Game Moment #14- Wolfenstein 3D
The first videogame, that I can ever recall, that ever made me jump.

It wasn't Doom. Doom had jumps a-plenty, and I loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute of it. At least a solid majority. But before Doom made the "First Person Shooter" a genre and introduced mainstream audiences to the concept, the geeky cognizati were loving another game of first-person carnage.

Wolfenstein 3D.

If you are old enough to remember playing it, you KNOW where that jump occured, and you know exactly what I'm talking about.

It takes place at the end of the shareware episode. A quiet level. You open a door and....


"GUTEN TAG!"
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

I know of one girl who literally fell out of her chair from that one. It's now overdone and almost trite, but at the time it was quite the shocker. It was the interactive equivalent of the final scene of The Great Train Robbery, which horrified and thrilled audience with a segment of the bandit shooting RIGHT AT the audience.

Unfortunately, it's a moment frozen in time. You can't go back and experience it today. Just like you can't be thrilled by the clip of the bandit shooting his gun anymore. It was the the combination of two fairly novel technologies (first-person perspective, and voice recording) in that first-time-ever situation.

I'm sorry if you missed out on that one. It was a riot.

(Vaguely) related drivel:
* Game Moments Index
* Rules of Combat According to FPS Games
* Game Moment #13 - DOOM!

Labels: Game Moments, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:57 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Play Cute Knight on Halloween
Okay - I have pretty much no details on this, but I found this little rumor from the developer concerning Cute Knight - that playing it on certain days yields special in-game events:

"The world of Cute Knight (Kishi Kawaii) is full of hidden surprises. Certain days of the year trigger special events or hidden bonuses to various skills."

Halloween is one of those special days.

So if you are have Cute Knight, be sure and play it tomorrow! I'm kinda anxious to find it out myself.

If you don't... well, there's an easy fix to that: Download Cute Knight Here.

And Happy Halloween!

(Vaguely) related various & sundry:
* Tales from the Road: Cute Knight
* Innovation in RPGs?
* Are Hybrid RPGs just "Poor Man's" RPGs?
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:28 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Kitchen Sink Game Design and Magic: The Gathering
I sometimes go off on "kitchen sink design."I still encounter it, and I still have to fight it in my own designs. But what is Kitchen Sink Game Design?

Kitchen Sink Game Design is the mentality that if something is good, then throwing yet more stuff into it would make it better. In other words, throwing in every idea but the kitchen sink. Or maybe including said sink. It's good marketing (as it adds to the perceived value), but horrible game design.

As an example: Would Unreal Tournament 2004 be any better with twice as many weapons? Many players and wannabe-game-designers might think so. But here's the trick: How would the player access all the different weapons? Would complicating the keyboard control make it better? And how would the weapons be differentiated yet balanced? If one weapon overbalances the others in the game (like the rocket launcher did in the original Quake), wouldn't it make the other weapons effectively useless and ignored? Suddenly the game becomes about the new Disintegrator Autorifle, so instead of having twenty weapons, you really have only one. And how do you balance ammunition pick-ups in the game?

In reality, by throwing more stuff that everyone wants into the game, you've actually made it less enjoyable.

As scope increases with added features, your needed time to develop to that scope may increase at a higher rate. To keep with the FPS example, let's say you double the weapon count. Obviously, this doubles the time it takes to design, model, texture, and code each weapon and its corresponding projectiles, effects, and pickups. But the time necessary to balance each weapon against all of the others (including tweaking all of its statistics, designing pick-up placement in all the levels, etc.) is an "Order n-squared" operation. In other words, for all n weapons, they need to be balanced against (n-1) others. Off the top of my head, I think the formula is actually (n x (n -1)) / 2... since once you've compared the chaingun against the rocket launcher, you don't need to compare the rocket launcher against the chaingun.

So what this means is that scope increase has the potential to geometrically increase your development time. Looking at the scope of modern, mainstream games, is it any wonder why the average cost of developing a game has increased by an order of magnitude in the last decade?

One lesson I learned about game design came from playing Magic: The Gathering. For those of you who haven't played this game (or other CCGs, or "Collectable Card Games), this is how the game works:

You have a collection of cards. The cards all have different effects on gameplay, of varying magnitudes. However, they also have costs in game resources - how difficult they are to bring into play from your hand. For example, a really powerful dragon might cost lots of very specific kinds of "mana" (the game resource in Magic), making it almost impossible to bring out into play until late in the game. However, once it is brought out, it has a high likelihood of winning the game for you.

The decks are shuffled and drawn into your hand at random. That means that you'll almost never have the card you really need when you want it.

A common mistake of many beginners (at least in the early days of the game - I don't know if even beginners do this anymore) is to throw in as many cool cards into their decks as they can. It's the "kitchen sink" design philosophy. They don't do this for very long - experienced players clobber them easily and repeatedly. The decks that win are designed around a much tighter focus and a narrow set of strategies.

One of the early guidebooks for the game gave great design advice for creating decks. When considering a card for inclusion in your deck, the book advised, don't just consider its added value to the deck. Also consider what card you might NOT be getting because you drew that card. Sure, that awesome legendary dragon might be really cool, but how are you going to feel if you draw two of those on your initial hand, when you have no chance whatsoever of playing them anytime soon, instead of cards that you could actually USE. They are simply wasted opportunities, and allow your opponent to get a good early start against you.

I think the same lesson applies to game designers. You should not only consider added features by their added value to the game and their cost in development time, but also consider their cost in the player's attention. Do you really want them paying attention to the kitchen sink you threw into the game instead of the core features? If said player is actually a reviewer, was your half-baked multiplayer mode really worth it if they spend most of their time reviewing it rather than your stellar single-player game?

It's a tough call. Sometimes the answer really is "yes." Sometimes the dreaded "feature creep" is actually a good thing, as you come up with ideas that actually enhance the whole package. Too little scope can result in a game that's shallow and uninteresting. But you can definitely have too much of a good thing in game design. Sometimes what a good game really needs to make it better is actually the removal of a couple of really good ideas.

(Vaguely) related bits of digital spewage:
* Keeping It Simple
* Rampant Games' Game Design Articles

Labels: Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:48 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Game Moment #13 - Doom
I haven't done one of these for a while. Another Game Moment is long overdue. So for lucky number thirteen, what better game than... DOOM?



Doom was released while I was finishing up college. The Internet was still in its polonged infancy, mainly TELNET and FTP, +finger, IRC, USENET, and a few more obscure utilities. Lucky for me, I didn't have to download Doom on a crappy 9600 baud modem connection like much of the world on the eve of Doom's release. As a computer science student, I could simply go to the computer labs, and join the zillions of other students downloading the game on our high-speed university connection.

Actually, I didn't have to even do that - about every computer in the lab already had the Doom installer downloaded and residing on the hard drive. We just had to copy it onto a floppy and take it home The lab assistants even encouraged us to see if Doom was already on the machine before downloading it. They knew, they understood. They were among the first people to download the game. They were biding their time, watching the clock until the time they could go home and play it. Actually, with winter break coming, they were anxious to literally go home - without the pressure of job or school for two weeks - and just play Doom.

