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Games With Crates Get No Twinkie

Posted by Zonk on from the items-can-come-from-other-containers dept.

Gamasutra's reoccuring feature "Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie" covers the subject of crates and barrels in games, (ala Old Man Murray) courtesy of designer Ernest Adams. From the article: "If there are crates in a place, there had better be pallets under them and at least one forklift as well. In fact, somebody wrote to me (unfortunately I lost his name in an E-mail crash) and pointed out that wooden crates are completely passé now anyway. Modern shipping is done in piles of cardboard boxes all held together with industrial-strength plastic wrap. Wood is heavy and expensive, cardboard is light, cheap, and recyclable. But our FPSes are still displaying 40-year-old shipping technology, even in futuristic science fiction games." He also touches on Rumble implimentation, Easy Mode, Split Screen, and Camera Angles.

8 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. first thing we do... by LewieP · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...every day before work is have a forklift race, where u can win different prizes depending on what position you come in, then we spend the rest of the day moving aroun 15 wooden crates about the harbour.

    --
    oxymoron of the day - Xbox gamer
    1. Re:first thing we do... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Funny

      after that, you go and blow all the money in arcades and toy capsule machines. so much for saving up for that trip to hong kong.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Hang on a minute... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 3, Funny


    If the crates are made of metal, then how am I going to break into them with the crowbar?

    As for crates made of cardboard, they just aren't as satisfying to break...sorry.

    Now...crates made of glass or ceramic...now that's something I could get behind...

    ^_^

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  3. Re:crates are fun by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 2, Funny

    *looks up from smashing crates into people with the gravity gun*

    Nooooo...... :-D

    And hey, which is cooler, the warehouse scene where they're boxing the ark from Indiana Jones, or a bunch of pallets? How would you like it if the "very special award" arrived in a cardboard box full of peanuts rather than a wooden crate labeled "frage-eel"?

    --
    The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
  4. Re:I see crates everywhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    OMFG, please post pictures of these crates!

    I've heard of a fair number of fetishes, but this one takes the crate.

  5. HL2 by amliebsch · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's why HL2 is the most realistic game ever. It has crates, oh yes. But it also has pallets. AND cardboard boxes!

    --
    If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
  6. Re:Playing with old tactics and attitudes too... by Nexzus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Make sure to include fuses in the control panels. Who knows how many nameless crewmembers have been killed by a console exploding in their face.

    --
    Karma: Can only be portioned out by the Cosmos.
  7. Uh huh... by DamienNightbane · · Score: 2, Funny

    The same article points out that you can't move crates without a forklift and a pallet for the crate to sit on. If there are crates in a place, there had better be pallets under them and at least one forklift as well.

    Because you know, it's not like crates have been around longer than forklifts.