School of Stealth, Episode 1 (Patreon)
Content
Hello!
After finishing my Gloo gun video, I decided I wanted to finally make a GMTK episode about stealth games.
So I wrote a script called "What Makes a Good Stealth Game", recorded it, and then... threw it all away.
I realised that there was no way I could sum up an entire genre - one that encapsulates everything from Splinter Cell to Untitled Goose Game to Alien Isolation to The Swindle - with one, pithy "do these 5 things" video, without it being completely subjective, and pretty slim on detail.
So, I've gone for a different tact! School of Stealth is a new GMTK mini-series that will go through the main mechanics of stealth game design to talk about how that stuff works, and the considerations you need to make when choosing them.
So episode one is about guard awareness - from fuzzy, analogue, invisible vision cones in The Phantom Pain, to clear, binary, on-screen indicators in Mark of the Ninja. How do these different systems work, and what are their pros and cons?
Future episodes will be on the tools of the trade (everything from silenced pistols to Bayek's eagle to the trusty Distracting Rock™), level design, and what happens when the player gets detected (Game over? Run and hide? Go full Rambo mode? Quickload?)
I'm probably going to alternate between stealth videos and other topics for a bit. I want to keep the pace going so it finishes up in a couple months, but not bore people who hate stealth games.
Anyway! First episode is above for your viewing pleasure. Any feedback, ideas, critiques welcome and appreciated. I'm going to give it another polish pass tomorrow, and maybe swap out the music here and there, before the final release. Plus: thumbnail, description, etc.
Cheers!
Mark