringing a well-selling gaming franchise to real life
• game mechanics that stimulate the urge to collect and discover (Pokemon and their spawning points, in this case)

They really got out the best of what they already had and struck a real hit on the mobile market.

I remember back a year or so Nintendo's decision to go mobile was generally met with skepticism. Now they have managed to create a hype that will not only change the game industry, but also society. Forever.

Well done, Nintendo. Well done.

CamoTactics: Where will it go?

CamoTactics is a top down shooter set in a futuristic and turbulent future, where mankind has ventured into the depths of space and crashed into a planet with strange and bizarre alien life. Despite the hostility of this world, mankind finally has managed to get over its blood-thirsty past that exploited its environment - Until events turned around and tensions between two countries, Rubia, known as the cradle of mankind, and Panta rose again. Someone has gotten hold of ancient war technology and is trying to stumble the entire planet into chaos. Can you identify and stop the evil forces trying to disrupt the fragile peace?

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Click here to download CamoTactics!

Read more about its gameplay concepts below. This article applies to CamoTactics 7.1.


Environment, Stealth & Camouflage:

What's already in: Enemies won't see you if you are well camouflaged or behind them. How well you are camouflaged depends on how well your current camouflage color matches the terrain color. It also depends on the distance from the target. A sensor system makes sure that even if you cannot be seen, you still can be heard. The soon to be released demo version 7.1 features day and night cycles and lighting effects.

What's to come: hiding in bushes and being in the shadow will make you harder to spot. Appropriate sound design, weather conditions like fog, rain, thunder, snow, many strange and bizarre plants and animals that you may encounter (who may eat you alive while you sleep) are planned. The game plays on a alien planet and as such I want to display an adequate atmosphere and make the impression of a whole new world for you to explore. I want this game not only be fun, but also an unique experience for YOU.


Detailed Combat:

What's already in: Weapons have attachments like scopes and magazines that can be edited. They affect overall weapon performance. I want players to discover and collect new guns and mods. This mechanic is very similar to weapon modding in Fallout 4. Weapons overheat and break as you use them, too. To shield you from different types of projectiles you can equip armor. It's possible to use health kits and repair kits as well. If you're not boarding and driving them, vehicles explode if you destroy them.

What's to come: The possibility to freely assemble your own guns is subject of future versions. Earlier versions included rocket launchers and shotguns, which will definitely come back. That will include close combat weapons.

World and Character Depth

What's to come: The game gives the player a whole new world to explore. It's a futuristic society that sometime 2000 years ago crashed on an alien and hostile planet (that happened to be home planet of an ancient precursor alien race). That also means: spaceships! Well, ancient wrecks for you to explore, that is! With notes, dialog, and speech bubbles the player can explore the characters, animals, plants, locations, technology, history and structure of society humanity has adapted in this strange world.

The story is written out for the most part and was as described as "inspirational" and "giving a different perspective" by some proofreaders. It will be delivered via missions and presentation-style cut scenes.



Inspiration

CamoTactics started out as simple prototype that has grown a lot in two years. Many games inspired me to make it what it is today. Let me list the most prominent ones:

• ARMA II
• Thing Thing Arena
• Metro 2033
• Metal Gear Solid 3
• Fallout 3

During those two years developing this game, I've readjusted it quite a few times. There was a huge setback, too, considering I switched frameworks halfway through which delayed its release. But it's back, being better than ever.

CamoTactics 7.0 is out! [+Download]

I am very happy to announce the CamoTactics 7.0 Build is FINALLY online. Get it here!

I hope you enjoy stealing your enemies' stuff...

... and sneaking up behind them!

After you have finished them off, of course!



Got praise? Got suggestions? Got something you don't like? Please share that with me!

Make sure to check out my blog. Follow CamoTactics official twitter for updates or my personal twitter for indiedev ramblings!

CamoTactics Devlog #2: Weapon Mods, Camouflage

With the switch to libGDX as framework CamoTactics received a huge setback in development. However, this is compensated by a much more powerful framework that allows me to polish up the game more than before. More precise graphics, lighting systems, improved camouflage mechanics, better physics simulation are only a few examples.

I hope you enjoy this demonstration of the soon to be released demo version 7.0!

Watch how camouflage, stealth and customized weapons work here. Includes insight on versions to come.

7 is my lucky number - I hope it's yours too!

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for the demo!

What really makes a game fun and worth playing?

