THEY MAKE ME LAUGH!
Watch these please and thank you.
p.s. David Barlog is an amazing human being.
June 11, 2008
May 19, 2008
Difficulty Bandwagon
It’s seems “difficulty” is a hot topic in games these days! A few sites I visit on the interwebs, Gamasutra and The Escapist, have posted articles on difficulty recently so I figured why not chime in on the topic.
Why do games have “difficulty settings” in the first place? Could it simply be blamed on the primordial soup that was the arcades of the 80’s designed to steal every last quarter known to mankind. Maybe it was something else all together like the gaming illuminati, you know the same people that make up TRC’s and killed Gunpei! Honestly, I cannot answer this but I think “difficulty” should be treated as a genre unto itself!!!
In my eyes Challenge vs. Entertainment is the dividing line for difficulty as a genre. The game can be made to punch the player in the face and split their skull or simply take them on a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. Hardcore players seek these challenges yet complain about entertainment games being too easy which is sort of silly because if the game is good then who cares. I really don’t see people coming out of a summer blockbuster griping about the movie not challenging them on some level, they went to be entertained. Well price point makes gamers care but that is an entirely different can of worms, the same for game length, and the dreaded replay-ability argument.
Let’s face it, our audience is changing, getting older, growing broader so to me that is the easiest place to start. Who is the intended audience of the game?
Long ago people made games for people to toil over and were presented as challenges against this thing called the computer! Nowadays people make games for entertainment, exercise, learning, and to challenge not just the computer but each other. The only light at the end of the tunnel for a designer to follow through the darkness of difficulty is the intended audience.
I feel like most games fall down right out of the gate because they forget to ask the question, “Who is going to play this game”? Have you ever played that new kids game that is so not made for kids, I bet you have and I bet the publisher was scratching their head asking why the scores are so low and sales are shit. Well I bet they broke the golden rule and made a kids game for game designers, Ernest Adams should beat them with a Twinkie! Know your audience, play test with them not your designers or QA people that have been playing the same game for months or years on end!
Random tidbits that show my inability to write a cohesive blog post…
Lend a helping hand: (things I have seen work)
So what is a designer to do, well try to hide any sort of assistance so it is there but unobtrusive. I like things like pity health increases, this goes way back the 8-bit days; say you are about to die and a few random health packs fall out of an enemy. The reward should be just enough to keep the fight going but keep you in the danger zone, if you come out alive you have that nail biter but fuck yeah I kicked their ass feeling, sounds like the player will continue playing instead of powering down.
Boost the health just a little after “X” repeated deaths, just a small amount and continue doing it each death thereafter until a max replenish threshold is reached. Boss fights work so much better using this technique instead of making the player do more damage, the boss do less damage, or the boss become less active. The player may never even know this is going on but they are constantly in better shape each time they die.
Good check point and save system, not much to say other than use common sense and do not punish the player. It’s all about workload and how much work you want the player to do time and time again. Checkpoint after major events, cut scenes (yes watching a cut scene is work), stage transitions in long battles or boss fights, and long exploration sequences.
Beat your game on the normal setting not powering anything up and using the standard attacks. The God of War combat team always made it a point to beat the game on normal mode using only the square combo and the required Context Sensitive moves, no evades, no blocking, no magic, no nothing. If you can do this then it is safe to say most people can do it with all the other tools you have given them.
Tune easy mode to be seriously easy, it should be a full on change of thinking not some 15% reduction in the difficulty values. Change the damage the player takes, inflicts, increase gain of all commerce, add more hints and messages, and slow down the moment-to-moment action whenever possible. I called it “Girlfriend mode”, not meant to be derogatory just a fact that my girlfriend could not get past the opening level on normal without dying 20 times but on easy only died 2 times.
Understand the “Threshold of Fun”! Derek and I always had this idea that if you die 5 times in an area or lose 5 matches in any game straight, that is the “Threshold of Fun”, the point where it is no longer fun at all. Sure it’s not science but when someone said something was not fun and we saw they died 8 times well we tuned it so they died 5 times and it was fun all of a sudden… shrug.
Franchise:
Believe it or not companies make games to make money, SURPRISE! So why in the hell do they want to make hard games that limit the audience or worse make the game so hard those who did buy the game cannot finish it. Don’t they want you coming back for the next installment? Most people will argue that great games bring people back regardless of difficulty and I agree with that but finishing a game counts towards the game being great! Beyond the fact that lots of people spent lots of time making a whole game not just part of a game, there is no benefit in not allowing the player to complete the game. Imagine if people went to see Lord of the Rings and it was it was a silent movie in black and white, seems difficult for most people to watch, I wonder if those people would come back for the next two movies. Obviously this all breaks down with competitive games but again that is an entirely different subject.
Rants:
I hate Dynamic Difficult Adjustment (DDA)!!! If I want to play on easy then it better damn well be easy, not switch invisibly to hard just because I am kicking ass on easy. Conversely if I sign up for ass kicking hard mode then don’t pander to me when I am not getting it, its not going to help me learn anything. People used to get pissed at the “Do you want to switch to Easy Mode” menu in God of War because they felt insulted but it was usual a hardcore player that hated the menu. I think the menu helped a lot more people finish the game even if they are not willing to admit they used it, but when you are having fun alone does it really matter you took at step back, of course not!
WTF is with leveling creatures to always be near my level, yes Puzzle Quest I mean you… I hear Oblivion does this too but I did not play it. If this is going to happen why even have leveling, I never feel powerful because of my level ups since the enemies keep pace. Thank goodness you can turn this off in Puzzle Quest but damn it I was halfway through by the time I saw that option, JERKS!
Well I started off with good intentions and ended up cursing and calling people jerks (Sorry Puzzle Quest makers), it happens.
Thanks for reading!
Why do games have “difficulty settings” in the first place? Could it simply be blamed on the primordial soup that was the arcades of the 80’s designed to steal every last quarter known to mankind. Maybe it was something else all together like the gaming illuminati, you know the same people that make up TRC’s and killed Gunpei! Honestly, I cannot answer this but I think “difficulty” should be treated as a genre unto itself!!!
In my eyes Challenge vs. Entertainment is the dividing line for difficulty as a genre. The game can be made to punch the player in the face and split their skull or simply take them on a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. Hardcore players seek these challenges yet complain about entertainment games being too easy which is sort of silly because if the game is good then who cares. I really don’t see people coming out of a summer blockbuster griping about the movie not challenging them on some level, they went to be entertained. Well price point makes gamers care but that is an entirely different can of worms, the same for game length, and the dreaded replay-ability argument.
Let’s face it, our audience is changing, getting older, growing broader so to me that is the easiest place to start. Who is the intended audience of the game?
Long ago people made games for people to toil over and were presented as challenges against this thing called the computer! Nowadays people make games for entertainment, exercise, learning, and to challenge not just the computer but each other. The only light at the end of the tunnel for a designer to follow through the darkness of difficulty is the intended audience.
I feel like most games fall down right out of the gate because they forget to ask the question, “Who is going to play this game”? Have you ever played that new kids game that is so not made for kids, I bet you have and I bet the publisher was scratching their head asking why the scores are so low and sales are shit. Well I bet they broke the golden rule and made a kids game for game designers, Ernest Adams should beat them with a Twinkie! Know your audience, play test with them not your designers or QA people that have been playing the same game for months or years on end!
