Monday 13 October 2008

Learning is fun!

So I guess I'll just continue using this blog as normal until somebody comes and unlocks it...

I finally played 'Portal', which is quite possibly the best designed game I've ever played. The commentaries on it are fascinating. So much thought went into the game's creation.
Firstly the art and look of the game, which uses clear visual cues, ie. square objects are scenery, round objects are objectives, and colour, white is the contained 'test' area, red is the inner workings of the building etc. Oh, and the little warning logos that come up on the signs at the start of each level are great too, and the graffiti left in the off-limits areas by the 'rat man'. The design is so beautifully restrained. It made me realise that sometimes I overcomplicate things.
The level design is also very well done, so that even though you have relatively limited abilities, you get to use them in many ingenious ways.
The game makes a virtue of being a simple concept perfectly excecuted.

1 comment:

Jim said...

Ah ha! Hopefully you get the idea here. How a simple set of mechanics, yields and intriguing game. Put yourself in the designers mind, once they had these ideas for the mechanics, how could they use them as a ‘tool kit’ to build an interesting and compelling game. In my mind you could argue two ways about the story, did it come before the mechanics? Or did it come afterwards? There is no doubt that the story adds greatly to the game, but you could see how this puzzle game might exist without a story.