"8. Dynamic soundtracks
A musical soundtrack that actually reacts to the onscreen action, altering in intensity when the player comes into danger, rather than merely tinkling along in the background. Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory, Metroid Prime and even Ashen on the N-Gage employ this technique. It?s slightly more imaginative then merely filling the disc with licensed songs ? although that?s very popular at the moment too (see much of EA?s current output especially Burnout 3, and, of course, GTA Vice City)."

Er.. correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Scumm already work with this notion? Yknow? 10 years ago?

Yep, true, but the old iMUSE engine was based on FM-synthesis (cheap casio-sounds) and midi. MI3 & 4 & Grim Fandango tended more towards WAV audio and were pretty good (though midi definitely had more options, like tempochange, expression etc). In this 3d action age, however, graphics, physics etc.  have the upper hand, and take up most processor calculations. Music and audio are far behind and have a lot of catching up to do...

Oh...yeah...."Bloom Lighting" and "Normal Mapping" are key-ideas when you design a game.
Very important.
Someone has clearly forgotten the meaning of the word "concept". Or they chose to ignore it.
Oh God...:-(

Yeah, Dynamic soundtracks with the Imuse system.

"11. Please no more Doom3 Clone :)
in 1992 wolfstein 3d: You grab a gun and shot everyone with a 386sx and 4Mb of Ram :)
in 2004 Doom3: You grab a gun and shot everyone with Pentium4 3.6GHz Geforce6800 512Mb :)
in 2016 Doom5: You grab a gun..... sigh! :(

He missed a big one - streaming worlds (continuous worlds, no-load worlds, whatever).  That's one of the things (along with iMuse-style dynamic music) that seemed to become lost Precursor technology when games moved from 2D to 3D and is only now being rediscovered.  It's as if game developers, realizing that they can't make 3D look significantly better any more, are finally focusing on other aspects of the game.

Now, that sounds overly grumpy (perhaps appropriate for the site, but still).  I don't think that going 3D was a bad move for the gaming industry.  I just think that it raised player expectations for the visual aspect of the game very high, higher than they ever were back in the 2D era.  For instance, back in The Day(tm) lots of 2D games had very simple two-frame animations for some characters (usually cannon-fodder enemies).  That was sufficient for gamers.  It didn't bother us.  Heck, we kind of liked it (witness the nostalgia of things like this) but you simply cannot do that with a 3D character.  3D inherently tells the player "This is going to be more realistic, a more accurate representation", and if you don't fulfill that expectation, you will be excoriated.

Oddly enough, 2D still gets a pass, even from people who never played them when they were the only thing around - like my nine-year-old daughter.  When I introduced her to the magic of the Super Nintendo (after she'd been playing PlayStation games for years) I mentioned the fact that the games weren't going to look as good as what she had already played.  Her response?  "What are you talking about?  I think it looks great!"

I've come to the conclusion that 2D gets a pass from us for the same reason cartoons do.  2D is simple, which allows us to "project" ourselves onto it better.  3D is more accurate, more realistic, a closer representation, and therefore separates us more from the in-game characters.  This is the same thing Scott McCloud talks about in Understanding Comics: we love cartoons (especially kids) because a cartoon can be anybody - you can project yourself onto the character more easily.  But a photograph can only be the person photographed.

That's true! I am sad when I remember the fact that 2D games are dead because they where so funny. Cartoon stile games are really more fun, i loved Earth worm Jim since it was almost a TV cartoon

Here's a trendy concept for you...

12. Storyline. Decent, non-generic storyline.

Since it seems like so few developers are bothering with it, you'll be sure to corner the market!

Doh!  Forgot to make the point in the above post that I think that's why most 3D games are first-person.  How do you get around the problem of the player not being able to project himself into the game character?  Don't put the character on the screen!

I think they forgot real time occlusion, the effect where the audio changes based on where you are in the game, what is in front of you, who is in the room, etc.

Like the Imuse system? Yeah, staple part of gaming today.

As for 12, I think that was The Longest Journey's best selling point. Plus it combines 3-D with 2-D very effectivly.

Most game these days are reinventing the wheel adventure games (at least the one made by LEC) used almost 13 years ago: Dynamic music (who could forget Woodtick on Monkey Island 2? one of the best examples, ever), speech, character development (still to be remotely matched... well, I can think of final fantasy but overpowered by bad translation), story pacing (they're getting there).

The storyline in TLJ was indeed pretty insteresting, but the game did have some really weird story pacing, In my opinion. I thought it was kind of anti-climatic by the time I finished the game.

I think Longest Journey was supposed to be a bit of a let down, with April not really being "the one" (or whatever) and all after the buildup...


I don't know if normal mapping and light blooms and interactive music and stuff are "hip trends to be avoided" if your game comes out in two years as much as they are "things you should consider including if they make your game look better, but shouldn't brag about in magazine interviews anymore" if your game comes out in two years. The other stuff like "awesome crime/gang game" might want to be thought about though.


Oh hm, Domenico said this already only in a more bitter sounding way. Not that that will stop me from repeating it...

I can't be the only one whose gears started turning when they read "Unfortunately, all that?s left are pick-pocketing, jay-walking and indecent exposure."

I'm reminded of a skit from the TV show "Mr. Show," where the tale of two rival streakers is set up.  But I'm probably just crazy.

"Time manipulation" should be at the top of that list.

Uhh, those trends .... SUCK !!

"Dynamic soundtracks " ...imuse ?

So.. you're saying iMuse sucks?