It is very difficult now, more than a decade later, to explain the phenomenon that was Doom to someone who missed it. In many ways, it was a watershed event:

* It was part of the transition of games to mainstream. It was a computer game, and the first episode was absolutely free. So everyone with even peripheral interest in the game had a copy and had played it. The graphics were so much better than anything before it that it was a "must-have" title. Eventually, it garnered mainstream attention, and was mentioned on TV shows, shown in movies, and often noted in mainstream press that normally wouldn't touch gaming with a ten foot pole.

* It was also shockingly "adult" in its content. Games were still considered children's toys, due in no small part to Nintendo's very focused ad campaign (Sega had gained some upper hand marketing itself as the game system for "big brother.") Unfortunately, the perception is still with us, which is why many over-the-hill politicians believe that we're trying to sell violent frag-fests to 9-year-olds. But for most GAMERS, at least, Doom was clearly an action-game oriented towards older teenagers and grown-ups.

* The phenominal graphics established the PC as a game platform of choice for many people. It was quite simply something that wasn't possible on consoles of the time (though that didn't take long to change).

* It established multiplayer gaming as where it was at. It was hardly the first multiplayer game to exist on the PC, but it was the first (and only) one to bring down entire networks at companies and universities across the world. Though that was partly because of Doom's horrible net code.

* It established the "modding" scene. Again, Doom wasn't the first, but it had the biggest modding punch. Players were able to become game designers with the download of some other user-created tools. Doom's creators, id Software, not only allowed it, but actively encouraged it, and had created a game that was flexible enough to accept new, custom content with astonishing ease.

Before most of this became a big deal, my own "moment" with Doom was a quiet one. Well, it was supposed to be quiet. Naturally, I was addicted to the game from the first moment, even playing it in a tiny window on my 386/40mhz machine. I forget which level I was on, but it was one with a tight, constructed maze in the shareware version.

My wife had already gone to bed. I was playing in the next room wearing headphones so she wouldn't get disturbed by the MIDI music and the sound of monsters going "Ruaarrrgh!" all the time. It was well after midnight in the real world.

But I was somewhere else. I was holding the shotgun, panicky, hearing growls of monsters in this twisty darkened maze, not sure where they were but expecting them around every corner. To me, this was what made Doom great - not the levels of endless demons ready to be mowed down, but the tension of being trapped in a twisty maze of halls with something that was actively hunting YOU.

I knew the demon was close. I could hear it growling nearby. My health and armor were low. I couldn't take much more, and fanged death could be just around that turn. I flew around a corner and... nothing. Nothing at all. Where else could it be?

The roar of the predator came from immediately behind me, loud and very close in my headphones. I yelped in surprise, spun around, and managed to blow it away with the shotgun before it took killed me. My health was in the low teens, the ar,mor gone, but I was still alive. I was relieved.

A few seconds later, a new presence came behind me. This time, it greeted me not with a demon's roard, but with a concerned, "What's going on?"

I took off the headphones, instinctively glancing at the clock before facing my wife, standing in her pajamas with a groggy expression on her face. It was a quarter to three in the morning.

"Huh? I was just playing Doom."

"You screamed."

"What? Oh, that. I was attacked by a demon from behind. I guess I yelped or something. It surprised me. I'm sorry I woke you up."

"I woke up to hear you screaming."

"It was more of an 'mmnngaaaaah!' sound. But I'm sorry."

"It's almost three in the morning. Come to bed. RIGHT NOW."

"Yes, dear." I may have defeated the demon, but I knew when I had just lost the battle. I didn't even bother to save the game. (Besides, next time I'd get the drop on the demon!)

She still doesn't let me live that one down. But I DID NOT SCREAM. No matter what she might tell you.

(Vaguely) related things I've written:
* Game Moments Index
* Giving Me the Creeps! I Want More!
* Game Moment #14 - Wolfenstein 3D
* F.E.A.R. Mini-Review

Labels: Game Moments, Mainstream Games, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:58 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Productivity Under Pressure
I learned a few years ago (and I think this is true of most people) that I work best under mild to moderate pressure. Too little stress, and I lose motivation. Too much stress is, of course, crippling.

Due to scheduling and milestones at work, the pressure and stress has gone up. My productivity has consequently gone up a few notches the last three weeks (my boss occasionally reads this, so now I'm gonna have to field questions as to why it wasn't there the whole time... :) ) I do think that I've been a little bit less nice to my coworkers as well, for which I apologize.

Having deadlines and milestones for which you feel accountable for is one way to add that pressure to yourself. If you work at a day job, you may have management breathing down your neck and helping you set those milestones and deadlines (and having meetings to check on progress), which may serve to increase that pressure quite nicely, thankyouverymuch. But it's got to be the right "kind" of pressure, and how much is "too much" depends upon the individual. Of course, a poor manager can turn be arbitrary and micromanaging and raise a whole bunch of the wrong kinds of pressure. You want the kinds that push you to hit your goals, not hit your manager's face.

When you are working on your own projects (I'm specifically talking about creating games here, but it applies equally to writing that novel, starting that side-business, or whatever), you don't have any external manager mandating deliverable dates and calling meetings to discuss progress. This is a good thing for most people. However, without some sort of internal milestone schedule, or without any accountability, it's easy to let things slip or drop.

Before you know it, that novel has never gotten past chapter 2. Or that really fun-sounding "quick-and-dirty" game about exploding cows that you thought would only take 4-6 months is about to enjoy its one-year anniversary of development without having gone alpha.

One solution to this "throwing your hat over the fence" to peers, something that Steve Taylor (said boss, now) suggested some time ago. The analogy is that if you throw your hat over the fence, then you are going to HAVE to climb over the fence to pick it up again. You are committed. To throw your hat over the fence, you announce what you are going to do and when you are going to do it (to interested parties who will actually pay some attention). Then you are emotionally invested in the commitment, as you'll have to embarass yourself by admitting that you failed to meet your goals when you next report on it.

I did this for Void War, with impressive results. So I proposed this at the Utah Indie Game Developer's Night last week. Mike Rubin wasn't too quick to bite, as he's sort of in hurry-up-and-wait mode for content for Vespers 3D. Mike Smith and Greg Squire seemed enthusiastic about the idea.

So Sunday night I threw my hat over the fence. In spite of the fact that I knew the upcoming week would be hellish with the day job (it hasn't been too bad, except for Monday), I set a schedule for myself for the week for my game. I set it fairly aggressively. Then I emailed Mike and Greg with the schedule, with the promise that I would follow up in one week with a report on how I did (how I met my milestones), and a new schedule for the following week.

Mike Smith reciprocated. We're committed. The hat is over the fence. Additionally, we've committed to showing substantial improvements in our games (I'm going to at least be in mid-alpha) by the next Utah Indie Game Dev night. But how you get there is by taking those small steps - hitting those milestones. So hopefully this peer-group effort will help us get there.

And Mike already knows how anxious I am to play the finished version of Caster.

(As a side note: Mike H. - been playing some of your alpha - it has much rockage potential. I tried to email you directly a couple of weeks ago in reply to your email, but it looks like your spam filters won't let me, and I was too lazy to go back to the form on your website. I promise to send you some feedback soon, though! There, I threw my hat over the fence again!)


(Vaguely) related bits of drivel:
* How to sleep less and get more done
* The Power of Vision
* Productivity Tip: The List!
* Embrace Code!

