Click the thumbnails.

Today, I added trees to Night Ops. As you can see in the first screenshot, they make an excellent hiding spot. In the second screenshot, you can see that one only needs to place their cursor over it to see what's under it, so you're not invisible by hiding. Also, trees will not protect you from bullets, so you'll have to think fast if you're seen.

Hopefully, this will spice up the gameplay and make players have to be a bit more careful about running into the open. Not only that, but it spices up the map design a bit.

The cool thing about the tree is that it doesn't have to be a tree. Anything that can hang over someone's head can work the same way. I could also make outcropping roofs or overhead archways the same way. I could even do bunkers. And you know what's funny? I didn't even realize that until I typed it! Man, that's a cool idea!

Hmm… I guess the lesson here is that one idea can go along way. I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking only conventionally, such as with the trees. When I made them, I thought to myself, "Trees. Oh boy. I can already feel the adrenaline. OK, next task." It took me quite a while to figure out that the system would work just as well for other structures. After I had that figured out, the ideas started running wild, and then I came up with bunkers. Game design requires some creativity. Don't hold back on an idea because it sounds weird. I'm sure the concept of a first person shooter sounded weird before it was developed, but look at how that took off.

Now, as a closing note, I want some opinions on what you want to see out of this blog. Does reading stuff like what I put in today's entry interest you, or is it just flat out boring? Would you like to see future entries take a different approach?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to make those bunkers…