Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 648
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 07/09/2000
Subject: The MM/JSW FAQ (part 1)
The FAQ should be divided into several sections
(e.g. technical, geography, atmosphere, etc.). I
suggest having a combined MM/JSW FAQ, since much of the
advice will apply to both, although it will have to
point out which bits are specific to one or the
other!
The following questions spring to mind:
*
Basic questions:
- How do I play MM/JSW on my PC?
How do I unzip the .zip files, use the .TAP files
etc.? I'm always getting asked those sorts of
questions.
- What versions of MM/JSW exist, and where do I
find them?
- Which editors to use, where to get
them, and their relative advantages and
disadvantages.
- In fact, the FAQ should contain all sort of
MM/JSW links.
* Design advice section:
-
Advice on geography: finding the happy medium between
tediously linear and frustratingly spreading. Bad
geographical patterns (e.g. one-way exits) and good ones (e.g.
Promised Land effects, Forbidden Holy Ground). Clusters of
rooms with a central teleport room.
- Avoiding
`kamikaze' rooms where you can collect an item and it's
easier to commit suicide than to get back - could make
the player have to go through an exit and back.
-
Advice on size for JSW 128: 256 rooms is too much IMO,
when you have to play it in one sitting with no save
facility.
- Variety is important: a range of different
challenges. Combinations of features (guardians, conveyors,
etc.) It's good to play through old MM/JSW games and
keep a catalogue.
- Quirky features
[http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/ target=new>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/> ]. Deliberately exploiting them, and having a
trained eye to spot unintentional ones.
- Advice on
difficulty: a `nice' MM game should have a good difficulty
gradient; a `nice' JSW game should be 90% easy to explore
but have a few difficult-to-get-to rooms (e.g. "Under
The Drive"/"Tree Root" in the original JSW).
-
Avoid unfairness, e.g. multiple-death scenarios,
provide means of suicide if the player can get trapped,
don't overdo invisibility.
- Advice on graphics: how
far is it acceptable to reuse old graphics from old
games instead of using new ones? Old graphics with
modifications can be interesting (see JSW Ivy).
- Drawing
horizontal guardians properly: they move two pixels at a
time.
- Making rooms visually attractive: colour schemes,
attractive screen layouts, symmetry etc.
- The importance
of atmosphere. Concept games tend to be much more
atmospheric than games which start without a concept and are
just a collection of rooms, with maybe a plot just
bolted on at the end.
(Part 1 of
2)
--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/ target=new>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/>
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/ target=new>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/>
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/ target=new>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/>
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