History of Zork
I guess everyone else in the known universe has already posted this by now, but it is too cool to let it go without mentioning it:

The History of Zork

This article is by Matt Barton, the same guy who did the very-very cool History of Computer Role-Playing Games earlier this year. Matt also has the full text of the interviews he conducted with various notable persons in the article, including Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, and Steve Meretzky.

History of Zork: Full Interviews

Dang this is cool. Matt, I'm a fan. :)

Rubes (Mike Rubin) brought up the discussion in this forum post, turning the discussion of "Why RPGs Suck Now" into a little bit of a remembrance of great adventure games of the past... :) (And people who committed the text to memory...)

What is interesting to me is just how this "History of Zork" (much like the History of CRPGs articles) has caught the attention of various sites in the last 48 hours. Maybe this was simply an effect of making the coveted Slashdot list... or maybe the causaility is reversed. I just think it's interesting that a nearly 30-year-old game in a "dead" genre is getting such attention. Matt's excellent writing doesn't hurt, of course. Is it purely nostalgia? A sense of loss of a cool bygone era? A morbid fascination with the birth and death of one the game industry's first legendary companies?

(Tip o' the hat to GameSetWatch for the update...)


(Vaguely) related less-adventurous text:
* A Twisty Little Maze of Passages, All Different
* Indie Interview: Mike Rubin, Creator of Vespers 3D
* How Do I Get Past The Harpies?
.

Labels: Adventure Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:27 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Building a Virtual World on a Budget
To those low-budget, indie game developers busy making massively multi-player games (especially MMORPGs), I salute you!

As an old-school MUD / MUSH player and developer (though not NEARLY as old-school as these guys), I entertained the thought myself for a a few months after exiting the games biz back in 2000. In fact, the engine that became Void War was originally for a Massively Multi-player RPG - albeit for a much smaller-scale one that I envisioned as more of a super-MUD than a mini-EverQuest at the time.

A cooler head prevailed, and I backed off that project.

But there are several nutcases out there who are still chasing passion instead of reason, and I think the gaming world is richer for them.

Eric "Malevolent" Rhea has a great write-up on the challenges and pitfalls of indie MMORPG development based on his painfully current experiences developing Wraith: The Iron Horse, a 3D MMORPG (being developed in Torque, I note...), which has just hit their Beta milestone.

I wish 'em the best of luck!

Labels: Indie Evangelism, programming

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:01 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
If Only My Math Teacher Could See Me Now
I don't remember what grade I was in when I first learned about things like points, lines, and rays. It might have been third grade. I remember seeing rays represented as arrows made out of pieces of yarn in the textbook. I remember anticipating the lesson because we were going to learn about RAYS.

Like... laser rays? Ray guns?

While those sci-fi weapons were named after behavior that approximated that of a mathematical ray, I was too young to have a clue. When we learned about rays, the word that came to my mind was:

"Huh?"

Something which has an origin - a point - but no width, no length, only a direction? It goes out to infinity? What kind of useless made-up bull-hockey is this? Why are we learning this? What POSSIBLE use could this ever have in my life?

Little did I realize just how much use it would be. Even in ordinary business application programming, some of this stuff comes in handy (particularly if you are doing any GUI programming). But as a game programmer? I live in a world of rays, vectors, lines, line segments, normals, dot products, cross products, sines, cosines, arctangents, the Pythagorean theorem, matrix transformations, and quaternions.

Can the AI see the hero? Do a vector subtract of the AI's point to the hero's point. Measure its length using the Pythagorean theorum. Is it within visible range? If so, turn it into a ray using the AI's start location, and normalize that line segment by dividing it by its just-calculated length. Now use a ray test against the environment. If no collision occurs, or if the collision distance (calculated using good ol' Pythagoras's trick) is further away than the original range, then the AI can see the hero.

(Oh, yeah, and the old game programmer's trick... don't find the square root in the Pythagorean theorum if you are just comparing distances --- compare the squares. You don't need to perform the costly square root operation until you absolutely need to know the exact distance... such as when you are normalizing the vector).

You never know when this stuff could come in handy.

So there's something to tell your kids when they complain about their math class.


(Vaguely) related randomness:
* Losing Your Limits Without Losing Your Mind
* On Game Engines and Swarm Missiles
* My Worst Bug Ever (that ray can bite you if you aren't careful...)
* Jet Moto Memories
.

Labels: programming

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights Dev Diary: Beating Up Is Hard To Do
You know, if it weren't for the UI work and art content, this game would be done already.

But then what would be the point, right?

The last couple of weeks, I've been focusing on combat. I had the combat interface mocked up before (and let me tell you, what I got ain't gonna make it to final release! Funny how actually using it reveals useability issues), but now I've been pulling together all these little elements together into something resembling a cohesive whole.

Torque Fun
But the programming side hasn't been a snap, either. I can tell I've really gotten used to more structured languages like C++... using TorqueScript on a big project can be... interesting. I can't rely on IntelliSense or a .h file to help me out. When dealing with code I haven't recently worked on, I find myself having to hunt through comments and code across multiple files just to make certain I'm setting the RIGHT "hitpoint" field.

Incidentally, some of the fun I've been having getting Torque & TorqueScript to run "correctly" have been documented in this thread in the forums. I invite anyone else interested to post their own lessons learned - obscure is fine. I've found that the GG community is great for answering some of the basic, frustrating questions that you have as a newbie. The questions I tend to have these days involve doing stuff that nobody else knows off the top of their head, and nobody else is going to dig around in Torque's source code to find out for you.

Building the Rule System
As mentioned in a previous post, I've had a lot of basic foundation stuff to build in order to get some otherwise simple-looking things working. Black triangle stuff. For the last two weeks, it's been putting in the core character systems in order to get melee combat working.

For example - just from a rules perspective - to make a melee attack the game chooses a random number between 1 and your "attack" rating. It then picks a number between 1 and the defender's "defense" rating. Higher number wins, ties go to the attacker. If the attack roll is 5x higher than the defense roll, then the attack is a critical hit, and does 1.5x normal damage. Then damage gets applied.

Sounds like maybe ten minutes of coding, right?

