It's been an obscenely time since I wrote here, but I'll defend myself by saying there's been a few big changes in my life.
I'm no longer with Streamline Studios, and moved back to Portugal and sunny Lisbon (but definitely a bit chilly these days). I've stepped on board the good ship GameInvest as lead game designer, and it's being a blast as well as a huge challenge. Getting caught up with ongoing projects is never easy, even when you get back from vacations, but it's always a rush. Got a lot of thinking, planning and prioritizing to do, and this time not just for myself and others on occasion, but as a full time lead for my 3 awesome design guys. But all the geeky kidult joy of game dev is right there to bond us, and I'm already feeling a part of the gang. Beijinhos e abraços pessoal, se estiverem a ler (!).
And back home with Laura, Cindy and my (not so little now) Chill the Chillmeister kitty, well, that's wonderful. :)
I'll write something soon, I promise, when I get some time. Maybe about my World of Warcraft wanderings, the looting and XP gaining love I'm getting from Torchlight and Borderlands, or how I'm seeing such parallels between my beloved old school graphic adventures (thanks again Lucas and Sierra) and the casual games of today. Or maybe I'll finally give Love (the game, if you know me you know I can't help the emotion) a try and talk about h4x0rzing frequencies in an impressionist painting feels.
Lots of love of the best kind,
JJ
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Brutal Legend Demo Impressions
The Brütal Legend just came out for us Europeans last Thursday, and I thought I'd write down some of my first impressions.
Right from the start, you can tell this is a Tim Schafer/Double Fine game - once again, the charismatic protagonist is thrown into a strange world and with good-spirited determination steps into the unknown; there's the subtle social humour, never forced and always genuinue; the humour - one of my favorite lines in Psychonauts, Coach Oleander taunts Raz: "You're slower than molasses crawling up a hill... in January!" and in BL Eddie was taunting the worm boss: "It smells like a whale... ate a bunch of tuna... and died in your mouth... like a YEAR ago!"
The intro is delivered brilliantly, I can't imagine any rock or metal fan not immediately bonding with Eddie when those obnoxious kids play, and, well, what happens next is really one of the most bad-ass death and delivery scenes I've enjoyed in games, and sets you right down into gameplay at the end, an artful trick I've loved since I first saw it in FFVII. And the whole damn thing is fucking Metal, to the core. In that respect, it's already a success in my mind, since it completely lives up to its vision (during those first crucial moments in the demo, of course - but knowing the people behind it, this will carry through the rest of the game).
Most of the demo is really dedicated to introducing you, magnificently, to the Brütal Legend universe, it's story, characters and mood. You do get a great blast of the gameplay, so sweet but over so quickly. Firstly, I'd just like to make one thing clear: calling the battle axe THE SEPARATOR is inspired. That's metal, and it's the kind of bad-assery that puts a constant smile on your face throughout the game. So, back to gameplay: Psychonauts was naturally Tim's closest experience to this type of gameplay, since the graphic adventures felt very different. BL still retains that simplicity: you have controls for your axe and axe (battle and guitar), and by tapping, holding or pressing A and X together (X360 version), you pull off melee and magic attacks, and an amazing earth-shaking area effect power chord attack. Oh - you bring the house down with it. Yes, literally.
No jump, trigger lock-on - it's a 3rd person action adventure, and the respect for the traditions laid down by games like Zelda - the lock-on simple fighting, the amazing ride on the Deuce AKA DRUID PLOW (*making metal horns with hand*), the three-stage boss fight - and some innovations from things like Fable's slow-mo cinematic deaths with these 2 button combos, and wraps it all together with the humor we know and love, from the chatter (I won't go into how awesome Jack Black is, you should know this by now) to every detail in the setting, like flying worm beasts and comet rain in the sky.
I also wanted to point out the excellent art style and particularly the character art and animations - incredibly expressive faces and tight lip-syncing really bring them to life, and it's a merit to both the talented artists at Double Fine and also the brilliantly conceived, caricatured and painted art style.
I think it's obvious by now I'm getting this for sure - but I also think this game will be great for us. There's never enough good humor in games - and even fewer games can deliver that uncompromising, bad-ass and forward moving action experience while still retaining such a heart, and such a roaring funny time. And the fact that it's a MetroidZeldavania set-up, with a massive world that you can explore further with enhanced abilities, well, that's one of my gaming nirvanas, and one of the must intuitive and immersive high level structures possible, in my mind. Learn more, do more, go further. Feels right.
Oh, I forgot to mention the music. Well, that's because I was too busy banging my head listening to it. Go here for a reminder of how great this soundtrack is.
So I guess, bottom line: if you like this type of 3rd person action adventure games (Zelda, Fable, Ratchet, Jak, Beyond Good and Evil), Metal, funny and character driven stories in crazy worlds, I think you'll love Brütal Legend. There's also light RTS in multiplayer, so that ought to add some wider appeal for strategy fans. Maybe not for everyone - it doesn't try to be the mega-everything-genre game, for example I don't see realism lovers digging it if they don't get into the story or music.
But I think it's already becoming clear - if the demo's feeling carries through the whole game, we've got another Schafer masterpiece. I'm happy, and waiting for Rocktober 16th (yes... delayed 3 days).
Rock on!