Random tidbits that show my inability to write a cohesive blog post…
Lend a helping hand: (things I have seen work)
So what is a designer to do, well try to hide any sort of assistance so it is there but unobtrusive. I like things like pity health increases, this goes way back the 8-bit days; say you are about to die and a few random health packs fall out of an enemy. The reward should be just enough to keep the fight going but keep you in the danger zone, if you come out alive you have that nail biter but fuck yeah I kicked their ass feeling, sounds like the player will continue playing instead of powering down.
Boost the health just a little after “X” repeated deaths, just a small amount and continue doing it each death thereafter until a max replenish threshold is reached. Boss fights work so much better using this technique instead of making the player do more damage, the boss do less damage, or the boss become less active. The player may never even know this is going on but they are constantly in better shape each time they die.
Good check point and save system, not much to say other than use common sense and do not punish the player. It’s all about workload and how much work you want the player to do time and time again. Checkpoint after major events, cut scenes (yes watching a cut scene is work), stage transitions in long battles or boss fights, and long exploration sequences.
Beat your game on the normal setting not powering anything up and using the standard attacks. The God of War combat team always made it a point to beat the game on normal mode using only the square combo and the required Context Sensitive moves, no evades, no blocking, no magic, no nothing. If you can do this then it is safe to say most people can do it with all the other tools you have given them.
Tune easy mode to be seriously easy, it should be a full on change of thinking not some 15% reduction in the difficulty values. Change the damage the player takes, inflicts, increase gain of all commerce, add more hints and messages, and slow down the moment-to-moment action whenever possible. I called it “Girlfriend mode”, not meant to be derogatory just a fact that my girlfriend could not get past the opening level on normal without dying 20 times but on easy only died 2 times.
Understand the “Threshold of Fun”! Derek and I always had this idea that if you die 5 times in an area or lose 5 matches in any game straight, that is the “Threshold of Fun”, the point where it is no longer fun at all. Sure it’s not science but when someone said something was not fun and we saw they died 8 times well we tuned it so they died 5 times and it was fun all of a sudden… shrug.
Franchise:
Believe it or not companies make games to make money, SURPRISE! So why in the hell do they want to make hard games that limit the audience or worse make the game so hard those who did buy the game cannot finish it. Don’t they want you coming back for the next installment? Most people will argue that great games bring people back regardless of difficulty and I agree with that but finishing a game counts towards the game being great! Beyond the fact that lots of people spent lots of time making a whole game not just part of a game, there is no benefit in not allowing the player to complete the game. Imagine if people went to see Lord of the Rings and it was it was a silent movie in black and white, seems difficult for most people to watch, I wonder if those people would come back for the next two movies. Obviously this all breaks down with competitive games but again that is an entirely different subject.
Rants:
I hate Dynamic Difficult Adjustment (DDA)!!! If I want to play on easy then it better damn well be easy, not switch invisibly to hard just because I am kicking ass on easy. Conversely if I sign up for ass kicking hard mode then don’t pander to me when I am not getting it, its not going to help me learn anything. People used to get pissed at the “Do you want to switch to Easy Mode” menu in God of War because they felt insulted but it was usual a hardcore player that hated the menu. I think the menu helped a lot more people finish the game even if they are not willing to admit they used it, but when you are having fun alone does it really matter you took at step back, of course not!
WTF is with leveling creatures to always be near my level, yes Puzzle Quest I mean you… I hear Oblivion does this too but I did not play it. If this is going to happen why even have leveling, I never feel powerful because of my level ups since the enemies keep pace. Thank goodness you can turn this off in Puzzle Quest but damn it I was halfway through by the time I saw that option, JERKS!
Well I started off with good intentions and ended up cursing and calling people jerks (Sorry Puzzle Quest makers), it happens.
Thanks for reading!
May 8, 2008
Finally Home
What a whirlwind tour it has been over the last few weeks, I have only been home for a total 48 hours since April 17th! The new business is keeping me very busy which is a good thing but all this travel is kicking my butt. I wish it was possible to talk about all the projects I am associated with but NDA's are a plenty so mums the word for now.
Getting out to visit a lot of different companies is amazing. I am learning a lot while giving what I can only hope is a lot back. While that is all fine and well, dammit I miss working with my friends that I grew up with in this industry, namely Derek and Cory but hopefully we can all circle back around later in our careers, at least I hope so...
Oh I went to this fun design night called Pecha Kucha, which is rough japanese for "chit-chat" A bunch of people in design related fields meet up and give presentations on all kinds of topics like city planning and graphic design. The killer part is the format, each presenter has 20 slides and talks about each one for 20 seconds. What I really like about this is that all the concepts are quite digestible and if the topic is not something you are into it only lasts 6:40 so no big deal. The night also starts at 20:20, 8:20 for us non euro/military people but the 20:20 obviously relates to the presentation format. I think there was about 20 presenters as well but we did not stay for the entire night. Los Angeles has one this sunday so maybe check it out if it's your thing, I'd be going but it's back on an airplane again... sad day.
Random other tid-bits...
SEA COWBOYS! If you have not read this story get busy now! It's like the A-team meets Deadliest Catch meets Armegeddon, do I really have to sell this any harder?
No More Heroes was really fun even though the open world parts were not so great minus dumpster diving. Dumpster diving was the best use of a chest system in a modern city layout ever in my opinion. The Wii was happy for two days because I actually used it. I'll be there day one for the Suda-51 / Kojima team up that is in the works, Project S?
I bought an iMac! The first week was a nightmare since the last time I used a mac was Apple IIE in grade school. Once I got over all that I love how everything sort of works together and falls into place. An iBook is in my future since traveling is not going to let up. But seriously why does the "End key" always go the bottom instead of the end of the line, I will never get used to that EVER!
I have yet to see Iron Man, this bums me out :(
GTA4 came out and I have yet to buy it, I most definitely fall into this "Category"
Finally God of War: Chains of Olympus is the #1 PSP game of all time at the moment, let's celebrate with a little Zero Punctuation Review!
p.s. I will try to update more often, if I lag too much yell at me in the comments please and thank you!
Getting out to visit a lot of different companies is amazing. I am learning a lot while giving what I can only hope is a lot back. While that is all fine and well, dammit I miss working with my friends that I grew up with in this industry, namely Derek and Cory but hopefully we can all circle back around later in our careers, at least I hope so...
Oh I went to this fun design night called Pecha Kucha, which is rough japanese for "chit-chat" A bunch of people in design related fields meet up and give presentations on all kinds of topics like city planning and graphic design. The killer part is the format, each presenter has 20 slides and talks about each one for 20 seconds. What I really like about this is that all the concepts are quite digestible and if the topic is not something you are into it only lasts 6:40 so no big deal. The night also starts at 20:20, 8:20 for us non euro/military people but the 20:20 obviously relates to the presentation format. I think there was about 20 presenters as well but we did not stay for the entire night. Los Angeles has one this sunday so maybe check it out if it's your thing, I'd be going but it's back on an airplane again... sad day.
Random other tid-bits...
