Questions For Indies - Part I
Corvus Elrod and I decided to borrow some of the questions proposed in the XFire Debate Club last week that we didn't have time to answer, and offer some answers - in a lot more depth - in our blogs. Sort of a collaborative project, without actually having to collaborate. Since actually coming up with a topic is way harder for me than just spouting off about something I know nothing about, I loved this plan. And as a bonus, the ability to spout off about things I know nothing about makes me eligible to be used as an expert on Fox News!

Shamus "McLaser" Young fired five shots across the bow with stuff HE would have liked to know about how indie game developers work. Since his questions didn't suck, Corvus and I decided to start there. We figured we'd go in depth on two this week, three next week, and then tackle some of the others extracted from the logs as we go. And we are almost guaranteed NOT to agree with each other on all of these points. In fact, I really hope we don't, because he really hated The Witcher. And I ... uh, haven't had time to play it yet, but I intend to, I'm hoping it actually doesn't suck and that he was just smoking something. But he's also got a killer multipart retrospective going on about Ultima Underworld, so I can't dismiss his opinion lightly.

Incidentally, I also mentioned the questions to Amanda Fitch of Amaranth Games (you know, Aveyond and Aveyond 2 awesomeness) - she's actually made indie-dom her full-time job now, so she's more of an expert than either of us, so I will humbly refer you to her comments on the subject.

So Fire away, Mr. McLaser:

Question One: Why So Many Indie RPGs?
Shamus: RPGs seem really over-represented in indie games. (Or, you could say they are under-represented in mainstream games.) Why do you think indie developers favor RPGs so much?

This one took me by surprise. Because they... uh, aren't, unless you consider the dearth of mainstream RPGs these days to be "well represented." Short answer. Long answer:

Looking at The Great Games Experiment, as of a few minutes ago, there were a total of 936 games tagged "indie," and only 95 of these were tagged "RPG" (and some of those might be considered more, "games with RPG elements" and really stretch the definition of RPG. But we'll roll with it). So --- that's a hair over 10% of the indie games. Actually, if one out of 10 indie games were RPGs, I'd be a heck of a lot busier than I already am. But we'll look closer.

Subtract out all the titles that are tagged "in development", and we find that over 1 in 3 of those RPGs (36) are in that often never-ending vaporware state, as compared to under 1 in 4 of the other indie genres (224). So the number of completed indie games falls down to about 8%.

I think, however, that those numbers are a little skewed based on the community over at GGE, and that casual games (most of which are indie) don't have the indie flag like they should. There's over 1900 of 'em, and only 400 are tagged "indie." So if you assume only 2 / 3 of the remainder are actually indie games that just aren't tagged as such, the indie RPG count drops in half. Naturally, some RPGs (and other indie games) may also be missing the tag, so this is all just conjecture. But hey, you know what they say about statistics.

I personally would be thrilled to believe that 5% of completed indie games are RPGs. I personally think its closer to about 1%, but even at the above 8%, I wouldn't consider them overrepresented.

But Here's Why You'd Think That!
Indie RPGs had a banner year this year, and fans of RPGs can be pretty vociferous. This years crop got a lot of attention this year, partly because we had such excellent games released, and partly because there was really sharp, clever marketing going on (Thomas "Eschalon" Riegsecker, I am talking to you...)

I think a telling indicator - even if it's hardly exact - is the higher ratio of incomplete RPGs listed at GGE. I remember hanging out on the GameDev.net forums a few years back and hearing people constantly talk about how they wanted to tackle an RPG as their first project. These days, they've upped the ante and are usually talking about MMORPGs. More power to 'em... but even fewer of those will likely see the light of day.

But RPGs have a little deceptive quality to them. If you've played D&D, or a Final Fantasy game, you probably realize how the rule system (at least a scaled-down version of it) could easily be turned into a program. I mean, everybody computer geek and their cousin was doing it for their Apple IIs and Commodore 64's back when I was a kid. And RPGs are - as much as any other genre except maybe adventure / IF games - about story. Everybody has stories to tell. Just throw some graphics in there, and you got game! And hey, there are several RPG engines out there that could be used to just throw together a game! Why, you and some artist buddies could throw together something commercial with 'em by the end of the month, right?

So RPGs are tempting projects for indies to start with. So you may hear about a lot of indies making RPGs. Just far too few actually cross the finish line, unfortunately.

Question #2 - What Technology?
Shamus: Naturally indie games have to use older technology, which is less labor intensive and doesn’t require (as much) expensive software. But I don’t think that’s the only reason to do so. Certainly the older graphics - done right - can have a certain stylistic appeal as well. The other reason to aim low on the tech tree is so that you can hit the widest possible base of users instead of just the fanboys with $3,000 computers. If you could use any graphics technology you wanted - from Infocom to Crysis - where would you choose to go?

Ummm.... dang. Actually the technology I'm using now. Only I'd like it better, more stable, easier to use, and more feature rich, plzthx. It really depends on the type of game I'm making. Part of the design philosophy behind Frayed Knights was me deciding what kind of RPG would go really well with the engine I had on-hand.

I'd actually worry a bit about something like Crysis, because SOMEBODY has to make all those gorgeous models. And that somebody is probably gonna take a month per model, minimum. As an indie, I don't have time required to make it look good. And nobody but the really hardcore gamers - who really demand games that make their major video card investment look awesome - could run it.

Now, as someone who's been doing 3D graphics their entire game development career (starting with the Playstation 1!), I still gravitate towards 3D - just to leverage my strengths. But I shy away from the bleeding edge, and I'm constantly faced with the challenge of making 3D look good without trying to go down the photorealism route.

My Dream Engine
Now - my dream engine would be some modified version of the Exult engine (built to allow you to play the Ultima VII games on modern systems) with some 3D graphics for characters. And the scripting system from Neverwinter Nights. Something where I could leverage the best of 3D and 2D and have them mesh together nicely, works on low-end machines, is nicely mature and bug-free, and can pretty much have the entire game scripted out cleanly.

I think that style of game still has a ton of story-telling and gameplay value left in it. And it was simple enough for player to enjoy without having to constantly fiddle with the camera or any of that other crap they have to mess with in modern games. The 3D graphics would allow for some pretty cool special effects, particle systems, and a lot nicer character animation. The NWN-eque scripting system would allow far, far deeper levels of interaction in the game than Ultima VII originally supported.

And now, you can probably guess what my answer to Shamus McLaser's final question will be.

So... if I ever go back and turn my "Forrest Gump in Ultima VII" experiment into a full-fledged project, I may actually get part of that dream engine. Who knows? Once Frayed Knights has run its course, maybe I'll go back and try that out.

Well, I hope I've properly beaten Shamus's first two questions into the friggin' ground on my end. Whadaya think? And do you think the "McLaser" thing will stick? And for other developers reading this blog: Why are you reading this instead of developing your game? But as long as you are wasting time, what are YOUR answers to these questions?

