Game Makers! I'm curious? What grinds your gears???

[MioSegami]

For people who make games, what irks you or your pet peeves when making games? Just curious !
Or even as game players what annoys you when playing games?

[Ryue]

As creator:
-What irks me is when the test-players tell me that the systems I made are far too complicated for them to understand (often the case when I create a new rpg system).
Another thing that raises my hackles is when I find out that the system (rpg system for pen and paper but also for pc same for strategy) I'm creating has some flaws
that cause an innate imbalance ...thus for example mind affecting spells being overpowered and I can't do anything but scrapping the whole system and redo it from scratch to eliminate the imbalance (found that one out after 2 months of beta testing ouch).

-Co-workers that disappear without a word.

-Bugs in the programming language or framework I use (nothing so far with renpy.....but php with a few frameworks....ouch)

-Finding no documentation for the language I'm using, or the documentation being incomplete,...

As a player:
-Illogical storylines. Thus storylines that have huge holes in them because they are faulty (if the storyline is good I'm even ovelrooking bad graphics).
-Games that betray themselves. Thus if I can decide to do things and it has absolutely no impact (do I befriend a char or betray him....but regardlless same outcome in the end), or if a game goes into a specific direction and then I find out that all things that are about that are cut out (example dragon age 2......they shouldn't have given the option to do a few things if they cut it out anyway)
-A user interface that can't be used without getting a senew inflamation (rebel alliance had one.....superb game but everytime I played it...senew inflamation because it was so extremely mouse intense)

[specialtantei]

Well, when it comes to playing games, what I hate the most are those missions where you have to protect someone because they are useless pieces of data (RE 4 *shrugs*), bad placed and not warned of quick-time events (Damn it Capcom), and NPCs who are there just to tell you things you already know (Fi, I know my batteries aren't charged, you've been telling me that for an hour!) Even with all this things, a game can still be enjoyable. I mean, how could it be worse?...*evil shadow lurking* Oh no...it's the dreaded...'Water Level!' Seriously. Once I see a game has a Water Level I just want to throw it out a window. And cry silently.
As for making them, I guess coding exactly what I want to happen in the game is the most urghhh for me. Mostly because a single misplaced comma can break it all down (I'm looking at you, Python coding!). It's still enjoyable when I realise I'm doing it right, though. Game making is fun, though the actual most difficult thing is having an idea and sticking to it .

[nyaatrap]

For people who make games, what irks you or your pet peeves when making games? Just curious !

When I get feeling to change my art to polish them after done many of arts.

Or even as game players what annoys you when playing games?

Slow response and meaningless pauses. In VN, can't read advance with mouth-wheel is one of the worst.

[Geckos]

Or even as game players what annoys you when playing games?

Slow response and meaningless pauses. In VN, can't read advance with mouth-wheel is one of the worst.

There's a way to progress the story via the mouse wheel? O:


For Visual novels, I hate it when there's an overly large amount of character thought happening in a conversation. Tell me your mood with your words, not your thoughts!

[SusanTheCat]

When an update comes out that invalidates my workaround. (Shockwave did this with just about every release)

Susan

[latte]

In VN, can't read advance with mouth-wheel is one of the worst.

This so much, and not being able to advance/roll back with up and down keys. I think this was what got me mad at Katawa Shoujo system-wise.

Also, I may play a game with mediocre storyline but beautiful art (anything from UnisonShift Blossom), but can't overlook bad art unless it's the best of stories.

[inhalance]

As a creator, it's mostly my random feelings of motivation and inspiration. On some days, or even weeks, I don't feel like touching my work at all, and I would much rather spend my time sleeping or watching movies. Other times, motivation just hits me in the gut like a baseball bat - I suddenly have the urge to write out 5+ chapters of material! My motivation constantly wavers and is never consistent ^^;

As a player, nothing really bothers me much - as long as I like the game, I won't complain about it. The only times when I might feel a bit annoyed are (agreeing with latte), a game with amazing art, CG's, GUI, but the plot is terrible and the game is what, 30 minutes long? Also, paths which have no general point to them or are extremely repetitive, spanning from a month cycle to half a year cycle, irk me as well since I feel like the creator is wasting their efforts if the player is going to be bored halfway through the game.

[Boomsickle]

As a creator:Not being able to draw well,Not finding an artist that matched what in my head.
As a player: The only thing that has ever made me stop playing a game was in Crescendo, That game just hits lots of my bad points.

1. Otowa Yuka - The prostitute of the game, originally one of the reasons i started playing it. I had never played a game with one before so i wanted to see what it was like. Sad to say the first time shes introduced shes having sex with a fellow classmate and she gets paid $50. She just seemed so cheap that i didn't even want to bother with her. I thought i could get past her since maybe she had a bad past but still couldn't, IT hurt my soul too much T_T Like when i was playing Love Plus and Nene was all mine than i read one bad netorare doujin and it just killed the game for me, haven't touched my 3DS since.
2.Nagira Kaho - Although she forced you to join her club as is romantically interested in you shes dating your best friend,all because she ounce asked you if she should date him when he asked her out and you said "yeah you should" so she does and im pretty sure she has sex with him and although she s dating your best friend she still makes it appear like she wants you but doesn't want to break up with her boyfriend cus shes going "steady"
3.Lastly Tomonori Sugimura the douche himself. He knew you like Yuka yet because he also liked her he purposely asked her out ahead of you. The rest of the characters are sub par to say the least and the whole game ultimately made me sad.