Labels: productivity

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:17 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Re - Your Brains
Okay, one more bit of Halloween goodness. A song by Jonathan Coulton called, "Re - Your Brains." Imagine that annoying Bill Lumbergh-type coworker ... now turned into a zombie. And the difference isn't that noticeable...?

Jonathan Coulton does another song I really enjoy called "Code Monkey." The songs are cheap, so if you feel like supportinga very humorous indie musician, you have an opportunity ;)
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:38 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Torque 1.5 And A Torque Wish-List
Over at GarageGames.com, Torque 1.5 is now available. It's $50 more than the original, but is available at a discount if you already own an older version of the Torque Game Engine.

I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, so I have to go by the changelist (which I think you need an account to see). But here are the key details:

* Torque Lighting Kit is now an integral part of the engine (it's about time!!)
* Torque ShowTool Pro is included (it's a valuable tool, and also past due for being included)
* Various improvements and optimization on the lighting (above and beyond TLK)
* New multithreaded profiler
* Updated the waterblock system to work with different terrain sizes (YAY!!!!) and they can now be moved in the editor again.
* Particles emitter fixes. I hope this prevents particles from dissapearing when their emitter is barely off-screen (sounds like their bounding boxes are now handled correctly, so you CAN prevent this from happening - FINALLY!)
* Engine and GUI Code brought up to current TGB level.
* An Elf character, new skyboxes, and some sample art from various content packs
* Alt-Tab fix for windows
* Fixes for client-only explosions (A YAY with contingencies... I really need to see how well they work now)
* Some long-overdue audio fixes
* Improved Axis Gizmo in the editor
* Bunch of work to bring Linux & Mac code up-to-snuff.

This is all well and good, and arguably worth the $50 price increase. (Actually, IMO, just adding the lighting pack and the ShowTool Pro was probably worth that). But here are some things I'd really like to see for a future release (hopefully not one with an increased price tag or an upgrade cost, but we'll see):

* MASSIVE improvement on the UI editor and UI elements. It's still a pain in the butt to use, and buggy when you try different resolutions. Ideally, the editor would see serious improvement to make it more of a WYSIWYG tool. Also, I'd like to see some more functionality in the actual UI elements, borrowed perhaps from TGB. I'd like to see animated screen elements - the ability to automatically cycle through texture animations, to automatically translate, rotate, and scale.

* Better documentation - to the level of what the Torque Game Builder currently offers, at least. A few "build your own game" tutorials would go really far.

* Full-on refactoring of the ShapeBase object & how it is subclassed. Making a custom subclass (in C++) of shapebase is a big ol' hairy pain in the neck!

* Good documentation of the C++ elements of Torque - especially working on things like ShapeBase subclasses, how you pass things from client to server cleanly (and optimally) over the network, synchronization issues (tick updates and interpolating between ticks), ghosting, camera control, etc.

* Release the Forest Pack! Or better yet, integrate it into Torque.

* Better handling of large interiors, and directly-linked interiors (with a portal between them).

* Vastly improved support for SINGLE-PLAYER games. Like better ways of bypassing the networking, or more automated ways of handling updates between client & server for games that take advantage of the fact that the client and server are on the same machine.

* Better / more intuitive / more powerful camera control, especially with respect to single-player games. Sort of what has been done with the advanced camera resource, but cleaned up, improved, and with true framerate independence instead of the "fudging" that's currently being done. Also with better support for animation & cutscenes, true zooming, etc.

* Support for localized fog (instead of just global fog settings) for area-based special effects.

* Built-in support for Python / LUA scripting. Just because I'm wishing. I guess I should wish for a million dollars, too, while I'm at it. It's not that I don't like TorqueScript... but it's not nearly as powerful (or as intuitive) as these languages.

Maybe some of these are already in 1.5, but it didn't seem so judging from the changelist. But hey, I can hope and dream, can't I?

Vaguely related rants and raves about Torque:
* Torque Game Engine Deal
* Torque News
* Torque Game Builder Quick-Take Review
* On Game Engines and Swarm Missiles

Labels: Torque

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:49 AM (Permalink) 8 comments links to this post

 
Trogdor Song in Guitar Hero 2
In the "No Freaking Way" department...

This is apparently legit. If not, I will cry. But the "Trogdor" song from the notorious Strongbad Email is going to be an unlockable song in Guitar Hero II.

This is even better than finding out they had a song by Spinal Tap.

This comes from the GuitarHeroGame.com forums, via a tip by Brian H. Thanks!


(Vaguely) related posts:
* Official Guitar Hero 2 Track List
* Guitar Hero 2 Wish List
* Happiness is... the Guitar Hero 2 Demo
* Misirlou Video from Guitar Hero 2
* Guitar Hero Mini-Review

Labels: Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:53 AM (Permalink) 8 comments links to this post

 
Creepiest Halloween Movies
There's only a week left of the Halloween season, but if you are looking for a movie that may send some shivers up your spine for the weekend, here are some of my favorite. These aren't necessarily the scariest movies (I think the movie that scared me the most was Aliens, when I was sixteen, but it's not on this list.). And I'm not into gore-fests or pure "shock" horror. The operative word is "creepy" - movies that give you little ripple of disturbance in your mind, let you explore a fanciful questioning of the reality of the world around you, and maybe leave you a little more afraid of the dark. Spooky, creepy movies, preferably ghost stories.

In other words, perfect Halloween fodder!

The Ring
This is on nearly EVERYONE'S list for a really scary movie. The Ring is a Western make of a Japanese film (Ringu) that is a very modern ghost story --- sort of a haunted videotape. Well, a haunted video. Anyone who watches it dies horrifically several days later. The story surrounds a single mother who discovers the truth only after witnessing the video, and is desperately seeking a way to stop the curse.

The Changeling
This is an early 80's flick that is a classic ghost story. After the death of his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, a writer gets a "change of scenery" and moves to a house which is of course haunted. At first, he's convinced that it's his wife or daughter trying to communicate with him from beyond the grave, but then discovers that it is something far older, and more vengeful.

Ghost Story
This movie features Alice Krige (the Borg Queen in Star Trek - First Contact). Four older men have a little club where they meet regularly and try to frighten each other with ghost stories. The problem is that all of them actually share a very real haunted past, a secret which is coming back to take revenge on them and their families now.

The Others
Feels like a feature-length "Twilight Zone" episode. A young woman struggles to take care of her two ill children, who have a terrible allergic reaction to bright light. With her husband off fighting in World War II, and unable to leave her children unattended, she is forced to rely upon three strangers who appear one day volunteering to be servants. Unfortunately, the three new servants don't seem to be the only new additions to the household. An awesome, spooky ghost story!

The Sixth Sense
Who HASN'T seen this one yet. "I see dead people." A child psychiatrist struggles to help a child who has the power to see the dead... all the time.

The Fog
The original John Carpenter movie. I haven't seen the remake. A hundred years ago, a small village drew a ship to wreck by setting a false lighthouse light to draw the ship into the rocks. Scavenging the gold from the wreck, the community grew into a prosperous seaside fishing town. Now, on the hundredth anniversary of the wreck, a mysterious fog rolls in, carrying the vengeful spirits of the murdered crew...

