#video game mechanics

[ailingwriter]

I realized that the Stamina Bar tends to have the widest range of colors in video games so I figured I'd ask what people thought the true Stamina Bar color was. (Please reblog for a bigger sample size!)

#stamina #stamina bar #polls #please reblog for a bigger sample size #video game mechanics #video game hud #silly polls

[existennialmemes]

I'm not just "napping" I'm replenishing my

✨ Health Bar ✨

I can't face the main boss (completing a single task) without restoring my HP

#shitpost #shitposting #napping #video game memes #video game mechanics #in real life

[insane-control-room]

i dont have a pairing prompt but what if you just put some guys in a situation - working for the company? :3

tysm for the prompt <3

Coi_ Factory

Jack's in a bad mood. T'ḥiát takes care of it. May has a not great time.

ft. @greenghostlyjekyll's Jack & @ichaisme's May :3 based on a real conversation lmao

words: 1,250 general fic warnings: light/playful violence; coil-heads

Fic under cut!

Generally, Jack was pretty chill, T'ḥiát would tell you. But really, you should not trust T'ḥiát’s opinion for diddly squat, as they tended to be an idiot. People who had worked with them would tell you that it must be that TZP that they were constantly inhaling like it was oxygen that muddled their brain to hell and back.

Jack was chill, sure, but they also did not mind if you ended up becoming mulch, as long as quota was hit and enough was made to head out to that desolate, far away planet Titan. 

Jack, dissatisfied with the newbies, and finding that they had lost one of them on quota number two, decided that the 120 chip price was more than sufficient to enlist T'ḥiát’s services once again - an idea assisted by the fact that T'ḥiát’s price of a fresh TZP can (instead of the empty canisters that the company begrudgingly gave them as payment) was 70% off in the shop. Well worth it, in Jack’s eyes. 

Especially after they were bunked up with one of the newbies on the next moon, who asked something so stupid, so ridiculous, so uneducated about Jack’s home planet that Jack only looked at them like they were crazy and stormed off, hoping they would get eaten by a spider or something.

Unfortunately for Jack, the “or something” happened, and that something was ‘got back to the ship only minorly injured from a stupid fall’. 

T'ḥiát, darting around the ship in a spazzing manner that defied some law of physics (clearly trying to savor the canister of TZP, only using it on the moons) noticed their bad mood, and zipped over. 

“What’s the matter, Jacks?” they asked, bouncing up and down. They stilled suddenly, head tilting. Someone who did not know T'ḥiát might have been unnerved. “You seem a bit miffed!” 

“Nothing, nothing, it’s fine, just…” Jack gave a quiet growl. “Somethin’ stupid is all.” 

“You can always talk to me,” T'ḥiát shrugged, hopping up on top of the controls console. “Even if you think it’s stupid, if it’s bothering you, it’s bothering me.”

“Someone just asked me, and I quote,” Jack said, raising their fingers to make bunny ear quotations in the air. “‘Does Titan have coil factories’?”

T'ḥiát stared at them - or one could assume so, by the way their blank visor was pointed directly at them without moving. 

“Oh, no.” they remarked, in denial. “No one could know that little about the moons.” 

“Well, they asked!” Jack gestured without any specific motions. Their helmet was off, so they took the advantage of being able to pinch the bridge of their nose. “Like! Buddy! Where do you think all the damn coil heads come from, Experimentation? Yeah, right, the only good that place is for is faulty V-type engines!” 

“Who asked that?” T'ḥiát wondered aloud. Jack pointed at the person ringing the company bell, and growled, “The FNG, who else?” 

“I see!” T'ḥiát replied lightly. “I’ll go give ‘em a talk.”

“You go do that, buddy,” Jack grumbled, though their mood was a little uplifted. “I appreciate it.”

“A lesson they won’t soon forget,” T'ḥiát went on, probably with a smile. Jack blinked, raising an eyebrow. “Bye!”

Jack watched them leave, and put a stick of gum in their mouth contemplatively. 

“Alright. I guess.” 

T'ḥiát came back after a few minutes of chatting with the new employee. 

“Done,” T'ḥiát remarked. “We’re going to Titan next quota.”

--

The snowy expanse of Titan loomed around them. The FNG was already in the complex, gathering loot with T'ḥiát. 

