The Tain

MAIK

Sorry, man, but you really need someone to tell you that you just don't understand good game design. Without getting into where I personally come from, suffice to say I know a little something about the subject. You can listen and gain, or just keep bumbling along:

Especially with this "new" release, you have all the gaming flash-and-dash down very well: odd and interesting units, cool scenery and maps, lovely color palettes, great ambience, lots of cool promotion on the Tain...and so on.

What you seem to not grasp at all, is GAMEPLAY. The gameplay on almost everything you submit is, for want of a better word, der'mo.

Sorry to be so harsh, but you need to hear it.

Example: The 1st level of this package gives the player a tiny handful of feeble, under-powered units---no healing, no speed---against an excessive number of game-controlled units that completely outmatch the player in almost every way.

Do you not understand that this is not good game design? It's der'mo. It's not fun in the least, gives the user no sense of accomplishment or triumph. It's just der'mo that's way, way too stupidly difficult. No balance, no intrigue, just floundering and running about and saving, saving, saving...

By ruining the gameplay, all the brilliant work you've done on sound, graphics, units, maps--- it's worthless. A real shame.

Making things stupidly hard is not game design. Why do think Bungie's products have always worked so very well--- Myth, Marathon, Halo? Because their level designs (solo) are not stupidly hard. They're smartly hard. Balanced and often very difficult, but well-conceived, well-planned, and fun to figure out staying alive.

Your levels, in contrast, are about as fun as having a tooth pulled. And they don't have to be that way.

I suggest you study what makes Bungie's products work so well, in terms of gameplay. How units move against the player, and when and why and which ones. What the player has in hand to deal with it, or not.

In professional gameplay, balance is extremely critical and also hard to create. If it were easy, well...

You've certainly got abilities. You've got the look and feel under control. But it's way past time for you to get your gameplay skills in order.

I hate to toss this plug-in, but I had more fun cutting my fingernails than trying to complete the first level.

Best to ya.

Anyone who would give this achievement in mapmaking a single star is a moron.

I do have to agree with Sword Ring in that this plug has significant issues with what he calls "gameplay". I would have called it "level design". That's why I took away one star. It's hard to make the level design work, but with the talent you show in every other area of this plug I'd think you're capable of it.

The map design and concept is spectacular, I really like the volcano level, with the lava flowing into the sea and the eruptions.

I did manage to beat each level on at least heroic, but that was after several tries and knowing the scripting.

This could really shine if the gameplay/level design was better. My example would be the volcano level, there are breaks in the fighting that make the level take 5x longer than it needs to.