Left-Handed Game Design.

I'm pulling out of Slamdance

2007-01-10T10:16:00.000-05:00

This has been a very difficult decision for me, but I think it's the right thing to do. Inline with many others, I, Scott Brodie, am pulling out of slamdance.

I know what you're thinking, "But Scott, you didn't even have a game in the competition. How is that even possible? That statement doesn't even make any sense!?" Well, that may be true, but to you I say simply that what you're thinking is unimportant. What is important is that I am not in anyway listed as a finalist with slamdance, and I'm damn proud of it. I encourage anyone else in a similar position of power to stand up to the injustice that is unfolding.

...

:)

Matsuno Article

2006-11-26T07:20:00.000-05:00

GameSetWatch has a great article up outlining the career thus far of Yasumi Matsuno. I'm a huge fan of his work (Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story), so it's good to see that he is finally getting some much deserved press. The article gives a nice recounting of his path through the industry. Go read it and then seek out any games he's made asap.

(Also interesting to note from the article is that he is not with SquareEnix anymore. I'll have to dig around and find out if he is just taking a break or working elsewhere...)

Gal Civ 2 5/5 on XPLAY

2006-04-26T03:34:00.000-04:00

I was quite astonished to see this rating being given to the game I worked on this past summer, Galactic Civilizations 2. X-PLAY on G4 doesn't typically give out 5's very often, so this was an awesome suprise! My ship explosion sound effect got some nice air-time, too. ;) I wonder if this has anything to do with the channel's recent uprising of Star Trek episodes?

FYI, this is the only show I can stand to watch on G4 anymore...the programming has really gone downhill in a very short period of time. It's like a nasty mix of all the shows Spike TV turned down. Ick.

X-Play Reviews GalCiv2.

Bully looks Fun. There, I said it.

2006-04-21T22:05:00.000-04:00

I don't know why. Rather, I do know why, but I don't know why everyone else doesn't see the clear genius that is the concept of Bully, Rockstar's upcoming multi-platform game title. I feel compelled to explain myself after reading an article I found today that discusses the widespread outrage at the concept.

"That bully ain't so scary"

I stress the word concept, as none of the game's details have actually been released yet. Officially, there is only a game page and a small assortment of screenshots available. Parents, anti-bully groups, and politicians seem to only agree that the thought of a game that glorifies bullying could be nothing but negative.

I beg to differ. (NOTE: I want to stress that I'm discussing the possibilities of the concept, not what Rockstar will release as a final product. I could be completely outraged upon release, but it still will not change my viewpoint as of now)

First, if you must know, I've experienced bullying in my life. Nothing that needs to be divulged here (or that is so serious to warrant further discussion), but suffice to say, like many readers, I have a solid understanding of the real world consequences of bullying (ever heard of an atomic wedgie?). But this does nothing to affect the direct and undeniable appeal of playing the roll of the bully.

Like so many of us who have wanted to play as the enemy in our favorite games of today, the concept is nothing new. Sometimes it’s good to be bad. But is that the only possible angle that can be played here?

The Good, the Bad, and the Irony

Angle #1: We are asked to empathize with the plight of someone who goes out of there way to make other's lives miserable. But is there a reason for this character's misfortune? Perhaps they are misunderstood and are simply crying out for help? In this scenario, we find out that bullies are just expressing themselves in the only way they can feel powerful, and we learn about the causes and roots of bullying in today's world (broken home life, substance abuse, what have you).

Angle #2: This is what those appalled at the concept already dread -- the role of the bully is glorified and rewarded through gameplay to give player's the false impression that bullying is okay and normal. Fine, but nothing from what Rockstar has divulged points to this yet (except maybe their media reputation, which anyone who has played GTA III knows is falsely represented and perpetuated by the same types of people who push for violent game bans).

Angle #2-1/2: So let's say you’re asked in some way to carry out seemingly senseless beating quests of pansies and Magic: The Gathering playing nerds on the playground. What is this version really saying/teaching? If you're appalled by this thought, then my question for you is why are you not protesting Shadow of the Colossus as well?

SOTC is clearly the greatest bullying simulator released to date (and also my favorite game of the moment). Stricken by the loss of his woman, the game's hero sets off in a fit of senseless rage to slay 16 giant docile creatures with only the nonsensical hope of bringing his love back to life as an alobi. I don't know about you, but I've never felt worse about killing an in game character then as I did when I saw the 3rd slain colossus fall to the ground. While SOTC's metaphor is much less viscerally offensive at first glance then what Rockstar has proposed, why was Shadow's emotional moment so widely praised, but Bully's potential so widely disseminated?

Simply put, Rockstar has a possible platform to not only make a game that empowers players to experience the plight of the bully, but to do something to help those that play their creation understand why their bullying actions are so bad. In the same way that I felt strangely distraught when killing the colossi, those playing this alternate Bully angle would begin to empathize with the nerds, geeks, and dweebs they are bullying. By the end of the game, you might never want to hurt a dork again.

