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Concept B - Core Concepts v. Core Mechanics Any single game can have its components split into four categories. We're going to talk about the other two later, but the main ones define the very core of the game. The Core Concept and the Core Mechanic will define your game, and be your significant focuses for most of preproduction. Core Mechanics The Core Mechanic is, for most us designers, the big element that we spend hours, weeks, months, years refining, and will not stop until it's perfect. The Core Mechanic is the element that makes the game fun for the player. It's a repeated action that the player MUST rely on to complete the game. Unlike any other mechanic, if you removed this single one, there would be no way for the player to finish the game. Core Mechanics, believe it or not, are mostly developed from much more basic, mechanic-only forms of games. While this is not always the case, the idea is that the board game or physical game can be used to test and produce a prototype of your game which you can test to see if it works and if it's fun, before even touching code. Here's some examples of how gameplay core mechanics have evolved: DOTA/WoW/LoL etc: The Core Mechanic is Movement. You must be able to move around and progress to the end of each environment. This has evolved from Chess. Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The Core Mechanic is Fighting. You must be able to attack players to finish each level. This has evolved from Martial Arts. Ratchet & Clank 3: The Core Mechanic is Gunplay. You must be able to shoot enemies to finish each level. This has evolved from Paintball/Laser Tag. One interesting note to make; consider what the core element of Counter-Strike is. It's also Gunplay. Now, compare how Ratchet and Counter-Strike both turned out. Separate games with highly different gameplay and aesthetics. With that in mind, you can see that, it's fairly safe to discuss your Core Mechanic in public, since it would require significant luck for somebody to accurately understand how you want to use your mechanic. One thing you should consider when deciding on a Core Mechanic, is that the more human that Core Mechanic is, the more fun it will likely be for the player. Our examples above were all fairly human things; moving, fighting, and using tools. Unfortunately, one Mechanic a game does not make. In order to make the game interesting, you need to add variable to the Core Mechanic to alter the effect. Furthermore, other mechanics (known as Variable Mechanics, which we discuss later), all build off the Core Mechanic. Everything is intertwined and works together to build an experience for the player. The sad fact of life is that, while the Core Mechanic is designed to KEEP players playing the game over long courses of time, players will hardly recognise this Core Mechanic, and may suggest that anything else is what keeps them around. We call the Core Mechanic a DESIGN ATTRACTION; something that entices game designers and other developers, and for players is the below-the-surface entertainment factor. Core Concept It's an unsung rule in Game Design that you have 15 minutes to hook a player. Marketing will insist that you have something to entice players. For your game, the Core Concept is the lure that will bring you the audience. We call this our PLAYER ATTRACTION. Your Core Concept is whatever brings players to bring your game. It may be the story. It may be the audio. It may be the graphics. It may even be something you don't make yourself, such as controversy. It's an intriguing idea, and therefore it can take a lot of work to make it interesting. The Core Concept is highly subject, and it's usually related to the zeitgeist (not the Jews) of the time. For example, up until recently, Zombies had a massive pop-culture rebirth, and a significant number of movies and games were created around Zombies. People want to read/watch/play what they're emotionally attached to, so remember to think about the historical, cultural and technical contexts of the time before making your Core Concept.

Has anyone looked into the PlayStation version much? The JAM seems to be structured pretty much the same way as the PC version, so it should be just as easy to mod, right? I haven't tried yet, but I did try getting the PC game to run using the PSX JAM. It didn't work, so I tired merging the 2 JAMS together, and I got this: It's pretty messed up, and I don't know where that red cursor came from. Beta version of the PC cursor? Who knows. I don't think there's a lot you can really do with this weird combination version of the game but I'll have a look at modding the PSX version later.

