Abe HD Ideas

[Nepsotic]

Its just, the LED screens don't make much sense, except for gameplay.

[Hazz-JB]

I liked how the game only gave you tutorials on a need to know basis, a lot of the early puzzles were based around limited knowledge of the game, like not knowing how to possess etc. It also tied in with trying to save mudokons on a second playthrough.

I would say keep the LED tutorials but make them a bit more vague. So instead of saying press "button" to make Abe jump, just say press "button" to jump. Just remove Abe's name and anything that looks like it's talking to Abe or trying to help him specifically. I thought the LED tutorials didn't break the 4th wall as much as physical signs did, although I liked some of those as well.

[MeechCrunchies]

I believe there should be an option to remove tutorial text from the game, or keep it in. If it is removed, have ads where the original "Press Triangle to make Abe jump" etc. LED signs were.

[Sekto Springs]

I think that's reasonable.

[Nepsotic]

But if they don't know how to jump, they shouls just look at the controls on the pause menu. To be honest I don't think the tutorials are that important. Let them experiment.

[Never Sleeper]

Its just, the LED screens don't make much sense, except for gameplay.

Well nearly every plattformer I know tells you in different ways how you have to controll your character. Don't forget gaming is mostly a "first" experience, if you really like to play the game again those led screens wouldnt bother you.

To the customination I have to say, it's a plattformer and not a strategie game where you have to click and enable every little game snippet. If those custom points are too much it will be a pain for the programmer. :/

[MeechCrunchies]

Well it would be tucked away in the options screen so it wouldn't intrude in the game, and only those experienced players would use it and know how to turn it on and off, so if you were new and didn't know how to turn it off, then there ya go, no problems introducing controls to the newbies :P

[Nepsotic]

I don't think new players would struggle to find menu screens, unless they're new to gaming itself.

[SpAM_CAN]

Its just, the LED screens don't make much sense, except for gameplay.

The little icon saying "E - Pick Up" in Half-Life 2 didn't make in-universe sense either, but I didn't see anyone question that sort of thing. Also, how come Abe has such a limited range of vocabulary in-game, but in the FMVs he is all talkative?

Its a game, not everything needs to be explained. You kinda get to the point where it starts to get silly eventually.

[Strike Witch]

Maybe your first playthrough has the LEDs show up as normal tutorial stuff, then the second time you play the game after completing it, they just insult you and so forth.

[Manco]

Easy difficulty has tutorial LEDs. Normal has regular LEDs, and Hard has instakilling laser-firing LEDs.

[MeechMunchie]

Hard LED screens give you bad advice. "Hold grenades longer to charge them!!"

[Nepsotic]

The little icon saying "E - Pick Up" in Half-Life 2 didn't make in-universe sense either, but I didn't see anyone question that sort of thing. Also, how come Abe has such a limited range of vocabulary in-game, but in the FMVs he is all talkative?

Its a game, not everything needs to be explained. You kinda get to the point where it starts to get silly eventually.

Why are all the mudokons the same size?

[Scrabaniac]

Because they are drones maybe? Ther are all hatched from eggs as 'males' or 'drones' or whatever, think of it like bees, they are drones apart from the queen so they are all the same/very similar size

[Bullet Magnet]

Technically drones are the fertile males.

In bees they lack a sting because the sting is a modifying ovipositor which males lack by definition, but they still participate in colony defense by flying around pretending to try to sting you. Irrelevant but interesting.

[Sekto Springs]

Yeah, mudokons are the sexless workers. I guess that's a good enough in-universe reason for their identical size and palor. Of course, we all know the real reason is because it's much easier and cheaper to copy/paste one mudokon a hundred times than to make a hundred unique mudokons.

All the same, I think we discussed wanting to see slight variation in character size and color (for both sligs and mudokons). Their voices are already varied to some degree, so greater distinction was intended, just not within the budget.

[Nepsotic]

Yes, in-univerese, their voices and personalities are different, therefore they are all different (can I say) people. They are all unique, so their sizes should be different too.

And if I'm honest, I didn't want to get into this. I really did not. I just wanted to piss off SpAM_CAN. But then scrabaniac went and got all serious.

[SpAM_CAN]

Yes, in-univerese, their voices and personalities are different, therefore they are all different (can I say) people. They are all unique, so their sizes should be different too.

And if I'm honest, I didn't want to get into this. I really did not. I just wanted to piss off SpAM_CAN. But then scrabaniac went and got all serious.

Naah, I'm quite hard to piss off :P

But honestly, I'd like to try to justify everything in-universe too, but then we'd have to come up with reasons as to why RuptureFarms is made up of tiny narrow walkways and why entering a door can take you miles into the background.

[Nate]

Are you trying to say it doesn't make sense that Rupturefarms has such displays?

Because I personally see purely as a gameplay thing to help new players, I sure have hell wouldn't have gotten anywhere on my first playthrough without the signs.

The one that didn't make sense to me though is the directory on the very first screen after you get back inside Rupturefarms, it seemed really stupid to give players a tutorial on saving mudokons considering thats the halfway point of the game.

Yeah, I get that. I was making the point (possibly not very well) to MeechCrunchies that it comes down to a decision about gameplay vs in-universe explanations. Moving all the tutorials to Rupturefarms makes as much sense as moving them all to the Monsaic Lines.

Whilst I think the LEDs in RuptureFarms are a clear gameplay device, I don't actually think they should be changed.

[Scrabaniac]

How will the directories be used? Because they represented screens as blocks but abe HD will be smooth scrolling, how will it display that?

[MeechCrunchies]

I guess in the same way, since the Directories were basically cut away images and they just sat there statically, so they wouldn't be much of a problem to just have a fade away into a still image.

[Scrabaniac]

Oh right, what about in the temples when it told you the layout of every door? I guess it wouldn't be in blocks but maybe long rectangles to give an idea of the length? It's hard to describe without a drawing

[Strike Witch]

Even if the levels don't segment up directly, the maps would probably still work fine.

[Nepsotic]

Maybe there could be actual level maps, you know, an image of the level. Mind you, that would take somw of the jumpy factors out of it. You wouldn't be surprised if you saw a slig.

[Mudokon_Master]

I think an image of the level without creatures and other entities will work fine.

[Nate]

I think getting rid of the directories entirely will be fine.

JAW shouldn't feel the need to replicate every single element of AO exactly. They should do whatever works to make the game as good as possible today.

[Scrabaniac]

I think removing them completely adds to the excitement of not knowing what's coming, especially for new players

[STM]

Is it really that hard to work out controls for a game any way? If you don't get a tutorial do you honestly sit there and hyperventilate? Or do you actually maybe extend a finger and press a key, see what it does? Jesus.

[Connell]

Jesus christ leave the damn LED boards in. Yeah they don't make sense but at the end of the day it's a game, and if people needed them back then, this generation of brain dead morons is certainly gonna need some guidance. Psch the notion of removing them is fandom to the extreme. They're a normal function in a game, and Oddworld shouldn't be an exception just because it has a great atmosphere, they've never bothered me and they wouldn't if they were in Abe HD.

Also, get rid of the directories, those are guidances i've never once used, even as a new player.

[Scrabaniac]

On a slightly different subject, when you guys mean this remake will have 3D backgrounds, does this mean some in-game features might have this too? For example chant detectors or maybe things like CCTV cameras that turn when you move past them?