Gamasutra - Various Articles Update

Here are two articles of interest from Gamasutra this week. The first one is a followup to the C.Net article about the Unity sale. Seems the sale might not be happening.

"We have no plan to sell Unity," says co-founder and CTO Joachim Ante -- in a new post on the official Unity forums.

Rumors that the company was up for sale swelled last week following a report by CNET. VentureBeat published similar rumors last month.

However, Ante unequivocally denies them in his new post. "Our response has always been that for Unity it is best to be an independent company. This has been true for the last 10 years, it is equally true today," he writes.

The second article is a hosted submission that talks about how to Rethink Magic RPGs.

Most RPGs use “fire-ice-lightning” or “fire-ice-wind-earth” elemental systems of magic, where fire is strong against ice and vice versa, ice spells freeze/slow enemies, etc. Offhand can you think of any RPG where the first offensive spell you learn is NOT “Fireball” or something similar? It’s disturbingly difficult.

In terms of using magic strategically in these systems, it is usually either a simple matter of “use fire magic against ice monster,” or else guess and check (a boss is weak against lightning for no apparent reason and with no indication, etc.).

Of course fire and ice are easy to understand as powerful forces of magic, but when the same system is used so often it starts to lose the sense of excitement and wonder that magic should have. As a powerful supernatural force, magic should also tie in with the foundations of the game’s world. Why is magic divided into fire and ice instead of star and crystal, plastic and metal, or bone and dirt?

There must be more ways to make magic fresh, original, and strategically interesting… Once again, let’s see how games have accomplished this in the past.