SEA COWBOYS! If you have not read this story get busy now! It's like the A-team meets Deadliest Catch meets Armegeddon, do I really have to sell this any harder?
No More Heroes was really fun even though the open world parts were not so great minus dumpster diving. Dumpster diving was the best use of a chest system in a modern city layout ever in my opinion. The Wii was happy for two days because I actually used it. I'll be there day one for the Suda-51 / Kojima team up that is in the works, Project S?
I bought an iMac! The first week was a nightmare since the last time I used a mac was Apple IIE in grade school. Once I got over all that I love how everything sort of works together and falls into place. An iBook is in my future since traveling is not going to let up. But seriously why does the "End key" always go the bottom instead of the end of the line, I will never get used to that EVER!
I have yet to see Iron Man, this bums me out :(
GTA4 came out and I have yet to buy it, I most definitely fall into this "Category"
Finally God of War: Chains of Olympus is the #1 PSP game of all time at the moment, let's celebrate with a little Zero Punctuation Review!
p.s. I will try to update more often, if I lag too much yell at me in the comments please and thank you!
March 16, 2008
From a land down under
Fourteen hours on a plane was only made possible with some Puzzle Quest on the DS and a whole row to myself to lay down and pseudo sleep. Boy was it worth it, Sydney is beautiful and quite walk-able which is something I dislike about sprawling Los Angeles. I think running the LA Marathon is the only time I will see so much of Los Angeles on foot. Anyhow, got another stamp in the passport and well on my way to knocking out all the places I want to see in the world. Next up Italy again for the wedding and hopefully Greece and Egypt in the near future. Well enough about travel since most people come here to read something video game related.Honestly I am way too tired to talk about any of that so I am going to leave myself a reminder note here to force myself to post about why I think books and games have more in common than movies and games and why I think Orisinal is the equivalent of poetry. On second thought it's not all that deep so I am going to ramble on about it now. To preface, this is how I watch a movie... no talking if at all possible, no bathrooms breaks, no interruptions period unless I have already seen it and even then this annoys me with the exception of great quotable comedies with a group of friends after repeat viewings.
A book can be read at any pace and a movie is watched at the pace of the director. A game no matter if it is a board game or video game is played at its own pace. Often I will re-read a page or even chapter of a book multiple times to soak it all in, games tend to do a similar thing with re-spawning battles or repeating events upon death... where a film keeps on going with or without you.
NOTE:
I suppose it can be argued that some games impose a timer such as speed chess or sporting events but in games timers are usually legacy design from the early days and arcades, now a day it is rare to find a game that is shackle by a timer. Similarly one could argue movies can be controlled with rewind and scene selection but who really enjoys a movie with those options?
The reality is that enjoying something at your own pace is a very important distinction when consuming and enjoying entertainment. Books and games allow a high level of control when it comes to the experience where movies offer a much lower level of control, yet both can stir emotions and entertain. At the end of the day it’s not a matter of one being better than the other but a matter of how much control a person has over the experience.
Like I said this is not all that well thought out and requires a lot more research but it has always been on my mind and a talk with a good friend brought it back into focus during my trip. Hopefully I will get some time to think about it more and expand this idea because I think there is a lot to be learned from books and how they are crafted that we sometimes miss out on because of the obvious relationship games share with movies on the visual and audible fronts. Perhaps games can be the harmonious hybrid of the two mediums? Drop me a line if you have thoughts, conversation is wanted on this topic.
Well based on this scatterbrain idea I hope you can see why the games over at Orisinal might be the poetry of our world. Winterbells always brought this idea home to me for some reason!
p.s. I see a lot chapters in games and books have a lot of chapters!
February 29, 2008
The Battle of Marathon
Kratos is coming to the small screen in a big way come March and I had a little something to do with it as part of my new venture Short Short Super! I formed Short Short Super back in October 2007 with the intention of working as a design consultant and my first client was Ready At Dawn on God of War: Chains of Olympus. It always feels great to ship a game but this one was a little more special since it was the first along my new path in the video game industry. Big thanks to Ru Weerasuriya, Eric Koch, and Allan Becker for putting their heads together to make this happen.
The only thing better than finishing my first consultant gig would be great reviews and that is the case with a current average of 9.4! Perhaps this will help my client list grow but hopefully not too much, I do enjoy a little sleep now and again…
Congratulations to everyone at Ready At Dawn on an amazing game and continuing the God of War franchise, Dana, Mike B, Mike D, Max a.k.a. Code Bug, Tony, Derek, Phil, Jeremy a.k.a. Captain Cuddlesworth, Garret, Jerome, Carlo, Marc, Ru, Melissa, Jo, Nathan, John, Rachid, and everyone else I am forgetting, thanks for making my time down there amazing and good luck on the next great thing from RAD!
All while I was working on GoW:CoO, I was training for the Los Angeles Marathon. So each night after tucking Kratos and pals into bed I would be running the streets of Irvine at around midnight to get in my training miles. Oddly enough the city of Marathon is represented in the game so I had Marathon on the brain day and night. Well my fiancée and I will run 26.2 miles of Los Angeles City in our own little Battle of Marathon at 8:15am this Sunday!
Oh yeah GDC happened last week as well and it was my first time going because I am usually knee deep in the development process. Most of the time I hung out with people that I have not seen in a long time so that was cool but I was cheap and did not attend the sessions so I guess I missed out on the real GDC experience, maybe next year.
Derek and I got some one on one time with SF4 and that was pretty cool, even got to speak to Ono-san via translator/producer extraordinaire Ben Judd. We told Ono-san how Kratos has a lot of Street Fighter in him and he laughed wildly then said something like “Capcom needs better lawyers” which made us all laugh. The game is beautiful in motion and promises to bring back what has been long lost. I played a lot of Zangief and that was my GDC highlight!
Derek playing Ono-san, nice photo Seth!
Citizen Cupcake was my fuel while running the Embarcadero at midnight, marathon training never ends. Seriously I had so many cupcakes up there the girl remembered me and even gave me some on the house to bring back to April the last night of GDC. When in the Bay go eat some cupcakes, lemon was my favorite!
The only thing better than finishing my first consultant gig would be great reviews and that is the case with a current average of 9.4! Perhaps this will help my client list grow but hopefully not too much, I do enjoy a little sleep now and again…
Congratulations to everyone at Ready At Dawn on an amazing game and continuing the God of War franchise, Dana, Mike B, Mike D, Max a.k.a. Code Bug, Tony, Derek, Phil, Jeremy a.k.a. Captain Cuddlesworth, Garret, Jerome, Carlo, Marc, Ru, Melissa, Jo, Nathan, John, Rachid, and everyone else I am forgetting, thanks for making my time down there amazing and good luck on the next great thing from RAD!
All while I was working on GoW:CoO, I was training for the Los Angeles Marathon. So each night after tucking Kratos and pals into bed I would be running the streets of Irvine at around midnight to get in my training miles. Oddly enough the city of Marathon is represented in the game so I had Marathon on the brain day and night. Well my fiancée and I will run 26.2 miles of Los Angeles City in our own little Battle of Marathon at 8:15am this Sunday!
