Benevolent Blue – now Proof of Concept instead of Full Game

Jerremie and I have decided to modify our approach to  Benevolent Blue slightly to create a proof of concept.  Instead of one big game – we’re basically going to create one playable level.  What does this mean?

We’re now re-working the storyboard to create one playable level (essentially chapter 3 with parts from chapter 1 included).   We now need to set the scenario for the player and integrate learning objectives from two different chapters.  Our proof of concept (PoC) outline – now looks like this:

1. Introduction – setting the scenario for the player – context, etc.
2. Find a book from a citation (from chapter 1)
3. Intermission
4. Find an article from a database (from chapter 3)
5. Pay off

We’re stripping out a number of smaller learning objectives that are less important.  We’re reviewing the maps to see what we’ve already created that we can use in the PoC and we’re working on npc dialogue, props, etc. that contribute to the providing the player with visual and audio cues to the story.  Hopefully by reducing the size of the game for the short-term we will have a playable piece much sooner.

Why Dead Space works as a horror game

I’ll be straight with you – I don’t like watching horror genre movies. Having studied film, I understand a number of the techniques used by horror films to manipulate the audience:  making them feel uncomfortable, revealing a disturbing story, and using every trick in the book to scare the crap out of them. While I can appreciate manipulating the audience from a director’s point of view, I don’t like it used on me!

Horror video games, by comparison, are an odd breed. Many tend to be FPS-action games with horror-like plots. These aren’t often very scary, because they are fundamentally shooters and the pacing doesn’t match with how horror works to build tension. Those that aren’t action games tend to come from Japan, such as Resident Evil (Biohazard) and Silent Hill. I’ve always been deterred from these games by their clunky interface (not as controllable as an FPS) and odd plot, usually because of English translation failings in subtle storytelling. I suppose the only horror game I’ve enjoyed in my youth was the Alone in the Dark series, as they were very different from anything else (including that crappy remake) and had a really interesting atmosphere to them.

So why, then, is the Dead Space franchise so compelling to me?

While Dead Space is an action game of sorts, the designers have introduced a bit more of an RPG element. You can collect items and sell them at stores, acquiring credits to buy other items. Buying or acquiring Power Nodes allow you to upgrade your suit and weapons. The game is also designed so that you can never fully upgrade all your weapons over the course of the game. This means you have to pick and choose to focus on a couple core weapons in the game, depending on your play style. All in all, this customization feature is an element that gives a little more investment for the player.

Horror movies can revel in you, as a spectator, being completely helpless to stop a character from the impending danger. In a video game, however, you have that control – survival of the character relies on you. Dead Space manages to give you this control and provide lots of action, while still maintaining proper (movie) horror pacing. In much the same way that Mass Effect 2 meshes a Science Fiction adventure with action, so does Dead Space with action and horror.

Lastly, perhaps I just appreciate the developers’ familiarity with the horror genre. Dead Space has some of the best atmospherics of any game I have played. Lighting and sound are employed in every possible way to give you an immersive experience, and employ all elements of the horror genre. There are times when apparently-dead monsters will leap up from the floor and attack you. Other times, a panel might fall off the wall or a pipe vents gas suddenly – but no expected monster appears. The developers love using shadows and a variety of color schemes for different levels. The sounds are dead-on disturbing, working with the music to keep you from getting too comfortable. And even in the space sections, where there is virtually no sound, the game has made this feel ominous. The only time you can relax in this game is during the end credits.

To top it all off, the game has a disturbing storyline, mixing elements of aliens with religion to complete an eerie environment for the game. It is the melding of all these video game and horror elements effectively that make Dead Space a very enjoyable experience. Just prepare to be scared!

- Al

Exhuming some old games

Wow, over a month already! Sorry about the delay here… been busy with work, social life, and finishing Crysis 2, Homefront, and Borderlands (I missed it the first time around). With Portal 2 right around the corner, it’s time to chime in!

I’ve recently stumbled across some fantastic video from the recent Game Developer’s Conference in March. This was listed on my friend Matt Barton’s site, www.armchairarcade.com, which I recommend checking out as it’s got a lot of fascinating stuff going on, particularly with a retro-spin.