Okay. Wanna hear what Corvus had to say on these same questions? Me too, I haven't read it yet. But I will now direct your attention to the link he just sent me:

Man Bytes Blog: XFire Debate Annex #1

And - Lookie Here! The Debate Continues In the Forum!

Labels: Indie Evangelism, programming, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:00 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Torque Game Builder 1.7 Released
GarageGames reports that their 2D game engine - Torque Game Builder - has just been upgraded to version 1.7. Lotsa changes here, though there's still no news on whether or not they fixed the stupid camera-jitter bug. But the short list of fixes and improvements is still very exciting.

But I am very, very NOT allowed to play with it right now. Sniffle.

TGB 1.7 Released

Labels: programming

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:48 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Utah Indie Night - Winter 2008
Whew! I got in just ahead of the snow storm. That's the part that sucks about January in Utah. Actually, pretty much everything sucks about January in Utah. I guess the Wasatch Mountains are pretty, all covered with snow and stuff. On the days when you can see them. I don't ski, but I guess that's pretty awesome in January. So there are some things to look forward to.

The quarterly Utah Indie Game night is another thing to look forward to, which falls in January. This month it was once again at the Taylorsville ITT Institute. We had a pretty good turn-out, though a lot of the people - like last time - were ITT students of game design and development. They brought in some excellent Mexican food this time - a nice change of pace from pizza.

As to the night itself, it pretty much went the opposite of how Greg Squire, the founder, had planned. That was unfortunate. His initial plan was to have the formal presentations take only a half hour, and then have the rest of the time taken up by various discussions and little mini-presentations throughout the room.

This time, though, there were no other computers (I'd even neglected to bring my laptop this time), and the main presentation was stymied due to technical difficulties. The main presentation was LinkRealms, a great upcoming indie MMORPG. It seems they use the same ports as World of Warcraft, and ITT has all of those permanently blocked to prevent students from playing WoW on campus. D'oh! They made due - at the end of the evening - with some videos of gameplay. And Herb talked at great length about the game, their technology, their business plan, and what the indie MMO space looks like.

Prior to that, we had impromptu presentations by Greg Squire, who showed his "inner space" inside-the-blood-vessel shooter, and he also took several minutes to show a non-Utah-made game, the very-very cool Crayon Physics game by Kloonigames (which unfortunately looks to have exceeded its bandwidth for the month, so the link today no worky...) I also delivered an impromptu update on Frayed Knights. Since I hadn't actually prepared to give a demo, I wasn't entirely certain what to show, but I spend a bit of time wandering around, using a cheat code to clear out combats (one of the guys in the back would play the Final Fantasy victory fanfare music on his cell phone every time I did that), and clicking on various boxes and dialogs.

But I was pleased to be able to show the game to Mike Nielsen, who is going to be composing some custom music for the game. Steve Taylor was also there. And I got some feedback about the dialog system that I'm not entirely certain how to handle (yet). It needs some help. It can get confusing. Suggestions included getting rid of the comic-book style presentation altogether in favor of a different presentation (but I also had suggestions NOT to get get rid of it), to use face icons next to all the lines of dialog, and to color-code the boxes based on who is speaking.

Stuff to consider.

I also had some opportunity to talk to Herb about LinkRealms in a bit more detail, and had an awesome discussion with Mike Rubin about indie games in general, and Vespers 3D in particular.

My suggestions for the future:

* Limit all presentations to 10-15 minutes, max. And have somebody there to help the presenter keep track of time. I honestly have no idea how long I took. Though I think half the time was taken up by trying to get the game to work on the ITT machines (we'll call that an "alpha" bug...)

* Make sure there are computers (or desk space for laptops) in the room, and help people get stuff set up. Make sure everyone who needs to use laptops and an Internet connection has a WEP key or a network cable. I think there were a few games that would have been presented if they weren't done in front of EVERYBODY.

* Red Iguana food - definitely worth doing again.

* Instead of just presenting the whole game to a bunch of game developers, we may want to consider instead having presentations about certain aspects of game development. Like - for example - JUST the particle editor of LinkRealms, or JUST the dialog system in Frayed Knights. Short presentations on other subjects - like marketing, building communities, making deals with portals, the "state of the industry," console development for indies - stuff like that.

* We definitely need a better way to form the informal discussions. I noticed a few discussions ended up taking place in the hall outside the classroom we'd had allocated to us.

Next report in April. Hopefully with some new, fresh games to talk about!

UPDATE: Here's the poster advertising the event, done by one of the ITT students. Very cool. Now I wanna go... again...

Labels: Frayed Knights, Indie Evangelism

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:43 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
Explaining Indie Games, Illustrated!
In the XFire Debate Club last week (transcript of the discussion now available), we went a little long (I thought) explaining exactly what indie gaming is. In retrospect, I think part of the problem isn't that indie games are hard to define, but that they are defined by what they are not. But if you don't understand what they aren't, then you are totally gonna be confused about what they are.

Okay. I just confused myself. Let me draw some pictures.

The System
What we've got now, over the course of 30+ years of commercial game development, is a System. The System is very close to what you have in other media (book publishing, the music biz, etc.) - in fact, it was modeled after that. Here's what the system looks like:

Okay. Here's how the System works:

The publisher is at the top of the chain. You'll note I have a crown over the publisher. That's because I'm obnoxious. The publisher wants a game made. The publisher either creates the game in-house, or contracts a developer to make the game for them. Let's talk about how the outside developer is handled.

Usually, the outside developer is pretty much told what to make. Something based on a cool movie or TV license, or a sequel / spin-off to a game another studio originally made (after the publisher has happily said to the original developer studio, "Go jump in a lake, we own the property, we don't need you, so NEENER!" or said studio has vowed "We'll never work with you again, you jerks! For definitions of 'never' that may only include this product cycle!"). Occasionally, the outside developer might have some cool proof-of-concept demo that the publisher is willing to go with, so long as the developer makes all these changes to it (usually converting it into something that is based on a cool movie or TV license, or a sequel / spin-off to a game another studio originally made... okay, you get the idea).

The publisher "funds" the development of said game. By "fund," we really mean, "loans money to the studio for." Because... really... funding is an interest-free advance against future royalties earned by the game. Which, according to modern accounting practice in the games biz, is actually just a myth and never really happens, so the loan almost never gets repaid, so the publishers can act all magnanimous about it. But hey - it's their investment money, and so they get to call the terms. If they want to make it their investment money back two different ways - both profit on the game and in recouping the cost from the developer's royalties - that's their call.

And because it's their money (the old "golden rule" - he that has the gold makes the rule - applies here as everywhere), they usually require that they own the game, the name, the trademarks and copyrights and all intellectual property rights. The developer is pretty much just a serf contracted to do the labor. See that crown? Which - in my opinion - feels backwards. You really don't want your creative people laboring in a system of serfdom, do you?

