What are your favourite design limitations?

[Xegethra]

Linguica said:

Doom already HAS a bunch of limitations though, and I think Doom editing has persisted as long as it has precisely because of them. Since the game is 2.5D, level editing can easily be done in top-down 2D view, which is much faster and cognitively easier to deal with than true 3D. There are only three ways to interact with the level, which coincide with the 3 main things the player is able to do - move, use key, and fire key. Interactions with the level almost exclusively do one thing: change sector properties, usually by making a floor or ceiling go up or down, but also changing texture or light level. Enemies only do one thing: inexorably move towards the player and attack. I don't want to say that the Doom feature set is the bare minimum needed for an interesting level-design environment, but it's close.

One reason I think the Boom level extensions were so successful is because they do allow for much more complex level behavior, but they do so by extending the Doom-editing aesthetic of only providing the most rudimentary design tools, and forcing creators to figure out how they can use them in interesting ways. Like, the major thing Boom added was scrolling floors, which led to player-activated conveyor belts, which led to conveyor-belt voodoo doll line activators, which lets you do lots of interesting and complicated things. It's almost like a scripting language that is coded by the level geometry itself, and so you're forced to constantly be mindful of the level itself that you are making, instead of losing yourself in a text editor.

As much as people pay lip service to "you can do anything" scripting-heavy game editing environments, the simple fact is that the less limitations you have, the more difficult it can be to even figure out what you want to do. Doom editing takes the opposite tack - it barely lets you do anything, so you have the interesting cognitive task of figuring out what you CAN do, and this jumpstarts the creative process much more effectively.

But if you have too many limitations then you can't create anything at all.

No matter what, sometimes limitations benefit, sometimes they don't. Largely I think the more freedom to create the better, so for those that work best in that way can get on and do it....some people don't need so many limits to be focused, they just think and do and don't get confused with options. Less limits means more multiple ways to do something...so if one way doesn't work for you, you have another path to go down instead.

But then with limits, people can really push and create something that people didn't think you could with it before...you can create impressive work arounds or illusions or just compose things in such a way you create a complex thing with simple tools and options.

I don't think there is a blanket "best way" to do things though, it's different for everyone. Less limits in general is a good thing, because there is an option to take or leave them, people have creative ideas and they need the most comfortable way for them to be able to have a go. Strike a balance I guess.

However limits imposed purely for a competition or something I like, makes people come up with all sorts of stuff....but in general map making, people should be as limited or free as they wish.

[johnlee]

limitations are good in every work. limits can let you achieve every thing. :)

[Soundblock]

johnlee said:

limitations are good in every work. limits can let you achieve every thing. :)

Hell yeah.Properly fondled they're enlightening.

[VGamingJunkie]

Limitations do force people to get more creative but you could argue that any game engine is full of limitations since it's not like we've reached the point where we can make infinite polygon counts and infinite texture sizes so the game industry will always have to use some creativity to get around limitations. This is especially true for Doom as it's still a 2.5-D engine at heart.


Even GZDoom has quite a lot of limitations as to what you're able to do with it, albeit less than others and it takes some real creative workarounds to try to get through them. Perfect example, Total Chaos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1EGfCQN4Y#t=01m15s



Despite using GZDoom, it looks like it could pass for a more modern engine, Source at the very least.