8 Rookie Mistakes Every Video Game Modder Always Makes
3. Retracing Your Steps
Its only natural to feel proud of your first creation, and you certainly dont want players to feel short-changed after theyve gone to the trouble of downloading and installing it. When it comes to considering the length of your mod and the amount of content it offers, however, it can pay to reduce the overall play time if it means leaving your audience with a better impression. Once your mod is structurally complete, its time to go through with a fine toothcomb and remove the backtracking. Retracing your steps in old locations isnt automatically wasted time, of course. Some games twist the knife on your second visit to an area, introducing stronger enemies or extra events. Games where your character continually improves, like the Metroid series, lend themselves well to backtracking its a chance to show how much more powerful you are now than the last time you came through and there are usually bonus goodies to pick up along the way. Even so, backtracking can often lead to moments where the players doing nothing but walking from A to B; pointless legwork with nothing to show for it. If theres one thing players will hate more than the backtracking you actually intended, itll be having to re-tread old ground because of a boss that took them by surprise or a pit they didnt see coming. Fortunately, there are a couple of habits you can get into thatll eliminate the worst of these problems. Put checkpoints after every lengthy level load and cutscene, and before boss fights or set-piece encounters. Few things break the players immersion more than repeatedly restarting on the wrong side of a loading screen or conversation and it doesnt matter how long your mod is if the player quits in exasperation.
