A Speed-up button in Fan Games. (Do or Don't)

[Jephed]

A Speed Up Button. Pretty much every Rom Hack and even some fan games have them. But are they really that necessary?

For content creators?
- Certainly

Pretty much every content creator I've seen playing fan games were always complaining about the same thing.
"Damn, I wish this game had a Speed-Up Button."

Yet why?! Well, okay. That's a stupid question. I know why. It's easier to get the grinding in those games done that way. Battling can be done much faster and video's can be produced much faster. That's good!!!!! (right?)

For me?
- Nah

I personally feel like speed up buttons take away from the experience in the game. Just speeding up every battle (and perhaps even dungeons in the games). What good does it do to your project?
Would you prefer people rushing though your game, because it's time consuming?
I personally wouldn't. Yet I've been given this question. "Will your game have a speed up option?"
When I say no, people seem disappointed. Is rushing through the game really everything these games are good for these days?
Playing very fast, sharing it and being the first to say: "HEY! I finished the game first!"

(Sorry if this was a little ranty)


What do you think?
I'm curious what your thoughts are about Speed Up Buttons in fan games.
Even though I dislike them, I am open to hear what others have to say and I'd really like to have an honest discussion about whether it should be considered or not.


Do you think Speed Up Buttons are a DO or DON'T for games?

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I say do. While battling's an important part of the game, players shouldn't have to spend the full amount of time for every battle. A battle with a forgettable bug catcher has nowhere near the same weight (for both gameplay and story) as that of a major character battle near the end-why should their turns take the same amount of time? And unless you've got some stellar animations, people are gonna get bored of seeing the same things over and over. (Besides, in most projects, nobody can really claim to be the first to beat a fangame-it's going to have been tested, after all)

Frankly, I'd almost argue it's okay to include a speedup button everywhere in the game. Some people won't care about story anyways and just mash A through the dialogue. Some people will be too busy listening to music in another tab to hear whatever music you picked. It's not fun to think about, but not everyone is going to pay attention to everything in your game, no matter how hard you worked on it.


I know that's a bit of a downer to think about, so here's a more positive note-it's also more convenient for your more dedicated players. Look at Pokemon Uranium-fans love the game so much that they're willing to replay again with a monotype team or train up the perfect Pokemon just for online play. (myself included) A speedup button makes it much easier for fans to have their favorite pastimes to enjoy in your game!

 

[Sparta]

I think I could go either way on this. I mean, I doubt I'd add one in, but it wouldn't be the end of the world to add it. My biggest concern would be that players would just breeze through the game, not really bothering to talk to people or interact with things. I put a lot of effort into making them interesting. I'd at least appreciate it if they got acknowledged. But on the other hand, after two years of battles in RMXP, they're dull as they ever were. So being able to speed right through them would be helpful and certainly make me less annoyed.

So yeah, I guess it really depends on the dev.

 

[aiyinsi]

Actually there are ways to speed up your game in Essentials:

running/bike and the text speed option

So the only thing that misses is skipping attack animations.

It's not bad to have speed up options. But I think it's nessecairy to split them up and balance each individually. Skipping battle animations has nothing to do with travaling with light speed or having the text just flashing by(spartas problem).

 

[Dragonite]

I'm squarely against this. For one thing, I think this points to peoples' ever-shrinking attention spans, which is a thread in and of itself and something I had no interest in feeding; for another, if battle are boring there are already organic things people can do to speed them up like turning off animations and just walking around Bug Catcher Jerry (it's not like he's going to give you any experience anyway). Also like Sparta said, this will just encourage people to keep their finger on the button and skip 80% of the text in the game, and then come to Relic Castle complaining that they don't know what they're supposed to do next.

If you want to program in something like "don't play the battle animation this turn if the Select button is pressed" that's a different story, go for it, but that's about it.