Calculating Ratings
Well, except how do I get an attack rating? Oh, the base is calculated from the character's base stats, class, and level. Gotta implement all that. And then any item equipped may include a bonus or penalty. Gotta make sure the equipment system is working - at least on that level. Check through the player's equipped items for adjustments, see whether or not they apply. And then I have to check through spell or other effects that may currently be active on the character for further adjustments. So I have to write that system and make sure it works.

So now - in theory - the player characters can level up, equip and unequip items (with bonuses), and have spells cast on them with lasting effects.

For the defense rating, there's the special condition if they are using a shield --- in which case their block skill gives them an additional bonus to Defense.

For damage, I need to also check for armor. Armor subtracts a value between 1 and it's armor rating from the damage applied by the weapon. And then there's armor-piercing weapons, which subtract their armor-piercing rating directly from the armor rating BEFORE it is rolled against the weapon damage.

Other Considerations
With all that in place, it's now possible for one person to attack another person and do damage to them. Oh, but what if they are too far away? If Chloe, armed with a dagger in the back rank of the player's party, tries to attack a weed-goblin caster who's 2 ranks deep in a group of attacking monsters, it's not gonna happen. The front-line goblins aren't just going to let her walk past them to stab the dude in the face. So I put in checks for party rank (position) and weapon length / range. All that has to be reflected in the UI, too, so the player can see why Chloe can't stab the rear-rank goblin caster in the face.

And then there's endurance usage for making attacks. How much endurance should swinging a sword use? I've got a formula written down, based on your relative strength based upon the strength rating of the weapon, but will it work in practice?

And I need to check to see if the character has enough endurance to take the action BEFORE letting the player (or AI) choose it --- and all THAT has to be reflected in the UI. (Actually, I've skipped that part for now... but it needs to go in there).

Next, timing calculations. How much time does swinging a sword take, compared to swinging a dagger? While Frayed Knights is "turn-based," it's not a simple, straightforward I-Go-You-Go system. There's some nice, complex, crunchy timing calculations that take place in the background that determines in what order everybody goes. So all that has to go in there (fortunately, the core system was already in place with the prototype).

Then there's AI. Right now, the AI is really stupid. It's easy to program stupid. The AI chooses someone at random that they are allowed to attack, and they attack.

And then there's detecting the end-of-combat conditions. When everyone on one side is defeated or fled (not implemented yet), the combat has to end. Players get really annoyed otherwise.

Testing and Cursing - Some Internal Monolog
Crud, I need to define what the real character stats for the Frayed Knights at 3rd level (they skip 1st and 2nd)!
- I build those up. I create a "Newgame.cs" file and functions for handling a new game, creating the startup characters, putting them in the right location, etc.

Aw, man! They all have the same stats! What's going on here?
- Little "oops" inside of a double-loop, using the outer-loop variable instead of the inner-loop variable when assigning the stats from the "new game" data.

Great. Now I need to come up with the real stats for a pus golem. What should a pus golem's stats look like?
- No, I don't have all these creatures statted out on paper, yet. The design doc describes 'em but doesn't stat 'em. As I haven't playtested these rules yet, I don't really know what would make an appropriate challenge or anything yet. I make stuff up, based on some guidelines from the design document. The pus golem is a 1st level character of the "monster" class... so I'll start there. Eventually I'm going to have cool templates & stuff that can be applied to really mix things up... but the raw pus golem will probably be unchanged.

Now How am I supposed to know the stats for any other monster? I need a generic "monster database" system to pull in this information.
- Time to implement a more generic system of pulling up a pus golem's stats. Or any other monster. To be honest, this is only half-implemented, but the function calls are working. But this needs to be a nice, clean, data-driven, expandable system.

Okay, now I need to have monsters appear in groups. With their real visuals...
- Yes, when I stubbed out the prototype, I just threw in a skeleton visual to stand in for any number and any kind of monster. I'm still stuck with just a skeleton (and an elf, and Kork the Torque Orc) for monster visuals right now, but they need to be based on the type of monster being encountered, positioned CORRECTLY - and in formations based upon their number and "rank" (depth in the group) relative to the player...

Where did my monster visual go? He's under the floor? How'd he get THERE?!?!?
- The usual bugs abound. In this case, I was accidentally dropping the "Z" value in some calculated positions based on the player's offset (because I was comparing only the X,Y coordinates with that of the player), so "Z" was getting set to zero, which was below the surface of the ground. And the monster would just keep falling, every frame...

Why am I passing an empty string on the combat range? That's not right.
- Oops. Somehow the "rank" variable in the party wasn't always being set.

Crud. I forgot to arm my heroes and monsters. They are fighting with harsh language or something.
- I found that the attacks were being skipped every time because, although I'd given the player characters some "generic swords" to attack with, I hadn't actually equipped them with the weapons yet. And they had no default "unarmed" attack, yet. So it was aborting, without printing an error message. My bad...

Oh! The monster's dead! I should quit beating him, then.
- I forgot to actually note that at zero (or less) health, the monster should not only cease to fight, but cease to allow the player to keep attacking it. Not that I want to deny the player the joy of
beating a dead ... us, pus golem. But rather, I want to avoid confusing the player with useless options.

How come attacking a monster hurts ME instead of the monster?
- Uh, actually, I had the code for the endurance indicators and the health bar indicators mixed up. See, programmers have to deal with a lot more bugs than the players ever see!

My monster isn't attacking! What's wrong with that slacker?
- I forgot to arm him with an "unarmed" weapon, so he was skipping attacks just like the players had been.

Coming Up Next Week...
Well, there's my sharing of pain and frustration for the week. So what am I working on next week?

Well, we've got the Utah Indie Game Developer's Meet coming up on Thursday. I'm not actually planning on demonstrating the game there this time, but some people have asked to see it. So I'm going to screw up my schedule and spend some time cleaning stuff up and making it look slightly more presentable. Maybe add some particle effects. Yeah - particle effects. That'll take people's attention away from all the junk that doesn't look right...

I will also be adding some additional combat options, like resting. Spells are unlikely, but I'll try.


