Topic
Thoughts on The Rook
If you were there at Chad Gallows, being Rooked, post some comments about it... Buggy? Fun? Slow? Confusing? Awesome? Did it crash your browser?
Personally, I thought it was fun, albeit a little too manic. Maybe due to the lagging but half the time, I didn't know where to look on the screen and what to do.... so much going on! The graphics and idea is superb though. I wish I could have been there to see it end... Oh, and what's/how do you Wing Beat?
PS. I recorded the Rook for people who weren't there and feel they missed out:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2...
(The YouTube video is, of course, unlisted - please don't share the link).
Replies
- Buggy, slow and confusing for sure! HOWEVER, that won't always be the case. I think we're going to try making it slower, sparser and more ambient ... an indication of long term decay in a region that might take days or weeks to fester before it is really annoying (and days or weeks to clear) rather than something that happens all at once.
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Yeah it was a bit laggy, and kind of highlighted how small the playable region of the screen is. I think the idea is awesome, but it was just too full on.
I did like having lots of stuff lying around on the ground to collect and use immediately, and the idea of lots of people working collaboratively to save an area. -
more ambient is good.
at the beginning, with the lingering crows the mood was downright hitchcockian. brilliant, even.
after that point tho, it just, well... it kinda sucked.
so if you are making it more like the creepy way it began, that's certainly playing to the strengths of the idea and its execution.
now I did also like the dying butterflies and whatnot with the skulls and crows circling. please don't lose that. that effect was sorta lost in the crow attack browser spasms, but it was sorta neat and I hope it stays.
I think the hugging/reviving mechanic worked, but it could've been more clear that hugging people does nothing. -
thinking about this a bit more. the rook is more like a pestilence, a disease. creepy/scary in its own way, but not a shocking "attack". more insidious and frightening.
currently it kind of feels like combat, but i'm not sure it should. i'm not sure that the feeling of combat is necessary for the rook.
the idea of a more shocking confrontation is a good one those .. i'm just not sure it fits the rook.
a while back i suggested having fires that players could band together to put out, which is similar to the "rook battle" in concept.
i think fires might be a good addition to the rook concept, or as an entirely separate challenge.
good things about fires:
1] it puts houses at risk, which could up the ante.
2] allows for big, action packed special effects, in a less openly combative way than a crow pecking your face off.
3] bucket brigades could offer an additional level of collaboration over the hug and kiss fest - which is multiplayer but everyone is sort of doing the same thing in parallel. fires could have one person operating a pump, another one transferring buckets and another targeting and dousing the flames. someone could do that all themselves but not nearly as efficiently as in a team.
okay maybe i'm a little obsessed with this fire stuff. -
i really liked the claw marks effect. that was creepy and awesome. i was using firefox on a mac and my browser crashed.
my other thought was that because so many of us were there all crowded together, it was difficult to understand what we had to do and then once you explained it, it was hard to click the right things. i kept getting the dialogue for other players rather than helping the butterflies and trees. -
Holy crap, that is completely terrifying.
From watching the video, I don't know if fundamental changes are in order; it just sounds like the difficulty of the challenge was more than the assembled alpha crowd could deal with. In a fully populated player base, with maybe things dialed down a little, I bet it would be fine. -
"From watching the video, I don't know if fundamental changes are in order; it just sounds like the difficulty of the challenge was more than the assembled alpha crowd could deal with."
that wasn't the case, although a couple of players did die during the attack.
the issue was that it was confusing and more than a couple people who were actually there have said as much. -
I wasn't there and don't quite get the experience yet, but I'll suggest that the world go a bit dark when the attack happens.
Maybe darkening happens beforehand, as a warning to players that a Rook attack at that location is imminent. - I keep seeing "The Rock." Like, the little guy who learns skills for me xD
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the warning to the players that the attack was imminent was the circling crows in the distance, and i think there was a warning message that appeared on screen too.
as for darkening, it is a good idea. i know that there are some cave streets where the devs appear to be experimenting with a "darkening" filter. not sure how well it'd work on a blue sky street tho. - That looked neat and I like how they went off the main screen and were flyng around the monitor. Darkening sounds awesome.