Random Ideas

• The Sims 3 has stability issues on my computer. I wonder why. #
• Dinner time! #
• Got a random phone call from a guy who doesn't know me – one of the perils of recycled phone numbers. #
• Somehow, I think there's been a general improvement in streamyx – probably thanks to whatever upgrades they've been doing. #
• Thinking about game mechanics – and trying to keep them simple. #
• Finding new inspiration for mechanics. #
• @genesisculture splintered core, hecatomb, and two other games I've been thinking of making #
• After developing a few apps for myself for Palm and Windows Mobile, I thought I should try the iPhone SDK – even if I don't have an iPhone. #
• Apparently Apple made the iPhone SDK not install properly on PowerPC Macs. Why does Apple make some things hard for old faithful customers? #
• Aha. I've gotten it to work. Apparently the IPhone simulator does indeed work. I sense a little dirty trickery. #
• @genesisculture We Malaysians love our food. Or at least we'd like to think so. in reply to genesisculture #
• Actuarial exam results out today. I wonder how I did. #
• And I passed both of them! Time to celebrate! By studying for even more papers… -__- #
• Back to learning more XNA stuff. Which I'm sure will be outdated by next year. #
• Taking a break. My brain is mixing up VB, C# and R code again. #
• Hm. Suddenly, nobody is online in my messenger list. Well, for about 3 minutes. #
• Wondering how much time will be between now and me getting a job. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

I've been thinking about game mechanics recently – be it for the card game variety or of the strategy game variety. (And well, of the Swords and Sticks variety – believe it or not, the original Sword Fantasy RPG battle system mechanic might actually be present.)

Every time you think about the game – there are times you run into problem with a particular mechanic or method. The problem is usually choosing between simple and complex. Taking the simple route out – sometimes makes things too simple. There is a lot of difficulty with trying make simple mechanics – without sacrificing the depth of a mechanic.

Simple things like adding elements into the game can make the game difficult to play – because there's always the overhanging need to memorise long lists of what's weak to what, and what's effective against what – however, if that list is short enough, like 3 elements – that can simplify things considerably – but the easiest way is really not to fix the mechanic – but to fix the display and implementation of the mechanic.

Elements are fun – but they're something that should be explained outright on the unit or card. Telling the player what element damage it is dealing, what element it is weak against – keeps things simple – without losing depth. It's not really important that the mechanics themselves are simple – but that the players don't have to keep looking back to the manual, rules or whatever it is that will be hell to read through to understand.

It's really keeping things easy for the player. If you had complex rules for the game – especially an online one – make sure there's an easy way to refer to them. Have complex rules for calculating damage? Make sure the player knows how much damage they can deal way before they even order the attack.

I'm hardly the world's fastest adopter of new websites. Video game technology, maybe, but certainly not new websites.

Despite that, I'm probably aware of their existence significantly before most people are – just that I refuse to join in until much later, usually after their worth has been proven. Most things I do usually have roughly a delay of a year – I refused joining most friend networking sites (yes, even friendster and facebook) for quite a while after I got the first e-mail asking me to join. The dangerous things my friends do, giving out e-mails and passwords simply because someone asked for it.

The latest bandwagon I've jumped on is Twitter, and tweeting. Not to say I'm not familiar with the idea – but I wanted to wait a while. My blog did have a short rants section for a while,  a change that dates back to more than a year ago.

I haven't quite decided how much tweeting I'm going to do, but the content of my tweets are certainly not the same as things that go into short rants – but I recognise that there is an overlap – and there is a good chance that it'll replace my short rants somewhat. I've also become particularly cautious, making sure that there is a backup of my tweets on the blog server too – as well as a weekly digest of my tweets – so that in case twitter goes down for whatever reason, I don't lose those precious amounts of ramblings and rantings.

I'm going to try and do it right and try to tweet at least once every 24 hours – but we all know how well I do with schedules and routines that aren't study or work. We'll see how long it lasts.