How long should an Openbor game be?

Skull Kingz

Skull Kingz

Active member
In your opinion, how long should an Openbor Mod or any Beat em' up game be? How long would you like to play the Story Mode before actually completing it?  ???
 
I think the limit for the levels would be 100, after I took a look at the Wiki. Maybe stages might be 10 I think, but I'm not sure if it would be.

Openbor limits:
http://www.caskeys.com/arc/games/openbor/wiki/index.php?title=Limits

I like playing some mods that have more than 10 stages like ATOV. LOL

EDIT: I should've said it clear before. Depends on how many stages you like to make, maybe 4-9 stages.
 
for all my games i like to have 7 levels with a new set of enemies each 2 levels, but you can have multiple storys in the same game or  split the entire adventure in different chapters and player will unlocking it each 7 stages if the game is too long

i choose 7 stages limit for my projects because i cant play more than around 50 minutes without get bored. so its just for my personal taste
 
Skull Kingz said:
In your opinion, how long should an Openbor Mod or any Beat em' up game be? How long would you like to play the Story Mode before actually completing it?  ???
Click to expand...

I agree on it being personal taste. Also, welcome back!

DC
 
A good portion of it depends on your preferences; for a conventional beat em up, I'd say anywhere between 6-9 stages is a good amount.

But the inherent problem in deciding how long any game should be lies with its execution. If one makes a mod with crap gameplay and only 5 levels, then the journey to just level 2 could be an excruciating experience.

Gameplay itself not the only factor, too; there's also level design. If you're one of those modders that likes to throw 20 enemies at the player at once, then those 20 enemies better die quickly; otherwise the player will get annoyed and bored very fast. A commercial game that's guilty of this is Power Rangers: The Movie on Genesis. I've never even completed the first level. Why? Because the very first group of enemies lasts almost 5 minutes. Even if only 2 enemies spawned per screen thereafter, and the level design is amazing, I'll never know; simply because the first example of design the player encounters ridiculously overstays its welcome.
 
Since there is a save feature, this can be as long as you want.
The real limitation is more in a stage/level length (in time)

IMO, no real limitation in openbor game length, particulary if the game have variety of gamplay to try, like Eternal Champions's mod by Krauser.
 
Thanks for the welcome back DC. I agree with the personal taste thing, it depends on what the gamer is in to. In my opinion, I believe the game should have variety in gameplay if it's going to be a long story.
 
I think the limit for the levels would be 100, after I took a look at the Wiki. Maybe stages might be 10 I think, but I'm not sure if it would be.
Click to expand...

Game modes are still limited to 10 but entries or to be specific, levels, select and scenes are no longer limited. Our GIJoe mod has more than 100 entries but it still works. D&D mod has even more than that

A good portion of it depends on your preferences; for a conventional beat em up, I'd say anywhere between 6-9 stages is a good amount.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. KoV (the 1st one) has many levels and I lost my playing mood and spirit after playing couple stages. I'm playing in emulator which allows save states so I could use these to save my progress but if I played this in real arcade machine, I'd stop somewhere :(.

A commercial game that's guilty of this is Power Rangers: The Movie on Genesis. I've never even completed the first level. Why? Because the very first group of enemies lasts almost 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

I finished this game but I agree with you that it has bad level design. What really made me bored sick is first stages only have oozemen as enemies. You'll meet new enemies later but you'll never meet oozemen anymore.
New enemies don't offer better gameplay either. The repetition is still there til the end.
This reminds of The Tick, if you want to play this game, I HIGHLY recommend using emulator with save states. It's ridiculously too long with too much repetitions.

Back to topic, in my opinion it depends on how you want players to play your mod. Do you want them to play and finish it in single play (no load saved game) or play and save (use save game feature) couple times?
If the answer is the former, try keeping it around one hour. My Contra mod is designed this way. I controlled enemies' number, level length and subbosses & bosses HP & AI so it won't take too long to defeat them in early levels.

If the answer is the latter, you can be free but keep level variety and difficulty so players won't lost interest.
 
Final fight had 6 stages and it was quite long, it depends how long each stage is cause after awhile it becomes boring so its better if you dont spend too much time on regular enemies, 3 times chaincombo is really maximum for normal enemies IMO and in first stages 1 time chaincombo should kill them.
http://www.arcadequartermaster.com/ffight_bosses.html
 
how many stages? I dont know, but if you want a mod in an arcade style, should take 30 to 45 minutes to reach the end, Double Dragon and Double Dragon 2 arcade games only have 4 stages each one, but if you want a big adventure you have the save feature that come in handy, I have very little time to play, but whenever I finish a OpenBOR mod I do it in chapters, play 2 stages, save and continue later
 
Short and sweet, 2 hours max. Boredom and repetitiveness is a big problem. 2 modes of play. Single player mode and muliplayer mode. Single player is short and to the point or it gets boring (1 hour). Story is important to give a reason to keep playing. Muliplayer is slightly longer (1+ hour) with more enemies to pound on. The fun is just having a couple friends over and enjoying a game that has enough stuff going on so everyone can wild out. The worst part is when only one enemy is on screen and every one is crowded on him. It's like a song, A short song gets put on repeat. Long songs get skipped (sometimes).  :-\ 
 
I would argue about story being reason to play, battletoads arcade doesnt have any storyline and its best battletoads game, also bomberman hero have basically no story but its great game for me i played it from beginning to end in one go.I think it was variety of stages, each stage was a bit different but goal was the same in all of them.
 
I agree with bWWd, great story won't cure repetition and bad level design.
IMO story is like wrapper, you can have this or not as long the content is good.
 
nsw25 said:
its different for each game, i think 8 levels is good length
Click to expand...
I think so too.

※I think 1st level must have 1~2 stages.....and last level must have 4~5 stages.
and I think I must put 'strongest enemy char for boss' only in last stage in last level.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom