SIGBUS

Ha Ha Ha

2008-08-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

I was just brushing my teeth and I kept thinking of that song about the turkey in the straw. I swear I was playing that song with my toothbrush rhythm. It was maddening.

slurping in the darkness

2008-07-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have been away from the computer for a while because I sorta OD'd on it a little over a week ago and have decided to cut back. I hope to keep this up until I get settled in Canada, whenever that may be. At that time expect a lot of updates both here and on alt-dreams.

What do you want to melt him with?

2008-06-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

So I am back from wherever I ran off to. Today I watched BIG with Tom Hanks, because that I just how Little Sarah and I roll when it is this hot. I actually liked that movie a lot since the core of the story revolves around choice and video games! I was certainly not expecting this to show up, but I like how they used the Wizard melting game to show his character growth, as well as his proposal for essentially interactive comic books. Interesting that no one has stolen that idea yet, though it certainly would not have worked in the 1980's as they would have had to use a low resolution B&W LCD for the system.

I spent some time looking for what game was actually in the movie, but it seems it was made up for the movie specifically. Not that it seemed that amazing, but it would have been a pretty impressive game graphically for the time and I was suprised I didn't recognize it.

Going back to games being at the core, the movie is about the role "play" has in different stages of life. Hanks doesn't initially understand the "games" the adults play in the workplace, just like Susan doesn't understand the games of children anymore. The character development is about them developing an understanding about foreign ways of play.

I thought this would be easy to explain but I now see I'd have to plan out a proper arguement to get this across fully. Damn it. That might be over-analyzing some crappy 80's family fun movie though.

Finally, I started working on a real design document for JATCM today. I sorta put the actual game on pause after hitting a wall with the art. Since I already have a decent bit of the game worked out in my head and notes I figure it would be a good project to practice making design doucments with. That is all, move on.

Cried all night till there was nothing more

2008-06-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

So I watched Pulp Fiction last night. I really wanted to like it more than I did, but in the end things have gone mostly nowhere. Vince gets the most screen time I think and we know he is going to die to Butch later. Butch just gets away after a crazy day, but his story is more like "Oh look at this crazy day I had" and nothing special. Nothing really happens with Mia, I mean, she almost dies, but then she is all better and it doesn't seem like anything happened to change her and she never really comes back into play. That leaves Jewels, who I guess is the one character that is trying to do something, but it isn't enough to justify a whole movie. Also, since you know they both show up at the bar later to see Butch and the fat man you know they can't fail for the whole last chapter of the film, which sorta nullifies any tension that would be there. I am sure my argument could be countered by someone who knows the film better than me, I was pretty damn tired, but that is how I felt afterwards. On a good note, it was entertaining to watch the whole time. I had planned on going to sleep half way through and finishing today, but I saw it through to the end.

Also, Pulp Fiction has lot of violence in every story, people are always getting shot on screen or raped or something. I mention this only because it was as I had expected and is not quite in line with Jackie Brown, where they don't even show her pulling a gun on an intruder but rather have the scene in total darkness. There is a real difference in the treatment of violent action in that film in my opinion, maybe Reservoir Dogs will change my view, but I doubt it.

Finally I watched Goodfellas the other day and concluded that I can't watch any more mob movies for a while. It was good, but I just have seen too damn many gangster films recently and they are all starting to blend into each other, though Goodfellas ends much happier than they do normally.

and I can't stand to see you be a bad man

2008-06-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have been away for a while, not from home but just from my various blogs. I picked up some books on learning theory and games which I have been slowly moving through. I also got Assassin's Creed and RB6V2 in a deal at target and have been playing through AC. Ill take the time to write up some impressions when I finish the game, but at this point there really isn't that much to add to what has already been said. The defining word for AC's design would be "repetition". It is also one of the most "transparent" games I have played recently, in that the game mechanics are just laid right there, much like how ammo used to just be glowing boxes in FPS games. Anyway, I am alive.

Always on trial

2008-06-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

Jackie Brown:

The start of the movie is probably the most boring part of the film, so I can see why some people just run away. I can also see why Tim said it was the least Tarantino film Tarantino has made since only one character ever dies on screen. There is almost no on-screen violence in the whole film, and only one bit of blood if I recall. One time Sam L. is shown putting on his gloves for far too long, but otherwise the long shots hold a purpose. This movie could have been shorter and told the same story, but it would have had much less character to the world, which is the point of most Tarantino jabber. It would be nice if they had shown the guns Sam L. was supposed to be running at some point, that is probably the biggest omission I can think recall. Better than Death Proof, which wasn't all bad.