Anyhow, a new segment begun in GDC 2011 is the “Classic Game Postmortem”, where developers of the classics go down memory lane to explain the game development experience, from conception to delivery, of games as old as 25 years! Not only are these loaded up with nostalgia, but it’s great to get a kind of “director’s commentary” on the design, hardships, innovations, and overall experience of making the title. Each is approximately 60 minutes, sometimes with a Q&A at the end.

Here are a couple of links I thoroughly enjoyed:

• Ron Gilbert talks about making Maniac Mansion
• Peter Molyneaux pokes fun at himself (and discusses the development of Populous)
• John Romero and Tom Hall talk about making DOOM
• Jordan Mechner talks briefly about the game he made in college – Karateka, before focusing on the (drawn-out) development of Prince of Persia
• The ever-entertaining Will Wright discusses Sim… nope! – Raid on Bungeling Bay

There are a lot more listings, from Another World (Out of this World) and Elite to Pitfall! and Bejeweled. The entire “free” GDC Vault listings are here. Note that there are also free vids from previous GDC conferences, so it’s the gift that keeps on giving! I hope you enjoy it!

- Al

A different take on games

In my recent surge to absorb all things “games and education”, I’ve encountered some of presentations I wanted to share. These are atypical of the usual stuff I look for, as they focus on games in other contexts than the most common (analyzing mainstream games). I got a lot out of them, and I hope you do too!

Dan Pinchbeck, The Chinese Room (www.thechineseroom.co.uk)
Presentation: “Doing Development-led Research in Games” (http://vimeo.com/channels/gls#12578274)

Pinchbeck, a specialist on the First-Person Shooter (FPS) genre of video games, discusses his game-experiments that challenge traditional conventions of the FPS genre. One focus of his presentation is his opinion that the academic/research field is a good place to push the envelope of what video games can do. A strong believer in narrative, he emphasizes that experimentation (too high-risk for game companies that are for-profit) is the only way to learn more about video games’ unique potential with narrative. When you’re not restricted by making a profit, you can break out of the industry’s tendency to “play it safe” by aping traditional (Hollywood) narratives.

I enjoyed his presentation, as it is good to see an academic who is also a game developer. I find that many academics tend to analyze games that are available, but not progress their theories through creating their own works. He also emphasizes how, in order to further pursue this line of research, his development studio has to go commercial. As a commercial studio, he will be able to attract larger grants/loans to develop their own games from the ground-up. I look forward to seeing what he is able to produce in this respect.

Gabe Zichermann, Gamification Blog (http://gamification.co/)
Presentation: “Fun is the Future: Mastering Gamification” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O1gNVeaE4g)

Zichermann’s presentation is particularly refreshing because he is not an academic, nor a game designer. He comes from a business marketing background, and discusses how games are becoming an important tool in marketing, promoting, and selling products and services. I learned a considerable amount about how games are employed outside of the traditional gaming field, and how this practice of adding gaming elements to everything is set to accelerate in the future. He is not quite as dooming as Jesse Schell’s “Gamepocalypse” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUvGvh2k_Dc&feature=related), but does highlight how powerful a force games can be.

Sebastian Deterding, Coding Conduct (http://codingconduct.cc/)
Presentation: “Meaningful Play: Getting Gamification Right” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZGCPap7GkY)

Sebastian is a blend of Pinchbeck and Zichermann, with a background in Gamification, academics, and design. This Google Tech Talk is an incredibly comprehensive and practical analysis of Gamification, discussing what it is, how it works, and how it is used properly (and misused). Deterding highlights elements he believes are essential to effective Gamification (and games): meaning, mastery, and autonomy.  He is very good at stripping out essential elements of popular games to demonstrate that without these, the game wouldn’t be engaging.

A quotation that stuck with me is one Deterding cites (and modifies) from author Raph Koster is, “Fun is just another word for learning under optimal conditions.” This helps clarify why we are motivated with some types of learning, whereas other learning approaches (traditional classroom learning often referenced) are not motivating.

These should keep you busy for a couple of hours at least… Enjoy!

