Archive for June, 2006
Thursday, June 29th, 2006
Game design continues like a rocket in a mouse factory.
It looks like I’ll be missing tomorrow’s deadline of having the new gameplay systems in place, as I’m still playing around finalising flying, a bit of blocking stuff, and the power-play system.
As for sword-play, I think we’re one step away from having it done. Playing Determinance now, there’s lots of blocking, lots of parrying and feinting. Getting a proper big strike in on an opponent is hard, and is usually the result of him making a mistake, and you capitalising on it. That is perfect: exactly what I always wanted and it’s practically orgasmic for me just to be able to write that sentence.
The final step I want to make is to reward a really good block of what I’m going to call a “heavy strike”. If your opponent puts all his muscle into a full swing and you get in a good block, I want that to be rewarded a little more than it is now… we’ll see how that turns out.
Now I’ll return to keeping it a fool-free zone… defineBigStrike here I come.
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Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
I literally could not agree more with the entire of this rather long answer in Eurogamer’s Spector interview:
Eurogamer: Is it really a waste of development time to give player choice, and how do you persuade the player to come back and play things a different way? Rather than miss out on five sixths of the content, tempt them to play the game six times…
Warren Spector: Wow, lots of points to address here – this is going to take some words…
First, and most trivial, I’ve never said that players should see one-sixth of your content. My “rule” has always been that every player should see about 75 per cent of your content, with another 25 per cent reserved for unique player experience. That’s kind of a dopey measure, in a sense, because it implies that the best way to differentiate player experience is to handcraft a lot of paths through a map and a bunch of branching dialogue for NPCs to spout.
There are other ways to get at unique experience that don’t require massive amounts of hand-crafted content. But I do believe that generating some content, knowing everyone won’t see it, has huge value.
For players, a multipath/multisolution game offers the knowledge that if they’re clever they will see and do things no one else has ever seen or done. How can you not want to play a game like that? A year after we shipped Deus Ex, I saw someone solve a particular game problem in a way I’d never seen anyone try before, and I was sitting there with him wondering if his solution would work. I mean, I helped make the game, and I’d played through that part of the game a hundred times and watched probably a thousand playthroughs and I was seeing something I’d never seen before. No game-on-rails or rollercoaster ride can possibly touch that for a thrill!
And check out the forums where people talk about how they solved a particular problem and others respond in amazement that they’d never thought to try that approach. Listen to people debate what one endgame choice said about you as a person, as opposed to what another endgame would have said…
That is so much cooler than listening to people agree how cool it was when they all killed some monster in exactly the same way, or got across some chasm in exactly the same way, or solved some goofy puzzle in exactly the same way.
Beyond that, multipath/multisolution games offer players who aren’t great at combat, say, another option (stealth, dialogue, hacking – whatever).
They can keep playing your game instead of throwing a controller or mouse across the room in frustration. I mean, not to pick on Half-Life 2 (which I happen to enjoy immensely), but if I’m not good enough to get past an enemy or a carefully crafted puzzle my only option is to stop playing, and maybe never buy another Half-Life game. In Deus Ex (for another example I enjoy immensely!) if you can’t fight your way past a problem, try something else.
Something else will work. (There were no puzzles in DX, so I can’t address that – we only had problems, and problems, by their very nature, are open to solution in a variety of ways.) Anyway, giving players ways to keep playing your game seems like a good idea to me. How is that a waste of time and money?
So, to try to wrap this up in something less than book length, I don’t believe it’s ever a waste of time to give players real choices, rather than fake ones. If all you’re doing is putting players on rails and rocketing them through your story, why not just build a roller coaster or make a movie? If the only choice a player gets to make is which weapon to use to kill a bad guy, you’ve completely wasted that player’s time. Roller coaster rides are immense amounts of fun, but really, all they do is provide an adrenalin rush and a moment’s distraction from the workaday world. Games can be more. Movies are terrific storytelling devices – I love movies – but movies already exist. I don’t need to make them. (Well, I kinda want to produce a movie someday, but that’s another matter entirely…) If all you’re doing is telling yourstory to players (with the added attraction of getting to pick a gun once in a while), why bother?
If you’re not “wasting” development time by allowing players to explore your world, advance the plot their way, test behaviours and see the consequences, I believe you’re wasting players’ time – and that’s a far, far worse sin than wasting some time and dollars on stuff some players might not see.
Absolute brilliance from my boy Spector. I want to finish by highlighting one part inparticular:
If all you’re doing is putting players on rails and rocketing them through your story, why not just build a roller coaster or make a movie?
I’d like to see some people in this industry answer that question.
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Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
It doesn’t make me happy at all when Joystiq casually uses a games-technology term I’ve never heard. Lets not let that happen again: Blast processing on Answers.com
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Monday, June 26th, 2006
The new Sega Rally title due later this year has deformable mud, so each corner varies from lap to lap, depending on how you and your opponents have taken it recently.
Absolutely brilliant idea, if it’s central to the entire gameplay. A feature like this will be consigned to gimmick status if deadlines are tight and the gameplay isn’t coming together as Sega would like; but lets hope they have the time and focus to make it the absolute defining feature of the game. A dynamically altering track would add a lot to the racing genre, but I’m concerned that the depth of control needed to make it meaningful might clash with the traditional slight arcade-bent of the ‘Rally franchaise.