WARNING: This is a WIP. I'll add to it as I go along. For now, I've done a little bit but it's still a long way to go. I look forward to your comments and hearing anything you want to add. A lot of this will be based on what I learn from my own Game Design lessons, Gamasutra, Extra Credits, the portfolios of highly respected Game Designers and far more places. Game Design is potentially the most important aspect of the entire development process. Hell, it has its own section called "Pre-Development" and then some. Yes, content creation, QA and other sections of the design time are important, but the idea is that, if you want to be successful and make a kick-ass game, you're going to need to plan and plan and plan out everything before hand. Game Design, for me, is the essential knowledge, tools and theories that should define how a professional and non-professional Game Designer works and what they aspire to. Depending on studio and personal interpretation, Game Designers are the multi-tasking grunt force of any development studio, and their tasks can range right from leadership, to story, art, music, level production and far onwards. Basically, Design is so many things, it'd be better to make a list of what's not considered design. When we design games, regardless of what position you hold, there are some fundamental concepts we all must consider, especially in a new age of design where we are further trying to integrate the three waring fronts of story, gameplay and graphics/art style. Having these kinds of things in your head, will always help massively. Concept A - The Core Elements of a Game Day One, Lesson One of Game Design is this. The distinction between a game and simple entertainment is that a game has some very core elements that must always be present for any medium to be considered a game. A game has elements that give the player constant motivation to want to continue. Video games share the same elements that make up board games, card games, sports and any other type of game; the only difference being the use of technology to control, present output and take input from the player. Without these elements, we are no longer making a game and are instead making an experience. While an experience can be life-changing, fun, unique and many other things, it does not share the same level of re-playability, learning and engagement that a game does. Games are all about teaching our players to play, and watching them master the game and become proud of what they have achieved. An experience does not have the same impact. There are two categories of these crucial elements; Objective and Subjective. Objective Elements are those which are crucial to any game being considered a 'game'. Without objective elements, these experiences fail to teach players or give them the space necessary to interact and blend in with the mechanics. Subjective Elements are like spices; we use them to enhance the experience and give even more motivation and fulfillment to the player, but they are not necessary for a game to be considered a game. Objective: 1) Goals and Objectives - The game must present a clear winning condition, and must offer subsequent tasks that must be completed in order to achieve the winning condition. Multiple objectives means there is more gameplay and challenge, and thus increases the play length. Objectives can sometimes be a natural part of the gameplay. 2) Rules - The player of a game must never be allowed to completely break the game by doing whatever they want. There must always be limitations which block the player from just finishing the game instantly. Rules may also add challenge naturally or may allow for clever players to exploit loopholes in the rules, and increase the fun the player has. Some rules may need to have exceptions as dictated by the gameplay scenarios. 3) Obstacles (Including Failure States) - The main means of creating challenge is to introduce certain obstacles which the player has to overcome in order to proceed through the game. There are many forms, and the goal is to ensure there are multiple types of obstacles, so that the gameplay is always refreshing and never becomes boring. Failure Statues are the idea that the player's progress needs to be impeded in some form for failing the game in some way, including losing or dying. Punishment may be in more forms than just a simple game-over, such as implications for the story or removing player rewards. The idea is that player should feel encouraged to learn from their mistake and improve, and with practice from replaying eventually master the game. 4) Boundaries - There needs to be a defined play field for all players. Players must not be allowed to break out and exceed the limits of the game world. One may define that the entire universe is the play field, but this still counts as an acceptable limit. Subjective: 1) Engagement - How the player actually engages with the game, and what kind of experience, feelings, emotions and lessons they take away from it after they finish playing. 2) Visual - How the game looks, or doesn't look. 3) Audio - How the game sounds, or doesn't sound. 4) Player Input - How the player actually interacts with the world. 5) World Output - How the world responds to the player and notifies the player back. The concepts themselves should be simple enough to understand and apply. Remember these, and you will have the power to turn any form of interactive entertainment into an actual game, and a fun one at that. Misc - Some General Wisdom I leave this section for my own thoughts and anything I've heard from other game designers which should help you on your journey. - The game should never feel so hard so to make you frustrated and quit. It should be at level where you feel as though if you had done that one thing slightly better, you would have succeeded, because that creates proper challenge and tension. - Ken Levine has stated (in better words) when asked "When did you become a Creative Director", he said something to the effect of "I just started calling myself a Creative Director and kept on making things."

For transport Space vehicles and cargo. The MT001 Transport Unit have four engines. One large and three support engines. The support engines using for extra durability and power. Building technique

You know the pillar that shows up when you reinforce a wall? I built it.

Ok let's make this a community music project. I'll lead it (if that's fine by everyone), and anyone who has experience in creating music (any type) can join to help make RRU a more save and "sound" place. But first we need to get organized.

Alright sure. Welcome aboard! Ooh hey I'll join you guys in this as well if it's alright. I'm better with vocals and Acapellas then instrumental stuff though.

We could. I have the tools, adn you know a lot more of music theory than I do. So yeah, if we work toghether we could increase quality and amazingness by a lot.

Hey there, if you don't mind, I would like to make RRU music too. We could cooperate.

I recently got the parts off of bricklink to bhuld this IRL, and took it outside for some pictures http://imgur.com/a/e7S8P I forgot to order the round black plates on the bottom that simulate treads, unfortunately :C I will hopefully get around to editing to O{P today to include all stages and the final pictures.

