The Food Court Musical
Abso-friggin'-lutely hysterical.

How would you like to be sitting in a mall food court, eating your hamburger or lo mein, when suddenly people around you spontaneously broke out into a musical number?

Thank goodness there are people like this in the world who will go through such pains to make the lives of others around them a little more surreal and amusing...

The Food Court Musical



(Spotted on the Rifftrax Blog... thanks to Rabid Paladin for the tip!)
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:43 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Game Design: Is "Non-Linear" a Bad Thing?
"So what do you do?"

Running "Pen and Paper" roleplaying games, I've found this particular question asked by the game-master has a tendency to cause frustration and deer-in-the-headlights stares from many players. It could be used as a really great stalling technique on my part, because it has the tendency to bring the entire game to a screeching halt for anywhere from fifteen minutes to two hours.

Folks generally have the feeling that being "on rails" is a bad thing. Shamus Young lampooned the whole "railroad" RPG campaign thing in DM of the Rings. After all, the fun of interactive games is in it being interactive - you can make choices and affect the outcome with your skills (or lack thereof). Computer and videogames often go this route. The developers can't possibly create all the content and assets necessary for players to literally go anywhere and do anything. So they constrain the breadth of the player's actions pretty tightly. Players balk at this, and claim they want "non-linear" or "open" gameplay.

Hey, I'm one of 'em. There's a reason the Elder Scrolls games are amongst my favorite RPGs, and why I get horrendously sucked into big 'ol sandbox games. I like charting my own course. Even in Pen & Paper RPGs, which sometimes causes the game master to start turning purple and ignoring me as I start wandering around talking to people I was never meant to talk to.

But I think there's a very solid case for having "too much of a good thing." To some players, the true open-world sandbox-ish games are a nightmare. Some players - and I may even go so far as to say that most players - want to know what they are "supposed" to do next, and the open environment just confuses them. Yes, they claim to want to be off the rails --- but what they really want is the option to depart the rails once in a while.

In general, I think it might be safe to say that too much open-endedness with too little feedback or guidance in a game is a Bad Thing. True "non-linear" gameplay shouldn't be a goal for most games... just the ones that have a design that revolves around that level of freedom (which I love and will continue to play, thank you very much). But for other games, just give us some wiggle room and interesting choices along the way - don't lock us onto the rails, but don't plan on us moving out of sight of it either.

Agree? Disagree? Figure out what it is I'm smoking on the Forum.


(Vaguely) related ascensions to the heights of Mount Obvious:
* Stop the Long-Winded Intros!
* RPG Design: Why Can't I Get Past the Stupid Door?
* Roleplaying and Computer Roleplaying Games
* Mistakes in Game Design
.

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

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

 
There Just Ain't No Justice...
I saw a forum post today where the owner of a warez site was trying to sell the site. He claims it has making $25 - $30 per day through ad-based revenue. While not a kingly sum by any stretch, I'll go on the record here and state that Rampant Games doesn't make that much (yet...). So much for trying to run an honest, legitimate business, huh?

You know, if there was a credible threat of serious fines and jail time, this sort of thing might not go away, but it would sure become harder to find.

Have I mentioned lately that the games business (and the legal system concerning digital rights) is seriously, seriously screwed up? I guess not - I've purposely avoided the topic for a couple of weeks. Here I go again, I guess: Piracy is a Really Bad problem for game developers today. And, on a side note which I will not justify here, DRM and ad-based revenue are not good solutions.

I'm sure there are far better solutions to be found. In fact, I know of a few that are already out there... but they aren't universally applicable.

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:47 PM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Video Games Live Concert Report
Last night, my wife and I went to the Video Games Live concert in Salt Lake City. The event began on a great note, as we ran into a bunch of people I knew from previous jobs, including Kirk Baum, who is now working at Disney. My wife jokes that I couldn't even cross the lobby. It got even worse later...

To get to our seats, we had to go past an older couple on the end who were obviously season ticket holders for the Utah Symphony, and had no clue what they were in for. This was true of many couples in the orchestra seats. Once we were seated, we were treated to a little pre-show video of a Ms. Pac-Man skit performed by actors in costumes.

There was a technical glitch at the beginning of the concert, but after a couple of minutes it resolved, and the Symphony began with an extensive medley of music from older games, accompanied by a video. I say music "from" other games, but the medley began with some games for which there was no music. Like... Pong. They music was composed loosely guided by the sounds and themes from the game - from the irregular beep-boop-beep noises of Pong, to the more four-tone heartbeat rhythm of descending aliens in Space Invaders, to the heart-racing thrumming of Space Invaders, on through Missile Command (the next video shown in the medley). Then the medley switched to a variation on Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, an always-popular theme for video games in the 1980's. The video showed Defender, Tempest, Centipede, Robotron, Joust, and finally Satan's Hollow (which actually used Ride of the Valkyries as its theme music, for those few who might recall it from the arcades).

Then the medley shifted to actual theme music, and blew through segments from Commando, Donkey Kong (which got plenty of cheers), Frogger, Elevator Action, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Duck Hunt, Punch Out, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gauntlet, Rastan (my favorite of the last half), Outrun, and finally Tetris. (UPDATE: You can watch & listen the medley here.)

After the extensive medley, Tommy Tallarico came out and introduced the director, Jack Wall, and the VGL concert. He explained that the goal of VGL was to prove how culturally significant and artistic games could be. He also told everyone that unlike most symphonies, we should feel free to clap, cheer, and yell out if we feel like it. Particularly later in the event, it was clear he was really trying to feel and act like a rock star, which was amusing, but we all had a good time.