Right from the start, you can tell this is a Tim Schafer/Double Fine game - once again, the charismatic protagonist is thrown into a strange world and with good-spirited determination steps into the unknown; there's the subtle social humour, never forced and always genuinue; the humour - one of my favorite lines in Psychonauts, Coach Oleander taunts Raz: "You're slower than molasses crawling up a hill... in January!" and in BL Eddie was taunting the worm boss: "It smells like a whale... ate a bunch of tuna... and died in your mouth... like a YEAR ago!"
The intro is delivered brilliantly, I can't imagine any rock or metal fan not immediately bonding with Eddie when those obnoxious kids play, and, well, what happens next is really one of the most bad-ass death and delivery scenes I've enjoyed in games, and sets you right down into gameplay at the end, an artful trick I've loved since I first saw it in FFVII. And the whole damn thing is fucking Metal, to the core. In that respect, it's already a success in my mind, since it completely lives up to its vision (during those first crucial moments in the demo, of course - but knowing the people behind it, this will carry through the rest of the game).
Most of the demo is really dedicated to introducing you, magnificently, to the Brütal Legend universe, it's story, characters and mood. You do get a great blast of the gameplay, so sweet but over so quickly. Firstly, I'd just like to make one thing clear: calling the battle axe THE SEPARATOR is inspired. That's metal, and it's the kind of bad-assery that puts a constant smile on your face throughout the game. So, back to gameplay: Psychonauts was naturally Tim's closest experience to this type of gameplay, since the graphic adventures felt very different. BL still retains that simplicity: you have controls for your axe and axe (battle and guitar), and by tapping, holding or pressing A and X together (X360 version), you pull off melee and magic attacks, and an amazing earth-shaking area effect power chord attack. Oh - you bring the house down with it. Yes, literally.
No jump, trigger lock-on - it's a 3rd person action adventure, and the respect for the traditions laid down by games like Zelda - the lock-on simple fighting, the amazing ride on the Deuce AKA DRUID PLOW (*making metal horns with hand*), the three-stage boss fight - and some innovations from things like Fable's slow-mo cinematic deaths with these 2 button combos, and wraps it all together with the humor we know and love, from the chatter (I won't go into how awesome Jack Black is, you should know this by now) to every detail in the setting, like flying worm beasts and comet rain in the sky.
I also wanted to point out the excellent art style and particularly the character art and animations - incredibly expressive faces and tight lip-syncing really bring them to life, and it's a merit to both the talented artists at Double Fine and also the brilliantly conceived, caricatured and painted art style.
I think it's obvious by now I'm getting this for sure - but I also think this game will be great for us. There's never enough good humor in games - and even fewer games can deliver that uncompromising, bad-ass and forward moving action experience while still retaining such a heart, and such a roaring funny time. And the fact that it's a MetroidZeldavania set-up, with a massive world that you can explore further with enhanced abilities, well, that's one of my gaming nirvanas, and one of the must intuitive and immersive high level structures possible, in my mind. Learn more, do more, go further. Feels right.
Oh, I forgot to mention the music. Well, that's because I was too busy banging my head listening to it. Go here for a reminder of how great this soundtrack is.
So I guess, bottom line: if you like this type of 3rd person action adventure games (Zelda, Fable, Ratchet, Jak, Beyond Good and Evil), Metal, funny and character driven stories in crazy worlds, I think you'll love Brütal Legend. There's also light RTS in multiplayer, so that ought to add some wider appeal for strategy fans. Maybe not for everyone - it doesn't try to be the mega-everything-genre game, for example I don't see realism lovers digging it if they don't get into the story or music.
But I think it's already becoming clear - if the demo's feeling carries through the whole game, we've got another Schafer masterpiece. I'm happy, and waiting for Rocktober 16th (yes... delayed 3 days).
Rock on!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Scribblin' around - Interconnected toolsets and playing while falling asleep
I've been having tons of fun with Scribblenauts. From my first summoning of a cat, then a dog and the ensuing battle, I've been giggling. Of course that's one of the singular joys to be had with this game, just trying things out and seeing what happens. The common number of objects I read is 10,000 - that's mind-blowing, however you think of it.
Certain games have the addictive quality of influencing your thoughts when you're not even playing them. Scribblenauts does this amazingly; I've often been falling asleep, shaving in the morning, or doing any other mundane thing while running through problematic levels in my mind, trying different options. Sometimes I listen to a song and hear a noun that I think can be useful in the game, or think of using an object I walk by in real life.
There are two elements at play here I think: first, of course, the unique innovation in Scribblenauts, the ability to call up vast amounts of objects, and honestly - it's easier to be surprised by what it has than to stump it. But there's also something else, the fact that your tool-set is so clear and intuitive. The logic governing the AI is quite simple, pretty much [object] - fears/consumes/attacks/protects/follows/steals - [object]. Then there are a few other simple interactions like climb, ride, shoot, use and the ability to fly. Thanks to the brilliant hierarchical Objectnaut engine, the 5th Cell team was able to efficiently populate and interlink all these objects and actors so that adding a vampire could be as simple as adding a humanoid, giving it some art, flight, aggression towards all and fear of garlic. For instance.
Now, an immediate counterpoint to what I just said is that such an approach decreases the uniqueness and depth of individual elements, since they are all merely different combinations of the same base components. Well, that's true. Of course programming and animating unique jumps for each of your animal races will be more flashy than using the same jump logic/animation on different rigs. But while this approach can provide a very polished experience, detailed and expressive, I think its also a conscious choice to guide the player, rather than offer them freedom. A fine option, but for the point I'm making I want to focus on the latter option, creative choice, and consequent emergence.
