Squeaking in under the radar.

While strolling around the Quarter to Three forums I found this post about a blog entry analyzing Bioware's story formula that has been used repeatedly within their last few games and how it became an article on EuroGamer. In all honestly as I mentioned in my last entry I don't like Bioware titles so it does give me a partial sense of satisfaction that someone else saw the cracks in their armor.

However in a moment of vanity and ego I do wonder why any of my entries have not been picked up by any major game sites? I've must have written close to a novel on my thoughts on game design. I do think that between my networking and my entries on Gamasutra my name is out there more then when I started this blog. Which is a shame as one of my first entries was how much I despised Bioshock and thought it was one of the worse games I've ever played. Although I'm tempted to repost it on Gamasutra and see if I can start a partial media frenzy over it; maybe I should wait closer until Bioshock 2 is released to time it better.

Josh.

A RPG overload.

Somehow I've ended up with 4 different single player RPGS sitting in my lap. I blame those damn Steam sales and the fact that I check slickdeals at least 3 times a day. Regardless I now have most likely over 80 hours of RPG goodness I have to get to and Left 4 Dead 2 unlocks in about a week. The best part is that the 4 rpgs couldn't be more different from each other and I find it interesting which one I'm gravitating towards. Obviously outside of my pick right now I haven't gotten too far into the other 3 but I did get passed their respective intro sections.

Fable2: Starting off I actually liked Fable 1 and played through all the way to the end, yet I'm finding that I have to force myself to play Fable 2. The first section and dungeon were great but it was after I arrived at the first town that things started to go downhill for me. I bring up my map and I see merchants, houses to buy, side jobs all crammed into a little tiny map because of the 360's love of HDTVs. The game just feels unfocused to me, so much available to do and nothing that really is all that important outside of the main quest. I like the combat system and would be my favorite RPG system in awhile if it wasn't for my #1 pick.

Mario and Luigi Inside Bowser story : Another game series that I enjoyed that I'm finding myself struggling to play through. My problem is that the fights in ML cross that line between fights being meaningful and fights being too long. I like the idea of effectively having two different parties at your disposal but the fights tend to drag on a lot. Bowser having to fight more than 2 guys is just plain dull as you can only get in one attack at a time. Also I'm not finding the game all that funny, I thought that my inner child has died but then I played Psychonauts and started laughing again so I know I'm good.

Mass Effect: I'm going to say something that I know I'm going to get flamed for, I do not like Bioware RPGS. I've never found their stories to be engaging and I just can't get into their combat systems. This basically gives a few strikes against ME to begin with but for $10 on Steam this past week I decided to bite. First off real time combat in a Bioware game is a godsend for me and it felt good playing a RPG where I can lean around corners to attack. One problem is my party, I feel that the game is asking me to do too much in terms of controlling myself, my skills , my party and my party's skills. Someday I'm going to design an epic Single Player RPG that has an intelligent party system and I can say "take that Bioware!”. So far I just find the entire setting and characters very uninviting to me. I'm finding myself less enthusiastic about games where you basically create the protagonist from scratch.

The Witcher: Having just finished The Witcher I'm preparing a full entry dedicated to it, but so far I have to say that it is one my favorite single player RPGS I've played in awhile . I enjoyed the combat system and how you can fine tune Geralt using the talent points given at each level up. I remember one of my first articles I read from Corvus was about The Witcher and its views on women and I'm not even going to try to refute it. You have to put the fact that every woman in the game is either a sex object or useless in the grand scheme of things in the back of your mind to enjoy the game. I really enjoyed all the little touches of the journal and the fact that most of the choices were not black and white.


I do feel that my time spent with each one has given me ideas about RPGs in general. I see that Bioware's new epic game is doing well and chances are I'll wait for another $10 sale to pick it up, it's not like I have nothing else to play in the meantime.

Josh

P.S I still need to get Brutal Legend at some point

Perserving game design with backwards compatibility

As a continuation from a previous blog entry I talked about ordering Demon's Souls and how it is going to be the game that forces me to buy a PS3. I did some research on the system and such; I realized that the higher ups at Sony are idiots. Granted with Sony these days that statement can be used to rationalize the many quotes and decisions they've made this console generation. For today's knock at them it's about their stance on backwards compatibility or BC.

As I looked at the PS3 on Amazon I saw not one, not two, but 5 models not including the brand new slim one released recently. Looking at the 360's different SKUs at least you can make a point that they were each aimed at a different subset of gamer. The PS3 however seems to be designed with the goal of confusing the consumer, having done customer service at Comcast I do not envy the people at Sony support who had to answer the "what is the difference between the various models?" question over and over again. Outside of different box art and drive size the main difference with the evolution of the PS3 models is the phasing out of BC with the Ps2. If you ask most mainstream gamers if BC is important chances are they are going to say no. However I think it is incredibly vital to the industry.

