 
|
|
|
| 9/28/99 |
|
"Here comes the quiet life again..." - Japan Hello everyone, As has been previously mentioned, the designers are now finished with all of their design implementation and we have entered the ultimate of period of crunch time, play balance and bug fixing. A number of QA teams have now been allocated to our game, the weekly meetings with the testers are getting larger, and the buglist is definitely getting longer. It is now possible, theoretically, for a player to get through the entire game via the critical path. So, at this point, a number of issues become more important than ever. Here are a few of them: Can the player get through the areas without constantly saving & loading? There are a few people that have no problems with saving and crawling through areas that they really aren't supposed to be traveling through at a particular level. While that option should certainly be doable in a role playing game, you shouldn't design areas that force players to deal with that kind of strategy on a regular basis. While combat, puzzles, and quests should certainly increase in difficulty as the player ventures forward in the game, situations that become a constant trip to the save/load menu are downright irritating to most people. During this last period of testing, we are constantly receiving reports back from QA which let us know if an area is developing into save & crawl. If several dozen testers are having issues with completing / getting through an area, it's generally a good bet that the rest of the computer game playing public will have the same problems. Are the quests completeable? Obviously the LAST thing we'd like to have are quests that are broken and keep the player from progressing farther in the game. A critical path document, put together by the players' best friend, Dave Hendee, details every single quest that is integral to solving the game. Obviously, it is beyond essential that our testers have access to this information, as not only are there a LOT of quests to keep track of, but in many cases there are several different ways you can accomplish the quest successfully. When you add in all the additional bits that aren't necessarily vital to solving the game, it's an insurmountable task for QA. Our testers have been doing an extremely thorough job in this department, and there's no doubt they will continue to do so until the last minute. Is the game fun? Well, it's the most important question, isn't it? Of course, at this point in time, we're gearing up for the game coming out so it becomes a little difficult to make enormous changes to the game without having to severely push back the release date. We can, however, take care of issues that exist within the completed framework that hinder the playability and make things unfun. Personally, I think we've managed to tread the fine line between depth and enjoyment with this game, and the end result is shaping up to be something very, very special. I am extremely proud to have been involved with the design of this game, and hope that everyone who gets into Planescape:Torment will experience as much fun playing it as I have working on it.
Scott Warner |
| Planescape: Torment & Design: © 1998 Interplay Productions. All Rights Reserved. © 1998 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Planescape, the Planescape logo, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Torment, the AD&D logo, and the TSR logo are trademarks of TSR, Inc. and are used by Interplay under license. TSR, Inc. is a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Interplay, the Interplay logo, Black Isle Studios and the Black Isle Studios logo are trademarks of Interplay Productions. Exclusively licensed and distributed by Interplay Productions. All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners. |