I touched on emergence in my previous article about trigger-whoa mechanics and interacting with systems like physics and AI. Returning to Scribblenauts, there's a lot of that going on. A passable physics engine ensures things fall and roll well enough, and the aforementioned AI rules can cause real chaos when you fill the screen with living things. On top of all this, there's your vast amount of choice, and that's the kicker: for any given scenario, I'd wager there are objects that you can write which would interact with each and every different parameter of your situation.
And that's the core, really - the fact that everything is interconnected. Bad game design will leave loose ends, cool but one-off mechanics, unbalanced events requiring more fuel than exists, things like that. Good design brings it all together, makes the tokens you want advance your progression, enabling you to fuel your abilities and expand them to get more tokens and repeat the cycle, and so on. It's about creating positive feedback loops, and never letting the player down through frustrating inability on the game's part to deliver.
This isn't anything new, just basic game design. It's easily forgotten though, especially as you make a game bigger an deeper. Which is understandable, really - the more systems, bits and pieces you've got in your game, the harder it is to make them interlock neatly. What happens when the cool fire gun is perfect for gameplay with its spread and damage over time but the ability to set things on fire in any realistic way would break the balance completely in your realistic ice world? Ok, so make "magic purple non-fire". Sure, but then what's your ammo? Can't be oil or anything realistic, so what?
See my point? You either accept just the enemy burns but nothing else, or that the fire becomes overpowered, or that you make immersion a little harder by breaking realism. So admittedly, my example is somewhat exaggerated, and I can think of a few options around it, but that's the essence of it - the fact that the more there is, the more you need to piece together.
So I think this makes a strong case for the type of design and development approach that aims low with the system count and high with the options to interact with it. Physics and simple predator/prey dynamics, with tons of physics and manipulation abilities, or AI and motion control, with lots of interesting ways to influence AI with your gestures. And these are those games that, like I was saying, keep you running their options. RTS games can do this a lot, although they have become increasingly complex in their number of subsystems, and therefore harder to simulate in your mind. Other games that share ideas with Scribblenauts like Little Big Planet, Crayon Physics with their editors (software and drawing) and variety of choices to interact with simple physics. More traditional block and maze type puzzle games, of course, but those can often get boring to think about with their typical handful of ways to interact - more fun to play.
The converse of this is of course the linear mega-game with every kind of system and gameplay in it, giving you key moments and very specific ways of interacting with things. Very often these games will have far too many systems, too much happening too fast, for you to even hope to simulate them mentally. Bioshock comes to mind as a game with an eco-system that you understood somewhat once you learned it, and became able to manipulate quite well. I at least relished my convoluted traps for those Big Daddies and Splicers, exploiting both their alliances and animosities as well as their various weaknesses. Planning skating runs in Tony Hawk comes to mind, or running through well-practiced tracks in Burnout with all its shortcuts. For those latter examples, I think the depth of your interactions (from speed to tricks and drifting) counts as a strong diversity of ways to interact with the few game systems at play.
One particular development implication that comes to mind is that diverse and balanced interactions can often require more pre-production in the underlying infra-structure than the more immediate one-off counterparts - these can just be built sort of in order. One option has the risk of forcing you to spend too much time and effort before you've even got a product and with the other you may end up with a product that's a bloated chain of disconnected elements; so it's not like there's a better one. But I do think, like everything in life, that projects that that longer to really start are always less appealing than those that throw you right in.
And above all, I commend those people who would try something new, something that at first glance may be brushed off as too expensive/difficult, too simple or without enough blockbuster value. Those that try to build something new, and focus on richness and depth, rather than size and breadth. It's a lesson I've tried to incorporate in all my designs, no matter how commercial, that principle of balanced interconnected dynamics rather than lists of moves/events, and hope to see more of in the future. Because the empowerment of the player, the ability to make them feel, well, godlike, while playing will always be of the finest goals in game design, because with empowerment comes the ability for great challenge, and the ability to overcome this can lead to inner strength, confidence and self-improvement.
And I mean, really: what other game allows you to summon up God, the Devil and Death, tame a dragon with Cupid's arrow and ride it, wearing a full set of armor and lance, to attack the Grim Reaper himself? Oh, and Longcat along with alter-ego Tacgnol. :D
Certain games have the addictive quality of influencing your thoughts when you're not even playing them. Scribblenauts does this amazingly; I've often been falling asleep, shaving in the morning, or doing any other mundane thing while running through problematic levels in my mind, trying different options. Sometimes I listen to a song and hear a noun that I think can be useful in the game, or think of using an object I walk by in real life.
There are two elements at play here I think: first, of course, the unique innovation in Scribblenauts, the ability to call up vast amounts of objects, and honestly - it's easier to be surprised by what it has than to stump it. But there's also something else, the fact that your tool-set is so clear and intuitive. The logic governing the AI is quite simple, pretty much [object] - fears/consumes/attacks/protects/follows/steals - [object]. Then there are a few other simple interactions like climb, ride, shoot, use and the ability to fly. Thanks to the brilliant hierarchical Objectnaut engine, the 5th Cell team was able to efficiently populate and interlink all these objects and actors so that adding a vampire could be as simple as adding a humanoid, giving it some art, flight, aggression towards all and fear of garlic. For instance.
