KaffeInsomnia Review and Further Dev
Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 4:21 pmHey all, this marks the first of my mini-reviews of the various games the 24 Hour RPG Project has spilled forth. I'm gonna be hitting each one in its own thread, and offering some advice and comments. Probably not a huge amount, as there's so much ground to cover, but still.
Good Points:
Very cool layour/design. The use of background was interesting, as was the "coffee stain" (but see below), really brought me into reading it in detail.
Interesting development on the mechanics of Caffiene vs Insomnia, and what you can do with extra doses of the drug.
Caffiene Suppository. Wow.
Points to Work on:
Layout: The Coffee Stain should be reduced in transparency and words should flow through it, not inside it. having some words appear inside the coffee blob was a little... ok, a LOT distracting.
Spelling, grammar checks. But hey, the author is FRIGGIN ITALAN- I give him MAD PROPS for being able to write this well in English, and encourage him to contribute more in the future.
Action resolution: There was no scale of difficulty. Even a basic one would have made teh game a little more playable.
And with the above, examples of play. Games without examples of play make the baby Jesus cry.
The setting: This needs the most work. I see the kind of world we're left in, but I don't see the need for "adventuring". It doesn't seem like there's any imperitive to get out there and do stuff. A couple ideas in this area would have really helped.
The archetypes: I love games with archetypes. Having said that, though, if this game is developed it really needs to show how a Preacher, Technician, Manager and Soldier can get together and do anything other than fly apart on their own little missions. Admittedly, this is a flaw of games like Cyberpunk, of which this is clearly a nod to, but still.
Overall: Great start!
-Andy
I encourage others to share their reactions to this game.
Good Points:
Very cool layour/design. The use of background was interesting, as was the "coffee stain" (but see below), really brought me into reading it in detail.
Interesting development on the mechanics of Caffiene vs Insomnia, and what you can do with extra doses of the drug.
Caffiene Suppository. Wow.
Points to Work on:
Layout: The Coffee Stain should be reduced in transparency and words should flow through it, not inside it. having some words appear inside the coffee blob was a little... ok, a LOT distracting.
Spelling, grammar checks. But hey, the author is FRIGGIN ITALAN- I give him MAD PROPS for being able to write this well in English, and encourage him to contribute more in the future.
Action resolution: There was no scale of difficulty. Even a basic one would have made teh game a little more playable.
And with the above, examples of play. Games without examples of play make the baby Jesus cry.
The setting: This needs the most work. I see the kind of world we're left in, but I don't see the need for "adventuring". It doesn't seem like there's any imperitive to get out there and do stuff. A couple ideas in this area would have really helped.
The archetypes: I love games with archetypes. Having said that, though, if this game is developed it really needs to show how a Preacher, Technician, Manager and Soldier can get together and do anything other than fly apart on their own little missions. Admittedly, this is a flaw of games like Cyberpunk, of which this is clearly a nod to, but still.
Overall: Great start!
-Andy
I encourage others to share their reactions to this game.