Mundinator

Alone In The Dark's Mechanics Scare Me More Than the Story

Ok ok ok...so I have been playing (struggling thru) Alone in the Dark and I fucking hate this game.  Look, I really played the original on my PC some number of years ago and LOVED IT.  This new XBox360 abomination...wow!  Die and die more.

I made the following video right after I played the game and resisted snapping the disk in half, so bear with a few moments where I might not make sense, but here you go...

MGS4 to Have 90 Min Cutscene?!? WTF!?!

I'm sorry, but did we all read that right????  Is this true or did I just blink a little too fast when reading?  I actually had to read this a few times to make sure I was on the right page.  No, it is not that the total length of cutscenes added up is about 90 min.  There is AT LEAST one cutscene (maybe more) that is 90 full min long.

For those of you who watched Cloverfield, it is longer than that entire movie.  So the big question that it raises for me...what the hell takes 90 min to communicate in a game cutscene.  I was not really interested in MGS4 until this morning when I read the news.   Argh...looks like I am going to have to get a PS3 now (it was going to happen at some point).

SXSW: No Really, It Is Spring Break for Web Developers

Yeah, I know I was going to post a bunch of things from SXSW Interactive, but as you can see from the list of posts from March...I didn't give two flying fucks about posting each day.  One part is that I was really tired for all of the trip.  The other part is that I honestly was really fed up with the conference.

So, many many people all around me appeared to have a great time at SXSW.  Don't get me wrong, I also enjoyed my time there, but from how I started this post you can tell that something at the conference did not sit right with me.  True.  True.  Basically, SXSW was void of content.  Let me repeat that.  SXSW did not teach me a damn thing because it was void of content.  Just about every panel I attended seemed disorganized and/or seemed like the presenter was just there to get a free gold badge.  Ok, I really enjoyed the panel about the 10 Worst Websites (fake ones made up and judged), but come the fuck on.  How am I, a game developer, supposed to take you web folks seriously with all these panels that are just for shits and giggles.  Holy crap will you please get some real info into the place.

Aight, so there must be some reason that SXSW Interactive was not canceled on year 1.  Well, yes there is a reason.  SXSW is a networking orgy clusterfuck for all those people who are intardnet famous or just think they are.  So...if you want to rub shoulders with the people who run your favorite website just to say you met the person who invented Ceiling Cat or Rickrolling, then come to this conference and act like your an anime nut at your first Sakura-Con.  Fuck, I'm surprised no one has invented internet cos-play for SXSW.

I will step back for a second and say that I really did meet a number of awesome people.  No joke, I really did meet some great people, but I didn't want to go to SXSW to just meet some people.  I wanted to learn.  I am eager to learn about design and I came away with nothing.  It also didn't help that I wasn't really in the mood to network.  Gah...oh well, I had a few great conversations over free drinks, so I can't complain about the parties (cept that shitty event at Pure Volume Lounge).

Additional good things to the trip, I was able to do some recon on some games that we at Snowblind wanted to get some info on.  Recon mission was a total success.

Oh yeah, and Noelle and I got to meet the ninja from http://askaninja.com/. Wow that was so damn cool.  He is a very nice ninja.  Funny story is that Noelle and I were introduced to him the night before (yes, he was not in character) and had no idea that he was THE ninja.  We wandered back stage after the web awards thing and tried to see if we could meet the ninja and low and behold he remembered us from the night before!  You rule Mr. Ninja man...please look forward to killing us AFTER we watch a bunch more episodes.

Enough about that silly conference.  I am leaning on not attending next year.

Alone in the Dark - A Fun Toy or Integrated Mechanics?

I just checked out the tech demo for Alone in the Dark's new engine.  I was a little confused at first as the engine claims to be "Real World" something-or-other.  Well, what it boils down to is that you can use items in the world fairly like you would expect, but you can also combine things to make better things.  I essence, your interesting things turn into more interesting things that you can do quite a number of things with.  Heh...

Ok, so that's a lot of things, but where can this all go wrong.  Well, the danger here is that the combining of objects leads to one or two combinations being king.  For example, in BioShock, you were able to mix and match your Plasmids, but in reality there were a few that were so much better than the rest that there really was no desire to experiment.

Alone in the Dark is in danger of making two things, essentially.  1) A mechanics toy.  2) A third-person game that uses 10% of that toy in order to win. 

They don't intend this, I am sure, but without the careful hand of level designers, this interesting system will not be worth all its "cool."  I hope I am wrong.  I loved the old skool Alone in the Dark games...the original was my fav.

