Half way there!

So it occurred to me a few weeks back that I am now well and truly half way through my studies. I've only got a year and a half left before I'm done with classes, and then I'll be faced with stepping out into the big mean world of job hunting. Well, that or doing an honors year at University - but that's something I'm still very much torn as to whether I want to do it or not.

With Show Us Your Bits coming up at the end of this month, I also realized the pressure I put on myself to achieve. I wasn't able to get much done during my month long break for numerous reasons, but it doesn't leave me any less disappointed that I don't have something of my own work to really showcase at the event. I'm starting to think it was more blessing than curse. Because I don't have anything to showcase, it means that I get to volunteer and help out. But it's also given me pause to consider what I should be doing in the time I have left at University. I asked myself a few questions.

Do I want to work alone or with a team?

What sort of role do I want to be working in?

What sort of thing do I want to be working on?

How much time do I want to dedicate to a project?

I would love to work with a team over the course of my final year and a half to make a game, the problem is really with finding a team to work with that is all passionate about doing a project. I find myself in a position where I'm not spectacular at art or programming, so I end out in design, production roles or all-rounder type roles - which means I'd be better off in a team. I'd love to be working on a game of my own design from the ground up. And with my studies being pretty much part-time as it stands, I've got time to work on stuff.

It's funny that - even with such a great community - sometimes it's difficult to find a reliable team. I've been a part of so many projects that have fallen through, it's kinda sad. There are so many good ideas that I have been a part of that simply have never gotten off the ground. Games that really had a lot of potential to be something very cool. I know there's one idea for a game I have that I think could be amazing - I'd LOVE to see it picked up by a team just as passionate about the idea as I am, and to make it a reality. It's all a matter of finding a team and being proactive, I suppose.

The other option is to spend some time on my weekends working on some TF2 maps. I realized when TF2 went free to play that it's a massive opportunity to get in there and make some really cool maps. TF2 was already a popular game with a lot of players, now it's even more accessible. This is the other reaosn I think not getting anything done during July was a blessing - I may have wasted time working on a project that I'd not see potential in. I've already got designs for a TF2 map that I am always polishing up on, perhaps it's time to just bite the bullet and start working on it - at the very least, until a team project comes along. Or hell, even during said team project.

In the mean time, I think I am going to simply try to be more active in seeking out a team to make a game with. I don't think there's much point in writing up a design document to pitch to others to get them on board, I'd much rather start with an idea and dynamically create it with a group of people so that we were all invested in it. It's really just a matter of finding the people.



 
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Viking Blood - An ECU Student Project

People busy themselves playing the games that ECU students have to offer.

 So for the last six weeks I've been working in a team of 3 on a game called Viking Blood. For those of you that missed out on the ECU Games Faire today, you would have missed out on Viking Blood. Well, if you want to download it and give it a shot, you can! All you need is the latest .net framework. If you have an XBOX controller for the PC, even better; that's how the game is intended to be played. Otherwise, you will need to use the debug keys (ctrl for attack, alt for block, arrow keys for movement, enter for start).

It's been an absolutely awesome experience. I felt like I was going to die at a few points there, but just to see the result work so well was worth it. There's so much that I feel we could go back and change, but I think every game dev feels that way when it comes to finally turning in a project; nothing is ever, truly, complete. But for a game made in 6 weeks that immediately had a lot of people saying "this is just like Goldenaxe!" I think we hit the mark.

So please, give it a shot, give feedback - I'll make sure the other guys hear about it. Huge thanks to Stephen Blencowe (our awesome programmer) and Adolfo Steinenbohmer (our spectacular artist) for being amazing team mates to work with. And a big thanks to Martin Masek (our lecturer) for putting us through hell with the 3 games in 3 weeks project to prepare us for this final game; it paid off, it really did.

... or maybe I'm just a masochist.

EDIT: Here's some photos of our game at the event!

The Menu screen. Fascinating.

The Boss Fight. His axe blade is as big as the player.

