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.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
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.
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