The Thing
This is another John Carpenter horror flick, and a real classic. In a remote antarctic science base, an alien life form is discovered which can perfectly mimic any other living creature it encounters - and devours. Without hope of salvation from the outside, the base's crew must not only deal with a bloodthirsty monster, but their own paranoia and distrust of who is really human.

A Nightmare On Elm Street
Okay, here's a token slasher-style horror movie. But it was scary and supernatural, and Freddy Kruger has such an attitude! An evil child-murderer, put to death by vigilante justice many years ago, comes back to haunt the dreams of the children of his killers. But who he kills in their dreams also physically dies.

The Innocents
I just saw this one over the weekend. It's a 1962 (?) black-and-white film about ghosts, creepy children, and a governess who may or may not be going insane. It's based on the Henry James story, "Turn of the Screw."

The Bair Witch Project
Brilliant independent movie project. This movie got a lot of anti-hype backlash, much of which I suspect was instigated by the mainstream movie industry. But I really enjoyed it. Taking the conceit of being spliced-together footage of a documentary on a local ghost legend, the film uses the camcorder as a non-cheesey way to achieve a first-person perspective and put the audience in the eyes of three college students who go from being confident skeptics to terrified victims. The ending was particularly sharp and shocking. Warning: Do not watch if you are prone to motion sickness, or if you are greatly offended by an almost constant stream of the "F" word. As the kids become more terrified, this becomes about the only word in their vocabulary.

It
A television mini-series based on the Steven King novel. We watched it when it originally aired, and the ending of the first episode left my wife very freaked out. Fortunately, the ending provided great closure. While the point was (according to her) made much better in the book than in the movie, the idea is that the unknown is much more frightening than the known - once the protagonists actually confront the horror that has plagued them since childhood, its ability to scare them is drastically reduced. But Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown is absolutely awesome and may give you a healthy suspicion of clowns for the rest of your life. I had no idea he could BE scary.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush
Okay, this is just a television episode. So we're stretching. But this episode, occuring early-to-mid-way through the fourth season (easily available on DVD) is perhaps the best Buffy episode ever, and has probably converted more people to watching the show than any other episode. It's experimental, in that most of the episode (about 25 minutes) is without spoken dialog. Several cadaverous visitors come to town, and steal the voice of everyone - so that nobody can scream when they proceed to harvest seven hearts.

I won't go too far into TV show / episode territory here, as several episodes of The Twilight Zone, or the new Supernatural series could probably work just fine, too.

Two non-supernatural movies that really creeped me out were Face / Off and Silence of the Lambs. But I wouldn't consider those Halloween fare, necessarily. Face / Off was supposed to be an action movie, but I was just freaked out by the premise. Strange? Maybe. And I guess just about everything with Pauly Shore in it gives me the creeps... thank goodness his decade of fame is over.

Anyway, if you've missed any of the above movies, they are worth viewing! Many of them are hard to find at the local video store, but they are all available through Netflix. (In fact, I joined Netflix mainly out of frustration at not being able to find some of these films when they were recommended to me). Enjoy!

Labels: Movies

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:07 AM (Permalink) 10 comments links to this post

 
Scorpia's New Tale: An Interview With One of Gaming's Most Popular Columnists
Scorpia was one of the most influential women in computer gaming long before people starting paying attention to that sort of thing. For sixteen years, she wrote adventure and role-playing game reviews for Computer Gaming World. Her column, "Scorpia’s Tale," was one of, if not THE, longest-running regular column in the short history of electronic gaming journalism. It was also by far one of the most popular columns in the industry.

Scorpia had a reputation not only for hard-hitting RPG and adventure reviews and witty commentary, but also for being a treasure-trove of game hints and clues for desperate players. In an era before walkthroughs for any game were available almost before a game’s release on the Internet, Scorpia was the number-one savior of stumped adventurers and dungeon-delvers. If you couldn’t figure out where the secret door was on level six, or how to vanquish the dragon on the Persian rug, Scorpia would come to your rescue.

I was thrilled to find out that Scorpia is back at it again, with a new venue: Scorpia’s Gaming Lair. Since she remains a treasure trove of knowledge and insight (and a sting!) of all things adventure and RPG, I jumped at the chance to pick her brain a little bit about Role-Playing Game and Adventure Game design, as well as lay to rest some mysteries surrounding her long-running column. And while I was at it, I was anxious to learn more about what she’s up to now.

Curious? Want to know the sordid history, the rumors and innuendo, the scandals of the game industry in the 1990s, and all the dark secrets of videogame journalism? So would I! She wouldn’t tell me that. But, as always, she was happy to provide hints, tips, and witty commentary which I think you’ll enjoy!


Background: In Ye Olde Beginning

Rampant Coyote: We both started gaming in an era where text adventures were about as “in” as any other kind of computer gaming, and an entire game with “high resolution graphics” could fit in less memory than a screenshot does today. How did you get sucked into computer gaming as a hobby?

Scorpia: Well, among other things, I went to a combined Apple II/TRS-80 computer show, and came out lusting for my own machine. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the future. I planned on learning to program the Apple (my computer of choice). So of course the first thing I did was to go out and buy about $100 worth of games. The road to perdition was a short one ;)


Rampant Coyote: Your column was certainly one of the most popular features of Computer Gaming World back in the day (at least among the geeky crowd I hung out with). How did you end up becoming the guru of the adventure / RPG genre at CGW?

Scorpia: I wouldn't call myself "the guru", or even "a guru". As to how I started at CGW, it was simple. One late winter night in early '83, Russ Sipe (then owner of CGW) called me into a private chat on CompuServe. He asked if I'd like to write for his magazine. I said yes, then I asked what mag it was. He said "Computer Gaming World" and I hadn't heard of it before. But I tracked down a store later that carried it. So it was just like in the movies, I was sitting there minding my own business, and someone says, "Hey kid, how'd you like to be in pictures?" ;)


Rampant Coyote: Your columns in CGW were billed as being distinctive and “often controversial.” I always wondered: what sort of controversies did you stir up?

Scorpia: I'd love to know that, too. Of course, not everyone agreed with my opinions, so maybe we could call that controversy. Or perhaps the controversy came from the game companies if the review wasn't favorable. Basically, I gave forthright opinions and let the bodies fall where they may ;)


Rampant Coyote: Your final column was (I think) April 1999. I guess all good things have to come to an end, but what brought the Scorpion’s Tale to its conclusion? Did it have anything to do with Johnny Wilson’s departure and George Jones taking over as editor-in-chief? Or the commonly held opinion in the late 90’s that roleplaying games, like adventure games, were “dead?”

Scorpia: Some people may have thought that adventures and RPGs were "dead", but I never thought so. Both genres did go into something of a decline, although the amazing success of Myst did revive the adventure segment for awhile. As to why I left, the mag didn't want my stuff any more. CGW had a new owner and new management, and presumably were going in a new direction.


Rampant Coyote: Well, I know for many of us, that was the first of many signs of the demise of the magazine. I personally felt like they were aggressively pursuing the lucrative market of 14-year-olds with Attention Deficit Disorder after that. So after that, then what? Have you been doing any game journalism between the end of your CGW column and the creation of your new website?

Scorpia: Yes and no. No, I haven't been writing for any other mags since leaving CGW. Yes, because I was writing for my site. See my answer below. [“What brought about Scorpia’s Gaming Lair?”]


