the worst thing about actually kind of liking a game idea about cockroaches is that seeing one in my room prompts the thought, "aw. yeah, you'd be kind of cute in a video game." before gassing the thing to hell. now i feel sorta bad. damnit.
if i ever make that game, it's dedicated to you, cockroach in my room that died approx. 2am on the 3rd of may 2010.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
memory loss
it's used a lot in games as a cheap storytelling technique. i can't think of a real reason why this guy is trapped in this room, so let's just say he's lost his memory. done.
but i'm wondering if there would be interesting way to use it in a game. you just got out of a nasty accident and have lost your memory and some of your ability to communicate. you're trying to talk to people who claim they know you. you could make the player paranoid by playing that these people are conspiring against you. they tell the doctors you need more medication when you feel fine? who knows. you could play on drug addiction too.
it'd be interesting. the player not trusting their environment, or the characters around them. everything tainted with paranoia and pain medication addiction. trying to figure out what happened before the game started, and trying to get through the game itself.
i get these random ideas but i couldn't tell you a single thing about gameplay.
also i'm reading duma key by stephen king, where the guy went through this nasty accident and lost a bit of his ability to communicate. coincidence i assure you!
but i'm wondering if there would be interesting way to use it in a game. you just got out of a nasty accident and have lost your memory and some of your ability to communicate. you're trying to talk to people who claim they know you. you could make the player paranoid by playing that these people are conspiring against you. they tell the doctors you need more medication when you feel fine? who knows. you could play on drug addiction too.
it'd be interesting. the player not trusting their environment, or the characters around them. everything tainted with paranoia and pain medication addiction. trying to figure out what happened before the game started, and trying to get through the game itself.
i get these random ideas but i couldn't tell you a single thing about gameplay.
also i'm reading duma key by stephen king, where the guy went through this nasty accident and lost a bit of his ability to communicate. coincidence i assure you!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
post-apocalyptic
you play a cockroach and you have to search for food. and fight off bigger cockroaches. but as you're playing, as a player, you see the world post-apocalypse. as a player you piece together what happened to cause this (a big volcano somewhere in the states went off and a lot of people died and all the flights were cancelled) and you explore the world now devoid of humans. as a cockroach you're just looking for scraps of food among houses, but as a player you crawl over a diary page and read the last entry.
it's an exploration game under the guise of being a hungry cockroach. exciting!
it's an exploration game under the guise of being a hungry cockroach. exciting!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
secret agents are so cool.
so i was walking through this mall today and had this awesome idea for a game. imagine if you're some kind of secret agent who has to deliver a message or kill this one guy. you have a picture of him, but you don't know anything about him except that he's in this mall. and you have to FIND HIM using nothing but your sleuthing abilities! maybe there's a GPS tracker in his pocket to help you out a bit, and once you find him you have to create some kind of distraction in order to kill him/deliver the message. oh! but then! he KNOWS you're after him, so he'll go to really crowded places, like where there's an event going on in the mall or something. man, so awesome.
and you can't use weapons or anything, you have to blend in, not look suspicious. you don't have any tools, no interface, just hunt for the guy and make sure he doesn't suspect you. oh man.
or maybe i could just wait for assassin's creed 6, he should be in the 21st century by then.
and you can't use weapons or anything, you have to blend in, not look suspicious. you don't have any tools, no interface, just hunt for the guy and make sure he doesn't suspect you. oh man.
or maybe i could just wait for assassin's creed 6, he should be in the 21st century by then.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
story told through environment
i really really suck at blogs. it was all going so well for a moment there.
at any rate, i've been seeing a lot of stuff lately about how stories can be told through an environment, for the player that is willing to find it and it's definitely a subject that interests me.
bioshock, fallout 3 and fable 2 are good examples that immediately come to mind. all to give you a sense of world and environment. the random little stories in fallout 3 just added to everything, where you found discarded notes or piles of bodies - events that happened long before you got here. it's nice to see a world that isn't solely affected by the main hero.
i remember quite a few certain scenes in fable 2 that were there for no other purpose than to be found, and weren't easy to do so. there was one quest that you had to figure out on your own, to do with this rabbit trying to find an egg to bring back to his family. you read his diary, try to figure out what he's talking about, perform various tasks that you would have not known had you not found the diary, and an egg appears. you get a little freaked out, there was no fanfare or no glowing light as you've come to expect whenever you achieve something in a quest, it's just there.