Now, an immediate counterpoint to what I just said is that such an approach decreases the uniqueness and depth of individual elements, since they are all merely different combinations of the same base components. Well, that's true. Of course programming and animating unique jumps for each of your animal races will be more flashy than using the same jump logic/animation on different rigs. But while this approach can provide a very polished experience, detailed and expressive, I think its also a conscious choice to guide the player, rather than offer them freedom. A fine option, but for the point I'm making I want to focus on the latter option, creative choice, and consequent emergence.
I touched on emergence in my previous article about trigger-whoa mechanics and interacting with systems like physics and AI. Returning to Scribblenauts, there's a lot of that going on. A passable physics engine ensures things fall and roll well enough, and the aforementioned AI rules can cause real chaos when you fill the screen with living things. On top of all this, there's your vast amount of choice, and that's the kicker: for any given scenario, I'd wager there are objects that you can write which would interact with each and every different parameter of your situation.
And that's the core, really - the fact that everything is interconnected. Bad game design will leave loose ends, cool but one-off mechanics, unbalanced events requiring more fuel than exists, things like that. Good design brings it all together, makes the tokens you want advance your progression, enabling you to fuel your abilities and expand them to get more tokens and repeat the cycle, and so on. It's about creating positive feedback loops, and never letting the player down through frustrating inability on the game's part to deliver.
This isn't anything new, just basic game design. It's easily forgotten though, especially as you make a game bigger an deeper. Which is understandable, really - the more systems, bits and pieces you've got in your game, the harder it is to make them interlock neatly. What happens when the cool fire gun is perfect for gameplay with its spread and damage over time but the ability to set things on fire in any realistic way would break the balance completely in your realistic ice world? Ok, so make "magic purple non-fire". Sure, but then what's your ammo? Can't be oil or anything realistic, so what?
See my point? You either accept just the enemy burns but nothing else, or that the fire becomes overpowered, or that you make immersion a little harder by breaking realism. So admittedly, my example is somewhat exaggerated, and I can think of a few options around it, but that's the essence of it - the fact that the more there is, the more you need to piece together.
So I think this makes a strong case for the type of design and development approach that aims low with the system count and high with the options to interact with it. Physics and simple predator/prey dynamics, with tons of physics and manipulation abilities, or AI and motion control, with lots of interesting ways to influence AI with your gestures. And these are those games that, like I was saying, keep you running their options. RTS games can do this a lot, although they have become increasingly complex in their number of subsystems, and therefore harder to simulate in your mind. Other games that share ideas with Scribblenauts like Little Big Planet, Crayon Physics with their editors (software and drawing) and variety of choices to interact with simple physics. More traditional block and maze type puzzle games, of course, but those can often get boring to think about with their typical handful of ways to interact - more fun to play.
The converse of this is of course the linear mega-game with every kind of system and gameplay in it, giving you key moments and very specific ways of interacting with things. Very often these games will have far too many systems, too much happening too fast, for you to even hope to simulate them mentally. Bioshock comes to mind as a game with an eco-system that you understood somewhat once you learned it, and became able to manipulate quite well. I at least relished my convoluted traps for those Big Daddies and Splicers, exploiting both their alliances and animosities as well as their various weaknesses. Planning skating runs in Tony Hawk comes to mind, or running through well-practiced tracks in Burnout with all its shortcuts. For those latter examples, I think the depth of your interactions (from speed to tricks and drifting) counts as a strong diversity of ways to interact with the few game systems at play.
One particular development implication that comes to mind is that diverse and balanced interactions can often require more pre-production in the underlying infra-structure than the more immediate one-off counterparts - these can just be built sort of in order. One option has the risk of forcing you to spend too much time and effort before you've even got a product and with the other you may end up with a product that's a bloated chain of disconnected elements; so it's not like there's a better one. But I do think, like everything in life, that projects that that longer to really start are always less appealing than those that throw you right in.
And above all, I commend those people who would try something new, something that at first glance may be brushed off as too expensive/difficult, too simple or without enough blockbuster value. Those that try to build something new, and focus on richness and depth, rather than size and breadth. It's a lesson I've tried to incorporate in all my designs, no matter how commercial, that principle of balanced interconnected dynamics rather than lists of moves/events, and hope to see more of in the future. Because the empowerment of the player, the ability to make them feel, well, godlike, while playing will always be of the finest goals in game design, because with empowerment comes the ability for great challenge, and the ability to overcome this can lead to inner strength, confidence and self-improvement.
And I mean, really: what other game allows you to summon up God, the Devil and Death, tame a dragon with Cupid's arrow and ride it, wearing a full set of armor and lance, to attack the Grim Reaper himself? Oh, and Longcat along with alter-ego Tacgnol. :D
Friday, September 11, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Conversas Tugas and VG Buddies
I had a social weekend, both in life and games. Hung out with my friend's cousin and his friends, 6 Portuguese kids in Amsterdam. Era o que faltava , até fomos à procura de um lugar que passasse o jogo Portugal-Dinamarca; fumar umas, beber umas jolitas, tasse bem.