Rampant Coyote: And to round out the background info… where did the moniker “Scorpia” come from?

Scorpia: Moniker? What a plebian term ;) From role-playing, naturally. After many years, I finally found a good use for my astrological sign. All I did was change the last letter to indicate female, although that did escape some people over the years. Heh.


On Adventures and Role-Playing Games

Rampant Coyote: There’s a commonly-held belief that adventure games as we knew them are now “dead,” at least as mainstream products. At one point it seemed that it was only text-adventures that had died, but now even the successor, the “point-and-click” adventures made famous by games like Monkey Island and Myst, seem to exist now only as part of gaming’s history and as lower-budget indie ventures. What led to the adventure game’s demise, and do you think any kind of comeback is possible (perhaps in a new form)?

Scorpia: Interest in adventures revived with Myst. Unfortunately, everyone wanted to do "another Myst", another biggie that would hook into the mainstream. That never happened.

Then the game markets turned more towards that infamous "young male demographic", featuring sports, strategy, shooters and driving games, which continues to this day. And, of course, there is the growth in various MP games online. Most game houses now belong to one or another corporate giant.

It's only the small, independent companies that can do what they want. If another adventure game should hit it big, we might see more adventure games, but likely in the Myst copy-cat mold.


Rampant Coyote: You’ve often said (with elaborate detail) that your favorite game was Ultima IV. Is this still true? Do you have any close runners-up?

Scorpia: Yep, Ultima IV is still numero uno. The runner-up position is held by the original Fallout, which surprised me by being so good as it was. However, I can't think of anything offhand for third place, which is sad.


Rampant Coyote: What makes a great adventure game?

Scorpia: First, a good story. One that draws you in and makes you want to know more about what's happening. But it has to be logically constructed, even if a horror type, such as Barrow Hill or Scratches.

Puzzles that make sense and aren't there just to pad out the game. They should fit in with the story, and each solution should advance you a little along the plotline. The player should be able to solve every puzzle without the need for trial and error; hints and clues ought to be available in-game for all of them. NO "hunt-the-pixel" stuff, where you have to scan your mouse all over the screen to find some critical object, and no “action / adventure" stuff, either.

And the game should come to a satisfactory conclusion, and not leave you wondering about anything.


Rampant Coyote: That makes perfect sense. So moving even nearer and dearer to my heart - what makes a great roleplaying game?

Scorpia: As it is for adventures, a good story. Preferably one that does not involve "killing off Ancient Evil Foozle to save the world" (you already know, Jay, how I feel about "Ancient Evil" ;).

NPCs that have some realism to them. In particular, aspects that make you care about at least some of them (not necessarily in a romantic way). Decent dialogue that doesn't look or sound like it was written by a 14-year-old with an attitude.

Balanced combat (this is much better now than it used to be in the old games). A good mix of combat and non-combat situations.

Multiple ways to resolve some of the quests. Different endings for good and evil, if the game allows evil PCs. Opportunities for true role-playing, outside the straightjacket of D&D alignment (I've never liked the alignment system).

A rewarding ending that provides a sense of accomplishment (see "The End" for more on that).

And bring back the player-created party system! See "It's My Party" for details.


Rampant Coyote: While it wasn’t extremely common even then, many of the old-school game developers were known by name to the press and to informed gamers. Names like Richard Garriott, Ron Gilbert, Tim Schaffer, David W. Bradley, Marc Blank, Jon Van Canaghem, and Bob Bates were known to many adventure / RP gamers, in spite of the fact that they also worked with larger teams to bring their visions to market. This doesn’t seem to happen much anymore. Was knowing the names and faces behind the creations a good thing? Why is this on the decline? Are players losing interest, does the press no longer care, the publishers trying to focus attention on brands rather than creators, or is it something else entirely?

Scorpia: Excellent question. I covered some of that in my "Nostalgia" piece. Anytime you create something you care about, you put something of yourself in it. In those earlier days, JVC and Lord British and the others were more in control. Others may have had a part in the product, but something from the main person came through. That doesn't happen much these days, simply because the design teams are so large; just look in any manual at the credits. In a true team effort, the contributions become diffused. So, for that reason, individual designers no longer come to the fore. The only one I can think of that still has public attention is Sid Meier.

And yes, I think it was good that designers had "name recognition", because those were all good names and people were eager for their products. Now, it does indeed go by brand.


Room With A Grue: Scorpia’s Gaming Lair

Rampant Coyote: What brought about the creation of Scorpia’s Gaming Lair (www.scorpia.com)?

Scorpia: Well, this is the third incarnation.

After I left GEnie, I started up Scorpia's Domain on the 'net. Alas, it didn't do too well, so after awhile I revamped it as Scorpzine. That wasn't very successful, either, but then both of those were subscription sites. So then I went into hibernation for awhile (a long while, actually), but I've been at this too long. So I'm back once more, this time with the Lair.


Rampant Coyote: I only heard about it myself a few weeks ago, from a comment here on Tales of the Rampant Coyote. But I’m happy to spread the word! You seem to be building up quite an enthusiastic community on the website. What are the differences between the community there now and the community in the CompuServe days?

Scorpia: Not very much. I found that my areas on CIS and GEnie attracted what you might call "hard core gamers", who were intelligent, literate, and cared about the quality of the games they played. As you probably noticed from the comments, many of the Lair members go back to the early days of gaming. At the same time, they also play some of the new ones. Overall, I'd say that the ones coming to the site now (whether they post or not) are the type of people I've always written for, and I just wish I had more of them.


Rampant Coyote: So what are your goals goals with the new website? How do you see it in, say, two years?

Scorpia: To write honest reviews and articles of interest, make money (I should have put that first ;), and keep busy. As for two years from now, thanks, but I'm taking it one day at time right now.


Parting Shots (With Crossbows)

Rampant Coyote: So if you had the chance to give some Adventure / Roleplaying game developers out there any advice for appealing to the “Scorpia Market,” what would it be?

Scorpia: Make games that have fun, wit, and charm. Forget the eye candy. A game doesn't need cutting-edge, must-have-a-desk-top-Cray graphics to be good. Pretty pictures are nice, but gameplay should not take a back seat to the visuals. Play some of the great older games, and analyze what makes them great. For the rest, see my answers above. [Ed: “What makes a great adventure game” and “What makes a great roleplaying game.”]


Rampant Coyote: What does the future of computer roleplaying games hold? Are we going to be stuck with Diablo clones from the mainstream market from here on out?

Scorpia: I certainly hope not! There will, of course, be some of those clones, which is not altogether a bad thing, if the games are done well. But such are not true RPGs. At the moment, it seems the D&D franchise, and Bethesda, are the only ones doing traditional RPGs (and Bethesda certainly messed up with the combat in Oblivion), though I hear Bioware has something in the works. However, it's not likely there will be as many in the future as there were in times past. Development takes much longer now, and there is an emphasis on allowing for online play.


Rampant Coyote: Anything you wished I would have asked? Or any other comments you’d like to make?

Scorpia: Nope, I've said (or typed) enough.


Thank you, Scorpia, not only for subjecting yourself to my nosy questions, but for not sending Fred the half-grue bouncer to break my kneecaps or anything else... unseemly. And I'm sharing this with everyone publicly now, so that if I mysteriously dissapear the next time I enter a dark area, well... people will know!