What makes a game fun?

That seems like a so simple question. The more I contemplate it, the more multilayered it becomes.

What is fun? 
 
What triggers a fun experience?

How to create something that is fun?


Fun is all about:

• challenge
• reward
• taking risks
• exploration
• the rush of the unknown
• taking opportunities
• collecting things
• messing around and testing out limits
• answering the question, "what would happen, if...?"

...all in a playful way. It's how nature makes all life learns its lessons. Fun can also be something that brings back childish wonder and curiosity and allows us to reconnect to this deepest part of ourselves many of us learned to "grow away" from. Maybe that's why games are generally liked by many people - whether it be tabletop games, video games, or also the games you played on the playground, or later the "mind games" adults play (games that sometimes turn into not so funny ones..).


How does fun in games look like? 

I can think of a couple of things. Generally spoken, flashy-ness and the right aesthetic can make a HUGE difference in making a game fun.

If your explosions look amazing, the player will have endless fun making things blow up. For a while, they'll try to cause explosions whenever they can (exploration & testing out your limits).

If your GUI features detailed LED displays that lighten up, players may act similarly. Good sign: when you're coding something like this and notice you end up playing with it instead of just testing it!

If the sound design is exceptional, like in Don't Starve, only the act of opening up the build menu already contributes to the user having fun.


But it's not only aesthetics that make a game fun.

Rewarding the player for interacting with the environment, like loot drops from enemies or treasure chests, is also a good way to make a game more enjoyable.

To a degree, randomized outcomes (loot) gives uncertainty and make the player strive for more (rush of the unknown). Even if procedural generated content potentially becomes repetitive after a while, it can still give variety and spice up a game considerably. This is very well demonstrated in the game DoomRL or Phantasmal: House of the Shunned Ones, where each run will be different due to the fact the maps are generated and you find different equipment and enemies each time. Then, if you're lucky and good enough, you might even get to the end!

Let's take a look at Minecraft. The sheer amount of possibilities to play the game and build whatever is on your mind is probably the most important reason why it has gotten so popular. Players would create new challenges for themselves and take on them as they build whatever is on their minds.

In Fallout 4, I had a lot of fun just by collecting all weapon mods and using the best mods for my guns, because I am little perfectionist gun nut! Collecting things generally is a good idea, no matter what you collect: achievements, items, coins, badges, titles, obligatory notes that - as a whole - tell a story... or just screenshots of Fallout teddy bears!
 
In games like the Fallout series, it was also fun to test out your limits in dialogue with the characters and see how they react - without suffering from potential backlash, as would happen real life. This can be a valuable social learning tool.

Things that can spoil fun a game:

A reliance on too much luck can potentially spoil a game if the outcome becomes too unpredictable. It's important to mix in an adequate amount of player skill required if the player wants to advance in a level.

Game mechanics that don't go too well and are in conflict with each other are another aspect that can spoil much of the fun.

For example, take a look at Don't Starve: it's a survival game taking place in a procedural generated world, but exploration is actually discouraged by the fact time is very limited and you die in the dark. Damn Charlie stealing your soul at night! This also puts the player under a lot of pressure. Of course, this can be fun for certain players, but after a while patience runs low and most just prefer to quit the game instead. Something you, as someone who makes games, should avoid!


I hope my insights gave you an interesting perspective on the topic "fun". Thanks to @TheSnee for giving me some ideas for this article!

If you want to check some more game development related articles, you may be interested in how to store your data in a Java game or check these 5 useful tools to start out gamedev.

Status Report #7: CamoTactics is Back! - Weapon Mods, Unit Graphics, Interface

The silence around CamoTactics was mainly caused by a switch to a much better framework (March-June), followed by profound real life changes (August-September). However, since end of October, I fortunately picked up development again.

A lot has changed during that time.

The necessity of changing frameworks arose after I figured out that the input polling system was going frenzy with updates once too many bots were on the map. In fact, it didn't make any sense at all since, what does AI have to do with the fact you're pressing a key on your mouse or keyboard...? Nothing at all. What a baffling bug that was.

So that ate up much of the performance that was needed elsewhere, e.g. rendering, making the game very slow and resource-demanding. The error likely was somewhere deep, deep down in the library I was using and therefore not in my power or knowledge to fix. Restrictions imposed by the libraries' way of handling things were another issue I had.