The rest of the first half had the orchestra and choir doing themes from Metal Gear Solid, Medal of Honor (done with a montage of footage from World War II, rather than game footage), Civilization IV, a Final Fantasy medley performed by Martin Leung on piano, Advent Rising, and Zelda. The Advent Rising piece was particularly interesting because Tommy Tallarico was the composer, and had decided to create music reminiscent of Italian opera, but also because the game itself was created here in Utah.

During the Metal Gear sequence, they had someone come out in black special forces gear. He had a device on his back that had an exclamation mark pop up over his head and light up. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of that. Well, almost everyone. I saw one older couple leave during the first act. Apparently, they were season ticket holders who did not approve.

Directly after the Metal Gear sequence, they had a volunteer come up from the audience and play a "Live" game of Space Invaders, with the orchestra playing some music for the game as he played. He wore a T-shirt with a ship on the back, which I guess tracked his movements. And he had a button to press to shoot the gun. While the game would have been really tricky for ANYBODY to play like that, he had apparently never played Space Invaders and had no clue how to play. Tallarico gave him the suggestion to shoot the ships on the end first, but this guy didn't get it. So he lost the game, but everyone seemed to have fun with it.

During the intermission, I once again proved I couldn't cross the lobby. As my wife and I were hunting for bathrooms, I ran into a couple of friends from work, and also ran into Mike Nielsen, who's doing the music for Frayed Knights. We ended up having a short meeting there in the lobby to work out his next versions of the music, and for me to mention a couple of things happening on the Frayed Knights front. I got back to my seat just before the second half began, but got to ask the older couple on the end how they were enjoying the concert. The man didn't reply, and the woman wiggled her hand in a "so-so"

The second act started with another "Live action" game - a competitive game of Frogger with the Orchestra playing a very souped-up version of the music from the game. Two kids were chosen to compete against each other on the big screen - with more traditional controls this time - and the younger kid nearly cleared the board.

Besides that, the second act had music from Kingdom Hearts, Warcraft (I watched another older couple leave after the footage of the Night Elf running half-naked through the forest), and the Mario themes. Then Martin Leung performed some piano solos again - this time doing his famous blindfolded Mario performance, followed by high-speed Mario music. The second half "concluded" with Tommy Tallarico on electric guitar with the orchestra and choir performing the music from Halo and Halo 3.

Tallarico and Jack Wall left the stage at that point, but the choir and orchestra hadn't moved, which made it pretty obvious we were in for a rock concert style encore. The older couple on the end of the row either didn't know this, or didn't care, because they beat a hasty exit. I guess all the sci-fi combat footage wore them out.

Jack and Tommy came back out, and Tommy asked "How about some music from Final Fantasy?" Everyone shouted their approval. "Which one?" he asked. Everyone shouted their favorite. I was shouting "Seven!" along with - I think - the majority. He said "How about Final Fantasy Seven?" Then he had everyone shout together the name of the song - it was obvious to every gamer in the audience (at least those who know the names of the musical themes from Final Fantasy). The entire concert hall shouted "ONE WINGED ANGEL!" With Tommy strutting around like a rock star adding electric guitar to the piece (hey, that was used in the variant theme from Advent Children so I rolled with it).

After that, Tommy said that it would be just too easy to end with One Winged Angel, since everyone was expecting it, so they concluded with music from Castlevania.

Afterwards, they were holding a "meet and greet" with local video game developers. I thought it would be more of an introduction with the dozens of game developers here in Utah, but mostly it was a set of tables for autographs from certain local developers, Tommy, Jack, Martin Leung, soloists from the show, the producers of Advent Rising, and a few other local developers. I noted that there were more game developers hanging out just outside the line to the "meet and greet" than actually there at the tables, so I chatted with Steve Taylor and a few other guys. And I bought a T-shirt.

Overall, the concert was awesome. We had a blast. Sure, there was plenty of cheese and silliness - but this is the video game industry, after all! We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. I highly recommend going to the show if you find it playing nearby.

Labels: Biz, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:08 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Guitar Rising Q&A
This game has far more of my interest than the next Guitar Hero installment:

Guitar Rising Q&A on RPGVault

An excerpt:

Jake Parks: Guitar Hero brings the enjoyment of making music to the masses through the simplification of making music. Guitar Rising attempts to do the same thing, but with a real guitar. By breaking down the complexity of the guitar into a rhythm game, we want to appeal to guitar players and non-guitarists alike.

For the former, this could be possibly the fastest and most enjoyable way to learn a song that you don't already know. For the latter, it is simply playing a game, and by virtue of doing so, you are learning a little bit about how actually to play a guitar.

Nice to know I won't have to shell out for yet another controller... I happen to have two of 'em handy already...

Labels: Guitar Hero, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:25 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights - Save Me!
More on the development of the indie RPG of high fantasy and low humor, Frayed Knights.

This week I came to the end of the day job's "crunch mode." I'm still in something of a recovery state. Unfortunately, the two weeks of crunch pretty much threw off FK's schedule by a similar amount. I'm still cranking away at getting alpha 3 out this weekend, but there won't be enough time to test it in order to make an April 1 public release.

Please, Save My Game!
But it was time to crank up the blues on iTunes (in this case, John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom,"), roll up the sleeves, and get back to work making up for lost time. My focus has been on certain top complaints from testers. The lack of saved games topped the list.

