Fun Little Arcade Games

Nye_Sigismund · **Posted:** Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:20 pm

Okay, here's a challenge for everyone - something a bit more constructive than just meandering about wishing this game was making progress...

The D'ni must have had advanced games - after all, even the Egyptians did - to play when they were bored. These quite advanced games would obviously have a uniquely D'ni twist, maybe with some educational content thrown in. And also the D'ni were hugely technologically advanced. There are already examples of D'ni games in MOULa.

One of the ways to encourage activity in the game is by having some cool little arcade-like games inside (preferably singleplayer). Also, neat little arcade games would make nice addons to ages to encourage revisitiation.

So, if you were asked by somebody to create a minigame for people to play within Uru... what would you make?

My personal idea would be an educational game (in a classroom somewhere) which would teach D'ni letters and numbers [spoiler]for those of you who have not actually beat Riven properly![/spoiler]

Dudemom_2000 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:13 pm

Nye_Sigismund, we have people who teach D'ni letters and numbers. With the current limitiations of MOULa the language classes have been held in Second Life by Rehn because of the type and amount of teaching materials he needs to pass out for the students to use which unfortunately you cannot currently pass on easily in MOULa. Hopefully, at some point that will be resolved and he and others can have classes in the Cavern. Right now they are finishing up the latest series of classes and will be having a graduation in SL later this month but new classes won't be starting until the fall. If you decide to go to SL for the lessons here is where to watch for them. I look forward to a time when lessons can be held in the Cavern. We have many talented folk whom I think would love to be able to teach if they could pass on class materials more easily than we can right now.

With what we have now, how about a marker game that gives D'ni words?

Nye_Sigismund · **Posted:** Mon Jun 07, 2010 3:32 pm

I wasn't really thinking about "what we have now" or if we already had alternatives in branched off communities, I was thinking more along the view of thinking about neat things to add when we are able to add them - little things that if made would help fix the "Why should I log into MOUL today then?" problem.

I'm thinking along the lines of that fusebox puzzle in Myst IV. Heck, the concept of shunting power around to achieve ends happens in most of the Myst games (for example, the generator on Myst island, the water pipes in Channelwood, the hydroelectric power plant in Voltaic) and I'm pretty sure there's probably a puzzle like that in Uru somewhere. I mean, creating the script and models for an electrical puzzle then inserting it into a small generator plant which you can link to from the Nexus (and maybe the next bit of content the creator writes relies on that generator for power?) would be a cool little addition.

The best philosophy for this quiet game, which is devoutly not based on raising stats, is to always have something going on. Adding a little minigame into some place - if it happened now - would cause everyone to log in and check out the minigame. That's because we're devoid of new shiny stuff. Minigames are easy to code, hard to get wrong and would be a great way for your new content creator to get his foot in the door. They'd keep explorers interested and the cavern spinning.

Sorry for going all explanatory, I'm just hoping all the budding content generators here could come out of the shadows and think up an idea for a little bit of content - in this case a minigame that would fit in with the cavern.

Malfhok · **Posted:** Mon Jun 07, 2010 4:01 pm

Outside Uru, my brother created a small flashcard game that teaches you the D'ni words for the numbers.

And I'd prefer minigames to be multiplayer... Gemedet, anybody?

Existing minigames that keep me (or those on my account) logging in:

- Pellets
- Shroomie
- 'Heek (which doesn't count in this list because I haven't ever played it...)

matthornb · **Posted:** Thu Jul 01, 2010 7:38 pm

Minigames make a ton of sense because they add replayability to the game - something which is definitely needed.

As for puzzles that don't end, what about a fan age with a rotating room like Riven's, except with way more positions than five?

Say, a 25-position rotating room.

Most of the rotation positions would lead to nothing other than a little nondescript crevice, but several of them would lead to interesting, creatively designed "alcoves" with interesting stuff in them.

But to get between any of those rooms, from one to another, you'd have to rotate the rotating room, a bunch of times - and you'd always start out the age in the same crevice when you link in, so to visit the interesting areas, you'd have to solve the age every time you visited it.

Stucuk · **Joined:** Sun Jun 27, 2010 1:41 am **Posts:** 216

I don't know how many played Half-Life but a person made a map for it where the layout would change every time you played it. Basically the map was setup so that certain walls could move, so a corridor in one play through could be blocked off in another. At the same time the enemy AI were in random positions around the map. So each time you played you never knew what routes would be open, or where the enemy was, so the map had alot of replay value.

If that idea could be turned into a puzzle then it would have alot of replay value. Something more than just having a random code to enter in some device which you can easily work out if you have played it before, one where even if you have done it before you can't easily work the puzzle out.

Egon · **Joined:** Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:21 am **Posts:** 48

There is already an Fan Age which uses this concept. It's called The Maze.

Although this age isn't very good on it own, it's good proof of concept.

Mowog · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 2:18 am **Posts:** 1420

Interestingly, some of Cyan's early titles (Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx, in particular) had several games-within-games. Who can forget Yodel Toasters? Not to mention Chip Ship Lander, Rubber Gut, and Blitz Lifters... Launching Pigtoads was fun too.

;-)

Mowog

Fun Little Arcade Games

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