(Vaguely) related talking about stuff folks really don't wanna hear:
* Frayed Knights: Catching the Fly
* Frayed Knights: Characteristics and Task Resolution
* RPG Combat Design
* Hackenslash!
* A Day in the Life of a Game Programmer

Discuss! Because We Can!

Labels: Frayed Knights

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink) links to this post

 
This Game Too Crippled To Run On XP...
If only this kind of egg-on-the-face led to better behavior.

Microsoft has naturally been pushing Vista. I can't blame them. The operating system was way overdue in their billing cycle, and the big media middlemen have been feeling the pinch of needing stronger DRM protection at the O.S. level. We consumers were noticing it as well... our poor wallets were getting a little overweight from going an extra two years without paying for the obligatory Windows upgrade. It's almost as bad as when some of us skipped "upgrading" to Windows ME back in 2000.

Microsoft has pushed their "Games For Windows" initiative, which at first blush seemed to be a good thing. I'm still holding out some hope. After all, Microsoft appeared to be to be returning attention to the PC as a gaming platform! Huzzah! Not that I've not seen much of it yet. The third-party publishers (especially indies) are leery of things Microsoft is doing with their "Games Explorer," and are concerned that it was merely part of their marketing effort for Vista.

To make things worse for gamers, Vista has been experiencing the usual compatibility problems, which is annoying but not unanticipated. More importantly, game performance on Vista sucks compared to XP, depending upon the game, the drivers, and the video cards. While this may improve over time with improved drivers, no doubt Microsoft is banking on it just becoming a moot point over time, when comparisons will no longer occur.

Jeff Green even penned a possibly career-limiting editorial in the July issue of "The Official Games For Windows Magazine" (Formerly Computer Gaming World) calling Microsoft to the carpet over what's going on in the GFW initiative and the "Games for Windows Live" feature in Vista. As he states... "Because as the details are starting to come out now about Games for Windows Live, sir, (so polite) well-how do I put this nicely? Let's try this: It sucks ass."

As a gamer, I'm really not seeing anything to really convince me to fork over my cash for what might amount to a downgrade. Granted, I may have been deliberately keeping myself in the dark with respect to the other virtues that the operating system offers me as a gamer... but so far I haven't seen anything that would really convince me to move over to Vista. According to Valve's survey of Steam users, I'm not alone. So what would encourage me to move over to Vista? The killer app. Games I couldn't play under XP.

"Ah-hah!" says Microsoft. DirectX 10 is ONLY available under Vista, and they've got two games that run under DirectX 10 that are just too dang powerful for XP. There's no way to add DirectX 10 compatability under XP. So... gamers... you are just going to HAVE to upgrade to Vista now. (Of course, the two games are Microsoft-published, as third parties are really nervous about releasing a game for a currently limited userbase).

Then this happens. Hackers created a patch that allow the two "exclusive" Vista games to run just fine under XP. I'd be really interested in seeing timing tests take place to see if these two games, like most others, also run faster under XP than under Vista.

More importantly, they also exposed the truth that - at this point at least - "Vista Only" is little more than marketing hype, a factor of crippling software rather than taking advantage of greater power.

When they are clearly using DirectX and their PC games division as nothing more than physical labor to carry their Operating System division, it really makes me wonder about their commitment to Windows as a gaming platform.


(Vaguely) related grousing...
* Games For Windows: Empty Hype?
* Is Vista Going to Destroy Indie Gaming?
* R.I.P. Computer Gaming World

Feel Free to Chat About This in the Forum!

Labels: Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Indie RPG News: June 26
Remember the days when Computer Role-Playing Games (CRPGs) were created by very small teams passionate about the genre, rather than giant, detached team working for a publisher more concerned about "limiting risk?" When the RPG was more of the artistic vision of one passionate (if geeky) individual rather than directed by a marketing department? When it was all about the game and what was cool, rather than what would appeal to the widest possible audience?

You should! Because those days are back! Here's this week's round-up of indie RPGs, role-playing games built "the old fashioned way." This week contains the usual suspects (the Soldak and Planewalker Games guys are great about sending me updates), plus more goodness from the worlds of indie roleplaying games. If you hear more news from other games, please fill me in!

Eschalon: Book 1
As I mentioned in Sunday's article, there's an interview up at GameBanshee about Eschalon: Book 1. The interview focuses game mechanics - how spells are handled, inventory, the skill system, and so forth. Since things have been quiet about this game lately, I was pleased to hear that progress is still continuing.

And they are planning a Book 2 and Book 3 at some point. He's hoping the first game is awesome enough to make sequels a no-brainer!

Depths of Peril
The Saurian and the Naga are now profiled in the Depths of Peril monster page. Steven's blog also talks about the fickleness of influence in the late stages of one of his test games - how the combination of the actions of the other factions plus random events and rumors amongst the townspeople caused him to lose his commanding lead in a matter of minutes. He does advise that this is uncommon, and of course the game is still very much in development. But it sounds like the "strategy" action can be pretty fast and furious in this strategy / action RPG.

The Broken Hourglass
Jason Compton and company have provided us with a look at customized spell creation in The Broken Hourglass. I don't know many games (other than the Elder Scrolls games) that let you do anything like this in the game. Tinkered spells involve an elemental magic source (fire, earth, air, water, and "physical") and a spell effect.

They have also provided a tutorial for potential modders on creating a "joinable" NPC - a character who can join your party and assist you on your adventures. By default, Planewalker Games is providing nine joinable NPCs (with full dialogs & other fun stuff) in the game, but if you just can't find the perfect person to round out your party, you can create your own.

Age of Decadence
RPGWatch plumbed the depths of the Age of Decadence message boards to pull together several news threads containing evidence that the project was not dead --- in fact, they've been cranking away on the combat system and UI updates over the last six months.

Cute Knight Deluxe
As mentioned last week, Cute Knight Deluxe is now available from Rampant Games. This is less of a hardcore game than the above titles, but it's a fun combination of some very old-school dungeon hack & slash with a cute "sim" game in the style of Princess Maker. The Deluxe version includes new artwork, new equipment, new secrets, and (it is rumored) a new ending or two (out of the 50+ endings that were already there to begin with). Reminder: If you have already purchased the original game, Cute Knight, from Rampant Games, you can upgrade to the deluxe version for only $5 by following the instructions on this page.

