A new begining

As most regular readers will realize (yes, both of you) I have been on modding Hiatus for a little while now. Thankfully, with the nights closing in and the recent move finally over with I am starting to get back into the swing of things.

Now, on my break I had a chance to play some top notch games - Bioshock , HL2:Portal among them. This brought me back to what gaming is all about - having fun!

I think being a creator of games it is all too easy to get drawn into long winded pre-game explanations and cut scenes. Of course I think my story rocks, but no matter how good you loose a whole chunk of players if your first area doesn't pack an almighty punch.

Another thing that drove this home was the recent review of 'Cry Wolf' (and other users comments on it). In that module I placed most of the really fun bits in the last area, it was the culmination of the game and I wanted it to have my best stuff. It had my best puzzles, best writing and best jokes. Unfortunately this left the other two areas a bit slim on the variety ground and as a result many players never even reached the final area!

The original plan for PS:Legacy was to have an epic story from childhood to the planes. That has now been retconned in a pulp-fictionesc beginning that starts in the middle to supply the player with a chunk of quality action before the plot proper begins.

More to follow....