Scarface:

Howard Hughes edition, btw. This movie is pretty awesome, it really doesn't feel that different from later mob crime movies. There are several scenes, like the car chase, that are very impressive for their age. Also there are some creative uses of lighting. Maybe I am giving it a lot of leway because of its age, I don't know, but it was pretty impressive to me.

Layer Cake:

This movie was filmed nicely, lots of cool transitions and I like the color in some of the night shots. Splicing in snips from the other locations into scenes was pretty cool. There is too much reliance on narration throughout to make sense of the core story. I mean, he talks for almost 5 minutes before there is any real dialogue. Craig is alright, if a bit flat, but the film keeps adding in other characters until it falls apart about 2/3 of the way through. The end section of the movie is not really a revelation, just a letdown.

The Conversation:

I like the idea of this movie, F.F. Coppola shot the whole thing well, etc. Gene Hackman acts well but the character he is playing is too much of an awkward loser for me to really enjoy the movie. There are twists and character development, but everything happens in a way that nothing is really shocking, perhaps trying to make you feel like the main character does at the end of the film, but that is pretty depressed and detached. The movie is not depressing in a sad way, but just gives you a feeling that life sorta sucks, much like 1984 or something. A good movie but hard to say "I enjoyed that" afterwards. Also, Harrison Ford shows up and says he is really young.

here they come to snuff the rooster

2008-05-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Just stopping by for a quick note: There is a new Bio-Shock review on Action Button that is epic in length. I am waiting for something to format and something to rip, so I had the time, maybe you are bored too. Back later with more.

worked up so sexual

2008-05-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

I like it when people make videos that I can just embed and move on. This is related to sex in games and is much the same argument I made back in febuary, just with pictures and stuff.

Beauty always comes with dark thoughts

2008-05-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

So rather than write my own rant about modern games lacking color I am going to just send you here to read basically what I would write, if I wasn't so lazy. Above is the Space Olives' ship, soon to be under Jimson's command. I keep redoing the 2 screens I have made so far, rather than just roughing out the whole game in the engine like I did with the last game. I am getting closer and closer to the look I want, mainly bright, colorful and crazy. I just wish it wasn't so time consuming doing all this warm-up art. Some good news is that I came up with one of the planets you visit today and it is pretty awesome in a funny way. Maybe Ill show you all later this weekend.

I dont know the first thing about love (or art)

2008-05-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a hallway on the Olives' ship. It might look familiar, right now we are rolling about 50% original work in each room. As I develop a style for the ship it will be higher. It is strangely hard to make a space ship look interesting while keeping a sci-fi look. Now I know why so many games have grey syndrome.

are we fools and cowards all? (no, not riddick)

2008-05-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

I am a few years behind but I finished Escape from Butcher Bay today. I also watched Chronicles of Riddick. The game is way better, but then so is Pitch Black.

The Good:

Riddick is pretty awesome.
The graphics are pretty awesome for an Xbox 1 game.
The health system is great and should be used in more games (A limited regen system)
Lighting is well used in the game, meaning they created dynamic lighting systems that actually alter the gameplay significantly, unlike Doom3.
You have the option to beat several sections through speed, stealth or firepower.
The game didn't try to drag on longer than it should.
The guards are not dumb for pre-FEAR baddies.
Adding a quest system was pretty cool. I would like to see a Thief game made like this.
Killing people with a stealth attack is fun!

The Bad:

Some cutscenes are just poorly put together.
More control over hand to hand swinging is needed.
There needs to be a third person camera for stealth mode/platforming.
When you do have guns, they are a bit powerful, making stealth seem not worth it. I would have liked for ammo to be shorter, so you really felt hunted and less powerful once in a while.
The quest system sections are a bit too limited. A better flow of quests/FPS sections would be nice.
The ending is a bit short.

they've been keeping me from you

2008-05-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

So the new MSG game is rumored to have 90 minute cutscenes at certain key parts. While I have called for more story in games, I think this is the wrong kind of story. Now things could be fine and all, I mean, a 90 minute epilogue for Snake would be understandable and avoid the feeling I got at the end of GTA4, mainly that the game gave me a high five and went to credits. Until something like this is confirmed though, I have to express displeasure. I do not think cutscenes are evil, but having frequent (or endless) cutscenes takes the interactive element of the media away and leaves you with a crappy movie. I simply can't imagine how there are 90 minutes of events that have to occur which the player could not control periodically. And I don't mean Quick Time Events here. Those were awesome in Shenmue, but since then I have learned their dark ways.

Also, MEGAowch was how one Free Radical dev described the low score IGN gave Haze. IGN + Low Score = WTF? The game must be trash beyond measure.

