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Bad ideas. If you do this you're gonna suffer from miyazaki syndrome, aka the irresistible urge to put poison swamps everywhere in your game world. It's addictive. Pls send help
I have 1d6 table for strategies, tactics, attacks and defenses for every monster or enemies. Literally 1200~ possibilities, if you not count different interpretations and improvisation.
As far as learnable patterns go, I like to use "bloodied" which I think is a Condition from 4e dnd and just completely change up its attacks and such. When making a dark soulsian boss, you can't forget phase 2
I played the sound of a clock ticking to signal the arrival of one of the monsters in a game I was running. I’d never actually tell them the monster was approaching, I would just quietly start playing the sound and wait until they noticed and reacted naturally. It worked really well at freaking them out.
@@lukelcs8934 I think it was born half out of the creature itself and half out of me wanting to do a good job as I hadn't GMed in a while. The monster was a bear that had been infected with a virus that was slowing turning its body into clockwork. Essentially a clockwork bear zombie. When they first encountered it the players were in a long dark corridor where they couldn't really see anything, so I decided to play the sound to let them know they were getting close to something. It worked surprisingly well, so any time the bear showed up after that I would play the sound first.
@@rabbitpirate Oooh, that is wildly creative, I love it! The ticking clock works thematically as well, as it's only a matter of time before the bear turns into nothing but clockwork!
Elongated limbs, ragged hair, guant emaciated features and exposed rib cages with an overall gothic theme are common design features. And roots. A lot of Fromsoftware monsters have root and branch like features in their designs. Also something wierd about the left arm. A lot of souls born bosses have wierd left arms. Fromsoftware also likes to make things look melancholic, forlorn and sad. People focus a lot on the horror aspect, but what I find to be the most defining feature about the Fromsoftware aesthetic is a permeable melancholy and sadness in all of their designs.
That's a very good point, although I think the sadness is more pronounced in their later games. Demon souls monsters feel mor savage but man, we get to bloodborne or dark souls 3 you can really feel the crushing weight of how those creatures feel.
@@DesksAndDorks Thanks man. And I agree. Bloodborne and Dark souls 3 are very close aesthetically. I kinda consider them siblings. They were the games that really fleshed out that melancholic aesthetic.
frankly this is what i think bloodborne missed the mark on, alot of its enemy design just feels like generic gothic horror designs tbh. it doesnt have the intricate and subtle melancholy found in the other games.
Interesting analysis. Shadowdark has a useful set of random charts for adding random variations to monsters, so encounters with the same creature can have a lot of different flavors. I also remember the design team from 4th Ed. D&D talking about how any monster that isn't just a mook or minion should have about 3 different things it can do in combat, which certainly jives with your advice about monster attack patterns.
That's interesting about Shadowdark as that's the system I'm most unfamiliar with. Also 4th edition combat was GREAT I know it gets clowned on a lot but the combat in that edition may very well be the best.
I would recomend check out manga berserk for that topic. It was inspiration for souls games and imo can help with developing world without apocalyptic feeling to it.
I would LOVE to do Fear and Hunger Content. I've had a couple scripts about it ready to go but nothing I've wanted to really commit to. Thay game series has consumed my imagination.
@@warforge3850 ehhh....i think alot of bbs combat is mindless aggression, losing the great strategy part found in elden souls. i wouldnt call bb the most fair because of the rally system, the game would just crumble under its own weight otherwise.
Bloodborne is a different kind of beast for strategy rather then the more plodding combat bloodbornez fast agression is its own really good strategy. At no point does it crumble
I always warned friends of mine when they first tried DS1, be careful of the Torch Hollows. You WILL assume that they're just weak peons who you can walk all over, and then they stunlock you to death with ease. Most of them never took it seriously, and then they got absolutely destroyed. 🤣
Before I start watching what I have always taken away from the Soulsborne games is that they are experts at the Cronenberg style of body horror. the vast majority of their creature designs are taking ordinary creatures and warping them in some way this occurs mainly with humans. undead enemies, crow demons, demons of lost izalith, wheel skeletons, pus of man, slimes, ghouls, crystal soldiers, Oolacile residents, pisaca, ghosts, pinwheel, mass of souls, outrider knight, mimic, Irithyllian slaves, Sulyvahn's beast, deep accursed, sewer centipede, corvian, man-grub, maggot-grub, Ghru, serpent men, murkmen, pilgrim, caged hollow, lycanthrope, wretch, and others I forgot are humans that are mutated in some way. Or that they use a throughline to tell a story, in most of their game's dragons go down a path of devolution. In Elden Ring, there are ancient dragons, dragons, wyvern like dragons, snakes, etc. In Dark Souls there are everlasting/archdragons, dragons, hellkites, drakes, primordial serpents, serpents, lizards, hydras, and basilisks. In Sekiro, carps, snakes, centipedes, lizards, and eels are related to dragons.