Come on, you know you want to play a pink-haired 18-year-old girl! :)

Aveyond II: Ean's Quest
Not much news on the Aveyond II front, but apparently Amanda is filing paperwork to convert Amaranth Games into an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) in preparation for future expansion. It sounds like Aveyond has done very, very well for her.

(No, I'm not jealous. No. Not one bit... ;) )

Amanda also reports that the art and music is about 50% complete. She's still pushing for a September release date on Aveyond II: Ean's Quest.


That's about it for this week! Got anything else? Please post about it in the forums, or drop me an email!


(Vaguely) related Indie RPG Stuff:
* Fastcrawl: A Quick Take on the 2006 Indie RPG Award Winner
* Interview with Amanda Fitch, Creator of Aveyond
* Interview with Georgina Bensley, Creator of Cute Knight
* Interview with Jason Compton, Producer for The Broken Hourglass
* Indie RPG News, June 15th

Check out the Forum Discussion on Indie RPG News!

Labels: Indie Evangelism, Indie RPG News, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:14 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
SPORPGs! You Heard It Here First!
So the buzzword for PC games for the last half-decade and change has been "MMOG" and "MMORPG" (for "Massively Multiplayer Onling Game" and "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game", respectively). Sometimes just abbreviated "MMO", because, you know, some of these online worlds aren't even GAMES. Like Second Life. But then why would it be called "massively multiPLAYER?" Maybe in the case of Second Life, it's "Massively Multiplayah" or something.

But I digress.

Now I do like my occasional online ... you know.... thing. With massively multiple people mostly unaware that I am co-located in their same virtual whereyoumacallit. But the MMO folks have the cool acronyms, now. Like "MMORPGs" (sometimes pronounced "MORE PIGs").

But I love my single-player games, too, dangit. And on behalf of my fellow single-player RPG fans, I'm coining a new acronym as a community service:

"SPORPG: Single-Player Offline RPG."

I'm sure it'll catch on any minute now. Oh, except for those folks who really like their SPORPGs because they don't have Internet access. Then they won't know it exists, huh? Man, talk about feeling left out. The guys at the office will be talking all about their favorite SPORE PIGS and those poor offline gamers won't even realize what they are talking about, and will be left out of a conversation tailor-made for them.

It's very sad, really. So do your part, and let everyone know about the acronym, so they can use it and feel all trendy and acronym-using. And then the Pen And Paper Role Playing Gamers (PNPRGers, or "Pin-Priggers") won't make so much fun of them.


(Vaguely) related nonsense:
* Oblivion: The Flower-Picking Simulator!
* City of Heroes Jargon
* Why Cooperative Multiplayer Is Best
.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:57 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Top 14 MMORPG Icons of All Time
I'm not an expert on MMORPGs - I've played only about four major ones (and one of those only during Beta), and a handful of indie MMO's. I have to get all my World of Warcraft information vicariously. But I'm tuned in enough to get a good chuckle out of this list on Amber Night's site:

The Top 14 MMORPG Icons of All Time

The definition of "Icon" is a little bit on the fuzzy side. But hey, just smile, nod, and enjoy.

Would I add any to this list? I dunno, she's nailed them pretty well. Here's my candidate for #15:

Lady Vox, Dragon (EverQuest) - the first well-known "epic" raid-mob. Lord Nagafen shared her spotlight, but I think she was the first one raided - something like 3 months in, by a bunch of level 35's - 45's. They complained about her lame loot then, too. Much later, to prevent her from being soloed by level 60 necromancers, they put a limit on what levels were allowed to fight her.

I think I fought her twice. Got a nifty spear from on the very first try. Of course, by that time, I was so far behind the power curve that I was about the only person in the raid who actually WANTED the spear. But enh. It was fun.


(Vaguely) related reminiscing:
* Great Gaming Moments #8: EverQuest
* A 2-Person Raid
* Why I Gave Up On D&D Online
* City of Heroes Jargon
.

Labels: Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:33 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Why Do RPGs Suck Now?
Adding their voices to Jeff Vogel's controversial, "Why I Hate Fantasy RPGs" article, we've got yet more discussion on the web this week as to why computer & console RPGs are broken - and what can be done to fix them. They could always stand to suck less, doncha think?

Why RPG Stories Suck
Game Journalist Leigh Alexander chimes in with the thought-provoking first of (hopefully) a series of columns entitled, "Building a Better RPG." She opens with a manifesto of sorts that will probably ring true to most RPG fans that have been enjoying CRPGs for more than four years:

"Nobody wants to play 60-hour console RPGs anymore. So we hear quite often these days, and many of us even say as much ourselves. Yet I don’t think that’s quite correct -- the truth is, nobody wants to play the same console RPG anymore.... It’s a genre that once inspired legions of gamers to near-thoughtless devotion—and now draws ire from its once solidly-ensconced core fanbase for its perpetual stagnation."

She goes on to explain the problem with story and character in modern games (hitting a couple of nails on the head, IMO):

"The characters have every lash, freckle and stray hair painted in stunning clarity. And similarly, their stories are fully drawn, too. With very little for the player to “do” in terms of filling in their own ideas, the standard ratchets up—and here’s one of the key areas RPGs fall short... Even though technology has fleshed out what was once a basic formula, adding lifelike details and the full cinema experience, it hasn’t advanced the formula in any way. There really is yet to be a modern role-playing game where the character is someone we can empathize with and care for in an enduring way. We’re still being asked to devote hours and hours to people who, despite how intricate they look, are little more than constructs -- making it even more ridiculous when they behave in their trademark histrionic, overemotional fashion. The emotional moment -- prime territory of RPGs -- is little more than a joke now."

And later summarizes:

"Gamers don’t want story. It’s the mantra we’ve gotten used to hearing recently. But I’m inclined to think all this anti-story backlash is rooted in the total absence of realistic, believable player characters and companions in RPGs. True, we play for the action, for the events -- but if that were all we wanted, we’d just play an action game. The fact is, story becomes nothing but an inconvenience when its characters are meaningless to us—and perhaps we hate it all the more for the disappointment."

