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Here is an article on game design, which is an interesting read: http://tynansylvester.com/2013/06/the-simulation-dream/ FMA's might benefit from the part dealing with apophenia. Also, for improving storytelling, a list of emotional triggers is given here: https://memetechnology.org/2013/06/13/emotional-triggers/ Reading these might give some food for thought.

Hey, Every time I've try to use the Full Editor when PM'ing someone, and every single time I get an error. Whoever is in charge of the forum, is it possible that this could be fixed? Thanks Neon

Hello everyone, new to the forums, but not new to the game. I've found much enjoyment in this game, now I'd like to be able to give something back and contribute. I can offer to help with programming and level design. My experiences lie mostly with C# and JavaScript programming (C# being my primary programming language). I have yet to work with C++ more extensively, but am very eager to learn and think helping out for the game would be a good motivator. On the other hand, if you can only accept experienced C++ programmers (understandably), then I would at least like to try my hand at creating an FM or two. I have years of experience working with the Source Engine and doing level design for the Source mod "PVKII", so knowing that there are some familiar concepts with the Dark Mod's Engine and Source, I am confident I can create something worthwhile. However I would need some assistance with getting familiar with the project for coding or level design. I'd love to help out whichever way I can and hope you can grant me some insight into how I might help.

As fan missions have become their own thing somewhere around 2003-2004, they started to develop their own design standards, many of them subtly different from the original games. This is fine, but sometimes, you have to go back to the roots and see how they did things. Here are a few impressions about the original, pre-Gold Thief based on my recent end-of-the-year replay, which I have found insightful as a fan mission author: Loot placement: Loot amounts are fairly conservative. The 2-3000 you can find is usually all over a huge, sprawling mission, often hidden in challenging locations, some very obscure (I have found loot on this playthrough I never discovered before). There is little "trash loot", like random little coin stacks you have to sweep up from five cupboards and chests. The pieces you find are usually impressive on their own. Hidden loot involves interesting gameplay, from climbing to spotting things against a busy background texture to the proverbial nooks and crannies - but almost always, placed intelligently to form mini-puzzles.Focused readables: very few readables are longer than three or four pages. Most are one or two, and communicate their ideas efficiently, although also with great flavour. No audiolog syndrome is present.Formal variety: architecture, although extremely low-detail by modern standards, is full of interesting experiments. Realism takes a backseat to things like the Bonehoard's multi-leveled 3d maze, Escape's crisscrossing tunnels, or the mind-melting Sara Verrilli levels (The Sword, Strange Bedfellows, The Maw of Chaos). But even a comparatively mundane mission like Bafford is full of intriguing non-cubical places, or cubes broken up into smaller discrete areas. As a result, there is little repetition, and mission areas are distinct and identifiable, with bold shapes to compensate for the lack of detail. The environments are often suggestive or even symbolic instead of descriptive. In The Haunted Cathedral (the sealed quarter), most houses are just odd shapes that suggest crumbling architecture without going into the details.Heavy guard: some areas are guarded so heavily that getting through is simply not a sane option. Bafford's front door is not only lit up like a Christmas tree and guarded by a guards/archer combo, it then opens into a murder gallery that'll alert the whole house if you manage to get in somehow.Varied thievery: the game tries to offer objectives going beyond stealing and hiding in the shadows. You break people out of a prison, leave coins on a grave out of superstition, have to hightail it to your home turf to avoid getting caught, and infiltrate the Hammerite church in the clothes of a novice. At one time, you have to manufacture stuff in a foundry. The missions play differently not just because of their environments, but because they encompass a much broader range of thievy activities than we tend to get from fan missions.Fantasy: there are bold detours from gritty steampunk "realism" into Lewis Carrol-on-acid fantasy landscapes. But even the less fantastic missions have an element of whimsy. Ramirez has a burrick pen under his house. The Hammerite prison is built atop haunted mines and a factory. There are a lot of interesting, odd beasts in the missions!Garrett is not yet a master thief. He is an aspiring thief who starts to gain a reputation through the game, attracting increasingly more dangerous enemies and clients, but he is not yet a legendary figure. There is an element of uncertainty, and you are constantly made aware that only player skill can compensate for Garrett's vulnerabilities. Your victories are hard-won, and feel earned. There is a constant element of exploiting loopholes, not just sneaking in and getting out.