But seriously... thank you! And good luck with Scorpia's Gaming Lair! It's already become one of my favorite gaming sites, and I'd like to encourage folks to go check it out!


(Vaguely) related stories:
* R.I.P. Computer Gaming World
* Grown-Ups Like Videogames, Too
* Aveyond!
* Interview with Mike Rubin about Vespers 3D: An Experimentin 3D Interactive Fiction
* How to Get Me to Buy Your Indie RPG
* The Most Important CRPGs of All Time
* Great Game Moments

Labels: Adventure Games, Interviews, Mainstream Games, retro, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:37 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Are Hybrid RPGs Just Poor-Man's RPGs?
The core elements of a computer roleplaying game are pretty simple and straightforward. You basically have a task resolution system for an individual unit based on its statistics. Mix this with the ability to modify those stats through circumstances, equipment, spells, level increase or whatever.

Boom. There's your recipe for a game with "RPG Elements." You now have the right to add a " /RPG" to the end of your genre of choice of your game, and thousands of RPG afficianados, starved for the rare RPG release, will flock to your product in droves. Or so you hope.

Actually, in the old days, that was about all that there was to RPGs. I mean, take the original Wizardry. You had some triggered events and some funky tricks played on you by the map. But for the most part, you wandered about a map beating up on lesser challenges until you managed to make your way to Werdna and defeated him. That's about it for story. Enjoy!

Modern computer RPGs tend to be a bit more complex than this. By "a bit" I mean, "orders of insane magnitude." You've got dialog trees, quest systems, and an overall storyline to maintain. Not to mention the fact that most RPGs are exploratory in nature, which means TONS of content requirements for the player to chew through. And we won't go into the optional complexities of artificial intelligence, class balance, item upgrades, spell systems, and the like.

The hybrid RPG neatly sidesteps these issues. For examples, take a look at three hybrid RPGs available at Rampant Games: Styrateg (strategy / RPG ), Empires and Dungeons ( strategy / RPG, though I want to call it boardgame / RPG ), and Cute Knight (sort of an RPG / Sim ). Cute Knight is definitely closer to being a traditional RPG, but it's still vastly simplified from a storyline or quest perspective than, say, Aveyond - which is a full-blown traditional console-style RPG (with some rather untraditional design decisions).

Hybrid RPG can emphasize some other element of gameplay that are FAR less development-intensive than pure roleplaying games. Thus they are cheaper and easier to make.
Does this make them the "poor-man's RPG?" Meaning a poor / inexpensive substitution for the real thing?

I can make a couple of arguments both ways against this assertion:

Con:
* Early Roleplaying Games were closer to the hybrid designs than to modern CRPGs, anyway. This includes early CRPGs *AND* the original pen-and-paper games that were "like wargames, only better." I'd argue Styrateg probably has more in common with early pen-and-paper RPGs than more "pure" CRPGs out today.

* The press tends to praise mainstream CRPGs for having more "roleplaying" when they have three or four multiple endings and branching. Cute Knight has over 50 endings. That's more "roleplaying" opportunity than any ten mainstream games combined! Well, okay, not exactly, due to the relative brevity of the paths getting there, but still...

Pro:
* A game like Empires & Dungeons is clearly more of a "beer & pretzels" game. If you are going for a deep, detailed roleplaying experience, it is clearly the wrong game. The roleplaying aspects of the game are fairly peripheral.

* While the deep NPC dialogs and quest systems and heavy story elements may have been more of a modern invention in CRPGs, players are used to it, and that's part of what they crave when they think "RPG."

The Verdict Is?
Maybe.

I really do like many hybrid RPGs, and many times they are quite capable of scratching the "RPG itch." I do not like the narrowing the definition of a roleplaying game to only include titles that include the full suite of very specific features. I'm all for stretching definitions and going outside the box. I don't want to imply that hybrid RPGs are in any way inferior - just different. And different can be a lot of fun.

But there is a pretty huge gulf between the depth that you get from a modern (even indie) RPG and most hybrids. There's a lot more to these games than a task resolution system and the ability to go up levels or upgrade equipment. There's a big difference in player experience, and I'm a little bit wary of putting them in the same category.

It's a tough call. What do you think?

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:49 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Grown-Ups Like Video Games, Too!
FileFront now has an archive of many issues of Computer Gaming World in PDF Format. Going back over some of the older issues (some of which I never read), I am reminded of why I loved this magazine. And how much it deteriorated in the last decade (though, as I have said before, it had been improving somewhat under Jeff Green's management over the last couple of years).

Here's an excerpt from April, 1994 - a preview of the (never-released vaporware) computer game version of the pen-and-paper RPG "Champions" (one of my favorites):

Yet, the contrapuntal harmony to this bestowment of power is the sense of responsibility inherent in the superhero's creed and the awesome struggle with the misuse of power by the supervillain. In a real sense, the comic book mythos is an acculturating influence that teaches the young male that raw power is not a solution to the challenges of life. Rather, it is the creative use of that power that provides the real victories in life. In later life, the comic mythos is a reaffirmation of this lesson to those who, at least temporarily, may feel powerless and disenfranchised. It is a reassuring reminder that victory is possible to those who are creative and flexible upon facing the vicissitudes of life.

What this means is, "Superheroes are fun!"

So they mock their own pedanticism and use of ten-dollar-words, but that still didn't stop them from sprinkling their articles with quotes by philosophers and historians, or using language that was a bit above the 5th-grade level used by most modern gaming rags. Take, for example, the opening to the preview of Ultima VI:

The late 19th Century American lawyer-politician, Thomas B. Reed, is reputed to have said, "One, with God, is always a majority, but many a martyr has been burned at the stake while the votes were being counted." Such an acerbic warning against the assumption that having a conception of Virtue and Right is equivalent to a mandate to search out and destroy other ideas seems to be a vital part of what the second Ultima trilogy is about.

Now both of these uncredited articles might have been the product of Johnny Wilson, who's eduction included studies of English Literature, Drama, and the Old Testiment. But he set much of the tone for the whole magazine. As did Russell Sipe, before him. They didn't talk down to readers. They assumed readers were educated adults who were interested not just in what were the coolest, most overhyped games to buy, but also in the whole hobby of Computer Gaming.

In fact, Sipe attributed this attitude to the success of the magazine following the collapse of the videogame industry in the mid 1980's, in his retrospective in this month's issue (the very last issue of Computer Gaming World, before it changes it's name to Games For Windows):

"Then came the videogame crash of 1984. It took down the majority of the computer-game magazines with it. By the winter of 1984, only a few such magazines remained - and by summer 1985, CGW was the only four-color computer game magazine left.

"The manufacturers who survived the crash and prospered during that time were those companies that, for the most part, targeted an older age group (especially those who were interested in strategy and adventure games as opposed to arcade action games). Fortunately for CGW, our readership has always been dominated by the adult strategy/adventure gamer; an audience that was not only interested in the games themselves, but also in the personalities that designed the games and the companies that manufactured them."

Bingo. Now I don't think of myself as a snob, but I don't like reading reviews that seem oriented towards 14-year-olds, either. I don't think I enjoyed them at age 14, come to think of it. I like the idea of having discussions about games, like we might about books or movies. I like talking about experiences playing games, the "Great Game Moments." I like the idea that computer games can actually spur discussion of politics, or even philosophy.