Oh yeah GDC happened last week as well and it was my first time going because I am usually knee deep in the development process. Most of the time I hung out with people that I have not seen in a long time so that was cool but I was cheap and did not attend the sessions so I guess I missed out on the real GDC experience, maybe next year.
Derek and I got some one on one time with SF4 and that was pretty cool, even got to speak to Ono-san via translator/producer extraordinaire Ben Judd. We told Ono-san how Kratos has a lot of Street Fighter in him and he laughed wildly then said something like “Capcom needs better lawyers” which made us all laugh. The game is beautiful in motion and promises to bring back what has been long lost. I played a lot of Zangief and that was my GDC highlight!
Derek playing Ono-san, nice photo Seth!Citizen Cupcake was my fuel while running the Embarcadero at midnight, marathon training never ends. Seriously I had so many cupcakes up there the girl remembered me and even gave me some on the house to bring back to April the last night of GDC. When in the Bay go eat some cupcakes, lemon was my favorite!
February 15, 2008
And the winner is...
Good job Will!
So it's official no one reads this thing, not like that was a big surprise! Due to that sad fact the judging was quite simple because there was a single entry.
So it's official no one reads this thing, not like that was a big surprise! Due to that sad fact the judging was quite simple because there was a single entry.
February 13, 2008
Valentine's Day Contest!
Ok kids here is your chance to win a limited edition God of War: Chains of Olympus T-Shirt (pics below for the impatient) made exclusively for the Ready At Dawn team members, well at least they told me that anyhow. The guys were kind enough to give me one for my help on the game but it is a little too big for me so I figured what the hell let someone win it!
What does it take to win you might be wondering, well it is simply. Create a Valentine's Day Card using God of War as the theme. The Card must be in JPEG format and must be received by 11:59pm PST on Thursday February 14th. You can enter as many times as you wish!
Send all entries to iheartkratos@gmail.com
The judging panel will be myself and a signed glamour shot of Cory Barlog!
The winner will be announced around 11am PST on Friday February 15th.
I know the time frame is short so no complaining because we all know you slackers work best when under pressure. Plus think about it you can use the card to hand out to those loved ones in your life as well, it is a gift that keeps giving. Good Luck!
DISCLAIMER: The contest has no affiliation with SCEA or Ready At Dawn Studios.
p.s. click pictures to make them all big and stuff...
What does it take to win you might be wondering, well it is simply. Create a Valentine's Day Card using God of War as the theme. The Card must be in JPEG format and must be received by 11:59pm PST on Thursday February 14th. You can enter as many times as you wish!
Send all entries to iheartkratos@gmail.com
The judging panel will be myself and a signed glamour shot of Cory Barlog!
The winner will be announced around 11am PST on Friday February 15th.
I know the time frame is short so no complaining because we all know you slackers work best when under pressure. Plus think about it you can use the card to hand out to those loved ones in your life as well, it is a gift that keeps giving. Good Luck!
DISCLAIMER: The contest has no affiliation with SCEA or Ready At Dawn Studios.
p.s. click pictures to make them all big and stuff...
January 22, 2008
Fight IV Your Right...
Dear GTA:4,
Good Luck!
best,
e
p.s. I almost forgot about you RE5, extra good luck to you sirs!
p.p.s. I feel this is still true, sadly!
January 17, 2008
Combat Cancelled
Normally I would not write this kind of article but since it is a new year and was sort of prompted by some God of War questions in the past and recently on Derek’s blog here I am. A lot of questions have always swirled around some of the attacks Kratos has in his arsenal, namely the L1+ Button special moves. The questions usually stem from the inability to “Cancel” these moves thus rendering them useless so to speak. Instead of just defending those moves I am going to examine the entire concept of move cancelling from its early days in fighting games to its cross pollination with action adventure games.
Let’s start with the grand daddy of them all Street Fighter 2: World Warrior. There is a legend that one day during early tests of this game out in California a guy named Tomo Ohira was destroying people in the game with some crazy technique where he could link certain moves together that normally could not be linked together, thus creating a combo by canceling! Ok so I was a kid in Ohio when I heard this so of course I believed it because Tomo Ohira was the best American Street Fighter player at the time. However, later I learned that this was a “bug” in the game and known by the development team in Japan but they thought it was too hard to execute to be useful so they left it in the game. Well it happens that the “bug” was the birth of the Cancel and Combo! The best example is roundhouse sweep cancel to fireball with Ryu, which I view as the catalyst for many other Street Fighter cornerstones such as zoning and footsies. So you get the point Street Fighter started it all and I just wanted to share some history so now onto how this affects action adventure games.
First let’s define a cancel just so we are all clear; a cancel is the ability to end one animation early by beginning another animation when the user manipulates of a series of branches in an animation tree through inputs on the controller, talk about clinical. Without diving into all the nuts and bolts of a combat system I am going to breakdown cancels by type and method. Cancel types fall into 2 core groups; “Partial Cancel” and “Complete Cancel”.
A “Partial Cancel” allows an animation to be canceled at specific windows during the animation. The two most common conditions for a “Partial Cancel” are pre-hit frame (the animation can be cancelled any time before the first frame of the hit) and post-hit frame (the animation can be cancelled any time after the last frame of the hit).
A “Complete Cancel” allows an animation to be cancelled at anytime during the animation. Of course I am generalizing and there are special nuances that exist in certain games but for the most part these conditions are used 99% of the time.
The methods I am going to cover are the ones that account for the bulk of all games and they are "Buffer" and "Instant".
The "Buffer" method stores and executes the user’s command when the cancel window is valid. The "Buffer" method in a well-designed game can be cancelled itself with other commands before the cancel window is valid to ensure the highest quality of responsiveness.
The "Instant" method accepts and executes the user’s command on the frame of input when the cancel window is valid. The "Instant" method allows the player to delay the timing which adds to the overall responsiveness of the game.
Now for an example: We have an animation called “Square01” that is played when we press the Square button, the animation is 60 frames long and has a hit frame window from frame 15 to frame 20. (see the pseudo combat scripting below)
//60 frames
Animation = Square01
//hit frames
On = 15;
Off = 20;
//attack cancel
Anim = Square02; Button = Square; On = 0; Off = 21; Method = Buffer;
Anim = Square02; Button = Square; On = 21; Off = 60; Method = Instant;
//block cancel
Anim = Block; Button = L1; On = 0; Off = 60; Method = Instant;
What does all that mean you might be asking yourself? Notice the On/Off parameters, these are frame values and determine the range of the cancel window. The method parameter assigns the type of cancel, see the definitions above if you have forgotten already. We can now determine that “Square01” can never be cancelled Pre-hit frame with the square button since the frame range is 0-21, instead the square button can be buffered until Post-hit frame 21. We can also determine that “Square01” can be instantly cancelled at anytime Post-hit frame since the frame range is 21-60. It also says that the L1 button can cancel “Square01” instantly at anytime thus making it a Complete Cancel since the frame range is 0-60. If this made any sense at all, now imagine doing this for every possible animation a character has in their arsenal and how they relate to gameplay systems such as parry, block, counter, walk, run, jump, double jump, magic, throw, reactions, etc… To give you a little perspective, Kratos had roughly 4000 cancel branches in God of War 2 with many more parameters to be tweaked per cancel branch.
Bored yet? I promise to stop being technical right now!