From the publisher, the game goes through distributors and to retailers in mass quantities. This is a bulky, impenetrable System that few developers could touch without a lot of money and clout. This way, the publishers make sure that any games that want to get to the customers have to go through THEM. The publishers don't have quite the lock on the media that they do on game distribution, but they definitely dominate that particular avenue as well.

For years, that's the way its been. The System totally serves the three primary groups who have invested into creating it: the publishers, the retailers, and the distributors (I believe in that order of precedence). And it gets the games to the customers, and it keeps developers in pizza and caffeine. It's got some flexibility built into it. So while it is sub-optimal, causing games to cost more, poorly rewarding developers, and limiting what the customer can buy, it more or less works.

The Indies - Bucking The System
The whole definition of "indie" that I think a few of us were getting at the other night is simply the developers who decide to sidestep the system. Ultimately, there are only two critical pieces to this whole arrangement - the producers of games (the developers), and the consumers of games (the customers). All those other guys - the guys who take up the lion's share of the money (and increase the cost of the games) - simply contribute to the process of getting the games from the developer to the customer.

So, ideally, the whole "indie" thing might look kinda like this:
Note that here, the word "developer" is singular and "publishers" is plural - the opposite of how The System works. Publishers may not be exclusive. And for "publishers" you can substitute the word, "portals," "distributors,"retailers," "hardware manufacturers," "your aunt Jane who meets ladies at Bingo on Thursday night," or any other point of distribution that can reach more customers. The indie developer may take advantage of any and all means they have available to get their game to the customer, and may bypass all those middlemen that make up "The System" completely.

And ultimately, that's what "indie" is. It's not a game genre, or a game budget, or a size of team, or anything else. It's really about developers who are trying to bypass barriers and middlemen that block them from getting their game to the customer. The System is a game stacked against the developer (and, I'd argue, not in the customer's favor, either).

The Pros and Cons
I don't believe in barriers blocking games from being released. Courtesy of broadband, the technological barrier is slipping away. Now we're left with ... well, traditions. Habits. How gamers go about finding games and buying games.

Now, to be honest, most video games probably aren't worth your time. But here's the trick: The ones that aren't worth YOUR time may not be the same ones that aren't worth MY time.

Under The System, publishers and retailers (and, to a lesser degree, the distributors) handled things in a centralized fashion. Oooh, should I draw a communism parallel here? Okay, we'll pretend I did, and that I got flamed for it. Anyway, unable to determine what kind of game you, specifically, really wanted to play, they instead focused on games that "a lot of people" (these days defined by major publishers as "at least a half a million") would pay full price to play. If so, it got greenlit, otherwise, it was never even made.

So The System is good at serving the lowest common denominator. But unless you are completely Joe Average in all of your gaming tastes, The System isn't particularly good at providing you with what you really want. Just stuff you won't mind.

The indie methodology is more like the open market, a bazaar of the bizarre. The games just get made, though often at a lower budget because they might not have a half-million people willing to pay full price. Imagine thousands of street vendors right outside your house all hawking their wares. Nobody sets artificial limits on what you can buy.

But while there's an initial euphoria that comes with the feeling of being able to find anything if you look hard enough, it soon turns into frustration when you realize that you may have to look very hard to find anything of worth to you. And while the indie game scene may be exploding, a lot of tools that customers need to find the games they want and filter out the ones they don't aren't quite there yet. The media still focuses on mainstream games produced by The System, though that's slowly changing, too.

Multiple Definitions
Now, even this is fuzzy. There's plenty of room for arguing over who is "more indie" than someone else, and who is so big and mainstream that they are actually part of The System now (is Valve part of the system, or are they indie?) And there may be questions of approach to getting your games to the customer (Is someone who produces games strictly for portals still indie?) Besides all this, "indie" is in part a marketing element ("indie is cool"), and in part it is an excuse for having graphics that are obviously not burning out your graphics cards.

And there's an attitude that frequently comes with indie - the attitude of "screw 'em, I'll do it myself!" Which is also kinda cool and rebellious. Part of the image thing. But again, that's more of the fuzzy marketing definition.

But the whole thing about indie is that there are no rules. That's kind of the point, and I'm happy about that. Applying a hard-and-fast definition is doomed to fail. But hopefully this little explanation helped clarify things.

(Vaguely) related accounts of me waxing pedantic:
* GCG Tackles the "What Is An Indie Game?" Question
* Gimme That Old Time Indie Development
* Dependent, Independent, and Indie
.

Labels: Biz, Indie Evangelism

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:16 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
Indie Gaming Comes of Age - And What That Means To You.
Indie Gaming is coming of age, according to some - a little faster than it happened in other media, but just as significantly. At Wired.Com, Clive Thompson discusses this explosion in indie gaming, and announces that this is the reason his "best of indie games" yearly feature has gone away. He states:

"Two years ago, I wrote my first column celebrating the best indie games: small, offbeat titles, programmed usually by a single auteur and given away for free. I figured I'd make it an annual affair. For 12 months, I'd scour the net for independent games that had a spark -- some innovative bit of design or gameplay -- and gather a list of the top 10.

"But I've decided it's impossible.

"This is not because I can't find any games to praise. It's because I can find too many. Two years ago, the number of people making genuinely polished indie games was pretty small, numbering in the dozens or scores. A single columnist could reasonably hope to sample the year's offerings and make some picks."

I noted in December that the number of indie RPGs alone was very impressive - particularly for a genre known for its difficulty in development. Granted, not every one of them were big 30+ hour epics of story and character and world-exploration, but they are still not easy feats of development.

However, I think some of this "explosion" may be as much a matter of discovery and attention as an actual increase in releases. And part of the explosion of indie games is just a subset of the substantial growth in video gaming in general - indie gaming is just shadowing what big brother is doing. Chris Dahlen writes today in "What Indie Games Can Learn From Little Miss Sunshine" at GameSetWatch that indie games may actually not be that far off from mainstream... and when that happens, they may then truly explode.

So what does this mean to you?

Gamers
As a computer gamer, this is almost completely a Good Thing. Especially if you are a fan of a genre that is ill-served by the big publishers. Indie games are getting more press coverage these days, which means you are more likely than you were before to hear about the best indie games. Note that "more likely" is only an improvement over a wretched state of obscurity before. The quality of the best indie games will improve.

Just look at how fans of traditional RPGs were served this year. We sometimes lamented the availability of good RPGs... and now... wow! There were more RPGs coming out of both indie and mainstream channels than I have time to play!

On the downside, you will also have to deal with brain-crippling choices without so much guidance (for a while) as to what's worth your time to even bother to download and play. And this means suffering through a bit more crap - and believe me, your definition of "crap" can reach new lows with indie game. I love them, but a friend put it this way the other day: "If you rate mainstream games an a scale of 6-10, then the ratings for indie games go all the way from 1 to 12."

