Video Game Curriculum

[J1M]

Speaking of wizardry, another one I remembered:

Legend of Grimrock

Probably the best implementation of this genre, and it looked great for a game from 2012, did it not?

I preferred Operencia: The Stolen Sun.

[rusty_shackleford]

incredibly underrated real-time drpg

[Wretch]

Games like guitar hero and dance dance revolution should be studied by the military to engineer a form of cringe so potent that it could be used to kill.

[A Chinese opium den]

Games like guitar hero and dance dance revolution should be studied by the military to engineer a form of cringe so potent that it could be used to kill.

Guitar hero was cool you little ***, I bet you couldn't even play smoke on the water.

[Wretch]

Games like guitar hero and dance dance revolution should be studied by the military to engineer a form of cringe so potent that it could be used to kill.

Guitar hero was cool you little ***, I bet you couldn't even play smoke on the water.

**** that was close…. I nearly died.

What are you? Cia? Green beret? Mossad?

[rusty_shackleford]

I remember when they used to have local guitar hero competitions at bars, that was cool

[Nemesis]

Legend of Grimrock

Seconding. This is a friendlier introduction to dungeon crawling.

[ArcaneLurker]

Games need to go back to their roots

[rusty_shackleford]

The single best game made before January 1, 1990 is probably Starflight.

Amiga version is likely the definitive version, Genesis version is probably the easiest to pickup and play, but iirc it's also bugged.

[maidenhaver]

Shogun Total War

[WhiteShark]

Speaking of wizardry, another one I remembered:

Legend of Grimrock

Probably the best implementation of this genre, and it looked great for a game from 2012, did it not?

Real time DRPGs are a blight upon the genre and should only be studied so as to not repeat their dreadful mistake.

[rusty_shackleford]

Speaking of wizardry, another one I remembered:

Legend of Grimrock

Probably the best implementation of this genre, and it looked great for a game from 2012, did it not?

Real time DRPGs are a blight upon the genre and should only be studied so as to not repeat their dreadful mistake.

Try Fall of the Dungeon Guardians. It's RTwP. I liked it a lot.

There are very, very few of those tho. M&M 6-8 is all that comes to mind.

[TKVNC]

Mount and Blade

Correct. It is one of the best realised games perhaps ever made. It has flaws, but all masterpieces do.

[rustys-name-is-kumar]

Real time DRPGs are a blight upon the genre and should only be studied so as to not repeat their dreadful mistake.

eotb1/2 and dungeon hack alone are better than a lot of the turn based drpgs out there with a few exceptions. in fact i find the constant dislike towards rpgs having any combat system that is placed in real time to be tired and rather like someone is reading from the generic "turn based awesome" script they've rehearsed rather than an actual reason to ruminate over or provide any other form of engaging and thoughtful discussion.

you also have been known to play absolutely **** games such as BG3 and various obsidian offerings so if i was you i'd not bother replying to this as i either will not read it (like i did to your pm) or will just reply with "stfu i dont care" after which you will likely be provoked to use your forum powers to remove me.

[rusty_shackleford]

eotb1/2 and dungeon hack alone are better than a lot of the turn based drpgs out there with a few exceptions. in fact i find the constant dislike towards rpgs having any combat system that is placed in real time to be tired and rather like someone is reading from the generic "turn based awesome" script they've rehearsed rather than an actual reason to ruminate over or provide any other form of engaging and thoughtful discussion.

wrong site

[Demonic Fate]

Bad idea. Same problem with the "book canon" where teachers forced you to read stuff like the Odyssey, Frankenstein, To Kill a Mockingbird, and everybody hated it. Or "movie canon" where you are "supposed" to watch Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Alfred Hitchcock and Kubrick films, etc. Let people play what appeals to them and not make them homework and slog through games that don't appeal them just so they can get cred.

One issue with studying canon is that you rush through masterpieces who innovated the genre, without an understanding of what they innovated from, because their lessons have become not just mainstream but expected.

You would need to watch a bunch of schlocky 1960s science fiction to get properly impressed by 2001: A Space Odyssey. You would need to grow up with nothing but sanctimonious, didactical 18th century books to get your mind properly blown by The Sorrows of Young Werther (which reads as hilariously over-the-top to us). And students don't have time for that.

