Heya. Looks like it’s that time again!

Let’s discuss pacing: An aspect of games that isn’t really discussed much despite how important it is!

Pacing is that flow between areas, levels, bosses, and dialogue that helps the game run as smoothly as possible with proper segways between events. It’s something many games can mess up real easy, and likewise it has been the most challenging aspect of creating this game.

You ever had those moments where a game felt like it ended too quickly, or dragged on with one specific section, or changed moods awkwardly? That’s usually issue with the pacing. It can pull you out of an experience and make what should be trivial moments in a game frustrating.

All aspects of a game have an effect on pacing: From that one annoying control scheme that makes even simple jumps difficult, to how unneeded a backtracking mission or an easy to fail escort mission feels, to bad cutscenes. It all can help lead to flawed pacing and spoil a good gaming experience.

I knew this would be the hardest aspect of the game when I told myself my goal would be to make ‘The End’ “about half as long as the original”. It dawned on me that it is kind of difficult to really gauge a game’s length until it is actually played from beginning to end. Those parts I would assume were easy might be incredibly difficult to the average player, or those seemingly difficult parts of the game are breezed through. So, I had to start imagining a player’s playthrough of ‘The End’ from start to finish.

And by that, I mean imagine their every action, their every pause to think, their every save and stop point. Think it through multiple times and with as many details about even the smallest aspect of the game in mind. This kind of practice feels like something a lot of aspiring game designers fail to think through when planning their own games. They may think of how awesome a certain boss would be, but not think about how frustrating the trek back to the boss after a loss would be since you didn’t put a save point close to the boss’ location.

In one of the more populated locations in the game, I intended for it to only be a few screens large and be fairly easy to move through. But as I designed it, I realized that many players have this tendency to keep moving forward until they find a obstacle they need to overcome, then go back and explore the rest of the town. Because of that I had to not only make it larger, but also add little ‘obstacle’ areas in order to make sure the player takes the time to explore. That was something I never thought of before!

So in conclusion, I have to say that I can’t really guarantee the length to be what I projected. It might be shorter than that 3 to 4 hour timespan, or perhaps even longer. No clue at the moment! We’ll have to see when it’s actually done.

Till’ next month!