This is why the CONCEPT of Bully is fascinating to me, and I humbly submit to the game designers at Rockstar to not squander an opportunity to throw this game right back at those who criticized them before knowing what the final product was. Am I being insensitive? Perhaps. Maybe I'm giving Rockstar too much credit...maybe they will go the shallow route. But I hope not, and can't wait to play it either way because I understand the worth of this amazing medium we all know and love: games.

Government isn't totally Broken! MI Game Law Peaced-Out

2006-04-03T19:23:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to commend Judge George Caram Steeh, who ruled over the Michigan Violent Game Bill case today, for both the proper turn-over of the bill (which was inevitable) and his incredibly accurate and thoughtful response to the state regarding the current state of research supporting similar bills. I particularly enjoyed:

"The interactive, or functional aspect, in video games can be said to enhance the expressive elements even more than other media by drawing the player closer to the characters and becoming more involved in the plot of the game than by simply watching a movie or television show," Judge Steeh wrote. "It would be impossible to separate the functional aspects of a video game from the expressive, inasmuch as they are so closely intertwined and dependent on each other in creating the virtual experience."

The full news item can be found on Gamasutra at: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=8782

I was surprised to see such an educated rebuttal, and just felt the need to recognize when someone in the political arena does their job correctly.

Down Time

As you have probably noticed, this blog has been out of commission for a while. I'm working on a new format and theme, and hope to start blogging again this summer. A LOT has happened since I last posted. Namely, the release of GalCiv 2 to stellar reviews, my trip to GDC, and the announcement that I'll be working with Microsoft this summer on game stuff :) I'll fill in the holes later, but I just wanted to give a heads up to those that might care.

Till then.

Galactic Civilizations II Near Gold Screens

2006-01-29T22:12:00.000-05:00

Gal Civ II "Near Gold Screens"

Thought I'd just point out that GalCiv 2 is coming together nicely and will be shipping soon (February 21st, to be exact). Brad has posted some nice screens of battles and the starbases that I modeled last summer. Check them out and spread the word.

Ballistic Wins IGF Student Showcase!

2006-01-16T02:48:00.000-05:00

I'm proud to announce that Ballistic has been selected as an IGF Student Showcase winner! My team and I are really excited about the opportunity to go to GDC, and thank everyone who may have playtested or provided feedback on the game along the way.

You can checkout the official announcement regarding the winners here: Gamasutra IGF Student Showcase news blurb

We will be polishing the game up and adding new levels as we near our trip to San Jose. I'll make sure to update here as progress is made. Until then, feel free to checkout the game. If you find any bugs, feel free to post here and let me know.

Play Notes: Puzzle Pirates, Oasis, Devil May Cry 3.

2006-01-11T03:05:00.000-05:00

At the end of last semester at Spartasoft, I gave a brief talk about establishing a "Designer's Mindset" when game playing for research purposes or otherwise. In that spirit, I thought I would post my "findings" of some recent games I've played.

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates

Puzzle Pirates was on my list solely to understand the business model that drives their persistence model. In the process, I became borderline addicted to the sword-fighting puzzle game, and probably would have paid for a month or two if I didn't have school in the way.

Puzzle pirates is like any other MMO in structure: there is combat (swordfighting, ship-to-ship), grouping (crews), social structures (islands, inns, chat), etc, albiet on a smaller scale. What is innovative here is that each major game activity has its own puzzle associated with it. For example, the sword fighting I mentioned earlier is a head to head puzzle game similar to tetris, but when you make a block (made able by special swords that connect all touching colored pieces) it drops whatever you created into the other players puzzle. I haven't subscribed yet, but my guess is this comes into play during crew vs crew battles (you can play up to 8 v 8 in this game as well). Besides sword fighting, there are also puzzles for steering, cannon firing, carpentry, bilging, drinking (of course), and more.

I've found the key to the game's success is the reward structure. You can set the stakes high by wagering items and money on games (i've gone broke doing this, unfortunately). There isn't much waiting around for games, so pacing is at the discretion of the player, although waiting for a ship to set sail can sometimes be annoying. I really think establishing a greater context around these otherwise abstract and simple puzzles makes a world of difference in increasing the fun factor overall.

Oasis

This is the IGF winner from last year, and IMO, deservedly so. I relate the gaming experience to a combination of a scaled down Suikoden-style "large scale battle" mode, and a hyper-speed version of Civilization. The game asks you to make movement decisions along with resource allocation based upon information gathered from revealed spaces. Working on a turn-based strategy game over the summer (Gal Civ 2), my biggest complaint with the genre is the sometimes unnecessary amount of work the player is asked to do per turn to get any sort of reward or worthwhile feedback. Oasis basically takes all of the gameplay mechanics from Civilization and lets players experience it at an almost wario-ware like pace (relative to Civilization, of course :). I have avoided buying this soley because I know its promised 90+ levels would eat up too much time that should be dedicated to my school work :)

Also noteworthy is the game's unnecessary, but incredibly satisfying integration of characters into the gameplay. Accomplishing certain tasks in a level allows you to earn special NPC characters that help you in some way complete future levels. These could have easily been powerups, items, or something else less interesting, but the choice to personify these new abilities really improves the game's narrative depth. Something my favorite game Ogre Battle did to perfection (by god, I'm going to pimp that game till the day I die).