[myapple]

As part of a dev team, I love the group dynamic, but sometimes it is hard to get along with everyone when there are different opinions. Things can get really frustrating at times.

Though since we are all human I suppose this is also a good thing XD. If everyone acted the same it would be hard to bounce ideas and get some new thoughts floating around.

As a player... storylines that aren't thought through and/or leave me with a lot of questions are probably my biggest pet peeve. There are so many smaller games I go into with an excited state of mind, and then end up dropping because the plot makes no sense or leaves things too ambiguous, etc.

[Ryue]

Another thing as a player (pc/nes-ds/... rpgs): Having to hunt monsters for hours over hours to be able to survive 1 combat and advance the whole story for two minutes until I must repeat it all again.
(devil survivor is a very good example there)

[Zylinder]

Pointless Choices

So! This is the beginning of your great adventure! What would you like to bring with you?

a. Sword
b. Bread. Bread would be cool.
c. A tavern wench

>You choose C
>Too bad! Have a sword anyway!

Just makes me blow a gasket.

Beyond that there aren't many deal breakers for me. I don't like infodumps, but thankfully there are very few games that do that. I usually love grinding/hoarding things in games, but there comes a point (like the aforementioned Devil Survivor, which I would never have finished if I hadn't set the exp to x8) where it's just pointless and tedious.

[Kato]

I've worked with a number of writers that used the phrase 'pretty much (insert observation)' and used analogies that had no relation to anything and were completely out of place. As soon as I come across these I have to stop what I'm doing and go to my happy place for a while...

[gekiganwing]

As a video game fanboy who still remembers playing Pitfall and Super Mario Bros for the first time...

1. Escort missions. Too often combined with characters who have inept AI, and who can die easily.

2. No indication of what is needed to progress. I was pretty forgiving back in the day... so I kept on playing Dragon Warrior 2 despite not knowing what to do in order to reach the final area, probably because I had few other entertainment options.

3. I kind of like level grinding, but it can be dull or frustrating. There are some games where I try my luck in a more dangerous area, and attempt to survive for better rewards. In other games, there's some barriers to success that are just frustrating, and I want to cheat in order to progress. (How does the player improve their axe in Harvest Moon Back to Nature? By cutting the same stumps six or seven times every day.)

4. The player is given so little guidance that decisions become a guessing game. Chance of success or survival is 50% at most.

5. The player's choices make almost no difference. (One vague example: No matter what you do, you need to fall into a trap in order for the story to continue.)

6. The game is only different because of a gimmick, such as stylus or motion controls.

7. A video game that's only "mature" due to excessive swearing, gore, and fanservice.

8a. A video game that's so similar to others in its genre or category that only dedicated fans understand what make it distinct.

8b. And to be specific, too many games that can be cynically described as "fratcore" or "bro-tastic."

9. The writing or translation is so bad that in gets in the way of understanding the story or enjoying the gameplay.

10. Too many instant-death attacks and not enough ways to avoid or endure them.

11. The retail version contains bugs or errors that can't be corrected.

12. Too many reissues, remakes, or slight reiterations of the same game.

13. The game is incentivized through in-game transactions and DLC.

14. Pacing problems. Just like any other media form, it's usually good if the game does not start too slow, get sidetracked, or drag near the end.

15. Finishing the game, or even getting to see the majority of its content, takes a huge amount of free time.

16a. The video game is announced very early. Tends to lead to years of hype and speculation... and more likely than not, the game will be above average at best. It only gets worse when delays happen, when PR exacerbate the game's qualities, and when news sites make it clear that huge amounts of money were sunk into development.

16b. The video game is announced too late. Only the most dedicated fans know that it exists.

Of course, even if a specific video game has five or six of these problems, it can still be enjoyable. For instance, I had a lot of complaints with Persona 4, but it's still one of my favorite games from the last few years.

[Vegeluxia]

As a creator:

When an update comes out that invalidates my workaround. (Shockwave did this with just about every release)

THIS. ;A;

+Waking up in the morning and realizing that art I made maybe wasn’t as cool as I thought at 2 A.M.

+Finally finishing up some of the workload and then remembering, “One down, forty-nine-thousand more to go!”


As a player:

+Bad voice acting. A million and four times over. It’s ruined entire games for me.

+Unskippable cut scenes from The Land of Never-ending Cut Scenes. Especially before a hard boss.

+Characters who act like complete idiots and can’t solve obvious problems and like to point out obvious things. “You unlock doors with keys! Did I pick up any of those recently?” Likewise, I hate when characters suddenly figure out the answers to everything, and I’m expected to have also figured it out with impossibly vague information. I just want my clues to be balanced equally.

+Getting cut off an hour into the game because I have to “buy the next installment to continue!” Bonus points if the next installment is the same length or shorter.