you pick up the egg and try to find the rabbit's home (which wasn't easy i seem to remember), eventually finding yourself transported into this tiny underground house with a table and chairs and beds, and plates set on the table with big carrots and small carrots laid about. and not a soul in sight. overall the whole situation is pretty creepy, there's just silence. no NPCs, no opening sequences, no "quest complete!". there was no quest, there were no checkpoints, anything you had to do, you simply did it all out of interests sake because that's the type of player you are - and you are rewarded for that. interestingly enough, there were also no enemies.
it says a lot for atmosphere too when you want to grab the carrots and get the hell out of there before some giant zombie rabbit appears (which you more than half expect).
i love this style of optional extra storytelling, which is only revealed to the players that actively seek it. this means there are no players bored waiting for the story to finish so they can slice something, and there are no players annoyed at the constant break from the story where they have to slice something. completely perfect, and it doesn't take away from the experience if you don't find it, simply adds to it.
at any rate this technique described doesn't necessarily tell the entire story to a game, though it can. that's the idea that i'm interested in. there are plenty of players out there that don't want to waste time with cutscenes, and there are plenty of players out there that eat this stuff up like chocolate sauce on an ice cream sundae (myself included).
and also maybe i'll start writing some more. probably not.
at any rate, i've been seeing a lot of stuff lately about how stories can be told through an environment, for the player that is willing to find it and it's definitely a subject that interests me.
bioshock, fallout 3 and fable 2 are good examples that immediately come to mind. all to give you a sense of world and environment. the random little stories in fallout 3 just added to everything, where you found discarded notes or piles of bodies - events that happened long before you got here. it's nice to see a world that isn't solely affected by the main hero.
i remember quite a few certain scenes in fable 2 that were there for no other purpose than to be found, and weren't easy to do so. there was one quest that you had to figure out on your own, to do with this rabbit trying to find an egg to bring back to his family. you read his diary, try to figure out what he's talking about, perform various tasks that you would have not known had you not found the diary, and an egg appears. you get a little freaked out, there was no fanfare or no glowing light as you've come to expect whenever you achieve something in a quest, it's just there.
you pick up the egg and try to find the rabbit's home (which wasn't easy i seem to remember), eventually finding yourself transported into this tiny underground house with a table and chairs and beds, and plates set on the table with big carrots and small carrots laid about. and not a soul in sight. overall the whole situation is pretty creepy, there's just silence. no NPCs, no opening sequences, no "quest complete!". there was no quest, there were no checkpoints, anything you had to do, you simply did it all out of interests sake because that's the type of player you are - and you are rewarded for that. interestingly enough, there were also no enemies.
it says a lot for atmosphere too when you want to grab the carrots and get the hell out of there before some giant zombie rabbit appears (which you more than half expect).
i love this style of optional extra storytelling, which is only revealed to the players that actively seek it. this means there are no players bored waiting for the story to finish so they can slice something, and there are no players annoyed at the constant break from the story where they have to slice something. completely perfect, and it doesn't take away from the experience if you don't find it, simply adds to it.
at any rate this technique described doesn't necessarily tell the entire story to a game, though it can. that's the idea that i'm interested in. there are plenty of players out there that don't want to waste time with cutscenes, and there are plenty of players out there that eat this stuff up like chocolate sauce on an ice cream sundae (myself included).
and also maybe i'll start writing some more. probably not.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
discussions about our DARE ideas
currently reading: insomnia by stephen king. dominating ALL MY IDEAS because it's seriously such a cool thing.
but an idea suggestion which was a blatant ripping off of said book led to an idea about a game about a little boy with an over active imagination. he lives out every kid's fantasies (that haven't been sedated by video games and television) like being a cowboy or an astronaut or a superhero and has a puppy and his parents are way cooler than they used to be and let him stay up late and eat all the sweets he wants. and there's these monsters, and some are friendly, and some aren't friendly. but if he makes a gun with his fingers he shoots these little beams of light, and enough of them could surround a not-so-friendly monster with enough light to make him friendly again.
and there's some quirky characters that he meets and helps out, and there's some kind of super villain that the kid dreamt up that he has to defeat with the help of his friends.
and the idea is just so charmingly simple that i'm so in love with it.
but an idea suggestion which was a blatant ripping off of said book led to an idea about a game about a little boy with an over active imagination. he lives out every kid's fantasies (that haven't been sedated by video games and television) like being a cowboy or an astronaut or a superhero and has a puppy and his parents are way cooler than they used to be and let him stay up late and eat all the sweets he wants. and there's these monsters, and some are friendly, and some aren't friendly. but if he makes a gun with his fingers he shoots these little beams of light, and enough of them could surround a not-so-friendly monster with enough light to make him friendly again.