 

[Aki]

Don't let me go full tangent but is "Content Creator" not the vaguest possible title...? :sweat: (I'm gonna assume in this context we're talking about some kind of Let's Player)


So I think that a speed-up button is probably one of those features that'd be good for the game's "quality of life" but can easilly interfere with "artistic vision".
By quality of life I just mean that it would give the player an easier time, maybe even making the game more accessible. Short attention spans was brought up and although I do agree that the speedy internet age has decreased that in some people (me) it's still not as if short attention spans are a new thing, or an inherently bad thing. A reason to include a speed up might be thinking of repeat players who would like to skip dialogue for the gameplay bits, or the same for a player who might enjoy playing but actually not speak the language the game is made in.

We've also talked about things like Story vs. Gameplay and different types of gamers before so with the speed up button we've got to acknowledge that it's a feature that some kinds of gamers would want. Bit of a side note but if you check out that poll about the types of gamers, it's showing that a lot of Relic castle are Explorer type players; which probably makes sense that the ones invested in worldbuilding are the people who get into crafting their own worlds...but anyway, if we're mostly Explorers then of course we're the kind of players who mostly enjoy taking things in and get invested in dialogue and characters.

Okay so, artistic vision. Every dev has it, how they imagine their game to be and how it should be played. The issues with artistic vision come up when the audience and creator don't agree on what's important. Say for example a dev who makes beautiful maps but players have a hard time navigating through them, or fellow devs point out unpolished bits of your game while players never notice at all. I've got a personal example of some compromise; in Bonfire Stories I specifically didn't include some features like running shoes or catching Pokemon, because in my vision it was all about stepping into the shoes of different characters and enjoying the narrative. After seeing other people play it though, I realized that giving players the choice to catch a few pokemon added so much more to their personal investment and enjoyment than it "took away" from the plot. Running shoes I still left out though, because I felt that in a creepy game the ability to run/not run could entirely change the tone of the game.

 

[zarexraze]

Just an idea, but what if someone just codes in a feature in the Options Menu to set the speed of battle animations from Slow, Normal, or Fast? It would definitely be a workaround this, but I'm not sure if that's even possible in RPG-Maker (I'm still quite the newbie with it), but it would fit quite nicely with the running shoes, bikes, and setting the speed of the text. The only exception I'd think is one or two specific moves as a case to case basis, though I'm not sure what those moves would be.

 

[Phoenixsong]

I've never played a game with a "speed-up button" (and don't make LPs or watch very many, either), so help me out here. What exactly is it that these buttons are traditionally "speeding up"? The framerate of the entire game (as I believe you could do with the doduo/dodrio modes if playing GB games in Stadium 2)? Skipping or speeding up certain parts of the game, but not others? Are these features intended primarily to make LPers' lives easier, or is this something that a lot of people want in general? Do people really just not want to battle? I'm trying not to be too dismissive about something I don't understand, but if battling in particular is the problem then they're having some kind of issue with the entire point of a Pokémon game. This confuses me and I'd appreciate it if someone could enlighten me as to what, exactly, the complaint is. I'm legitimately curious here.

That said, I do have a few thoughts that aren't just "double/triple the speed of the game overall":

- If the problem is that walking is too slow: As leilou said, running shoes and bikes exist. Give the running shoes automatically at the beginning of the game, and use the HGSS "toggle to have them on/off at all times" option rather than the older "walk by default, hold button to run". (Or, heck, unless you've got some kind of mechanic that involves moving slowly occasionally, like DexNav sneaking or summat, you could very well just ignore the "walking" speed altogether and only include running, because almost no one walks once they have the shoes anyway.) Add a "mach bike" item or gear setting (as in Gen IV).

- If the problem is battle animations: It's been possible to turn those off in canon games since Red and Green back in '96, which means it comes built right in to any ROM hacks. It's an option in Essentials, too, unless it doesn't work and needs to be fixed or something (I've never used it, I don't know). It seems silly to tout this as a "feature", because again, literally in Gen I, but if people somehow aren't aware that this is an option and you feel the need to appeal to the speedster set, then make sure you remind them that it exists. If players want the animations on but would prefer that they be a little snappier, and if you're willing to create/edit said animations, then shorten them by a few frames.

