2011-01-11, 05:18 AM
Pause is actually a huge feature 
Auto pausing is especially important. Anything like that adds way more than a piece of furniture, but that's beside the point. It's great if you can afford to do all of that (for the umpteenth time) but it makes me nervous for that to become the norm, because it gives the impression you need to make such an investment in order to make a game, and you just shouldn't have to. I'm slightly more impressed when people creatively use the toys they have if/whenever possible versus going out and making their own. It's just more economical.
Someone can also make a scifi game with Som but like, it's probably smarter to gradually move in that direction by integrating fantasy scifi elements like say FF4 then moving onto medieval scifi universes like say Phantasy Star, before finally doing something fullblown scifi like say System Shock.
The higher you set your sights, the more likely you are to give up / abandon your project. It's just human nature. I see all kinds of creative things Tom did with Trismegistus for example... the game probably would've been very different if he had an artist to do everything he imagined. Really great works of art tend to come out of artists working within tight constraints. If you take away all constraint you end up with garbage like 99 out of 100 industrial games/movies/you name it that come down the pike. And you just invest a lot when you go that route. The more you invest, the harder you fall, and are less likely to do another game either sooner than you would've otherwise or at all.\
PS: I was asked if I've done anything artwise with Som, and as usual you try to get me into a defensive position. That's not cool.
Auto pausing is especially important. Anything like that adds way more than a piece of furniture, but that's beside the point. It's great if you can afford to do all of that (for the umpteenth time) but it makes me nervous for that to become the norm, because it gives the impression you need to make such an investment in order to make a game, and you just shouldn't have to. I'm slightly more impressed when people creatively use the toys they have if/whenever possible versus going out and making their own. It's just more economical.
Someone can also make a scifi game with Som but like, it's probably smarter to gradually move in that direction by integrating fantasy scifi elements like say FF4 then moving onto medieval scifi universes like say Phantasy Star, before finally doing something fullblown scifi like say System Shock.
The higher you set your sights, the more likely you are to give up / abandon your project. It's just human nature. I see all kinds of creative things Tom did with Trismegistus for example... the game probably would've been very different if he had an artist to do everything he imagined. Really great works of art tend to come out of artists working within tight constraints. If you take away all constraint you end up with garbage like 99 out of 100 industrial games/movies/you name it that come down the pike. And you just invest a lot when you go that route. The more you invest, the harder you fall, and are less likely to do another game either sooner than you would've otherwise or at all.\
PS: I was asked if I've done anything artwise with Som, and as usual you try to get me into a defensive position. That's not cool.