Things I’d Change
Not that I want to, but if I were to do it all over again...
Infinite Level games discussed: War Ender, Impressions
It feels like it's been a while since I've talked about any of my older games, and since I am still not quite ready to show off my next project in depth (it's almost ready to show, I just need a bit more time), now seems like a good time to reflect on the things that could have been in previous projects. While I'm still ultimately proud of my past works, after so many years it's fair to say that there are definitely some things I would do a bit differently if I were to remake the games. And I don't think there's anything wrong with acknowledging that, just to get that out of the way. Whether it be scrapped mechanics, items that didn't occur to you until after release, or simply things that just needed more time in the oven, there's always gonna be something you'd do different if you were to make a game again. So, for this month's dev blog, I'm going to look at both War Ender and Impressions and talk about some of the things I'd add or change in the hypothetical future where I remake them (I have no plans to remake either game, to be clear).
Let's start with my oldest commercial work, War Ender. Though it is far from my first game, it is the first one I've ever tried to sell. And there's still a lot of things I really like about it, such as the game's over-the-top personality, the "shoot-float" mechanic, and the boss battles. But one thing I'd absolutely change in a hypothetical remake is the player character's physics. Red, the protagonist, is a bit "zippy" compared to some of his platforming brethren. The idea was to make a character that would feel like a powerful, borderline demigod-like force that the player could feel in their movements. And it kinda gets there with the game's sense of gravity mixed with Red's speed, but the problem is Red reaches max speed instantly, where in most games there would be at least a brief build-up to top speed. In hindsight, it's easy to see why that build-up is there in other games. Because Red has no such wind-up to his movement, it's pretty hard to make minor corrections to your position. This becomes a bit problematic later in the game when platforms start getting smaller. One of the very last levels, 5-2, demonstrates this perfectly. As a scrolling level you're already under pressure to move quick, but about halfway through the level you have these tiny disintegrating platforms that you must climb up. This is tough to begin with, made all the more difficult by Red's inability to adjust position pixels at a time.
Some people reading this might be surprised to see that I didn't say "the art" as the very first thing I would change. And...well, yes, I most definitely would. I guess I figured that was a given. At the time of War Ender's development I was under the impression that pixel art was the most approachable and "easy" style of art for a video game. Doing something in 3D seemed like something that only wizards and people with a lot of money and time could do. It wouldn't be until development of The Future Project where I would find that, actually, 3D modeling is both easier for me to do and yields better results. Seriously, compare my pixel art in War Ender and Impressions to what I did in The Future Project. I won't claim to be highly skilled at the art of making things look pretty, but I think it's safe to say I did a better job with The Future Project's 3D models than with War Ender and Impression's rather rigid and simplistic sprites. So of course it almost goes without saying that both War Ender and Impressions would see a total overhaul in the graphical department, opting for 3D assets over 2D ones. Now, I might consider trying a "faux 2D" look for both of these games, using 3D models but presenting them like 2D sprites. Before canceling it, that was something I was playing around with in the RPG I stopped making back in March(!?) of this year. And who knows? Maybe that's an idea I'll one day come back around to...
One last item for War Ender would be, well, more stuff. In particular some kind of ranking system and melee combat sounds like it would fit right in with War Ender's intended style. There were thoughts of implementing some kind of melee in the very early stages of War Ender's development, but that was quickly tossed out because I wanted to keep the game pretty simple. These days I'd have way more confidence of trying out such a game mechanic, and I believe it would only be to the game's benefit. But of course, adding this would pretty radically change War Ender's design, so at that point it wouldn't really be "remaking" the game anymore. No, this would instead be putting us in sequel territory. But what is a video game sequel if not "do it again, but better"? I imagine melee combat allowing things like filling some kind of meter or maintaining a combo chain for a higher rank during combat, and for platforming you could combine kicking off enemies with the shoot-float and other obstacles to make some incredibly satisfying jumps. I'm not really one to think about sequels to my games, but for War Ender I have a pretty solid idea of the direction I would take such a sequel, and melee would undoubtedly be a big part of it. Maybe when I get through all these other game ideas I have I can revisit this.
For Impressions, there's a lot less to consider because it's a much, much smaller game. In a hypothetical Impressions remake, I'd mostly be adding stuff. More story, more discussions between the characters, more consequences for your choices, more kinds of choices that go beyond picking between positive, neutral, or negative, to name a few. Actually, speaking of the positive-neutral-negative choice making, that is one thing I would try to do a little differently. Not only would I shuffle the options around a bit so that positive choices aren't always at the top of the choice list and negative on the bottom, but I'd try to write it so that even the strictly positive or negative responses to alien life and their activities would have more nuance. To be fair to myself, the rather blatant positive and negative options was itself meant to be a commentary on how people are encouraged to give their most extreme opinions in our modern, always online world. And if aliens were to be discovered and showed signs of wanting to engage with us humans, you best believe there would be a lot of wild thoughts about it shared without a moment of consideration for what was actually being said. But for the sake of exploring the consequences of contact with an extraterrestial lifeform, I'd try to bring a little more nuance to the overall conversation to better explore all kinds of ideas.
A big thing I'd modify in an Impressions remake is the way the public reacts to your comments, while also adding some kind of ratings system based on viewership and how much you can get people to talk about the show. Like War Ender's melee combat, this was an idea I kicked around in my head briefly before deciding to just keep it simple and focus on simpler reactions to the player's dialogue choices. But how fun would it be if you were encouraged to go off on wild tangents in order to maintain good ratings? You'd have to balance your job with your own beliefs as a person, or potentially go right along with it and soak up the hollow prize of "numbers are high", depending on the kind of person you are. When development of Impressions started, gameplay was very much not the focus. It was all about story and having the player make dialogue decisions, which is a bit unusual for me as a typically gameplay focused person. This ratings system would have certainly brought the game closer to something with a strong gameplay core, and of course ultimately letting that gameplay inform the story and vice versa. But, as I currently have no plans to make a game where you play as a pundit again, this will most likely remain exclusively an idea in my head. Feel free to take the idea for yourself, I won't mind.
In case you're wondering, there are of course things even a year later that I would add or modify in The Future Project, and I have actually touched on some of that before. But, we'll let a bit more time pass before I go back and lament the things that could have been for that game. War Ender is six years old, and Impressions is four years old, so I'd say plenty of time has passed to have a look at those games and talk about what I would change. Perhaps with more time, some of these ideas may actually be executed, whether it be in a sequel or entirely new game, whether by me or someone else. But for the time being, the past shall stay in past and I will continue to focus my efforts on something else.
Until next time!
-Lance T.