and there's some quirky characters that he meets and helps out, and there's some kind of super villain that the kid dreamt up that he has to defeat with the help of his friends.
and the idea is just so charmingly simple that i'm so in love with it.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
iphone toy
i want to make a game for the iphone where it uses it's GPS tracking stuff and you have to use the headphones which gives you information on if there's an enemy nearby and you have to stalk the enemy (like a metal detector detects metal) and then hit a button to kill it. and you get points. it'd be like a virtual geocache. there would be a website where people post where they've found "fifty pointers" and there'd be moderators which have the ability to place monsters in certain places.
this idea isn't totally original, it's from an article someone posted about toys ages ago that i can't find, he actually had a working version of it.
but i like geocaches, and a virtual one would be kind of cool.
but i hate iphones. =/
[edit: i found this! which is also a cool idea! video!]
this idea isn't totally original, it's from an article someone posted about toys ages ago that i can't find, he actually had a working version of it.
but i like geocaches, and a virtual one would be kind of cool.
but i hate iphones. =/
[edit: i found this! which is also a cool idea! video!]
Saturday, March 6, 2010
disasters -> world immersion [ie. time to get off my ass and write]
these notes have been sitting on a little text file on my desktop for some time now, was brought about when someone reminded me of the beginning of Guild Wars Prophecies.
One thing that needs to be considered in MMOs is a tutorial area for the new recruits. You're going to lose a lot of starting players if you just drop them in the same area the level 100s are running around in, without letting them know how the world and the controls work (see FF11...).
So one way of combating this which Guild Wars Factions actually did is to have an offshore island, a training island that only spawns for you. You start your journey and some NPC reminds you how you just got the ship over here to learn the ancient techniques of [character class] and how you should go talk to [character class master] and he'll let you know how to get started. So you do that; you learn the controls, you learn how skills work in a completely safe environment, how the inventory works if you've never played before, and you get some small experience in battles and maybe even some starter weapons/money. Then some friendly NPC lets you know that you've completed your training and you're free to get the ship home again. Done.
I can only speak for Guild Wars (and FF11 a teeny bit) because it's the only MMO I've really played so bare with me here.
The first Guild Wars, on the other hand, employed a variation of the training island. Instead of starting completely on your own on your own island, you start right smack in the middle of the main city in the game - Ascalon. You stand there with level 5s and 6s running around you, an NPC with a giant green arrow pointing at him above his head and a friendly little box telling you to press the W key to move forward towards him. The NPC remembers his superior telling him about this new recruit and if you like he'll meet you outside the city gates to begin your training.
So the difference here is that already you're in the middle of the city, there are people running everywhere, there are merchants selling things, there's a big archway you can walk through leaving the city. Go ahead, nothing's stopping you, the game's already told you to do so. The game gives you enough hints to actually walk around and interact with things, and when you leave the city, there's your friendly NPC telling you how fighting works.
But actually this world isn't very scary, or dangerous for that matter. There's flowing green hills, a clear stream to the west, some farmlands with little houses a little further north, beautiful trees with their autumn-touched leaves, and bunches of colourful flowers all around. Unarmed merchants walking to and from the city gates greet you with a smile, they've nothing to fear, and the city behind you towers with it's grandiosity, flags billowing from the walls. Just beyond some soldiers continue a deadlocked battle with the Charr, maintaining a hold over the Great Wall which stops them from reaching this peaceful country. There's maybe a few monsters floating around near the river if you head over that way, but they'll probably only hurt themselves if they attack you.
So after learning the basics on skills and fighting, you go about doing a few tasks for a few people. Exploring, collecting, delivering messages, learning backstory if you like. You meet a little girl named Gwen who you help collect flowers, and if you fix her flute she follows you around skipping and playing it (which heals you, not that you'll need it). You help a guy find an engagement ring for a girl he's going to marry, after finding out from her her favourite stone. You can explore as little or as much as you like, but once you're ready to take the New Recruits Test (or something) you can just talk to that NPC from the start and he'll let you take it. But with a warning: Are you sure you don't want to explore a bit more? You'll be taken beyond the Wall on a small mission against some Charr, and YOU CAN'T COME BACK HERE. Are you really sure?
So alarm bells, right? But fine whatever, I've done everything, I've seen everywhere, let me sit the damn test. So you sit the test, you go and battle a few Charr, collect something, bring it back, well done! You passed! And then the cutscene.