Alexander's article references a recent review of Final Fantasy XII that has struck a chord with many players. The author's bottom line was that "Final Fantasy XII is perfect in form and function; otherwise, bad." The experience seemed, to him, hollow and empty, which puzzled him as he "... had never played a game with superior production values, nor with superior depth. I loved the characters, and the lush, expansive world they inhabited. But somehow, in this Final Fantasy, which had more substance than any of its ancestors, the core experience seemed to be absent. I had to wonder what secret spice was missing which would have recreated the elation I felt at the end of installments VII, VIII and X."

RPGs: Getting Dumbed Down?
This week also brought us an interview with Thomas Riegsecker of Basilisk Games, creators of the upcoming indie RPG "Eschalon: Book 1." The whole interview is fascinating (particularly from an old-school RPG fan's point of view), but he also brings up an interesting comment:

"I think the biggest problem with the current crop of RPGs is that publishers are continually looking to get bigger returns on their investments, and to do so developers must make a game that is going to attract the largest possible customer base. To achieve this, RPGs have become simpler and more action-oriented over the years. Today’s RPGs must compete for market share with first-person shooters and third-person adventure games, and they do this by eliminating most of the complexity inherent to the genre. Publishers don’t seem to care that the hard-core RPGers who gave birth to the role-playing genre are the very customers they are squeezing out of their sales. These RPG enthusiasts are looking for a true role-playing experience, not a medieval version of Halo. "

Eschalon: Book 1 is itself a turn-based RPG taking its cures from such classics as Ultima, Might & Magic, and Wizardry - eschewing the "dumbing down" of the modern action-RPG for something a little more classic in flavor. Just so long as I don't have to do the mapping myself on graph paper --- that part sucked.

Console Versus PC
To some degree, Alexander and Riegsecker are disagreeing with each other. Alexander seems to be contending that we are simply dolling up the same old gameplay with new graphics... and finding that what worked ten years ago is failing because the gameplay is stale and the improved graphics are making the deficiencies more apparent (if not exacerbating the problem). Riegsecker is invoking the popular "they were better in the good ol' days" cry, and complaining that the game mechanics HAVE been changing --- for the worse.

Note that Alexander keeps talking about console RPGs, and Riegsecker invoked the names of PC game franchises. For the most part, the console games started fairly simple (though Ultima III was something of a hit on the consoles back in the day), and haven't changed much in complexity since Final Fantasy IV (II in the U.S.). PC RPGs, on the other hand, have run the gamut in complexity from simple point-and-click affairs to tactical wargames.

They are also discussing the two different aspects of RPGs: Story versus mechanics. Fluff versus crunch. Some RPG fans really want a game system they can sink their teeth into. Others want a world and story they can get lost in. Most of us want a nice blend of both --- though the contents of the optimum mix are a subject of endless Internet debates.

As to mechanics - I've got some thoughts on that, but I've enjoyed games on both ends of the spectrum. I tend to favor the "crunchier" systems like Fallout or the D20 licenses over the simpler systems (like Aveyond or Final Fantasy VII), but I can have fun either way.

On Engaging Emotion
On story - I ain't an expert. But I have some thoughts on the subject. In my mind, the game needs to allow the player to project themselves into the characters on some level. This might be easier with simpler graphics (read Scott McCloud's book, "Understanding Comics," for some commentary on this) or a more abstract definition of the hero. But I can project myself into the protagonist's role in a good book easily enough, so long as I can connect with the protagonist on some emotional level.

And maybe that's what's missing in too many games --- that emotional connection. Developers try so hard in many modern games with the cargo-cult mentality of emulating the forms of cinema, but fail to understand how to adapt the principles of storytelling to a medium that is different from cinema on a fundamental level.

I look back on Final Fantasy VII - one of my favorite RPGs of all time - and it occurs to me that I never really identified with the protagonist at all. Cloud Strife was one screwed-up kid. He was some lame wannabe uber-cool loner at the beginning of the game, and as it turns out was just mentally imbalanced and shouldering a bit too much angst for player who was no longer a teen to really tolerate. Watching some of the special features that came with the movie Advent Children, I realized how much of his story I'd forgotten. None of that was important to me.

Now, the character I did like was Aeris. The cute, perky little flower-selling girl with the destiny to save the world. Who was brutally murdered by the villain - Sephiroth - halfway through the game by means a a six-foot long katana. While she was defenseless and praying, durn it!

The game's whole eco-friendly theme, the Christian analogy, the love triangle with Tifa, the backstories of all the characters coming to the front for brief side-quests... all that was wonderful. It contributed to a feeling of satisfaction and epic awesomeness at the end of the game. But what the game REALLY was - to me - was a story about justice. Or - let's be honest here - revenge. Sephiroth murdered Aeris halfway into the game, and I made that S.O.B. PAY!!!!

The most basic human emotions are the easiest ones to engage.

Maybe we should be working harder to do that, instead of simulating every freckle and out-of-place strand of hair on the protagonist.


(Vaguely) related gibberish:
* Are Graphics Really Killing Gameplay?
* The Evolution of Computer RPGs
* The History of RPGs - Should We Go Back To Go Forward?
* Big World, Small Dungeon - Does Size Matter in RPGs?
* Action Versus Turn-Based RPGs: Evolution, Trend, or Catering to the Lowest Common Denominator?

Read or Post Comments on the Forum

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:46 AM (Permalink) links to this post

 
New Desktop TD Version Is Out
Dang it!

There's a new and improved version of Desktop Tower Defense - version 1.5 - now available.

Evil, evil, evil.

The new version "fixes" a popular exploit of making the creeps switch directions constantly to keep running the gauntlet. It now increases the amount of time it takes to sell a tower a little bit for each tower sold. It also includes new tower type (an ink tower, plus snap and boost towers), new creep types (dark creeps and morphing creeps), an improved bash tower, and more game modes. And new graphics and sound.

Yet another very easy way to lose a couple of hours of your life with little to show for it but a smile on your face.


