"Whatever you are, be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln
Age 43, Male
Penn State University
Palm Desert, Ca
Joined on 4/1/03
The problem with this is that game design has nothing to do with story. Games often have stories, but the story always has the same main function in a game: to acknowledge progression.
Designing good game mechanics is the difficult part, and I've yet to find any aids or shortcuts in that department... :(
I agree 100%, game design has nothing to do with story. The same mechanics for this game could be applied to a game set in egypt or one starring a paper doll running around on a person's desk.
The point of the article was that if you've got a blank page, this is one way to get the juices flowing. This is just a seeding technique. Certainly it's still up to you to refine once you end up with a concept you like and want to run with.
Perhaps I wan't clear enough about what this technique is designed to do.
Regularjoe
The Stephen King seed paragraph is pretty cool, but the post apocalyptic world part is pretty cliche.
All the questions you come up with are like: how can I crib off more popular games?
seanjames
I made up that Stephen King seed paragraph :)
You make a good point. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the post apocalyptic setting as my sample, because there's a LOT of that going around. If I had used something more generic and less in the lime light, this might have been more helpful. I appreciate the feedback.