Melan on 28/12/2017 at 10:23

---

At the end of the day, I am happy about every one of my released missions. Since I have been able to release them at the point where I felt good about them, and in a reasonably polished state, there are no regrets. Each one has flaws, and those flaws are now as much a part of the design as the high points. This is also the reason I never revisit or substantially revise my missions. Once something is done, it is done. You can't revisit the circumstances which lead to the mission's creation. If you do, it will substantially alter the experience. You can see this by comparing my initial contest version of Return to the City and the much more polished and improved v3, mostly the work of Bikerdude.

There are things I am proud of in every mission.

* Bad Debts: realising a non-linear mission style where investigation lets you uncover pieces of plot, and connect them to form a big picture that's beyond (or in addition to) the mission objectives. Also, the Keywell mystery is still a favourite - I see it has stayed with people, which tells me it is a successful attempt at creating a mystery.
* Unbidden Guest: Some of this is not readily apparent, but the "stock only" contest restrictions lead to repurposing or creatively using a lot of assets, and thinking of game problems in ways I never imagined I'd be capable of.
* Disorientation: the ambience is all right, appropriately gloomy/mysterious. The water slide turned out rather well, and I like (https://i.imgur.com/axzGGOR.jpg) this building/area.
* Prowler of the Dark: Nothing special, but it came together very quickly, and stands up fairly well. Maybe the tavern - run-down, boisterous, and with a sordid secret.
* Return to the City: Original contest version. It has loose plot lines which run off in multiple directions but don't lead anywhere in particular. I like that quality.
* Fiasco at Fauchard Street: The technological side of using prefab elements to build a mission reasonably quickly, while also giving it its own character.
* Penny Dreadful 1: The Grail of Regrets: The centrepiece tomb area is neat.
* Penny Dreadful 2: All the Way Up: Creating the experience of working your way from a desperate situation to exact revenge on the people who have wronged you, and implementing it in the context of vertical gameplay is something I am very happy about. It is also an homage to the design style of Sperry, one of my favourite FM designers, in particular Walking the Edge.
* The Rats Triumphant: Somehow, this never took off with people, but it has a fever-dream quality I enjoy, and some dark implications which I think nobody really put together (or posted about).
* Behind Closed Doors: I did a few areas here, but I'm especially proud of the opening area with the grand stairs, based on (https://78.media.tumblr.com/f80ca3bf5ff2720f08227269d65787aa/tumblr_p1bfn50aEB1rxmn3vo1_1280.png) this concept sketch. That's a good one. Also, putting down at least a little bit of the burden we have carried with the Crucible of Omens campaign was a good feeling.
* Penny Dreadful 3: Erasing the Trail: Maybe too sprawling (it significantly overgrew its original concept), and it has design problems which are obvious in hindsight... but I am proud of the hidden and macabre ways you can accomplish your objectives, some of the obtuse puzzles (The Octagon Weird!), and the mood of some areas.
My regrets are about unresolved things. Plans which stayed on the drawing board, and the missions which linger on in an incomplete state. This means The Crucible of Omens campaign for TDM, which dragged on and on in a horrible half-dead state when in hindsight it should have died when the original team dissolved. Not being able to put the campaign (and the missions I have worked on) to rest has meant heartache, burnout and regret ever since, with missions stuck at that exact stage where you hate them for what's missing instead of liking them for what's accomplished. Truly awful. Just awful.

ObservingEye on 28/12/2017 at 15:56

---

I'm just proud to have contributed to TTLG and made a fm that people have (for the most part, based on comments) enjoyed. I only hope that I can improve to continue providing great fm's to the players.

Uncadonego; You've made fantastic fm's, and quite frankly, are one of the few authors' work that inspired me to dromed myself.

fortuni on 28/12/2017 at 18:35

---

@ uncadonego

I agree with Squad when he says he is sad you feel this way about your missions, but having played most of your missions what I am hugely impressed with, is your constant attempts to make something different. It's possible to find a style of Droming, a look of the mission that works and then carry on making mission in that same style. Yes we the players are rewarded with mission after mission that is just fabulous in looks and gameplay and those authors tend to get lauded time after time (Skacky, Melan, Christine, etc) but at the risk of being shot down in flames these authors are playing safe by releasing new missions in a style of looks that they know work, and are appreciated.

But you try different things in every mission you make. Some things work, others can be frustrating because you have tried too hard to make the mission as difficult as you could (Mixed Messages comes to mind) but you have made some great missions, both mansion and city FM's and you do your upmost to hide things as well as is possible, which makes us explorers adore your missions (even if we have to cheat) as we have to crawl over every pixel or order to find what we are looking for.

I/we can't make you proud of your work, only you can do that, but what you can do is take pride that you have given so much pleasure, to so many people, for so many years.

So thank you, and please carry on Droming. :thumb:

Xorak on 7/1/2018 at 09:46

---

Like uncadonego, I also don't really like the missions that I've made. Sometimes I feel that I might completely loathe them and I can't stand looking at them All I see is failure :laff: I feel that both missions I've made have failed in achieving 'my vision,' as absolutely pretentious as that sounds. And I resist being like George Lucas and releasing new updates or fixes for them, even if I have newer versions of them on my hard-drive. This is especially true of Zealot's Hollow. The errors in that mission annoy the hell out of me, but for whatever reason, I want players to experience the mission as it was when it was released during its original contest run.

What've You Found Little Fly: since this too was originally a contest mission and based on the first level of Thief 2, the idea was to do something totally different and turn the level more into an adventure game. Players would be most familiar and tired of that level, so I tried to transform it and make new pathways and surprises as much as possible. I'm proud here of how much I learned while working on this and actually programming all the puzzles. But as far as gameplay I don't think it was the right direction to go. It become too non-thief.

Zealot's Hollow: the goal here was simply to make a 64-cubed space contain as much gameplay as I could realistically fit inside it. With little nooks and secret rooms everywhere. But it may've been too confusing overall, especially with the Newdark mantling, allowing players to access the map so freely. It was meant to be a little more linear than it ended up being. Because of the size of the space, the enemies also tended to hear Garrett more than I wanted them to, making some enemies quite difficult to get around, which to me is actually a bonus, but I've seen other players be quite put off by it and unfortunately there was no real fix for this. I am immensely proud of the architecture in this level though, even if I don't particularly like the final product as a whole. The level should've felt dirtier, with slime on the pavement, tattered curtains, water dripping from the rooftops and garbage in the corners.

I feel that overall, I've had some good ideas and solid construction, but the missions were too rushed. Some parts that should be quite epic come out looking very corny. Of course then again, those two missions were the only ones I've actually finished yet, so maybe rushing them for contests wasn't that bad of an idea.

The things I'm most proud of in these missions though were the use of authentic music and a wide range of lighting and colors to create a unique atmosphere. Also, this might sound un-thief, but I'm proud of the various documents in my missions, and as much as I could, I absolutely refused to include a document where the player ever had to turn a page. But while keeping the documents as short as possible, I also tried to use them to make the various characters in the mission as distinct as possible, adding as much humor and mystery as I could. As pretentious as all this sounds, I'm also proud of adorning rooms with items that expose the deeper characteristics of the people who actually lived there, and just trying to create little distinct images and memories that would stick in players minds forever :laff: At least, that's how I tried to approach it when I put the finishing touches on my missions.