What can a well-implemented cancel system add to a game? First off it usually determines if a game has that lagged out feel or is crisp and super responsive. From a defensive point of view it creates that feeling of a best offense is a great defense. The player can just bang with the enemies but guard cancel to generate new holes in the enemy’s game. Guard canceling in Soul Calibur is super fun because it has Pre-hit frame canceling only which allows the player to fake attacks creating a whole new layer of mind games. Street Fighter 3 and Marvel Series make great use of super move cancels, which looks flashy in the traditional Capcom vein while promoting heavy offensive style gameplay. Also you might note that cancels are so good in some games that they actually require meter to perform like in the Guilty Gear series. It's almost impossible to factor all the changes one type of cancel system can have on a game, one such case is CvS2 and the infamous "Roll Cancel" where certain moves can become invincible based on a cancel bug, talk about an oops. Ultimately though it comes down to fun vs. abusiveness but mostly a great cancel system equals depth and allows the player to be super creative which helps increase the fun and sense of achievement.
Here some thoughts on the top three games in the action adventure genre, in no particular order Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, and God of War. Placing the game I worked on for nearly 4 years in the top three will surely drum up some interesting comments, can’t wait… this is why I do not write about the games I work on if at all possible.
Ninja Gaiden is very strict when it comes to canceling so strict in fact that not a single animation that I am aware of can be canceled Pre-hit frame. I feel this is a great rule when trying to build a solid foundation for the combat gameplay but also adds to the difficulty. The player knows when they press a button to attack it must complete its hit frame before another animation can take place. Here is a funny thing about that rule, it is so true that the player cannot even pause the game because they could swap weapons and cancel before the hit, don’t believe me try it out. The game is made to be hardcore and for the hardcore so they use rules that help establish a fair play field if the player is willing to learn the system to the point of flawless execution. I applaud Itagaki and Team Ninja for their effort and contribution to the genre!
Devil May Cry follows many of the same rules that Ninja Gaiden does but in true Capcom fashion they have to drop the style bomb all over rules and add in some broken stuff just for fun! The main cancel system that drives DMC is the alteration between Melee and Projectile attacks. I believe that all Melee attacks are all Post-hit frame cancels and the Projectile attacks are governed by the rate of fire. Since there are between 5-6 Melee and Projectile weapons the combinations create for quite the learning curve and when you add in the styles the possibilities are staggering. Depth is the result but in a much more chaotic and flashy manner then the technical presentation found in Ninja Gaiden. Nevertheless there is no doubt that DMC is an acquired taste from the dark moody art to wise cracking cocky Dante himself but when you get it, you get it and the rabid fans for this series will always let you know they get it!
God of War unlike the other two games allows for many Pre-hit frame cancels and incorporates several of the methods found in the other two games. The main difference is that it is not trying to be a hardcore game from neither a technical nor flashy point of view. It’s just smash and kill fun with some goodies tossed in under the hood for the fans of the other games that gave us a shot while they waited for the next installment of Ryu’s or Dante’s saga. The rules for canceling are all over the place but for good reason, our intended audience does not want to learn the techniques, they just want the game to play the way they think it should because combat is not the only focus unlike the other two games.
So what about the L1+Button specials and why they cannot be cancelled? The moves in question are by far the strongest damage inflicting attacks Kratos has that stem from a simple button command, they hit many creatures at once in most cases, leave the creature in a vulnerable state, or in some cases both. The moves also serve as a little flash and make beginners feel really powerful when they see the blades spinning all over the place. Like I said before the other games only have Post-hit frame canceling and use this to teach the player, watch before you attack. God of War allows almost all of the basic attacks be cancelled anywhere including Pre-hit frame to make life easier on the player. The L1+Button specials possess enormous damage potential in certain situations and thus are not able to be cancelled until Post-hit frame for balance reasons (infinite lock down loops mostly). Moreover for novice players they are used to teach the concept of risk vs. reward without placing this burden on the basic combat which would make the game much harder for the average player. I know this can be argued from many different angles with regards to balancing but trust me I have heard them all and this was the decision we made but feel free to tell me how foolish we were anyhow.
At the end of the day you have to look at your intended audience and I think we captured our audience the best we could. To those that were left upset and disappointed because of 4 little moves in the game that cannot be cancelled earlier then I am sorry you missed a much greater experience.
It’s easy to say God of War is flawed and this that and the other but the fact remains that it is the only American action adventure game to ever get the attention of the Japanese. I grew up playing their games and wanted to make a game that felt like a Japanese game but played balls out like an American movie and God of War allowed me to do that. It is not perfect but it spoke to some people and that is all we can hope for as game developers.
I know one thing for sure increasing the amount of canceling in a game decreases the possibility of the game being cancelled!
Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I will try to answer promptly!
Thanks!
p.s. God of War has some serious fun with cancels, press square once then try any of the following if you don’t believe me.
Walk (Navigation) = Post-hit frame
Jump = Pre-hit frame
Roll (Evade) = Pre-hit frame
Magic = Pre-hit frame
Throw = Pre-hit frame
Guard (Parry / Block) = Pre-hit frame
Weapon Swap = Post-hit frame
Let’s start with the grand daddy of them all Street Fighter 2: World Warrior. There is a legend that one day during early tests of this game out in California a guy named Tomo Ohira was destroying people in the game with some crazy technique where he could link certain moves together that normally could not be linked together, thus creating a combo by canceling! Ok so I was a kid in Ohio when I heard this so of course I believed it because Tomo Ohira was the best American Street Fighter player at the time. However, later I learned that this was a “bug” in the game and known by the development team in Japan but they thought it was too hard to execute to be useful so they left it in the game. Well it happens that the “bug” was the birth of the Cancel and Combo! The best example is roundhouse sweep cancel to fireball with Ryu, which I view as the catalyst for many other Street Fighter cornerstones such as zoning and footsies. So you get the point Street Fighter started it all and I just wanted to share some history so now onto how this affects action adventure games.
First let’s define a cancel just so we are all clear; a cancel is the ability to end one animation early by beginning another animation when the user manipulates of a series of branches in an animation tree through inputs on the controller, talk about clinical. Without diving into all the nuts and bolts of a combat system I am going to breakdown cancels by type and method. Cancel types fall into 2 core groups; “Partial Cancel” and “Complete Cancel”.
A “Partial Cancel” allows an animation to be canceled at specific windows during the animation. The two most common conditions for a “Partial Cancel” are pre-hit frame (the animation can be cancelled any time before the first frame of the hit) and post-hit frame (the animation can be cancelled any time after the last frame of the hit).
A “Complete Cancel” allows an animation to be cancelled at anytime during the animation. Of course I am generalizing and there are special nuances that exist in certain games but for the most part these conditions are used 99% of the time.
The methods I am going to cover are the ones that account for the bulk of all games and they are "Buffer" and "Instant".
The "Buffer" method stores and executes the user’s command when the cancel window is valid. The "Buffer" method in a well-designed game can be cancelled itself with other commands before the cancel window is valid to ensure the highest quality of responsiveness.
The "Instant" method accepts and executes the user’s command on the frame of input when the cancel window is valid. The "Instant" method allows the player to delay the timing which adds to the overall responsiveness of the game.