- Al

Gamescience

This is a bit of a strange post, but I picked up Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games by Matt Barton at the GDC the other week.  Starting reading it, got me thinking about the years when my babysitter’s best option to get me to go to bed on time was to threaten my character sheet.  Yes, a miss-spent youth of 1st ed. AD&D, partly enabled by my Dad who not only hired babysitters who then spent the evening DMing for my brother and I (something that I am sure some folks would see as abuse) and then buying me my first set of dice (and painting in the numbers) for me for Christmas when I was still in elementary school.

So after going back and looking through the original D&D materials, I am impressed, it is a more complicated game than I realized, in a big way I think the only reason latter editions seem to offer very much, like 2nd edition is because we never really utilized all that was in the first edition to begin with.  AD&D now is more like a strange hybrid of miniature game and card game and feels a bit like WOW even as you chain abilities together, and deal with cool downs.  It isn’t much of a role playing game, or fantasy world.  It isn’t a very good example of any of the game types it combines.

So I am going back to 1st Edition, to re-explore it and when equipping myself for that I realized I needed my original dice, that the polished rounded edge dice one finds so easily now didn’t seem authentic.  I was missing a few of my dice from almost 30 years ago, but after some web searching found this:

http://www.gamescience.com/gemrole-playingsets

http://www.chessex.com/Dice/Raw/raw_dice_home.htm

I am not sure how having precision-edge dice will actually improve the play experience, its not like I plan to bust out a pair of green corduroy pants and a shirt with race cars on it, but going back to read through the 1st edition books and considering the look and feel of those precision dice is almost entertaining in itself.

Granted how I will find time to do this with Dragon Age II out I am not sure, but then, sadly for a guy who studies video games, I think I might rather give Dragon Age II a miss and try to recreate an experience more like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz24ByUiXWA&NR=1

Jer

Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony

While back in Canada attending the Scholarship, Learning and the Digital Video Game Symposium, I had my first real opportunity to experiment and play with the PSP (thanks Jerremie).   Unfortunately, I didn’t take the opportunity to try more than one game – I ended up wanting to see how an RPG would work on the PSP.  Until very recently, I’ve been a PC gamer who enjoys lengthy RPGs and have been curious to see how these types of games ported over to consoles and portable systems.

In this case, my game of choice was Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony.   The Dungeon Siege franchise has always had fairly straightforward game play accompanied by a relatively straightforward story.  The story is never truly important – it’s always been about leveling the character and finding the right weapons and spells to kill monsters as quickly as possible.

For the portable platform, the game had an even less engaging story than DS 1 & 2 – it really didn’t extend the game in any way (similar to Titan’s Quest in my opinion).   The game play was a little less enjoyable because of the small screen – less view of the entire game space.  However, I found the controls to be less problematic than I expected.

The game play was not very challenging – I played through using the default spell caster and was rarely ever challenged.  My deaths usually occurred to carelessness and a rush to complete the game rather than being overmatched and requiring a variety of tactics (including switching spells).  I loaded up the base fire spell and used it exclusively thoughout the game.  I also noticed, and the same seemed to occur in Titan’s Quest, that mages seem to far outpace melee characters.  In Throne of Agony, the monsters and villain never ‘aggro’d’ – I was usually only fighting one monster at a time.  Simple but not very challenging.  After completing the game, one can continue to play using advanced character levels but the maps and story remain the same.  I generally don’t replay games so would have preferred an opportunity to access those levels through new game play or new challenges.

All that being said, it is a game on a PORTABLE device, and ultimately that is the measuring stick that I’m using.  It is easy to learn, easy to pick-up (I love the ability to turn on the PSP and start the game immediately), and overall, uncomplicated.  (And more durable than a laptop when falling asleep in bed).

My Game Dev Path

I’ve always had a desire to create my own games. However, I’m not a “one man studio”. While I’m a writer/designer, I’m a pseudo-programmer, and a novice (at best) artist. This has always bothered me, because I was unable to make the games as polished-looking as I’d like. Plus, when you come home from a full-time job to chores, errands, exercise, spouse, and relaxation, it’s really hard to make the time to continue working!