And I don't think I'm alone. According to the ESA, the average game player is 33 years old. There are (precious few) websites that seem to have taken this to heart (GamerDad and The Escapist come to mind). But so much marketing, press, and of course political vitriole is being focused on this idea that the majority of game players are minors, or at least stuck in Mom's basement long after they should have been kicked out to join the real world.

Somehow we gamers grew up, but the perceptions of the mainstream media and marketers never did.

It seems like this is changing, gradually, the way change usually happens. Hurrah for casual games causing more and more women age 40+ to become gamers, and perhaps accelerating the acceptance of the concept. Every so often, I see an article or a bit of advertising that seems to be waking up to the idea that the average gamer is not only not a child, but is old enough to have children of his or her own. But they still treat it as a novel idea.

I think it's amusing that Computer Gaming World was making that assumption twenty years ago, when the "average" gamer was only 19 or so.

Labels: casual games, Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:24 PM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
No Excuse for IT Ignorance
I've worked at more than one place now (never a game company) where a company executive told the I.T. department that they have no clue what I.T. does. But they always added that they knew it was important to the company. IT was a mystery to them - a magical black box - and while they spoke admiringly of the technical expertise of their employees, hinting that it was somehow BEYOND their comprehension - they still seemed happy to remain aloof from all this.

There's one company that shall remain nameless that was completely taken advantage of by an IT director that they hired who told them what they wanted to hear, right up until the point where he could not disguise the misdirection of the IT department any longer. What's worse, this IT director replaced another one who was (in my opinion, at least) very competent. I don't know all of the reasons for the sudden re-assignment of the first IT director, but I'm sure a major factor was the fact that he was a straight-shooter who would tell them "no." Or, "it can't be done." The executive officer's hated that. So they replaced him with a yes-man who effectively stalled all IT development for a year.

It's not a unique story - all it takes is a bit of browsing through the stories in The Daily WTF to hear a common refrain. A company executive trusts an IT director to manage things properly, and fail to recognize incompetence. Because IT is all some magical "black box" to them.

Bragging About Ignorance
What's very scary is that I hear that the executive leadership of the aforementioned company is still meeting with the I.T. department after subjecting them to insane hours to meet their demands and explaining, "I don't know anything at all about what you do..." Maybe they are just using it as an excuse, as a way of saying, "I had no idea it would be so hard for you to design, build, test, and launch a major new product with only a six-week deadline, in spite of the fact Marketing's known about this for months... We just didn't think it would be a big deal."

Now, this isn't unique to IT. Marketing is sometimes treated the same way, though most C-level company officers either come from at least a peripherally marketing background or have had some amount of marketing training as part of their education. But it does seem to me to be almost a matter of pride for some executives to claim an ignorance of all things Information Technology. Like they don't want to get their hands dirty. Or maybe it's some kind of caste-system thing they are subconsciously trying to reinforce.

Complete Ignorance Is Laziness
We live in a day and age where we have so much information available to us that the difficulty isn't in acquiring it so much as sorting through it all to find what we really want. There are "For Dummies" and "For Idiots" books out there on about every conceivable subject. There's even a "Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies" book out there! Personally, I have started listening to audio books during my commute each day, and about half of what I listen to now are non-fiction books about such things as marketing, investing, and business development. I've been reading up on art and drawing, and trying to get in some practice sketching when I can.

This is stuff I never thought I'd WANT to know about when I was starting my career as a videogame programmer! Stuff I was somewhat proud to be ignorant of! After all, all marketing people are weasels!

But the key difference was that I wasn't in a position of responsibility over people taking on these jobs, either.

Knowledge Is More Than Just Power
Now, I truly doubt that I'm ever going to excel in any of these skills. I am too focused on programming and game design. But I do have to deal with marketing people and artists in my self-appointed job as the founder of a small (Tiny? Insignificant? Microscopic?) videogame company. I have to deal with managing projects, and running a business. I don't feel I can afford to be totally ignorant of these topics anymore. I have to do some of these jobs myself to some degree or another, and I have to be able to communicate with people and understand what it is I'm asking them to do.

And, if someone who may be very good at their job tells me "no," or "it can't be done," I'd like to know enough about what it is that they do that I may be able to come up with alternatives - ask them the RIGHT questions - so I can take advantage of their skill and talent. I have no interest in surrounding myself with people who will only tell me what I want to hear, and then fail to deliver on promises.

One other thing that I have discovered is that my appreciation of the skills in people in these formerly-magical disciplines has actually INCREASED as I have learned more about what it is that they do. And I certainly hope that I'm learning enough to help me spot the bozos.

Ignorance Is Bliss?
Why can't a company executive take this same approach with IT? Is it fear? Are they afraid that they will no longer be allowed to ask for miracles when they begin to understand the true limitations of information systems technology? Is ignorance truly such bliss?

Only for the fearful. Yeah, there are a lot of tasks that are pretty daunting once you understand them. However, I'd have much more trust for a leader who knows the challenges and decides to tackle them anyway than a leader who simply throws around marching orders out of cluelessness.

Other Applications
Now, while this has mainly been a rant against managers who voluntarily remain ignorant of IT in spite of having a responsibility over it. But there are many other applications. How many times in your life are you required to work with or rely upon someone with specialized knowledge that you don't possess? Doctors, lawyers, building contractors, auto mechanics, whatever. What are the consequences if your reliance is misplaced? Is it worth it to remain in ignorance?

While there's no way you can approach their level of training without a similar investment in time, it's usually pretty easy to do some basic research on your own to double-check their advice. I've found that professionals - at least the good ones - really don't mind you doing that. In fact, they value it - it will often validate their opinion or at least ease communication.

It's usually only the incompetent ones who value your ignorance.

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:56 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Utah Indie Developer Night, Fall 2006
The Utah Indie Game Developers met again on Thursday night, October 19th. It was more games, more pizza, and more PEOPLE than ever. Greg's last count was 39, but we may have missed a couple of folks. Alas, there were a lot of people from previous meetings who didn't make it this time, and I missed seeing them this time. But there were many new and familiar faces, and it was good to spend time chatting with as many of them as I could.

ITT Tech Students
Once again, we had a lot of students from ITT Tech who were in the multimedia or game design programs. One thing I have to admit that these "game development trade schools" are doing right is focusing on COMPLETED projects. Working on small or large game projects, I've found that game development often runs into the same hurdles every single time. The larger the scope and scale of the project, the larger the hurdles, but they are usually overcome by exactly the same methods. I think completing small games with 9-week dev schedules really does train people to tackle much larger games.

So it was awesome to see them and see some of the projects they were working on. I saw a couple of unnamed projects - one was an old-school style RPG which had only been in development for a couple of days, and the other was a side-scroller action game where you play a dragon burning (burninating?) peasants and trees. Good stuff!

Frogs and Furniture
Some of the Headgate guys had a game (using the Flat Red Ball game engine?) in early development about moving furniture. What's so fun about that? Well, you are supposed to be a very short-handed moving company, so you have to use wild, Rube-Goldbergesque tools to somehow transport the funiture from the moving truck to the front door of the house. For the most part, all they had was a giant rubber-band type thing that was flinging couches and chairs around in very amusing ways, so it looked like a good start.