*bump* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bdWgClU8vk Outtakes, yay.

[13:47:00] * Joe9412 invited lordzakida [13:47:06] Joe9412: trolololololol [13:47:34] L Z: ಠ_ಠ[13:47:37] * L Z left the chat (Unsubscribed). [13:49:04] Stan McStudz: TOP LEL [13:49:17] * Ciprian invited joe_in_the_balls [13:49:23] Ciprian: aww [13:49:24] Ciprian: /kick joe_in_the_balls [13:49:35] Stan McStudz: PFFFT [13:49:36] Ciprian: hehehe [13:49:39] Will Kirkby: *groans audibly* [13:49:45] Ciprian: Well then [13:49:52] Ciprian: I recall I could kick here

Okay, here are three suggestions. Don't know how feasible they are. Shoutbox History Currently you have to go into the archive of the shoutbox, set a time range, and scroll back through the pages to view its history. This is okay, but if someone accidentally breaks the shoutbox (e.g. posting a long line of characters) the page arrows disappear so you can't view history for that section any more. I guess either fixing this or just adding some kind of page buttons to the shoutbox itself would be nice. SWF Files I can see this being a big no-no already, but if you don't ask you'll never know, huh? It'd be nice if we could embed SWF files at a larger size than 300x150. I understand that perhaps people could abuse this, so maybe you could somehow limit it to members of a certain 'age' (as in based on join date)? For instance, it'd be great if the various 360 galleries I've made could be embedded. And the gallery in Fushigisaur's >LRR MOC Index (which I still haven't finished, I will make time for it Fushi) would be better off embedded in the topic rather than opened in a new tab. Competitions These are such brilliant ways of bringing the community together. I'm not just talking about the LEGO Racers tournament that took place last year, in fact I think that was flawed by the requirement for recording.* I mean MOC competitions, perhaps other gaming competitions, maybe even a modding competition? There are some old topics that were unearthed last year featuring LRR MOCs for some competition that was held a long time ago. The models produced are fantastic, and very imaginative/inspiring. So competitions not only have short-term benefit in the form of enjoyment for competitors/'spectators', but also benefit in the long term with the products left behind. Well, there we go. My thoughts. *Now that we can >record ghost paths, this can be revamped!

I'll tell you how: LEGO ISLAND.

Really excited about this having just seen the LEGO Movie. HOW COULD THEY TOP IT?!

