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#164

Simbiat
Simbiat

I've just finished "Production module" of XAMK's Introduction to Video Games Creation.

I do not have much to say about the actual "Production" portion of the training videos, since from perspective of my limited project management knowledge (that I acquired as part of application management in Steam's early access) - I would consider some other term for this, maybe a more abstract "high quality" or at least "near-release quality", to specifically minimize the desire to release a game at this stage (unless early access is part of the strategy).

I do have to say something about the game concept presented in the video. While I am certainly not a game designer or producer or whatever, I am an analyst wanting to become a narrative designer, if possible and I see 2 significant flaws in the high concept of the game, that may potentially ruin it, if kept as is.

Firstly, vehicular combat. More precisely "seamless" one. In an espionage game. One would imagine something from Bond movies here, like a chase scene. And that one could be great, it can spice things up for certain. But that is not "seamless". It's episodic. "Seamless" implies freedom to initiate it at any point in time, which is kind of confirmed in the video, too. But spies, by definition, would not get into much vehicular combat, because it's hard to stay hidden that way. Otherwise you get something like Watch Dogs, and those games definitely do not have espionage theme as their forte. If you try to implement "seamless" vehicular combat, you *will* ruin the narrative design. So you should either stick to episodic vehicular combat, when it makes sense from story perspective or it should not be about spies at all.

Secondly, online gaming. Which kind of contradicts that the main character is female, that is singular. Yes, Hitman 2 had some online modes, but they were very niche and they definitely did not involve constant online as the video implies. Because it would not make sense for a spy (or a hitman) to go on a mission with dozens of people. So, if implemented, it would ruin narrative again. A co-op mode, could work, because you could design missions, where there are 2 (maybe up to 4) people infiltrating the same area with different tasks. If you play alone, they are replaced with AIs.

So, if I was a designer in the team making this game, I would warn about these flaws right away, because otherwise you can lose lots of time (and effort) on implementing complex mechanics, that simply do not really fit the original criteria, as provided from the publisher.