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Originally posted by Gluk Schmuck:
"Uuurg, this place stinks of [insert name of creature here] [insert name of waste here]"
Or, "Wow, these trees are beautiful."
I like the idea of shivering a lot, but I can't think of anything for them to do in my situations...dialog boxes, but that just wouldn't work in Oddworld.
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That’s great. They could hold their noses (if they have noses?) and they could look and move their heads around in “awe” of beautiful scenery.
And no definitely no dialogue boxes in Oddworld, for we’re trying to move away from making it “look” like a video game (which seems to be the major complaint of MO). Yes I like the idea of having “Simple Button, Complex Conversations” but so far I don’t like any of the button layouts I’ve come up with.
Also I’ve been thinking about possible criticism for one-hit kills (getting shot, blowing up, falling from high places). People might think that would make the game too hard but with programming “invisible” continue points in good places, fast-loading (which is a promise of the next game) and ample reminders of Quick-saving I don’t think it would be bad. This is also moving away from “average platformer” syndrome. Lanning-san has said in presentations that he wanted lots of speed. Well the formula in the past games has been platform hopping/solving puzzles/at your pace with inserts of high-adrenaline/quick-thinking/high-action moments.
My idea is just like this. There are a lot of times where you can walk around and find the right lever to pull, figure out how to take out that Slig, and so forth and then once you figure it out go for it. In Munch it seems like there is a ton of “Go-Go-Go-Go” moments where you just build up your army and hope they destroy and survive while you keep recharging on Expresso and run madly through the danger. But this could also be apart of “Launch syndrome” so blah…You should be running, a lot! But not just madly, there should be places where you must leap over a pit, or mine and times when you have to roll underneath something. Maybe I’m getting carried away with this and since I haven’t played Munch so I’m probably way off.
This brings me to what I think power-ups could be like. In Munch you receive a power up and you bubble and go. In the next game more detail can be spent into the way these things look. Like when you chug some Expresso and run maybe the characters can have some added blurring effects to emphasize the speed. Before when I said Abe jumps “old skool” style with his arms extended, when he drinks Bounce
NOW he can do ninja fips high into the air. I haven’t seen Invisible for myself yet but I can imagine it looking like the predator invisibility effect. Maybe if they decided to put Klimb back in instead of just walking sideways they can have Abe climb like the Mudokons did in the opening FMV’s of Exoddus, wall-crawling spidey style! Munch’s Zap looks fine to me. Since I want one-hit kills maybe B-Betterz can give Abe his Healing powers instead of healing himself?
Speaking of all this one of my favorite little aspects of Exoddus were the Sligs in need of pants. PANTS VENDOS for crawling Sligs!! Maybe they could put in the “useless” Vendos for the many consumer products released from Munch and give them humorous scenes. Like there could be a Butt-Flo vendo right next to a bathroom (with a picture of a Mud on the door) and when Abe uses the Vendo he runs straight into the bathroom. Or maybe have a LungBuster Vendo and when either character uses it they keel over. Funny and Educational! (don’t smoke kids, it kills, that should earn some parental support!) Have a Chill Pill Vendo and the user mellows out for a few moments.