Devil May Cry 3

I read somewhere that this game had a subtitle originally: it was called Devil May Cry 3: OMGWTF. Venting aside, I loved the first game in the series, and when I saw good reviews of this sequel, I got the itch to play some stylish-action..uhh..action. Come to find out, this is the hardest damn game ever created. EVER. Even on easy, I was unable to beat the Cerberus boss on level 3 during my brief rental period. The issue here is one I addressed in a previous post about player frustration from death. The game's levels are broken up into two-three main battle sections of fodder enemies, and usually capped off with your standard boss encounter. However, upon death, you have to restart at the beginning. Thus, if just the boss is tripping you up, you always have to start at the beginning of each level. Very high risk, coupled with very poor feedback regarding AI patterns, and you have at least one very frustrated player. Maybe one day when my inner Korean Hardcore gamer (noting that I'm Italian, meaning probably not anytime soon) gets antzy, I'll try it again, because I still drool over the responsiveness and flash associated with the combat system.

That's all I got for now. I'll do my best to post more this semester...I have some very applicable course work this semester, including a graduate course on interactive fiction, and an elective on world-building.

Treading in my new Blue Ocean

2005-12-24T01:02:00.000-05:00

I haven't been posting much because, frankly, I really haven't been in the mindset to give the subjects I want to talk about the full "college try". I last posted during finals week, and since then have just enjoyed being able to do a whole lot of nothing for the week or so since then.

In the meantime, however, I have been mulling over possible changes to the format of my writing here to be able to create more concise yet information-packed posts. What I really wanted to do when I started this blog was to focus on individual games, and try to describe my breakdown of what is useful for game developers to know about their content in case they never get a chance to play them for themselves. I find that when playing games, most design-types just want to figure out all of the novel things that they can apply to their own designs in the future anyways. What I found in practice was that I spent too many characters writing paraphrased reviews that have already been written by the major game sites instead of delving deeper into the dynamics and mechanics of games. I think this ultimately is the exact opposite of what I like about the blogs I read, and thus will tryout a new format when I start blogging "for real" again to try and make reading this blog more accessible and worthy of reader's time. Along with pointing out some of the difficulties of the "student-looking-in" perspective, I hope I can create a spot on the intarwebs that is actually found useful by someone. :)

For the time being though, I'm going to enjoy the holiday at home, and finally get to play through the games I didn't have time for this past semester. Try and enjoy it yourself. :)

Finals, bbl.

2005-12-08T14:40:00.000-05:00

I'm in the middle of my pre-finals week crunch, so posting will continue to be scare. In a week or so I should be back to posting form. This semester has already seen one game project finished (Ballistic), and I'm currently working on two more for various classes. I'll post about those ASAP, as they are turning out to be pretty cool so far.

In the meantime, check this out:

Train Robber. Really inspiring, IMO, because of the way he framed and presented the game. Simple, but really polished, all the way down to an online high scoreboard.

Alright, I should be working on something school related :) lates.

I Know, and I'm Sorry

2005-11-05T19:41:00.000-05:00

My apologies for not providing you with your necessary weekly dose of ME. I promise it was worth the delay though! Look forward to some exciting news related to this site soon. Here is the quick run down of why I neglected to post:

-Since my last post I've beaten SotC many times over, but have had to put it on hold in favor of not failing school. Projects and tests come in bunches these days.

-I'm slowly working on a major content update to my portfolio site, which you can follow along with by hitting up the link on the sidebar. Not too much new is up at the moment, but I hope to have everything I've been working on posted by the end of the semester.

-Continuing to plug away at Ballistic's levels, which I'll hopefully be done with by this weekend. The IGF deadline is coming up quick, no time to mess around ;)

-Finally, I've been plotting, schemeing, and all around participating in shanagains that I promise I'll update on next post :)

As a quick aside, Beta 4 of Galactic Civilizations II is being released today. I'll try to post my impressions when I get my hands on the newest build. Stardock has sent some screens out to WarGamer, and I'm impressed with what the artists have added since I had to leave for school. A lot of the screens show off art I worked on as well. Although this isn't the first commercial game I've been a part of, it's the first time I can really point at a screenshot and say "hey, I did that!" Pretty fun stuff.

I gotta run, but I promise I'll keep in touch from now on!

Better Design through Sports Analogies

2005-11-21T01:32:00.000-05:00

"The only time you lose in life, basketball, or anything, is when you don't learn."