- If the problem is grinding: Do something (idk what, though) to hint to players approximately what level range they should be shooting for next, to set their training expectations appropriately; this way they don't have to wait until they finally hit the gym leader to realize that they haven't trained enough/have spent more time grinding than they needed to. Balance your game so that mindless grinding isn't necessary to reach the appropriate level for the next big event. If there's a chance that a player may need to grind, at least make sure that they have more interesting and somewhat-challenging rematch/training options available to them than "punch a wild pidgey * 10000". Sprinkle a few rare candies around. Add a Gen VI+-style exp. share. Consider increasing experience payout so fewer battles are necessary to reach the levels you want the player to reach, although this requires additional balancing on its own if you're concerned that this might make the game "too easy"; it's not a decision to take lightly, but it's an option.

- If the problem is that players feel they're having too many battles they don't actually need: Reduce the wild encounter rate a little. Make sure it's possible to avoid tall grass and whatnot in most areas. Make sure it's possible to walk around trainers in most areas. Turn off most trainers' ability to confront you when you hit their line of sight and only have battles trigger when they're spoken to directly, so players can pick and choose who and when they fight.

If we're talking about people mashing through your well-written dialogue and so on (which sounds like a different concern from cutting down LP time—if someone's showing off your game, wouldn't they want to show off the story?—but again, I dunno *shrug*), you have to consider whether they even care about those things in the first place. Yes, as a developer you pour a lot of love into your projects. Yes, there are players who appreciate all the hard work and little details. But if a player actively wants to fly through the dialogue in your game as fast as possible, well, I'm sorry but it sounds like they just don't care that much about your story, no matter how good it is. And if they've decided they're not interested, all that means is that they'll button-mash through the text at whatever speed is available; they still won't pay attention if there's no speed-up, they'll just not pay attention but it'll take longer. You don't need to pander to those players, though. They can go find a game that's lighter on story (or whatever) and enjoy that instead.

Are players complaining that your game is slow because there are things you could be doing as a designer or developer to improve overall enjoyability for everyone? Because they'd like a few extra options to reduce delays and repetition in their videos? Or because they want to play the game as Usain Goddamn Bolt? Personally I enjoy battling as long as no unreasonable grinding is required, and if I were to LP a game I'd have no problem playing normally and then cutting the training montage out of the video before posting it (not an option for livestreamers, I suppose, but eh), but if there are other issues then I guess it wouldn't hurt to look at them? I dunno? Concessions for LPers are a nice thing to have, I suppose, but presumably you're not making your game for the express purpose of having it LPed, any more than the canon games are. A game is first and foremost meant to be enjoyed by whoever's actually playing it, not people who might hypothetically be watching that person's screen, and if folks have expectations going above and beyond that, well, they're missing the point a little bit, aren't they?

And if the problem is the first one—your game is just too grindy or what have you—then a turbo button is a cop-out that lets you avoid fixing your shoddy design decisions. So... make better design decisions.

(one of these days I will learn to write short posts, ugh)

 

[patermillion]

It's a tough question, and I think the answer depends on the game and the player. Aki and PheonixSong covered things very well I think.

As a player I appreciate it's existence. It let's me speed down areas I've already seen, and get through wild battles that I've done a million times before. Although I try to moderate it's use so I'm not speeding through too much. Generally in new areas I don't use it at all. It's kind of like a super bike in away.

From a development stand point, putting it there doesn't force people to use it. Although if it is, people are going to use it. I feel that often its up to the player to decide how they want to interact with a game, but it is a bit sad to think about someone speeding by all of a developers hard work.

 

[aiyinsi]

As a player I appreciate it's existence. It let's me speed down areas I've already seen.

Game Freak thought of something to fix this: Fly

The thing with the explicit button is that it temts the player to press it. It disrupts the game flow and a lot of the experience gets lost like this. Because whenever I used such a button it never had fun while doing so. A match bike is not slower but it is more natural and let's the dev build levels that are actually fun(like Sky Pillar).