Saved Games are working - finally. And fully. I think. I've had to make some changes to properly allow for all the other zones the game is about to incorporate beyond the pilot. One thing that IS massing is map information right now. Gotta work on that.

Which leads to a whole new headache, actually. Multiple headaches. The automap needs serious fixing, and won't be working right in the next alpha. One more reason why it won't be ready on April 1st.

Some Other Changes
Two more top complaints from testers has been mouse inconsistency between dialogs, and the spell screen not retaining it's previous settings for casters and targets. I got that fixed. One thing testers may not be so pleased with is some of my changes to combat - specifically, armor and weapon restrictions and limitations. Yeah, before you could throw chain mail on Chloe without a problem. Now, she won't wear it without having a feat (hey, it's heavy, and chaffs!) to do so, and even if she does have the light armor feat (yeah, chainmail counts as "light armor" in Frayed Knights), it will penalize her spellcasting and increase the likelihood of a fizzle.

I'm making a few more changes to combat to make it behave a little more clearly (I hope). And for the alpha 3 release, I'm trying to balance out experience point and drama point awards a little better.

On the art front, James has been frantically coming up with improved visuals for the trap / lock screen, some concept-ish art, and some new skins for some of the NPCs. Kevin's been cranking away on a farmhouse-with-a-secret. And I've also been working on some miscellaneous dialogs and story text.

Interview, Attention, and Drama Stars
The big news this week was the Frayed Knights interview at RPGWatch. This has been picked up all over the place, and possibly brought even more attention on it than I'm fully comfortable with at this point. Sure, I want a nice cross-section of players trying out the pilot in April and providing me with feedback on issues. But I really don't want people playing it with a belief that it's a full demo for the final game. It's like... a prequel. Well, really, it's like a pilot. Hence the name.

A lot of focus from various sites has been on the drama star system. That is something I really AM comfortable with. Hopefully with the alpha 3 build, I'll get some more feedback on the drama stars based on some of the improved balance (hint: When you are fighting the BOSS ENCOUNTER, you should get more than a single drama point...). I've been playing with it a little myself, and while I am sure (by design!) it won't replace the use of reloading a saved game to recover from disaster, I think it works nicely enough to reduce trivial reloads.

One of the tougher questions that gets brought up is near and dear to my heart: What about those of us gamers who have a real life and can't devote enough time to a single session to really build up a fabulous collection of drama stars capable of "resurrecting" the entire party from the brink of a TPK (Total Party Kill)? Those of us who play in little twenty-minute increments and then must save and quit? Is that unfair?

Well, yes and no. Yes, you may not often get the full benefit of the drama star system. But - if you are going to quit and know it, you can go ahead and commit your drama stars before you exit - clear off a couple of curses or reduce the long-term fatigue on Benjamin before you exit. So you can use 'em before you lose 'em.

Alpha Testers - I'm gonna have EVERYBODY on the alpha test list added for alpha 3 this time around, so if you have already signed up, be sure and check out the forums.

Forum Discussion

(Vaguely) Related Stuff:
* Frayed Knights: When One Door Closes...
* Frayed Knights: Solving the Saved Game Problem
* Ye Olde Saved Game Debate

Labels: Frayed Knights, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:00 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Avernum 5 Wrap Report
RPGVault has Jeff Vogel's "Wrap Report" (a better term, IMO, than "postmortem") for Avernum 5, the latest in Spiderweb Software's long-running indie RPG series.

Avernum 5 Wrap Report at RPGVault

An excerpt:
"I have become really impatient with RPGs, both single- and multiplayer, over the last few years, and I was determined to write one that had as few as possible of the elements that annoyed me. One example is repetitive cookie-cutter fights... trash, in other words. I hate battles that only serve to eat up time. I removed as many of those as I could."

He also set out to put more humor in the game (hey, I'm not at all opposed to humor in RPGs...).

And he notes that - so far - it's sold better than any game he's written in a long time. So maybe he did something right.

He also confirmed that there is only one chapter left in both the Geneforge and Avernum series, and that the new engines will be brought more up-to-date with improved engines that use OpenGL.

(Spotted on RPGWatch).

Labels: Indie Evangelism, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:27 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
RPG Design: The End Is Nigh!
Today's discussion is sort of a companion-piece with Monday's. It has to do with finishing games - or specifically, finishing RPGs.

I've unfortunately got quite a list of RPGs for which I've never reached the end. Some of them I hope / expect to get around to it "one day" (unlikely, as some of those games are over a decade old). Others I have completely given up on.

My reasons for quitting vary. Sometimes they never really hooked me - I felt myself going through the motions, but an hour or two in I was still far from invested in the characters, world, or story. I just didn't care before the tedium hit. Other times, the game just kinda blew from the get go. In a couple of cases, I was enjoying the game when a game-destroying bug put an end to my fun. I hate it when they do that.

And what compels me to play to the end? That's one of those questions I keep trying to answer with articles like "What Makes a Great RPG?"

What Kept Me Playing?
There are some games which had such a strong beginning that I felt compelled to play even through the weak ending. Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption comes to mind. I got hooked on the angsty (albeit purple and overwrought) love-story, the semi-authentic medieval setting with the overwhelming presence of the church, and of course the flavor of the license. I wouldn't say it's a great game, but it hooked me.

