A minor text update by me.

[Googolplex]

It feels more immersion breaking for your player to acknowledge the left mouse button than the omniscient text doing so.

Yes, because a mouse button only exists in a game. This is why hints are generally breaking the immersion and I always let them disabled. But for players who play with enabled hints, it is bad for the immersion and the new text can a bit help to avoid the feeling to get hints by the computer. Rather it looks like Penumbra where the player make his own thoughts and this is the best solution to obtain the most of atmosphere when having hints enabled.

Not only to acknowledge to press a key is breaking the immersion, even when the text said "You" is one of the no-go's. That feels like I'm just playing the game instead to be in there.

So it does not look as much like to play a computer game.
It looks more believable.

[bobbo]

Googolplex just trying to show off his retarded ideas, as per usual.

No need to be rude, I believe it was his desire for a German translation of Justine that kicked off a whole bunch of user translations. But like back then when we worked on the translation together, I would still disagree with this idea.

So, it's not immersive if an NPC says it, but if it's the player's own thoughts, it is immersive?

Think of it like this: The character is a character in his own digital world. He can't tell me to use a mouse button because he doesn't know he's a character being controlled by someone else in the first place. Having just a normal hint text is the least immersion breaking way, really.

[Ghieri]

Think of it like this: The character is a character in his own digital world. He can't tell me to use a mouse button because he doesn't know he's a character being controlled by someone else in the first place. Having just a normal hint text is the least immersion breaking way, really.

Just like the PC doesn't know he's a video game character, so he wouldn't be thinking "I should press LMB to move the crates!"

I agree, normal hint text is the best, because the player will get back to immersion almost instantly, rather than a few extra seconds of wondering why the PC knows he's a character.

[Lazoriss]

haha wow there's a lot of rude posters here...




For me, personally, it doesn't matter that much. the pop-ups for controls are already subtle (and few and far between). They can even add to a game despite "breaking the fourth wall" so to speak.


The text -hold shift to run- fads in and suddenly you hear a terrible noise from behind you. naturally, you hold shift and start running!
A split second of instruction "outside the game" before being pulled right back in by the atmosphere. Within this game (and its predecessor) I'd say the small within game instruction was handled quite well.

[PutraenusAlivius]

Oh man. Googol's another stupid idea that he believes to "increase" the "immersion". It won't.

Here's an example.

Let's just say you wrote memento in ATDD. A rope broke and you have to find another way up.

"The rope just fell. I need to find another rope."
"Rope fell. Find another way up."

For me the latter is the right one. Even if it's on your mind, saying "I" is just odd.

[Kreekakon]

You people really need to hold back the insults...

[Fortigurn]

I want Googol to continue developing this idea. It's strong, it's bold, it's new, it's fresh, it's transgressive, and I believe it's heading in the right direction. Just needs a bit of polishing. And it's good that he submitted it to peer review.

[Ashtoreth]

I've got to say, I really admire Googolplex's determination and self-confidence.


Edit: I'm being sincere.

[Googolplex]

Original thread:
http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-23327.html

So, guys you ruined my thread and now I have to create a new one!
Congrations!

You doesn't even have knowledge in gamedesign, so let other people do it and be quiet!

The point is that a hint like "You must press B to get the rope down." or a memento like "Rope is broken. You have to find an other way." convey the feeling to play a "game", where it helps you what to do. And that's a no-go of gamedesign. To say I'm stupid is just, because you have no idea about that. Penumbra does it right:

"Damn! The rope is broken and I have to find an other way out."

It's like you would write in your own diary, instead someone gives you a hint like to play a X-Box game. Philip is the protagonist, the "adventurer" and it's very logical that this wise would improve the immersion, because it doesn't feel like to play just a game.

When you are the protagonist and write in your own diary, you will write "I" and not "You". It's totally unattractive for the immersion when a diary reads like the computer would give me hints!

When you don't understand that or even are too childish like a 10 years old who just wanted to bash other people here, then go away and let people in peace.

So, and I hope also that Jens see now who the "problems" are.
I don't let ruin my thread by other stupid asses. When here are "qualitative" moderators, they should remove the dump postings and give a warning to all "problems" instead to close my threads.

When this here will be closed, I will open a third one. My topic is really important for me and I wanted to discuss with "decent" people about that. When here are no decent people, then they should go to the EA forums - there are enough of them!

[Tiger]

Yes, I kind of agree with the memento thing, I'd rather have a memento say "The door is blocked. I should find another way in." than "The door is blocked. Find another way in", since it's the protagonist writing these notes. Not sure about the hint one though, but I'm not sure.