The previous quote is from Mike Jarvis, former St. John's men's basketball coach. I heard it recently while doing my flip between the usual go-to channels of G4 and ESPN. Being both an athlete and gamer since I can remember (basketball always being my sport of choice), I've always seen and used the parallel between sports to better understand how to be a better game player (yes, professional gaming is legit my friends) and (most importantly) a better game designer.

The quote above is inspiring for sure, but I bring it up here as a potential aid in understanding the very important aspect of game challenge balancing. The context in which Coach Jarvis was speaking was in regards to a team he coached when he traveled to Baghdad during a benefit tour for the troops. His team lost against a talented opponent, but understood that the loss was not a downer at all because the team was able to grow from the experience, hopefully preparing them when faced with a similar challenge.

To abstract an analogy from this quote to game design, I feel this is exactly the experience many players feel when they lose or "die" in games. Players only become frustrated when their failure doesn't lead to better understanding of the challenge they just were thwarted by. A well designed game will provide every opportunity for success the first play through, but will make sure that any "losses" in game were a direct result of a mistake they made. Assuming making that mistake allowed the player to gain information about how to approach the same challenge next time, repeating the challenge again is perfectly acceptable. Random challenges, or challenges with solutions that are illogical, are usually what prompt controllers to be thrown, obscenities to be yelped, and (worst case) power buttons to be turned off.

So how can we test to make sure our game challenges aren't frustrating? I think that, like most problems in games, there isn't a single solution because player skill is so varied, however, there are a few things designers can do.

1) Derive challenges from mechanics, not the other way around. I've seen too many game projects get off to the wrong foot early by starting to design the levels or challenge objects before the core player actions have been defined. While it is true that many game mechanics can be inspired by interesting situations, I feel that the "challenge-first" approach usually breaks the logical thinking pattern that a player would use. More simply, you end up with a lot more special case situations or challenges versus challenges that flow naturally from how the player interacts with the game world.

2) Populate the game world with information that aids player in making decisions. Games that do this well (i.e. games that haven't prompted a negative reaction when a player loses) always have some sort of helper information imbedded in the user interface or game world that aid players in solving puzzles/challenges. A good recent example is Shadow of the Colossus and the use of the "light compass" and glowing glyphs to discern how to approach taking down an opponent. It doesn't baby the player, but instead works to improve the player's understanding (i.e. or ability to learn more) about the challenge at hand.

More Generally
Getting back to the title of this post, I think it is incredibly important for game developers to take advantage of the knowledge associated with the world of sports (even if it brings back memories of a certain "super wedgie" given by the Quarterback of the High School football team). Sports are an analogy for life, and being games themselves, provide a very applicable knowledge base that can be used by game developers if studied hard enough.

Taking over Gamasutra for a Day (or two)

2005-11-17T02:17:00.000-05:00

5 days, 4 projects, 50 desktop icons, and 12 hours of sleep later, I'm back. Yes this blog has been gathering dust as of late, but solely out of necessity, as I had a bunch of major projects due all on the same day.

The good news is they're all done, and I'm now able to tell you all about it.

Gamasutra

After attending the recent Future Play Conference on campus, I was asked to write a wrap-up for this little site by the name of Gamasutra. Ever heard of it? :) Well, it was featured today, and I'm glad I was able to squeeze that in amongst all of the other tasks on my list, as it really is a personal milestone accomplished. Check it out here: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051116/brodie_01.shtml

If that wasn't enough, I was quoted in the recent Question of the Week feature as well regarding underrated games. You know me, I couldn't let an obvious opportunity to get the word out about Ogre Battle's greatness pass me by :)

Ballistic!
Project 3 of 4, a.k.a. my free-time game project Ballistic, was submitted to the IGF Student Showcase on Tuesday. I'm really proud of the team that crunched to really get the game looking and playing great (Brandon Furtwangler, Brian Hasselbeck). We've got a website and downloadable executable available at this URL: http://www.msu.edu/~brodies1/ballistic/ I would *heart* all who post comments with feedback or bug reports.

Other Important Stuff I Wanted to Post On
-One of my favorite game designers, Raph Koster, has finally setup a blog, and he is a posting machine! He has some great content on there already, including lecture slides from his recent talks at in Korea (for KGC).

-There was a really cool article released recently about rapid game prototyping on Gamasutra. Didn't get a chance to read the article all the way through yet, but from what I've seen cited on many other blogs, there is some great food for thought as far getting ideas down quickly in a playable form. Games that resulted from the accompanying game jam are here.

Need Sleep...
That whole bit at the top about 12 hours of sleep or so in the past 4 nights is no joke. My goal now is to hibernate through Sunday, right before I have to go to the Spartasoft meeting. :) I should be back to posting about once or twice a week now. Hope this tides you over while I'm comatose.
Peace!

Fumito Ueda is my hero (SotC Part II)

2005-10-22T22:42:00.000-04:00

My favorite message board has a particular custom smiley icon that shows a smiley face with pixels for hands, bouncing up and down over and over again. If you can imagine for a moment, that image is more or less the definition of what it's like to play Shadow of the Colossus.