A voiceover tells you that it was that day the the Charr discovered a way around the Great Wall, a way to bring it down. And as you receive your congratulations, meteor (things) crash into the walls of Ascalon. Stone flies everywhere, fires start, trees burn, people scream, soldiers run to fight the onslaught but it's simply not enough. This is called the Searing, and the voiceover tells you that this is where the true story begins.
Two years later and your character stands in the ruins that were once that bustling Ascalon. You walk through the remains, get your mission from your superior and explore like you did only a few hours before. The world is different now, all you see before you is endless wasteland, the stream has dried up, the trees are but charred stalks, the small farm villages have been reduced to rubble, it's inhabitants missing and there are no flowers.
You never find Gwen again (or at least until a few expansions in the future) but you do find her broken flute, near where there once was a river, where you first met her. You speak to the guy you got the ring for, and he asks you to find his fiancée, it's been two years and he hasn't heard from her; eventually you find her ghost.
This whole story is just to illustrate my point about world immersion. You walk through this wasteland and you find things from pre-Searing, you see how things have changed, how characters have changed, how some have died or gone missing. This kind of disaster attaches you to that world, so you feel a reason to go on the missions to try and restore it. It not only serves as a tutorial area to teach you the basics in a training environment but also shows you and let's you get attached to this beautiful world where everything is nice and everyone is friendly. You meet a little girl who skips around you and a guy who's wanting to ask the love of his life to marry him - progression through life, people expressing happiness. And then it all gets destroyed, and better yet, it gets destroyed by one collective group (whom you frequently get to take your rage out on).
Besides MMOs, surely this technique can be applied to other games as well? Heavy Rain does it with the sons, you wake up with the sun shining into your bright, happy home and you spend the day playing with your kids outside in your green garden. Then well, it rains, so to speak. I want to apply this technique to the world, like Guild Wars. Instead of a single person the player is fighting to save, it's the world the player "grew up" in which has been destroyed.
Now, is it dissertation worthy?
One thing that needs to be considered in MMOs is a tutorial area for the new recruits. You're going to lose a lot of starting players if you just drop them in the same area the level 100s are running around in, without letting them know how the world and the controls work (see FF11...).
So one way of combating this which Guild Wars Factions actually did is to have an offshore island, a training island that only spawns for you. You start your journey and some NPC reminds you how you just got the ship over here to learn the ancient techniques of [character class] and how you should go talk to [character class master] and he'll let you know how to get started. So you do that; you learn the controls, you learn how skills work in a completely safe environment, how the inventory works if you've never played before, and you get some small experience in battles and maybe even some starter weapons/money. Then some friendly NPC lets you know that you've completed your training and you're free to get the ship home again. Done.
I can only speak for Guild Wars (and FF11 a teeny bit) because it's the only MMO I've really played so bare with me here.
The first Guild Wars, on the other hand, employed a variation of the training island. Instead of starting completely on your own on your own island, you start right smack in the middle of the main city in the game - Ascalon. You stand there with level 5s and 6s running around you, an NPC with a giant green arrow pointing at him above his head and a friendly little box telling you to press the W key to move forward towards him. The NPC remembers his superior telling him about this new recruit and if you like he'll meet you outside the city gates to begin your training.
So the difference here is that already you're in the middle of the city, there are people running everywhere, there are merchants selling things, there's a big archway you can walk through leaving the city. Go ahead, nothing's stopping you, the game's already told you to do so. The game gives you enough hints to actually walk around and interact with things, and when you leave the city, there's your friendly NPC telling you how fighting works.
But actually this world isn't very scary, or dangerous for that matter. There's flowing green hills, a clear stream to the west, some farmlands with little houses a little further north, beautiful trees with their autumn-touched leaves, and bunches of colourful flowers all around. Unarmed merchants walking to and from the city gates greet you with a smile, they've nothing to fear, and the city behind you towers with it's grandiosity, flags billowing from the walls. Just beyond some soldiers continue a deadlocked battle with the Charr, maintaining a hold over the Great Wall which stops them from reaching this peaceful country. There's maybe a few monsters floating around near the river if you head over that way, but they'll probably only hurt themselves if they attack you.
So after learning the basics on skills and fighting, you go about doing a few tasks for a few people. Exploring, collecting, delivering messages, learning backstory if you like. You meet a little girl named Gwen who you help collect flowers, and if you fix her flute she follows you around skipping and playing it (which heals you, not that you'll need it). You help a guy find an engagement ring for a girl he's going to marry, after finding out from her her favourite stone. You can explore as little or as much as you like, but once you're ready to take the New Recruits Test (or something) you can just talk to that NPC from the start and he'll let you take it. But with a warning: Are you sure you don't want to explore a bit more? You'll be taken beyond the Wall on a small mission against some Charr, and YOU CAN'T COME BACK HERE. Are you really sure?