I admit that last statement may contain a bit too much hyperbole but I do feel strongly over the debate of BC. When we compare great examples from other industries or disciplines such as art, movies, books and so on to the games industry we have of course of advantage of being an interactive medium, however I also think it is one of our weaknesses as well. When it comes down to it, reliving our greatest works is noticeably difficult compared to other mediums, classic books we can read, movies and shows we can watch on DVD but our problem is that we have that extra wrinkle of the platform to consider. For our industry it's not enough to find a rare game you also need the correct platform or all you have is an expensive Frisbee or door stop if we are referring to cartridges. To put it another way imagine if to read books from specific publishers you need to buy a specific pair of eyeglasses that after 5 years they don't make anymore; so cross your fingers that after that time those glasses don't break or you are SOL. You can make a point in terms of design that a lot of older titles (NES and earlier) aren't exactly masterpieces but there are many titles that are worthy of being remembered.


Without going into list mode, I can think of plenty of titles that we won't see again, maybe the developers tried to capture the magic again and failed, or the game didn't sell well, or the game was downright crazy and was a once in a lifetime idea. On the other side there are games that did sell well and were great, but are trapped on older consoles, which right now I'm thinking of almost the entire Atlus lineup for the PS2. Going to the PC chances are we each have a horror story of trying to get an older title to play on today's computers. My point is that it shouldn't be this hard to play the games we love and it's a major oversight that other creative mediums don't have to deal with.

The big debate as always is if videogames can be considered art, but I like to think that videogames are like a fine wine. They need to be preserved or they lose all their value. This is why I have such a crush over the model of Good Old Games as it is slowly but surely taking care of this issue on the pc side. However consoles are another story, Nintendo with their Wii store is going randomly through their back catalog bringing games. Microsoft has thrown the towel in last I heard with updating the 360 to allow BC, but there are plenty of titles that were able to make the transition. Sony seems to have shrugged their shoulders in the issue as we have seen with the lack of talk about BC with the PS3. Sony should be scrambling for an easy way to get full BC on the PS3 due to the PS2 library which in my opinion has the biggest amount of high quality titles in it from the last 2 generations, which of course one reason is due to Atlus again (no I'm not a shill for them I just like their games).

My dream solution is that someday there will be a catalog service like GOG for the consoles that we can use to play all these games again and that it won't be tied to one console, of course chances of that happening are the same as me beating expert vocals and expert drumming at the same time in Beatles Rock Band. Which incidentally if I ever achieve that feat it will trigger the end of the world but I think we have at least another 20 years before that happens at least. With digital distribution models taking off all around I do wonder how much of my idea of revisiting the classics will be considered fantasy for long.

Thinking about BC I do wonder how things will be in 5 or even 10 years from now when most of the games that us older gamers have played go beyond the life expectancy of their platforms. Perhaps someday people will say games from the late 80s into the 90s are mysterious relics long lost to a previous age and historians will discuss what kind of games did we play back then ... you know before the whole Matrix concept happens.

Josh.

A cultural bash.

While at the GameX summit this past weekend there was a public show going on at the same time. Both EA and Sega were there to promote their newest games, which were not only from the same genre, but were set up about 5 feet from each other, EA having a massive booth and Sega having one 4 person demo station. Playing both games I found that it was interesting that while both are technically from the same genre, both titles design wise couldn't be further from each other.

(Disclaimer: My impressions of both titles come from their respective demos, at this time there is no way for me to know if the full versions are going to be the same or different.)

Let's start with Dante's Inferno, which I can start off with saying that I haven't read the book. Dante's Inferno at this time I could make a remark about if the designer's have read the book but I'll stop. DI looks and plays very similar to God of War featuring similar control schemes and attack styles. You have a light and strong attack, some kind of holy bolt power, magic at the ready and the ability to do a long range grab with your scythe. I decided to play Di on the hardest setting as I feel if a game isn't balanced on that setting, then the game isn't balance period. Low and behold I was right, the "challenge" of playing the game at that level is the fact that every enemy is juiced up with enough health to make them a minor boss. I spent a good 5 minutes whacking the first enemy until it finally dropped. The combat system was very simple; pressing the light or heavy attack will start your attacks and at some point trigger some kind of flashy strong attack. The entire system felt pre canned as I sat there waiting for the animation to finish which is a great segway to the next complaint about fighting enemies.

