Looks like Edmund McMillen’sinitial write-up on game designis turning into a series, as he’s just thrown up a new post on how important it was to create an inspiring risk and reward system forSuper Meat Boy. Among other things, Edmund makes reference to the extremely effective risk/rewards systems found in such classics asPac-ManandSuper Mario Bros, and how he applied and tweaked those systems for use in his own game.
This kind of stuff is the closest thing we have to anUnderstanding Comics-equivalent for videogames. I hope that Edmund takes this one step further someday, and actually makes agamethat teaches us game design, something likeWarioWare D.I.Y., only more involving and hand-on with its teachings. That would not only be brilliant, but it would also make Edmund rich, especially if he kept including characters from other people’s games.
Edmund’s knack from bringing out the inner-creepiness in gaming icons is nothing short of amazing. Pac-Man with teeth? Brilliant. I hope he takes on Curly Brace fromCave Storyin his next post, which is planned to be about exploration in platformers. Curly’s panties may not be thebestexample of how to reward the player for fully exploring a game, but they’re not theworsteither, and mentioning “panties” on the Internet is always a good idea if you’re looking to score some new traffic (or even if you’re not).
Extra credit![SuperMeatBoy.com]