It was great to see the overall unanimous high regard for the game by the major press outlets (surprisingly, gamespot was the lowest score on game rankings last I checked with a 8.7, while IGN gushed with a 9.7). From what I know, a lot of people have picked the game up, so hopefully the ICO team (and my new hero) will be able to put food on their table long enough to work on another title :)

My Thoughts
I judge a great game by how little I want to see the ending. When I beat Half-Life 2, for all the high praises I have for it, I was happy as hell to see the G-man's face for the final time, so as to never have to load up a single player game ever again. With few exceptions, Shadow of the Colossus is one of the only game playing experiences that I simultaneously feel I have to move forward with (because it's just so much fun to play), but also loathe the thought of getting that much closer to the ending (because then the experience is over). Resident Evil 4 also comes to mind, but I've already talked enough about that. Save a few camera issues, SotC did everything right in fulfilling a long time dream of mine to play a game that didn't force you to battle through countless amounts of fodder to get to the fun (the bosses, of course).

It's hard to talk specifics without spoiling the experience for anyone who hasn't played yet, but I'll hit the major reasons why I think the game deserves to be considered "great":

Pace. How I am able to say a game that bounces you constantly from two polar extremes is well paced is beyond me, but it is most certainly the truth. Trekking to find your next foe is incredibly enjoyable and serene, as just discovering a new landscape is a reward in itself. For the most part the game puts the pacing in the hands of the player, which is exactly how it should be. When the player is ready to take on the next colossus, the game gives a pretty clear indication when an encounter is about to happen. The colossus battles themselves also vary widely from plotting and puzzle solving to positioning and button mashing.

It's alive! A few colossi in particular seem so oddly alive that you can't help but feel a little ambivalent about destroying them. They move slowly, gaze at you, and shake the ground with their yells. They're covered in moss and dirt as if they have been alive for thousands of years. I think the game in general does an excellent job of using subtle details to make this fantastical world feel like it could be a real place. I was really impressed with what Ueda and team were able to accomplish in terms of making their game behaviors up to par with the amazing visuals.

Mechanics support the World. Undeniably, the most impressive thing about Shadow is how the idea that I'm sure spawned the game (that of "let's make a whole game of boss monsters") is so well supported by the mechanics that were chosen to represent it. The stabbing and shooting mechanics are largely based around generating suspense while dangling from 200 feet, and forcing the player to make difficult decisions as to when to make attempts to damage vs. making sure they don't fall off. It's obvious the developers took great care to play test each battle, as the timing for all the colossus' "shakes" do their job of generating a number of memorable "oh shit!" moments. Also, I never once felt the main hero had abilities outside of someone in his situation would have, making the death sequences for each colossi that much more satisfying to witness.

To prevent any accusations of gushing, I'll stop here and point out anything else worthwhile in a final post later once I beat the game. I would highly suggest anyone who hasn't already done so to go grab this game stat!

-Scott

Future Play Conference

2005-10-14T20:08:00.000-04:00

All this weekend I'll be attending the Future Play Conference being hosted here at MSU's campus. So far the conference has been full of a lot of quality speakers and workshops. I'll briefly go over my notable conference experiences so far:

Game Design Workshop - Marc Leblanc
Marc is a entertaining and intelligent lecturer. He proposed his design workflow and then had us develop paper prototypes of games using basic cards, chips, etc. One interesting bit I took away from Marc's talk was his terminology for describing the aspects of a game and how to go about designing them. Basically, he defines the three major aspects of a game as Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics. In particular, I think it is interesting to consider that the dynamics (what happens when the player interacts with the mechanics) are largely out of the designer's control when first conceptualizing a prototype. Only after playtesting can you get a real sense of what is going to work for the players within the bounds you have designed.

Keynote - James Paul Gee and Henry Jenkins
This might sound weird, but I'm a James Gee fanboy. Yes I am aware he is like 80. But the man has basically provided the closet thing to a "magic formula" for determining game mechanics and play balancing (along with Raph Koster, whose recent book I found out both James and Henry were quite familiar with) we have to date. He and Henry's talk was a slide free discussion between the two, hitting on most of the major points that they felt academics should know about games, and how best to approach game related research in the proper manner. I agreed with everything they said. That's kind of a big deal, because I'm typically a stingy bastard.

Games Showcase - Ballistic on display
Ballistic is the game I've worked on along with other Spartasoft members for the past few months, and it was selected to be included in the conference's accompanying game/paper showcase. I got some great feedback demonstrating the game and had the opportunity to meet a number of industry folk. Brian Robbins, Jay Moore (Garage Games) took a lot of interest in the game and provided some great feedback. Greg Costikyan and Ernst Adams stopped by to play as well, but I'll stop name dropping. Probably the coolest part of the showcase was having Kathy Schoback (Ageia) stop by and be impressed by our use of the Novadex (physX?) SDK in our game. A student game can't ask for much better exposure.

