Although there aren't too many out there nowadays, what is everyone's opinion about adventure games that don't have a save feature (or password) and that must be played in one sitting to win? The best example (and the most arduous) would be the old NES game "Blaster Master". I think that one was a 5 or 6 hour straight playthrough from start to finish if you were lucky, since there was no continue feature of any kind. So obviously a 6 hour klik marathon game is a bit much, but what about a 45 min to 1 hour game from start to finish? Would anybody here play through something like that, or is it too much of a deterrent to those who would rather play in brief stints throughout the day?
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"Del Duio has received 0 trophies. Click here to see them all."
"To be a true ninja you must first pick the most stealthy of our assorted combat suits. Might I suggest the bright neon orange?"
DXF Games, coming next: Hasslevania 2- This Space for Rent!
DaVince This fool just HAD to have a custom rating
Registered 04/09/2004
Points 7998
14th September, 2006 at 14:45:03 -
45 minutes to an hour sounds good, but warn the players at the start about this somehow. Also, if it gets bigger than one hour of gameplay, probably one save or password feature somewhere in the middle would be good.
I think they make great challenge games. R-Type with a save feature wouldn't be the same. It's a great measure of how dedicated you are too "I got to level 2!" "I got to level 3, you fucking wanker"
45 minutes to an hour or so is absolutely fine in my view (when Crystal Towers was released people complained about the lack of a save feature in a half-hour run through!), but 5 or 6 hours is clearly mad. I remember two PC games that were especially guilty of this - Fire and Ice, and Fantastic Dizzy. Both were criminally long for not having a save feature, and it just meant that when you died after getting far into the game you couldn't be bothered to play it again for weeks.
If it suits the gameplay mechanics, fuck yes. Don't trivialise a decent early console-style experience with a gratuitous save game feature. There's nothing outlandish about a 1-2 hour 'marathon'.
I got some negative responses when I told people I was stripping the save system from my game, but fuck them, they don't know shit.
I remember with my old Nintendo 64, I didn't have some stupid expansion pack (and I really couldn't be bothered to buy one), so in some games I couldn't save at all. I used to sit and play Duke Nukem: Zero Hour for like 8 hours, and then have to start all over again next time. But it was fun anyway.
Hmm, I don't think such a thing would work so well anymore.
Saving has become such a given in most games nowadays, especially for a long play-through. Whether or not it adheres to the quality and intensity of the marathon-like games of old, people would just tire of it or get frustrated if there were no saving of any sort. You just can't seem to get away with such things anymore.
Well, anyway, do as you must, but just realise that you might be alienating people, and that a frustrated gamer is less likely to try the game again.
I have a pretty good idea on how to keep it at a 1 hour straight shot, and also reward the player for playing through the game, or even playing through bits and pieces of it!
Now, it's not entirely original, but I was thinking of a points / rewards system the likes of Mario Party. So say if the Necromancer (this is Necropolis Rising I'm talking about) kills enemies, they'll all be recorded on an ini file or something. The same goes for magic spells, treasures, runes, and quests completed for EVERY game played. Then at the title screen, you can view your game logs and points, and then redeem them for prizes or in-game features. I'm excited as hell about this, because I personally really like it!
What do you guys think about that idea?
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"Del Duio has received 0 trophies. Click here to see them all."
"To be a true ninja you must first pick the most stealthy of our assorted combat suits. Might I suggest the bright neon orange?"
DXF Games, coming next: Hasslevania 2- This Space for Rent!
Maybe you could do a Majora's Mask kinda save system? Saving ends the game session, and the save is deleted upon loading. That way the player can run through without constantly reloading at the same spot (which I guess is what you're trying to avoid), but can still take a break if he wants.
"Omg. Where did they get the idea to not use army guys? Are they taking drugs?" --Tim Schafer on originality in videogames
Something like that wouldn't quite work so well on a computer, though. There's very little to stop someone from tracking down the save file and making a backup copy of it.
Okay, I had another idea which is sorta' similar but how about this:
It's based off the points system like above, only instead of prizes / abilites you can unlock in-game you actually restore parts of your Necropolis instead in a charming mini-game! (Yes, it's charming dammit!) So say if you get 100 points, a black building will appear on a separate "town" screen or something that might play out like a simplified sim-city. Of course maybe this option wouldn't be available to the player until he has won the game at least once, which would mean that evil did in fact win the game and now he's busy building his kingdom of evil. That might be something.
Either that or I may have the point system affect how many reinforcements the Necro gets during the final battle w/ the king and his army. I want the final battle to be as epic as possible for a cartoony-looking game like this, right now in my head it looks to be awesome but as for actual fact later well we'll see!
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"Del Duio has received 0 trophies. Click here to see them all."
"To be a true ninja you must first pick the most stealthy of our assorted combat suits. Might I suggest the bright neon orange?"
DXF Games, coming next: Hasslevania 2- This Space for Rent!
There is nothing wrong with games like that. Some people might argue that you get better value for money since it's harder to see the ending.
But as a click game, noone will stay with it for so long because new games are released daily. Ok they're not all games you're going to play through to the end, but it's very easy to be distracted by something else in the community.
Also since it's going to be free more than likely, you wont care if you never bother seeing the end.
it would have to be a really good game.
Here is a question. If eternal daughter had no saves, would you have gotten to the end?
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