Oblivion - the story sucked. I mean, it really sucked. Your character was a fill-in-the-blanks person, and I didn't find most of the characters to be all that likable. But the world - wow. The world was compelling, and I don't just mean graphically. It felt explorable. There was interesting stuff to find all over the place, and the bajillion subquests were often very entertaining and had some nice twists. And since I felt like I could go for the final end-game stuff at any time (pretty much guaranteed with the lame auto-scaling factor), it never felt like it went too long, even at over 100 hours in.

Ultima VII - The story and characters hooked me from the get-go. That game probably has the single strongest intro (for me, at least) of any RPG - it opens with a murder mystery.

Aveyond 2: Ean's Quest - I got hooked early on by the characters. The world was silly and cute, but by the time I rescued a major character, I was hooked on wanting to see them through the end of their story, even if it lost part of its compelling drama after that point.

Why I Forgot To Keep Playing
For where I lost it - Ultima VI kept losing me the pirate map quest. I guess I just get lost in the "what do I do now?" phase.

Final Fantasy XII may not have lost me forever, but somewhere in the grinding I kinda lost the thread of the story and lost interest.

I started Dungeon Siege 2, and didn't get far past the tutorial. I was just overwhelmed by a feeling of deja vu. Maybe it was because it was so action-heavy, and it began too much like a generic third-person shooter or something for me.

And for Neverwinter Nights 2, it was no direct fault of the game. My video cards were going bad (apparently, they didn't like my motherboard, and overheated), so I was getting spiky polygons all over the place. My infuriation with my expensive SLI-linked cards dying spilled over into the game that was the final straw. I need to get the expansion, roll up a Spirit Shaman, and try it again.

Your Input
And sometimes, the work / tedium involved in too many games exceeds the pleasure I get from them. Which was part of the reason for Monday's post. Some games feel much longer than they are. Others make 40+ hours disappear in a flash.

And say what you will about Oblivion's hand-holding to get you to your quests, but due to a grown-up schedule and occasional crunch-modes at work (not to mention Rampant Games stuff...), I find myself not playing for a couple of weeks. So a game that can re-engage my interest quickly and gently point me where I need to go next is welcome.

So here are some questions I put to you:

* What percentage of RPGs do YOU actually complete?
* If you don't complete every game, what has made you give up?
* What makes you play to the end, besides your obsessive-compulsive streak?

I've got a forum thread with a fancy poll and everything over in the community area, but feel free to answer here, too, if you really have an aversion to signing up for a really cool forum 'n stuff...


(Vaguely) related tilting at windmills:
* How Many Hours to an RPG?
* Big World, Small Dungeon: Does Size Matter in RPGs?
* How Quickly Does a Game Have to "Hook" You?
* RPG Design: Quest Abuse
.

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:53 AM (Permalink) 9 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights Interview at RPGWatch
Well, now I've gone and done it!

There's an interview with Yours Truly, where I am as verbose as usual, up at RPGWatch. The focus of the article is on that roleplaying game that may be destined to prove I don't have a clue what I'm talking about when I talk RPGs.

Warning: Do not use while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Frayed Knights Interview at RPGWatch

Labels: Frayed Knights, Interviews

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:54 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Top 5 Botched Launches
Three out of the top five botched game launches (according to 1Up) are RPGs:

Top 5 Botched PC Game Launches

Okay, two out of the three are MMORPGs, which should automatically put them in a class by themselves, but the article admits that this would be shooting fish in a barrel. But Ultima IX: Ascension takes the top slot.

I never did play Ultima IX, so I can't speak to its problems. But from what I have heard, they weren't close to the problems of Trespasser. And I heard horror stories about the initial release of the Pool of Radiance re-make that made Ultima IX sound like a near-perfect release. Yeah, reformat the hard drive style problems when you uninstall. *Shudder*. Oh, wait, that one is also an RPG.

Labels: Mainstream Games, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:39 AM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
How Many Hours to an RPG?
So how many hours should an RPG take you to complete? Your ideal RPG?

I've played some very satisfying RPGs that took me less than 20 hours to complete. But a lot of my favorites were very long games which took more than 40, 60, or even 100 hours.

I think Ultima VII part I and Ultima IV - two of my favorites - were completed within 24 hours, all told. Maybe a little more for Ultima VII, and a little less for Ultima IV (I had a hint guide handy).

All of the Final Fantasy games I've completed took over 50 hours. Oblivion clocked in at about 128 hours to completion. But I took my time with that one. I didn't want it to end - I was having a great time. But after I finished it, I almost immediately tried to replay it with a new character, and just couldn't. I'd pretty much sucked all the marrow from it the first time around, even though I think I explored less than 30% of the world.

The thing is - some of those with the longer (and sometimes shorter) time frames consisted of a LOT of "make-work." Oblivion was over 120 hours of play, and probably 20 of it was really awesome. In Final Fantasy VII and up you spend a third of your time watching cut-scenes or animations, and at least another third fighting useless random encounters (which I don't mind until the fourth or fifth time I get into the exact same fight - but by the tenth identical battle I'm ready to throw my controller through the screen).

Maybe it's simply memory fading and mentally editing the boring parts, but I seem to remember Baldur's Gate II and Ultima VII being pretty low on the filler scale, with BG2 definitely clocking in at a heavier level of content-per-minute and total-hours-played level than about any other RPG I recall.

I know there's a lot of disgust at how much shorter games are getting these days, but frankly, as a working-class joe with a family and free time at a premium, I'd rather play a really awesome 15-hour game than a 45+ hour game with lots of "filler." And so long as the RPGs are plentiful, I really don't mind finishing a game in only 20 hours or so and moving on to the next one. Of course, RPGs and "plentiful" haven't actually appeared in the same sentence all that often in recent years, but especially on the indie side of the fence that seems to be changing.

