I think I got carried away with creating stats and have 19 stats in the stat chart. I’ve even tried to add more but they wouldn’t let me. Just curious, but how many stats do you think is ‘too many’?
I don’t think it’s as easy as that to say X is too many. You just have to ask yourself which are necessary though. Don’t forget, just because you use the stat in the game, the player doesn’t necessarily have to see it.
In my game, ‘The Race’, I used a total of 50 permanent variables, of which 10-14 were displayed on the stats page.
With Æon Sage, I have around 40 (about 5 of which are ‘gender’ stats, and 24 of which will show up in the stats sheet), and I’m still in the introduction.
With Samurai, I have 58 stats (and counting) and only 15 which appears on the stat screen.
So yes, have as many stats as you think is needed to make the magic come alive and the player doesn’t have to see all of it.
I think you should differentiate between ‘stats’ and ‘variables’. The former being the ones shown on the stat screen e.g. strength/wisdom/charisma etc. while the latter being e.g. ‘has_a_knife’,‘met_the_Santa’ etc.
I’ve used 13 stats and several skills only, and around 50 variables. And I think the number of stats was a bit too high (they didn’t have that much impact).
Actually Myth, you’re right. I guess we are too used to having both stats and variables in the same file that we take them for one and the same.
I don’t think (based on complete conjecture) you can ever have “too many stats”. I assume you also mean “variables” by stats. If you just mean stats shown to play on a screen, I agree, at some point it becomes uneasy to wield.
As far as variables, though, I’d say to infinity and beyond, so long as it doesn’t overly complicate the experience for the player. I find myself adding all kinds of checks and variables at a large variety of instances, but I do my best to make sure the presentable aspect of these elements is elegant and simple while hopefully remaining obvious to the player if necessary, keeping within a certain few goals for the constant navigation and interface.
Actually, I figured it out. Thanks anyways