Said addict slammed down into the ship, and nudged Jack. 

“Doing well!” T'ḥiát chirped, then pressed the can of TZP to the inhalation module on their suit for exactly nine seconds. Their voice slightly higher than normal, they went on, “Going back!” 

The next time they came back with a haul, Jack grabbed their arm.

“What did you do to the newbie?” Jack asked. “Why was she so excited to come here?” 

“I told her that there were no coil factories on Titan,” T'ḥiát replied calmly, ignoring the eye twitch that was no doubt occurring behind Jack’s visor. “I told them that there’s a coin factory here and that cash registers are all the rage.”

“Mhm,” Jack contemplated their words for a long moment. Then they nodded. “They're gonna die.” 

“Ya, probably,” T'ḥiát agreed, then their arm was by their side again, as though Jack was never holding it in the first place. “Unless I feel bad enough for them. Well, going back.” 

Jack nodded, and watched them sprint off, chuckling to themself as they went back to the monitor. 

Sure enough, there was a red dot in front of the new guy. 

The new guy was strafing, one inch at a time.

Jack leaned back and smiled.

--

“Uh… can I get a bit of help?” 

The newbie’s distressed voice bounced along the corridors. T'ḥiát sighed, making their way to the sound's origin. 

“Ask nicely!” they called out, gauging the location of the lost employee. “Quick!”

“Please?” 

T'ḥiát came up swiftly, tilting their head and walking up to the coil head. They circled around it, and nodded once. 

“That there’s a coil head, alright,” they commented unnecessarily. The new guy gave a wheeze of fear. “Don’t you worry, I’ll get you out of here just fine. I see you got your cash register. May, was it?”

“Yeah- yes,” May replied, trembling hard. “I want to get out of here. Now.” 

“Calm down princess,” T'ḥiát soothed, shaking their can of TZP. “If you want, you can have a bit of this, it’ll help your nerves. Just promise that you’ll apologize to good ol’ Jack about the coil factories question when we get back. They got pretty offended by it.” 

“I didn’t think that it was an offensive question!” she defended herself with some bewilderment. T'ḥiát sighed and pushed her along. “Where are we going?” 

“Fire exit. Keep moving forward. I’ve got Mr. Crybaby.” 

“Crybaby?” 

“Don’t question it. Make a left. Your other left.” 

“To the glowing red dot?”

“That’s it. Right out there.”

T'ḥiát waited until they heard the door shut behind them before they phased through the crack.

May was breathing hard outside of the door. T'ḥiát nudged her to get her to start moving. 

“You’re a jerk,” May hissed. T'ḥiát shrugged. “I’m going to- to hurt you.” 

“Sure, doll,” T'ḥiát replied, just as peppy as usual. “That’s a nice cash register you’ve got there. Better make it count. Better crack my skull open in one shot.” 

“I’m not going to do that!?” May gasped, shocked. T'ḥiát tilted their head at her as they jumped down onto the lighting - May taking the stairs, like a normal person. They asked; “Why not?” 

“Because- because I’m not going to kill you!” 

“Coward,” T'ḥiát hummed. May stared at them through her visor. “Jack’s probably going to kill me when we get back onto the ship. Be more like Jack.” 

“Why would they kill you when we get back?!”

“You.”

Sure enough, as soon as they stepped onboard, Jack clonked T'ḥiát on the head with a shovel. They dropped like a popped balloon. May did not like thinking about the fact that their suit looked the part.

--

“Why did you save them!?” Jack demanded when they were in orbit again, shaking T'ḥiát violently. They shrugged, now next to the computer and out of Jack’s grip. “T'ḥiát! Stop teleporting!” 

“I don’t teleport. Also - I felt bad.” 

May rang her cash register. 

#gen fic #control art #lethal company #Employees & Employees (Lethal Company) #T'ḥiát #jack (lethal company) #may (lethal company) #coil head #lethal company fic #control writes #video game mechanics #titan #slice of life #gift fic #prompt fic #t'chiat #we love the company

[characteroulette]

It is Momo talks about game mechanics time ft. Psychonauts 2

I find it fascinating that Double Fine's decision to cap the Levitation bubble inadvertantly points to Raz having less bouyant happy thoughts after the events of the first game. Their decision to have a tighter but easier to replenish aggression / ammo for Psi-Blasts, too, points to a change in Raz's psyche. Raz has less bouyant happy thoughts to lift him up, but can't hold onto as much aggression as before. His dad doesn't actually want to kill him. He's entering an adult world that still sees him as a child. Food for thought.

