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Open world RPG design notes from Enderal, a big long Skyrim mod

Radiator Blog

This is a convenient diegetic way of locking the player in-place for a cutscene, while also priming the player for an extended cutscene. It is much better than the boring shot reverse-shot cutscene stuff going on in AAA RPGs these days, and makes Skyrim's "sit" mechanic more meaningful.

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Design review of Redfall by Arkane Studios Austin

Radiator Blog

Instead there's cutscenes without animation, scripted conversations without choreography, and readables you rarely read because the game never pauses. There's no Destiny-like seamless matchmaking and no Left 4 Dead style good-enough bot AI. that a bigger US AAA or a non-US indie would've failed to capture. But not really.

Studios 98
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The three most important qualities in an RPG

Keith Burgun

AAA games are first and foremost products and their “smooth functionality” is prized above all else. The first example that comes to mind for me was the courtroom scene in Chrono Trigger, wherein the fact that I went to pick up a piece of jewelry before checking if my companion was okay was used against me in court!

Fantasy 52
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Deathloop deconstruction / design thoughts

Radiator Blog

unlike Outer Wilds, golden loop here is heavily hard-gated by quest progression, not a "true" information game, compromise with AAA market? sorry if your game happens to crash, or you get a dreaded UI freeze. sorry fix: let players soft-bank / soft-checkpoint some of their progress? Bot invaders often don't interrupt a boss fight.