So what do you think? Is there an "optimum" amount of time you'd prefer an RPG to take? Is there such a thing as "too long?" And how short is "too short?"

(Vaguely) related grumblings:
* Quick Strategy Games
* What Makes a Great RPG - Mechanics
* The "Red Line" in Game Demos
.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:33 AM (Permalink) 11 comments links to this post

 
Another Free Audiosurf Recommendation
I finally got around to playing Audiosurf to the Void War soundtrack. You'd think I would have tried that out first, huh? But it's very nice.

I highly recommend "Dogchild" from Void War for your Audiosurf-ing pleasure. But most of the music from the (*plug*really awesome award-winning*plug) game works well.

You can download the entire soundtrack (and some... weird remixes) for free from Matt Barnson's site here:

Void War Soundtrack

Labels: Indie Evangelism, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:22 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Great AudioSurf Song: Sidology Episode 3
Okay, if you happen to be playing Audiosurf and would like a really killer (FREE!) musical piece for it, I recommend this hard-rock medley of old Commodore 64 game music by Machinae Supremacy (also known for making the soundtrack to the indie shooter Jets 'n Guns).

Sidology Episode 3 - Apex Ultima

7 Minutes of high-speed downhill racing. My score was terrible.

If you haven't played the IGF award-winning indie game Audiosurf yet - hey, the demo's free, and it's a CHEAP (and fun) indie game. Give it a whirl with your favorite music as tracks.

But definitely try it with Sidology Episode 3. It may not create the most psychotic track of all music out there (I've seen some wild ones - like this one using the song from the most evil Guitar Hero track of all time...), but it's fun.

And BTW, I normally play the mono pro racer... this level is practically impossible for me with the other racers. Yeesh!

Labels: Indie Evangelism, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:27 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights - Be 'Fraid. Be Very 'Fraid...
It has been quiet on the Frayed Knights front this week, mainly because I've been coming home from work at 2 in the morning, crashing for six hours, waking up, throwing together a blog post and maybe 5 lines of code for the game, and going back to work.

All that being mangled, one of the nice things about actually having a team in place is that things have actually been getting done. Without me. Scary.

Kevin has been hard at work on one of the next areas beyond the pilot. Giant rats are involved. These aren't your regular giant rats. He's also touched up the texturing on the inn in Ardin. James has been cranking away at additional sound effects, so maybe now not EVERY container and door will sound alike.

Mike has provided me with the drafts of two new musical themes, one for a new main theme and one for a dungeon exploration theme. Now I just have to fix background music (AGAIN!) to make it behave.

For my part, I've cleaned up a couple of bugs, had one that I THOUGHT was clean come back and bite me on the butt (see above, re: background music), and been putting in a few minutes into the saved-game system. Yeah, still. If I could get a full 8-hour day to put into it, I could pull it off. Like - hey, today. Work, in their mercy, gave me the day off. Well, the part of the day AFTER 4:00 in the morning, when I stumbled in the door.

So - I'm off to get stuff done in Frayed Knights. Talk atcha later!

Labels: Frayed Knights

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:09 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Pathfinder: The New Dungeons & Dragons 3.5?
For those of us who aren't expecting Dungeons & Dragons 4.0 to knock our socks off, Paizo Publishing (the former publishers of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, and THE biggest D20 publisher out there to my knowledge) is offering an alternative.

Entitled the "Pathfinder RPG," it seems to be Dungeons & Dragons 3.6. It is designed to be compatible with the existing 3.5 source material, yet fix a lot of the remaining problems with 3.5.

The lead designer explains his rationale:

"Back in October 2007, I began a small side project. Since 4th Edition had recently been announced, I began to wonder how many people would stick with the 3.5 rules set. Everyone could agree that 3.5 needed some work, but the system itself was mostly sound. I thought that those folks might want some updated rules, since support was beginning to wane. What started out as a simple side project soon turned into an obsession as the rules document got longer every day. When Paizo started looking for alternatives, my side project was a natural fit, leading us to where we are today.

When work first began on the Pathfinder RPG, I set down a number of principles to guide me. Since this game is based off the 3.5 rules set, I wanted to make sure that it stayed true to the original vision of the game."

Changes to 3.5
My brief exploration into the rules (I am still in crunch at work - it keeps going and going and going...) revealed a significant change to the skill system. Skills are now all-or-nothing... which generally reflects how they get purchased by players, anyway, with the exception of those rogues who ended up with a few half-maximum skills. Certain of the less-useful skills have had their names changed, been combined with other skills, and usage expanded in order to make them more valuable.

Only four classes were represented in the alpha documentation - the four "base" classes - but they did get some interesting updates and new abilities. And the rogues and wizards got extra hit dice. As a fan of rogues, I really like the new rogue abilities (and fewer restrictions on sneak attack... now rogues may be able to really put the hurt on vampires...) Fighters get even beefier per level. Clerics get Orisons, and their turn attempts act as mass cures or mass inflicts for all within the radius (friend and foe), which significantly boosts their abilities. The design notes say that this was in an attempt to let clerics actually, you know, CAST their non-healing spells once in a while. Wizards get bonus abilities from their specialist schools similar to cleric domains.

