Tag
8 posts tagged Gameplay.
G39 6 min read
Brackenmere had five worlds that no quest sent you to. I asked for the quest ledger to be redrawn as a map, sent it to two AI reviewers to play it in their heads, and the agents built the chapter that threads those worlds into the story: the Five Stones.
G36 6 min read
My son voted for goblins running into the village, so the game's one safe place got a fight. The first raid worked in the tests and meant nothing to a player; it took my own walk on the green, a few dictated paragraphs and a day of fixes to make it a raid you notice, can win and can never really lose.
G35 6 min read
I played Brackenmere end to end and found an errand chain: talk, fetch, return, repeat. Three AI designers diagnosed it independently, my son voted on their ideas, and by the evening every quest left a mark on the village.
G34 6 min read
The first version of Renown gave my kids a rank, a title and a Book of monsters, and kept my own rule that the hero's health never grows. A day later I shot up four levels without getting any stronger, and asked for levels that really mean something.
G33 6 min read
My kids told me fighting was their favourite part of Brackenmere, and that it was dull. In one day it became a one-button fight with five moves you discover by playing, a maze full of easy monsters, and a slow-motion kill cam that a research agent had warned me against.
G28 6 min read
One evening I asked the agents for a whole story, and by the next morning Brackenmere had seven main quests, nine side quests, two named bosses and a finale on Lantern Night. Two reviews on paper and a playthrough by a fresh hero did most of the work; my own play found the rest.
G24 6 min read
My kids played Brackenmere's first quest and got lost. Three fixes went in that night; two days later AI reviewers proposed cutting the game down, and I chose to keep all of it and rework the opening, pacing, controls and rewards instead.
G13 6 min read
In two days a hovel became a house that grows a room at a time, with builders, wear and repair. Along the way I stopped the agents chasing an art score: fix what is broken, and no 8 of 10 bar.