All in all its been a worthwhile event to attend. Who would have thought all of this would be happening at MSU, considering we had only 1 game related class my freshman year?

-Scott

P.S. 4 days until Shadow of the Colossus consumes my life.

Shadow of the (MoFo-ing) Colossus

2005-10-07T21:49:00.000-04:00

This post is the first of a planned 3 part series about the most important game to hit consoles in a very long time. This game, of course, is Shadow of the Colossus.

The reason I'm so hyped, besides the fact that I have a soft spot in my heart for it's predecessor Ico and its creators, is that I feel as though this is one of the only games in the past few years to really give the game playing public a sense of what the true next gen games are going to be like. By true next gen, I mean next generation gameplay, world cohesiveness, and content. How can I make a claim like this without even having played SotC yet? Well, I've played the demo :)

To give you an idea of the magnitude that this game's release has for me, I just got back from pre-ordering it at EB. I NEVER pre-order games. EvAr. With a capital A. I was pleasantly suprised to find out I would recieve a game demo for doing so. Even though I played the same demo at E3, this gave me a chance to really explore the nuances of what the ICO team has created without Namco chicks tossing calenders at my face and unnecessarily amplified techno thumping in the background at the same time.

First Impressions
To start, the ad wizards at SCEW gave the game some respectable box art, contrary to the hack job they did on the Ico cover. More over, the art direction in this early version of the game is superb. There are definite influences from film in how they frame their shots (even the in-game camera will shift to off-set the main character for dramatic effect from time to time), and it all seems to work really well so far. For now, I'm going to reserve any gameplay analysis for future posts, but suffice to say I had a great time just experiementing ways to take down the one colossus avaliable in the version.

Since this is a demo, there are some issues that I hope will be fixed by the time the final version is inserted into my lil' black box of joy. Mainly, 1) the framerate is inconsistent, and 2) the main character and horse-riding controls are a little unresponsive so far.

My next SotC post will be when I think I'm about halfway through the final game. I'd be really curious to hear from anyone else anticipating this game, and their play experiences once the game is released.

Honest Game Publishers?

2005-10-01T02:51:00.000-04:00

Just read the latest news from Gamasutra, and I had to laugh when I saw the following quote from a Empire Interactive executive:

"The launch of FlatOut in North America has gone very well and created a strong franchise that we can successfully exploit."

At least they admit it.

Life Update

Life is crazy, as I have what seems to be a never ending stack of projects, emails, and tasks to take care of. It's actually starting to get out of hand. I decided to take a chance these past few days and have a life (a.k.a. playing some ball, face to face human contact, stuff like that), but all it did for the most part was set me back on my projects. Hopefully next semester won't be as hectic. (psh!)

If I didn't have school, my life would most likely be revolving around the release of Shadow of the Colossus, coming out on Oct. 19! I've been waiting too long to play this one, and it should be a major gaming event.

Book Review: A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster

2005-09-10T01:57:00.000-04:00

This past summer I took some initiative and purchased three new game design books, one of which being A Theory of Fun, written by Creative Director at SOE Raph Koster (Most recently of Star Wars Galaxies fame). The book is a quick and enjoyable read that left me (suprisingly) speechless for critiques at its end.

I'll save you some time by skipping the summary, but basically Raph states that the fun we experience from game mechanics is due to the inherent enjoyment humans are wired to get from learning and mastering new things. He goes on to talk about why other things associated with games are fun (e.g. social fun, hard fun, and "delight"), and it all, as Scott Miller writes, "rings true."

I think the one thing Raph does well is his use of the word "puzzle." From other game design literature, I had previously learned that puzzles are a wholly separate entity from games, pushed aside with the likes of toys and passive media. Thankfully, Raph saves the day and makes a great case for why video games are essentially a collection of puzzles or patterns that we strive to "chunk" away, understand, and master. I remember on my first read through having such a visceral reaction to the thought of games boiling down to "just" puzzles, but Raph elegantly explains how our brain works, and why we are wired to enjoy this.

I also applaud Mr. Koster on his focus on the ethics of the creator, and how there is such a thing as bad taste in designing games and their settings. While any gamer knows that a game alone won't affect how they act or think, the experience of playing a game has the ability, just like all other types of popular media, to change how you view the world (for better or for worse). Hopefully the game industry will heed his call to both ethical and artistic responsibility, and in the process inspire developers to seek to create a deeper and more "soulful" gaming experience for their players.

Conclusion
A Theory of Fun, to me, is more than a theory. It is a revelation that not only reaffirmed my long held beliefs about the potential of games, but also clarified in a concise matter why it is I love to play and create them. Raph has successfully taken numerous decades worth of industry research and opinions and properly filtered them into a volume that no game designer should be without.

Ma Bad.

2005-09-02T01:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry I took so long to get back to blogging. No Internet + beginning of school year + move in = no posty.