Thus, instead of having to deal with all these problems (which likely will magnify as the game's development progresses), I decided to switch frameworks instead:

In retrospect, that decision is probably the best thing that could have ever happened to CamoTactics.

I managed to improve the overall visual appearance, for example:

• canon turrets rotating around the correct center (no more funny looking tanks!)
  

• bullets spawning at the correct canon position (no more hitting yourself with bullets!)
  

• canons finally being positioned correctly (no more canons wobbling around next to your vehicle!)
  
• smooth camera movement
  
• inventories with better functionality (no more sluggish drag 'n' drop!)
  

As you can probably tell, there is a first implementation for language support, too.

• inventory icons grow in size when hovering over them (more interactivity!)
  
• better graphics for tanks and soldiers (more eyecandy, just in time for Christmas!)
  

And yes, those are in fact different uniforms and skin colors here.

Uniforms will eventually also affect how your avatar in-game looks, too:




...and much much more, as you can probably tell! All this goes along with a variety of things I could not do before, e.g. adding glow effects, mobile port... the list goes on!

But not only visual appearance has improved.

Since libgdx makes use of your GPU, performance also made quite a leap, see the table below.



The values are approximations, using my desktop, with approximately the same circumstances. Those are enormous differences... especially considering the advantages! It's like trading in your crappy Fiat for a fast and comfortable Mercedes - which is pretty neat!

Migrating the game to the new framework also made me realize how crappy the old one actually was. If you ever get into gamedev: spare yourself a lot of work and choose your tools wisely. Means: don't drive a Fiat if you can have a Mercedes.

Despite of not being able to run CamoTactics from the period from September till December, I was able to do some important changes to the source code that were long overdue (I was just not able to test it). But I want to discuss that and a possible next release in next week's article.

Full development can resume now, as I just got new awesome hardware!

(I can play Fallout 4 on this!)

Look forward to more regular updates! Thanks for staying with me and following CamoTactics!

Stay tuned!

CamoTactics Update: Improved Sound, UI, Plants, Chests, and more!

I made good progress on CamoTactics. I settled with a decent UI style, improved sound (you'll love this), created a ready-for-action mission system, including general polish, amongst more. The next release is planned towards end of December or start of January next year. Till then, you can download version A1B5 build here:

Sound

Sound is finally played directionally or in stereo. Different sounds are used depending on your distance to the sound played. In other words: an explosion in the distance has a more damp or dull sound as one played up close. This can be extended to all sounds, but it'd make only sense for really loud ones (gun shots/explosions). The result of this however is really amazing and has enhanced the gaming experience  A LOT.

Mission System

The mission system I prototyped before A1B4 release has been finished to a state it can be used to create mission based gameplay. As far as I'm concerned, I should be able to do most if not all functions a decent mission requires. For example, I can make enemies spawn if certain conditions are met, let a dialog pop up, start a new mission, kill off one entity, add HP to one entity, and so on. The player receives reward upon completion, and you can also fail your mission (even if you dont know you did - this still needs decent UI feedback).

 

AI Improvements & Other Additions

I've experimented with AI, improving targeting by taking sensors into account, and adding a simple zombie bot. That zombie bot is going to be the base of all AI I'm going to make , and I've prepared a solution for pathfinding already. AI is still a huge deficit in this game. To the left you see a squad of enemy soldiers being spawned once you enter a certain area (There's a missile in white shot from an friendly AI bot about to hit them and kill them all).

Other things that were added are chests, death avatars, plants that grow and are harvestable, (still buggy) melee weapons and fire modes, customizable weapons (you can use that already), a prototype skill system and a new HUD. As for general polish, the screen is shaking now if the player is close to an explosion and improvements to UI components have been made. I've also implemented mouse control to the game. You can aim and use most components, including the inventory, with it

Current Progress

I'm currently in the process of reimplementing visual effects such as explosions, muzzle flash, and other particles. Doing this I've noticed many flaws and unnecessary complexity in the visual controllers for entities. I'm in the middle of implementing a complete new, much more simple and flexible system. It allows me to do some neat things in the future as well.


Despite of some delays the game is getting forward and I will keep pushing it forward. Considering the progress, I won't be able to finish this game with complete story for the planned release in February. But I think it is realistic to say that till then, it's going to be out of alpha stage with one completed game mode (likely tower defense/zombie mode) for sure. There are still a lot of things to do in terms of AI, doing missions/levels and the story itself.

