Appreciation of Little Touches by Designers.

[Miyakan]

Potential spoilers!! (If you haven't played bravely default.)

So I'm still playing through Bravely Default for the first time. I have somewhat spoiled the story for myself as I fell in love with the soundtrack before I played the game, and that lead to research.

Anyway, I have just recently reached the point where Ringabel regains his memory and figures out that Airy is not quite what she claims to be. No surprises for me as I knew the general story already. Still a cool plot development. The really cool thing that I want to point out, is that when I went back into my save file after this revelation, the title screen changed!! The subtitle of the game is "Where the Fairy Flies" but when you go into your file it changes it so that "Where the F        F       " are in red and then fade away, leaving you with "Airy Lies" as the subtitle.

It isn't something huge and amazing in terms of design, in fact, some people might never notice if they load their file too quick, but it is a really cool touch that fits in with the plot development.

What are some other examples of little touches that game designers have put in that make you appreciate a game even more?

[Servbot#36]

I only recently noticed that in the second Sigma stage of Megaman X, each subsequent window shows the sky as a slightly different color, going from really early morning to dawn. Then when you go outside to fight Storm Eagle near the end of the stage, it's daytime. I thought that was really cool.

Also the X-ray visor in Metroid Prime showing that Samus switches beams by changing the orientation of her fingers. It's extra cool because it makes those hand shaped symbols that represented them up until that point suddenly make sense.

[Admiral_C]

In Super Mario World, I never realized that the music changes when you jump on a Yoshi. There's an ever so slight 'clippety-clop' beat that gets added to the track in the background while you're riding. If you jump off, it fades out.

[Miyakan]

23 hours ago, Servbot#36 said:

Also the X-ray visor in Metroid Prime showing that Samus switches beams by changing the orientation of her fingers. It's extra cool because it makes those hand shaped symbols that represented them up until that point suddenly make sense.

Ooh. I hadn't noticed that specifically. I did appreciate the level of detail the x-ray visor showed. The echo visor in Prime 2 was a little disappointing but I guess it wouldn't be as detailed. I might have to go look at the beam holds.

[lemnlime]

The quality of lighting and shadow effects in big-budget games nowadays is what does me in. Looks even better than real life if that's even possible. Also, I'm constantly stunned by how fluid and natural movement looks nowadays in most 3D games--even movements that aren't humanly possible! The limitless imagination of these game developers makes me sooo glad to be a gamer.

This is a great idea for a topic BTW

[MindWanderer]

On 8/5/2017 at 9:27 AM, Admiral_C said:

In Super Mario World, I never realized that the music changes when you jump on a Yoshi. There's an ever so slight 'clippety-clop' beat that gets added to the track in the background while you're riding. If you jump off, it fades out.

It does that in subsequent 2D Mario games as well, adding bongos and Yoshi voices in places.  And in the New SMB levels that have water in them, the music changes when you're in the water.

Speaking of SMW, I always loved the little fish that jumps out of the water every time you walk over a bridge.  Such a tiny thing, but such a cute little touch to add life to the world map.

[Meteo Xavier]

Relevant to the discussion: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/best-video-game-easter-eggs/2/