So alarm bells, right? But fine whatever, I've done everything, I've seen everywhere, let me sit the damn test. So you sit the test, you go and battle a few Charr, collect something, bring it back, well done! You passed! And then the cutscene.
A voiceover tells you that it was that day the the Charr discovered a way around the Great Wall, a way to bring it down. And as you receive your congratulations, meteor (things) crash into the walls of Ascalon. Stone flies everywhere, fires start, trees burn, people scream, soldiers run to fight the onslaught but it's simply not enough. This is called the Searing, and the voiceover tells you that this is where the true story begins.
Two years later and your character stands in the ruins that were once that bustling Ascalon. You walk through the remains, get your mission from your superior and explore like you did only a few hours before. The world is different now, all you see before you is endless wasteland, the stream has dried up, the trees are but charred stalks, the small farm villages have been reduced to rubble, it's inhabitants missing and there are no flowers.
You never find Gwen again (or at least until a few expansions in the future) but you do find her broken flute, near where there once was a river, where you first met her. You speak to the guy you got the ring for, and he asks you to find his fiancée, it's been two years and he hasn't heard from her; eventually you find her ghost.
This whole story is just to illustrate my point about world immersion. You walk through this wasteland and you find things from pre-Searing, you see how things have changed, how characters have changed, how some have died or gone missing. This kind of disaster attaches you to that world, so you feel a reason to go on the missions to try and restore it. It not only serves as a tutorial area to teach you the basics in a training environment but also shows you and let's you get attached to this beautiful world where everything is nice and everyone is friendly. You meet a little girl who skips around you and a guy who's wanting to ask the love of his life to marry him - progression through life, people expressing happiness. And then it all gets destroyed, and better yet, it gets destroyed by one collective group (whom you frequently get to take your rage out on).
Besides MMOs, surely this technique can be applied to other games as well? Heavy Rain does it with the sons, you wake up with the sun shining into your bright, happy home and you spend the day playing with your kids outside in your green garden. Then well, it rains, so to speak. I want to apply this technique to the world, like Guild Wars. Instead of a single person the player is fighting to save, it's the world the player "grew up" in which has been destroyed.
Now, is it dissertation worthy?
Monday, March 1, 2010
interface
i mentioned it in my last post about heavy rain (which is currently consuming all my love): whatever game i make just to get my toes in the water, this is the kind of interface that i want. ambitious? yeahh. which is probably a bad thing. but i want the controls to be simple, minimalist, intuitive. if it's not immediately obvious, i want text to hover around wherever the player's eyes are focussed at that time.
i played a little browser game which had one button that made your character jump. he ran across building tops, and the game got faster and faster - the goal was to see how long you could run for, jumping at the right moment, before you hit something and died awfully.
what makes this game work? well, you don't need a help screen, really. there is no unknown world, it's all pretty obvious, it's all very basic. the instructions don't even tell you what to do, it's just intuitive - you don't want to fall to your death. when you die, the game restarts quickly; the game starting and finishing itself is fast paced, not just the gameplay.
fahrenheit doesn't have any real instructions. there's an optional introduction thing, introducing you to this new kind of interface, giving you a chance to get used to it before they drop you right in the story. from then on it's all intuitive - i need to hide this body, get rid of the knife, get out of the diner. yeah fine, it's frustrating for some at the start. as a frequent game player it's frustrating to "get things wrong" like trying to leave the diner without paying - something you probably didn't think of before, your mind simply focussed on getting out. it's frustrating enough to stop playing. but once you get over this, and think less on working around the limitations of a video game and more on how you would really react in real life (in trusting that the game will have thought of whatever you can think of), it becomes a real joy.
compared to GTA4, the textbook sandbox game, fahrenheit feels free-er. with GTA you're still thinking in terms of a game limitations; you just assume things without the game telling you. fahrenheit on the other hand, has more limitations, but only lets you think through a narrow tunnel. that narrow tunnel is exactly where the designer's want you to go, you just don't realise it.
i had a point. uh. yes! interface. i want a game where that interface between your character and you is blurred enough that you forget it's there. fahrenheit really tries at this, and once i've got my paws on heavy rain i'll be able to comment on if david cage has fully achieved it yet. at any rate, minimizing the controls between a player and his character has to be the first step in minimizing this distance between them.
i played a little browser game which had one button that made your character jump. he ran across building tops, and the game got faster and faster - the goal was to see how long you could run for, jumping at the right moment, before you hit something and died awfully.
