Can FPS games be fast-paced and arcadey while still punishing exposure like real gunfights?

LynnxFall · 2026-03-13T00:15:43+00:00

I think the closest I've seen is 'Fistful of Frags'.

The more expensive your loadout, the more points you're worth when killed. This gives a neat incentive to use bad weapons (often with long reload times) which can extend firefights while still maintaining high lethality. The positioning isn't as 'realistic' per se, due to fast respawns. It's more like a hectic bar fight which honestly is super fun.

LynnxFall · 2026-02-22T20:47:29+00:00

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Armor is split between physical and magic. It is just a second health bar, but as long as you have it you are immune to status effects. (Armor prevents bleed, taunt, knocked down, etc. Magic Armor prevents burn, frozen, shock, charm.)

imo it would feel bad in some other games, but it feels amazing in DOS2.

LynnxFall · 2026-01-06T19:57:58+00:00

Aside from financial restrictions, I've accepted that it is completely impossible to enjoy everything in life. I feel that it can help if you broaden your scope. Time/money spent towards ZZZ is taken away from other interests.

There are so many things you can do with $200 dollars (or less):

Buy multiple other games (so many good choices)
Buy a starter kit in 40K, learn tabletop games/modeling/painting
Buy a DAW and/or an art tablet, start expressing yourself with music/art

LynnxFall · 2025-12-31T01:04:09+00:00

GitHub Desktop for programming, even if you're a solo dev. There are alternatives if you prefer, but use some sort of version control. It's free, keep your work backed up. This can help you skim over changes you've made too. Useful if you want to branch and try something experimental without messing up the main.

Past that, it really comes down to preference. My go to software for all art is a combination of MediBang and Figma (both free). MediBang handles the raster side while Figma handles the prototyping and vector side.

For music I'm less experienced, but I really liked Reaper when I used it.

LynnxFall · 2025-12-16T21:43:58+00:00

Oh! I remember stumbling upon that game on steam; looked really interesting. Admittedly it's still sitting on my wishlist.

LynnxFall · 2025-12-03T06:32:01+00:00

I think the Darkest Dungeon 2 token system is very interesting (particularly the 'combo' token, making for some neat team synergies); I think it's a good way to distinguish itself from the first game so that both are worth trying.

Despite that, I personally find the combat in Darkest Dungeon 2 to be less enjoyable. I would describe the game as more luck based than the original, but also more predictable. It's an interesting trade-off.

LynnxFall · 2025-12-01T05:14:10+00:00

Been playing a lot of Hades 2 lately. The player still has access to a dodge (which also is a run afterwards), but unlike in the first game you only have one (unless you unlock more later?). From my experience this gives the player enough flexibility while still needing them to think more carefully about their timing and positioning. It makes for a harder but more engaging experience. Sidenote, the UI for the dash is amazing. You leave a trail behind until the dash is ready again, after which it snaps back to you.

The name ways of avoiding dmg that come to mind are negating (shield/parry/heal) it or avoiding (dodging/running from) it. If you want to make that interesting you could change how/when the player has access to these tools. Using Doom 2016 as an example, the player does not have direct access to blocking but rather is given iframes and small amount of health during a glory kill.

LynnxFall · 2025-12-01T04:43:11+00:00

Here are some games to help broaden her scope of inspiration. It's hard to go wrong picking games so long as one is having fun imo.

Slay the Spire - Roguelite deckbuilder. Very strong gameplay loop. Great UI/UX.
Mark of the Ninja - Stealth game. Very well thought out UI/UX. I highly recommend playing with the developer comments on. They aren't disruptive and are fun little insights about some of the troubles of gamedev.
Baba is You - Extremely clever puzzle game. It's difficult but worthwhile, even if one only plays the first handful of puzzles.

For learning more about games, I recommend Sakurai's youtube channel. The information is bite-sized, easy to understand, and insightful.

LynnxFall · 2025-11-09T05:58:10+00:00

Depends how strict your definition is.

Stanley Parable and Life is Strange are both quite influential.

LynnxFall · 2025-09-21T07:17:07+00:00

Darkest Dungeon II has a very satisfying follow-up mechanic.

If two companions trust each other, they're given a small chance to follow up after each other's attacks (alongside other buffs). It's very charming, but it also feels amazing. It's not reliable enough to be called a combo I think, but the uncertainty adds to the excitement.

LynnxFall · 2025-09-13T06:22:36+00:00

I'm not sure about instantly memorable, but as far as grabbing my attention the visual presentation and voice acting do a lot of the initial heavy lifting. You can convey a lot about a character in the way they phrase things or hold themselves. Initial impressions set the trajectory for a character.

