Comments on: Re-re-re-designing a Mission, Part 1

By: checker

checker — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 09:58:32 +0000

In the old mission described here, you only had to switch a book from one shelf to the other, it didn’t matter which direction you went. There was really no “special book”, just the book that the Spy used. Fictionally, the Spy knows which book needs to be transfered, so of course that’s the one he or she transfers. :)

I’m writing up the new mission and the first playtest of it, should post tomorrow.

By: alfie275

alfie275 — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:55:47 +0000

If the spy chooses to start at blue, can he goto green, pocket a book, goto blue, take the microfiche book, switch them, put normal book back, then put microfiche at green?

By: Xeon06

Xeon06 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:05:48 +0000

I love those little technical blog posts, and am deeply looking forward to this game. Keep it up!

By: checker

checker — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:42:08 +0000

I think there’s a subtle distinction between “verbs” and “affordances”, but yeah, they’re closely related. I think of verbs as actual actions, while affordances are knobs someone can interact with. A gun on the floor isn’t really a verb, but it is an affordance. You can always tell the affordances in an old Scooby Doo cartoon because they’re draw on the cell instead of into the background painting. :)

By: checker

checker — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:38:03 +0000

Yeah, currently each level specifies how many people are there. I use that for testing difficulty, like “12 people with 3 out of 4 missions” is about the same difficulty as “16 people with 4 out of 4″, but they feel different to play (if the Sniper knows all the missions have to be accomplished, then he or she can camp one of them, so more people makes it easier to be obscured by somebody). I’m eventually going to have people enter and leave the party, too.

By: Ron

Ron — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:28:41 +0000

That’s actually a really cool idea.

By: Christiaan Moleman

Christiaan Moleman — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:06:55 +0000

1) 26 and yes, but only because my parents are into family research… never heard of it in the context of spy-fiction. I would go with microfilm. More iconic.

2) I’ve mostly heard this term only from Looking Glass alumni… \verbs\ seems more common.

By: Gavin Clifton

Gavin Clifton — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:32:31 +0000

I was just thinking, is the amount of people in the room always constant? Could be a good difficulty modifier; less people in the room makes it more difficult to remain undetected.

By: checker

checker — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:29:09 +0000

Hmm, I was having second thoughts about using the term “microfiche” instead of “microfilm”, but now maybe I should stick to my retro guns…

By: Lathbury

Lathbury — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:22:50 +0000

I’m 21 and I quoted a microfiche in one of my Masters essays. I can’t be sure, but I’m fairly confident that’s what got me an A!