Now for an example: We have an animation called “Square01” that is played when we press the Square button, the animation is 60 frames long and has a hit frame window from frame 15 to frame 20. (see the pseudo combat scripting below)
//60 frames
Animation = Square01
//hit frames
On = 15;
Off = 20;
//attack cancel
Anim = Square02; Button = Square; On = 0; Off = 21; Method = Buffer;
Anim = Square02; Button = Square; On = 21; Off = 60; Method = Instant;
//block cancel
Anim = Block; Button = L1; On = 0; Off = 60; Method = Instant;
What does all that mean you might be asking yourself? Notice the On/Off parameters, these are frame values and determine the range of the cancel window. The method parameter assigns the type of cancel, see the definitions above if you have forgotten already. We can now determine that “Square01” can never be cancelled Pre-hit frame with the square button since the frame range is 0-21, instead the square button can be buffered until Post-hit frame 21. We can also determine that “Square01” can be instantly cancelled at anytime Post-hit frame since the frame range is 21-60. It also says that the L1 button can cancel “Square01” instantly at anytime thus making it a Complete Cancel since the frame range is 0-60. If this made any sense at all, now imagine doing this for every possible animation a character has in their arsenal and how they relate to gameplay systems such as parry, block, counter, walk, run, jump, double jump, magic, throw, reactions, etc… To give you a little perspective, Kratos had roughly 4000 cancel branches in God of War 2 with many more parameters to be tweaked per cancel branch.
Bored yet? I promise to stop being technical right now!
What can a well-implemented cancel system add to a game? First off it usually determines if a game has that lagged out feel or is crisp and super responsive. From a defensive point of view it creates that feeling of a best offense is a great defense. The player can just bang with the enemies but guard cancel to generate new holes in the enemy’s game. Guard canceling in Soul Calibur is super fun because it has Pre-hit frame canceling only which allows the player to fake attacks creating a whole new layer of mind games. Street Fighter 3 and Marvel Series make great use of super move cancels, which looks flashy in the traditional Capcom vein while promoting heavy offensive style gameplay. Also you might note that cancels are so good in some games that they actually require meter to perform like in the Guilty Gear series. It's almost impossible to factor all the changes one type of cancel system can have on a game, one such case is CvS2 and the infamous "Roll Cancel" where certain moves can become invincible based on a cancel bug, talk about an oops. Ultimately though it comes down to fun vs. abusiveness but mostly a great cancel system equals depth and allows the player to be super creative which helps increase the fun and sense of achievement.
Here some thoughts on the top three games in the action adventure genre, in no particular order Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, and God of War. Placing the game I worked on for nearly 4 years in the top three will surely drum up some interesting comments, can’t wait… this is why I do not write about the games I work on if at all possible.
Ninja Gaiden is very strict when it comes to canceling so strict in fact that not a single animation that I am aware of can be canceled Pre-hit frame. I feel this is a great rule when trying to build a solid foundation for the combat gameplay but also adds to the difficulty. The player knows when they press a button to attack it must complete its hit frame before another animation can take place. Here is a funny thing about that rule, it is so true that the player cannot even pause the game because they could swap weapons and cancel before the hit, don’t believe me try it out. The game is made to be hardcore and for the hardcore so they use rules that help establish a fair play field if the player is willing to learn the system to the point of flawless execution. I applaud Itagaki and Team Ninja for their effort and contribution to the genre!
Devil May Cry follows many of the same rules that Ninja Gaiden does but in true Capcom fashion they have to drop the style bomb all over rules and add in some broken stuff just for fun! The main cancel system that drives DMC is the alteration between Melee and Projectile attacks. I believe that all Melee attacks are all Post-hit frame cancels and the Projectile attacks are governed by the rate of fire. Since there are between 5-6 Melee and Projectile weapons the combinations create for quite the learning curve and when you add in the styles the possibilities are staggering. Depth is the result but in a much more chaotic and flashy manner then the technical presentation found in Ninja Gaiden. Nevertheless there is no doubt that DMC is an acquired taste from the dark moody art to wise cracking cocky Dante himself but when you get it, you get it and the rabid fans for this series will always let you know they get it!
God of War unlike the other two games allows for many Pre-hit frame cancels and incorporates several of the methods found in the other two games. The main difference is that it is not trying to be a hardcore game from neither a technical nor flashy point of view. It’s just smash and kill fun with some goodies tossed in under the hood for the fans of the other games that gave us a shot while they waited for the next installment of Ryu’s or Dante’s saga. The rules for canceling are all over the place but for good reason, our intended audience does not want to learn the techniques, they just want the game to play the way they think it should because combat is not the only focus unlike the other two games.
So what about the L1+Button specials and why they cannot be cancelled? The moves in question are by far the strongest damage inflicting attacks Kratos has that stem from a simple button command, they hit many creatures at once in most cases, leave the creature in a vulnerable state, or in some cases both. The moves also serve as a little flash and make beginners feel really powerful when they see the blades spinning all over the place. Like I said before the other games only have Post-hit frame canceling and use this to teach the player, watch before you attack. God of War allows almost all of the basic attacks be cancelled anywhere including Pre-hit frame to make life easier on the player. The L1+Button specials possess enormous damage potential in certain situations and thus are not able to be cancelled until Post-hit frame for balance reasons (infinite lock down loops mostly). Moreover for novice players they are used to teach the concept of risk vs. reward without placing this burden on the basic combat which would make the game much harder for the average player. I know this can be argued from many different angles with regards to balancing but trust me I have heard them all and this was the decision we made but feel free to tell me how foolish we were anyhow.
At the end of the day you have to look at your intended audience and I think we captured our audience the best we could. To those that were left upset and disappointed because of 4 little moves in the game that cannot be cancelled earlier then I am sorry you missed a much greater experience.
It’s easy to say God of War is flawed and this that and the other but the fact remains that it is the only American action adventure game to ever get the attention of the Japanese. I grew up playing their games and wanted to make a game that felt like a Japanese game but played balls out like an American movie and God of War allowed me to do that. It is not perfect but it spoke to some people and that is all we can hope for as game developers.
I know one thing for sure increasing the amount of canceling in a game decreases the possibility of the game being cancelled!
Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I will try to answer promptly!
Thanks!
p.s. God of War has some serious fun with cancels, press square once then try any of the following if you don’t believe me.
Walk (Navigation) = Post-hit frame
Jump = Pre-hit frame
Roll (Evade) = Pre-hit frame
Magic = Pre-hit frame
Throw = Pre-hit frame
Guard (Parry / Block) = Pre-hit frame
Weapon Swap = Post-hit frame
November 9, 2007
For the Record!!!
Since the news of Cory Barlog leaving Sony has spread a lot of speculation has been going around, mostly about Cory. Yet somehow a rumor has started that I have completely quit the gaming industry. I have received quite a few emails, IM’s and even a few phone calls about this but I can assure you this is FALSE.
What is true is that I left SCEA Santa Monica Studios on Oct.1st 2007. Perhaps this is where the confusion occurred. Maybe I should have been more vocal about my departure to avoid such confusion but the people that needed to know, knew and that was good enough for me.