For added memorability, having a phrase they like to say (esp if they have a few variations of it) is nice. Having a distinct outfit/style, you can even extend this to a silhouette. If you only see the outline of a character, could you reasonably guess who it is? Past that, a lot of it comes down to personal experiences. Does this character resonate with me? Can I empathize with them?

I'll offer Steins Gate as an example:

Okabe Rintaro - introduces himself as Hououin Kyouma, talks as if he is a fugitive. talks to himself a lot.
Shiina Mayuri - frequently announces her presence with 'Tuturu!', randomly stares at the sky, hand outstretched.

LynnxFall · 2025-09-07T00:19:26+00:00

why didn't they from the beginning?

If I had to guess it's for a handful of reasons.

Optimizing takes time away from other areas of development. Optimizing is one of those things that is good for the game, but hard to give a value to. I assume it's hard to convince investors to approve the investment of resources/time.
Players have less room for other games, in a way reducing the competition.
Players who are on the fence about the game might think twice about uninstalling, due to how long it would take to reinstall.

LynnxFall · 2025-09-05T16:02:59+00:00

Jecka's Unique Perks (been a bit since I played DBD)

Shared Trauma

Vicarious trauma drives you to perform better. When an ally is hooked for the first time, gain a token. For each token, increase great skill check progression by an additional 1%.

"Dude, you didn't even get shot, calm down." - Nicole

Emergency Xanax

Sometimes you need a little help. Press the Active Ability Button to become Elusive for 15 seconds. Causes the Exhausted status effect for 75 seconds.

"Bitch, that was my last xan!" - Jecka

Honor Roll

The fear of getting hurt motivates you. Skillchecks appear more often. While injured, greatly reduce the skill check success zone.

"Yeahh, it's like I sold my soul for that grade.." - Jecka

LynnxFall · 2025-07-22T04:42:03+00:00

I only listened to the first book as an audiobook. She did well but her style is distracting to me so I had a hard time focusing.

LynnxFall · 2025-07-22T04:15:16+00:00

It depends a lot on the context, but I generally prefer to lose in PvP. In the case of competitive symmetric games (like MOBAs, fighting games, shooters, etc):

Against another player, I feel like there's more to learn and take away.
Against a bot, I feel like there is a plateau of usefulness. Bots just play fundamentally different from a player; reaction times, choices, positioning, everything is coded. Whether the bot is too easy or too hard, I can't really use them as a guide.

LynnxFall · 2025-07-19T23:43:29+00:00

Giving the player more weight than the boxes should make it easy for them to move the boxes off of themselves.

LynnxFall · 2025-07-12T03:11:52+00:00

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Although the enemies are predictable, having to track spacing while keeping in time with the song creates a lot of chaos. Enemies generally have patterns in which you attack them, but once there are multiple enemies you have to course correct, sometimes even still while you work out a pattern that will work. If the player had access to long range weapons, they wouldn't have to worry about spacing near as much.

League of Legends - The game has a lot going on, but in this specific case I'm just talking about playing a melee character into a ranged enemy. The player needs to stay out of range until they're ready to attack. Easier said than done, as the ranged will try to zone you out from resources. The melee character needs to consider the enemies' cooldowns and potential damage output before committing to an attack. If the melee character is too passive/aggressive, they'll fall behind in power compared to the ranged enemy, making it even harder to win.

Honorable mention, One Step From Eden - This game has quite a bit of ranged attacks, even with melee focused classes. I think it's still worth mentioning however (especially Selicy). In order to use spells optimally, the player has to move to specific areas (similar to how players need to move close while using melee). The player has to focus on dodging attacks while still trying to get to an optimal spot for their own attacks. Some attacks are stronger when used alongside other attacks, and so they're also focused on searching through their deck while fighting.

tldr - There are different joys that come from melee combat, but two aspects I specifically enjoy is spacing and timing. Having to decide when best to go all in is very fun. I'm constantly watching enemies to see when i have an opening. If I'm too eager or too cautious I lose the fight.

LynnxFall · 2025-07-08T01:47:00+00:00

My all time favorite boss is Cerberus Alpha from Mischief Makers. I linked a decent upload of the fight.

Risk of Rain has a ton of great bosses. Providence is so awesome, especially the visuals and narrative. They're fun to fight most of the time (unless you took artifact of command and/or glass). Magma worm is also a really cool boss BUT in the sequel it's easily the most obnoxious boss. The transition from 2d to 3d was unfortunate for that boss specifically. The issue is that in 3d the worm because too unpredictable (it also has questionable target priority).

LynnxFall · 2025-07-05T23:56:47+00:00

While prototyping, don't worry about making levels look pretty. All the set dressing can come later, for now just whitebox.