Rock Raiders United Incorporated is a private company, founded, funded and run by Mayor McCheese Cyrem. It was created on the 31st of July in 2008, and was run by Cyrem's father, gmjab. gmjab, being only a poor man, was able to find some free office space in the city of Brisbane, and used that to expand on his finding of the LEGO creation, LEGO Rock Raiders. gmjab died a little over a year later, but his son, Cyrem, created a new building from scratch with the profit his father had made him. Almost 3 years of progress later, the business has expand to millions of floors, becoming it's own entirely new state in Australia (called "Mexicongo"). The business has 1220 recorded employees, almost 65,000 posts produced and has successfully blocked more than 10,000 attacks. RRU's main source of income is from producing and selling forum posts. The building spans over 32,000,000 floors, and every floor contains at least one toilet. All toilets are in-sync, so if one breaks, they all break. Watercoolers are next to every single toilet block. Important floors are documented below; undocumented floors have either been abandoned or remain undiscovered caverns, containing high traces of ore, crystal and Brickonium. Several members have bought out entire floors, but all members sleep in private rooms in the barracks. 1 floor is square in shape approximate to more than the size of 20 A380 wings tip to tip. Every floor has a pants collection bin which automatically empties into the pants chute. All members are required to submit their pants to this bin upon the entering of a level. Staff are exempt. Level -1.340780793×10¹âµâ´ - Addictgamer's secret lab. It's the basement of RRU. The elevator can't go any lower due to it being at the lowest end of the 512 bit integer, and 512 bits is the largest integer the elevator supports. This level cannot be accessed under normal conditions. You must emag the elevator to unlock 512 bit mode. Some say the reason people (spammers, trolls, bots, etc) disappear from the prison is because addict kidnaps them at night, takes them down to his secret lab, and performs illegal experiments on them. They say he used some of these experiments to create force fields that keep spambots out of the building. Level -32,000,001 - Safe Room, in case of emergency all units should teleport here. Level -32,000,000 - Night Club Archon, IceHusky2's second DJ estate. Level -404 - Everything. Level -322: The holding area and private quarters for the Ultimate Life Form also known as Shadow322. Level -29 - Stargate Command. Level -7 - ftgsarge's level for his shenanigans and stuff. Level -5 - Lair's giant volcano robot living in a lava pool. Level -4 - Watering Hole (only area with natural water). Level -3 - Death Course - Filled with barbed wire, mine fields, snipers and radioactive waste. Aim is to open up a safe Level -2 - Gas Room - Funny gas that makes you invincible. Level -1 - Basement, contains several support stations. Most link strangely to Level 16, and the air tanks seem easy to replace. Level 0 (Ground) - Main entry point to the building. Staff here handle registrations, and employees come down here to handle technical support at the HelpDesk Kiosk. Level 1 - Newbie Floor. Members with less than 50-75 posts are only allowed here and Level 0, for safety reasons. Level 2 - Main Floor. Most members work on this floor, doing file research and other things. Level 3 - Office Amenities, including Extreme's DJ Office (radio), the Blogosphere, a secret cave containing the Knowledge Bricks (wikis) which can only be accessed by worthy members and the Search Bar. It is rumoured that seamonster spends most of his time at this bar, getting drunk and searching things, but nobody can determine what. Level 4 - VIP Section. Level 5 - Moderation Office. Level 6 - Prison and Banhammer Holding Cell. Currently suffering radiation leak, but is under repairs. Level 7 - Extreme's Floor. Level 8 - Was the old Shoutbox, but is currently suffering an unfixable radiation leak. Level 9 - Pascalgames Room. Level 10 - Fanfiction Library. A recent fire destroyed the remaining copies of Matter Shift. Level 11 - Devil's Toybox. Accessible to only certain members, contains dangerous secrets. Level 12 - Segatendo's Room. Lots of junk all over the place due to loads of unfinished projects; contains a bunch of Sonic and Nintendo stuff in the gaming corner of the room; there is a mirror that makes every object in its reflection rainbow coloured (except for the walls, floor, and ceiling). There are rumors that this mirror's power can be harnessed to make a gun that shoots rainbows. Level 13 - Storm's Floor. Level 14 - Starship docking station. Styled similar to Star Wars. Currently, Noghiri, Extreme, Cirevam and Lair all have fleets parked in this space. Level 17 - Office of Recorded Speeches and Quotations. Level 18 - The office of Katatonic717. Level 20 - Barracks Level 21 - Barracks Level 22 - Barracks Level 23 - McStudz's Quarters. On the floor, there's a bunch of stray bricks, paper, and half-finished Cups-o-Ramen, as well as a TARDIS that he's been building. There would be a private elevator to Sector G7, so if the need ever arises, I'll be down there in a flash to rip everyone present a new one. Level 24 - Barracks Level 25 - Rock Raiders HQ, serves as a place to create all the buildings, raiders and vehicles. Level 26 - Upload Center. Level 27 - Download Center (currently being deconstructed). Level 28 - Gallery (currently being deconstructed). Level 29 - Minecraft Portal. Level 30 - World of Text Portal (currently uninhabitable). Level 31 - Modification Testing Area. Level 32 - Software Documentation Throwing Room. Level 33 - Woman's Bathroom. Pretty much unused. Level 34 - Leaving Member's Signout Station, Dead (Banned) Member's Graveyard. Level 35 - RockmoddeR's House Level 36 - Forum Games (It's back, baby). The toilets were originally located in just this spot. Level 37 - Webcomics Printing Room. Level 38 - Karsten's Workbench (Locked Down). Level 39 - Biology Department, serves as a place to