I am a huge fan of the game Ico. A wonderful achievement and proof that individual vision can still be very strong and commercially accessible.
I wonder if Ico is classed as commercially successful, though ?

Good article and food for some serious thought.
Thanks for posting.

http://www.sirlin.net/articles/subtractive-design.html

…and I think that it’s the perfect argument against long feature lists in games. I recently worked on a website and to be completely honest, most of my planning time was spent amalgamating and cutting out features to have the most concise and effective options available. Figuring out a list of what a game or website should do is the easy part. Editing the plan is the hardest.

Either way, it’s a great read. ;-)

Can’t wait to see your artwork as well.

I completely agree.
Adventure games for those who want to indulge in hours on end at the computer are out there and doing very well I’m sure.
I’m particularly interested in being able to play an adventure game “super casual”. That is, on the move via an HTML, CSS and JavaScript enabled phone.

I’m currently looking at 2 types.
The first is a Fighting Fantasy style where your game ends in a single sitting.
The second is a more persistent game where you sign in, check your situation, act accordingly and then dip out again until next time safe in the knowledge that the game engine will tick along in your absence updating relevant stats.

It’s extremely tempting to spend hours indulging in theory on this sort of thing but I’m keen to keep coding.

Look forward to seeing your stuff soon, hopefully !

Also, I think one of the hardest things about designing an adventure game is keeping the scope of the project manageable. It’s surprisingly difficult to decide what stays and what goes without sacrificing the enjoyment the game will potentially offer. How can I do the most with the least amount of features?

Good luck, man. Adventure games sound ambitious, to say the least.

I know what you mean being caught up by the ideas themselves, let alone the development of them. I’m the same way. In fact, it’s extremely hard for me to stay focused once I get beyond a few graphics because my mind is always going on new ideas.

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you are aware of a couple of sites. Brass Lantern is a great community with many interesting articles for both playing and creating interactive fiction…

http://brasslantern.org/

Secondly, there is a fantastic tool that’s made for IF development, Inform 7…

http://inform-fiction.org/I7/Welcome.html

I realize that you want to build it in JavaScript, but the pages that describe how Inform 7 works may give you a better idea of how to create your own engine… or it may not. ;-)

I look forward to seeing your next creation.

p.s. you can hit SPACE to halt the action and take a screen grab.

Also, I would suggest adding more rebels. The four rebels are gone after the first 15 or so seconds of each wave so it still feels like most of the game is still flying and shooting. Since additional droids appear throughout the wave I think additional rebels should too.

Other than that I can’t get enough of this game. I like how the ship swings back and forth, and I like how dangerous the probe droids are. Great game!