Other Things
GDC is next week and I won't be there. :(  Sad Panda.  On the flip side, I am sooper excited to be starting my new job, so it will be just fine. :)  To all my friends who will be there, have fun, take pictures and make sure you learn something.

I still don't have furniture in my apartment...boo.

4/5 days in Seattle have been sunny so far!

 

Noelle Murata: I NEED A NEW DS GAME!!

John here to introduce Noelle's second post.  Inspired by her quest for a new DS game, see below as Noelle tells it like it is.  A jaded gamer?  A passionate designer?  A player who wants companies to cut the crap and own up to making a better industry?  Fuck yes!  She is that and more, but you don't have to take my word for it...

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By: Noelle Murata

Since I finished the latest installment of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, I've been on the hunt for something new to play on my DS. Naturally, I went over to GAMESPOT DS to have a bit of a look-see at what's out, what's coming out, and if there's been anything I've missed. What I found  seriously disappointed me.

Well, before I start ripping into gaming, particularly DS gaming; according to studies done by DFC, portable game system revenue especially with regard to the DS has profit margins that's looking to top the $10 billion mark in 2007. The predominant drivers are casual gaming, such as poker or sudoku - games you can pick up and put down whenever you please. This is diametrically opposite in nature to the idea presented in this post... games as an art form; games as vehicles for storytelling; ways to engage the mind as well as entertain.

This image was used in Jonathan Blow's talk from the Montreal International Game Summit 2007. It was used in reference to the bloat of giving people what's "easy". That said, it's no surprise that the level of games currently available for the DS was dispiriting. You have to wade through a set of titles that fall into the "been there done that" [the n'th iteration of Mario, Tetris, Bubble Bobble], some type of SIM, or basic puzzle game - like Sudoku or Poker, to find something that actually has a backbone. At least game series such as Zelda or Final Fantasy have a bit of a story to tell.

We can't keep churning out the video game version of every "kids" film that hits the big screen. [thank you Ebert, but the landscape is pretty much of the same story there as well; books from either the current generation (The Devil Wears Prada ??) or past stories (the Lord of the Rings trilogy ??). I challenge you to name an A-grade Hollywood film that was not in inspired by a book (comics included).

And puh-lease don't get me started on the titles designed to "engage" little girls into playing video games. Baby Pals? My little horsey? American Girl: Julie Finds a Way!. And no joke Hamsterz Life...

Maybe I just need to play more of these games to see the True Beauty of their Craft. 

Post-Modern Gaming?
I may be going out on a limb somewhat here, but as game designers we need to be looking forward. It is unlikely that the portable gaming market is likely to dwindle; and yes, casual games will still make up a sizable chunk of interest and sales - but what does the future hold? What can we do to affect the landscape of [portable] gaming?

What games gives us is an avenue for true interactive storytelling. The DS is a near perfect avenue. One panel gives you what you "see" and the other allows you to perform an action on that view. My appreciation for Phoenix Wright is based solidly in this mechanic. Top panel is where the "story" unfolds; bottom panel gives you the options at any particular fork in the story. Yes, other games use this framework to their advantage, but how far; how much use could you get out of that type of paneling?

Take a game like Bioshock for example; top panel could contain your main view; bottom panel could show your available plasmids and weapons (without having to toggle through or basically pause your gameplay to "check" what you had at your disposal)... just as a for instance.

As for storytelling... Bioshock took a crack at it, allowing the player a choice; engage in a story and affect the outcome. However, I have to agree with some of the points from Blow's talk; a) it still relied on "kill everything from far away", and b) one "bad" move makes the ending binary.

But, what if the outcome wasn't binary? What if interacting with the game in a particular way form that player's individual experience of the story. Go beyond role-playing. In Role-play, you get to choose who you are and the path of action and game resolution is based on that initial decision. But, what if your character starts off as a Tabula Rasa and each decision that player makes allows different pathways to emerge... The player is the point of reference. The game evolves around choices. As in the game Go; you start with a completely empty playing field and each move narrows the scope of the outcome.

Literature made the leap several decades ago to Postmodern, largely experimental, self referential, containing a different type of narrative previously used formally in books up until that era. Some forms of this narrative actively engaged the user - making the user *aware* of their position in the author's conception of the story. But unfortunately literature is static, the end of the book has no bearing on where you went for coffee that day, or if you decided to skip out of work or not.

Designers, appreciators, and players in this industry I pose the question, do you really want to be making and playing Madden 2015? Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Mario Bros? SIMs in Space? Power Sudoku 8000! Pong to run on your iPhone?  Ooops, already done.