Perhaps I've gotten spoiled by games like Ninja Gaiden Black where the enemy AI is designed to give you a challenge. The enemies in DI were practically brain dead standing around until they sprang into action with one of 2 attacks. Not only is the animation the same every time for either one but getting hit by them forces the player to endure the animation. There was no way to counter attack which I even asked the rep who was there and she gave me some half hearted answer that I couldn't remember. Once the enemy hit me I had wait until she finished her little 3 hit combo before I could do anything else. The game then introduced 2 constants of action games, the weakling enemy that attacks in groups and the big guy who shrugs off normal attacks. The entire thing felt very repetitive which for a genre that focuses on repetitive actions is not good. While playing around with the menus I found 2 different skill trees which I assume have to do with how you kill certain enemies. Now it's time to talk about the art and what will no doubt be a complaint once it gets out about DI.

(If any kids are reading this entry I suggest skipping this next section as it's about to get a bit disgusting.)



Within the first 10 seconds of the demo starting I had a chance to watch a naked women with a cut running from her breast down grow a tentacle out of her pelvic region. The rest of the time is spent watching her fondle the tentacle before the demo officially begins.




( Alright it's safe to continue reading now.)


After I watched that I wasn't so much disgusted as I was disappointed. I can rationalize in some weird way that the tentacle is used as a weapon and that it had to come out of there, but the 10 seconds after really served no purpose other than to shock. Later on in the demo you have a fight on a moving platform while a giant naked lady is climbing up the tower in the background. From reading the various bits of news regarding the game they just announced one of the achievements called "Bad Nanny" for killing demon babies. Maybe it's just me but I've reached a point where violence and sex is no longer considered mature to me. A while back I caught a few minutes of a Bob Saget stand up routine where he basically says every filthy thing you can imagine for an hour. At first I was somewhat shocked by it, but after a few minutes it was like listening to a child who just discovered curse words and it became sad. That's how DI is feeling for me and I bet the developer's are relishing it, to make the player ask “what disgusting image will come up next?". Now it's time to talk about Bayonetta where everything is kept clean and pg 13...


For the first 10 seconds of the demo at least, which is longer than DI lasted. Bayonetta is created by the series creator behind Devil May Cry and Viewitful Joe and within seconds of fighting you can see the inspiration. The combat system was fast and incredibly responsive, you have 3 attack buttons: sword/main, kicking and her pistols. Like DMC you can create combos by alternating attacks and there seems to be a huge combo tree available, which most of us won't probably use. The game also allows the player to end her combo in mid combo by pulling out her pistols. What I really liked about the game is how the designers have altered the defense system from DMC.

In Bayonetta besides getting smashed your defensive options is the always useful evasive roll; however the designers have a little twist with it. If you can time the roll to mere seconds before the attack connects you'll enter "witch time" which slows everyone down giving you some time to get a nice combo chain going without worrying about reprisal. From what I've seen it even worked on the first boss fight which was a nice touch. Now I only had the option of playing Bayonetta on normal vs playing DI on expert so it is still up in the air how balanced the game is going to be but I did have a lot more fun playing it then DI. Not because of the imagery in DI but because the combat system was more intelligent then DI's. There is one little bit of context that I might as well spill it for you so that you can make up your mind about the game.


The main character's weapon is her hair which also seems to constitute her clothing. Meaning as she performs combos her clothes basically melt off her until the combo ends. To make things weirder to finish off a boss she uses her "climax" attack which uses all her clothing hair except for around 2 parts to keep this game MA to create a giant hair demon that proceeds to devour the boss, no I did not make that up. However after watching that I didn't feel the same sense of disappointment compared to DI's scene. The whole thing seemed to make sense in a weird way in the crazy world that is Bayonetta. The game is easily going for the crazy over the top setting seen in God Hand and of course Devil May Cry.

Overall having played both, I found myself enjoying Bayonetta more, the combat system was refined and it felt that I was contributing more to the combat then just mashing buttons. The game seems to be trying more than being a simple button masher and I'm interested to see how the upgrades and weapon unlocks will work. My only complaint about Bayonetta was that the controls did feel a bit awkward for me, but that could be from not playing an action game in awhile. My final point of discussion brings us back to the name of this entry and how the design philosophy seems to differ by culture.