examine Planet U monsters. Contains a pen with all know species. Level 40 - Teleporter, unknown location. Research here is being conducted by a subsidiary of Aperture Science. Level 41 - Brickonium Refinery, a dangerous location where raw Brickonium is processed into harmless bandwidth. Level 42 - CireLabs, a place where Cirevam can practice his magic, specifically waving light and milking shapes, as well as creating Infomaniac references. Guarded by CireCams. Level 52 - Alexpanter's chocolate storage, along with a rambling Packard Bell PC which runs Crysis surprisingly well. Level 66 - MAGARE Tracking Station, Action Station's DEFCON Planning Station. In the event that "Action Stations!" is declared, the appropriate DEFCON level is selected, and the war council meets up to discuss and take action against spam attacks. Level 67 - Closed down. Sometimes the sound of explosions, heavy artillery and atmospheric electronic music can be heard inside. Level 68 - Closed down.Sometimes the sound of explosions, heavy artillery and atmospheric electronic music can be heard inside. Level 69 - Lord Zakadia Private Crypt, created and maintained by McStudz. Level 70 - Leased by Incom Technologies for future collaborative projects. Level 71 - The mandatory Noodle Location/Forbidden Area/"That Place" that is sometimes mentioned but never actually seen. Level 72 - The Hiatus room. All members and projects on hiatus live here. Level 80: The speedrun section. This floor contains everything about speedrunning. All the records (and the previous ones) hang on the wall, and there is a cinema where you can view all the evidence-movies and discover some tricks for your own attempts. Dusty due to low amounts of people visiting. Level 88 - Pheonyx's Lab. Accessible only by a resonance door, where he experiments with Einstein-Rosene bridge generators, flux capacitors, Zero Point modules and DeLorian DMC12s, among other things that can rip holes in the space-time continuum. Level 322: The public/private office of Sonic322. Level 323: 1 single room that is a giant amalgamation of every level and zone of the Sonic Universe combined into the hardest most difficult racing track ever devised for a hedgehog. Level 399: Former office/research facility of Professor Gerald Robotnik. Current office/research facility of Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Level 404 - Doesn't sppear to exist, but was last recorded as Nishliau's Time Rift room. It contained a very unstable time crystal that sent him into a random point into the future. The crystal is linked to him, and became so shortly after the passing of gmjab, however its effect kicked in after moving office buildings. Level 717 - Trianglular Minifigure Floor, owned by Le717. Level 718 (Sector G7) - Brony Community Outreach. Known as "Bald Spot". Level 775 - Alcom's primary suite Level 776 - Dropship Hangar Level 780 - Mech Hangar Level 999 - Button to the level is missing and the elevator will always skip this room even if you press 'immediate stop' while travelling between levels 998 & 1000, no-one knows why. Going past Level 999 the sounds of a Rickroll can be heard. Level 1313 - Noghiri's secret base. Level 1848 The Cheese Room - A room completely and absolutely dedicated to every and all forms of cheese. Level 1991 - apemax's floor. He builds with LEGO plus LEGO, computers and consoles/games everywhere. A big mess basically. Level 1997: Infoderpiac Memorial/LEGO Information Center with FLOWERS and a car or a bike or something. Level 1999 - RocketTheRacer's personal room. Resembles the LEGO Racing champ's personal track from the first game & a drawing desk filled with fanart with the Plush doll of RR on it & a PC with a drawing tablet. Level 1,337 - The 1337 Club, a Cyber Cafe for RRU members only. Level 3,141 - Potato storage. Level 3333 - s0d3rb3rg's place. Loud music is playing when he's working. Level 4,998 - Kitchen for mandatory 5-star steakhouse. Level 4,999 - Mandatory high-altitude 5-star steakhouse. Level 5,000 - Observation deck. Level 8000 - Club Archon, IceHusky2's DJ estate. Come for some mad beats. Level 8001 - IceHusky2's hotel. Level 8002 - IceHusky2's personal estate. Invite only, locked out otherwise. Level 8989 - Cap't Rex's Penthouse. Has a rollercoaster, nether portal, hia own personal squads of Magna-guards, 2 legions of battle droids to protect hum, 3 squads of the 501st troopers under his command, 2 AT-TE's, pet creepers, pet lava monsters, a ventor class star destroyer and a Providence-class destroyer. It also features a huge alien ware pc, huge plasma screen TV and etc. It also features squads of vulture droids/heyena bombers, and ARC-170s to defend him. Level 9001 - Cyrem's Administration Office. Level 9002 - Roof. The initiation process involves taking a brochure from the registration desk and filling out a 900 page form. If a member loses their pen, they are required to obtain another one. After completion of the forms, you must pass multiple tests, all of which take about 20-30 years. Are completion, they receive a drill and a shovel. Anonymouse, when around, always uses up the paper towels, and doesn't replace them. Now guys, I need your help. We have a lot more to write about, so let detail exactly what I need from you: Events RRU has a pretty BLAM!tastic history, and I'm currently writing up a whole series of events that cover LZ leaving, the Brony War, the site being shut down multiple times, and much, much more. That said, I need specific dates, information and more events. If you have anything you'd like to add to the timeline, please comment. Random Facts The Anonymous fact is a random fact. The toilets are a random fact. If you know anything about the building or members or ANYTHING that should be considered a fact, please write it down. The more, the better.

Better question: Why are we measuring rooms in the first place? It doesn't matter. AT ALL. BTW: Metric is better. US needs get out of the dark ages and catch up with the world instead of fluffing around with a measurement system hardly anyone uses.