Also funny is they capped Levitation and yet it's still broken as shit. Raz became a master at surfing the Levitation ball we stan a speedrun king

#Momo talks about games #Psychonauts #Psychonauts 2 #Raz #Razputin Aquato #Anyway food for thought #Video game mechanics #Video game mechanics fascinate me #How can I interweave this into the actual fabric of this presented reality?? #I love canon speedrun tech Raz #I will die on this hill of canon speedrun tech Raz

[johanirae]

FFVII Crisis Core Reunion | Zack has to be careful when inviting Tseng anywhere via his phone ;-)

#Zerith #zack fair #aerith gainsborough #tseng of the turks #crisis core reunion #video game mechanics #ffvii #ffviifanart #fanart

[tyravenholme]

The Insanity of Bloodborne

Bloodborne is among one of my favourite video games of all time. Created by From Software and released on the Playstation 4 as a launch title, Bloodborne is a game that borrows heavily from the Dark Souls series, but instead of dark fantasy, you are thrust into a world of beasts and lycans, living abominations from the minds of man, and ancient beings from places beyond comprehension. It is a wondrous adventure that has you stumble your way from one bloody scenario to the next and by the end, you’ll be left with more questions rather than answers, and that’s not a bad thing.

Among what I’ve already mentioned, there is another thing I love about Bloodborne, and it’s something it has succeeded in doing that I think other games in the same genre have tried to do but failed every single time, and that’s insanity.

A common element of cosmic horror stories are characters going insane from having witnessed things that go beyond their understanding, people who bear witness to a great old one have their eye combust just from merely gazing upon such entities, or lose themselves to such a degree then end up in a hospital and remain there forever. Even in one of my favourite stories, a short manga series by Itou Junji called Hellstar Remina where a giant planet sized creature that makes it approach to Earth has swathes of characters in the story go to extreme illogical lengths in order to survive the coming end.

But when it comes to video games trying to induce this same element of insanity into players, they are for the most part, extremely lacklustre and have been reduced to a simple game mechanic, a meter you have to monitor whenever you encounter anything that could set you off that you have to balance out so you can continue the game. Amnesia is a prime example of this, and while the game does do a decent job of making this feature work for the games in that series, I do think it makes the whole point of “going insane” redundant.

That’s where Bloodborne shines. Instead of making insanity an obvious game mechanic, it’s instead subtle, and called something else entirely. Insight. Insight is presented as a sort of secondary rare currency in the game alongside Blood Echoes which is what you use to gain experience and level up, while Insight is used at an alternate shop to purchase things and seemingly that seems to be all its good for. You gain Insight whenever you first encounter a boss enemy which are typically these large monstrous beasts or sometimes otherworldly abominations, and gain more upon defeating them.

For the longest time, I didn’t realize what the true purpose of Insight was until after I had already beaten the game and started diving deeper into its lore and, ironically, seeing the truth of what Insight really was.

To give you an example, there is a Doll in a place called the Hunter’s Dream. When you first reach this area, which you will do within minutes of starting the game most likely, the Doll will be resting and inert, it’s just a Doll, nothing special, though it does resemble a human woman. And until you gain your very first Insight, as you start with zero when you start the game, the Doll will remain as such every time you return to the Hunter’s Dream, but when you encounter your first boss and return to the Hunter’s Dream, the Doll will be standing and waiting for you, and when you go to speak with them, they will indeed speak back, even stating very clearly that they are a doll.

In another scenario, you might think the character who is witnessing this doll come to life and assert a will of its own was going mad, and that’s exactly what’s happening. The more Insight you gain, the more insane you are becoming, but you need to go insane in order to see and understand the truth of this world. The more insight you accumulate, the more the world actually changes around, this Doll is just one example of that.