Going back to one of my first points, even though both titles fall into the same genre, design wise they couldn't be further apart. DI is designed with the GoW mentally of action titles that I see primarily in US titles, and Bayonetta has the more subtle nuisance fighting that I see more in Japanese titles. Another aspect is on the concept of difficulty, while US titles seem to be easier then Japanese titles; I find that the Japanese ones are more balanced at the higher difficulty levels. Here is a quick draft I drew up to show my opinion:




From what I've experienced in terms of difficulty games from Japan start out harder at earlier difficulty levels. For DMC3 the Japanese version's medium level was considered our Hard level which I tend to notice to be the case just in overall design. The reason why I say that our expert is harder than there is that by the time you are ready to play the game on expert you should have an understanding of all the mechanics. While most Japanese titles are harder starting out they have less of a difficulty spike as their games are more balanced I noticed. Playing games on expert from the US I notice a trend of just pumping up all the stats of the enemy to obscene levels instead of trying to create a balanced fight. This is why I enjoy Roguelikes for their massively difficult challenges, as even though they are hard they are also balanced.

While it's too early to tell about Dante's Inferno, Bayonetta has been getting rave reviews from Japanese magazines and I am interested to see how they will both fare once they are released in the US.


Josh

Regarding the change to the blog.

Every time I come back to view the blog after the change I did, I find myself wanting to change the color to something else. I want to keep the background a light color but I'm having a hard time finding one.

Which is why I'm turning to the readers once again, do you like this color? or maybe a light blue? How about back to white? Let me know what you think either via email or comments here as I'm not making up my mind anytime soon.

Gamex expo fun.

Well I'm back from the Gamex show which is my first really big game convention I visited. The key note presentations were excellent and getting a chance to get some networking done was great. Anyway I have some news to report but first a list of comments I have about the show and such:

1. Turns out I'm not blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to pinball.

2. I got an autograph and had a conversation with Yahtzee of zero punctuation fame. I was somewhat tongue tied speaking to him and I have this paranoid feeling that I'm going to get mentioned on the next Zero/Extra Punctuation show as the idiot talking about Psychonauts and Left for Dead 2.

3. There was a game challenge sponsored by MagFest, they had NES challenges ranked in terms of easy to expert. I managed to beat a hard challenge and got a t shirt out of it. Trying to beat the final boss of Castlevania 3 though kicked my ass.

4. Got to see some of the people from the web show “The Guild" I didn't really talk to them though. I did wonder what they would do if I mentioned that I've never watched their show and that I did not like WoW at all.

5. Playing 4 man on X man the arcade game is always awesome.

6. I could never go to a rock concert; just standing near the Rock Band concert stage was enough to kill my ears.

7. I wondered if I could take on the girls from the PMS clan at Left 4 Dead and win.

8. As a social experiment I wished that I could have watched the reactions of the women gamers playing Dante's Inferno for the first time. I also would have been interested to see Corvus (Elrod)'s reaction to it after reading about his reaction to The Witcher, as the objectification of women was turned up to 11 for this.

9. Played laser tag on Saturday night and I swear that I always pick the broken gun which I blame for my horrible accuracy.

10. I stopped by the Game Jam and met Eric Ruth who was showing off his games that he made which you can find here. Check out Mega Man Rocks, which was just fantastic to watch, basically a homage to Mega Man if I ever did see one.

On Friday night there was an industry VIP party which I attended. The first thing I noticed that even for being in a room of my peers, everything still felt really clicke. The Escapist guys hanged out in their own little spot, so did the Guild and everyone else. This is when I had realization and the purpose for this update, even among my peers I stand out. When it comes to game design and analyzing mechanics I'm in my own little group, not above or below anyone but to the side. It is rare to meet anyone who I can have a conversation regarding my thoughts and ideas on game mechanics and game systems. This is why I've decided it's time to upgrade the blog and give it a touch up. "A look from the outside in at game design" is no longer a valid description of this blog, I am in this industry and my thoughts are in a field of their own. While on a bus to the party I met someone and we started talking, like usual I tried to explain what exactly I do in 15 seconds or less. He then said "like Game Philosophy?" and something clicked in my head. First that I am really an idiot that I could not think of something catchy to describe myself. Second, that's what I am in a nutshell, I philosophize about game mechanics and the industry at large.

If you were to ask most people at the show if they liked Dante's Inferno or Bayonetta more, they would give you a response and a small description of why. I on the other hand can tell you exactly why Bayonetta is different from DI and how both action games use different mechanics. This is also the subject of my next blog entry after the redesign.

Going forward what I would really love to do would be to try and host a roundtable podcast on game design and theory, but I don't have the tools or even a panel to do it. If people would be interested in something like this, shoot me an email at jab2565@aol.com.

Speaking to the various presenters they said that I'm on the right track and some kind of prototype would really get my foot in the door. I'm working on a pet project now with some guys from Quarter To three trying to design a game; I've been tasked as the game designer and have gotten a first draft of a design document up. We are looking for people and if anyone is interested shoot me an email at the same address as above.

