More reading (Destiny)

by electricpirate , Wednesday, June 18, 2014, 18:43 (3608 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by electricpirate, Wednesday, June 18, 2014, 19:13

Your post reminds me of Matt LeBlanc's excellent essay on the Tools to Create Dramatic game Dynamics.

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/_media/courses/cs389-201303/leblanc-drama-tools.pdf?id=courses%3Acs389-201303%3Aschedule&...

It's more about multiplayer games (both digital and non), but if you treat a boss battle as an asymmetric contest between the player and the AI I think it makes sense.

He has two kind of key points, one is the same as you hit on, that you want the excitement and challenge to build and crescendo right at the end of the fight.

More importantly, he talks about Uncertainty, which is something that sepiks prime and the devil walker seem to lack. Once a player learns the patterns, the fights aren't uncertain anymore. The contest is never close because the player always knows what's next and how to expect it.

New phases creates uncertainty, but I get the impression that raids are designed for multiple play throughs (Public events too, especially since PE's have medal rankings). Instead I'd like to see some significant randomization, or procedurality to the bosses behavior. Or alternatively, more complicated systems that gird what they do and when they do it. That's what I'd prefer over static stages, as those are the kinds of games I like to make.