Until February next year, I expect to have a decent AI, most of the planned UI screens,  and a working skill system in place. Improvements I want to realize till then mostly surround camouflage mechanics, shaders, camera/viewport, dialogs. Also: more content.

CamoTactics Update: Pixelart, Particles & Inventories

It's been silent around CamoTactics lately.  I've been going on and off track from game development during the last two months. Part of that was caused by family meetings, the other by motivation issues.

As of recently I've been eagerly working on new features however, and there are plenty! Example: some first drafts for ranks/levels/skills/factions, size based inventories, a new way of handling graphics, customizable weapons, freshly awesome pixelart, particle effects, a new main menu and also basic in-game dialoge. All of this goes with some heavy optimization here and there too!

 The main menu is now animated, with moving tank, ground camo and particles. This screen and the UI still needs a lot of work.

 Inventories support multiple item sizes and weapons can be customized. You can also switch between the character's inventory and the inventory of the vehicle you're currently driving.

Experimental particles have been added for shooting and traveling over different terrain types. Looks promising, but that system requires better code.


Despite of the break I am very happy with the progress, and there's a good chance this game is going to get finished! The next release is planned on 19th September, so stay tuned.

Thank you for reading!

Camo Tactics Alpha 1 Build 4 released!

Alpha Release 4 is out! Get it on GameJolt or Indie DB!

 
Many features were implemented and I worked off all planned items, including some that I considered optional. Interestingly, most of this was implemented during the first two weeks after release 3, and that productivity spike sadly slacked off in the following two weeks. I am still very satisfied with the progress I made this iteration. To recap what I wanted to implement this month, here is the full list:

• [DONE] Make installation easier. There's multiple ways to do this (installer or bundled jar) and requires more research.
• [DONE] Extend UI functionality (preparation for main menus and missions)
• [DONE] Get rid of the prototype-ish graphics and replace them with better ones.
• [DONE] The early prototype of this game included a very simple "camouflage" system which gave combat an interesting twist. This system is going to be re-implemented.
• [DONE] Performance and usability improvements
• [DONE] Many bug fixes (primarily inventories, weapons, sound) and internal improvements
• [DONE] adding some first particle effects
• adding infantry
• mounting vehicles
• [DONE] more advanced AI

I have a lot of plans for the next build already, which is going to be scheduled for 16th of August. On my list are:

• "Walking" AI. So far I only have one for immobile static defenses.
• A first stub of the Tower Defense Mode, as attacker. I can possibly get that one running till then.
• A first stub of the Mission System.
• Playtesting revealed I need better possibilities to take cover. Infantry is going to be a lot more fragile than tanks, so this is VITAL. For this I'm going to use obstacles such as trenches or bunkers as "sensors", and these sensors reduce damage or even have the chance to eliminate a projectile if it touches that sensor. This can be different to each projectile type, such that Missiles aren't able to travel through a wired fence, for example.
• Reimplementation of Infantry. Infantry was not adapted to gfx changes made prior alpha 1 build 3 and thus taken out of the game, so I'm going to reimplement them next update.
• Infantry mounting tanks (later vehicles).
• Many internal improvements, cleanups and bug fixes.

Optional list is:

• Play around with armed motorcycles.
• Consider overheating as additional weapon property.
• A "size-based" Inventory, rather than grid-based: Larger items are larger in inventory than small ones.

So how is Camo Tactics going to look like when done? For some answers, please refer to this post.

I am very excited with this game, and I hope you are too. Thank you for reading!

The Future of CamoTactics

The CamoTactics release of Alpha 1 Build 4 is imminent! Some of you may have wondered what exactly this game is about and where it's going to go. Fear not, for you will find answers here!

Game Structure:

I am likely going to use a Mission - Mission "Debrief" structure for this game. You do missions and get back to the mission screen to proceed to the next mission. In between, you can place items in your personal storage, buy or sell weapons, ammo, and other items, or change your equipment. This can be integrated with most of the planned game modes.

Game Modes:

Planned modes are:

Tower Defense mode. You can take the role as either defender or attacker. It may include zombies (grinding zombies with tanks?! Omg!1!one!).

Arcade mode. This is giving the player more freedom to try all available weapons, camos and vehicles, and it's going to be very similar to how the current alpha build works.

These two will definitely be in the final game. Ontop of this, I have multiple other game modes I can extent on.