I've also decided to give myself a new title (I'm all about self promotion), I'm thinking either design or game theorist . This entry is going to be followed by a style change to the blog and I'll also get out a new entry by the end of the week.


Josh.

"This is the end... my only friend, the end"

Designer DenouementsHow can the denouement be incorporated into gameplay? In literary forms, it is most often the events that take place after the plot’s climax that form your lasting opinion of the story. A well constructed denouement acts almost as a payoff, where protagonists and antagonists alike realize and adjust to the consequences of their actions. Serial media often ignored the denouement in favor of the cliffhanger, in order to entice viewers to return. Television has further diluted the denouement by turning it into a quick resolution that tidily fits into the time after the final commercial break.

But the denouement is most neglected in video games where it is often relegated to a short congratulatory cut scene, or at most–a slide show of consequences. This month’s topic challenges you to explore how the denouement can be expressed as gameplay.

Now this is a BORT entry I can sink my teeth into. Like Corvus, I can agree that the big finale of a lot of titles can be lacking, even the latest Batman game falls into the trap of not really concluding in a satisfying manner in my opinion. I'm not going to go into detail about game endings as the summary of this month's topic explains it well but instead will get right into what I want to see happen in games.

Going deep into the directory of my brain there are very few titles that come to mind that don't just end with a cut scene or the words "you won!" in multicolor font. One of my favorites was Toe Jam and Earl on the genesis, which had a unique reward for the time for getting the boys back home. The ending allowed the player to explore the planet of Funkatron talking to the denizens and having a look around. The game only ends when the player hits the power button and I found the ending was a great way to show the player what they were fighting for back on Earth. Looking at recent years I know a lot of people are going to cite games like Oblivion or GTA of letting the player play past the traditional ending, but I'm going to disagree that it is an example of a denouement.

My reason is that games like Oblivion and GTA DO have an ending, whether it was the playing killing the big bad demon or Niko enacting some long awaited payback, the stories had a conclusion. Even though the player is still able to explore the world afterwards, nothing has really changed. The people who still like you are the same; the people who hate you still want you dead. I did like the touch of having some last minute phone call conversations at the end of GTA 4 that did show the consequences of his actions. Looking at open world titles it is easy to see why they don't have a definitive end like other games.

The reason is that the designer still has to give the player a reason to keep playing, if the game ends with the whole world destroyed or the player removed from it, how will the player find everything? What I think could be done is have two versions of the open world available to the player at the end. One that is pre ending allowing the player to do and see everything they might have missed and another that shows the aftermath of the end. Such as the city destroyed or light brought back to the world and let the player explore how things turned out. In most cases the simple fact is that it is just easier to throw a cut scene together; get the credit list rolling and call it a day. Looking at the game ideas I've came up with I have a few ways to make the ending more interesting.

One of my bigger game ideas is for a real time strategy title where the player affects the story. Basically the beginning is set in stone and the player knows that the main character survives in the end; everything else however is up to the player. The player must choose which side they support in each chapter of the game which in turn affects everything afterwards. By the end of the game you'll see the impact the character had on the growth of the world. Another idea I had was for a RPG which the game is split into two story lines, during the first half the player chooses the places and events they want to see as they go across the land. After the end of the first act the player will return to those same places during act 2 and see the consequences of their actions as they move through the second act. Moving on let's talk about another weak part of game endings, the big fight.

Personally one of the biggest deterrents of great stories in video games in my opinion comes from the final fight. The reason is that if there was ever a polar opposite of an amazing story ending, it would have to be a 20 minute fight with some big bad dude. Games are designed for a challenge and the final boss is the final exam of the game and designers have to come up with something to end the game. I do think that we can be more creative with our endings, how about a game where the final boss dies from a heart attack when you reach it? Or where the great final battle is a puzzle to unlock some great secret? Instead a lot of games end with a fight with some steroidal brute. One of my favorite game endings would have to be with Rule of Rose which is a perfect example of a denouement, as the player can now explore the entire place seeing everything from the main character's perspective. I enjoyed the ending so much that it almost is worth it to play through the less than stellar gameplay to reach it in my opinion.


Creating a satisfying ending to a game is a challenging endeavor as an ending to a video game can be pulled into several directions. Do you create a balls to the wall final test forcing the player to use all the tricks of the trade to survive? How about an emotional and thought provoking ending showing the character at their weakest? Or do you press X for 30 minutes against a giant demon and hope that it doesn't kill you forcing to start the fight over?

Josh