And then in games, well I unlocked Chacha in Monster Hunter as well the slash axe, an amazing weapon (axe that turns into sword with a push of a button? are you kidding?). Now we're talking, hunting with my little buddy at my side, swinging his boomerang and pissing off monsters, giving me just enough time to go around behind them and smash them into the ground. He(she?) even surprised me by healing me, buffing me... And this is all part of the dances that you can switch around to regulate his abilities. Really great addition, makes hunting all that more fun. Plus even without the text, his little dances and exclamations make me laugh.
He's another one in a long line of game companions that I've loved, and I decided to write an article about it. So here you go, take care, brush your teeth and keep on chillin.
.::---::.
Humans beings are social by nature, so much so that isolation from any living thing can lead to insanity. Even if we don't have other people around, we keep pets, bond and share experiences with them. I think we recognize and bond with sentient beings faster than anything else because that's absolutely the best approach for survival - it was co-operative survival that motivated single function amoebas to partner up and create multi-cellular organisms, after all.
In games though, until more or less recently, you've been playing alone. Like always, I think you can trace much of this limitation to lacking technology: limited AI resources, processing power for complex patterns, memory budget for additional avatar-level of detail entities, etc. There were some clever solutions taken over these years, however, to bypass these hurdles. Navi, your guiding fairy in Zelda games, comes to mind, particularly once the series moved to 3D with (masterpiece) Ocarina of Time.
Navi is a fairy that floats around you as Link in the Zelda games. She's a very smart little piece of game and character design, too. She:
- Points out your main objective, keeping you on track and adding atmosphere with a little comment (no abstracted mission arrow or the like bringing you out of the immersion)
- Highlights objects of interest in the environment (again eschewing abstractions like twinkles and indicators)
- Makes chatter with you and others (advances the story and creates mood)
- Talks about and remembers Link's solitary quests (allowing the story to have a mute protagonist going on adventures but still providing a way to communicate these experiences within the logic of the world)
- Is a small, shining white glow with beating wings (was cheap in terms of memory, requires no animation/rigging,)
- Has no independent AI, responding only to contextual environmental prompts and scripted events.
Navi is one of the earliest game companion experiences that I remember stuck with me. Simple though her behavior was, it was plausible enough that she would fly over to doors, switches and items when I approached them. I giggled at some of her comments, and was thankful she was able to mention my exploits for me. She was always there as I rode through Hyrule on Epona (another lesser, but still great companion - transport with personality) or on foot. She reminded me of everything that was going on, a living piece of the story traveling with me. The fact that I can't help attributing life and using a female pronoun only underscores how effective the immersion was.
I remember a fantastic journey with HK-47, the blood thirsty droid team-mate in BioWare's excellent Knights of the Old Republic. Having chosen the dark side (and I have yet to replay that as light side), I was slaughtering left or right, shooting and slicing before asking questions. And HK-47 was there all the time, giggling as only a droid can and getting way too excited over spilling blood. And remember, this was a game championing the element of player choice, offering the power to choose your own story arc into the light or dark side (or somewhere in between). HK was a wonderful reinforcement of all the choices I had made in my evil Sith persona, and an incredible contribution to the feeling that I was truly taking actions that affected my world (and not just going down an option tree). I remember saving and then re-loading a couple of times to make some light side choices, and HK was there, fittingly disapproving at my meaty, flesh-bag merciful tendencies. He made me feel guilty (I kid you not!) for betraying the darkness, and I hurriedly re-loaded, back to the safety of my unflinching brutality.
The Fable series has also tried very notably to offer the player choice and a sense of consequence in the world, right down to the cheering or jeering of townspeople as you walk by. Fable II famously introduced the Dog. Your pet. Loyal to the end, no matter how you treat it. A direct reflection of your personality as it runs around, independent. Tender and playful, or vicious and mean. Visually evolving to reflect your growth also. But it was more than a story element. Bringing all the companionship of constant presence while wandering, it was also alive, sometimes running off on its own accord, getting into fights, playing. It came to you when it got hurt, and (in my good playthrough) reveled when you gave it attention. It was also an aid in gameplay, fighting (with evolving skills like you), digging for items; it made a single-player game feel like a fantasy journey with a real canine companion. And the opportunity was definitely not missed to use your attachment to the dog in the story development, forcing some heart-wrenching moments and choices.
Atlas in Bioshock, one of the recent years' greatest tours de force. No, he wasn't a gameplay element - but to me it was such brilliant story-telling that it affected the way I played the rest of the game. I think the story was real art, and discovery of the truth about Atlas so profoundly shocking that it changed the way I played the game - there was such a deep sense of betrayal that it spilled over into a viciousness as I killed, I was more hurried, admittedly clouded sometimes with anger. I didn't want to finish the game - I wanted to kill Frank Fontaine.
I was playing Doom Resurrection on my iPhone the other day - in a game all about clever re-use and high-end feel solutions (rail shooter allowed to have incredible graphics due to the simplicity of the gameplay) you've got a droid companion who not only feeds story to you, but also contributes to pacing, which in my opinion is the toughest thing to get right in rail sequences. It does things like open doors with blow torch, requiring you to defend it while cutting, occasionally looking back to check the progress. Nice.
Chacha, the companion in Monster Hunter Tri, is another one I'm having fun with: in a game completely about solitary hunting (or with other human hunters), Chacha is great company with his little dances and comments, helping a lot in gameplay also by distracting monsters, gathering some items on his own, and even doing a bit of damage. Since you can assign different combinations of dances (support abilities) and masks (stats), you've got a nice combination of user development in an RPG system and quite a bit of spirited and fitting cheerfulness.