Finally I had a dream about making Trials of Olympus in Duke3d. Excellent.

Jimson and the Cosmic Martini

2008-05-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today I sat down and began Jimson and the Cosmic Martini(JATCM). I don't know what sort of schedule this one is going to run on, it will probably take a lot longer than the last game because it is larger. This time there will be a ship that Jimson can send around the solar system looking for ingredients, though there will only be 3 planets where the ship can land. The current issue is the raw amount of art that is going to be required to pull this off. I want to make more original art for this game vs my modifed template art from the background in JATJC.

Also, Thrice Air and Earth are pretty awesome.

direct from hove beach

2008-05-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

This is my review of GTA4. The highlight is totally the DJ on Vladivostok FM (Ruslana). You wanted Capitalism, here are the commercials!

jenna bush army

2008-05-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Jenna Bush knows how to rock! Jenna Bush got married?!? How did I miss this? What the heck is Perry going to do now? Hopefully she only feeds her children candy. Now that someone is making her a respectable lady, perhaps she can be John McCain's running mate? [Link]

i'm spread so thin, I don't know who I am

2008-05-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Seriously, Doom 4? ID, what are you doing? It is sad that I wondered if this was a prank or not when I first saw it posted. I should be very excited, but after Doom 3 and Quake 4 I just can't see how this will turn out well. I hope they prove me wrong. [Shacknews Link]

blood red summer...

2008-05-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Red is great! I liked Blue more still, but Red was so damn pretty I had to pause sometimes to just look at it. The end is a bit strange, if they had alluded to it earlier in the series it would have felt less like a convent plot twist, but you need to watch them all to know what I am talking about.

the walls that are between us

2008-05-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

I watched White/Blanc last night. It was decent, I think I didn't like it as much as Blue for totally subjective reasons. Unlike Blue the main character is a somewhat goobery man, the tone is that of a black comedy (but the movie is filled with white, intentional?), and is more dialog diven. Also there was a different director of photography and no scenes like the sugar cube sucking up coffee (it happens in Blue), which is one of my favorite things ever. There is nothing wrong with the movie, I just like the other movie better. It might also have helped that I went into Blue not knowing even why I had added it to my netflix queue. White had to follow one of my favorite movies ever. Oh finally, I think a big element of the film is the entry of Poland into capitialism, which I probably don't know enough to understand the political aspects of the film.

While I am thinking about foreign media I have something that keeps occuring to me but I forget to write down:

Please release your games with the original language voice tracks as an option. Too many small European developers are making games and letting the publisher localize the dialogue with what seems to be the cheapest actors possible and babelfish doing the translation. I don't understand why they can't just put in subtitles and keep the original voices, at least as an option. Dubbing has never been a good idea in film, I don't see why games should be different.

still just a rat in a cage

2008-05-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Ok I may or may not expand this post later, but my god GTA IV has broken my soul.

Well, not the game really, it is actually pretty good in a GTA sort of way, but HOLY SHIT I want to kill almost every reviewer of the game.

This is why I should post in the morning damn it. I woke up livid from a night of cursing the very soul of IGN and all their little bastard children, but since getting dressed and driving to work my rage as mellowed down to just being a bit upset.

Ill be back when I can rekindle my fevered rage.

you live, you learn

2008-04-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have some notes about a game called eXperience 112 (The Experiment in N.A.) created by lexisnumerique. I was rather excited about this game since the player does not directly control the main character but rather communicates through manipulating the environment. This basic idea had occurred to me during my AI class when I was preparing my presentation on Interactive Storytelling. Since we do not have a way to parse natural language right now, players must communicate with a game through a limited set of verb/noun combinations. Most games hid this behind button presses and such, but just look to the sentance builder interface of early LucasArts games and think about it a bit.

Anyway, so I thought since you can't make a character the player can really sit down and talk to, why not make a game about observation from a position that is slightly removed. It would be a strange game, watching a characters life and influencing things in subtle ways. Kinda like Rear Window but with only one focal character and a few that come in/out of that characters life over a few days. I have gotten off track!

So it seems someone else had a similar idea and made this game. The problem is, they decided it had to be a REAL game. A study in observation and character wasn't a game enough it seems. Things start out alright, you are on an empty military base with just the man character and some security cameras. Over time you learn what happened to everyone else, and how they relate to each other, which is pretty interesting but presented in a somewhat boring text/e-mail fashion. The problem is that they made it into a traditional adventure game. The main character, her fate, and the players relation to her should be the focus, placing the player not in control of her but in a position to communicate with her is what is interesting. Alas, the game is really about solving traditional adventure game puzzles, but with the added twist of having to tell someone what to do instead of just controlling them. This results in lots of WALK OVER HERE DAMN IT and the main character just looking confused. After about 3 hours I dubbed her "stupid girl" and my hatred began to grow.