There are these wandering enemies that you encounter later on that hold these cool lanterns that they can spew magical energy from, and at first, they will look like regular lanterns, but gain enough Insight, and you may see something more to them that you couldn’t before.

I think what makes this mechanic work is that the game doesn’t tell you what Insight can actually do, or what purpose it actually serves. The game withholding information from you is a classic From Software method of storytelling, giving you just enough information for you to try and piece together things yourself, and in the end, all you’ll have is a theory with strong evidence, but nothing will ever be confirmed. Not only that, but the fact that it’s not some meter you have to balance, but rather a number you can accumulate in the top right of your screen is surprisingly simple in its complex execution.

The best thing of all though is that just like those doomed characters from the horror stories, you have no idea you’re going insane until its already too late and you’ve seen every horror your feeble mind can handle. It’s so brilliant that I can only applaud whoever thought up this mechanic at From Software and being able to translate one of the most difficult elements of cosmic horror into a video game and not make it some gimmicky mechanic you have to constantly monitor, instead, it’s just a thing that’s there and you can engage with it or not, it doesn’t really matter, since you’ll gain Insight as you progress through the game whether you like it or not.

Not to be a poet or anything, but if you want to actually beat the game, then you’ll have to go a little bit insane.

#video games #video game blog #bloodborne #video game mechanics #hidden game mechanics #from software #dark souls #soulslike

[fangirlingpuggle]

Just amusing myself thinking about a character getting isekaied into video games but how the game machines carry over.

Like you get an item of a gem or flower that replenish Mana or health or gives a boost to status in game you just hit A button to use but when Isekaied you just have a gem or flower and no idea how to 'use' it. Does use mean breaking it? crushing it? Eating it? what do I do with this???

How do you even know if it's working? not like you can see your status and can't tell if you have the power boost or not don't feel stronger should I stop eating flowers?

Just an enemy watchmaking character running around shoving flowers in their mouth or trying to eat a gem and just slowly walking away because what the fuck.

OR just having food as health restoring item and character trying to eat an entire pie while fighting a boss.

#dumb isekai idea #humor #video game mechanics #i am just amusing myself at this point

[tachvintlogic]

Category: Gen

Characters: Twilight (Linked Universe), Sky (Linked Universe), Legend (Linked Universe), Four (Linked Universe), Wind (Linked Universe), Warriors (Linked Universe), Hyrule (Linked Universe), Time (Linked Universe), Wild (Linked Universe), Yeta (Legend of Zelda), Yeto (Legend of Zelda)

Additional Tags: Video Game Mechanics

Summary: The Chain are in Twilight's era on a journey to partake in a delicious meal. There, they find that the superb soup lives up to its name.

#linkeduniverse #linked universe #lu fic #tach's fics #lu sky #lu legend #lu wild #lu time #lu twilight #lu hyrule #lu four #lu warriors #lu wind #video game mechanics

[lurkingismypastime]

You know what I love?

Levels in video games that mess with the mechanics.

Like the level where you lose your camera in outlast? Stunning.

It can be anything from losing your weapons or powers to not being able to run, and will adore it, not only for how much fun it is, but also for the storytelling potential.

Just, forcing players to puzzle around problems in a new way is.. fantastic.

#tal's posts #video games #video game mechanics #game design #game mechanics #game creation

[galahadenough]

It is fucking killing me that botw/totk have the Lost Woods, the absolute perfect way to have a edge of game barrier that makes sense in game and doesn’t require an immersion breaking message that you can’t go any farther, and just didn’t use it.

To be clear, I have no problem with the need to have a barrier in the game and the message isn’t what bothers me, it’s the missed opportunity. Not only would that give an edge to the map that is built into the mechanics of not being able to traverse the woods, but it would make the woods feel so much more immense, and old, and like it goes on forever instead of being contained.