I love single player adventures, particularly the grand, epic kind (just made me remember Wander and his relationship with Aro in Shadow of the Colossus), and I think that the inclusion of these companion elements has been responsible for some deeply touching (and commercially successful) game experiences; I see only a bright future ahead as we experiment with artificial sentience and the illusion of it. Although much can be said about its limitations, I can't help but feel a thrill when seeing something like the Milo demo for Project Natal. If the best points of that concept are realized, is that not one of the greatest dreams for game immersion? The next step is logical, bringing a highly responsive AI out of a "safe" space and into a dynamic, real-time world, where not only does he respond to you, but so much more.
I do like to play devil's advocate, and I'll mention there's also a great space and argument for the true solitary journey, but I can't help but deny that hearing about the idea in a game always gets me excited, like in the upcoming Old Republic MMO. Like in KOTOR, but this companion lives with you in a potentially endless MMO game world. All I can think of is the stories that it can tell, how brilliant that is for bringing single-player consequence into the shared world of an MMO.
1.5 Player Game came to mind for a title because it suggests the feeling I've had that I'm playing with someone else, not alone. It's never the same (oh how I love my local co-op games, sitting on the couch together), but it can do something else: provide an entity from and consistent with the game world, and, if written and made well, something you can relate and bond with. Almost, but not quite, another player.
Is it a sign of an age of digital decadence, finding companionsip in the alienation of an electronic construct? I'm sure it can be taken to sad (and comical) extremes, but the point is that video games can create worlds and experiences impossible otherwise - and your deepest and most touching interactions will always be with those living, breathing inhabitants of these fantasies. Specially if they walk by your side.
And then in games, well I unlocked Chacha in Monster Hunter as well the slash axe, an amazing weapon (axe that turns into sword with a push of a button? are you kidding?). Now we're talking, hunting with my little buddy at my side, swinging his boomerang and pissing off monsters, giving me just enough time to go around behind them and smash them into the ground. He(she?) even surprised me by healing me, buffing me... And this is all part of the dances that you can switch around to regulate his abilities. Really great addition, makes hunting all that more fun. Plus even without the text, his little dances and exclamations make me laugh.
He's another one in a long line of game companions that I've loved, and I decided to write an article about it. So here you go, take care, brush your teeth and keep on chillin.
.::---::.
Humans beings are social by nature, so much so that isolation from any living thing can lead to insanity. Even if we don't have other people around, we keep pets, bond and share experiences with them. I think we recognize and bond with sentient beings faster than anything else because that's absolutely the best approach for survival - it was co-operative survival that motivated single function amoebas to partner up and create multi-cellular organisms, after all.
In games though, until more or less recently, you've been playing alone. Like always, I think you can trace much of this limitation to lacking technology: limited AI resources, processing power for complex patterns, memory budget for additional avatar-level of detail entities, etc. There were some clever solutions taken over these years, however, to bypass these hurdles. Navi, your guiding fairy in Zelda games, comes to mind, particularly once the series moved to 3D with (masterpiece) Ocarina of Time.
Navi is a fairy that floats around you as Link in the Zelda games. She's a very smart little piece of game and character design, too. She:
- Points out your main objective, keeping you on track and adding atmosphere with a little comment (no abstracted mission arrow or the like bringing you out of the immersion)
- Highlights objects of interest in the environment (again eschewing abstractions like twinkles and indicators)
- Makes chatter with you and others (advances the story and creates mood)
- Talks about and remembers Link's solitary quests (allowing the story to have a mute protagonist going on adventures but still providing a way to communicate these experiences within the logic of the world)
- Is a small, shining white glow with beating wings (was cheap in terms of memory, requires no animation/rigging,)
- Has no independent AI, responding only to contextual environmental prompts and scripted events.
Navi is one of the earliest game companion experiences that I remember stuck with me. Simple though her behavior was, it was plausible enough that she would fly over to doors, switches and items when I approached them. I giggled at some of her comments, and was thankful she was able to mention my exploits for me. She was always there as I rode through Hyrule on Epona (another lesser, but still great companion - transport with personality) or on foot. She reminded me of everything that was going on, a living piece of the story traveling with me. The fact that I can't help attributing life and using a female pronoun only underscores how effective the immersion was.
I remember a fantastic journey with HK-47, the blood thirsty droid team-mate in BioWare's excellent Knights of the Old Republic. Having chosen the dark side (and I have yet to replay that as light side), I was slaughtering left or right, shooting and slicing before asking questions. And HK-47 was there all the time, giggling as only a droid can and getting way too excited over spilling blood. And remember, this was a game championing the element of player choice, offering the power to choose your own story arc into the light or dark side (or somewhere in between). HK was a wonderful reinforcement of all the choices I had made in my evil Sith persona, and an incredible contribution to the feeling that I was truly taking actions that affected my world (and not just going down an option tree). I remember saving and then re-loading a couple of times to make some light side choices, and HK was there, fittingly disapproving at my meaty, flesh-bag merciful tendencies. He made me feel guilty (I kid you not!) for betraying the darkness, and I hurriedly re-loaded, back to the safety of my unflinching brutality.