@DesksAndDorks a problem i have with many games is they add enemies based on a theme rather than based on how those particular enemies end up there or end up in that way. With soulsborne each enemy has a place and has a self contained lore in that area that fits into the overall design and lore.
A solid video, tho the topic needs a bit more condensing, you have a habit to get on tangents, with a lot more background images in the video to underline what you are talking about, kinda like a powerpoint presentation. Overall I quite liked it, best of luck with growing your channel!
@@DesksAndDorks Scripting can help, but I'd recommend training yourself first to notice when you say it, in normal conversation, and take a moment to remind yourself internally "nope, I don't say that." After a while of doing that (probably about two weeks, if my case is at all normal) you can train yourself out of it. It's a useful undertaking because it makes you sound more competent and thoughtful and less rushed and nervous, which can be hugely beneficial in many areas of life. Best of luck, I know you can do it!
Why limit yourself and make things in an image of something and not use the unlimited human imagination to come up with something unique and original (well, to a reasonable extent) ???
Because inspiration is a key part of making and designing things, and sometimes you want to make something that echoes concepts or themes you really admire.
Yeah you can see the berserk influence everywhere in the game. What's cool is we may never get a berserk game on par with the manga but dark souls carries its spirit which is neat
Hard disagree. There is an entire souls like genre now, it consistently gets top game awards every year it comes out, and many new games have borrowed mechanics from those games (riposte, dodge roll etc.)
So I think it would be smart if we sepersts this by time period but if I'm labeling a couple for impact (other then dark souls) -starcraft (pushes rts genre to prominence) -pong (responsible for early game craze) -Mario (essentially starts the platform error craze) -Candy crush (I loathe most mobile games but it's a multiple billion dollar industry and candy crush is essentially the flagship game for that genre) -Everquest/Ultima online/wow- I think it just depends on your flavor of mmo but each one did something important for the genre. Board games is a whole different list
Whether or not you like dark souls it pretty much defined if not created a genre that tons of games now try and copy. The series definitely changed fantasy gaming.
![[Halo: Reach Part 3] Finishing Reach - dailies - some UFOs probably](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kSfP4mMxSpg/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey everyone! If you're enjoying this video be sure to check out our video on making your games more like action films!
th-cam.com/video/K1qReB7zOcQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=7lPWOIE7DsOHQoy8
Bad ideas. If you do this you're gonna suffer from miyazaki syndrome, aka the irresistible urge to put poison swamps everywhere in your game world. It's addictive. Pls send help
Shoot I forgot to include the whole section on poison swamps. Scrap the video new video on only poison swamps
@@DesksAndDorks I now expect to see a Poison Swamp video now, you being watched closely
This is a challenge I shall rise to. As our lord and savior Shrek said....for the swamp.
I came in thinking I was going to have to defend someone then finished reading the comment 😅
If you came in to defend Shrek then I salute you and your patriotism
I have 1d6 table for strategies, tactics, attacks and defenses for every monster or enemies. Literally 1200~ possibilities, if you not count different interpretations and improvisation.
As far as learnable patterns go, I like to use "bloodied" which I think is a Condition from 4e dnd and just completely change up its attacks and such. When making a dark soulsian boss, you can't forget phase 2
That's a really good point bloodied is essentially the 4th edition version of boss phases
nothing quite makes a player as unsettled as describing a monsters smell by asking for a CON save :)
True enough!
I played the sound of a clock ticking to signal the arrival of one of the monsters in a game I was running. I’d never actually tell them the monster was approaching, I would just quietly start playing the sound and wait until they noticed and reacted naturally. It worked really well at freaking them out.
