Profiles in games?

Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Profiles in games?

Who thinks profiles in shareware games, esp. puzzle games are a good idea?

I'm sorta talking about saved games but not quite. I'm thinking of adding profiles to Xmas Bonus so when you start you can pay as "Guest" or make a new profile. Then it will track what level you are on, your score, what levels you have unlocked and which hint dialogs you have already seen so that next time you play it can smoothly resume from where you left off and any other players in the house can have their own profile.

When it resumes though it won't be able to resume mid-level, it will only start at the begginning of the last level reached with whatever score you had at the start of the level, is this naff? I think its probably OK and better than having nothing. To resume mid level means recording all objects in existance and reloading them perfectly, inc. sounds! Naturally this is hard and prone to bugs. I know FPS games and other AAA titles etc do this but I'm not so sure it's needed on a puzzle game.

I <3 Profiles!

Sorry I'm not l33t enough to understand what "<3" means, please tell as I'm a n00b.

it means 0, 1 or 2

what about -1?

I like profiles only as long as it prompts you to choose what profile to load when the program starts up....one too many times has someone else played on my data in a game because it auto-opens the last used profile.

I don't know l33t, but from the context of the question, I'm
assuming <3 is suppsed to be a heart? Like, "I heart
profiles"?

[edit]
Oh yeah, I like profiles. If a game doesn't have them, I
usually have to switch save files manually. (*cough* like HL2)

Perturbatio: I am swiping your sig image and sticking it on my site. I hope you don't mind ;c)

assuming <3 is suppsed to be a heart?

You read smilies in the other direction, it can therefore only be a bum! :)

Profiles are a major plus...

Especially if there is unlocking of higher levels involved, seperate profiles can make the game more challenging if more than one person in a household gets into a game.

Profiles can also make your highscore system smoother, you can automatically add the profile name rather than asking for the name of the player each time.

I'm adding Xbox Live style profiles to everything I do now. Well ... maybe not everything but I'm definitely getting into the whole database thing. Tinker Blaster's Trip stores all sorts of cool info to enhance the community and competition experience.

Profiles are always a good idea. The point Genexi2 made is important too ;)

Well I started work on adding profiles. I think <3 must I have been a heart like drew said. It will prompt you to pick an existing profile or make a new one plus there will be a default "Guest" one for quick play.