Imagine it's 2080, narrative RPGs have been a thing for three generations, and a game design student plays Disco Elysium and goes "why is this game so important? The writing is up its own *** and the pacing is ******" because they never had to suffer through DECADES of narrative RPGs awkwardly stapling on dreadful combat because... because a RPG just has to have combat, you know?

[rusty_shackleford]

incredibly underrated real-time drpg

https://tomsgaming.com/2024/12/31/the-f ... uick-look/

Yes, it's heavily inspired by WoW. Probably one of the very few singleplayer games that are. It's a very odd combo that ends up working great imo.
Imagine a long WoW dungeon where you control the entire party, with pause, and in first person. Including bosses that require extensive planning and tactics.

[Tweed]

I agree with @J1M that it's more important to teach principles than specific games, but I do think there's value in taking apart a game and analyzing why it works.

Important game design principles:

Did you remember to prototype your system before you started adding pretty graphics? (No one seems to do this anymore)

Is it fun?

Is it going to be fun eight hours from now?

Did you stop to think contextually about whatever it is you're doing?

No really, why should the player give a **** about anything that's going on?

Is there a way to skip all of these annoying animations and cutscenes?

Is the game combat focused?

If no, redesign it.

Does combat suck?

If yes, redesign it.

[Tangerine]

No really, why should the player give a **** about anything that's going on?

This is a huge one that gets overlooked. The character having a reason to care is not the same as the player having one.

[maidenhaver]

They make games that play the player, not games for the player to play a character.

[Nessa]

Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe.

[Tadeusz]

I've been thinking about stealth mechanics and I think Thief does them well so I'd add this game to the curriculum. Wish more games had more engaging and thought-out stealth.

[Tadeusz]

Recent discussion about ATOM RPG made me think about technical qualities of games so here's the question: what games should be added to the curriculum as a study for game's technical optimization and resolving possible game errors? What games achieve the best performance and run smoothly with the least technical issues?

[Valter]

Recent discussion about ATOM RPG made me think about technical qualities of games so here's the question: what games should be added to the curriculum as a study for game's technical optimization and resolving possible game errors? What games achieve the best performance and run smoothly with the least technical issues?

I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I will mention I'm always impressed by those Total War games that have a bajillion units fighting at the same time with spells and doesn't crash.

[Vergil]

I think it would be good to play games in pairs. The highest acclaimed vs lowest acclaimed game in a series. Mass Effect 1 vs 3/Andromeda, Fallout New Vegas vs Fallout 76 that sort of thing. Learn what was present in the good games and what the bad games removed/altered that turned people off from something they once loved.

[ArcaneLurker]

I've been thinking about stealth mechanics and I think Thief does them well so I'd add this game to the curriculum. Wish more games had more engaging and thought-out stealth.

A lot of devs try to force stealth in somewhere but absolutely fail to pull off what Thief did.

Recent discussion about ATOM RPG made me think about technical qualities of games so here's the question: what games should be added to the curriculum as a study for game's technical optimization and resolving possible game errors? What games achieve the best performance and run smoothly with the least technical issues?

To do it justice, it really needs a breakdown from people in the industry who actually worked on the exemplary titles where technical skills were key.

[Tangerine]

Recent discussion about ATOM RPG made me think about technical qualities of games so here's the question: what games should be added to the curriculum as a study for game's technical optimization and resolving possible game errors? What games achieve the best performance and run smoothly with the least technical issues?

For technical optimizations, you'll probably want to look at MMOs. It costs money being sloppy in your server code and client/server communications. For singleplayer games, any game that handles large quantities of objects/units at once without slowdown.

Resolving errors is more learning good software development habits than something specific to games. Or not hiring *****, but I repeat myself.

[rusty_shackleford]

Hitman games have the only believable stealth because it's social stealth

[Oyster Sauce]

Hitman games have the only believable stealth because it's social stealth

Hunting games

[Tangerine]

A lot of devs try to force stealth in somewhere but absolutely fail to pull of what Thief did.

They tend to fail because they give the player abilities that make him superhuman--including a big health pool and pinpoint accuracy with firearms--and then tell him he's not allowed to take advantage of those abilities for that specific mission, failing him for trying to do so. In Thief, he learns very quickly he's no match for a guard, so the game never needs to abruptly fail him for being bad at stealth.