(Vaguely) related running roughshod over seriousness:
* David Scott's New Tower Defense Game
* How To Earn $8000 / Month By Making a Free Flash Game
* Picking Apart Flash Element TD
.

Labels: Free Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:37 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Cute Knight DELUXE Available from Rampant Games
Cute Knight Deluxe is now available from Rampant Games! And the free demo of Cute Knight Deluxe is now available as well.

This is the new and improved version of the best-selling "casual" indie RPG, Cute Knight. The new version includes new items and secrets, improved graphics (particularly the monster and end-game art), and an improved Wizard's Challenge mini-game. (Incidentally, the mini-game is actually something Georgina - the game's creator - mentioned in her interview here at Tales of the Rampant Coyote, as a part of the game she was unsatisfied with.)

If you haven't heard the spiel before, let me get my indie-game-evangelizing hat on for a minute. The original version of Cute Knight was the winner of 2005's Indie RPG of the Year from GameTunnel.com. It is kind of a blend of old-school pseudo-3D dungeon crawlers (think Wizardry, Bard's Tale, etc.) meeting the Princess Maker series - and done casual-friendly.
In Cute Knight, you play a young, 18-year old girl who has three years to decide what she's going to do with her life in a world of fantasy, monsters, and magic. Throughout town, there are several "sim" like opportunities for her to explore. She can take odd jobs to earn cash, attend school (assuming she has enough money to pay for the classes), participate in the various festivals and other events taking place in the town over the course of the year, unravel secrets and mysteries, find love, and of course gear up and explore the local dungeon.

The dungeon is an optional but significant part of the game. It is randomized, so the layout is a little different every game. The monsters can be defeated by magic or by combat (it is best to be prepared with both, as some monsters are more vulnerable to one than the other), or can actually be "tamed" by your charm and skill - defeated completely nonviolently.

Besides the usual challenges of "leveling up," and accumulating wealth and cool loot, there are two serious factors to contend with. The first is the looming end-of-game.

The game ends one of three ways. The first is by achieving some kind of end-game goal... one of the "winning" or "losing" criteria. There are over 50 different endings to the game (and not to mention several variants for most endings), so there are PLENTY of those to explore across multiple game sessions. The second is for your character to reach her 21st birthday - in which case she will adopt the profession most suited to her combination of skills. The third is by the loss of her "dream" - a measure of her happiness with life and feeling of growth, I guess. Too many failures and disappointing days of meaningless labor will sap her Dream rating in a hurry, and she'll end up choosing a life of a scullery maid. Give her some successes or nights out on the town (or in quiet meditation at the church, IIRC), and that rating will go back to non-threatening levels.

The second factor is "Sin." This is sort of the alignment system of the game. The town is protected from the nasties of the dungeon by a magical barrier that prevents evil creatures (those with too much sin) from entering. That includes people with too much of the stain of sin on their souls, as well. In fact, that can include you if you aren't careful. At that point, you'll be forced to stay in the outskirts of the city until you clean up your act, or reach a game conclusion. Note that there are several endings that require you to have been in this situation (at least briefly), so this is actually be part of the fun. I still want to get the "Queen of Thieves" ending that I've heard about!

Cute Knight is an awesome little non-traditional RPG. The deluxe edition adds some higher-quality art in several areas (particularly the end-game portraits and dungeon monsters),and several new toys to play with. And I have heard rumors of at least one additional ending. I haven't tried the revised Wizard's Challenge, yet. But the core gameplay is the unchanged - just as solid and as enjoyable as the original.

If you still haven't tried it out, I recommend downloading the free demo for Cute Knight Deluxe at the Rampant Games Cute Knight page.

If you have already purchased Cute Knight from Rampant Games, you can upgrade to the Deluxe edition for only $5, simply by following the instructions found on this page (and yes, I've been told that affiliates do count for this offer...)


(Vaguely) related Knight Cuteness:
* Cute Knight Hints, Tips, and Spoilers
* The Purple-Haired Women of Rampant Games!
* What Makes a Good Casual RPG?
* Interview with Georgina Bensley, Creator of Cute Knight
.

Labels: Cute Knight, Game Announcements, Indie Evangelism, Indie RPG News, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights Dev Diary: Characteristics and Task Resolution

Dirk: Aw, man. Jay totally bailed on us for this week's design diary for Frayed Knights! What a wuss!

Arianna: I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. He's been really busy with stuff. Including our game.

Benjamin: You mean that game where he tries to KILL US? Yeah, thanks, good luck with that. He can take his time. He should be spending his time making blog entries, not battles!

Chloe: So what do we do now? I mean, we're here, he's not, and there's supposed to be an update on the progress of the game, and I'm already bored.

Dirk: Do you guys want to play cards or something? Maybe some of the readers might want to join in...

Benjamin: Our cards were eaten by that horn-tailed slithering masticator we fought last week. And all the shopkeepers in Torville are prohibited by that ordinance from last year from selling playing cards to you or anybody known to associate with you.

Dirk: Oh, yeah. Hey, she never told me she was the mayor's daughter until after she'd lost the game. So it wasn't really my fault!

Arianna: Nobody wants to hear about how you beat the mayor's daughter at strip poker, Dirk.>

Benjamin: Hey, now that you mention it, I am a little curious about that story...

Arianna: No! We are not going there! Let's talk about the game instead. More specifically, characters. Like... uh, Dirk.

Dirk: Oh, hey, more about me is always a good thing.

Arianna: No, I mean the statistics and attributes that make up all characters in the game. Every character has five primary attributes: Might, Brains, Reflexes, Charm, and Luck. The normal human range of these attributes is a value from 1 to 10, five being average. Monsters can exceed a ten, as can higher-level characters.

Benjamin: Those are used directly as modifiers for any action. For example, any time you hit a creature with your sword, you get a bonus to damage based upon your Might score. Anything above a five gives you a bonus. Anything below a five gives you a penalty. There are also secondary attributes, which are based upon those primary scores, your level, and your class. The secondary scores include things like health, endurance, base attack score, base defense score. and so forth.