I've been primarily busy with preparing for the first Spartasoft meeting, and getting through my first week of classes. I'm excited that all of my classes are starting to relate to worthwhile knowledge I can apply to game design, and going to class is less of a drag (well, except maybe Stats for Engineers). Specifically, I'm one of only 8-10 students enrolled in a new game design course at MSU. It's a 3D game design/programming course, but for some odd reason (actually not odd, our professor has a background in AI and Interactive Fiction) we are making a text adventure with ADRIFT for our first project. The design aspect of the class so far isn't anything I haven't already heard. I'm doing my best not to be a duche bag and correct the guy in regards to game theory, but it's hard not to speak up at times and timidly say "umm, that's not necessarily knowledge that is set in stone just yet." We'll see how it goes...at the very least I should have a nice 3D game portfolio piece by the end of the semester.

You should read...
Smart People are Dumb (A kick to your junk advice column)
New Orleans Disaster Aid Blogger

'Till Next time....

Press and Mind Tricks

2005-08-16T01:01:00.000-04:00

Press Dump

So the past week has definitely been interesting. The game design professor at MSU sent me an email saying he was going to give my info out to students and press in case they needed a student’s perspective on the new Game Design and Development Specialization at MSU. I got a number of calls from various local papers, and it was good to know my professors trusted me enough to represent the school in that way. Here are a few of the online publications that picked up the story last week besides the Detroit News article I already posted:

The State News (Campus Paper)

The Washington Post

USA Today (same as DETNEWS)

Psi-ops

Don't ask how, but I rented two games for a dollar, one being a borderline terrible fighting game called "Barbarians" that I'll chock up as good research, and the other being the surprisingly polished and fun Psi-Ops. I think the "polished" comment has more to do with how I realized how important polish is to a game between swapping the two different discs. Psi-Ops is really fun so far, and it has a really nice presentation both in interface and storytelling. There is more stealth involved in the game then I previously envisioned, but I think it makes the game more interesting versus the increasingly cliché "Look at how cool it is to pick shit up" integration of physics into gameplay. The character designs are a nice mix of comic book style exaggerations and realistic texturing, which I found very appealing in the characters I've encountered in the game so far. All in all the game is definitely worth a rental, if at the very least for the shallow fun that is picking up guards and throwing them into exploding barrels--with your MIND.

It's getting late so I'll have to wrap this up. Only two weeks left with Stardock (*sniff*), then its back to MSU for my Senior year!

Short Games

2005-08-10T01:08:00.000-04:00

The game market is currently flooded with the film equivalent of "epics". 20-40 hours of play time for $50 a pop. Is this really what consumers are clammoring for? I don't know the exact stat, but with the average consumer now well over the age of 20, the gamers with the deepest pockets simply don't have the time to dedicate to long drawn out game sequences. Even my favorite game of the present, Resident Evil 4, started to drag at the midpoint of the second disk. I believe gamers are really looking for a shorter overall experience, and I believe I have a business model of sorts to facilitate getting games of this nature made.

I believe that the only true excuse for the current length of games is that publishers feel the need to justify the current price tag of AAA games ($50+tax). I think most gamers today would prefer an action-packed (or more accurately, "worth-while experience"-packed), 4-10 hour experience that also was designed with replayability in mind. However, I am not naive enough to believe they would be willing to drop $50 on it.

My theory of how to accomplish this game model goes something like this: use a smaller team of developers on a project with a shorter development cycle that leverages middleware to allow designers and artists to begin producing content as soon as possible for prototyping. By doing so, you can reduce your company overhead and overall budget significantly, allowing you to a) justify a newer target price of somewhere around $29-35 that consumers are more willing to take a chance on, b) minimize some risk that inevitably leads to c) a greater likelyhood of taking a chance on a new IP! I feel this game model becomes even more feasible as more publishers realize the importance of dedicating time to the initial R&D/pre-production phase. I'd be curious to hear everyone's thoughts on why or why not that this model would work.

Sorry I'm late...a crazy thing just happened.

2005-07-10T02:35:00.000-04:00

By the look of things I've failed to document a significant part of my summer, and I apologize to the twelve of you that wait paitenly refreshing your bloglines list to hear the latest and greatest from yours truely. Being back in the swing of a 9-to-5 again has definitely dropped my motivation (okay, so I get to make games all day, but my college schedule wasn't what we would call structured by comparison) for writing a regular post, but I'll do my best to start getting a new post in at least once a week from now on.

Single Player

I've become quite the introvert as of late, mostly due to the fact that I'm a good hour away from any of my close friends. This time away from friends has, however, given me a lot of time to read articles, blogs, and, in particular, the brick sitting on my desk titled "Game Architecture and Design" by Andrew Rollings & Dave Morris. I was lucky enough to win this book at the recent IGDA Southern-Michigan meeting, and it has turns out it is one of the best books on game design practice I've ever read. It has a lot of practical knowledge that really boils down the three essential parts of professional game development: game theory, mythical man-month style management advice, and a best practices look at current implementation methods of games (i.e. how to program this stuff). I think I'm going to recommend that this book be taken into consideration to be the new textbook for the Game Design class at MSU (over the horrific genre-based design theory of Ernest Adams currently being used).

