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That reminds me of a lesson developer's learned when making a stealth game, Splinter Cell. Originally, when you were spotted the enemies would just try to shoo

by dx87 8y ago

That reminds me of a lesson developer's learned when making a stealth game, Splinter Cell. Originally, when you were spotted the enemies would just try to shoot you, but tester feedback said that players didn't like getting shot out of nowhere. The devs added audible cues that you'd been found, like the guard yelling "Hey you!" before they started shooting. It turns out realistic AI behaviors aren't necessarily fun AI behaviors in a video game.

heyyyouu 8y ago
Thanks for sharing this. It's a great illustration of why playtesting (and testing in general) what we think will work is always a good idea.
blattimwind 8y ago
Splinter Cell also has cooldowns in some/most levels (like most stealth games), which is of course an absurd notion. A guard on a military base wouldn't back out of "DEFCON1" after two minutes just because the invader didn't show herself for that long.
- mcv 8y ago
  There's a cool isometric stealth game called Robin of Sherwood, where you can follow what the guards are doing. A guard might accidentally stumble upon someone you killed, be alarmed, look around, run off to warn their commander, then the commander organises a search for the culprit, with lots of guards explicitly looking for you everywhere. Eventually if they can't find you, the whole thing dies down and everybody resumes their original duties, assuming the dead body was just a fluke or something. Also, if they find someone you merely knocked unconscious, they assume they'd been sleeping on the job. If you tied them up, they free them, but I forgot if they search for you or if they just assume they got accidentally tied up somehow. Also, you'd think they might raise the alarm if they find less and less guards present at their assigned post.
izacus 8y ago
Gaming is full of tricks - e.g. I liked how Bioshock developers said that they made enemies deliberately miss their first shot so the player has time to react. Or how many shooters lower incoming damage and increase outgoing damage as you come close to dying to create those "I survived with 1HP left!" moments.

by dx87 8y ago

heyyyouu 8y ago

Thanks for sharing this. It's a great illustration of why playtesting (and testing in general) what we think will work is always a good idea.

blattimwind 8y ago

Splinter Cell also has cooldowns in some/most levels (like most stealth games), which is of course an absurd notion. A guard on a military base wouldn't back out of "DEFCON1" after two minutes just because the invader didn't show herself for that long.

mcv 8y ago
There's a cool isometric stealth game called Robin of Sherwood, where you can follow what the guards are doing. A guard might accidentally stumble upon someone you killed, be alarmed, look around, run off to warn their commander, then the commander organises a search for the culprit, with lots of guards explicitly looking for you everywhere. Eventually if they can't find you, the whole thing dies down and everybody resumes their original duties, assuming the dead body was just a fluke or something. Also, if they find someone you merely knocked unconscious, they assume they'd been sleeping on the job. If you tied them up, they free them, but I forgot if they search for you or if they just assume they got accidentally tied up somehow. Also, you'd think they might raise the alarm if they find less and less guards present at their assigned post.

izacus 8y ago

Gaming is full of tricks - e.g. I liked how Bioshock developers said that they made enemies deliberately miss their first shot so the player has time to react. Or how many shooters lower incoming damage and increase outgoing damage as you come close to dying to create those "I survived with 1HP left!" moments.