I started by using Macromedia Director (a relative of Adobe Flash) back in the mid-90s, making menu systems and the like. It was, however, never a web-platform, because the file sizes often got too large (especially for back then!). I made the jump to Adobe (then Macromedia) Flash around 2003, and had a good experience with it. Like Director, it was not dominated by programming – you could design assets in the paint-like interface, and then assign code to each. This ease of use encouraged me to make it the defacto language in my high school programming courses. Students were able to get results quickly, and were able to make much more advanced programs quickly than if they were locked into something like Java. While these courses encouraged me to brush up on my Flash skills, I never advanced beyond what was required of the courses I taught (which, generally, was not incredibly advanced). I was also discouraged by my lacking art skills, and the common problem of losing interest in the design.

(Unity3d)

Jumping to 2011, I’ve made it a mission to make some games this year. I’ve come across a new game engine that has been interesting to learn so far, called Unity3d. While complex, it is much easier to produce games with minimal code than the pure programming method. It is easier to create complex games than anything else I’ve seen, including 2d Flash. Conveniently, the common code for Unity3d is Javascript, which is very similar to Actionscript. Thus, the programming concepts and style I learned in Flash translate well to Unity3d. The biggest problem with Unity3d is that it is a 3d engine, and thus requires 3d models to look proper. This requires me to learn something like 3d Studio Max, which is easily as big and complex a program as Unity! The only benefit is that educational users can get Autodesk programs for free with a legitimate educational email address. Time to examine the tutorials.

So where does that leave me? I’ve decided to pursue another form of motivation and training: a Master of Fine Arts in Game Design. As I already have the Educational background (B.Ed + M.Ed), it would be nice to get the other side of the coin – the development skills. I’m also able to take it fully online with SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), so it’s as portable as I am. Plus, the degree would provide deadlines and an active process of building a portfolio, both of which I sorely need. I’m just hoping they don’t hate on me too much with my poor traditional art skills. I need the training, which is why I’m applying!

- Al

Assassin’s Creed, and Thoughts on History

Recently, I’ve been playing through Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. I was drawn to this series of games because of the vibrant graphics, excellent atmosphere, and interesting setting. After all, there are not many games that focus on the Crusades or Renaissance Era, so it is a relatively new experience and one that Ubisoft has taken much care to produce.

For people who like time periods in history, it is a joy. It is a rare opportunity to wander around the streets of a city in the past; getting a sense of what day to day life must have looked like. With regards to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, the monuments especially attract your attention, as Rome possesses Roman as well as Italian buildings of note. Important historical figures feature in the story as well, so it is an opportunity to try to glimpse what they were like, how they behaved, and what they wanted.

However, games loosely based on history can also be a potential nightmare – at least for historians. Entertainment mediums place story and drama above all else, because they want to make a compelling product. However, in choosing fantasy over fact, they often distort history and its players. I remember a similar kind of experience, visiting Scotland shortly after the movie Braveheart was released. The tour guide was giving us a tour of Sterling Castle, and was regularly interrupted by tourists who would say, “But in Braveheart…” I give the guide much credit for keeping his cool and reminding the tourists that it was just a movie.

But perhaps I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. Is this really such a big deal? In the case of Assassin’s Creed, many of the game players will have had little exposure to Renaissance Italy. Should they later choose to pursue knowledge about this area, by researching online, studying history or art, or traveling to Italy, they will learn the authentic history. For those that don’t, it is unlikely that this ‘creative history’ will have any real effect on their day-to-day lives.

All in all, I relish the fact that we have the technology to be able to simulate environments – past, present, and potential future – in order to better understand what life was like at that time. Now, to encourage developers to create games featuring some of the ancient wonders of the world, like the Hanging Gardens or Colossus, which we cannot even visit in real life!

-          Al

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has Side Quest Diarrhea

I will confess – I’m a bit of a completionist. I like playing as much of a game as I can, partially because I want to get the whole experience, and partially to get my money’s worth. I also find myself finding that if I play side-missions and accumulate resources, I have more at my disposal when I need it in the main story. Mass Effect 2 was a good example of this, as I scavenged far too many planets for resources, and bought all the tech upgrades possible so I would have the best chance in the last mission of the game.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, however, was different.