I do have a concern about how much this "beefing up" will affect other classes. Our Dice & Paper group consists of a spirit shaman, a druid, and a swashbuckler, a bard, and a non-human monk amongst the core four classes. Will these other classes need a similar "beefing up?" I get worried about escalation here, but I'm kinda cool with this in general.

There's a "Combat Maneuver Bonus" used to simplify everything where there used to be opposed rolls. And they have alternate level-up schedules for DMs who want progression slower than "normal" for D&D 3.5.

Available Now!
But most interesting of all, the game is FREE during alpha as a PDF download (and I suspect PDF versions of the beta and final will also be a little cheaper), and it offers the opportunity for everyone - not just special invitees - to participate in playtesting. There is expected to be a series of "alpha" releases, each expanding the rules and making changes based on playtesting feedback.

From a business perspective, it's an interesting move on Paizo's part. Obviously, they have been burned a little bit in their otherwise (I think) friendly relationship with Wizards of the Coast. This move addresses what might be a pretty substantial niche, and allows them to become independent of WotC's whims. If it catches on, of course. But I think Paizo is the one company in position to pull this off.

Hmmm... I'm suddenly imagining Pathfinder RPG licenses for computer RPGs... not that it'd necessarily be the best system for a CRPG... but it might be a cool opportunity at FAR LESS of a license cost than D&D.

Update: Added the link, since in my half-asleep, overworked stupor I neglected that little helpful item...

(Vaguely) related flotsam and jetsam:
* Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Announced
* Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Reviewed
* Original Dungeons & Dragons Trivia
* Adult Dungeons & Dragons

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:00 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
From Text to 3D Character
Over at The Monk's Brew, Rubes (Mike Rubin) has the third part of his ongoing saga to bring text IF (Interactive Fiction) characters to life as animated, 3D characters in Vespers 3D. In this case, it's the character of Brother Ignatious, who was described very simply in the original text adventure as follows:

"A fiery man, whose devotion to God is rivalled only by his devotion to protecting God's people, Brother Ignatius was a soldier before joining Saint Cuthbert's. After losing an eye against the Turks in Nicaea, he came back to Italy, and started fighting for God in the only way he could now: with prayer."

Mike goes through the process, including concept art, 3D modeling, animation, and finding the right actor to provide the voice-overs for Brother Ignatious.

Awesome stuff, if you are interested in taking a peek inside the sausage factory.

Adventures with NPCs IV: Ignatious at Monk's Brew

P.S. - He's also got a very awesome retrospective on Atari's Adventure worth taking a look at, too.

Labels: Adventure Games, game art

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:06 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
The Last Starfighter - The Sequel
Apparently someone is creating a sequel to that seminal 80's classic movie of love, humanity, deception, courage, and alien-deposited videogames, The Last Starfighter.

The Last Starfighter Sequel - Rumor

The Last Starfighter Sequel - Possible Confirmations

Okay. So it's not exactly like they have much to live up to. Sure, I have a tender place in my heart for the movie from my youth that let us all believe that our mad gaming skillz could make us uniquely qualified to save the entire universe from destruction. But here's a handful of reasons that conceit just wouldn't work in 2008:

#1 - Space Combat Games? No longer popular. I Know This. Maybe if it was "The Last Space Marine," or "The Last Master Chief" it would work.

#2 - Arcade Machines? Sadly, ancient history. A new, high-tech arcade machine appearing ANYWHERE would certainly arouse suspicion.

#3 - The alien super-game-tech of 1984 wouldn't be half as impressive as a computer capable of running Crysis at full detail.

#4 - The other folks in the trailer park are too busy trying to 5-star Green Grass and High Tides in Rock Band to watch you hit a high score on some weird space game.

#5 - Piloting a star-fighter from inside a cockpit? Retro. These days its all remotely-piloted vehicles anyway.

Okay, so I guess that's why a remake wouldn't work. I guess maybe with the sequel they can do something else related to video games. I could try and come up with a plot, but in my current state of mind, everything I think of that strikes me as remotely cool would be a total rip-off of Ender's Game. But hey, it would be kinda cool to have an army of kids in a tournament remotely saving the universe on their XBoxes without ever knowing it...

(Oh, and Hat Tip to TooMad for the link!)

Labels: Movies, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:00 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
The Essential 20 Japanese RPGs
GamaSutra has a large (21-page!) discussion of Japanese RPGs, including 20 of the most influential or stand-out examples of the genre. Interestingly enough, they mash three Final Fantasy games together to make a single entry.

A Japanese RPG Primer: The Essential 20

Fortunately, it includes a little bit of history and genesis of the subgenre:

"The gap between Western and Japanese RPGs is so huge that they sometimes don't even seem like they belong in the same genre. Western RPGs usually concentrate on open-ended gameplay, with a "go anywhere, do anything" mentality.

"Japanese RPGs concentrate on narrative and battle systems, being more eager to tell a story than let the gamer play a role. However, Japanese RPGs didn't just appear out of nowhere -- as their roots lie heavily in early American computer RPGs of the 80s.

"Two of the most popular games back in the day were Ultima and Wizardry. Although all had followings amongst hardcore Japanese gamers, they were a little bit too uninviting for your average console owners, whose ages skewed a bit younger. Yuji Horii, a developer at Enix, decided to take on an interesting experiment.

"By combing the overhead exploration aspects of Ultima (the third and fourth games, specifically) and the first person, menu-based battle system of Wizardry, a new game was born: Dragon Quest."

Enjoy!