what makes this game work? well, you don't need a help screen, really. there is no unknown world, it's all pretty obvious, it's all very basic. the instructions don't even tell you what to do, it's just intuitive - you don't want to fall to your death. when you die, the game restarts quickly; the game starting and finishing itself is fast paced, not just the gameplay.
fahrenheit doesn't have any real instructions. there's an optional introduction thing, introducing you to this new kind of interface, giving you a chance to get used to it before they drop you right in the story. from then on it's all intuitive - i need to hide this body, get rid of the knife, get out of the diner. yeah fine, it's frustrating for some at the start. as a frequent game player it's frustrating to "get things wrong" like trying to leave the diner without paying - something you probably didn't think of before, your mind simply focussed on getting out. it's frustrating enough to stop playing. but once you get over this, and think less on working around the limitations of a video game and more on how you would really react in real life (in trusting that the game will have thought of whatever you can think of), it becomes a real joy.
compared to GTA4, the textbook sandbox game, fahrenheit feels free-er. with GTA you're still thinking in terms of a game limitations; you just assume things without the game telling you. fahrenheit on the other hand, has more limitations, but only lets you think through a narrow tunnel. that narrow tunnel is exactly where the designer's want you to go, you just don't realise it.
i had a point. uh. yes! interface. i want a game where that interface between your character and you is blurred enough that you forget it's there. fahrenheit really tries at this, and once i've got my paws on heavy rain i'll be able to comment on if david cage has fully achieved it yet. at any rate, minimizing the controls between a player and his character has to be the first step in minimizing this distance between them.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
heavy rain
i haven't played it but i freaking want to. since i'm on the wrong side of the world right now, i watched it on a webcam. but STILL.
the Reasons Why I Love This Game and Also Potentially David Cage (despite not actually playing it)
the controls
A isn't jump and B isn't melee attack. everything adapts to its environment, the buttons are only used if it's relevant and the game only tells you about them when it's important. you don't need to learn controls, or refer to a key guide, the game simply tells you as you need to know. mirror's edge tried this kind of "revolutionary" set of controls. and once you got used to it it did kind of work - but put the game down and pick it up a week later, and good luck trying to remember what everything does...
the instructions
when your character is panicking instructions are flying everywhere - you can't see straight, you can't concentrate, and you can't make a slow decision. that interface between a character and a player, the controls and the instructions to that controls is the key to creating immersion. you blur that line, the player will feel more connected to a character.
intuitive controls are a part of it, but if you panic because you can't read the instructions properly as they spin around your character, or if you feel tense as your eyes scatter looking for the next symbol to press in a fight scene, that line fades in the background as you focus on more important things.
the storyline(s)
according to mr. cage there are 23 epilogues, but countless "endings" due to the different ways of reaching these conclusions. a 10 hour game can now be played over and over again, even if you already know who the killer is and each time it will feel like a new game. it's nice to finally see this kind of multi-threaded storyline, though i have no idea how it managed to get backed financially - who wants to pay money for expensive scenes if the player may never actually get to see them because he killed off the character a few chapters ago? i'm just glad someone had that sense eventually.
an interesting note i read in an interview: cage reported that a lot of players found that they didn't feel they really had varying choices in each chapter - they wanted to play the character right, and do what would be in the character's best interests. i'd say that speaks volumes of the games strengths, rather than any weaknesses.
the (realistic) characters
archetypes, cage calls it. he starts with an archetype: someone you can very quickly get to know, based on how the character looks, talks, behaves, moves, and by his voice and whatever. he then adds an additional layer of complexity, so you feel you really know this character but then discover an extra depth. he says he hates caricatures - the army guy with the huge muscles and the big voice, or the sexy girl with the big boobs. it's refreshing to see a change, it reflect cage's attempt to mature the industry. no longer should games be about what people think teenager's want. games aren't made by teenager's any more, and there's a huge market of adults and older people just waiting for maturer games.
it's just so nice to see real people, real faces, real personalities and real problems in a game.
the freaking EMOTION
oh man serious. to feel real attachment to your kid, and a real desire to bond with him again - how the hell do you recreate that? he's a firm believer in borrowing from cinema. if it works in cinema, take it and add something unique to this medium - interactivity. why not? it works. it really really works. emotion drove every design decision in fahrenheit, and probably this game too - the music, the camera, the story, everything. it just WORKS goddamnit.