At last I can get to the lesson here, and that is always look at what your player is doing the majority of the time. In the case of stupid girl, I spent 90% of my time flashing lights madly trying to get her to walk down the damn hallway and having to change which camera I was viewing. These actions are a chore and not fun at all once the novelty wears off. There are interesting elements to the game for sure, but they are not the heart of the interaction with the player. The design of the game is all centered on the player battling the least responsive input system yet implemented. And the sad thing is, THIS DID NOT HAVE TO BE. The game didn't need to be 20+ hours long, the number of locations could have been reduced massively, stupid girl could have walked around and observed things and reported back to me by herself. GAH! It just makes me so mad that they could have had something here if all the money wasted on this giant environment that it is a pain to navigate had been spent on creating a compelling core experience.

I had other things to discuss but I am lucky if anyone read this far so I'll save it for later.

please don't tell my secrets, keep them hidden

2008-04-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to get some games off my plate lately. There is a theory that if I play more games I will understand them better, but I am not so sure. Anyway, here is what I have played since Bioshock came out in August:

Bioshock
Stranglehold
Halo 3
Rockband
Guitar Hero 3
Hellgate London
Stubbs the Zombie
Metroid Prime 3
The Awakening
Secret Files: Tunguska
World of Warcraft
Galleon
Outcast
Call of Duty 4
No More Heroes
Mass Effect
Jack Keane
Portal
Half-Life Ep 2
The Experiment
Titan Quest
Daikatana
Super Mario Galaxy
Zack and Wiki
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Sam and Max Episodes Season 2

Added:
Samurai Western
Morrowind

Oh shit. I really didn't think it was going to be that long when I started listing them out like that. I feel like I have so many more to play and that I make no progress toward the gaming equilivent of "well read", but now I almost feel like I should go get a life or something. I mean, I left off things I only played for 4 hours or so (unless it was Portal, which was short but I beat it...) and there are none of the old adventure games I played again since I am not going to learn anything new revisiting them. The sad thing is I really had to think to come up with this list, because out of all of those, the games I have some connection with are as follows:

Bioshock
Mass Effect
Call of Duty 4
Halo 3
Rock Band
Guitar Hero 3
No More Heroes
Portal
Daikatana
Sam and Max Episodes Season 2

Really, Daikatana doesn't count, but I did play it a lot in the fall and had fun. Also Guitar Hero 3 is lost to me now because of Rock Band, but in that month before Rock Band came out, I played it about every day. It scares me how mainstream this list is, it almost reads like a game of the year list from IGN. I guess No More Heroes is a bit odd, but not really, it is generally considered one of the best games on Wii. The truth here is that if someone had created another Dreamfall it would be topping this list, but the closest we got last year was Portal. OH! I just added Sam and Max Season 2. I feel a bit better about the list now. Maybe Mass Effect is the closest to a Dreamfall, that is probably my favorite thing here on this list. Ill shut up now, this is all a mess.

Don't Wait Up

2008-04-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

I beat Outcast today after having it sit on a hard drive since 1999. I remember I was torn between buying it or Omikron: The Nomad Soul (feat. David Bowie and by the guys that did Indigo Prophecy). I really wish they had pulled off the sequel since there are a lot of good ideas packed into this funky game. It looks primitive nowdays, but the graphics have moments of brilliance and I can't think of anything from that era with good outdoor areas. Again, I liked it so I don't have too much to say, rock on Talans of the world!

Ride on shooting star

2008-04-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty busy with things and this should continue for the next while, but I wanted to put up some photos from our last trip to the desert for my friend's film project.

Framing the drag shot from the Jeep.

Matt practicing the hood scene in the harness we made.

Filming the hood scene from inside.

Hooking Jack the dummy up under the truck.

I can hear them coming, the blue parade

2008-04-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

I watched Bleu tonight. It is now one of my favorite films ever. I like how good things just get a few words and Grindhouse gets a whole page of ranting.

I want expensive saddness

2008-04-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

So I watched all of Grindhouse today. Well, as much of it as you can watch on DVD right now, they don't have a proper release with all the trailers in between and stuff. Bastards. Anyway, Planet Terror is 50% blood and gore to the point where I don't want to look at the screen. I thought that Rose McGowan was pretty cool as the one legged go go dancer girl, though much of the internet seems to disagree. Rodriguez really went a bit over-board with the whole camp thing, it feels more like a moving playing up being campy than a retro genre film. He just tries to hard, spending a lot of money and effort to make something campy rather than filming something inherently "grindhouse" style.

