The FAQ should be divided into several sections (e.g. technical, geography,
atmosphere, etc.). I suggest having a combined MM/JSW FAQ, since much of the
advice will apply to both, although it will have to point out which bits are
specific to one or the other!
The following questions spring to mind:
* Basic questions:
- How do I play MM/JSW on my PC?
- How do I unzip the .zip files, use the .TAP files etc.?
I'm always getting asked those sorts of questions.
- What versions of MM/JSW exist, and where do I find them?
- Which editors to use, where to get them, and their relative advantages and
disadvantages.
In fact, the FAQ should contain all sort of MM/JSW links.
* Design advice section:
- Advice on geography: finding the happy medium between tediously linear and
frustratingly spreading. Bad geographical patterns (e.g. one-way exits) and
good ones (e.g. Promised Land effects, Forbidden Holy Ground). Clusters of
rooms with a central teleport room.
- Avoiding `kamikaze' rooms where you can collect an item and it's easier to
commit suicide than to get back - could make the player have to go through
an exit and back.
- Advice on size for JSW 128: 256 rooms is too much IMO, when you have to
play it in one sitting with no save facility.
- Variety is important: a range of different challenges. Combinations of
features (guardians, conveyors, etc.) It's good to play through old MM/JSW
games and keep a catalogue.
- Quirky features
{[
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/] broken link}.
Deliberately exploiting them, and having a trained eye to spot unintentional
ones.
- Advice on difficulty: a 'nice' MM game should have a good difficulty
gradient; a 'nice' JSW game should be 90% easy to explore but have a few
difficult-to-get-to rooms (e.g. "Under The Drive"/"Tree
Root" in the original JSW).
- Avoid unfairness, e.g. multiple-death scenarios, provide means of suicide
if the player can get trapped, don't overdo invisibility.
- Advice on graphics: how far is it acceptable to reuse old graphics from
old games instead of using new ones? Old graphics with modifications can be
interesting (see JSW Ivy).
- Drawing horizontal guardians properly: they move two pixels at a time.
- Making rooms visually attractive: colour schemes, attractive screen
layouts, symmetry etc.
- The importance of atmosphere. Concept games tend to be much more
atmospheric than games which start without a concept and are just a
collection of rooms, with maybe a plot just bolted on at the end.
(Part 1 of 2)
--Andrew Broad
{http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/ broken link}
{http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/ broken link}
{http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/ broken link}