So - you'll have to go through more work, and suffer through some more lousy game demos. The nice operative word there is "demo" - almost all indie games let you try them for free before you buy them, so you'll be more reasonably assured that your money is going someplace that will yield a decent entertainment value.

As a console gamer, you'll continue to enjoy the screening the big companies have given you. This means you'll have to deal with a lot fewer bad games, but you will also not see a bunch of the rough gems and brilliant-yet-flawed ideas that the computer gamers enjoy. But many of "the best" will make their way to the consoles where you can enjoy them at a budget price.

Game Publishers
If you are a game publisher - well, look no further than the success of Portal to see what kind of benefits indie gaming can bring. The indie gaming field is becoming Darwin's playground, and you can try to pillage the best ideas, perhaps hire / contract the best developers, and sign on the best games to add to your stable of releases. The best PC indie games have made the transition to console several times already, and I expect that trend to continue. There are lots of ways publishers can take advantage of the rise of indie games.

On the flip side, some publishers will try to fight the indies, because indie games are once again rising to challenge mainstream as serious competition. We saw this back in the glory days of Doom and Duke Nukem, and I think we're seeing it again. If indie games get the kind of visibility they need, they will raise the challenge to the big boys for the consumer dollar.

Not that mainstream publishers really need to fear the indies, but they would be best off to figure the indies in their plans, if they aren't already.

Game Developers
On the plus side for game developers, the surge in indie gaming means more media attention, and greater benefit for the top games. The pie grows. This much is a good thing. Tools, engines, content, and services will also target the "indie price range" more. In fact, I think this is part of the reason we're seeing the growth of indie games now (though it's insignificant compared to the rise of digital distribution).

This also means more competition, a lot more games fighting for attention, and a lot more... well, cruddy games choking up the limited attention of gamers. Whether ad-supported or traditionally sold to consumers, more indie games means things become ever more hit-driven and niche-driven. The bar for quality is going to go up, and the "average" indie game is going to be a commercial failure.

Portals of various kinds will continue to rise, some will fall. What we've seen happen in the "casual" arena will occur along other lines and business models - as we're seeing now with Manifesto Games, InstantAction, and Kongregate. Whether that's good or bad will depend upon how the developer plays their cards.

Indie developers - besides having to make either higher quality (read: more expensive) or more targeted games - will also have to become more business and media savvy, in order to help get their games noticed in the crowd. And yeah - we're gonna see more and more "indies" that more closely resemble their "non-indie" cousins. The line between "indie" and "non-indie", as fuzzy and ill-defined as it already is, will be further blurred.

We are facing some interesting times, to say say the least.

Labels: Indie Evangelism

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:37 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Cooper Lawrence Admits Mistake Over Mass Effect Sex Scene
According to an interview Friday with the New York Times (link likely to get archived in the near future), Cooper Lawrence - the "expert opinion" used by Fox News Live Desk to speak out against the console RPG Mass Effect, treating it as pornography, has admitted that she was mistaken and misinformed. She states:

"I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke. Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit."

Score one for the truth.

And score one for Ms. Lawrence. My opinion of her just shot up several points. Yes, she was stupid to have not done her research on the subject before the show. She let herself be manipulated by Fox News. But at least she took two and a half hours of time to research the subject after the fact, and then made the effort to admit her mistake, publicize her apology, and to do what she could to correct it.

Okay, so she's not said anything yet about her misunderstanding about the game-playing demographic (where she stated her opinion as fact that parents don't play video games, only their children... another blatantly false bit of misinformation that she should have done her research on first). Or anything about her claims that some U of Maryland study proves boys can't tell the difference between video games and reality - what the heck was that about? And maybe her actions were motivated by legions of gamers trashing her book ratings on Amazon.com, in their own non-violent version of mob justice (which I think everyone understood would eventually blow over).

I still think it took both guts and class for her to come out with this apology and correction, and I commend her for it.

Fox News Live Desk, for its part, so far seems to be just waiting for things to blow over. Requests for correction have gone unanswered, though they have invited a representative from Electronic Arts to appear on the show. Considering that they have proven that they will just make up allegations out of the blue and hurl them at people, and then cut them off when they try to deny whatever line of garbage Fox News had invented, I can understand EA being a little bit hesitant to accept the invitation.

I gotta say, it's entertaining to speculate as to what might happen next. And I doubt sales of Mass Effect were noticeably damaged by the rumor of it having pornographic content.

So - why was Fox News so eager to trash one of the best-selling games of the season? Are games just such a convenient, politically powerless target for a random sensationalist piece? Or do they actually feel threatened by this rapidly maturing medium, and are actively looking for opportunities to manipulate public opinion against what they perceive as competition? Or a little of both?

And will gamers reciprocate and retract their attacks against her book?

UPDATE: For further hilarity - when it is obvious to Jack Thompson that the whole thing is a load of manure, saying "This contrived controversy is absolutely ridiculous," you know Fox News has really topped itself.


A tip o' the hat to GamePolitics.com and Kotaku for this update.

Labels: Politics, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:34 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Game Vs. Game: Aveyond 2 versus Eschalon Book 1
Two well-anticipated indie RPGs were released at the end of last year - Aveyond 2: Ean's Quest and Eschalon: Book 1. Both are excellent role-playing games, both feature turn-based combat, but they are extremely different in style.

So I put up a poll on the forums - which one do you prefer? For whatever reason - quality, style, graphics - I'm kinda curious as to what sort of games YOU are into. Vote in the poll, discuss it in the thread, and let your opinion by known!

Aveyond 2: Ean's Quest is a cute, funny, more "casual" RPG borrowing heavily from the old 16-bit console jRPGs of the Super Nintendo / Genesis / early Playstation era. It's highly story-driven, party-based, and has turn-based combat. Its inspiration is clearly drawn from games like Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series, among many others.




Eschalon: Book 1 instead goes into the more hardcore western RPG, claiming influences from classics like Ultima, Might & Magic, and Wizardry. It's a lot lighter on story, and heavier on open-ended exploration, game mechanics, and character customization.



Vote In the Poll: Aveyond Vs. Eschalon

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:49 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights: Please Don't Swim In Our Toilet
More words from the development diary of the fantasy/comedy indie RPG Frayed Knights - coming sooner than I'm comfortable with to a hard drive near you, if you are crazy enough to volunteer for the alpha test of Chapter 1.

A Deadline Approaches!
I realized earlier this week that I was down to "40 days and 40 nights" remaining before our contest entry - Chapter 1 of Frayed Knights - is due. Bearing that in mind, we've had to make some difficult scoping decisions. The wilderness land between the temple of Pokmor Xang is likely gone (for now). It's not that it's hard to throw in an extra zone into the game... we could whip out a big empty wilderness full of random encounters in a day. But --- that's not what we're going for.