What i'm trying to say is: it is good to provide these options but do it in a more natural way. I'm 100% the same opinion as Phoenixsong that a speed up button is the result of a lazy designer.

 

[NuclearOmega]

I love speeding up in games. Whether it's on a hack or through Stadium (as mentioned). It's convenient, and I think perfect for Pokemon, especially if you're replaying! As a player going through a game for the first time however, I mainly use it whenever I'm grinding or doing a route full of trainers. If there's a new Pokemon or an event starts or whatever the case, I'll go back to regular speed to see it. Then again, that's me.

A plus side I think that comes with a speed up option: devs can put in more wild encounters, trainers, or even more/bigger maps! Okay that might be slightly questionable, but I tend to take out a Pokemon for a little bit of exp. if I encounter it while speeding up even if my Pokemon's at a disadvantage, as opposed to I'm not speeding up & I'm not gonna risk it going down & have to slowly go back to heal it. Same with going through a dungeon: I'm cool with running into battles, to the point that I enjoy it? I feel weird saying that, but it's true. :joy:

 

[Jephed]

Thanks for all of your replies! @Aki, I do agree that the term "content creator" was very vague. I just know that a lot of Pokétubers tend to use that term, which is why I used it in that previous post.

@Phoenixsong the problem I have with speed up buttons is more or less people speeding up bits of the game that I think are not meant to be sped up. (important battles, dialogue, special dungeons)
There's a reason why main Pokémon games don't have speed up buttons in their main series. ( Speed up buttons can indeed be related to the duduo/dodrio thing via Pokémon stadium.)

I agree with a lot of things I've read here. I guess at the end of the day it really depends on how much you want people to experience the story and the overal experience. Having overpowered trainers in your game is easily fixable by adjusting the levels and playtesting everything yourself thoroughly.

For rough gameplay I think it might be an okay feature to have.
I'm only speaking for myself here, but I do think that if you plan to make a storyheavy game, and you want people to really focus on what's going on in the story, this button will do more bad than good.
When I play a Pokémon game, to me it feels a bit like cheating when using speed up buttons, mainly because indeed options like running shoes, bycicle, Battle animations OFF and Fly already exist.

For repeat players I guess a speed up button could be implemented after clearing the game once. That way you won't miss anything, because you've already played through it.
People will like it and others will dislike that, but hey, you can never please everyone.

 

[Maruno]

I've been rather spoiled by my Pokémon experience, which is exclusively playing the games via emulators, which have always included acceleration. As a result, I'm used to going through Pokémon games fairly quickly (and I'm also used to not listening to the games' music because that's sped up too and no one wants to listen to that).

Regarding an acceleration option built into a Pokémon game, I have to echo @Phoenixsong's first question: which parts of the game are going to be sped up by this? Battles, overworld movement, cutscenes...? As has been mentioned, battles can have their animations turned off, overworld movement has the Bicycle and Fly and Escape Rope and Repel and all that good stuff, and the level of tedium in a cutscene is entirely the fault of the developer and the game engine itself shouldn't try to make up for poor design choices.

The simplest kind of acceleration is to increase the FPS number. This also makes the game much worse, as you can't ignore the fact that the game is unnaturally faster than it ought to be. So this kind of acceleration is, in my opinion, unacceptable.

The other kind of acceleration is to cut out the bloat. This requires a lot more effort, but is far better. This applies to both game content (e.g. lengthy cutscenes) and game mechanics (e.g. Pokémon sliding all the way across the screen at the start of battle). Since cutscene content and map size and so forth are entirely up to the game developer, it should be entirely up to them to resolve, no magical acceleration buttons allowed. If there's acceleration, I would prefer it to be solely to increase the speed of parts of the game engine itself (e.g. toggling the playing of battle animations). I think you could get a fair bit more speed out of the game if you apply yourself to making these tweaks.

