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From: saify@cbnewsl.att.com (saify.lanewala)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech,comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: A Philosophy of Game Design, from the author of PocoMan
Message-ID: <1990Jun13.171117.7095@cbnewsl.att.com>
Date: 13 Jun 90 17:11:17 GMT
References: <1990Jun9.222125.2499@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <30670@cup.portal.com> <1990Jun11.072644.16213@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 40

In article <1990Jun11.072644.16213@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:
	......
> 
> The puzzles are an intellectual challenge.  At least twice I convinced myself
> a puzzle was impossible; surely the designers had made a mistake!  But then,
> away from it for a while, or brooding in front of the screen, the thought
> "what if I try ..." would come to me, and I'd be back into it.
	......
> 
> While the game counts time and moves, the only "scoring" is moving up a level.
> There is a score table that shows the level of each person playing, and you
> start off at the highest level not yet solved.  A menu item lets you go back
> and try to solve previous levels in fewer turns or less time, though that is
> not entered on the score table.  It can take thousands of moves and hours of
> real time to play some of the more complex, though simple looking, puzzles.
	......
> 
> The thing that makes the game fun to me, beyond the puzzles, is the great
> detailing; the same sort of thing that inspires a model train enthusiast.
> 
	......
> 
> Try it, you may like it, and it is the kind of game that needs community cash
> support, to prove that non-copy protected games can be financially successful.
> 
> Kent, the man from xanth.
> <xanthian@Zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <xanthian@well.sf.ca.us>

I'm sold on the concept.  I'll get a copy right away.  I have kids and I
refuse to let them play shoot-'em-up games of *ANY* kind.

I love games like Carmen Sandiego whih are educational and fun, so games
like Pocoman fit in very nicely with my philosophy of computer games as
a challenge to the intellect and dexterity.

I wish though that the author would change the name -- Pocoman sounds
too much like another not-so-intellectual game....

Saify Lanewala
.. att!attunix!stl