Brilliant. Yes yes yes yes
Love that. Out of curiosity, did you happen to have any particular inspiration for that? What kind of monster was it?
@@lukelcs8934 I think it was born half out of the creature itself and half out of me wanting to do a good job as I hadn't GMed in a while. The monster was a bear that had been infected with a virus that was slowing turning its body into clockwork. Essentially a clockwork bear zombie. When they first encountered it the players were in a long dark corridor where they couldn't really see anything, so I decided to play the sound to let them know they were getting close to something. It worked surprisingly well, so any time the bear showed up after that I would play the sound first.
@@rabbitpirate Oooh, that is wildly creative, I love it!
The ticking clock works thematically as well, as it's only a matter of time before the bear turns into nothing but clockwork!
Elongated limbs, ragged hair, guant emaciated features and exposed rib cages with an overall gothic theme are common design features. And roots. A lot of Fromsoftware monsters have root and branch like features in their designs. Also something wierd about the left arm. A lot of souls born bosses have wierd left arms. Fromsoftware also likes to make things look melancholic, forlorn and sad. People focus a lot on the horror aspect, but what I find to be the most defining feature about the Fromsoftware aesthetic is a permeable melancholy and sadness in all of their designs.
That's a very good point, although I think the sadness is more pronounced in their later games. Demon souls monsters feel mor savage but man, we get to bloodborne or dark souls 3 you can really feel the crushing weight of how those creatures feel.
@@DesksAndDorks Thanks man. And I agree. Bloodborne and Dark souls 3 are very close aesthetically. I kinda consider them siblings. They were the games that really fleshed out that melancholic aesthetic.
It is a really under utilized aesthetic tbh and pretty in keeping with classic Gothic literature as a whole.
frankly this is what i think bloodborne missed the mark on, alot of its enemy design just feels like generic gothic horror designs tbh. it doesnt have the intricate and subtle melancholy found in the other games.
Interesting analysis. Shadowdark has a useful set of random charts for adding random variations to monsters, so encounters with the same creature can have a lot of different flavors. I also remember the design team from 4th Ed. D&D talking about how any monster that isn't just a mook or minion should have about 3 different things it can do in combat, which certainly jives with your advice about monster attack patterns.
That's interesting about Shadowdark as that's the system I'm most unfamiliar with.
Also 4th edition combat was GREAT I know it gets clowned on a lot but the combat in that edition may very well be the best.
@@DesksAndDorks I agree about 4th Ed's combat. I know my players enjoyed it.
I think the roleplauying and rules were just not what people wanted but it was such a cool system.
@@DesksAndDorks And there are plenty of really good design choices to be learned from where it succeeded and where it failed.
Bloodied was also a great mechanic
I would recomend check out manga berserk for that topic. It was inspiration for souls games and imo can help with developing world without apocalyptic feeling to it.
Long time fan of berserk. One of the best manga out there and stories in general imo.
@@DesksAndDorks Thou could you do video on Fear and Hunger? Its dark souls of RPG.
I would LOVE to do Fear and Hunger Content. I've had a couple scripts about it ready to go but nothing I've wanted to really commit to. Thay game series has consumed my imagination.
dont forget a monster like blood starved beast.
Blood starved beasts would go hard. I know I lumped bloodborne in with Dark Souls but I feel like I need to make a solo video just on bloodborne.
@@DesksAndDorks indeed blood bourne has to be the most fair when it comes too combat with the come back system.
Yeah the adrenaline mechanic is such a great concept and it leads to wonderful aggression
@@warforge3850 ehhh....i think alot of bbs combat is mindless aggression, losing the great strategy part found in elden souls.
i wouldnt call bb the most fair because of the rally system, the game would just crumble under its own weight otherwise.
Bloodborne is a different kind of beast for strategy rather then the more plodding combat bloodbornez fast agression is its own really good strategy. At no point does it crumble
I always warned friends of mine when they first tried DS1, be careful of the Torch Hollows. You WILL assume that they're just weak peons who you can walk all over, and then they stunlock you to death with ease. Most of them never took it seriously, and then they got absolutely destroyed. 🤣
Yeah the first few levels in that game are a ruuuuuude awakening. Even knowing what was coming I got rocked.