I mean, we can't do state-of-the-art graphics, elaborate animation, or voice-overs by name actors. But we think we can approach the vicinity of "fun" and "interesting" and "exciting." A big empty wilderness area isn't any of the three, IMO. Our plan is to have the wilderness areas packed with a high density of "mini-adventures." Some will involve smaller interior locations of a handful of rooms (much smaller than Pokmor Xang's temple). Others may be location-based - a buried treasure you find from a map / clue somewhere else in the game, a little micro-story / mystery, or whatnot. Some will tie in to other parts of the game, others will be stand-alone.

We Don't Swim In Your Toilet, So Please Don't Pee In Our Pool
And so there I go talking about what's NOT gonna be in Chapter 1. Unless it gets added later due to feedback on the alpha demo. So let's talk about what we are currently working on...

I spent a little too much time this week ruining a perfectly good dungeon by creating the Pokmor Xang meditation-room pool. I include a render here. It still needs some tweaking - there's a texture anomaly on the metal decoration (based on the Pokmor Xang symbol James McEwan came up with, sans the full "biohazard" symbology). Yes, it is a pool! A strangely shaped pool. I know, my skillz as a 3D modeler are truly 133t. And you may say it resembles some other device known for holding liquid, but I assure you - it is NOT, and such devices did not exist in medieval society.

But it makes it all the funnier when Dirk has to swim in it.

Not that he has to, actually. That's an optional part of the dungeon adventure. You may, in fact, save yourself some amount of grief if you don't. But with great grief comes some mediocre jokes and a little bit o' loot, so... your call.

Here's a screenshot looking upon it from the balcony above, so you can see what it looks like in-game. Yeah, not as cool as the Pokmor Xang statue, I guess. But that comes later. Maybe I should have some discarded magazines scattered about the benches.

Playing Through
I did a play-through of the Pokmor Xang dungeon, which is still lacking some content (and lacking some equipment, some spells, and all drama star effects, and the ability to drink healing potions). I skipped about half of the combat encounters with a cheat code, explored - VERY quickly - all of the rooms, clicked on everything that could be clicked (but didn't really read the descriptions). Total time for play-through: Approximately 40 minutes. This means, once everything is in place and someone doesn't cheat their way through half the fights, I think a first-time play through should actually be about an hour for the dungeon. This sounds about right for me.

I already talked earlier this week about the secret doors. There's only one in this dungeon, but I hope there will be plenty more in others. I'm pleased to have those in place - those were on the list for potentially being scrapped (at least for the contest).

I started work on the buying / selling interface this week as well. It doesn't actually work, yet, but the prototype UI is there, based heavily upon the inventory UI.

Random Yet Predictable
Frayed Knights is consuming my waking hours, and I've found it has turned me into a horrible conversationalists. What else do I tak about? People ask me how was my weekend, and I all I can do is tell them how many hours I spent in the Temple of Pokmor Xang balancing out combat encounter difficulty, affixing torches to the walls, and building locks.

It really makes dinners with relatives extremely entertaining - from my perspective, at least. I love seeing their deer-in-the-headlights expressions as I can practically hear them thinking, "how to I politely excuse myself from the crazy man?"

One thing I've noticed, while balancing combat, is the tug-of-war between randomness and predictability. (See, this is the sort of thing I bring up during dinner discussions. I can practically hear what you are thinking right now.)

Players want predictability. Predictability gives the player control. Randomness reduces that control. But it also keeps things interesting. My probability model follows (perhaps a bit too closely) standard dice-rolling loveliness of tabletop gaming, and while it yields fairly predictable results over the long term, in the short term it leads to very erratic fights. Nothing torques off a magic user in D&D (for example) more than having their awesome uber-spell completely negated due to spell resistance or a good saving throw. Likewise, players hate times when they have an 85% chance of completely ignoring a save-or-die effect, and they blow their save.

However, players (at least secretly or subconsciously) love the CHANCE of having the spectacular failures. The risk that the next die roll could be your last... well, until you get a resurrection. But they want to be on the "lucky" side of that risk. Every time. They want to be the person who takes the long shots - and pulls it off. The risk and randomness is all very exciting - but you want it to pay off more often than probability says it should.

So I'm re-looking at how combat works (again) in Frayed Knights. Should I normalize the results a bit more? Skew everything even more tightly towards the middle? Part of that would include making "hits" far more frequent than misses. The original rules called for a slightly better than 50% chance of hitting against an equally matched opponent - which is actually, IMO as a former fencer and medievalist, really too high (at least for the kinds of melee combat I'm familiar with). But missing is boring. And makes combats too random.

I've skewed attacks now so they occur a little more frequently, but now I'm trying to make decisions about damage. Should they be more normalized? It feels weird when, during a round of combat, Arianna lands a pathetic 2-point hit, followed by Chloe who - in spite of being much weaker than Arianna and a less skilled combatant - does five times that damage on her own hit. Granted, if you graph the hits over the long term, you'll find that Arianna hits far more often, and averages about 2 points of damage per hit more than Chloe in melee. But - that random spread makes things feel too random.

So I may be doing more tinkering.

"To Do: Slap Together a Game"
The "to do" list is truly staggering, even without the wilderness. I spent time this week making sure we'd have music and all the remaining artwork that will be required for the game. Characters / character models are the principle area we're struggling with right now. Aside from that, from a content perspective, I'm looking forward to (and working towards) the stuff we're going to be doing after the contest. But the contest is going to take precedence for the next two months.

Upcoming for this week - more of the same:

• Make sure there are more things to click on and do in the dungeon
  
• Get the writhroots and blurry form spells working.
• Travel between the temple and the village.
• All dungeon loot / items.
• Get dungeon dialog 100% completed, self-edited, and then send off to my editor friends who promised to take a look at it and still remain friends with me later.
• Get spellcasting working out-of-combat.
• Get activated items working both in and out of combat.
• Finish the merchant trade system
• Fix encounter spawning
• Get Freelook working
  

Man. I am getting tired just looking at that list. But I think we're down to about 36 days as of today, so... I'd best get cracking. But if I could actually manage to knock out the majority of what's on the list, we'll be in AWESOME shape.

'Till next week!


(Vaguely) related delves into metaphorical dungeons:
* Wandering Monsters and Random Encounters
* Disappointment In the Demonweb Pits
* Frayed Knights: Twisty Paths and Flickering Torchlight
* Waiter! Why Is My Dungeon Stale?
* What's the Difference Between Adventure, Puzzle, and Role-Playing Games?

Discuss Dungeon Plumbing On The Forum Thread!

Labels: Frayed Knights, Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:24 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Reminder: XFire Debate Panel on Indie Games Today
Hey guys - just wanted to remind you about this coming up this afternoon:

The XFire Debate Club Presents: The State of Independent Games

Yours truly will be on the panel, as well as several other notables as you can see on the site. Here's a chance to throw some tough questions at your favorite indie game developers. Download XFire and attend if you can (it's during work hours here in Utah), or view the transcript later if you can't.

