One of the things that the Shadow Hearts series executes well is its parallels between the characters, specifically Yuri and Alice. These parallels serve as a staging point for character development. You, as the player, are given this stark contrast between the rough around the edges Yuri and the more prim, proper and innocent Alice. Using characters with fundamentally different personalities allows Shadow Hearts to develop in a more dynamic way and provides a deeper perspective on how each character evolves along with the story.
Alice and Yuri...
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Game Theory: Teaching Players
When designing a game there is a huge degree of freedom when it comes to teaching your players how to play your game. Many games often fall victim to the typical default tutorial menus, a theme so common in mainstream gaming that often refuses a player the right to figure things out for themselves.
That isn't to say all tutorials are evil and should henceforth be banished from the gaming world but they need to be informative, not definitive. When a game explains itself to a player it loses that bit of mystery, and the room for player involvement...
Monday, January 14, 2013
Shadow Hearts Revisited: Overview
In the vast annals of gaming history there have been a few titles that have proven themselves as standouts--prolific titles that define genre standards. Everyone has a different list of games that helped shape their own personal definition of what makes an amazing game. For me, one of those defining games was Shadow Hearts.
This past week I began replaying the series after an extremely long time, it has been a reminder that nostalgia, while...
Update!
Whew! It's been a while since I've posted here...pretty much since before I went on Christmas break and took a breather from a lot of different things. But fear not, things will be revving back up in short order as 2013 kicks off with more guides, goodies and hopefully a complete overhaul of this blog.
I've got several ideas for future content which includes many more guides and goodies for Aion (I may even make a second blog specifically for Aion stuff), and I'd like to begin posting some discussions on game theory related topics, evaluations...