Strategy Mode. I recently implemented a "death cam" that lets you scroll around the map after your death. What I could do is letting you send orders to friendly NPCs and even control them.

Campaign. The campaign itself is going to be story-driven and strategic. You will have to sneak through or shoot yourself through different levels. This is frankly where the game can possibly explode in terms of effort and time. Since I've never done a game with story before, I'll reserve the right to cut off the campaign and simplify it if I feel it's not fitting to the schedule.
Should I not be able to add a story at all, I'm going to let enemies drop notes containing some of the story in arcade or tower defense mode.

I can also directly integrate this into different game modes. Say, if you collect weapon X in the tower defense mode, you can use that weapon in the campaign. If you bought weapon X in campaign, you can use it for tower defense mode. Your inventory of that particular game save will apply to all these game modes (except arcade). So if you want to progress well-equipped (i.e. if you're playing on hardest difficulty), you can do some grinding and have some variety at the same time.

I yet have to experiment with this type of game design, but I think with the right balancing it has the potential to make the game more fun.

Other Gameplay: 

Combat should resemble real life combat. You take cover in order not to get hit. You use camo in order not to get seen. Your weapon behaves like a real life weapon would: it has recoil, a base bullet spread, and it also breaks the more you use it. Weapons will also be customizable using different attachments.

I'm keeping the possibility open to customize your characters as well, but I am not sure in what detail this will be implemented.

Camo Tactics First Alpha Release

Camo Tactics Alpha 1 Build 3 is out! Get it here:

 

This build is indeed playable and confirmed to work on W7 and an antique netbook running Win XP, but a bit of an effort is required to install it correctly. I encountered issues during release preparations and they sadly bursted my plans of the release date to be scheduled in the first week of June. Eventually, I decided to provide a quick and dirty solution for the sake of sticking to my deadlines and just provided detailed install instructions. Do not worry - this is not going to stay that way.

 At the moment, the gameplay very is basic - taking damage, shooting, reloading, picking up items... - as is the interface. Some nice details were added (i.e. overlays when taking damage, day and night cycles or fuel consumption) but these yet have to take their full shape as the game is being developed.

Version A1B3 Game Play - Indie DB

The next playable build is scheduled for 16th July and by then, it should have the following minimum features:

• Make installation easier. There's multiple ways to do this (installer or bundled jar) and requires more research.
• Extend UI functionality (preparation for main menus and missions)
• Get rid of the prototype-ish graphics and replace them with better ones.
• The early prototype of this game included a very simple "camouflage" system which gave combat an interesting twist. This system is going to be re-implemented.
• Performance and usability improvements
• Many bug fixes (primarily inventories, weapons, sound) and internal improvements 

If I have enough time, the following is also planned:

• adding some first particle effects
• adding infantry
• mounting vehicles
• more advanced AI

Thanks for reading!

When games become "saturated"

UPDATE [24.02.2017] As of Minecraft version 1.11.2 much what is described here does not apply anymore. For example, survival and exploration mechanics were balanced and it has become quite enjoyable for me.

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Recently I stumbled upon an interesting comment on youtube. It was about how adding too many features may spoil a perfectly fine game. Unfortunately I didn't save the link to this comment, as I would have never thought I'd ever pick it up to create an entire post about it. As I started to see the same pattern on other games, it indeed made me think about how some games progress as a product and subject of design.


I will describe in my own words what this comment was about and give examples. Please note this post should not be taken as "you should change this immediately". This is merely an analysis/opinion people may learn from (or not).

During a game's alpha phase, it's fun to see it grow and develop, each update adding more content and creating new experiences for the player. However, after a while some games start growing beyond the point they are supposed to be growing.
This state I'm talking about is reached once the developers begin to add more and more content which "disrupts" the original idea, feeling or atmosphere of the game. To a certain degree, change is necessary and part of the development progress. However, many "disruptive" changes may result in a complete (intended or not) reinvention of existing game design, atmosphere, or experience. This is where you, as a developer, have to ask yourself whether you are still developing the game you wanted, or still making use of the atmosphere and creating experiences the game is supposed to create.

One example that was mentioned in the comment was Minecraft. I absolutely loved playing this game when I bought it in alpha, in fact I still have some ancient maps, including the first world I ever started. I still remember well when cake and sandstone was added to the game, and those little add-ons I perceived as a pleasant addition; same applies for breeding. A lot of features you can keep yourself busy with were added. But sometime during the 1.4 update, I started losing interest in this game. So what made me stop playing?