Dirk: But that's not the whole story. You've got classes and levels, too. Like me - lots of class. I'm a rogue, actually. There are rogues - the best class - warriors, sorcerers, and priests. Take a wild guess which of us is which. You've also got SKILLS. Especially for me people like me. It's all about the skills. Some examples of skills are "Social" - talking to people, and "Stealth" for sneaking around. Most of the time when there are checks being made in the game, it's a skill check. With attribute bonuses thrown in.

Arianna: And then there are feats.

Chloe: The game even tracks what kind of feet you have? That's a very detailed game! My feet are very cute.

Arianna: No, not your feet, feats, as in feats of strength. Those are special abilities characters possess to make their skills work in special ways. Or that give them bonuses under special conditions.

Chloe: Okay. That's a lot of numbers. You know I love numbers as much as the next girl - especially when counting sparklies and money and stuff. But how does that tell you how many people I blew up with my fireball?

Arianna: Ummm.... I'm not sure. Oh, hey, Jay left his design document lying around ... I'm sure he won't mind if I borrow some of it and post it publicly up on the Internet, will he?

Dirk: Well, if he does, it's his own fault for ditching on us. I say post away! Besides, the system is just elaborating on what he did in Hackenslash, and that game sucked anyway!

Arianna: I know I'm going to regret this, but here goes:

Task Resolution

Any non-automatic action in the game is determined by a random check of the character’s adjusted score versus a check against the defender’s adjusted score or the difficulty level of the task being attempted.

There are three forms of task resolution: Simple, Tiered, and Damage checks.

Simple Resolution

For simple task resolution, a random number is generated between one and the attackers / actor’s adjusted skill score. This is the “action” roll. The “defense” roll is also generated as a random number between one and the defender’s adjusted skill score, or the difficulty score for actions not actively opposed by another character. If the defense roll is higher than the action roll, then the action fails. Otherwise, it succeeds.

Tiered Resolution

Tiered task resolutions are exactly the same as simple task resolutions, except there’s a chance that the action may succeed or fail in an exceptional way. In the case of an exceptional success, the acting character may receive additional bonuses. For exceptional failures, Bad Things may happen to the acting character, or the defending character may receive a bonus. The actual results are dependent upon the type of action being taken.

Tentatively, for tiered results, if the defense roll is five or more times higher than the action roll, the attempted action results in exceptional failure. If the action roll is five or more times higher than the defense roll, the action is an exceptional success.

Damage Checks

For damage checks, a random roll is made from 1 to the maximum damage value. In addition, an armor roll is made from 1 to the total armor (minus the armor piercing value of the weapon). The armor roll is then subtracted from the damage roll, and the result is the total amount of damage done to the defender. If this value is zero or less, the defender takes no damage.

Group Skill Checks

Some skill checks (particularly skills like Perception, Stealth, Social, and Empathy) will be “group checks”. This skill is based upon the highest (adjusted) rating of any individual character in the group. Every character in the group that has an adjusted rating of at least half this ability will provide a +2 bonus to the effective rating when it is rolled.

Weapons and Armor

To attack with a weapon, the character’s attack roll has a maximum of their Attack Skill + Melee Skill (if it’s a hand-to-hand weapon, or with natural attacks like claws or fists) or Ranged Skill (if it’s a ranged weapon, like a bow), plus any other bonuses from equipment.

The defense roll has a maximum of the defender’s Defense skill plus their Dodge skill, plus any other bonuses due to equipment.

If the defender is using a shield, they get an additional bonus to their roll based on their Shield skill and their shield’s Maximum Shield Bonus, whichever is lower. If the character’s shield skill exceeds the shield’s Maximum Shield Bonus by 3 or more, then this excess is divided by three and added to the Defense skill roll maximum.

Assuming the hit lands, the max damage is calculated, and used to generate the damage roll (the action roll). The armor level is also calculated, but is handled a little differently. Rather than comparing the defense roll of the armor against the damage roll, the defense roll is actually subtracted from the action roll. The remainder is the damage done to the target, if positive. If zero or negative, the attack does no damage, as if it were a miss.

Benjamin: Zzzzzzzz......

Dirk: You know, we really should have talked about ME instead!

(Vaguely) related stuff by Jay that should have been more about US:
* Frayed Knights: First Five Minutes Walkthrough
* Frayed Knights: Prolog: Background and High Concept
* RPG Combat Design
* Frayed Knights: Stupid Is As Stupid Fights
* Lessons Learned Playing Computer RPGs
* Designing a Computer RPG Rule System

DISCUSS! Or, uh, not....

Labels: Frayed Knights, Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:05 AM (Permalink) links to this post

 
Manhunt 2 Banned in the U.K., Receives AO Rating in the U.S.
Manhunt 2 - a game about violent murder - has been effectively banned in the U.K. - because the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) has refused to assign it a legally mandated rating. I guess it has joined such lofty ranks as the movie "A Clockwork Orange" and the song, "Relax", by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

It has also received the dreaded "AO" (Adults Only) rating from the ESRB here in the United States, which is the kiss of death for sales.

My personal opinion? Bravo ESRB, shame on the BBFC. Of course, the initials "BBFC" was originally for "British Board of Film Censors," so maybe they've gone back to their roots with videogames.

Take 2 Interactive and Rockstar Games continue to push the boundaries of taste (okay, in my opinion, they blow way past the boundaries) with respect to violent content. So they should expect to have to deal with the AO rating. In fact, I am sure they anticipated the likelihood. I don't think they are going to release under the "AO" rating for artistic reasons... I think they, like Running With Scissors, are all about controversy, not art. I expect they'll go back and change the game to make it better conform to "M" rating guidelines. Or try to appeal.

But the BBFC's refusal to rate it... I dunno. It smacks of a knee-jerk reaction to media hysteria. A UK murder case was blamed by the media on the first game, in spite of the murderer having never played it, and police claiming no connection in any way. Now, I personally wouldn't really want to play the game. But it's not my job to do so (well, at least I hope not to be assigned that particular task...)

Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding the game will probably only serve to increase its sales and popularity.

How many more years do we have to endure the politicizing of games? Too many more, I'm afraid...