#my post #zelda #loz #botw #totk #criticism #lost woods #video game mechanics #zelda ideas #and I mean no disrespect. i ADORE this game

[time-loopzim]

@player-membrane

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 4

#OOC LORE #FANFICTION #TIME-LOOPZIM #PLAYER-MEMBRANE #GAMESLAVELABOR #VAMPIRE PIGGY VR TRANSCRIPT #BLOOP #IZ ZIM #GAZ MEMBRANE #INVADER ZIM #VIDEO GAME MECHANICS #BLOOD AND VIOLENCE #VAMPIRE PIGGY HUNTER #IZ Askblog Community

[fancytrinkets]

Posted this one as a oneshot cause I’m not planning to continue it, but I like it and it was fun to use the Major Character Death warning (it’s technically true!)

inspiredChapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Male Inquisitor/Dorian Pavus, Dorian Pavus/Male Trevelyan Characters: Trevelyan (Dragon Age), Male Trevelyan (Dragon Age), Dorian Pavus Additional Tags: Mage Inquisitor (Dragon Age), POV Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Oneshot, Video Game Mechanics, Light Angst, Crack, Married Couple Summary:

It's been a good life, filled with love and friendship and more happy years than Trevelyan expected. But all good things must end. That's the aphorism, and it must be true because lately he's always in pain.

Crackfic premise treated relatively seriously. Character death, but not for long.

#dragon age inquisition #pavelyan #dorian pavus #mage trevelyan #time shenanigans #video game mechanics

[bluemanedhawk]

Some people say that the purpose of art is to make people feel things. Some people say that video games are a form of art. These things together would mean that people play video games to feel things. Indeed, i often play video games because i want to feel things.

But hunger is not one of those things.

I think that if a video game's food system makes the player feel hungry, that is, in most cases, a badly-designed food system, because it leads to the player getting distracted from what the food items mean in favor of their superficial cosmetic aspects. I think that sometimes, this can also mean that the creators of the game, who hopefully play the game while in the process of creating it, will have deeper problems with the game's food system masked by its superficialities—the main one i can think of is the systems complexities being preprogrammed-in instead of emergent from the mechanics—in other words, a system that is broad as a river, but shallow as a puddle, instead of narrow like a brook, but deep like an ocean.

I can't say that there's a universal solution to this, but i can give an anecdote of what my plans are to solve this for a game i'm working on: the food will be as abstract as possible, only being various colors of cans labeled ‘Food’, ‘Good food’, ‘Really good food’, etc., with some other things such as ‘Sour food’ for something easier to come by than its equivalent in the normal chain, but you can't eat too much of at once, or ‘Dense food’, which would confer its benefits over time instead of all at once. About the only bit of fanciness here is that i think the unambiguously best food in the game will be called ‘Ambrosia’.

And hell, even this might not be abstract enough and still induce hunger in some people!

#Video games #Games #Game mechanics #Video game mechanics #Game design #Video game design #Food

[dezertvideogames]

Awesome Video Game Mechanic #1

Gun Cleaning Mechanic from Metro Exodus:

In Metro Exodus any guns you pick up along the way grow dirty over use. This can cause them to jam easier, and maybe even completely break, both potentially forcing you to give away good modified weapons.

You use the chemical material to clean them at any workbench, but these materials are very important in order to make plenty of other stuff.

In the sandy desert based levels of the game, weapons gets dirtier much quicker compared to other levels. You can visibly see the dirt/sand texture piling up on guns overtime. The jamming noise is also quite distinct, and can send players into a panic if they don't have any backups.

#video games #video game mechanics #video game #metro exodus

[raccoonscity]

HADES 2 + Characters

MELINOË || HECATE || NEMESIS || ODYSSEUS SCHELEMEUS || HYPNOS || ARACHNE || MOROS

#hades spoilers #hadesedit #gamingedit #indiegameedit #hades series #hades game #hades 2 #*gif #mine #video games #spiders tw #flashing gifs tw #if there's a dating mechanic in this one as well #i hope we can romance nemesis #~premium

[tigerpetalpress]

Review: The Palladium

The Palladium by Thorsten Brandl 4 stars – one of the best I’ve read This is also an ARC read, and luckily, I could listen to it. I always find it hard to read eBook formats; either a hard copy or audiobook for me. Read: Nov. 7 – Nov. 11, 2022 To buy your own copy of this eBook, click here. Fully Exceeded My Expectations Michael Baker is just a struggling author, not expecting that the day…

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#book recommendations #book review #bookreviewer #books #demons #fantasy #fiction #good vs evil #greek mythology #high praise #highly recommended #historical characters #likeable protagonist #magic #opinion #romance subplot #secret society #tbr #video game mechanics