My time at Sony allowed me the chance to work on something truly great with an amazing team comprised of talented individuals. The best thing about it was we struck gold not once but twice so I have no doubts that they will continue to succeed in the future! It was an honor to design and build Kratos for the last 4 years but I passed the blades onto a more than capable designer. His name is Jason McDonald and he will be surrounded by one of the best animation teams in the biz along with the programming might of Magnus Danielsson and Fabrice Odero. Have no fear, Kratos will return with a vengeance that has never been seen before! The rest of the team will kick ass as only they can, best of luck to you all and end it with a bang!
A new career path is in sight and it can only be described as “The smartest thing I ever do or the dumbest thing I ever do” which was the same thing I said when I moved to California to start my career in video games instead of finishing college. Now that I think about it that is so cliché. I mean all choices could be summed up as such but I like the sound of it and since history sometimes repeats itself, here’s to hoping lightning strikes twice else there is that flower shop I always dreamt about.
They say Kratos was sad “that day” but I was just as sad, here’s to you old friend…
November 4, 2007
Flash Game of the Month: October
The flash game of the month is called Yin Yang from MTV games, WTF?!? I guess they have turned to games since Britney keeps letting them down or something like that…
Anyhow the game is kind of like Lost Vikings gameplay meets Spy vs. Spy art style creating quite the enjoyable experience. The game is pretty simple at face value since the goal is to get each character to his checkered flag by switching back and forth between them to open the path to the flag. Seems simple enough until the screen starts rotating around as you keep track of the frame of reference which is based on either black or white. It was fun to discover how the two colors change the way the characters interact thereafter so give is a try but be prepared for a little frustration and some excellent “V8 moments”!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
Anyhow the game is kind of like Lost Vikings gameplay meets Spy vs. Spy art style creating quite the enjoyable experience. The game is pretty simple at face value since the goal is to get each character to his checkered flag by switching back and forth between them to open the path to the flag. Seems simple enough until the screen starts rotating around as you keep track of the frame of reference which is based on either black or white. It was fun to discover how the two colors change the way the characters interact thereafter so give is a try but be prepared for a little frustration and some excellent “V8 moments”!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
October 29, 2007
BAFTA Props!
Cory Barlog, David Jaffe, and Marianne Krawczyk brought home Best Story and Character while Tim Moss and Christer Ericson brought home Best Technical Achievement. It was an honor to work in the trenches with these stars and the rest of the peeps over at Santa Monica Studios, best of luck in the future to all of you!
If you want to see the rest of the nominees and winners click the link “BAFTA”
I was a little disappointed that we were not up for Best Gameplay being a gameplay designer but I guess there is only so much room for the God of War, maybe next time… shrug. Wii Tennis is the business according to my girlfriend and her damn super serve, the Brits agreed!
October 5, 2007
October 4, 2007
Flash Game of the Month: September
The flash game of the month is the latest in the Grow Series entitled Grow Island!
I hesitate to call this a game because it does not seem to have any real logic.Perhaps I am missing something here and there is a way to look at the elements of the system and logically deduce the order but in all honesty I believe that to be false. The game should be called "Blind Decision Tree". So why play, I mean interact with this thing at all? Well think of it as a visual reward based on trial and error, maybe you are one of those "I need to know what happens" types, or better yet it might just be a time waster... shrug. At any rate I love these little “experiences” they remind me that the journey is sometimes more important than the destination. Ok I did just say that straight faced but I had to justify my time spent on this somehow, right?
The positives are pretty simple here; the animations are terrific, clever and at times funny. The wonder of how all the elements in the system relate and react to each other have you saying “just one more try”. It is a one-button design accessible to all users which seems to be a trend these days hence me bringing it up at all. The only negatives I can see are sometimes it takes a long time for all the level up reactions to take place thus dragging out the experience. Oh yeah, I did mention the game is based on trial and error so no bitching and moaning in the comments section. As if anyone other than Christer will comment.
spoiler alert: (there are 2 correct paths)
For more Grow Games check out this amazing Wikipedia – Grow Games page for links to the past entries in this series. My personal favorite is the RPG!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
I hesitate to call this a game because it does not seem to have any real logic.Perhaps I am missing something here and there is a way to look at the elements of the system and logically deduce the order but in all honesty I believe that to be false. The game should be called "Blind Decision Tree". So why play, I mean interact with this thing at all? Well think of it as a visual reward based on trial and error, maybe you are one of those "I need to know what happens" types, or better yet it might just be a time waster... shrug. At any rate I love these little “experiences” they remind me that the journey is sometimes more important than the destination. Ok I did just say that straight faced but I had to justify my time spent on this somehow, right?
The positives are pretty simple here; the animations are terrific, clever and at times funny. The wonder of how all the elements in the system relate and react to each other have you saying “just one more try”. It is a one-button design accessible to all users which seems to be a trend these days hence me bringing it up at all. The only negatives I can see are sometimes it takes a long time for all the level up reactions to take place thus dragging out the experience. Oh yeah, I did mention the game is based on trial and error so no bitching and moaning in the comments section. As if anyone other than Christer will comment.
spoiler alert: (there are 2 correct paths)
For more Grow Games check out this amazing Wikipedia – Grow Games page for links to the past entries in this series. My personal favorite is the RPG!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
September 5, 2007
Flash Game of the Month: August
The flash game of the month is Tactical Assassin: fun, Fun, FUN!
The first thing that stood out to me when playing this game is how good the presentation is overall. It feels like Metal Gear with the ambient sound and life like sniper rifle round discharge, hell I do not even know if that is the sound a sniper rifle makes for sure but it sounds incredible. The user interface and music also have a Metal Gear vibe, especially the music that is ripped directly from MGS, which I noticed in the credits later. The stolen presentation elements brings me to an important point about this game, by stealing those elements it probably allowed the creator to elevate the core game elements to another level… this is smart design, kudos for focusing efforts on the mission briefs and assassination scenarios and lifting the rest from games that got it right already.
I know I might be the only person out there that enjoyed word problems in math class or on silly standardized tests but I LOVE THE USE OF THEM IN THIS GAME! The mission briefs are so amazing because they explain to you slowly what you need to do while telling a bit of story and setting up the mood of the hit. The briefs get you thinking and out of that guns blazing mindset most players get into when they get a virtual gun in their hands. The creator penalizes this behavior even more be allowing the player to skip the brief and just shoot blindly which almost certainly results in failure. After failing the brief is read and read thoroughly ensuring that almost all players will have the same experience at some point. The brief has some other nice design touches such as multiple objectives so the player is again taken away from the single-track mindset, again very clever and maintains the theme of the game, good job! The change of location and weapon per chapter was a nice tough plus stick figure art is awesome too!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
The first thing that stood out to me when playing this game is how good the presentation is overall. It feels like Metal Gear with the ambient sound and life like sniper rifle round discharge, hell I do not even know if that is the sound a sniper rifle makes for sure but it sounds incredible. The user interface and music also have a Metal Gear vibe, especially the music that is ripped directly from MGS, which I noticed in the credits later. The stolen presentation elements brings me to an important point about this game, by stealing those elements it probably allowed the creator to elevate the core game elements to another level… this is smart design, kudos for focusing efforts on the mission briefs and assassination scenarios and lifting the rest from games that got it right already.
