Bum Tickley is still going after all this time?
Tim Fuckley?
B^U
not one game at all, it’s pretty much tradition.
Doom 2
Oh crap. I do it too. It’s useful in Rayman Origins and Legends. (Maybe once)
Tons of games did this in the 2d side scrolling period.
James Pond 2 springs to mind.
Didn’t one of the Spring Yard acts in Sonic 1 have a spreedrunner-friendly red spring too?
Old school Armored core gamer here. This is me.
Wasting ammo on random sections of wall, or vents, or shipping crates…
Every single waterfall I find I must check behind it, forever.
I still get irrationally upset when there isn’t. But, if a game gives me a waterfall find (or 2, or 3 like Avowed) it will rocket to the top of my list.
Lived in a place that had a koi pond and waterfall fountain years ago. I placed a small adventurer and treasure chest behind it. Wonder if it’s still there.
I really love that you did that. I hope some kid (or an adult that’s a kid at heart) found it! Imagine how stoked they were!
I hope so too!
Yeah, it’s all about waterfalls. And, I like it because a cave behind a waterfall makes some sense. It would be hard to see, but it’s not a solid barrier.
Go play tunic!
Developer: here’s a fun little thing people will be excited to find!
Player: I will never trust anyone again
I love it, when Devs anticipate that players might break their levels and reward them for it.
E.g. when I played Supraland, I had it happen several times, that I managed to get to places that were obviously not intended to be reachable - you know the drill: Low poly terrain, low res textures, holes in the terrain, invisible walls everywhere,… You keep exploring that wasteland, carefully managing to not fall of, go around a corner and… There’s a chest there waiting for you.
Or some of the coin stacks in Super Mario Odyssey, that you’ll never really see or collect, until you do some crazy trick jumps or so to get on top of $building.
Super Mario Odyssey is such an amazing game. If the sequel is anywhere near as good, I might get a Switch 2 just for that.
IIRC the team behind SMO is the team that made Donkey Kong Bananza. So… Either another team is responsible for a new 3D Mario, or it will take quite a while before we get another 3D Mario. So far, there’s no announcement for a new 3D Mario (yet).
But Donkey Kong Bananza looks dope. Also I like that Ceave Gaming video where he overanalyzes the Donkey Kong trailer and goes over all the bits that have been revealed so far https://youtu.be/xc_YjHqqTm0
This is the exact same instinct that drives us to run away from the obvious path first. “Clearly that’s where the final boss is. Let me just check what’s down this way first…”
“…oh no wait, there’s a point-of-no-return ledge here. Ok, so maybe that other way was actually where the secret was. I’ll go back…”
“…hmm, there’s another ledge on this side too. Let me just put in a save point and…ok, yeah, this one is the final boss. Let me reload and check the other path…”
“…ugh, it restarted me way back here? And respawned all the enemies when I reloaded? That’s frustrating…”
“…THEY BOTH. LED. TO THE SAME. EXACT. PLACE.”
In Breath of the Wild after the tutorial plateau, players are supposed to go between the two big mountains that are easy to see and easy to pass for a beginner. There they find a steed and this weird korok guy.
I on the other hand decided to go the direct route up a steep cliff where two guardians wait to tell you that this is not the way. After I snuck past them, which took me about 2 hours and like 20+ retries, I nearly stopped playing cause “the game was so hard”.
I have a bachelor in have design btw…There’s an old adage that says “doctors make the worst patients.”
I wonder if the same is true for game devs making the worst players.
I have a bachelor in game design btw…
This is why I like saying “average person” when I talk about specific topics.
People who study the art are much more attuned and go out of the ordinary. Like directors when they watch movies.
Yeah… I felt that. Hard. I need to actively tell myself it’s not worth wasting so much time. Other times I just can’t be bothered and I mindlessly waste time checking everything cause it somehow feels like less work.
This is why I have 120 hours in 40 hour games.
this is the first time I realize where that sentence comes from. jumped ship from Facebook so long ago I didn’t even know this was a thing
This, plus looking at a tiny little toe-sized piece of unexplored minimap on the opposite side of the world and thinking, “but what if there’s something important there?!”
This, plus dragging every scrap of loot back to town to sell, no matter how bad the value/weight ratio is.
Oh this one’s not me. For the first hour maybe but I get really picky really fast because it’s more efficient to just find a new place to take the best loot from. Especially in something like Skyrim where the goons just respawn forever.
Borderlands 3 added an “auto-sell loot below [x] rarity” option, and it is amazing.
Only in games that make it clear what you’re supposed to sell. I know games these days usually don’t allow it, but all it takes is selling a necessary item once…
I play games this way too, but I feel like the bigger factor in my playtime way higher than necessary is that I don’t want to miss any dialogue so I talk to every NPC until they repeat themselves. Most of the time that’s the second time you talk to them so I definitely get a lot out of that.
…during the bg3 character creation
Accidentally going the right way is so infuriating.
Especially if you get too far and the game takes control of your character to start a cutscene before you can turn back around.
I still remember being really mad I missed the “added effect” materia in the original FF7. You can never ever go back to that cave, so if you don’t turn around to pick it up you never get it. Pain.
WTF I don’t come here to be attacked like this
It’s ok. We’re all here for each other.
No we’re not. You two are on your own.
Modern games have gotten super “hand-holdy” to the point where it’s fucking annoying… but one QOL improvement that I will take every time is when games prevent you from moving forward in a story because you missed something and moving forward means you’ll miss it forever.
I get it, and when I was younger I was all about that shit… But I’m too old for that shit lol
“But what if the developers don’t think it’s important but I’m going to wish I had it? I’ll go ahead and check anyway.”
Lego Star Wars instilled this as well as leaps of faith
B^U
Ngl, I’m kinda surprised ol’ B^Uckley is still doing comics
What, like he has other useful skills?
I always try to figure out which direction the game wants me to go so I can try going the opposite way first.
I mean, we can’t risk advancing the game and leaving unexplored areas behind
It’s almost frustrating to play something with no intended path because it takes away my option to deliberately take the wrong one.
There usually is an intended path regardless. Signposting is definitely something that’s done even in open world.
New Vegas shining brightly in the distance…
And that’s how I ended up at level 30 before finally taking out Benny… main quest, main… schmuest.
It’s not always explained though. A lot of games use flames/torches/lights though. Vast majority of games follow the same tropes unfortunately.
Donkey Kong Country…
If I recall, DKC also had a secret INSIDE a secret.
I was following a strategy guide to get the last bits of secret and that one was a pain in the buttholes.
How about that roller coaster race level on DKC2? If you don’t go backwards as soon as the race starts, you miss that sweet speed boost.
This is the one.
There is another.
Replayed it the other week, soo many levels start this way
Some of the skips are so fun, I love the cannon canyon level for it.
Note: Your character is highly unlikely to “Whump” into the left side obstacle. They are more likely to do the Michael Jackson standing walking in place motion while you try probing the left side for openings and weaknesses.
And then the movie adaptation of Ready Player One acted like placing something before the starting line is some kind of super-sneaky hiding method.
I look at that less as a plot point and more as a nod to video game design. I really liked that movie.
That movie was a cringe fest start to end.