(Vaguely) related rumblings and grumblings:
*I Would Have Made Deathmatch Maps of My School, Too
* BYU Study Links Bible Passages to Aggression
* Why Are There So Many Violent Video Games?
* Australian Book-Burning (er, Game-Banning)

Oh, and a forum discussion on the subject (Thanks Brickman):

Labels: Mainstream Games, Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:26 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Vampire Programmers
"Real" programmers - those who chose the profession out of love - tend to be night-owls.

I discovered this phenomena in college. The professor asked for a show of hands, saw that something like 90% of the class categorized themselves as night-owls rather than "morning people," and mentioned that this was typical. The professor himself was an exception, but he was a weird bird anyway.

I don't know why this is. Maybe its how our brains are wired. Whatever part of the brain is attracted to generating instructions to make a computer work is maybe also that part which rides the inertia of activity later in our cycle or something. Or maybe whatever attracted us to programming was also attracted to the romantic vision of the hacker toiling away into the wee hours, driven by adrenaline and caffeine (in which case, I expect this trend to be diminishing over time as the image of programmers becomes more that of a white-collar professional, like accountants).

This can cause a couple of problems.

First of all, there's the problem of programmers working with non-programmers. In many businesses, management is not pulled from the ranks of programmers, and it seems many managers are those "cheerful morning people" who can't seem to understand why EVERYONE isn't at their best productivity at 8:00 in the morning. This can cause a great deal of friction. Said management can get extremely frustrated with lazy programmers who often don't show until the exact moment they are required to by their employment contract. This sort of management is also often the type that goes home right at 5:00, oblivious to the fact that several of their programming team won't be leaving until hours later.

Then there's the opposite problem, found more commonly in the videogame industry, or any other software company managed more by programmers and who do not interact directly with non-night-owl customers on a day-to-day basis. We geeks have our own little hierarchy, and it tends to be based upon our own estimation of merit. One of those little geek indicators that tends to be used is, "Does this person work harder than me?"

Since it's hard to tell how much harder someone works, the rule-of-thumb that gets applied is, "Does this person work LATER than me?"

You end up with this whole peer-pressure thing going on where nobody wants to be seen as being one of the first people to go home for the night - at least not on a regular basis. People stay later and later. Since the folks in the trenches rarely have time to pay attention to what time their coworkers come into work in the morning, what often happens is that people end up slipping their work-shift (when allowed to do so) into later on in the day to improve that perception of their effort without having to unduly burden themselves with actually having to work all that much harder.

This is one reason why the game industry tends to be dominated by younger, less experienced developers. Those old farts over 30 (that would be me) often have wives and children --- assuming they managed to sneak in a social life earlier in their career --- which puts a damper on those kinds of cycles. When the kids have to get up for school, so do their geek parents. Its rough enduring the gentle-but-present pressure of being "that guy who goes home early" each day.

One of my favorite managers (yes, I've actually had many bosses that I've really liked - I've been fortunate in my career) was one of those weird early-morning people who tried to combat this simply by setting an example. He was in at around 6:00 in the morning every day. He was GONE almost every day before 4:00. He never expected anyone to keep his schedule. He quietly set a counter-example, and made it clear that he wasn't going to know who was leaving at 5:00 and who was staying until after 9:00.

Many companies have "core hours" - usually a 4- to 6- hour block of time - where employees are expected to be at work. This is pretty key, as programming is much more of a group effort these days that requires communication between team members. This helps the window from sliding too far in either direction.


(Vaguely) related pseudo-fluff:
* Seven New Classic Software Development Mistakes
* What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?
* A Pirate Story
.

Labels: Biz, programming

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:56 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
Diablo: The Movie - Coming Soon To A Theater Near You!
Today BlizzPlanet confirmed (inasmuch as these things can be made "certain") that a Diablo movie is in the works.

Once upon a time, this idea would have delighted me. After all, the world of Diablo is a rich in background and a combination of fantasy and gothic horror flavor. There is so much that could be done here, the concept boggles the mind with geeky feelings of goodness.

But Hollywood's reputation for movie adaptations of videogames isn't exactly stellar. Meaning they actually make their opposites - videogame adaptations of movie licenses - actually look GOOD. And while Hollywood has proven that they can - occasionally - do horror with a deft touch, the combination of horror and videogames just doesn't inspire me with confidence.

I'm trying to think - what GOOD movies based on videogames have been made? The last one that made it to the theaters that I actually enjoyed was Mortal Kombat, and that was more than a decade ago. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was certainly pretty to look at, but it wasn't a great show. Now - direct to DVD - Final Fantasy: Advent Children was pretty awesome. But that was undoubtably because I'm a fanboy of the game... I had to struggle to keep track of the plot. I can't imagine a non-gamer watching it with any amount of comprehension, or enjoyment beyond looking at the pretty pictures. I hear some people really enjoyed Silent Hill --- I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to put it on the ol' Netflix list and try it out. After enduring the horror that was the Wing Commander movie, how bad could it really be?

Labels: Movies

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:52 PM (Permalink) 13 comments links to this post

 
City of Heroes' New Money Sink

Labels: Game Design, Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Seven New Classic Software Development Mistakes
Steve McConnell, author of classic software development books Code Complete and Rapid Development, has a blog entitled "10X Softare Development." The latest post is entitled, "Classic Mistakes Updated," on a potential additions to the list of classic software development mistakes which continue to be made throughout the industry.

If you've never heard of these classic mistakes before (and way too many people in management NEVER HAVE), he's got the full content of that chapter from Rapid Development available in a link (which unfortunately requires registration). If you've worked as a software developer (or development manager) for any size of organization before - possibly even as a lone-wolf developer - you've probably run into / made these mistakes before. They include such gems as:

* Adding people to a late project
* "Silver Bullet" syndrome
* Contractor Failure
* Wasted time during the "fuzzy" front end
* Shortchanged quality assurance
* Push-me, pull-me negotiation (where management / the customer agrees to extend a schedule on a late project in exchange for the addition of new features which will, of course, make it even later...)

Perhaps a new edition of Rapid Development is in the making, but he's now proposed seven new more classic mistakes for the list:

* Confusing estimates with targets