Dark Cloud
So I read about the evolution of design for Doom and the noise generation of minecraft/No Man’s Sky, however I still like the placement of digital assets for the player to affect story and gameplay in Dark Cloud. Dark Cloud was one of the first games to really implement this kind of gameplay and they did it very well. Putting the puzzle of loose constraints on solving puzzles, like this digital asset gives you more if placed next to another or kept far apart from another, allowed the player to feel like they could make things their own, while also giving those digital assets rule based story. Like why doesn’t the item shop want to be placed next to the mayor, what’s going on there? This sort of concept of using the basis of tools to then tell a story without dialogue inspired me. I used this same concept and did the same sort of idea of using rules to tell a story with some roleplay games that I helped create. It blew a lot of players away with how much the game felt connected, but also made them think. I had a player tell me thank you for helping them learn to think critically about things. This premise of a unique game mechanic and turning it into a story reason why it is there is very powerful.
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Dark Cloud also had procedurally generated dungeons just like No Man’s Sky’s worlds are all procedurally generated. It gave the game challenge since the game was combat focused in the dungeons. Working to make procedurally generated dungeons is something that takes quite a bit of work and I have not even attempted it yet as part of my learning experience as a Game Designer. However procedurally generated dungeons, with a calm level on the outside has always been a strong favorite of mine for gaming. So I just might pursue creating a game like it in my game design career. Also knowing that that formula works is a good thing to fall back on when worrying about the things that could make the game not succeed. Also one day I want to make a game sort of like No Man’s Sky but I would have to contact many channels to make it work.
