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[Forty Thieves] Short game

Started by Colin Fredericks, January 13, 2006, 03:08:07 AM

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Colin Fredericks

Hello again.

I got bored one day and decided to get some design practice by making a few very short games. I thought I'd be able to pull off one every day or three. They took forever. :) The first one I've actually managed to finish is Forty Thieves (that's a half-meg gzipped .pdf file).

It's a whopping six pages, and it assumes that you already have gaming experience. It has six attributes (three positive, three negative), has highly focused character concepts (see the game's title), and I found some very nice public domain art for it. It's not quite "beer and pretzels", but it could easily be used that way.

Comments are welcome.

--Colin

Josh Roby

Quote from: Colin Fredericks on January 13, 2006, 03:08:07 AMComments are welcome.

Do you have any specific questions that you'd like addressed?
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Colin Fredericks

Not particularly. I was doing this mostly to have fun and get some practice with something other than my main projects. I figured I'd see whether other people like it or not, and what they think. If someone has a suggestion for things I should do with Forty Thieves, or ways to improve on it, or if they want to use it as a base themselves, I'd be glad to hear them.

I guess it might not belong in the "indie game design" forum, but there's no "indie game release" forum. :)

--Colin

Unco Lober

Hi.
I found the game to have possibilities to be fun. And yes, it may be a nice choice when a group of roleplayers gathered together, but have nothing to do and no game prepared (which indeed happens from time to time).

I haven't played it, so my thoughts may be of less value, but after reading the system I had a feeling that:
- the dual length/heigth think may blessen fun a bit, because it is quite less controllable (or, to be precise, more _seemingly_ uncontrollable) by the players (if this needs to be further explained, please ask);
- IMO, the game is womewhat incomplete without the chapter of possible encounters. Just as You provided the ways to use attributes (which spawn ideas), I think You should have included the short "mission" ideas also, or even an easy "mission generator". Just suggesting, of course.

Overally, I quite liked the game and am possibly going to try it out another week or a bit later. Thanks {:{)= .

Zach

Athletics is called Acrobatics at the top of page one.

The other bit that caught me was the variable damage system when confronting traps and living creatures. Is it simply a measure of a thief's luck and finesse that he can lose three rounds to a palace guard (or perhaps six rounds to two palace guards) without taking a scratch? I can see that if the guy is rolling beneath scimitars and dodging behind pillars every time that he "loses" a roll instead of getting sliced up.

Only small critiques, since I like it. I may have to try it sometime.
Intergalactic Cooking Challenge is pretty slick. Also of note is the sample size.

Colin Fredericks

Thanks. I'll fix that.

And yes, the idea is that you're jumping around like a gymnast to avoid the nasty traps and guards. I should put something in to that effect. I wanted to avoid both having a separate health mechanic and having a death spiral.