Before I start watching what I have always taken away from the Soulsborne games is that they are experts at the Cronenberg style of body horror. the vast majority of their creature designs are taking ordinary creatures and warping them in some way this occurs mainly with humans.
undead enemies, crow demons, demons of lost izalith, wheel skeletons, pus of man, slimes, ghouls, crystal soldiers, Oolacile residents, pisaca, ghosts, pinwheel, mass of souls, outrider knight, mimic, Irithyllian slaves, Sulyvahn's beast, deep accursed, sewer centipede, corvian, man-grub, maggot-grub, Ghru, serpent men, murkmen, pilgrim, caged hollow, lycanthrope, wretch, and others I forgot are humans that are mutated in some way.
Or that they use a throughline to tell a story, in most of their game's dragons go down a path of devolution.
In Elden Ring, there are ancient dragons, dragons, wyvern like dragons, snakes, etc.
In Dark Souls there are everlasting/archdragons, dragons, hellkites, drakes, primordial serpents, serpents, lizards, hydras, and basilisks.
In Sekiro, carps, snakes, centipedes, lizards, and eels are related to dragons.
Body horror is a great point to add to the identity of a dark souls/souls borne monster
@DesksAndDorks a problem i have with many games is they add enemies based on a theme rather than based on how those particular enemies end up there or end up in that way. With soulsborne each enemy has a place and has a self contained lore in that area that fits into the overall design and lore.
I will add to this that modern games ( at least ones with good writing teams) seem to address this problem pretty well.
the vast majority of most creature designs are taking ordinary creatures and warping them in some way
This is true! Probably goes back to some anthropological root of people taking what they know and twisting it in some way.
This was a amazing video
Glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully you liked the action movie one we dropped thus thursday!
A solid video, tho the topic needs a bit more condensing, you have a habit to get on tangents, with a lot more background images in the video to underline what you are talking about, kinda like a powerpoint presentation.
Overall I quite liked it, best of luck with growing your channel!
Thanks! I used to try and cut the tangents out now I just try to harness them as best I can.
Cool vid!
Thank you!
Listen back to this video, and pay attention to how often you say "um."
It's a bad habit, but is fixable.
Trying to get it fixed with some more scripting!
@@DesksAndDorks Scripting can help, but I'd recommend training yourself first to notice when you say it, in normal conversation, and take a moment to remind yourself internally "nope, I don't say that." After a while of doing that (probably about two weeks, if my case is at all normal) you can train yourself out of it.
It's a useful undertaking because it makes you sound more competent and thoughtful and less rushed and nervous, which can be hugely beneficial in many areas of life.
Best of luck, I know you can do it!
My monsters don't like Dark Souls and this didn't help :(
Convince them to try playing without a shield. They might find it more engaging!
Or give every monster 2 shields and just see what happens
Why limit yourself and make things in an image of something and not use the unlimited human imagination to come up with something unique and original (well, to a reasonable extent) ???
Because inspiration is a key part of making and designing things, and sometimes you want to make something that echoes concepts or themes you really admire.
@@DesksAndDorks Cool. Miyazaki was also inspired - by Godzilla movies, Berserk Manga and ICO game.
Yeah you can see the berserk influence everywhere in the game. What's cool is we may never get a berserk game on par with the manga but dark souls carries its spirit which is neat
While dark souls was a good franchise, it in no way or form breaks top 50 as far as "changed fantasy gaming" 😂
Hard disagree. There is an entire souls like genre now, it consistently gets top game awards every year it comes out, and many new games have borrowed mechanics from those games (riposte, dodge roll etc.)
In your opinion, what franchises/games did?
So I think it would be smart if we sepersts this by time period but if I'm labeling a couple for impact (other then dark souls)
-starcraft (pushes rts genre to prominence)
-pong (responsible for early game craze)
-Mario (essentially starts the platform error craze)
-Candy crush (I loathe most mobile games but it's a multiple billion dollar industry and candy crush is essentially the flagship game for that genre)
-Everquest/Ultima online/wow- I think it just depends on your flavor of mmo but each one did something important for the genre.
Board games is a whole different list
absolutely insane take
Whether or not you like dark souls it pretty much defined if not created a genre that tons of games now try and copy. The series definitely changed fantasy gaming.