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Old 2012-04-08, 12:32   Link #3439
relentlessflame
 
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 41
Quote:
Originally Posted by Balzac View Post
Those are just some examples off the top of my head. So, any of you folks feel the same during the same instance of a missing interface feature or miscellaneous aesthetic?
In addition to the examples you listed, the one thing I would add -- and it seems dead-simple -- is the option to add save slots. Typically the game designers come up with some arbitrary number of save slots that they figure will be good enough -- usually 100 slots over 10 pages or some such. But it's so completely arbitrary and arcane. The engine Windmill uses for its games has a simple plus button that let's you make more pages on the fly so if you're not satisfied with their arbitrary limit, you can just add more.

As was said, this especially applies to game that don't have a "Scene Memory" feature that goes beyond the H scenes, which is another arcane hold-out from back when these games were more about the sex than the story (so the sex scenes were presumably the only ones worth recalling?). One interesting approach that PeasSoft does is have a scene recall for every CG (whether H or not), which isn't a bad idea since those are typically the major scenes you'll probably want to jump to. But a full scene listing is always nice too -- only weakness is to keep them descriptive enough to explain what happens in each (some Circus games have this problem). I've seen a few games with a flowchart too (that allows jumping to any point in the story), and that's an interesting way of doing it too. Da Capo games also have a "scene summary" feature that is kind of nice for subsequent playthroughs (gives you a brief synopsis of what happens in the scene if you've seen it before).

I also agree with Mahou that while I like the dynamic sprites in Yuzusoft games, sometimes I think they go a bit overboard with motion and changes -- almost for the sake of having things move. If it's done well, though, it's nice. Certainly better than seeing the same 20 sprites in the same poses and places all the time.
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