Fifty Days of UFO 50: Day 32


[Until one of these many different posts you're partially through the process of writing becomes post-able, I suppose we'll just have to make do with another pile of disorganized notes about why you think you might be struggling to get into some of the better games in the collection...]

UFO 50 games that have been "resistant to more play despite..."
(discounting the usual friction that comes from lacking the skillz to do more than practice, practice, practice)

Party House (0 Scenarios Beaten...)

  • My approach may simply be too linear:
    • Assumption that scenario 1 "Alien Invasion" is the easiest is logical/likely, but the goal/pattern might not necessarily be the most fun to repeatedly attempt
    • Being unable to make a "Dancer Strategy" work shouldn't prevent me from trying others
  • The game plays faster than I do:
    • Spammier inputs
    • Less thinking - (analysis paralysis rearing its head once again)
  • Unwillingness to "play by the rules:"
    • Refusing to "stand" at 2 troublemakers if they show up early in a party
    • Quitting/restarting if a single party gets busted by the cops early in a run
      • (the tuning MUST allow for at least few busts in a press your luck game)

Rock On! Island (Yet to reach the second village...)

  • Mostly just perfectionism?
    • Not every level needs to be beaten with full cave health
    • Yes, even though I suspect the cherry will have something to do with a metric like that...

WarpTank (Yet to defeat Renegade...)

  • Fear of the unknown?
    • Still have no idea what the teal and purple switches are doing in the "overworld" level
    • All the capsules I have easy access to are golden already
    • Predicted there would be bosses, and the enemies HAVE gotten a bit weirder but not that weird...
  • A dash of perfectionism
    • Definitely have never moved on from a level until the coffee has been located
    • Something something cherry

Caramel Caramel (Yet to beat The Egg...)

This actually just boils down to a weirdly specific pacing sin committed by the "Prologue" level, where they're talking to you in text at the bottom of the screen about the premise of why you're going on a "galactic adventure," (to try out your new camera). Meanwhile, you're ALSO learning to play a new shmup/STG at the same time, and something about how I'm wired simply rebels: "No, shoot and dodge up here OR read dialogue down there, both is unacceptable!"
I'm not usually very sensitive to design decisions like this, but apparently I'd prefer a lack of tutorialization to an introduction that plays tug-of-war on my sensibilities?

I don't recall feeling this tension during the original Star Fox, prior to voice-acted dialogue, so I wonder how much thought went into having your teammates talk to you during deliberately paced lulls in the flow of shooting and dodging...

The only other time I can recall feeling this way was when I tried to play Jett: The Far Shore, a game that was very well voice acted in a semi-fictional language. They were constantly rolling out story and dialogue during dexterity flight sequences, meaning you needed to read subtitles WHILE dodging stuff and feeling out the flight controls...
Something tells me after you get used to piloting, attention bandwidth opens up to enjoy the story, but it was rough feeling like I was half missing out on both sides of the experience early on.

Similarly, I bet Caramel Caramel rarely deploys dialogue during the main game, if at all, so I may just need to replay the Prologue once paying attention to the text, and again paying more attention to the mechanics?

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