One main reason was that I simply burned out on it. The other main reason was "flawful" game design thus making me lose interest. The mistake Mojang did was adding plenty of stuff to Minecraft that - in its entirety - was difficult to unify in one game to the extent it can still be called "good design". Minecraft offers mechanics such as survival, building, mining, breeding, logic (redstone & pistons), exploration, boss fights, but it really excels at neither. Survival is easy even on hardest difficulty once you managed to build a nice shelter and get some animals or a farm (at least for "older"/adult players). Building (including redstone) gets boring after a while once you build everything you wanted to build; at least for me adding new materials will not change this on a long term. Exploration tends to be repetitive, possibly due to procedural generation. The boss fights aren't too special compared to boss fights in other games, unless you're playing with friends maybe.
In fact, I find myself lost in the amount of features I could possibly use, and I am not even using half of them, either. I realize people may have different experiences or opinions about this, however one must still question whether this is a sign of "bad" game design or not.

A while ago, with the Adventure Update Mojang added multiple features that still somewhat fit to the game (villagers, temples...). With the most recent update they added realms. While I acknowledge the importance of the former, what is the point of the latter? At least I know I'm not going to use this feature at all. The main reason I bought this game years ago was survival, mining and building. Since survival has become easier and easier with every update (breeding, farming, enchants to obtain even more gems etc.), what is the point of playing this game for someone looking for a challenge? I assume this is the reason why Minecraft mods and alternative minecraft-like voxel games are so popular.

During Minecraft's existance, more and more building blocks have been added, most blocks possessing slightly different appearances, but similar or even the same properties to existing blocks. If one block can easily be substitued with another, diversity is not substantially changed as new ones essentially do not add more functionality; other than looking pretty/different perhaps. Alpha Minecraft had a distinct look, but with all the new block types (that often don't even look good or too different to already implemented ones, i.e. stone brick) I think it kind of lost that charme it once had.
But what about texture packs? To be honest, adding texture packs only allows you to bypass the mistakes the developers are held to be accountable for; it doesn't get rid of the root of the problem, it doesn't make the original game design better (maybe better in the sense you can change the looks of it).

What makes this situation worse is that plenty of Minecraft mods exist for a wide range of purposes. For example, if you want to go crazy with factories and extended materials, you install yourself Feed The Best to enhance your crafting/building experience.
Minecraft does not need to add more features; instead it should improve the game mechanics it already utilizes. One step towards this goal would be to implement effects to food, for example. Or put more detail into the survival aspect by introducing energy, temperature, seasons. Then again, the fact that there's probably a mod for this purpose already leaves the developers in a mess.



So what we have here is a "oversaturation" of game mechanics, a lack of diversity; too many substitutes that serve the same function that - in my opinion - has changed the game's "spririt" to the negative as it matured. For further thought, you may ask yourself when the point is reached to stop adding content to your game, or when a mechanic starts changing your game to the extent it's completely reinventing it.

It seems that similar circumstances apply to the game Don't Starve; since I unfortunately did not play the recent versions I cannot really judge; but just by the looks of the new trailers, this game seem to have a similar tendency. Let's hope it will not fall victim of the oversaturation.

So developers: Do NOT over-develop your game. Once it reached a certain "feature-saturation" it is not necessary to add anything more. Focus on one or two large gameplay themes and do them well!

Critical Analysis: Space Engineers

I want to get a bit more indepth with an analysis of SpaceEngineer's gameplay. If you don't know the game, you should check it out here, it's worth it.

It is possible that in the future some aspects described in this this article will not be applicable to the game as it's being developed. To clarify, this article applies to the 01.026 update released in April 16th 2014.

You may find some of the analysis offensive; in that case, don't get me wrong - I really like this game a lot and it's absolutely promising for an indie title in early alpha; I also realize a lot of what's there is in a very unfinished state. There are multiple things that are still a bit, let's say "uneasy"; on the other hand, other aspects make a good impression, and I'd like to uncover the causes and consequences of either.


What Space Engineers does is to provide a voxel-based sandbox world where you can build, mine and survive in an asteroid field in space. It's pretty straight forward the first time you play it, especially if you are used to other voxel-based games like Minecraft.

It's possible to build space stations, large spaceships and small spaceships from various - partly functional - parts. The latter use smaller voxels (first picture) while the former two make use of voxels twice as large (second picture).