I know I might be the only person out there that enjoyed word problems in math class or on silly standardized tests but I LOVE THE USE OF THEM IN THIS GAME! The mission briefs are so amazing because they explain to you slowly what you need to do while telling a bit of story and setting up the mood of the hit. The briefs get you thinking and out of that guns blazing mindset most players get into when they get a virtual gun in their hands. The creator penalizes this behavior even more be allowing the player to skip the brief and just shoot blindly which almost certainly results in failure. After failing the brief is read and read thoroughly ensuring that almost all players will have the same experience at some point. The brief has some other nice design touches such as multiple objectives so the player is again taken away from the single-track mindset, again very clever and maintains the theme of the game, good job! The change of location and weapon per chapter was a nice tough plus stick figure art is awesome too!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
August 9, 2007
G-Phoria 2007 Results!!!
Ok, we lost and more importantly Kratos lost, infinitely even more importantly Sony lost and may have to kill another goat to satiate Kratos. Cliffy B and company over at Epic destroyed us; we did not win a single award, sad day. Perhaps we will come out of this much like Al Gore did when he lost to Bush, we can release games about mother earth and how she is not happy with what is happening to her, and then we will be Heroes unlike those warmongers that brought you Gears of War! In all seriousness though, congrats to Gears and the guys/gals that put that game together, hell congrats to all the winners and remember your youth!
In other political news, I was floored when I saw a video game designer on The Colbert Report tonight. Previously I've talked about this happening and it finally did, so one small step for Ian Bogost, one giant leap for the games industry! Are we in the wobbly stage between crawling and walking, if so will Conan and Leno catch us before we fall? Jaffe clean up your language because you and fruit cake lady might be sitting next to each other in the near future or one can dream a little dream.
Check out the interview below and watch carefully as Colbert nearly swoons when he gazes upon the power of the purple tie…
Also Mr. Bogost is quite the busy man on the “internets” and his work can be found here, here, and here.
In other political news, I was floored when I saw a video game designer on The Colbert Report tonight. Previously I've talked about this happening and it finally did, so one small step for Ian Bogost, one giant leap for the games industry! Are we in the wobbly stage between crawling and walking, if so will Conan and Leno catch us before we fall? Jaffe clean up your language because you and fruit cake lady might be sitting next to each other in the near future or one can dream a little dream.
Check out the interview below and watch carefully as Colbert nearly swoons when he gazes upon the power of the purple tie…
Also Mr. Bogost is quite the busy man on the “internets” and his work can be found here, here, and here.
July 31, 2007
Flash Game of the Month: July
The game of the month comes to us courtesy of a Casual Game Design Competition. The winner was Wouter Visser's Gimme Friction Baby!
The circles obey a specific growth factor which is quite ingenious and kept me playing for much longer than I should have. The game has a certain minimalist charm with its monochrome color scheme and blocky numerics. The music was very fitting and added to the overall feeling of the game's "thinking gameplay". At first the time it takes for a shot fired to stop was annoying but after time I actually enjoyed watching its movements until completion but for most I bet it will bore them to the point of quitting.
A great example of a game that is roughly built around Newton's Laws of Motion or you can think of it as a crazy cross between breakout and billiards... either way remember to watch the circle grow because how they grow is almost the entire game.
My best was 19!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
The circles obey a specific growth factor which is quite ingenious and kept me playing for much longer than I should have. The game has a certain minimalist charm with its monochrome color scheme and blocky numerics. The music was very fitting and added to the overall feeling of the game's "thinking gameplay". At first the time it takes for a shot fired to stop was annoying but after time I actually enjoyed watching its movements until completion but for most I bet it will bore them to the point of quitting.
A great example of a game that is roughly built around Newton's Laws of Motion or you can think of it as a crazy cross between breakout and billiards... either way remember to watch the circle grow because how they grow is almost the entire game.
My best was 19!
Good Luck and Have Fun!
July 16, 2007
G-Phoria 2007 Voting!!!
Ok here is the deal, God of War 2 is up for 4 Awards this year so cast some votes for Kratos and the crew that brought him home to you, please and thank you!
The voting links are here...
Game of the Year
Best Action Game
Best Voiceover
Best Soundtrack
Seriously go vote because last time we were there Johnny Hawkins was swimming in ladies and since he broke his leg during the making of God of War 2 it's the least the fans can do... I mean look at the smile on this kid's face. Cliffy B never came into work to with a broken leg to finish building and scripting levels so vote now and get Johnny Hawkins snuggling with porn stars again, you know it's the Right Thing To Do!
The voting links are here...
Game of the Year
Best Action Game
Best Voiceover
Best Soundtrack
Seriously go vote because last time we were there Johnny Hawkins was swimming in ladies and since he broke his leg during the making of God of War 2 it's the least the fans can do... I mean look at the smile on this kid's face. Cliffy B never came into work to with a broken leg to finish building and scripting levels so vote now and get Johnny Hawkins snuggling with porn stars again, you know it's the Right Thing To Do!
July 12, 2007
A Link to my childhood...
I loved the part in A Link to the Past when you have to blow a hole in the ceiling to let the light shine down so you could unveil the fake princess, Classic Zelda moment!
It's nice to know even the mighty creators of Zelda admit making video games is not easy, very comforting when feeling a little lost after finishing an epic game...
June 25, 2007
Coins Detected in Pocket
The film just took me back to a time where I was asking for some quarters everywhere I went, it did not matter if it was Zayer’s, Gold Circle, or Dairy Mart because any establishment of any salt had some kind of video game. I mean those were the days and I was only like 6 or 7 during the bulk of the time explored in the film but I remembered it all. But while I was just teething in gaming years these guys were out destroying games, setting insane high scores, getting t-shirts made, and having groupies, YES GROUPIES as evident by the hickey on Billy Mitchell’s neck, which lead to him to become “Video Game Player of the Century”. They even had contracts that addressed groupies, true rock stars of the moment. However like all good things it came to an end which one player said began with the ability to continue games by simply putting another quarter in the machine, that just shows how HARDCORE these guys were… they did not blame home gaming consoles they blame the ability to continue your game.
As for the film as a whole, I think it was pretty good as a whole but at times it made me feel like the line of showing people lives and making fun of them was crossed, in the films defense these guys are all a bit eccentric so it was inevitable. I think one of the best parts in the movie was a small reflections montage of the players watching video tape of themselves back in the early 1980’s and seeing there reactions, this was pure genius! It was pretty amazing that the film idea stemmed from one picture taken of all the players that Life Magazine ran, which was a major thread throughout the entire film. Again it was this little bit of history that could have been forgotten but instead triggered an entire movie that in the words of Walter Day himself “Might be the first real historical film about the video games”… It was a nostalgic night filled with great conversations before and after the movie with my gaming friends that I have known, made games with, and played games with for the last decade or even longer… so if the film gets anymore dates check it out!!!
It’s a shame this little gem never had a full release since it speaks to more of my arcade generation and a bunch of my friends are in the film or made the film. Perhaps in the wake of Chasing Ghosts and the upcoming The King of Kong enough interest will merit the release of Bang the Machine. Until then here is a little slice of that film for you to get behind and maybe it can finally find a home so we can all enjoy it!
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