6 ms·

The Careful Design of Cave Story

65 points by dxu 11y ago

dxu 11y ago
Hi all, I'm starting a long-form game design analysis site to provide long-form articles on the topic for others to read, while exploring what makes great games so enjoyable. I started with Cave Story because it was my introduction to indie games, and I played it at a time where my computer was too slow to run anything else. The game itself was made by a single person, and is incredibly well designed for a passion project that was released as freeware. I think it's a great example of the careful, intentional design in video games. I'd love to hear any feedback, good or bad, on the content, on my writing, what you'd like to see, or even just the site design in general.
- alexleavitt 11y ago
  I really liked this article. It reminded me a lot about Tim Rogers' Earthbound review, which is my all-time favorite game review article: https://web.archive.org/web/20080219052007/http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=mother2 https://web.archive.org/web/20080219052007/http://www.largep... I think one easy improvement could be putting some headers throughout, so the reader has a better sense of the outline, structure, and flow of your argument. Personally, I'd also love to see more comparisons across games: like, why does Cave Story matter in the context of the other games of its time (or even games that have come before)?
  - dxu 11y ago
    You have no idea how much your comment means to me!! Thank you so much for your kind words. You bring up really great points! The first, regarding the use of headers, was something that I did think of, but decided against. One problem I had with the usage of headers was the fact that I felt it's too sharp of a context switch while you read the article. While it does allow for newcomers to quickly glance over the content, I felt that it would be better to prioritize the reader that already took the time to read. I tried to make the concept to concept flow as clean as possible. Instead of headers, I wanted to use the images as a way to naturally delimit the content as you read, without breaking your attention. I'm definitely not sure that what I chose to do is the best way forward! This is actually the first piece of writing I've really released or had anyone other than myself read. Regarding the second, it was definitely brought up to me it would be interesting to bring more detailed comparisons into the mix! I did a little bit of it with the mention of rogue likes and the Supergiant games. One thing I'm still working on is balancing the content so that it doesn't detract too much from the Cave Story - at the end of the day, the article was meant to be a tribute to the hard work put into the game by its creator, and the amazing qualities of video games. This was very hastily typed up (I'm actually traveling at the moment), so hopefully my intentions and logic behind the writing makes sense! I definitely plan on thinking more about the points you've brought up to incorporate into my writing in the future, so thank you SO MUCH for the honest feedback!
- joshschreuder 11y ago
  Great work! I've subscribed to your RSS as I've been on a real game design binge at the moment, with YT channels like Game Maker's Toolkit [1] and game array [2] [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJ-Xo29CKyLTjn6z2XwYAw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJ-Xo29CKyLTjn6z2XwYAw [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIr5cIzrkBIOwMCxJVJOx7Q/featured https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIr5cIzrkBIOwMCxJVJOx7Q/fea...
  - dxu 11y ago
    Oooh, I'm traveling right now, but I will check those out when I get the chance! Thanks for the suggestions.
ykl 11y ago
I wish there was more long-form writing like this in the gaming world (there's occasionally some good long-form stuff on Polygon that is great, but not quite like this). I haven't played Cave Story before, but after reading through this, Cave Story is going on my list to play. :)
- dxu 11y ago
  I'm glad you enjoyed it, and that it had that effect on you! Thanks for the kind words! :)
- PetitPrince 11y ago
  You might be interested in this [1] break down of Battle Garegga or this one [2] of Tetris the Grand Master (disclamer: I wrote this when I was still a teenager; I plan to rewrite it someday) [1] http://battlegareg.ga/ http://battlegareg.ga/ [2] http://bsixcentdouze.free.fr/tc/tgm-en/tgm.html http://bsixcentdouze.free.fr/tc/tgm-en/tgm.html
- Joof 11y ago
  I would love to do something similar with undertale (or fez) right now, but I pretty much assumed no interest. I may have to do this.
vhiremath4 11y ago
Do Day of the Tentacle!
- dxu 11y ago
  Definitely a classic. Maybe I'll revisit it with the remastered edition!
  - blablablame 11y ago
    they are doing a remastered edition????
    - thristian 11y ago
      It seems Lucasarts' new owners at Disney are more interested in licensing out their old adventure games than Lucasarts ever was. Since "Grim Fandango Remastered" did fairly well, they're also remastering Day Of The Tentacle: http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/watch_the_day_of_the_tentacle_remastered_trailer/ http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/watch_the_day_of_the... ...and even Full Throttle: http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/announcing_full_throttle_remastered/ http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/announcing_full_thro...
      - joshschreuder 11y ago
        The Grim Fandango remaster was great, as I never played more than the demo when it originally came out, but boy is it dated.
      - dxu 11y ago
        It's nice though, I think it's a great way of introducing a younger who might only be familiar with heavily narrative driven games from Telltale to an incredible generation of point and clicks. For example, I'd known nothing about Full Throttle prior to this announcement, :P
    - strangecasts 11y ago
      Yeah: http://dott.doublefine.com/ http://dott.doublefine.com/ (They're planning on doing Full Throttle later.) It sticks very closely to the original art, though - at times looking like they've traced directly over the sprites. (e: beaten to the punch!)
CM30 11y ago
Wow, that was a pretty interesting article, and that's from someone who had no interest in Cave Story before reading it. Ths said, are you going to write any more articles any time soon? Because I checked your site, and while I saw another one related to Super Meat Boy, it seemed like those were the only two game design articles you'd written (or articles on the site, period). That's a shame really, since decent stuff about game design is pretty hard to find online, especially given how some of the people whose sites I used to follow have stopped writing recently. So keep writing. Your work is more interesting than anything I've seen on a mainstream gaming site in a while. P.S. Also, if you're interested in reading more on game design, I'd suggest looking up Critical Gaming and reading Daniel Johnson's book on Wario Land 4's design. That's a pretty interesting read in itself.
- dxu 11y ago
  That is the plan! This was the only article I've written so far - I decided to launch it before amassing a number of articles. I'm currently working on one for Super Meat Boy, but this is also a passion project - I'm an engineer by trade, so unfortunately I'm unable to work on this full-time. Thanks so much for the support! You really have no idea how much that means to me... And awesome, I will definitely check those out - I've definitely been looking for more reading as well. Thanks for the suggestions!
loudandskittish 11y ago
I loved this game, but I have one major objection to the design, something that afflicts even AAA titles; Getting the "good" ending pretty much requires a walkthrough, since the actions the player must take to achieve it are so arbitrary and counter-intuitive.