Voxel Sizes

Larger voxels are nice for large scale ships and stations. You don't need to build more voxels in order to get the same size, compared to when using a small voxel size.
However here lies another problem: you cannot pull the same level of detail on large ships as you can with small ones. Larger ones will always look very "rough" with the low voxel resolution that is being used here.

The previously mentioned effect is especially noticable in interiors. Since each voxel is as large as your character, you cannot use voxels for more subtle details. Each level of your space station/large ship thus needs to be one voxel high, plus another voxel for the floor. This causes them to look rather chunky and also limits the player in the creative process.

This effect can be decreased by providing a variety of thinner plates you can walk on that are designed for interiors, instead of using solid blocks all the time. While there are already some thinner plates in game, they are not designed to be used as floors or ceilings, but rather grates or similar.
Another possible solution is to provide something like a "brush size" for voxels instead of just scaling up small voxels: Large spacecraft/stations created with a default brushsize multiplier of 2x, while small ones with a 1x multiplier.

Where to start building?

I felt kind of "lost" constructing my spacecraft, being not too sure what to do or why. This happens to me even when already being used to the game and possessing basic knowledge of the game mechanics. I am not entirely sure of the causes for this, and I can name the following possibilities.

1. The game lacks purpose for certain types of spacecraft or ship parts, i.e. combat is not implemented yet, thus turrets and combat ships are somewhat useless for now. (You also may end up building something you don't even need as the game currently has no real focus other than building and mining. Of course this will change in the future)
2. Voxel-based construction of objects gives full control and freedom over your creations and their design, but may offer confusion as well since new players do not know where to start (or with what)
   The interesting thing is: this is something I also encountered developing a ship editor prototype that imitates voxel behavior for StareFire. I guess it's safe to say that creating interior from scratch that also has a function to serve can be very challenging.
   
   A solution for this problem can be setting up a dynamic To-Do list for each ship that lists up the minimal amount of parts required to create a spacecraft or station. Another solution can be creating large and hollow 3D frame models that allow the player to better plan out interior design. (The players could make these frames on their own with the voxel engine, however they turn out chunky due to the voxel size on large ships)
 

 

Construction in Survival 

To the left you can see an optimized version of a small miner I created in survival mode, which took me ages to create from scratch. It's also my first legit spacecraft.

Construction in survival is tricky. Moving around large amounts of ore with an extremely limited inventory capacity is not nice at all and very time consuming. AND that is just for a very small ship. Limited inventory space also prohibits you from constructing large bases and forces you to somehow build a container close to the construction site first, then store all materials there. Larger objects take an enormous amount of material to construct; which in no way you can manage to manually gather as a single person. Construction time of larger spacecraft is not easier either seeing how welding the hull parts in order to finish them takes a lot of time also. The fact that a lot of resources are required to produce hull parts in the first place makes this worse (BUT it should be noted you can adjust production rates when creating the game or editing its settings).
The situation has improved alot with the recent introduction of conveyors and pipes. You can do large bases that hook up refineries to assemblers, and assemblers to a large storage and fully automate unit production. Even unloading and loading transports or miners can be fully automated. Still, starting from scratch remains a pain in the rectal area.

Additional solutions - especially for the problem of starting from scratch - can be the introduction of a tool or small machine, like a little buggy or "wheelbarrow in space", that allows you to move around larger amounts of cargo even if you don't possess a functional spacecraft. Another solution can be to adjust the default production/mining rates.

Destruction and Damage

What I really like about this game is the fact you can virtually destroy everything. Collisions deform spacecraft and asteroids alike, asteroids struck by missiles will crumble, and failing to decently dock to your space station has the potential to damage your spacecraft (or even destroy it).

The only problem I have with this damage system is that it becomes difficult to rebuild already destroyed structures and the fact you need a lot of resources to repair it. It may be of advantage if the ship saved the destroyed parts and enables you to replace them with ease, i.e. just by reconstructing them with the welder.


Other aspects that are slightly unbalanced exist, i.e. the production of solar panels (require many resources to build and basically not even worth using if you're starting out) or the fact you're doomed once you run out of Uranium in your base reactor.
But a lot of things are to come to make this game even better than it already is. Visually it's astoundingly simple yet nice to the eyes by providing enough detail to keep you interested. The fact I rambled a lot about its flaws should not hold you from getting it if you like voxel-based sci-fi games.