It'll be at 5:00 PM Eastern, which is 3:00 Mountain and 2:00 PM Pacific. And something else o'clock somewhere....

Notables include Amanda Fitch (Aveyond), Jenova Chen (flOw), Corvus Elrod (Man Bytes Blog), Josiah Pisiotta (Gish), Chris Pasley (kongregate.com), and Nils-Holger Henning (www.bigpoint.net). John Bardinelli (JayIsGames among other gaming sites) is moderating.

Be there! Or be somewhere else!

Oh, and I'm RampantCoyote, if you wanna add me to your list or anything :)

Labels: Indie Evangelism

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:03 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Guest Post: Fatal Hearts Review
Note: This isn't a review site, though I give my opinion often enough. However, in this case, game journalist, blogger, and good friend JanaLee Stocks (AKA JenaRey) had something a little more playful in mind in addition to her "official" review for the mainstream gaming sites. So - I'm turning over the microphone to her to talk a little bit about Fatal Hearts, the latest game from Hanako Games (of Cute Knight fame).

Fatal Hearts Review

I blame, Jay. No, seriously…it's all his fault. If it wasn't for him I likely never would have found Fatal Hearts, and thus my life would still be my own instead of feverishly clicking on the next dialogue because I simply MUST know what happens this time. My house is a mess but I can't take the time to clean it. Will I find out who is the mysterious stranger in my dreams? Will I join the Wolfriemen? Will I die in my sleep? *whimper*

It's all Jay's fault.

Okay, so maybe it's not Jay's fault, but it's definitely Georgina's who is the chief cook and bottlewasher when it comes to the game Fatal Hearts. It's a clever piece that's a cross between a typical adventure game and a wonderfully written choose your own adventure book. Like most adventure games there are sections where there's stuff to click on (though no pixel hunting, thankfully) and clues to find all combined with a variety of puzzles and plenty of NPC interaction.

The game tells the story of pretty fifteen and a half year old Christina who is having funky dreams (pretty boy mysterious strangers, hubba hubba!) and finds herself in the center of a supernatural drama and only four chapters to decide who will live and who will die, herself included. As Christina you have the opportunity to make choices all through out the game that will take the story in different directions. Do you get into the car with a strange boy? Do you tell the police what you saw in the forest? Do you lie to your mother? This one was strangely difficult to click on. I think I've been so thoroughly brainwashed by my own mother to never lie to her, so it was a hard choice even in a game. The dialogue and action trees are so perfect for a typical teenager that I found myself regressing about fifteen years. There was squealing even…I'm not proud, but there you have it. Even small things - like a discussion about what you want to be when you grow up - can have a significant impact on where you end the game (at any of its 14 end points).

The puzzles in the game are hugely fun and get more complex every time you come across them. I adore the number of different types of puzzles that are represented because they keep me from getting bored. Even better is the fact there's a strategy guide that comes with the game which features cheat codes. I love a good puzzle, but there are some that just don't have as much appeal for me. Like driving Jeremy's car, which connects with a spasmodic part of my brain and all I can do is run into buildings and die. Over and over and over… after about fifteen minutes of frustration it was nice to be able to use the code to skip over that puzzle. It was the only one I skipped without having finished it at least once. Some of the others I skipped on the fourth or fifth iteration because I'd already beaten them and knew they took forever and I wanted to get back to the story. Sue me.

Maybe the very best part of this game was the fact it sucked in my mother. I'm not revealing her age, but neither of us are fifteen anymore. She'd come for a visit to help me assemble wedding invitations and saw what looked like a Sudoku puzzle on the screen. And we have a conversation that goes like this:

Her: "What's that?"

Me: "Just this game I'm reviewing."

Her: "It looks like sudoku."

Me: "This puzzle is."

Her: "The bottom row is wrong."

Me: "No it's not."

Her: "Is so. If you do it that way then these other two boxes don't work."

Me: "…"

Her: "Can you start the puzzle over again?"

Me: "Yep."

Her: "Good…put the one that looks like a devil guy right there…"

So we work the puzzle together and she gets sucked into the story too. We finish that ending.

Her: "That was a stupid ending! I don't want to be the vampire bride. It says ending 04 of 14. Start the game again!"

On the second time through she makes the choices for Christina. Right up until she has to go visit my sister and the sick grandkids. Mom doesn't want to leave because she wants to know how it ends, but she must. So she calls me a couple of hours later, demanding to know in detail what happened.

I think Mom's getting an early mother's day present.

So there it is. Excellent game. Low learning curve. Romance, action, supernatural critters, death, sacrifice, malls… who could ask for more?

Now all of you nice people go away and buy your own copies. Christina has just made chocolate chip cookies for the seventh time and I'm hungry.

Obligatory Numeric Scores:
Puzzle variety: 9
Teenage girl regression: 10
Hunky mysterious strangers: 10
Dramatic Supernatural Story: 10
Stupid Jeremy's car: -2
Times I'm going to play this game: 14+


Fatal Hearts is available from RampantGames.com

Jana's gaming blog is Eeps, Meeps, and Ipes. Besides being fully in touch with her inner fifteen-year-old, she also seems to have a thing for the hyperkinetic rabbity-thing in the Sam & Max adventures, and pretending to be a rock diva in Rock Band and Guitar Hero.


(Vaguely) related... stuff
* Aveyond 2 and Fatal Hearts
* Cute Knight Deluxe Available From Rampant Games
* The Power of Text in Gaming

Labels: Adventure Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:18 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
GameTunnel to End Yearly Awards?
It looks like there may be no chance for Frayed Knights to win the 2008 Indie RPG of the Year award from GameTunnel.com (somehow managing to steal the cup from The Broken Hourglass, Age of Decadence, and Maybe even Cute-Knight-2-If-Hanako-Gets-To-It-This-Year...), because there may not be one.

In an interview at IndieGames.com, Russell Carroll, marketing director for Reflexive and owner of GameTunnel, he suggests that the extreme effort may no longer be worthwhile. "The awards each year are nothing short of a nightmare. I spend all my Saturdays on them, I work all night after coming from work on them and I take paid time off work to do them... Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the 2007 awards came off to the sound of crickets. Major websites, such as Slashdot, which in the past have given us front page coverage, didn't cover us at all, not even in their games section. Watching stories about rumors and cakes in the shape of a DS showing up on all the major game blog sites while the awards were not covered was initially devastating."

While there may be something like a top ten list in the future, his current opinion is that the event, as it has run in the past, is over. "When I see toast that is scraped off to look like Pac-Man making the news on Kotaku and the top indie games of the year not getting a mention it really gives you some perspective about what you are spending your time on, and for me, I think it's likely I spent too much time on my awards this year. This was the 6th year of awards, so I've got a fairly set path I follow. I made all the same steps, but we saw less than 1/10th of the visitors. It's unfortunate, but it's been a good run."