Gaming Life

Besides gettin' learneded, I've continued my quest to play every good game since this past christmas. Recently I've picked up a host of new titles, with suprisingly mixed results:

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - I've realized that the busier my life becomes, the less patience I have for obvious game design flaws. While this game has been rated highly by the gaming press, all I see are gimmicks mish-mashed together with very little reward for mastery. Admittedly, I've only played about 3 hours, but this is primarily due to a number of nagging issues that really discourage players to want to proceed. The short list includes poor/annoying dialogue, a generic main character, zero rewards for progress/game mechanic mastery, and most suprising, poorly distanced save points spaced between long drawn out puzzle sequences. The last point is suprising because I was under the impression that the "rewind" feature upon death let you restart whenever you made a mistake, when infact it is a resource within the game that has a set time frame which you can return too. this to me was the most gimmicky feature of the game... I don't know how this improves over the game, I can only say it was pretty useless during the early parts of the game where you fall a long ways to your death.

God of War - Wow! This game blows me away with its presentation. The tutorial is a boss fight for goodness sakes. Sands of Time could learn a thing or two from how this game rewards the player...the game has a number of mini-game like challenges built into the combat, and you are reward constantly in various ways (not to mention the amazingly badass weapons and moves you earn frequently throughout). The only frustrating thing about this game is that its the newer disc style, and thus my aging PS2 is having trouble reading it at times :(

And then there's work

Stardock has moved up in the world, and we are now in the beautiful new building. We have an entire wall covered by a whiteboard, a full kitchen, among many other luxeries. Currently I'm modeling various items for Gal Civ II, and am now in charge of creating all of the cool effects and weapons associated with combat.

It seems to be getting late, so I'll cut myself off. Drop me a line and let me know what you guys have been up to as well. Lates.

I'm damn near famous.

2005-08-03T20:42:00.000-04:00

Fame is wearing on me. It's like a guy can't even go to the bathroom without a "Hey congrats on the article" or a "Yo, nice quote, I didn't realize you played Nintendo when you were 6." It's really a drag man. What's next? A two quote article with an image? Psh, yeah, that's just what I need...just what I need...

(MSU is promoting its Game Design and Development Specialization , just glad I could help :)

-Scott

I want it all.

2005-07-22T00:29:00.000-04:00

Everyone always compliments me on how I have always known what I have wanted to do with my life, but I'm finding more and more lately that I am really not so sure. What I'm not saying is that I am undecided as to whether or not I want to dedicate my life to games (I most certainly do), but I am saying that there is an inherent need to specialize in the game industry, and I just don't know if I am ready to make that type of decision just yet. There isn't an aspect of game development I don't enjoy, and it may be holding me back from becoming a master in any one particular area because I am choosing to attempt to focus on all of them simultaneously.

I can see myself falling into any one of the following positions and still being content: Game Designer (gameplay), writer, gameplay programmer, level artist/designer, AI programmer, character designer, technical artist, music composer, conceptual artist, character modeler, or environmental texture artist. I suppose my ultimate goal is to lead the design of a AAA game concept from concept to completion, but I doubt any company worth working for would give me that oppurtunity directly out of college.

So what is an aspiring renissance man to do? Can a jack of all trades survive in the game industry? I think they can and here's why.

1. Modern game art requires an intricate knowledge of both the laws of aesthetics and the technical ramifications of design decisions, along with the increasingly technical nature of new real time art techniques such as normal mapping and shaders.

2. Modern game design requires both an outside the box thinker to develop new game mechanics and themes, while also having the technical know-how to determine what is feasible to implement within time and budget constraints.

3. The industry is increasingly realizing the unique skill set required to truely push the bounds of interactive entertainment's potential, and skilled workers who can become hubs in a team full of specialists will become key cogs to any development team.

(As a side note, not being a specialist isn't an excuse for a lack of talent in a given area. It just means that it is possible for a developer to have talents in more then one area, thus reducing the time he/she can spend on improving their skills in any single area.)

For these and many other reasons, I've come to the decision that if there isn't a job description that fits my skill set then so be it. I just know that some company somewhere is going to get a steal when they realize what I (and other like-minded individuals) can bring to the table, regardless of what department that table is put in ;).

That's enough out of me--I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow making poofs and sparkles.

-Scott

Crafty little guy he is.

2005-07-30T00:49:00.000-04:00

Sweet!

Try to keep your cursor away from the little dude as long as possible.

Old Skool Tunes

Stumbled upon this while checking out some other developer's blogs. It's a site with tons of Original Soundtracks (OSTs) from pretty much every SNES game made. I was happy to see they had the Ogre Battle Soundtrack I've been hunting for for quite some time now. SNESmusic.org. Enjoy.