The team! On the left, Stephen Blencowe, the programmer. On the right, Adolfo Steinenbohmer, the artist. And in the back, myself, the designer!

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Three Games in Three Weeks

Or "how I learned the importance of gameplay design".

At ECU in one of my classes we were given the task of making 3 games in 3 weeks with a different team of people each week. It was interesting to say the least, and I learned a lot - not only about myself, but how I should approach making fast games.

With the limitation of only a week to make a game in a 3D engine, we typically took to making games based on ideas of things we wanted to do from other games. Of the first two games I did the first was the original Super Mario in 3D and first person, and the second was the first level from Super Mario 64 in HD. These weren't so much games as they were re-imaginings. We got so caught up in a cool idea that we forgot that we needed cooler gameplay elements. Which - in a 3D engine - is really difficult to come up with an implement in the span of a week.

It really reflected that simple fact when the best games in the class were the ones done by programmers and artists that understood how to use Flash and code in Actionscript really well. This was really the second lesson learned - 3D games are three times as much work as 2D games. It's much easier to make a moving vector image in Flash in 30 minutes than it is to model and animate a 3D model for a game in a week.

When I was finally working with a team during my third week we decided on a single thing - it would be a simple game. We had big ideas in the first and second week that were just really difficult to implement. It was time to take out fighting any AI characters and look at making a game that had some other kind of conflict. I set out to make really simple models really quickly rather than making awesomely detailed Goomba's and Bob-Ombs so that I could focus more on learning to make a User Interface in Scaleform. And while the game in the third week was not pretty, it was actually a game.

It was funny that it was on the day that we were showing off this third game and I had this epiphany that Nick from Lets Make Games would be at the University to see our games. He'd said something to the tune of "when we look to make games in a short time, the artists have a cool idea they want to do and the programmers have a cool idea they want to do and the design gets forgotten in the process." And after thinking back on every game I was a part of making over those 3 weeks, I can see just how right he is.

So lesson learned. When it comes to games the best ones are the ones that aren't just cool programs with pretty art slapped on. The best games are the ones that are cool programs with pretty art and awesome design running it.



 
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Minecrafting!

 Ahh, Minecraft. Why must you be so addictive.

So a friend of mine has got a server set up that a whole bunch of us have been playing around on. Though admittedly, while they have all been off replaying Dragon Age 2 and Total War: Shogun 2, I've been messing around in Minecraft between stints of writing out ideas for a game I'm working on.

There needs to be something said about Minecraft just being a fantastic creative outlet. I can take breaks from my writing and work on something visual that others can see and enjoy. I played Singleplayer a bit, but there is something about surviving as a group - the whole hunter/gatherer/creator dynamic that can spawn from a Minecraft server with friends. It's fascinating and fun, and I think that's why I find myself playing so much of late.

In any case, my group of friends have all gone out and gotten themselves their own places to work in. I found a mountain with quite a spectacular cave system running through it, and set myself up there. I built out the cave rather than removing it entirely, and turned it into a living space that I started to grow out from. And days later, this is where I've ended up.

Where the circular tower is, beneath that is where the cave system was that I started in. From there I dug down and expanded out - I even found a giant cave system beneath my base that stretches all the way back to the spawn (quite a ways away!)

If you have never played Minecraft in Survival mode on a server, I highly recommend you do. It's fantastic fun, and the addiction factor is multiplied by the multiplayer aspect.


 
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The Problem With Dragon Age 2

Well, besides the gratuitous recycling of the same maps over and over and over again, that is.

The narrative in Dragon Age 2 is a huge problem. Which is surprising - this is a Bioware game, after all.

For those that are not aware, Dragon Age 2 begins at around the same time Dragon Age: Origins begins. You are Hawke, a character that is escaping Ferelden with their family. You make the choice to escape Kirkwall - a city across the ocean. Once you arrive, you have to claw your way up into infamy over the course of 10 years. Game time, of course.