overall, just so happy. so so happy. i've been super excited about this game for months and months and was getting really anxious as the previews started coming in. videos would pop up and people would react badly saying they didn't want a game where you brushed your teeth, asking why there are no guns, asking why the girl in it isn't as gorgeous as she could be. it made me worried, it did. this is the future of the industry, the signs of it starting to mature, i really want to believe it. there's a gold mine here, a real well of ingenuity and creativity. i just hope the fantastic reviews and (hopefully) number of copies selling encourages other developers to throw their hat into this ring. there's really something there.
the Reasons Why I Love This Game and Also Potentially David Cage (despite not actually playing it)
the controls
A isn't jump and B isn't melee attack. everything adapts to its environment, the buttons are only used if it's relevant and the game only tells you about them when it's important. you don't need to learn controls, or refer to a key guide, the game simply tells you as you need to know. mirror's edge tried this kind of "revolutionary" set of controls. and once you got used to it it did kind of work - but put the game down and pick it up a week later, and good luck trying to remember what everything does...
the instructions
when your character is panicking instructions are flying everywhere - you can't see straight, you can't concentrate, and you can't make a slow decision. that interface between a character and a player, the controls and the instructions to that controls is the key to creating immersion. you blur that line, the player will feel more connected to a character.
intuitive controls are a part of it, but if you panic because you can't read the instructions properly as they spin around your character, or if you feel tense as your eyes scatter looking for the next symbol to press in a fight scene, that line fades in the background as you focus on more important things.
the storyline(s)
according to mr. cage there are 23 epilogues, but countless "endings" due to the different ways of reaching these conclusions. a 10 hour game can now be played over and over again, even if you already know who the killer is and each time it will feel like a new game. it's nice to finally see this kind of multi-threaded storyline, though i have no idea how it managed to get backed financially - who wants to pay money for expensive scenes if the player may never actually get to see them because he killed off the character a few chapters ago? i'm just glad someone had that sense eventually.
an interesting note i read in an interview: cage reported that a lot of players found that they didn't feel they really had varying choices in each chapter - they wanted to play the character right, and do what would be in the character's best interests. i'd say that speaks volumes of the games strengths, rather than any weaknesses.
the (realistic) characters
archetypes, cage calls it. he starts with an archetype: someone you can very quickly get to know, based on how the character looks, talks, behaves, moves, and by his voice and whatever. he then adds an additional layer of complexity, so you feel you really know this character but then discover an extra depth. he says he hates caricatures - the army guy with the huge muscles and the big voice, or the sexy girl with the big boobs. it's refreshing to see a change, it reflect cage's attempt to mature the industry. no longer should games be about what people think teenager's want. games aren't made by teenager's any more, and there's a huge market of adults and older people just waiting for maturer games.
it's just so nice to see real people, real faces, real personalities and real problems in a game.
the freaking EMOTION
oh man serious. to feel real attachment to your kid, and a real desire to bond with him again - how the hell do you recreate that? he's a firm believer in borrowing from cinema. if it works in cinema, take it and add something unique to this medium - interactivity. why not? it works. it really really works. emotion drove every design decision in fahrenheit, and probably this game too - the music, the camera, the story, everything. it just WORKS goddamnit.
overall, just so happy. so so happy. i've been super excited about this game for months and months and was getting really anxious as the previews started coming in. videos would pop up and people would react badly saying they didn't want a game where you brushed your teeth, asking why there are no guns, asking why the girl in it isn't as gorgeous as she could be. it made me worried, it did. this is the future of the industry, the signs of it starting to mature, i really want to believe it. there's a gold mine here, a real well of ingenuity and creativity. i just hope the fantastic reviews and (hopefully) number of copies selling encourages other developers to throw their hat into this ring. there's really something there.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
LIZARDS
screw that, lizards are just awesome. just spent the last ten minutes watching one wiggle around outside. i could make a game about that. it'd be so cute!
at some point he'd pick up some balloons and float around for a while.
he'd have to eat bugs to get points, but in general the whole game would just be about walking around and looking cool.
at some point he'd pick up some balloons and float around for a while.
he'd have to eat bugs to get points, but in general the whole game would just be about walking around and looking cool.
pirates
pirates. honestly. pirates. they're the answer to all of this.
either that or marshmallows.
ohh! or cows! cows are pretty cute.
either that or marshmallows.
ohh! or cows! cows are pretty cute.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
richard bartle
the guy came up with these four types of MMO player:
the explorer (spades)
the achiever (diamonds)
the socializer (hearts)
the killer (clubs)
unsurprisingly after taking the test i'm an explorer/socializer. woo.
so i wonder, is it possible to make a game that can identify what kind of player you are, and adapt the game to suit that experience? if you're an explorer, how could the game reward you for finding something that is only revealed to explorers (a reward greater than the player's own sense of accomplishment of course)? i don't know.
future lauren: please read through this.
the explorer (spades)
the achiever (diamonds)
the socializer (hearts)
the killer (clubs)
unsurprisingly after taking the test i'm an explorer/socializer. woo.
so i wonder, is it possible to make a game that can identify what kind of player you are, and adapt the game to suit that experience? if you're an explorer, how could the game reward you for finding something that is only revealed to explorers (a reward greater than the player's own sense of accomplishment of course)? i don't know.
future lauren: please read through this.