I do appreciate when the developers add more to a single player game, as often developers concentrate on adding to online multiplayer (which I don’t play). However, as more and more tasks were introduced in AC:B, it got a little silly. You are required to play the narrative storyline, but have the option to:

• Leave the Animus to talk to secondary characters and check your email (sometimes required)
• Collect Borgia flags scattered throughout the game
• Buy (renovate) shops and monuments in Rome to make more income
• Buy weapons, equipment, and artwork (for your hideout)
• Clear all the areas of Rome from Borgia Influence (destroy towers)
• Recruit assassins and train them by sending them on missions
• Complete assassination missions
• Complete courtesan missions
• Collect the keys from the different Lairs of Romulus
• Discover hidden glyphs from subject 16 hidden on important buildings
• Cristina missions; reliving experiences with a love from the past

I happily attempted to complete these side missions/extras, but after a while the game felt like work. At some point in trying to complete all this stuff, it became a chore. In the end, I gave up on completing most of it and finished the main narrative. I did get worried that the main story was going to lose its enjoyment if I exhausted myself on all of those extras.

So while Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is a great game, it revealed that I don’t have to try to do everything in a game to enjoy it. In fact, it highlighted what is often the fact: that you can’t experience a whole game, like you would a novel or a film. You will always miss something, so best to just enjoy it until you’re ready to finish, rather than make it feel like work (that you paid someone else to do!)

-          Al

Can you have too many gadgets?

Since my wife’s family is in Hong Kong, and mine in Canada, we make an annual trek to each location. We go to Canada in the summer (because winter is not my thing!) and Hong Kong over Christmas holidays. As a gadget guy, the annual trip to HK always results in me buying some kind of technology. After this past Christmas visit, I returned to Qatar and this is what my entertainment room looked like:

(pictured left: two laptops, two desktop PCs, an Archos 101 tablet, Nokia N8, PSP, Nintendo DS lite)

 

 

(pictured right: TVPC with 4TB external storage, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Playstation 3)

(not pictured: Mini desktop, Mini laptop, wife’s laptop, wife’s iPhone)

I know what you’re probably thinking, “What the heck does he need all that stuff for?” Well, this accumulation of tech is not merely the result of money burning through my wallet. Though I have to admit, spending money and a gadget-haven like Hong Kong are definitely enablers!

This collection is also the unwillingness to dispose of older technology (but it still works!) If you’ve spent a grand on a piece of technology, it’s awfully hard to accept that, after 5 or so years, it is “useless”. So you try to find uses for it. The mini laptop, a ‘pre-netbook’ netbook of 2003 (not pictured), is an ancient artifact at 7 years of age. Its duties are not limited to printer sharing and playing online radio to a set of nice speakers. I’m still struggling with what to do with a couple desktops that are getting long in the tooth.

This tech gathering is also the result of the understanding I have come to that there really is no single “device for all occasions”. I’ve noticed myself developing a kind of prejudice against portable devices lately. It’s the screen size. My Nokia N8’s screen, like the PSP and NDS, are just too small to play games for long or be productive on. It’s just become too much of a compromise for me. Granted, I don’t have a long commute and don’t spend time waiting around. If I ever have idle time, I’m almost always near a computer or laptop.

So do I need all these gadgets? Of course not! But, in many cases, the gadgets give me access to different platforms for gaming, so I can have a more thorough experience. In the household, I am able to play a new game that comes out for virtually every major platform, from PS3 to Android to Nintendo DS (all that’s missing is Mac OSX and Linux). Access to all these platforms is a definite advantage when the focus of your entertainment and study is video games.

The (un)fortunate thing is with more platforms comes more distractions. So my attention is now split across more platforms-worth of games, and the time to play them has not increased. This is not to mention a full-time job in education, a wife, and social life/holidays! So can I play virtually any game on any platform? Sure! Do I? Not a chance.

What will this year bring for us ‘gadgeteers’? Well, there’ll be a new iPad/iPhone, the Nintendo 3DS, and the PSP2. However, I think I may just go after a digital SLR camera this summer. At least that technology gets me capturing real life rather than simulating it.

Al