The Catch
From the business side, due to the Fall of the Dot Com Era business people and investors have learned to be afraid of taking a chance, but this article from Fast Company illustrates an interesting point - No Risk, No Reward.

Departing from the games as entertainment and storytelling (because at this point, I've probably beaten the dead horse into a pulp)... I'm going to wrap this up.

I leave you with a question and a quote... What do you, as the gamer, really want out of your experience?

I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may. [Tyler Durden - Fight Club]

P.S. I'm still looking for my next DS game obsession... it sure the hell isn't Bratz 4 Real

The Great Fixie Count

So this particular article has nothing to do with games, but all to do with culture.  You see, I am surrounded by hipsters and fixies and mac books and frankly im sick of it.  If you don't get what I mean, read this, and puke your guts out with me.  BTW, that link I just sent you off to actually has an article that says the mullet is a good hairstyle for a hipster and that it can really only work if you are wearing hipster clothing.  HOLY SHIT DID SOMEONE REALLY WRITE THAT??

So, ok...I just don't get the hipster thing.  Part of the fashion I can dig to an extent, but really its more the mod thing that attracts me.  The whole "I WANT TO BE A BIKE MESSENGER" thing is fucking stoopid.  The dood I saw in the House of Shields with his face covered in stitches from some messenger accident...that's the dood that can wear what he wants, ride whatever and do coke of his iPhone.  All you other folks need to wake up and smell the coffee...and not the Ritual Roasters coffee.  Argh...that place COULD be cool if it wasn't chalk full of posers with their MacBooks.   You posers only have macBooks because all your local hipsters do too.  Steve Jobs, please stop making Apple KoolAid for the hipsters...I'm begging you!

Ok Ok Ok...so my point.  To help keep me sane until I leave this city, Noelle and I are staring the Great Fixie count.  I will post the number of fixies we see on the left side of my blog.  Any pictures I get I will post as well.  Argh...

Another NES Emulator...This Time for the iPhone!

So it didn't take long for someone to find a way to put an emulator on the iPhone.  Even tho I am rather not all that interested in this phone, I am interested that someone made an emulator where the screen acts as both the game window AND the controller.

If you take a look at the guy operating the phone, he only pressed to the right by taping the virtual D-Pad.  Mario then runs off to the right non-stop.  Sooo...not a perfect emulation and, in fact, not complete if this is the unfortunate limitation at the moment.

He had quite a library of games, which is nice, but the jury is still out for me as to if I really care that much that people can emulate an ancient system on every fucking electronic device known to man.  Shit...next  Super Mario Bros will be a mini game on my toaster.  STOP MAKING NES EMULATORS!  How many fucking times can you play the same game!

**Note** Making an emulator just to prove it can technically be done I respect, but don't you think the NES has been emulated enough!**

iPhones and The Fall of Humanity

Ya know, I was a bit excited by the iPhone and still am, but its been a slow creep in my head that the frenzy around this device is just not healthy.  I'm not speaking of the health of an individual, but rather the health of humanity.

Look, it seems like a slick phone, but for fuck's sake...ITS A MOTHERFUCKING PHONE!  This is consumerism at it's worst.  Mr Jobs, I take my hat off to you and your marketing department.  You have made an invention that is over 100 years old still cause a crowd of people to chant for it's arrival like it's NYE at Times Square.

Yes...it has all sorts of fancy gadgets included and a touch screen, etc...but can you really say that this addition to a century old invention is worth missing a day of work and standing in line at 4am?!  I mean, sheesh...my friend went over at 6:30pm, 30min after doors opened at the apple store, and simply walked in and had his phone 7 min later.

You gadget whores...I love you and I hate you.

OBVIOUS: Next Simpsons Game To Suck

Holy SHIT!  This Simpson's game looks so stoopid I can't help but posting about it. 

Ok, so a Simpson's game sounds like a great idea about now, but from this video and from another few I have seen of just the game footage, it looks like they had NO IDEA what the hell they wanted to make.

EA gets a brilliant license and they think that they can throw any old lame game idea to it and it will sell tons of copies.  Well, I'm not saying that they won't sell copies of this game, but from what I have seen so far, they don't have a good idea to save their lives.

Look, the Simpsons is a brilliant IP.  It demands the respect of a brilliant game to be on par with it.  So, I would hope for something where it feels like I am playing through an entire season of the show.  WOW...game designers unite and call me dumb if this isn't the perfect time for that grand old action adventure genre you morons buried for games like Madden <Enter Year Here>. 

Sorry for the brief rant, but I really really really really expected more from EA than a damn platformer.  Go make another Sims game and give back some of your other IPs. 

Argh...I'm already bored with Spore!