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Re: Project idea: Hex

To: REALbasic Games <realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: Project idea: Hex
From: Lars Jensen <larsjensen at rcn dot com>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 12:14:11 -0400
Delivered-to: realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com
> So the question is: is it good for such a (freeware) game to include
> (weak) computer enemies (AI) at all, as it's a lot of work and may
> nontheless disappoint people?

Some advantages to having one:

- As a player, I would always want to try a game out before inflicting it on
my friends...even a weak AI would let me do that better than nothing.

- As a developer, I find that having an AI in place makes testing less
tedious. Sometimes the bonehead moves surprise you...you can even rig it up
so that it plays itself all night long.

- As a designer, I once added a simple AI to one of my games -- and it beat
me about half the time! This told me that the gameplay wasn't deep enough to
reward practice; in other words, the game itself was not ready for prime
time. I wouldn't have found this out until I had burned a lot of playtime
with my friends, and it's not clear they would have sat still for it...

lj

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