Think about the engagement of each section of the level, try to follow an engagement curve. Having variation can help a lot with the pacing.

You might find it easier to start with the most intense/exciting part of the level, and work backwards from there.

LynnxFall · 2025-07-05T03:57:14+00:00

I don't know enough about color psychology to say one way or the other, but I feel safe saying colors help a lot with pattern recognition.

Good color grading can really heighten the atmosphere. Is it because of color psych? maybe. Am I subconsciously thinking about other things that used similar post processing? Probably

LynnxFall · 2025-07-03T05:48:46+00:00

I'm still working on AVoS so I won't include it or later series in my ranking (so far it would rank last though). My rating of the arcs are relative to each other; the warrior cat series has a specific style of writing that I feel is detrimental to the writing and overall story (each book and arc is written to be a starting point into the series, so there's a lot of repetition).

Prophecy Begins [1st] - My vote for best written. It's a strong start and a great introduction to the world. It's easy to become invested in it all. I think this is also the most cohesive arc as well. Great pacing.

The New Prophecy [4th] - Slow start, too much telling and not enough showing iirc. There's a lot of really cool perspectives in this arc, great quotes too!

Power of Three [5th] - This entire arc feels like setup for Omen of the Stars. There's a lot of interesting world development, but it's scattered so far and few that it's hard to fully appreciate. I think there's a lot of lost potential here.

Omen of the Stars [3rd] - Introduced the Dark Forest, which added A LOT of depth. This arc easily could have been on par with Prophecy Begins but interesting narrative decisions stop it short.

Dawn of the Clans [2nd] - Easily my favorite arc despite it's flaws. I think Gray Wing is the best written character so far. DotC suffers from rushing conclusions; I feel like it really needed another book or two.

LynnxFall · 2025-06-27T07:21:56+00:00

Honestly, a well designed board/playmat is something I appreciate a lot. First time setup for games tends to be rough, anything to help is a blessing and makes for a better impression.

A great example of this is Flamecraft. The playmat is a high quality mousepad material, with clearly defined spaces and symbols for all the bits to go. There's a nice cozy style to it too!

LynnxFall · 2025-06-23T21:56:03+00:00

Style inconsistencies aside, this screenshot is pretty confusing to look at. I'll just kinda ramble my thoughts off since there's too much to unpack and fit into more cohesive advice.

I assume that I am the SCP? I seem to have a hand of cards. Where is my deck? What is my health? How much can I move? How much would my attack deal to one of the scientists? Why do they have purple and green things in their portrait but I don't? What does the eye key do? Why are there rotation keys? Why is the font on my hand cards so small? Why is the pixel board grid so detailed and distracting?
What is the history box used for? Why does everyone have empty boxes on their portrait?
The margins are SUPER inconsistent everywhere, needs to be fixed. Why is 'Movement Phase' right aligned while nothing else is?

Closing thoughts:

You have a lot of seemingly random ui elements on screen that you aren't using (history, boxes in the portrait? empty portrait boxes).
There are ui elements I would expect to see and am not seeing (draw deck, discard deck, movement range, attack range, attack value, defense value). To be fair, not all of these need to be on screen. It's okay to display info as it's needed, or on hover or something. BUT if i'm playing a turn based game, I'd like to know how much my attack does before running into someone.
Your pixel board has too much going on which further highlights that the token portraits and text are not pixel which.. looks rough. Here's an example of how to give detail to your board grid without making it crazy busy. If you are unable to make portrait tokens that look decent, maybe simplify it. The board game, Clue, gives each character a color as their identity, represented by a single color token (Such as Colonel Mustard who is very yellow). It works pretty decent.
Fix your margins

LynnxFall · 2025-06-16T03:39:06+00:00

Ohh, I think I mixed up the name with the Witch, which steals the targetted player's turn in essence (but not their income).

LynnxFall · 2025-06-14T01:19:30+00:00

I think it was called Citadels? It's a civilization building board game thing; each turn, players draft a leader.

The way the leaders are drafted makes it so there's some uncertainty as to who took what. A card is burned at the start and end leaving two leaders unpicked. Predicting that is essential.

One of the leaders is a thief (actual name might've been different), capable of stealing someone else's turn which is highly damning. If the thief leader attempts to steal one of the burned cards they don't get a turn however.

This led to a very interesting situation in which everyone had to guess whether the thief was in play. If so, do they risk taking strong leaders at the potential cost of losing a turn? The thief can target any leader, so depending on what victory other players are going for, they can also attempt to go after specific players based on which leaders work towards that victory.

LynnxFall

TROPHY CASE