Mar 18, 2018 at 3:34 AM
Join Date: Feb 20, 2011
Location: lost in translation
Posts: 336
Age: 32
Pronouns: he/him
About your current rubric:
Playability, I think it's too broad a term. I'm going to try and define some more precise categories below.
Consistency is a good category if not a good name I'd say, of course we're not judging how hard a mod is but only the difficulty curve and balancing problems.
Mechanics sounds weird to me. If there's technically impressive stuff in the mod and it doesn't fall into one or more of the other categories, then that means it doesn't look good, feel good, or improve the gameplay, so what is it doing there?
Aesthetics: I like your idea of using a notion of "aesthetics", implying you could make something that scores high in that domain with vanilla assets. I'm keeping that.
So I'll try to take note of the differents aspects of modding we could be judging:
- aesthetics
- general idea/theme behind the mod (whether it's well-defined, whether it's interesting, whether it goes in random directions or stays consistent and focused on the important parts, whether the theme feels reasonably well-explored and complete...)
- gameplay (how it feels playing the game, how new elements of gameplay compare to good ol vanilla CS...)
- plot and storytelling (plot points and how helpful the storyline is in driving the player forward, if there is any)
- level design (how levels, maps, monsters, etc. are designed and put together to serve the gameplay, according to the player's movement and fighting options)
- difficulty (the difficulty curve of the mod, bosses, etc, or in this case, since mods will be short, whether it stays at the same difficulty throughout)
- balance (whether there's a weapon that's way better than another, whether an enemy is way stronger than the others, whether there's a threat to the player that's way more important than the rest...)
- realization (lack of bugs, design oversights aka "holes" in the concept, etc.)
Of course the story category (as well as the gameplay category if a mod plays like vanilla CS) is not always relevant, depending on the mod. I consider story to merely be a game design tool, one more reason for the player to keep playing and have a direction in which to go.
To conclude, I'd suggest something like:
- Aesthetics (graphics, music, mapping, smooth cutscenes, etc.), (10 points)
- Design (gameplay, level design), (15 points)
- Difficulty/balance (10 points)
- Polish (general consistent theme behind the mod, realization, lack of bugs, etc.) (10 points)
- Entertainment value (the mod is fun to play, is challenging, has an interesting story if there's one, etc. anything that makes the player want to keep playing). (5 points)
(total: 50)
To note: my goal, in the mod review thread notably, is to judge a mod rather than a modder's skill. For this reason, I have a storytelling category there, and I don't judge the contents of TSC scripts and other internal files. I don't think we should do that here either. For the same reason, I'm not judging technical prowess because, as impressive as some of the mods may be out there, the fact that something is hard to make only affects me as a modder and not as a player, and so I shouldn't care about it. Plus, if your mod is that good, then it probably got many points in the other categories anyway.
Playability, I think it's too broad a term. I'm going to try and define some more precise categories below.
Consistency is a good category if not a good name I'd say, of course we're not judging how hard a mod is but only the difficulty curve and balancing problems.
Mechanics sounds weird to me. If there's technically impressive stuff in the mod and it doesn't fall into one or more of the other categories, then that means it doesn't look good, feel good, or improve the gameplay, so what is it doing there?
Aesthetics: I like your idea of using a notion of "aesthetics", implying you could make something that scores high in that domain with vanilla assets. I'm keeping that.
So I'll try to take note of the differents aspects of modding we could be judging:
- aesthetics
- general idea/theme behind the mod (whether it's well-defined, whether it's interesting, whether it goes in random directions or stays consistent and focused on the important parts, whether the theme feels reasonably well-explored and complete...)
- gameplay (how it feels playing the game, how new elements of gameplay compare to good ol vanilla CS...)
- plot and storytelling (plot points and how helpful the storyline is in driving the player forward, if there is any)
- level design (how levels, maps, monsters, etc. are designed and put together to serve the gameplay, according to the player's movement and fighting options)
- difficulty (the difficulty curve of the mod, bosses, etc, or in this case, since mods will be short, whether it stays at the same difficulty throughout)
- balance (whether there's a weapon that's way better than another, whether an enemy is way stronger than the others, whether there's a threat to the player that's way more important than the rest...)
- realization (lack of bugs, design oversights aka "holes" in the concept, etc.)
Of course the story category (as well as the gameplay category if a mod plays like vanilla CS) is not always relevant, depending on the mod. I consider story to merely be a game design tool, one more reason for the player to keep playing and have a direction in which to go.
To conclude, I'd suggest something like:
- Aesthetics (graphics, music, mapping, smooth cutscenes, etc.), (10 points)
- Design (gameplay, level design), (15 points)
- Difficulty/balance (10 points)
- Polish (general consistent theme behind the mod, realization, lack of bugs, etc.) (10 points)
- Entertainment value (the mod is fun to play, is challenging, has an interesting story if there's one, etc. anything that makes the player want to keep playing). (5 points)
(total: 50)
To note: my goal, in the mod review thread notably, is to judge a mod rather than a modder's skill. For this reason, I have a storytelling category there, and I don't judge the contents of TSC scripts and other internal files. I don't think we should do that here either. For the same reason, I'm not judging technical prowess because, as impressive as some of the mods may be out there, the fact that something is hard to make only affects me as a modder and not as a player, and so I shouldn't care about it. Plus, if your mod is that good, then it probably got many points in the other categories anyway.