Monday, February 22, 2010
music
the decemberists' latest album: the hazards of love has me caught up in this idea of turning an album into a game. each level would be a song, progressing the story; the style and pacing of the music would determine the style and pacing of the level. the thing with hazards of love is that the whole album is one story, each song in the album is like a scene in a play. nice and easy for games.
it brings to question whether i can design a game like this. listening to a song, picking up themes and emotions and atmosphere, and turning it into an interactive game. i guess it follows that aesthetics -> dynamics -> mechanics method of designing.
at any rate, it's probably not something researchable or reportable for a dissertation next year, nor something i'm technically or creatively capable of just yet. but it's something i'd like to hold onto until a time when i am capable comes.
i wonder if i'd have to ask the decemberists' permission to make a game from their album? o.O
it brings to question whether i can design a game like this. listening to a song, picking up themes and emotions and atmosphere, and turning it into an interactive game. i guess it follows that aesthetics -> dynamics -> mechanics method of designing.
at any rate, it's probably not something researchable or reportable for a dissertation next year, nor something i'm technically or creatively capable of just yet. but it's something i'd like to hold onto until a time when i am capable comes.
i wonder if i'd have to ask the decemberists' permission to make a game from their album? o.O
Sunday, February 21, 2010
mandatory first post
so i guess this is that post where i say, "omg welcome to my new blog!" and i tell you a bit of background and something about myself, and tell you everything that i hope to write about but probably wont. well here goes.
i'm a computer science student. i'm currently in singapore, on a sort of exchange, but when i get home i'll be starting my fourth year - and subsequently graduating (hopefully). in said fourth year, there's a little dissertation we have to do. a kind of research (as far as i'm aware), something to do with computing. this is a pretty wide subject so since i have an interest in games (and game designer is this week's dream job), i'm narrowing my topic to something game-related.
if the gods are kind, i may get a mentor that will let me have access to their little game room - fully equipped with the consoles, sweet-ass tv and some crazy mind-reading devices. if the gods are this kind, i may have a very exciting dissertation thing.
so for starters there's been a number of ideas cropping into my head depending on my mood before i even started this thing, they are written briefly as follows:
- dynamic camera for player-controlled cutscenes (a kind of programmed director determining good camera angles depending on what's happening in the scene)
- realistic player relationships with NPCs
- emotion-responsive something (because i really want to play with that mind reader thing...)
- a first-person shooter without controllers (because i REALLY want to play with that mind reader thing)
- somethingsomethingelseiforget
tada! fantastic.
another note: get used to the lack of capitalisation. none of these entries will be at all cohesive, this whole thing will (hopefully) serve as some kind of replacement for the scraps of paper i keep writing on and losing. here's hopin'!
and with that, bye!
i'm a computer science student. i'm currently in singapore, on a sort of exchange, but when i get home i'll be starting my fourth year - and subsequently graduating (hopefully). in said fourth year, there's a little dissertation we have to do. a kind of research (as far as i'm aware), something to do with computing. this is a pretty wide subject so since i have an interest in games (and game designer is this week's dream job), i'm narrowing my topic to something game-related.
if the gods are kind, i may get a mentor that will let me have access to their little game room - fully equipped with the consoles, sweet-ass tv and some crazy mind-reading devices. if the gods are this kind, i may have a very exciting dissertation thing.
so for starters there's been a number of ideas cropping into my head depending on my mood before i even started this thing, they are written briefly as follows:
- dynamic camera for player-controlled cutscenes (a kind of programmed director determining good camera angles depending on what's happening in the scene)
- realistic player relationships with NPCs
- emotion-responsive something (because i really want to play with that mind reader thing...)
- a first-person shooter without controllers (because i REALLY want to play with that mind reader thing)
- somethingsomethingelseiforget
tada! fantastic.
another note: get used to the lack of capitalisation. none of these entries will be at all cohesive, this whole thing will (hopefully) serve as some kind of replacement for the scraps of paper i keep writing on and losing. here's hopin'!
and with that, bye!
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