So the big question in my mind is: Is this indicative of the state of indie games, or the state of GameTunnel? Are people less interested in the indie gaming scene now, because "casual" has now split off into its own field and become mainstream, and people are getting their small, cheap game fix on the XBox 360, or are people just paying attention to other sites? I know I, for one, have been very pleased with the increase in coverage of indie games on the more major game sites, though I attribute that as much to the dearth of hardcore games on the PC as anything else.

Labels: Indie Evangelism

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:22 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Jeff Vogel Interview at GameBanshee
There's an interview on GameBanshee with Spiderweb Software founder Jeff Vogel. What's interesting about this interview is that it seems to have much more of a developer-centric focus. Would-be RPG developers (who, me?) should pay attention!

A fascinating couple of excerpts:

"I never really enjoyed (making RPGs). I thought I would. When I wrote the engine for our first game, all those years ago, I was really looking forward to making the world. That, I thought, would be the fun. Then, fifteen minutes into designing the first town, I thought, `Wow. This sucks.' And it hasn't improved much since then."

"Don't get me wrong. I love nice graphics as much as the next guy. I make our games as pretty as I can. I'm not ideologically attached to low-budget games. It's just all I can do. But if someone wants a pretty game, I will not be able to please that person. And if I spend a bunch of money and an extra year making a game as pretty as I possibly can, I still will not please that person... There is one thing I can do: Make a cool adventure in a cool world. So I do that."

Of course, he does talk about Avernum V, now available for the Mac and coming soon to the PC. If interested, go check it out!

Spiderweb Software Interview at GameBanshee

(Vaguely) related stuff I found the other day:
* Why Does Jeff Vogel Hate RPGs?
* Jeff Vogel Gives Innovation Another Chance
* Is There Hope for Indie Computer RPGs?
.

Labels: Interviews, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:51 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
By Fox News Standards, Top Gun Was Porn
This was all over the web over the last day or so. On Monday, Fox News Live Desk effectively fell for what I'd consider a hoax. The ol' telephone game has taken place, and a short love scene from Mass Effect, regarded by everyone who's actually played the game as more tasteful than what you'd see in many rated "R" movies, has been trumped up by certain ill-informed non-gaming voices into being some gigantic porn simulator.

Fox News took that at face value, swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, and produced a pretty embarrassingly bad pretense at journalism. And they roped poor Geoff Keighley into it.

Unfortunately, it looks like Geoff was suckered into the classic "Have Your Quit Beating Your Wife?" question. While he thought the question was about the love scene in question in a rated "M" game, the REAL question they were asking was, "Why do you think this interactive porn game is appropriate for 13-year-old boys?"

So he tried to play a defensive game, the sole person in the segment actually concerned with getting facts straight, while everyone else was laughing off his question as to whether or not they actually played the game and knew what the hell they were talking about.

I haven't played Mass Effect, so I probably don't know any better than the talking heads what I'm talking about. But I have seen the scene in question, which left almost everything to the imagination - quite to the contrary of MacCallum's allegation - and was less steamy and not much more graphic than the love scene in the movie Top Gun. Now unless there's some hidden Hot Coffee-esque secret version that I've missed (and, knowing gamers, if there was we would have heard about it by now in graphic detail...), Fox News was really just making crap up. At a certain point, people, what you call an "exaggeration" is indeed a lie.

And then Cooper Lawrence chimed in with some 1981-era demographic knowledge by claiming that even grown-ups were buying it, they certainly weren't playing it. Right. And before you know it, TV shows are going to show couples sleeping in the same bed and lead to the downfall of civilization as we know it.

Now, I'm not going to defend the appropriateness of the love scene in Mass Effect. As far as I know, it's a gratuitous bit thrown in to stir up exactly this kind of controversy (and to send sales through the roof). But the incredibly shoddy journalism and double standards shown by Fox News Live Desk is just begging to be mocked.

And my sympathy goes out to Geoff Keighley. The battle was unwinnable. Maybe he would have scored more points if he went on the offensive and said, "Are you both on DRUGS? What game are you talking about here? Where can I buy this porn simulator you guys are referring to, because I've played all through Mass Effect and all I got was one two-minute PG-13-ish love scene!" But he might not be invited back, and there are undoubtedly less stupid battles to be fought in the future.

I guess with the writer's strike still ongoing, people are desperate for fiction on TV.

UPDATE (7/24): EA (Now owner of Bioware) has sent a letter to Fox News requesting that they retract their blatant falsehoods, explaining very clearly exactly where they were ... shall we charitably say, "misinformed?"

Story At Kotaku

The silly thing about this is that the Live Desk segment, while increasing the bizarre (but, I hope, increasingly marginal and impotent) anti-videogame hysteria amongst similarly misinformed viewers, probably helped give Mass Effect's sales a nice boost. A public retraction would probably do the same. So EA, Bioware, and Microsoft are probably enjoying a win / win scenario.

Labels: Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:07 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Indie RPG News Roundup, January 22
Just when you thought it was safe to visit Rampant Games again... here comes the Return of the Indie RPG News Roundups! I try to keep my ear to the ground, which at this particular moment in my neck of the woods is covered with a foot of snow - so it's a very cold, miserable job. But my pain is your gain! Here's what I've heard:


Depths of Peril
Not an HOUR after posting last week's update, Soldak sent me an email with more news about their award-winning action-RPG-with-depth (my label, not theirs), Depths of Peril. First of all, the 1.007 (that's right, double-oh-seven) is now official, and you can pick it up at the DoP Patch Page. Secondly, they have two new monster profiles up - for the Brute and the Wisp, which you can read about on the DoP Monster Profile Page.


The Adventures of Cendah
Swedish Indie Carl Karlsson of KingDiz Entertainment continues his retro-RPG efforts with a new indie RPG entitled, "The Adventures of Cendah." According to Carl, "The Demon Within was a project that went well, but the true purpose of it was to learn! I got a lot of feedback from it and since the engine I created wasn't even used to its limits. I decided to start a new project using that engine, but improved it according to the feedback I thought was useful. Some people were so impressed with the work I had started that they decided to help me out with some custom graphics and music!"

This may very well be the first "new" indie RPG release of 2008. The Adventures of Cendah includes three different towns with a unique quest for each, new spells and abilities, new items, new monsters, and new graphics. The demo is now available, and you can check it out at the KingDiz Website:

The Adventures of Cendah Playable Demo


Dungeon Crawl Tile Version
This is a graphical roguelike inspired by Linley's Dungeon Crawl. If you are familiar with roguelikes, you know what to expect. This game includes an insane number of races and classes, but I keep dying at an early level, so I can't really tell you the difference between them all with any kind of authority.