The Fable series has also tried very notably to offer the player choice and a sense of consequence in the world, right down to the cheering or jeering of townspeople as you walk by. Fable II famously introduced the Dog. Your pet. Loyal to the end, no matter how you treat it. A direct reflection of your personality as it runs around, independent. Tender and playful, or vicious and mean. Visually evolving to reflect your growth also. But it was more than a story element. Bringing all the companionship of constant presence while wandering, it was also alive, sometimes running off on its own accord, getting into fights, playing. It came to you when it got hurt, and (in my good playthrough) reveled when you gave it attention. It was also an aid in gameplay, fighting (with evolving skills like you), digging for items; it made a single-player game feel like a fantasy journey with a real canine companion. And the opportunity was definitely not missed to use your attachment to the dog in the story development, forcing some heart-wrenching moments and choices.
Atlas in Bioshock, one of the recent years' greatest tours de force. No, he wasn't a gameplay element - but to me it was such brilliant story-telling that it affected the way I played the rest of the game. I think the story was real art, and discovery of the truth about Atlas so profoundly shocking that it changed the way I played the game - there was such a deep sense of betrayal that it spilled over into a viciousness as I killed, I was more hurried, admittedly clouded sometimes with anger. I didn't want to finish the game - I wanted to kill Frank Fontaine.
I was playing Doom Resurrection on my iPhone the other day - in a game all about clever re-use and high-end feel solutions (rail shooter allowed to have incredible graphics due to the simplicity of the gameplay) you've got a droid companion who not only feeds story to you, but also contributes to pacing, which in my opinion is the toughest thing to get right in rail sequences. It does things like open doors with blow torch, requiring you to defend it while cutting, occasionally looking back to check the progress. Nice.
Chacha, the companion in Monster Hunter Tri, is another one I'm having fun with: in a game completely about solitary hunting (or with other human hunters), Chacha is great company with his little dances and comments, helping a lot in gameplay also by distracting monsters, gathering some items on his own, and even doing a bit of damage. Since you can assign different combinations of dances (support abilities) and masks (stats), you've got a nice combination of user development in an RPG system and quite a bit of spirited and fitting cheerfulness.
I love single player adventures, particularly the grand, epic kind (just made me remember Wander and his relationship with Aro in Shadow of the Colossus), and I think that the inclusion of these companion elements has been responsible for some deeply touching (and commercially successful) game experiences; I see only a bright future ahead as we experiment with artificial sentience and the illusion of it. Although much can be said about its limitations, I can't help but feel a thrill when seeing something like the Milo demo for Project Natal. If the best points of that concept are realized, is that not one of the greatest dreams for game immersion? The next step is logical, bringing a highly responsive AI out of a "safe" space and into a dynamic, real-time world, where not only does he respond to you, but so much more.
I do like to play devil's advocate, and I'll mention there's also a great space and argument for the true solitary journey, but I can't help but deny that hearing about the idea in a game always gets me excited, like in the upcoming Old Republic MMO. Like in KOTOR, but this companion lives with you in a potentially endless MMO game world. All I can think of is the stories that it can tell, how brilliant that is for bringing single-player consequence into the shared world of an MMO.
1.5 Player Game came to mind for a title because it suggests the feeling I've had that I'm playing with someone else, not alone. It's never the same (oh how I love my local co-op games, sitting on the couch together), but it can do something else: provide an entity from and consistent with the game world, and, if written and made well, something you can relate and bond with. Almost, but not quite, another player.
Is it a sign of an age of digital decadence, finding companionsip in the alienation of an electronic construct? I'm sure it can be taken to sad (and comical) extremes, but the point is that video games can create worlds and experiences impossible otherwise - and your deepest and most touching interactions will always be with those living, breathing inhabitants of these fantasies. Specially if they walk by your side.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Gray mind, good times and monster slaying
Felt kind of blank today, so short entry. Not good or bad, just gray. Not quite imaginative, not quite witty. Guess my colors hid along with the sun :)
Moving things along at work was good as always, and I'm thankful for chilling with my buddy, green smoke and wine.
I ventured out into the desert today, and shot up some Derux (marlin-like sand creatures) in Monster Hunter Tri. Some carving and gathering later, I had enough to make an excellent and happily designed set of bone armor (the thing has jawbone ear-guards and feather rabbit ears! how could I resist?).
The high point of that gaming session was definitely taking down the Dosjagii, the biggest of the small raptor-type enemies that you first encounter. Packing my great sword and hitting him hard straight on at first, I managed to break off his crest and complete Subquest A of the Kill Dosjagii quest. Guy's tough though, sweeping around with his tail and charging. Chased him off to another area and back, this time limping.
If you don't know Monster Hunter kill quests, you've got a max time limit (50 minutes in this case) in which to kill the beast. You're in a world composed of various areas, with connection points like tunnels, canyons and oceans (new to Tri). You'll find your monster in one of those. And then you fight! He may run or limp off to another area, in which case you need to chase him, separated by a quick loading screen.
Back to the fight. The last area was the tensest battle, but luckily it had a rock formation in the center around which I could dodge to gain some precious seconds for potion drinking to heal.
It was all about luring him into his charge and side-stepping to attack the flank, but I also tried (in vain) to stun him so I could complete Subquest B. Even a flash bomb that stunned the 10 or so little raptors around us (trying to muscle in on our fight!) didn't work. I was using a typically stun-inducing sword strike too, so perhaps I'll try some artillery like shock traps next time I take him on.
