From: jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Maelstrom Correction (was: maelstrom sux)
Date: 18 Dec 92 19:42:50 GMT
	<13324.2b2efdc3@cpva.saic.com> <1godraINNjqf@skeena.ucs.ubc.ca>
	<1992Dec17.164306.21327@samba.oit.unc.edu> <23080@venera.isi.edu>
	<92353.001900MJR145@psuvm.psu.edu>
Organization: USC-ISI
In-reply-to: MJR145@psuvm.psu.edu's message of 18 Dec 92 05:19:00 GMT

In article <92353.001900MJR145@psuvm.psu.edu> MJR145@psuvm.psu.edu (Michael Jose Raneri) writes:

>>Come on, Andrew, you cribbed some stuff.  Don't be a petulant child
>>about it, shouting "BULLSHIT!" when someone calls you on it.  Just go
>>on writing very good games.  (And please, think about designing an
>>original game -- you've clearly got the programming skill -- let's
>>get something more than an upgrade of a classic.)
>>
>Hey!  No one is forcing you to play the game!!  If you want to see something
>original - why don't you suggest something rather than just complain about
>the lack of originality.  Have you thought about how difficult it is to think
>of a good concept for a game that you would actually be able to program??  It's
>not easy.  I don't know how creative you are, but if you have any good ideas
>other than the fact that all ideas already out there suck, we'd all like to
>hear them.  And what's wrong with an upgrade of a classic.  It's a classic,
>and until now I haven't seen ANY type of Asteroids game that even comes close
>to this one!
>
>Keep up the good work, Andrew.

Yes, I know how hard it is to create new games.  Having designed two
(non-video) games myself -- a space wargame and a boardgame -- I am
fully aware of all the work that goes into good design.

You should also be awre that it takes very little work to take a bunch
of ideas that are already out there and apply them to an existing and
popular game.

There is nothing that I've seen in Maelstrom that hasn't been out
there already.  Nothing.  The basic game design, the bonuses, the
power-ups, the sounds -- it's all been done before.

Now, that doesn't mean it's lousy -- I happen to think it's the best
implementation of Asteroids I currently know of.  But, bottom line,
it's just that.

I do not doubt Andew's programming ability at all.  I'd just like to
see that obvious skill and attention to detail put into a new and
original game.

If you play video games much at all, you'll see that flashy graphics
and whizzo sparkles are what passes for innovation these days, not
unique new game designs.  More and more, players are realizing that
better/faster/more colorful graphics does not necessarily a fun new
game make.

Now, I'm certainly not going to put any of my game ideas into the
public domain, because I'd lose control of them.  Nor do I know any
programmers with enough skill to implement them.  I myself do not have
the time or temperment to do assembler programming on the Mac.  So my
game ideas will languish.

In the meantime, I'm writing screenplays. ;-)

jas

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey A. Sullivan             | Research Scientist et al.
jas@isi.edu (Internet)          | Information Sciences Institute
72511,402    (Compuserve)       | University of Southern California