65 points by dxu 11y ago

dxu 11y ago

Hi all, I'm starting a long-form game design analysis site to provide long-form articles on the topic for others to read, while exploring what makes great games so enjoyable. I started with Cave Story because it was my introduction to indie games, and I played it at a time where my computer was too slow to run anything else. The game itself was made by a single person, and is incredibly well designed for a passion project that was released as freeware. I think it's a great example of the careful, intentional design in video games. I'd love to hear any feedback, good or bad, on the content, on my writing, what you'd like to see, or even just the site design in general.

alexleavitt 11y ago
I really liked this article. It reminded me a lot about Tim Rogers' Earthbound review, which is my all-time favorite game review article: https://web.archive.org/web/20080219052007/http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=mother2 https://web.archive.org/web/20080219052007/http://www.largep... I think one easy improvement could be putting some headers throughout, so the reader has a better sense of the outline, structure, and flow of your argument. Personally, I'd also love to see more comparisons across games: like, why does Cave Story matter in the context of the other games of its time (or even games that have come before)?
- dxu 11y ago
  You have no idea how much your comment means to me!! Thank you so much for your kind words. You bring up really great points! The first, regarding the use of headers, was something that I did think of, but decided against. One problem I had with the usage of headers was the fact that I felt it's too sharp of a context switch while you read the article. While it does allow for newcomers to quickly glance over the content, I felt that it would be better to prioritize the reader that already took the time to read. I tried to make the concept to concept flow as clean as possible. Instead of headers, I wanted to use the images as a way to naturally delimit the content as you read, without breaking your attention. I'm definitely not sure that what I chose to do is the best way forward! This is actually the first piece of writing I've really released or had anyone other than myself read. Regarding the second, it was definitely brought up to me it would be interesting to bring more detailed comparisons into the mix! I did a little bit of it with the mention of rogue likes and the Supergiant games. One thing I'm still working on is balancing the content so that it doesn't detract too much from the Cave Story - at the end of the day, the article was meant to be a tribute to the hard work put into the game by its creator, and the amazing qualities of video games. This was very hastily typed up (I'm actually traveling at the moment), so hopefully my intentions and logic behind the writing makes sense! I definitely plan on thinking more about the points you've brought up to incorporate into my writing in the future, so thank you SO MUCH for the honest feedback!
joshschreuder 11y ago
Great work! I've subscribed to your RSS as I've been on a real game design binge at the moment, with YT channels like Game Maker's Toolkit [1] and game array [2] [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJ-Xo29CKyLTjn6z2XwYAw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJ-Xo29CKyLTjn6z2XwYAw [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIr5cIzrkBIOwMCxJVJOx7Q/featured https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIr5cIzrkBIOwMCxJVJOx7Q/fea...
- dxu 11y ago
  Oooh, I'm traveling right now, but I will check those out when I get the chance! Thanks for the suggestions.

