Posted: 1/3/2011 7:54 PM
Post subject: Games with TASing in Mind
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Modus_Ponens
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Joined: 1/3/2011
Posts: 1
Location: Redmond, WA
Hey, gang. I've been watching TASes for a long time now, and I have registered here to discuss a topic that I've been wondering about for a while. If a developer were to make a game with TASing in mind, what kind of things would you, the TAS community, like to see in that game? Should there be a lot of tricks that can only be pulled off with frame advance? Should there be a lot of possibilities for slick luck manipulation? Should there maybe even be a few "glitches" thrown in purposefully just to be abused by the intrepid TASer? Or should the game be as tight as possible, just like most games are designed? I have always set my sights on game development as a career goal, and since I've come to love TASes, I've wanted to include in my games frame advance and recording/rerecording options, as well as RAM viewers and stuff. Thoughts?
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Posted: 1/3/2011 7:59 PM
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feos
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NES TAS of 2011
Hello, Modus Ponens. We have one TASer that developed the game with TASing in mind. Binary City by AnS. See this thread for it: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8526
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Posted: 1/3/2011 8:07 PM
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Noxxa
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Personally I like the idea of designing a game with TASing in mind. I probably wouldn't put a bluntly accessible TAS mode into it, though. Instead, making just a general play recording mode and allowing some cheats would probably work just as well. Think like cheats that slows down the game, allows frame advance, or rerecording, or show a list with relevant values e.g. position and speed, substituting for RAM watch. Furthermore, a TASer would of course want to make a TAS-worthy game out of it: this doesn't mean it has to be hard to complete normally, but instead it should just be action-packed to appeal to viewers of the TAS. In the game you should be able to move quickly and be able to blow stuff up quickly, for instance. And bring waiting periods to a minimum.
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Posted: 1/3/2011 9:01 PM
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Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Mothrayas has it: the game should have practically uncapped ability to express skill. Any time you're putting some kind of limit on the player, check if that limit is too low for the really skilled players, and if it is, find some way to work around it. For example, if you have a slow movement speed, you can add a run button, a high-speed jump kick, or any number of other things that allow the player to move at a pace that matches their skill level, without rendering the base speed unplayable for the unskilled.
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Posted: 1/3/2011 11:31 PM
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Dada
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Just put a few extraordinarily obscure race conditions in the enemy AI and hope that someone will find them 23 years after release.
Posted: 1/4/2011 4:38 AM
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Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4043
Things that have to be managed to maximize speed. Things like subpixels, acceleration and meters that fill and unfill to let you do faster things depending on how you behave/interact. The more things you can juggle for a faster time, the better a speedrun will be.
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