Author Topic: Start-to-Crate  (Read 4818 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Simon

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 3860
    • View Profile
    • Lix
Start-to-Crate
« on: February 18, 2016, 08:40:46 PM »
"All games contain crates, therefore all games can be judged empirically on those crates.

Games can be rated and compared based on the shortest amount of time it takes a player to reach the first crate, which represents the point where the developers ran out of ideas."


Exact rules to determine start-to-crate, including penalties.

How well does Lix do on the test? Here's a screenshot from the very first level, without scrolling:



0 seconds until the first crate is visible
-2 seconds due to penalty #1: crate is on fire
= -2

This sucks pretty bad, I consider it a design bug. :>

-- Simon
« Last Edit: April 22, 2017, 09:26:45 AM by Simon »

Offline ccexplore

  • Posts: 5311
    • View Profile
Re: Start-to-Crate
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2016, 09:33:47 PM »
Given that the cuber icon in the skills toolbar looks rather like a crate, and even with no cuber skills given we'd still display a grayed-out icon, one can argue that Lix's StC can never be higher than 0? :P

Offline Simon

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 3860
    • View Profile
    • Lix
Re: Start-to-Crate
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2016, 09:51:44 PM »
If there is doubt, it's a crate? :-[

geoo has already suggested that the low StC is a feature. The game welcomes you with its open arms, and declares Completely Unoriginal!.

-- Simon

Offline Proxima

  • Posts: 4562
    • View Profile
Re: Start-to-Crate
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2016, 11:01:03 PM »
As I mentioned in chat, DROD does better here, perhaps setting some kind of record (if you don't count games with no crates at all -- yes, they do exist -- as having an infinite score).

The attached picture shows the first appearance of a crate, four minutes into The City Beneath. But this game is a direct continuation of the previous game, Journey to Rooted Hold, so perhaps it would be fair to include the time taken to play through JtRH in its entirety -- which, on my most recent playthrough, was twenty hours.

Offline ccexplore

  • Posts: 5311
    • View Profile
Re: Start-to-Crate
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2016, 11:33:31 PM »
(if you don't count games with no crates at all -- yes, they do exist

Pong, the world's very first video game by most definitions, is decidedly crate-free (unless you want count the ball as a "barrel").  Anyway, I think that relevation was what decidedly clued me in that the whole thing cannot really be taken seriously even if you try. :P

And looking at the original post of the people who invented StC, I also noticed a heavy focus on FPS type games, of the 27 or so games they "reviewed".  I feel like even as a joke, it probably works much better humor-wise for those games compared to other types of games.

Offline Simon

  • Administrator
  • Posts: 3860
    • View Profile
    • Lix
Re: Start-to-Crate
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2016, 06:49:17 AM »
Right, 3D games are more likely to have crates. Therefore, having a -2 score in a 2D game is even more of a problem. ;P

With Lix and the crate metric, I love how the coincidences pile up here. Our level designers have come up with a few ingenious decorations. The burning crate, cut open with an eraser piece, is a nontrivial leap of mind. We even have many crate-free levels after this.

-- Simon