ykl 11y ago

I wish there was more long-form writing like this in the gaming world (there's occasionally some good long-form stuff on Polygon that is great, but not quite like this). I haven't played Cave Story before, but after reading through this, Cave Story is going on my list to play. :)

dxu 11y ago
I'm glad you enjoyed it, and that it had that effect on you! Thanks for the kind words! :)
PetitPrince 11y ago
You might be interested in this [1] break down of Battle Garegga or this one [2] of Tetris the Grand Master (disclamer: I wrote this when I was still a teenager; I plan to rewrite it someday) [1] http://battlegareg.ga/ http://battlegareg.ga/ [2] http://bsixcentdouze.free.fr/tc/tgm-en/tgm.html http://bsixcentdouze.free.fr/tc/tgm-en/tgm.html
Joof 11y ago
I would love to do something similar with undertale (or fez) right now, but I pretty much assumed no interest. I may have to do this.

vhiremath4 11y ago

Do Day of the Tentacle!

dxu 11y ago
Definitely a classic. Maybe I'll revisit it with the remastered edition!
- blablablame 11y ago
  they are doing a remastered edition????
  - thristian 11y ago
    It seems Lucasarts' new owners at Disney are more interested in licensing out their old adventure games than Lucasarts ever was. Since "Grim Fandango Remastered" did fairly well, they're also remastering Day Of The Tentacle: http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/watch_the_day_of_the_tentacle_remastered_trailer/ http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/watch_the_day_of_the... ...and even Full Throttle: http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/announcing_full_throttle_remastered/ http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/announcing_full_thro...
    - joshschreuder 11y ago
      The Grim Fandango remaster was great, as I never played more than the demo when it originally came out, but boy is it dated.
    - dxu 11y ago
      It's nice though, I think it's a great way of introducing a younger who might only be familiar with heavily narrative driven games from Telltale to an incredible generation of point and clicks. For example, I'd known nothing about Full Throttle prior to this announcement, :P
  - strangecasts 11y ago
    Yeah: http://dott.doublefine.com/ http://dott.doublefine.com/ (They're planning on doing Full Throttle later.) It sticks very closely to the original art, though - at times looking like they've traced directly over the sprites. (e: beaten to the punch!)

CM30 11y ago

Wow, that was a pretty interesting article, and that's from someone who had no interest in Cave Story before reading it. Ths said, are you going to write any more articles any time soon? Because I checked your site, and while I saw another one related to Super Meat Boy, it seemed like those were the only two game design articles you'd written (or articles on the site, period). That's a shame really, since decent stuff about game design is pretty hard to find online, especially given how some of the people whose sites I used to follow have stopped writing recently. So keep writing. Your work is more interesting than anything I've seen on a mainstream gaming site in a while. P.S. Also, if you're interested in reading more on game design, I'd suggest looking up Critical Gaming and reading Daniel Johnson's book on Wario Land 4's design. That's a pretty interesting read in itself.

dxu 11y ago
That is the plan! This was the only article I've written so far - I decided to launch it before amassing a number of articles. I'm currently working on one for Super Meat Boy, but this is also a passion project - I'm an engineer by trade, so unfortunately I'm unable to work on this full-time. Thanks so much for the support! You really have no idea how much that means to me... And awesome, I will definitely check those out - I've definitely been looking for more reading as well. Thanks for the suggestions!

loudandskittish 11y ago

I loved this game, but I have one major objection to the design, something that afflicts even AAA titles; Getting the "good" ending pretty much requires a walkthrough, since the actions the player must take to achieve it are so arbitrary and counter-intuitive.