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Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

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Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#21

Post by Luc »

Kiro wrote: post #18
Luc wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Which is why it takes some effort.

So basically you're agreeing with fragsworth.

Not that it's worth going on about ad infinitum, but no, I don't agree with "Their developers did not know how to do this [...]" and "they would need to learn how to do it properly".

In fact I assume the opposite - their developers knew EXACTLY how to do this in a short amount of time (i.e. massive overtime), and they would NOT need to learn how to do it properly, AT ALL, because they know what they're doing.

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#23

Post by fragsworth »

Luc wrote: post #21
Kiro wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically you're agreeing with fragsworth.

Not that it's worth going on about ad infinitum, but no, I don't agree with "Their developers did not know how to do this [...]" and "they would need to learn how to do it properly". In fact I assume the opposite - their developers knew EXACTLY how to do this in a short amount of time (i.e. massive overtime), and they would NOT need to learn how to do it properly, AT ALL, because they know what they're doing.

If they knew exactly what they were doing then it seems very unlikely that they would decide against doing it, because Peter Thoman's method only took about 2 weeks of his own time. The method the developers were considering may have been an internal one that required some kind of refactoring, and they were either unaware of any other way to do it, or they were aware but didn't know how long it would take because they've never done it before.

Not every game developer has an extensive understanding of how to manipulate DirectX, considering that you can put together a pretty decent game by just using a game engine and ignoring the underlying graphics altogether. I can see them failing to hire someone who has experience with the lower-level stuff on PC, when the game wasn't for PC to begin with...

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#24

Post by kosei »

Very cool. Tough, as often times it's a question of cost-benefit analysis and it's definitely possible the developer didn't feel it was a high priority enough issue (against other bugs, against shipping by a certain date, against other projects), so it's awesome that someone from the community could choose to fix the issue in their stead. Obviously not ideal, but very cool nevertheless.

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#25

Post by Filligree »

slantyyz wrote: post #5
gagege wrote: post #2

There is a long tradition of mods, fixes and enhancements in PC gaming. The PC version often ends up being much better than the console version. The privacy and DRM issues with current consoles are bad, but this article demonstrates my favorite reason to just buy a decent video card for your existing PC, rather than buy a console.

>> The PC version often ends up being much better than the console version. Assuming there is a PC version of the game in question. In the age since the first XBox, consoles have brought a lot of PC-style gaming to the masses (mainly FPS games), but there are also a ton of non-FPS gaming genres that don't have a very large presence on PC. I used to be a big console guy and would love to move to a PC-centric gaming en…

I feel your pain, re. decent rhythm games.

Have you tried Sequence, though? I enjoyed that, and the story is nothing to sneeze at either.

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#26

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

Havoc wrote: post #22

He might not feel like doing this full time, but surely there is a market for this. i.e. A team that doesn't nothing but PC ports. I'd imagine similar issues would crop up every time so specialization might be possible.

Companies hiring other companies to do ports is commonplace in the industry. Such companies aren't usually limited to doing only PC ports (sometimes it will be a company that also releases its own original games as well).

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#27

Post by kazagistar »

Filligree wrote: post #25
slantyyz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The PC version often ends up being much better than the console version. Assuming there is a PC version of the game in question. In the age since the first XBox, consoles have brought a lot of PC-style gaming to the masses (mainly FPS games), but there are also a ton of non-FPS gaming genres that don't have a very large presence on PC. I used to be a big console guy and would love to move to a PC-centric gaming en…

I feel your pain, re. decent rhythm games. Have you tried Sequence, though? I enjoyed that, and the story is nothing to sneeze at either.

But clearly OSU! is the best rhythm game, and it is PC exclusive.

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#28

Post by pavel_lishin »

fragsworth wrote: post #23
Luc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that it's worth going on about ad infinitum, but no, I don't agree with "Their developers did not know how to do this [...]" and "they would need to learn how to do it properly". In fact I assume the opposite - their developers knew EXACTLY how to do this in a short amount of time (i.e. massive overtime), and they would NOT need to learn how to do it properly, AT ALL, because they know what they're doing.

If they knew exactly what they were doing then it seems very unlikely that they would decide against doing it, because Peter Thoman's method only took about 2 weeks of his own time. The method the developers were considering may have been an internal one that required some kind of refactoring, and they were either unaware of any other way to do it, or they were aware but didn't know how long it would take because the…

But Peter's method, as he himself said, isn't good enough for software that would be released by a company for people to use:

> Thoman says the difference between his fixes and official patches are primarily an issue of quality assurance. “When I write and program something, I make sure I didn’t make any obvious errors, and then I just release it,” Thoman told WIRED. “If it works for 90 percent of people, I already consider that a success.”

> From there, Thoman starts working for that other 10 percent, but he says that there’s probably one percent of people that he will never be able to help. If he were in charge of a commercial product rather than a fan-made patch, he’d have a responsibility to make sure whatever he released worked for everyone and didn’t break anything.

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#29

Post by gagege »

seivan wrote: post #4

I am glad it's about a computer scientist (hacker) that performed an action that wasn't subjective and not some 'game designer ux product idea ui designer visual artist ux' snake oil who wants their game idea implemented. Fixing broken game ideas is easy.

>Fixing broken game ideas is easy.

Tell that to anyone who has actually tried to implement a fix for a broken game design. I'm not even talking about programmers. Game design is not trivial. That's why so many games these days are either Mario clones or Doom clones. We know those are a safe bet.

Re: Is Your Game Crap? This Fan Will Fix It for You

#30

Post by TylerE »

gagege wrote: post #29
seivan wrote: post #4

I am glad it's about a computer scientist (hacker) that performed an action that wasn't subjective and not some 'game designer ux product idea ui designer visual artist ux' snake oil who wants their game idea implemented. Fixing broken game ideas is easy.

>Fixing broken game ideas is easy. Tell that to anyone who has actually tried to implement a fix for a broken game design. I'm not even talking about programmers. Game design is not trivial. That's why so many games these days are either Mario clones or Doom clones. We know those are a safe bet.

Where are the Mario clones? I'd love some good Mario clones. Instead they all seem to be Double Dragon/Castlevania/Metroid clones
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