Index |  Articles |  Links

By Mark Damon Hughes <kamikaze@kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu>

   I can't stand "one-use" engines - games that can only play one scenario, and you can't make your own scenarios for it. I can play these once, maybe even enjoy that one scenario, but then I'm left wanting to fiddle with things. I'm sure that's not so for everyone, but that's my bias - I just don't understand the part of humanity that doesn't like to build.

   Any MUD with online creation fits my requirement. ddt's Abuse is another in the same vein. I don't much like side-scrollers (last ones I liked were Bad Dudes ("Got it!") and Karateka), but it's exactly the right idea. Ultima is the best example of a game that irritated me even though I liked the scenario - I wanted to do new things with the engine, and there was no editor.

   When I was much younger, me and my friends spent most of a summer playing Lode Runner. Not because it's a brilliant game (though it is fun), but because we were designing levels for each other to play. After exhausting the standard levels, we had FAR more fun with the level editor. That was a major formative influence on my game designing - see my Hephaestus game for that in practice.