He also encouraged other developers to take their games out to public-facing events like E3 and PAX, noting that taking The Talos Principle to events where lots and lots of people could play the game in a short period proved invaluable in the team’s iterative design process. They also removed a level completely (Rome) and extensively reworked the game’s Sigil system, as well as opening up the level design of Talos Principle to give players room to release stress and think as they explore.Ĭroteam CCO Davor Hunski jumped in to add lots of smaller examples of how Croteam substantially reworked game mechanics like the user interface, the in-game auto-connector items and the exploding mines. “It was a great deal of work, but very worth it, because the players had a lot more fun." “We removed a lot of redundant puzzles,” said Ladavac. “A game that had seemed complete was showing a lot more problems,” said Ladavec, noting that it took a long time for new players to get through the first world of the Talos Principle alpha and many felt bored. Internally, Croteam designers built puzzles for their new game and then tested each other’s puzzles in turn. That took care of fixing basic flaws, and then each puzzle would be played by the entire team to verify whether it was satisfying to solve.Īt this point Croteam also worked out a new way to collect statistics on how difficult each player found each puzzle, which (when collated into a giant spreadsheet) made it easier for the developers to tweak the puzzles and lay them out in a proper order.Īfter the game was rejiggered in accord with internal play testing, Croteam took it external - and immediately felt pressured to react to a host of new issues. The studio's approach to building The Talos Principle seems straightforward, but flexible.
Serious sam 4 developer series#
So Croteam came to GDC this year to advocate for game design as a series of prototyping processes, pursued by developers with open minds willing to be reactive and radically change design - even when they're late in the game. “The moments when your feedback tells you your game is completely wrong are what I call 'Tacoma Narrows' moments, but you shouldn’t fear these moments, added Ladavec. Ladavec compared game development to the business of bridge construction, noting that a game falls apart when developers don’t account for unexpected faults, just like when civil engineers fail (very rarely!) to account for an unexpected weather condition - like when Washington's Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge collapsed four months after it opened in 1940 due to aeroelastic flutter. “So you have to be reactive in your design. “It’s hard to predict which forces influence ‘fun’”, said Ladavec. So they reacted by deciding to put Serious Sam aside and make a new game, a puzzle game that the team saw great potential in but couldn't quite predict whether or not it would be satisfying to play. But as Croteam began experimenting with new mechanics, especially a “Jammer” mechanic, they realized they had more ideas for fresh mechanics than a Serious Sam game could encompass.
The Talos Principle started out as Serious Sam 4.
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