In my opinion, the only part of the game engine that would benefit from some more acceleration is battles, because they can be a bit slow and you do them a lot. I've been considering making for battles an option which enables exactly the kind of acceleration I've just described. Feedback on what parts of a battle could be accelerated, and how, are welcome. I don't want to compromise the feel of a battle - I don't want to turn them into "Press X to grind" fests where getting to the end is more important than the process itself - however, as I've said, certain parts are sluggish and could probably be improved.

Ultimately, I think that a game shouldn't be sped through. Play it at the speed it's meant to be played at. Even people replaying the game will do so because they want to play it, not because they want to grind their way to the Elite Four as quickly as possible. The game developer is responsible for a lot of slowness in their game, and is poised to fix it themselves and shouldn't rely on acceleration. Some acceleration of game engine features is acceptable (to me), but don't go nuts and ruin the feel of the game with it. Certainly you shouldn't be pressured into including an acceleration option, and it's perfectly acceptable to keep your game as fast as it already is.

 

[Jephed]

I guess I didn't answer Phoenixsongs initial question (must've slipped by)

Most of the times, when I hear people complain about slow progression in a game, it's because of endless battles (or too many battles after another) or obnoxiously unnecessarily big dungeons.
I've been looking at my own project very closely and I personally don't think I have made my trainer setup or maps very obnoxious to get through.
(of course time will tell as soon as the playtesters are gonna get green light)

I personally don't feel the need to put in any acceleration buttons, but I wanted to gather opinions on here from other devs and experienced people on the subject of game development.

I honestly have no idea whether my cutscenes are going to get anoying for people or not.
(my opinion on my own cutscenes may perhaps be biased because I know the story that I'm telling. To me it wouldn't get boring, but to others it may indeed.)

The only thing I can say is that my project is going to be playtested to hell and back before release, so I hope to fix these things as they get noted.

 

[Keileon]

I say give players the option and let them experience the game how they like, personally.

I probably wouldn't use it myself aside from a serious levelgrinding session, but I do like having the option to do so and it seems like there's at least one plug-and-play script for Essentials out there. So unless you're actually against the idea (and I understand that viewpoint entirely) there's really no reason not to have a speed-up button in an RMXP game.

 

[Blue]

To keep my opinion nice and short (because I've yet to have coffee) the Speedup function is only useful in poorly designed games. If the level flow isn't steady, if the text is boring, if the NPC battles have become a grind chain, then you've failed at making your game interesting and people are going to hit the speed button. I know it might sound over-critical of me but if a game keeps my interest and knows how to make everything feel fresh and engaging I never even THINK of the fast-forward button.

 

[Dragonite]

I'm squarely against this. For one thing, I think this points to peoples' ever-shrinking attention spans, which is a thread in and of itself and something I had no interest in feeding; for another, if battle are boring there are already organic things people can do to speed them up like turning off animations and just walking around Bug Catcher Jerry (it's not like he's going to give you any experience anyway). Also like Sparta said, this will just encourage people to keep their finger on the button and skip 80% of the text in the game, and then come to Relic Castle complaining that they don't know what they're supposed to do next.

If you want to program in something like "don't play the battle animation this turn if the Select button is pressed" that's a different story, go for it, but that's about it.

Update on what I said earlier: I wouldn't leave it in for the final game, but now that I've started game jamming it would be REALLY NICE if I could have, like, a debug-only speed up button so I don't have to test the same stuff over and over fifty times . . .

 

[Jephed]

Update on what I said earlier: I wouldn't leave it in for the final game, but now that I've started game jamming it would be REALLY NICE if I could have, like, a debug-only speed up button so I don't have to test the same stuff over and over fifty times . . .

I can definately agree with you on this one! For playtesting this can be a very handy tool indeed! Maybe an idea for Essentials v17 @Maruno ?

 

[shadow.sulphor]

I'll say if the gameplay is long enough (much more than 30hrs ) and hard enough,you should give speed up button.

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

my vote is Do for Speed-Up Buttons in Fan Games, it is really great for grinding sessions and you could always disable speed-ups during cutscenes, as far as i know.