Download Dungeon Crawl Tile Version (Windows, and Linux)

(Source: JayIsGames)


Ultima VI Remake - The U6 Project
I normally do not cover game mods, but I'll make an exception this time. Fear and tremble, as it probably won't be the last time, either. RPGWatch has an interview with Jesse 'Zephyr' Strachman, who is heading up the U6 Project, a Dungeon Siege mod to re-create the classic Ultima VI. Maybe they'll fix it so that the pirate map segment of the game isn't so dang boring and annoying (I'm allowed to say that and still be considered an Ultima fan, right?). Those who are familiar with Ultima V Lazarus will be familiar with what they are trying to do.

Read the U6 Project Interview at RPGWatch


The Griffon Legend
"500 years after the Griffon-Dragon war, the Dragons have returned to reclaim their emipre. Cities are falling, everyone is dieing, and the lone Griffon Knight Fayne is caught up in the middle of it all."

The Griffon Legend is the first RPG completed using FreeBasic.

You can check out this indie Action-RPG here:
Download The Griffon Legend

(Source: JayIsGames)


Caverns of Underkeep
This is a free browser-based roguelike game currently in alpha - but playable and "mostly" complete, according to the developer, Joshua Smyth. Right now, it consists of only seven dungeon levels, but development is continuing on the project.

Play Caverns of Underkeep


UPDATE: Minions of Mirth - The Undead Wars Expansion Pack
A new expansion to the indie "hardcore" Massively Multiplayer RPG, Minions of Mirth (boasting 70,000 registered players... including yours truly), is due out in April. Titled "The Undead Wars," it is planned to include new monsters, zones, quests, items, and new / improved skills for mid-to-high level archetypes. More details will, I'm sure, be forthcoming. As always with Minions of Mirth, community members are very involved in the development of the expansion. Thanks, Prairie Games, for the reminder!

The Undead Wars Backstory

The Undead Wars Expansion Details


Aaaand - that's all I've got for now, folks. If you have tips on new indie computer RPGs (CRPGs) in late development, or recently released, gimme a holler either via email (jayb -- at, you know, rampantgames.com), or post it in this forum thread. Or you can post in the thread just to talk about these games, too - that's cool, too.


(Vaguely) related recent indie RPG news and foibles:
* Indie RPG News, January 16th
* Indie RPG News, December 26th
* Indie RPG News, December 12th
.

Labels: Indie RPG News

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:42 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights: Secret Doors
Just a little tidbit from the ongoing development of Frayed Knights:


That is not a graphics anomaly. That little area where it looks like the texture doesn't line up quite right is actually a secret door. There will be an automatic search that takes place near it to let you - the player - recognize that something is not quite right (assuming the search succeeds). Or you may recognize it visually.

It's minor, it's silly, but it gives me warm feelings inside. Some days, I look at how much work the game needs, and I think, "Oh, man, this thing will NEVER come together." Other days - like today - I get a minor little victory like this, and it's so cool that I think to myself, "This is gonna be the coolest game EVAR!!1!1!" It's nice to have one of those latter kinds of days once in a while.

I've had a couple of them this last week. This is a good thing. Maybe it's a sign. Or maybe its denial. I dunno which, but it makes me happy. And makes the crazy hours I'm putting in on this thing seem worthwhile.

I was just thinking back a little, and trying to recall how many non-indie RPGs (or indie RPGs, for that matter) of the last five or six years actually include secret doors like this. Not very many that I can think of. D&D Online is one of the few mainstream games to include them. I don't know if the concern is that the players will miss them entirely - and thus miss some of the laboriously-created content the developers have put in the game. Or if they were just too hard to implement in art (one reason NWN didn't have them until a later expansion).

And for your entertainment - another great use of secret doors.

Labels: Frayed Knights, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:57 AM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Game Credits - And Rock Band
I got Rock Band back from EA this week, and today I watched the credits. Before the "traditional" movie-style credits scrolled, they have everyone involved in the game at Harmonix pictured, in groups of two. The most fascinating thing was that it was done in alphabetical order, based on their first names. This way, interns and testers got billed ahead of producers or senior programmers. Actually, I think they had an office manager or two pictured, so maybe it was just everyone at their studio.

At SingleTrac we looked at some grandstanding being done by the producers at Sony (which was their job, of course - providing a human contact with the media), and decided to turn it - briefly - into a joke. While waiting for the official list of credits to come in, we included some stand-in text. As an internal joke, we had one Sony producer's name in for every job we could think of. Then we had a note tagged on at the bottom, "Oh, and some guys from SingleTrac helped." I don't remember if the Sony guys saw that version or not. If so, hopefully they took it good-naturedly.

When we were given the final credits list, we were amazed at the Sony credits. We had dozens of names of people we'd never even heard of, and we had no clue what they'd actually done on this game. It seemed like anybody who'd ever sat in a meeting once about this game had to go in the credits. Based upon sheer name count, our joke about "Some guys from SingleTrac helped" seemed quite appropriate in retrospect.

The issues of who gets credit and for what is a pretty big deal. Some have proposed standardization - as they do in movies. As I understand it, they have extremely rigorous rules for whose name goes where, and gets billed above someone else. I personally think that's an overkill, and I'd like to see studios free to attempt a more egalitarian approach like Rock Band's.

Of course, they still had more formal, standard credits appearing after the photo segment. That was possibly mandated by EA, so maybe including both was their way of getting around those restrictions.

But then how many people actually watch the credits in games? I like to see how they broke up different jobs on the team, and there's always a chance I will recognize somebody's name. But I expect that I'm in an eensy weensy minority of people that actually bother reading this stuff.

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:51 PM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights: Of Priests and Pus
Continuing the weekly report of the development of Frayed Knights, the comedy-based fantasy RPG...

A Ray of Sunshine
Every once in a while, the universe decides to quit kicking you when you are down, and give you a ray of hope. Maybe that's just so it'll hurt more when it kicks you again and dashes those hopes. But regardless of its purposes, it's great when it happens.

Earlier this week I bemoaned the state of content. Frayed Knights has been running behind, and I have been desperately trying to find ways to get it back on schedule. And I've been frantically trying to figure out how to get things done quickly -- and the "build or buy" decisions get complicated by the difficulties of adapting off-the-shelf content to match (insofar as possible on an indie budget).

Not 24 hours after I posted it, art resources from the other team members (who hadn't seen the blog post) began rolling in. Kevin delivered the Pokmor Xang dungeon "release candidate." And James had the pus golem rigged with some animations done, and was working on the Pokmor Xang priests.

Worshipping Pokmor Xang
We went the rounds on the priest, and while it's still a work-in-progress, I am very pleased with how it's shaping up. "Tickled" might be the operative word here. It took us a few iterations. The idea here was to make them at once comical but menacing. I mean, these guys worship a pus-god. The god of boils, blisters, and pimples. They are obviously very disturbed individuals. How do you explain that particular conversion to your friends and family. "Well, one morning I popped