Labels: Mainstream Games, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 11:45 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Indie RPG News Roundup, March 19th
Indie Computer Role-Playing Games. They aren't just for breakfast anymore! Somehow, in spite of putting in nearly 80 hours this last week for the harsh taskmasters of The Day Job, I've managed to dig up a little bit of dirt on the latest goings-on in the independent computer RPG scene.

Geneforge 5
Spiderweb Software has released some additional information on their latest RPG in development, Geneforge 5. They've confirmed that it is the final game in the series, and expect it to be available for the Mac in November.

Some details: The storyline will be closer to Geneforge 1 and 2; there will be five different factions to interact with; there will be three Shaper classes and six rebel classes; there will be "considerable" upgrades to the interface; and the spell system will remain similar but be reworked to solve some issues that have cropped up.

For more details, you can check out the Geneforge 5 March Update.

Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled is an upcoming Nintendo DS game from Studio Archcraft that retains the old-school, 2D RPG tradition of the old SNES games (and newer games like Aveyond, Aveyond II, and The Last Scenario). I am not used to hearing of indie games for the DS, but they have no publisher listed and it sure sounds like a self-funded project. Most impressive. And to make matters even more fascinating, they have employed Shamus Young of Twenty-Sided and DM of the Rings fame and elevated him to the lofty rank of script-monkey. Or something. So now we can tease Shamus for being a sellout game developer. You can check out Shamus's announcement here.

I wish I had a DS, now. But I guess now I have another good reason to get one. Hey, guys, any hope for a PC / Mac release? :)
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled Project Page

Project Rhapsody
You may remember me mentioning Project Rhapsody back in September, but progress seems to be happening on this ambitious project. The latest is a pretty cool-looking battle video, which makes me think this game is really pretty far along:



You can find more information on the Project Rhapsody Website.

Adventures of Cendah
Version 1.01 of Adventures of Cendah has been released by KingDiz entertainment. Updates include: More mana when leveling, fix to a character freeze issue when leveling up, more gold in the tutorial, collision fixes, changes to bats, and trees now blocking enemy arrows.

Adventures of Cendah

Krum
This hack-and-slasher looks to be getting made in Blender's game engine + Python. Hopefully that means multi-platform? It's a freshman effort currently two years into development. The website and the game are both under development, but its projected release date is late 2008. And here's a short gameplay video:



The website is still as much under construction as the game itself. Hopefully it will expand a bit soonishly:
Krum Website

Depths of Peril
Soldak Entertainment has a new short story up, taking place in the world of the (awesome!) Depths of Peril. It is entitled "Looking Red the Crystals Cry." Checking out the story, I felt a sudden desire to boot up the game again. It's been a few weeks, and like Diablo it's a pretty good game for some quick hack & slash action. It's just that there's so much to do in the game, with so many quests evolving as you play, that it gets tempting to just keep playing...

Monster's Den
Monster's Den is a quick-and-dirty dungeon crawl. It's not quite the level of quality of FastCrawl, but it's online and free to play. And frankly, I remember playing in some ol' Pen-and-Paper games back in the early days that weren't much different or any better. Enjoy! (Hat tip to TIGSource for this one.)

Monster's Den

Age of Decadence
I have already mentioned the Age of Decadence "playthrough" at RPG Watch, but I figured I'd mention it again, AND point out the staggeringly huge original thread discussing it over at the Iron Tower forums. 59 pages and counting as of right now!


And that's what I've got for this week. And, uh, last week. There is some pretty fun stuff here or on the horizon for computer RPG fans. But now I do have a few extra questions that come to mind when looking over this stuff:

#1 - With both the Geneforge and Avernum series coming to a close, what's next?

#2 - While there have been patches and story updates, things have been quiet from Soldak Entertainment. What is Steven & company up to? Depths of Peril II? Something else entirely?

#3 - What other project is Studio Archcraft working on? And will we see Shamus "McLaser" Young take a more active roll in game design & writing?

#4 - Planewalker Games has been a little quiet lately concerning their upcoming Baldur's Gate - inspired indie RPG, "The Broken Hourglass," but Jason has assured me they are still busy toiling away and trying to get it done. But I wonder how close they are to alpha at this point...

As usual, keep me posted!

(Vaguely) related fun stuff:
* Indie RPG News Roundup, March 2nd
* Indie RPG News Roundup, February 18th
* Indie RPG News Roundup, February 2nd

Labels: Indie RPG News

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:51 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Attention Is Everything
Human awareness and attention is a funny thing. Can you count correctly? Be sure and listen to the instructions (and take this test before reading any further):

Do The Test

I was kinda floored at the end of this, and had to re-play it to make sure they hadn't pulling a fast one on me.

Bringing this around to games... Does this apply to games? You betcha. I have noted on several occasions how completely oblivious I have been to the band's cinematic when playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I'm so focused on the notes, it took me several play-throughs before I saw the lead singer hitting the cowbell at the beginning of Don't Fear the Reaper (which cracked me up so hard I nearly failed the song).

It's target fixation. I tend to suck at shooters because I become so focused on what I'm shooting that I lose track of the cardinal rule - which is "don't get shot." Maybe I really should play some Mushihimesama Futari to correct that habit.

This makes me wonder how much of a game I miss because I'm so focused on the apparent principle task that I miss other, critical details. I know sometimes in D&D games, I drop what I think are obvious hints, only to see them completely ignored as the players focus on something else which they somehow weigh as being more important.

As a game designer - do I do a good job of highlighting what the player should be paying attention to? And does this phenomenon differ between males and females?

