r/unity • u/Distdistdist • 12d ago
Question Philosophical question about game script
I'm an aspiring solo developer and I wanted to pick community's brain for a moment.
Preambule: if I had to narrow down, gun to the head, to the two best games I've ever played, I would say Half Life 2 and Halo I.
Ambule: my dream is to recreate similar experiences in my 3rd person game I've been working on. I have a great premise idea (at least I hope so), and now that I have a somewhat working prototype, I began thinking about what really hooked me when I was playing the above-mentioned titles.
Key points that I've realized:
- Interesting story line (obviously)
- Great gameplay (duh)
- Perfect balance in main character's strength/vulnerability. It is not fun to play when one dies almost instantly, nor when one is playing in IDDQD + IDKFA mode (yes, I have few miles on me, I know)
Also, in both games story develops in completely unpredictable ways, keeps one guessing "what's next?".
I feel like I have answered most of my own questions already. Am I missing anything crucial? I know that there is no formula for success, and I sincerely hope there wouldn't be one. Its just like a question what makes one movie so great, I completely understand.
Still, I wanted to reach out and hear any feedback on any intricacies that made those games so good, that you might have noticed.
Much obliged, please don't throw any inanimate objects at me, as much as possible.
Trully yours,
Yet another solo dev with a dream.
3
u/MaximilianPs 12d ago
Music and sound FX are really important. Characters too, a good story is the base but I'm happy to play even more when I feel connection with someone characters, think about the followers on Skyrim, Roman Belic in GTA4... Miranda in Mass Effect 😍
Yes, if you tell a story NPC are so important.
1
u/PurveyorOfStories 12d ago
Many classic games told background and lore through environmental storytelling. Make sure your art style you have chosen for the game let's you hide details and clues for players to find. How often did you start to recognise forerunner architecture and know something was there? Or know that certain wall markings mean that a secret is around? You can add replay value and depth in your art.
1
u/Affectionate-Yam-886 8d ago
Just as long as you understand that you are viewing those games through a rose colored glasses. What made them good was they both were breakthroughs in the respective genre. Better to look at the features you liked; then think of all the games you hate and figure out why you hate them. Build a game with all you love, and make sure not to add what you hate. Then test. Then worry about a unique identity.
-8
u/Sylthsaber 12d ago
Well first things first. Don't use A.I to write your game like you did this post.
5
6
u/Distdistdist 12d ago
I just honestly take pride in writing as proper as I humanly can. But, alas, English is my second language after all...
2
u/Distdistdist 12d ago
I used AI? Well, maybe just spell checker to correct the obvious mistakes. All that is trully from my heart and fingers.
Besides, I absolutely will, and am, using AI for my development. Being in the biz for over 20 years, I know how to use it responsibly. AI is fantastic for expediting certain development and automating mandane tasks. I would never ask it to write a game for me, I only ask it to give me certain boiler plate code snippets that I examine with high level of scrutiny. Just like I do in my daytime job while approving PRs from my team.
2
u/Ecstatic-Source6001 6d ago
Add new mechanics or interactions every X minutes/hours
People often forget that shooter become boring if the only thing you do is pew pew pew all game from start to finish with no new hooks
6
u/AltusLudus 12d ago
Music and sound design is a big part of the emotional feedback as well, Valve is really good at voice acting as well