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.This is especially important in adventure games and RPGs, that are played by people who use logics abundantly.Yes, roasting a rabbit in the woods will certainly help feed your party, but the smoke will inevitably attract those skeletons that have lost trail of you just some time before.Be objective to your games - don't let sentimental memories overpower your common sense of taste.You will have beta testers, of course, but there is no beta tester as good as the programmer himself.Of course, what one man likes can often repulse other men, and you should definitely look for a second opinion.But that's exactly why you will need to be a good gamer before you can be a good game programmer - you will depend less on the opinion of others, and you will react better.Just like every gamer should know a bit of programming before he can give a valid opinion, so should every programmer taste the call of adrenaline rush before he makes a game.I myself have been a victim of a savage argument with a tester, incidentally my best friend.My friend kept insisting on specific shadows for each flying unit in an RTS game; I, however, tried to convince him that one universal type of shadow (oval one) would be quite enough.He failed to understand that adding diverse shadows would not only add further programming problems, that were minor and easily solvable, but also that it would virtually double the amount of graphics needed for this game - in terms of both work to be done and size it would eat up.To conclude: the best games aren't made by best programmers, but by best gamers.Have that in mind.ConclusionNo, you don't need to ask quantum physics professors to unravel the misteries of universe to you before you start making a space sim.Hell, you don't even need to know a thing about space mechanics - judging by the content of modern space games.If you are a lone wolf programmer/designer (and in case you haven't noticed, this article was written mainly for that population), noone will ask you to further tire yourself with such things as Special Theory of Relativity.But hey, if you start messing with techs, try to make'em consistent and believable.Try to read just the basic things, and try to understand for one last time why Antimatter rifles CANNOT work on planets with high atmospheric pressure.And if you own a serious programming company, well, that's easy - you can just hire a creative consultant, someone who understands the core of the matter (and yes, I have no job currently, so.:) ) that will spare you of all that boring physics work, let you do the computer work while he edits the design concepts, and, before you know it, your company will be spitting out realistic-and-fun masterpieces that game industry will remember for a looong time.Oh, and have just one more thing in mind: While there is not a dormant genius within each computer player, there is a dormant computer player within each genius.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GameDev.net, its staff, or affiliates.If you would like to comment on this article, please do so by following the link to the forums above.Discuss this article in the forums© 1999-2002 Gamedev.net.All rights reserved.Terms of Use Privacy PolicyComments? Questions? Feedback? Send us an e-mail!
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