boredzo

Peter Hosey

@boredzo

Also @boredzo@mastodon.social.

Breaker of binaries. Sweary but friendly. See also @TheMatrixDotGIF and @boredzo-kitchen-diary.

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boredzo
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NireBryce
@NireBryce
hthrflwrs
@hthrflwrs

one of the other golden rules of indie game marketing is "give press an easy way to reach the interesting parts of your game." for example, SNAKE FARM has a secret cheat code that lets you unlock all packs instantly rather than unlocking them via achievements. sure, it might not be the precise play experience you want people to have, but streamers only have so many hours to devote to your project; make them count as much as possible

dog
@dog

This is great for event judges, too! In IGF, being able to provide judges a way to see different parts of your game's intended experience is a way to make sure more judges actually experience what you're expecting them to experience.

lexyeevee
@lexyeevee

forget the press, cheat codes are good. if i'm playing a game for the seventh time maybe i would like to skip ahead a bit

in fact i think cheat codes are one of the subtle things that have contributed to doom's longevity (anytime-saving being another). game too hard? cheat. want to spice it up? cheat. get yourself stuck? cheat. third-party level is just plain broken? cheat. working on a map? cheat. there's this fuzzy overlap with "coarse-grained debug tool actually" that turns out to be very useful

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in reply to @lexyeevee's post:

mvdl
@mvdl

games are curious in that it's a kind of media where you're expected to have to "get good at it" if you plan to consume it in its entirety. heck, even the act of making progress along a game itself is gamified via achievement systems.

cheat codes let everybody engage with more of a game's content, rather than keeping it just for those who are good at the game.

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gabu
@gabu

i guess cheat codes to fix when something doesnt work (whether thats game balance or an actual bug like getting stuck in bad geometry) is kind of like right-to-repair, the devs give you the tools to fix the game yourself if a small problem occurs

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fluffy
@fluffy

People seem to have forgotten that the warp zones in Super Mario Bros weren't originally there as a speedrunning tech or part of the "intended" route, they were little hidden things that were there as developer tools while testing the game which also make for a convenient continuing-where-you-left-off in the times before save games.

Of course because everyone and their dog knows the warp zones, everyone and their dog ends up just playing the shortest route and then gets rapidly discouraged when they hit world 8 and aren't able to actually complete it, and miss out on some damned fine levels.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this ramble.

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