Eventually, a charged strike to the tail knocked him down; the beast was slain. I walked to him in victory to carve him up, but not before dispatching the last straggler of the fight.
Yeah, Monster Hunter has something special. The fights against these giants are epic, but don't feel like other boss fights in games do. It has to do with integration in the world - the bosses aren't necessarily thought of as distinct from the world; rather, they're far more challenging evolutions of smaller enemies, more intelligent, stronger, far tougher.
There's true immersion happening there as I dodged, hid behind a rock to drink a potion or crazily sharpen my sword as Dosjagii charged at me; running about lin circles, making him chase his tail as I pounded on his sides. Felt like a hunter. There's a reason Monster Hunter is so popular with those who know it. It provides that thrill better than any other game. Other games may have epic, constructed boss fights, and She knows I love my Zelda, DMC, Contra, Gears, etc type big bosses; Monster Hunter tries something else, making you a lone hunter (or with company), in the wild, against monsters. That's it, not frills. They're vicious and smart, and it's deadly out there. But you pack a man-sized bone great sword, so I guess that evens it out.
Damn it, I write too much. Short entry my ass. Sleep well world.
Moving things along at work was good as always, and I'm thankful for chilling with my buddy, green smoke and wine.
I ventured out into the desert today, and shot up some Derux (marlin-like sand creatures) in Monster Hunter Tri. Some carving and gathering later, I had enough to make an excellent and happily designed set of bone armor (the thing has jawbone ear-guards and feather rabbit ears! how could I resist?).
The high point of that gaming session was definitely taking down the Dosjagii, the biggest of the small raptor-type enemies that you first encounter. Packing my great sword and hitting him hard straight on at first, I managed to break off his crest and complete Subquest A of the Kill Dosjagii quest. Guy's tough though, sweeping around with his tail and charging. Chased him off to another area and back, this time limping.
If you don't know Monster Hunter kill quests, you've got a max time limit (50 minutes in this case) in which to kill the beast. You're in a world composed of various areas, with connection points like tunnels, canyons and oceans (new to Tri). You'll find your monster in one of those. And then you fight! He may run or limp off to another area, in which case you need to chase him, separated by a quick loading screen.
Back to the fight. The last area was the tensest battle, but luckily it had a rock formation in the center around which I could dodge to gain some precious seconds for potion drinking to heal.
It was all about luring him into his charge and side-stepping to attack the flank, but I also tried (in vain) to stun him so I could complete Subquest B. Even a flash bomb that stunned the 10 or so little raptors around us (trying to muscle in on our fight!) didn't work. I was using a typically stun-inducing sword strike too, so perhaps I'll try some artillery like shock traps next time I take him on.
Eventually, a charged strike to the tail knocked him down; the beast was slain. I walked to him in victory to carve him up, but not before dispatching the last straggler of the fight.
Yeah, Monster Hunter has something special. The fights against these giants are epic, but don't feel like other boss fights in games do. It has to do with integration in the world - the bosses aren't necessarily thought of as distinct from the world; rather, they're far more challenging evolutions of smaller enemies, more intelligent, stronger, far tougher.
There's true immersion happening there as I dodged, hid behind a rock to drink a potion or crazily sharpen my sword as Dosjagii charged at me; running about lin circles, making him chase his tail as I pounded on his sides. Felt like a hunter. There's a reason Monster Hunter is so popular with those who know it. It provides that thrill better than any other game. Other games may have epic, constructed boss fights, and She knows I love my Zelda, DMC, Contra, Gears, etc type big bosses; Monster Hunter tries something else, making you a lone hunter (or with company), in the wild, against monsters. That's it, not frills. They're vicious and smart, and it's deadly out there. But you pack a man-sized bone great sword, so I guess that evens it out.
Damn it, I write too much. Short entry my ass. Sleep well world.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Gamekings.tv - De Evolutie van Character Design
I was just featured along with Streamline Studios' Art Director Renier Banninga and other dutch developers on Gamekings.tv's weekly segment, The Evolution of ____. The theme is Character Design this week, click the title below the image for the video. We also recorded for another segment which I'll post about when it comes out.
It's 30 mins, and Renier and I are the only ones speaking English, so be warned. Although my dutch is hardly up to par, I did pick up on a word or two here and there, and the images and footage is easy enough to follow. I think it does a pretty nice job of discussion character design from the early 80s up to now, with some good detail for its length. The montage at the end is great too.
Of particular note are some of the common and reverently mentioned games throughout the segment by different developers. Mario, Larry, Lara, Snake... We do all share certain powerful icons, and I can't help admit it's a bonding feeling; we all grew up loving these characters, and look at us now, discussing and working on some ourselves! It's pretty damn rewarding I have to admit.
It's something that fascinates me also, geek culture, like our own mythology, something with no set bible or guide-book, but so easily you find shared standards and icons among us. Like we all tapped into some common geek plane for our knowledge. Yes yes, it's called internet. But we were geeks before then too! Anyway, that's something for another article.
Finally, some self-indulgence, I'm entitled to it, it's my personal blog. It was my first TV interview, and I think it was alright, even though I did ramble on at times. So now, onto the next one. Oh, here's a picture from the interview:
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