Whenever Bioware spoke about Dragon Age 2, the key word seemed to be 'personal'. That the story of Dragon Age 2 was a personal one, all about Hawke, being retold by his friend (or rival) the dwarf named Varric. The whole retelling is interesting - your choices in each act change the way the story is told. However, things take a turn for the worst as the game comes to a close. Literally.

All the way up to the end the story IS personal. It sees you going from street urchin doing somebody elses dirty work, to respected worker, to renowned noble, to the Champion of Kirkwall. But in the final 3 minutes of the game, everything is turned on its head. Your purpose in the narrative, it seemed, was only accidental. The entire story was being told because of two factions going to war, and you were at the center of it despite what you may have desired otherwise. The game is personal. The closing credits are anything but. And it is extremely, extremely disappointing.

Do not go in expecting any Dragon Age: Origins-esque prologue. The story ends with the story of what happens with these two factions, and Hawke simply disappears. Leaving behind nothing but loose ends and no answers for all those choices you made. Guess if you want to know what happens - the REAL ending - you'll have to buy the inevitable DLC or expansion, huh?

If there is anything I learned from Dragon Age 2, it's that if you are going to start with a narrative - end with that narrative. Do not make an entire game about a character and then end it talking about anything but. It's not satisfying.



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Something Worth Considering

So one of my classes this semester is for Serious Games, with my lecturer being Dr. Mark McMahon. He's the program director for Game Development at ECU, and he has a history with games for training and education. I actually saw him speak at GO3 back in 2008, and even noted his talk on my blog.

The Serous Games class is turning out to be far more interesting than I'd expected, and it's leaving me with a lot to think about as far as my future goes in game development. Making educational games or training games is not something I honestly considered as a career path. But the more I am thinking about serious games... well, seriously; the more I am considering the potential of making games that teach.

During tonight's class, I was struck by something. The fact that Agile - the game project I'd started several months ago but simply couldn't finish due to a lack of skills with Actionscript - could very easily be made into an educational game. The whole inspiration for Agile was spurred on by the fact that game development has a very rockstar appeal; I've not yet come across something that appealed to people wanting to get into game development that, hey, this is way more complex than you realize. Seeing more than half the class drop out in the first year at TAFE was the motivation to start playing with the idea.

So when I wrote the game design document for Agile it was meant to be informative and fun, but not necessarily truly educational on game development methodologies. The more I think about it, the more I think that could be rectified - Agile could be an educational game very easily. And what more, I think I could make it fun, and teach a lesson all at once. The more I think about it, the more complex I see the game become in my head. Somehow, I don't see it just turning out as jumping around on platforms anymore.

I'll spend time making notes and writing a new document. This time I think I'll skip the "learning to program" and get an actually working game out of Torque or the like. I can remake it in Flash once I know more about actionscript rather than setting my goals too high.

 
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Realism vs Not

So I'm really looking forward to the Old Republic - an MMO that Bioware is making. But it seems that every time a new video or screenshot of it is released on one of the big gaming news sites, the comments section devolves into discussion about one thing:

The graphics.

It seems that any game that comes out anymore needs to have the graphical quality of one of the recent generic FPS games to appeal to a large chunk of the gaming community (and note I say gaming community). I consider myself a pretty 'hardcore' gamer, and graphics has never been something that bothered me. Have the looks of the game become something so important now that anything that doesn't look near realistic is sub par? Did I miss the memo there?

I see games like Aion and FFXIV cited as beautiful looking MMO's.

But when I go and compare these to the stylized World of Warcraft and The Old Republic...

I know which ones I prefer by far - the latter. I see realistic looking games every day that don't even attempt to stylize themselves in any way. One of their big selling points is "shit, doesn't this look real!". I think that has its place, but when I am immersing myself in a fantasy universe, does it need to look like real life? I thought that was one of the many points of games, to escape reality and have fun. And I find that a cool and creative art style beats out generic realism any day. At least, for games where I am in a world other than our own.

Or is that just me?

 
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