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ijffdresomethings: Sequels and expansions.

Discussion in 'Gamer Chat' started by ijffdrie, Nov 23, 2011.

ijffdresomethings: Sequels and expansions.

Discussion in 'Gamer Chat' started by ijffdrie, Nov 23, 2011.

  1. ijffdrie

    ijffdrie Lord of Spam

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    We've talked A LOT about sequels and expansions in my reviews. We've looked at portal 2, half-life 2, elder scrolls III, elder scrolls IV, opposing force, blue shift, decay, episode one, episode two, tribunal, bloodmoon and shivering isles. Some of these I deemed decent expansions/sequels, while others were sub-par. But what makes some of these better than others?

    To look at this, we're gonna divide the games into three parts, and how they apply to the making of sequels
    1) The shell
    2) The feel
    3) The core

    The shell is what you get when you take a short look at a game. It is formed from the general look of the characters, the look of the world, the music and the sound effects. For expansions, these things will generally be the same, so no worries about that. If you are gonna make a sequel, you're gonna want to recreate some of these. Make upgraded models for the classic heroes and villains. Recreate the more common buildings or sets. Re-record the general sound effects and the most iconic music. What you now have is an upgraded shell of the old game. Anyone who would take a look at the old game and a look at the new game would instantly see they are related. The best example of a shell upgrade would be Jazz Jackrabbit 1 and 2, which share the grooviest soundtrack ever seen in a game. But even if the game is not of the same genre, a good shell upgrade is possible. Take a look at warcraft III and vanilla World of Warcraft. The guard design is all based around old troops, many sound effects are shared by the games and even much of the architecture is simply upgraded from the old warcraft III models.

    Now let's take a look at the feel. What the shell is for onlookers, the feel is for players. The feel is fairly broad and hard to define. For rts's it can be stuff like similar build orders or resources present at the start of a game, while for RPG's it can be which stat determines melee damage, the way reputation works or the way which mana and health regenerate. When making a sequel, make a list of as many minor elements as you can find. For each and every one, check if you can improve the element, or whether the current state is already good. Only if neither are true should you replace it with a different system. The best example of a feel upgrade is between starcraft 1 and starcraft 2, which I am fairly sure all of you know.

    Now comes the core, which is the hardest to both define and upgrade. While both shell and feel can be seen fairly swiftly, the core can take hours upon hours of gameplay to really understand. Usually, it can be defined around very broad concepts, like combat, exploration, resource gathering, intrigue and other such stuff. But it's more complicated than that. How do you perform combat? Do you charge in and shoot, or do you circle the encampment, carefully and silently taking out every guard? Do you have to carefully watch your ammunition supplies, or can fire several thousand bullets into every enemy? Are grenades there for special purposes or as a normal weapon? Is the combat aimed at tactics, or is the combat aimed at action? List as many concepts as you can find in the core of your game, and then just starting asking questions about them. If you do it right, the fans will love you for it.