Very interesting things to ponder.

Hat tip to Seth Godin for this one.


(Vaguely) related stuff of marginal value at best:
* How Focus Can Ruin Your Business
* I Should Give Up Making Shooters
* City of Heroes Jargon

Labels: Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:12 PM (Permalink) 6 comments links to this post

 
Tales of Crunch Survival...
It's almost 1:30 AM. I got home from work about forty minutes ago, after over fifteen hours straight. Around 9:30 tonight, the president of the company announced there was free ice cream and beer for everyone in the break room. And sodas, for those of us who don't drink.

Tomorrow is bound to be another repeat of today. I'm learning to hate certain game consoles I used to love. Bummer.

And here I am, at home, checking email, posting this blog, and ... working on my game. Trying to put at least an hour into it. I'll go in late tomorrow, anyway... my task-list is largely cleared out, mainly supporting the designers anyway.

I can't say it's unique to the games business. I've had weeks like this doing all kinds of software development in my career. And apparently, I'm so stupid that I impose it on myself by developing my own games until the wee hours of the night.

Ah, well. That's just the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes you just have to live life in the margins.

Labels: Biz, productivity

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:28 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Play-Through of Age of Decadence
RPGWatch has a play-through of the early part of the upcoming indie RPG, "Age of Decadence," complete with plenty of screenshots. It literally starts at the beginning, with character creation choices, up through the conclusion of the first quest (or "vignette") for an assassin character.

Age of Decadence is "an isometric, turn-based, single-player 3D role-playing game set in a low magic, post-apocalyptic fantasy world, inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire."

I'm looking forward to this one.

Let's Play Age of Decadence, at RPGWatch

(Vaguely) related low-calorie, great-tasting goodness:
* Indie RPG News Roundup, December 26th
* Why Indie RPGs? Indies of the Round Table #1
.

Labels: Indie Evangelism, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:01 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
But I Can Pretend It's a Void War Wannabe, Right?
I recently played the demo for Battlestar Galactica on XBox Live Arcade.

My first thought was, "Oh, so this is a Void War clone!" Except with 2D gameplay. And I doubt that the developers ever even heard of Void War. Which means it's simply a descendant of the same kind of games Void War is a descendant of. Games like SpaceWar and it's descendants. Like the incredibly awesome Star Control series.

Maybe Void War would have been a more appealing game if I hadn't taken it the "true" 3D route, with all the baggage that entailed. Which would basically have made it just like Battlestar Galactica (and, from what little I played of it, Wing Commander Arena for XBLA) - 2D games with 3D graphics.

The sad part, though, is that I think Star Control II did it better. Strip away the pretty XBox 360 graphics, and you've got... what, exactly?

Not that this is a bad thing, necessarily. I mean, the time was due to introduce a new generation of gamers to gameplay that s about as classic as you can get. I mean, Computer Space was the coin-op version of Spacewar that predated Pong. That's cool and all. And much of the time, bigger + more features is not the same as better. That's cool too. And maybe far cooler stuff opens up if you play more of the game, which I did not see. Maybe. (Update - I managed to play a little bit of the campaign mode before it kicked me out, and that was admittedly a little more interesting).

But I still have a suspicion that a 15-year-old game was superior to today's offerings.

To know what I'm talking about, here's the freeware version of the game:

Ur-Qaan Masters

Am I just smokin' something here? Because it seems to me that this would be a better game to remake for the 360. Well, okay, I really think Void War would have been the best choice of all, but I must admit some bias there.

Labels: Mainstream Games, retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:34 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Frayed Knights - When One Door Closes...
For once, I'm going to try to be... well, less verbose in this week's design diary for Frayed Knights, the comedy-based indie RPG.

The big task this week was to get the dungeon re-entrant, and to get save games and load games working. That's right, we're in alpha, and saves and loads aren't working. I was actually considering leaving them out for the pilot (after all, it's relatively short), but the cry of horror from my alpha testers convinced me of the error of my ways.

I spent a lot of time fixing other bugs, and making sure things like armor penalties on spellcasting actually worked. But the re-entrant dungeon had me stymied for a while. What I didn't realize is that Torque is very good about cleaning up after itself between maps. Really good. So good that it will erase all of your in-game data objects for you unless you come up with a special way to prevent it from being destroyed. Woops! So things like inventory, state flags, loot lists, and the like were being completely erased when you left the dungeon. If you went to the village and then came back, almost everything was restored to its original values - you'd have to start over again.

The cool flip side of this exercise is that its also helping me track everything that needs to be stored in the saved game. I'd tried to keep some of that data separated out in the past, even creating some incomplete data-saving functions for things like the game state flags that track events in the game. So I hadn't been completely neglecting this area.

Unfortunately, just as progress was being made and the problem looked *barely* solvable by Friday (which I've set up as "alpha day" for the testing group), the ol' Day Job came through with a mandate for massive overtime this week... twelve hours a day, Saturday included. It's on a short time-frame, fortunately, but to say it impacted my Frayed Knights development schedule is an understatement.

With luck, I may be able to get Alpha 3 out (for those involved in alpha testing, especially those still waiting to get involved) on Wednesday or Thursday, and then Alpha 4 may go out on Monday or Tuesday of the following week. That will probably be the final alpha.

Due to requirements of the competition I'm participating in, the release date for the Frayed Knights Pilot is still going to be April 1st (if not the day before). It may still be a little "beta" (or a lot "beta"), but that's kind of the point. I