Ken Grant had a game that people just called, "The Frog Game." I don't know if it has a real name, but it's about... frog racing. Across Lilly pads. In 3D. With lots of dangers and tricks and the ability to squish other frogs by jumping on them (or the chance to get squished yourself).

Casters, Monks, and Boss Demons
Mike Smith, of Elecorn.com, was once again showing Caster. The game is looking better each time he shows it. This time, we got to see how the player can move the terrain as part of gameplay, creating land-bridges to cross terrain, or escaping monsters by growing the terrain under your feet. We also got to see the giant scorpion boss monster. This is extremely cool. I told him he MUST finish this game soon, because I want to do more battling against giant boss-monsters.

Mike Rubin was there with Vespers 3D. I couldn't see how much had changed - the game still looks absolutely beautiful. The candle flame was flickering now, and the game has a cool cinematic introduction. It looked like more of the terrain surrounding the abbey was filled in. I REALLY can't wait for this game, either. Unfortunately, Mike is really hurting for art content right now. (Oh, and Mike - if you are reading ths, Cubix Studio might be able to handle the character stuff.... I don't know why I didn't think about this while talking to you).

The Flowers brothers were there (representing Mythyn Interactive) were there showing off LinkRealms. This is another game that's REALLY looking sharp and near-complete. I watched over Herb's shoulder as he took on a boss demon (was it a demon?) with other players in the game, and it was beautiful. Fire rained from the sky as deadly spells pelted the demon, and it looked like a lot of fun. Herb later said that most of the "hack and slash" type elements were in the game already, but they were really trying to add more content for non-combat gameplay.

As you can tell from the accompanying screenshots, these games are looking pretty dang good. I think they will represent the indies quite well when they are complete. Go Utah Indies!

Other Fun Stuff
This time we had a woman circulating amongst the ranks - which caused some to pause in their explaining of what engine was powering what game and so forth. But that wasn't nearly as big a deal as the discovery that she's actually a freelance GAME REVIEWER. That caused some jaws to drop and the occasional mad scramble to find out what kinds of games she liked.

Another tidbit I picked up was that the long standing demo-scene event, Pilgrimage, looks to be over. Some of those involved would like to fill it's void with a similar event dedicated to indie gaming and indie game development. Game-in-a-day competitions, LAN party gaming, etc. If this gets off the ground, it could be a lot of fun.

As always, this was an exciting event, and I got the chance to meet a lot of cool people with a passion for game development. I was really looking forward to this all month, and it didn't dissapoint. I am already excited about the next one, which should be in January.

And Steve Taylor told me I have to "throw my hat over the fence" and commit to showing Apocalypse Cow next time. So I'm committing now. I'm going to be "udderly" humiliated if I'm not showing my game then. (Actually, I was TRYING to get it ready to show for this week, honest.... just didn't quite get there.)
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:02 AM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
Name That Game #2
No prizes this time (except for bragging rights), just a challenge for you to NAME THAT GAME!

This one feels like a softball, but maybe I'll be surprised. You need to name the game AND the name of the company that developed it.

Hint: This is a PC game. And this screenshot is taken from a point pretty early in the game.


Let's see who is a gamer geek of truly historic proportions. If you don't know, the answer may surprise you.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Martin Richard Strikes again, and came up with the answer via Google-fu. I guess I really shoulda blurred out the proper names in the screenshot, huh?

The game is "Journey", subtitled "The Quest Begins," by none other than Infocom, previously known for doing text-only adventures (and having an ad campaign at one point bragging about how they stuck their graphics where the sun doesn't shine - meaning inside your head).

The game was by noted Infocom designer Marc Blank, and it really did resemble something of an "interactive novel" (or the popular term today, "Interactive Fiction"). The game's prose was in past-tense, a very rare and interesting approach.
And it was sorta-kinda RPGish, though I really felt it was more of an adventure game.

I've been INTENDING to get around to finishing it for over 15 years now.
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:44 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
In-Game Advertising: Trend or Fad?
Dave Perry (formerly of Shiny Entertainment) has announced a Massively-Multiplayer Online games where power-leveling is accomplished by exposing yourself to marketing messages. Battlefield: 2142 (which I will NOT be buying) will be filled with in-game advertising, so you can find out about Nike shoes while you are battling battle-war-mech-bots or whatever. Play a free flash game on Popcap.com, and you will have to see a short advertisement before being allowed to play the game.

We live in an age and society where advertising is practically everywhere. It has invaded almost every medium. Cable TV once billed itself as "ad-free television," but that didn't last too long. Are games merely the next notch on the side of the advertising juggernaut? Or is this simply an inevitable experiment doomed to failure because game-playing is a fundamentally different experience from that of more passive media, and gamers won't stand for it?

I'm not a foe of advertising. As a consumer, I do like knowing about what products are available. I have subscribed to gaming magazines which focus most of their non-advertising space to let me know what's coming, and what's worth buying. And I wasn't bugged by the fact that 50% of the magazine I paid for was filled with ads. My wife looks forward to seeing the previews when going to a movie (sometimes the previews are better than the movie we paid to see). And I enjoy getting "free" stuff (like playing free games at Popcap, or listening to the radio) realizing that it's advertising-sponsored. I'm okay with all that.

And as a maker and seller of games, I'm all for advertising. I have some ads placed on this blog to help pay for bandwidth (I can't say how much I make on them, but let's just say a 12-year-old could do better by babysitting...) The free game downloads are, of course, a form of advertising the full versions. And I do plug the products available at RampantGames.com from time to time. Although I also plug other games & tools, too... just because I'm that way. If I find something I like, I like to tell people about it in case they'll like it, too.

But being subjected to advertising while you are playing a game? Is it good or bad? Will it last? Will gamers stand for it? Will they have a choice?

The Good
I think most gamers are not opposed to in-game advertising if they can readily perceive the value they are getting from it. Especially if they are getting to play the game for free.

In our Jet Moto and Snowmobile Racing games, we actively sought out real-world sponsors not just for cross-promotional value, but also to give the games some credibility and ground them in the real-world. It was a weird situation - because advertising is so pervasive in our culture, the racing game felt like it was MISSING if there wasn't advertising for sponsors placed all over the tracks. I don't think money ever changed hands, though I did get a free Butterfinger candybar out of the deal. And Butterfinger candybars ran a little promotion on the side of the wrapper promoting our videogame. That was cool.

In the case of downloadable games, I don't get too annoyed seeing a splash-screen advertising the full version or other games available from the same site. I expect it. Just like I don't dislike previews of coming movies when I go to a movie theater. In fact, we often look forward to it. It's not been unheard of for some (weird) people to go to a movie just to see the new preview of a highly anticipated film (sometimes leaving after the previews, as happened with the previews of the second Star Wars trilogy).

The Bad
I think consumer tolerance will only go so far, if given a choice in the matter. And one thing technology has provided us is PLENTY of choice.

For one thing, gamers MAY balk at being subjected to ads that detract from the immersive experience that makes many games so popular. If I'm walking down a dungeon corridor and encounter a troll carrying a bag of Doritos and wearing Adidas sneakers, I'm not going to be very pleased with the game (unless the game is SUPPOSED to be funny). But if I'm playing a sports game or a modern-day