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Monday, June 26th, 2006
I have made significant progress on making flying more integral to winning in Determinance, and that stuff is being tested out right now. I can’t give too much more info as I’m still knee-deep in it, but you guys will be the first to know. It’s looking pretty hot right now.
Keeping it a fool-free zone… good night.
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Monday, June 26th, 2006
Microsoft today announced that the 360 would not be dropping in price this year, as the PS3 will be expensive enough that the 360 will be considerably cheaper at it’s current price.
Let’s get something straight: this announcement means nothing, apart from trying to stop people “holding off” on buying a 360 until a price drop. That is the sole purpose of the announcement and it bears precisely no relation to whether or not we’ll see a lower-cost ‘box this fall.
But lets consider whether Microsoft should price-drop come PS3 launch day. Here are the issues:
PR (for price drop)
Price above Wii (for)
Price below ‘three (for)
‘Perceived’ value of the ‘60 (against)
Short-term profit (against)
I don’t have enough information to know whether being $100 below the PS3 is, in reality, much worse than being $150 below it. I can see both ways there; and if MS have done that research then not dropping the price is absolutely fine. But if they make the decision because they just don’t feel like making more of a loss on each unit, then they’re being complacent.
Underestimate Sony when they’re lying in a Blu-Ray-branded grave. Until then they’re just throwing bigger dice than you. Maximise the impact of the Sony price-blunder, don’t assume it’s simply won the war for you before a shot has been fired.
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Monday, June 26th, 2006
I have been away for a while but am now returning to the Mode 7 fold once I’ve devoured the exciting administrative tasks which rest on my plate this afternoon.
Excitement is certainly mounting over here as I’m about to get hold of Ian’s hand-me-down DS Fat. With respect to technology, I’m an incredible cheapskate, venturing to shell out only when absolutely necessary, or hopefully not at all. I always think about the games I haven’t played on systems I actually own (even if that’s, for example, the Master System) when I’m in a position to buy a new console and that puts me off. Anyway, the DS has such an amazing library it will be satisfying to…fill out my form, get my little card and browse. We seriously need some kind of metaphor amnesty around here.
Oh, also we Officially Love the GP2x. Linux, on a handheld, all the emulation you want. Crazy homebrew. Brilliant. I’m currently on the waiting list for a review unit so hopefully I’ll get the chance to mess around with one soon and I will no doubt report back.
UPDATE: I’ve just spotted that you can now plug in external peripherals to your GP2x via USB. With its TV out, it’s now a fully-functional home entertainment system. Better and better.
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Saturday, June 24th, 2006
When Valve bought World-Craft (and renamed it to something with a lot less charisma… that’s Hammer people), they effectively made it illegal for Indies to use it for their games. Quite a while back the GG community tried to get Valve to change the EULA to allow Torque games to use it, but the best they got was an “it’s probably alright, but we retain the right for it not to be” – basicially useless for those of us trying to be law-abiding.
There are plenty of alternatives, but a lot of people find Hammer the best there is. If you grew up modding HL and all your experience is in that app, it hurts to learn the arcane ways of Quark or pay for something like GameSpace.
GarageGames have been working on their uber Hammer-beater Constructor for well over a year now, and it’ll probably blow everything else completely out of the water on release. You can quote me on that. No-one has more vested interest in making game development quicker and easier than Garage, and they’ve got a community who will give the right feedback straight away. New info is on Matt Fairfax’s latest blog if you want a sneak-preview; and expect a proper release some-time in the fall.
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Saturday, June 24th, 2006
When it comes to the DS band-wagon, I’m not just on it. I practically founded it. I got on back in December ‘04, when the driver was still unloading SegaCD stuff from the wagon’s last gig. Back in the early days, when people thought that two-screens “weren’t an innovation”, we would travel slowly through towns where people thought the PSP had a hope. I jeered and threw old copies of Night Stalker at them… nowadays they jeer at themselves.
The PSP had more history against it than any other games product launch in history. The battle is fifteen years old, and the result is always the same. Nintendo has fought against the same forces every time: more power, more features, prettier hardware, less battery-life. And every time it has won. Sony bought only one new weapon to the field: a proprietry movie format. In the end it blew itself up, killing a load of Sony’s own troops in the process.
What a lot of people didn’t understand is that the original DS’ agricultural looks worked in it’s favour. Looking (and being) pretty indestructable made it the obvious choice for parents, and do not underestimate how much the handheld market is driven by the kids.
The Lite is real progress. Smaller in a way which makes a difference. Classy-looking so those of us who aren’t kids don’t feel too hard-core on the bus. Understated enough for girls to keep their interest, even once they’ve found out it isn’t a powder compact. And the upgraded screens make a surprising difference to the graphics. The GBA catridge sticking out is the only negative.
If the DS manages to transfer it’s ridiculous popularity in Japan to the West, we’ll see a golden age of gaming again. Games will be profitable enough for companies to make more, and make more unusual ones. You may think the DS doesn’t lack game innovation, but it needs some more subtle games. Turn-based strategy – for those that find Advance Wars’ aesthetic a turn-off – is one area that needs more exploration on the platform.
In short, long live the DS.
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Wednesday, June 21st, 2006
Hey guys. Quick update to ensure everyone that work on gameplay revisions and enhancements is going on right now. Expect to hear more in a week or so; including a more detailed break-down of what’s changed and why.
Keeping it a fool-free zone… barely. Good night.
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