The other half of Grindhouse is Deathproof. I am confused how I feel about this movie, I have prepared the following diagram to illustrate the film's structure.The red sections are times when action occurs and are pretty damn excellent. The first instance of cars and death is short but well organized, showing everyone die in nice dramatic ways etc. The second car part is also wonderful because it basically just documents some stunt drivers going out into the country and beating the crap out of each other in cars I wish I could afford to drive.

The blue parts are talking about...things...and stuff. I happen to like Tarantino talking so I didn't mind so much, but if Kyle ever watched this movie he would probably bitch himself hoarse. Or not, you never know.

When I say movie 1 and movie 2 I am not talking about Plant Terror, this diagram is all Death Proof, which is itself a two-part film. As one film I do not like Death Proof that much, the 2 parts are really only linked by Kurt Russell's character. If they just had a short scene at the start of movie 2 showing you that Kurt kills girls with his car after stalking them then we could have skipped the whole of movie 1. Which would be too bad because the first half is excellent, just not very relevant to the film's conclusion. Movie 1 is a straight murder-the-young-girls movie, though it does a very good job of showing how Kurt seduces his victims into trusting him. When this part ends you really need to stop the movie, walk around the house for a while and come back later.

Movie 2 starts with a totally different feel. The film is not nearly as dirty, the previous film is ends at night and has lots of darkness but this second movie is almost all light. At first the plot is basically the same and I was wondering why the hell we were off killing new girls somewhere but somewhere in the last 25 minutes the whole movie flips around in the middle of the chase scene. I really liked this becuase it isn't a WHAT A TWIST! moment, but integrated into the flow of events. The whole thing relies on Kurt Russell. He sells a change in tone that would be easy to mess up.

There are certianly things which I don't like about Death Proof at all, in the end I graded it the same as Planet Terror on Netflix, but it made me sit and think about what was going on in it a bit before I did.

farewell my black balloon

2008-04-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

I know most of you will watch Zero Punctuation anyway, but just in case.

Also, The Kills new CD is pretty awesome.

I was looking for the pirate ship

2008-04-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Kyle and I worked on a short film of silliness. My room is so messy I cannot move today, but it is also overcast and I am really tired so most everything is on hold. Ill edit it together tomorrow. This is what happens when I have a very productive day, I have to follow it with a day of sitting to counter-act my activity karma or something. Firefox 3 is pretty excellent, even it beta.

Also, I want this shirt.

make love to the judges with your eyes

2008-04-06T11:10:00.000-07:00

So there is a brief article over at Den of Geek about the potential for literary games. It involves Suda 51 so it is automatically exciting. The first step to creating games with real intent is to understand ways to leverage the medium to create a range of experience. Adapting already existing works may be the best way to tackle the technical challenges of designing such a game before we go out and try to create a truely original work.

Just to flesh this out some more, there is also a post over at MTV calling for more "arty" looking games rather than more realistic ones. The arguement is that a game on Wii or PS2 can look better than Ps3 games if they just make it look cool rather than real. I assume that everyone already knows this around here, but the industry in general certainly doesn't.

Also, isn't it really strange that MTV actually has good coverage of games and is backing Rock Band etc? Thinking of MTV as a legitimate source of anything post mid-90's is just so strange.

I was fool, couldn't let myself to go

2008-04-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

Today I will be running down a list of backlogged items that never made it to the internet over the last week. Before I get going though, I have to note that today's title is not a typo, and not from this Beck, but this one. That video sucks but it is the best I cound find.

Anyway to business! I watched Run Lola Run the other day (Again) and still really like that movie. What I think is really awesome is that they work the world into one preset, fixed state and then run though three possible outcomes that could come from that starting point. Each time they establish that the pre-conditions are the same and then show how the different actions of Lola change the world around here. Everything else is constant but Lola, she causes ripples that not only determine the post-conditions of her story but the side characters as well. At the beginning of the movie fred noted that it seemed like something based on a game. I laughed at him and was like 'HO HO HO Fred, no there is no Run Lola Run video game." When I watched the movie though, I kept thinking how it was just like one of my Authored Worlds for interactive fiction. A game that consisted of a few city blocks all preset that the player could then interact with in interesting ways and also see what happens to NPCs dude to his/her actions would be pretty awesome. I had more to say when I started this but I have forgotten since. Damn it.

My next idea was for a program/plugin that would add tags to a book manuscript for each scene and for characters and such. It would provide a way to see when characters first appear, show all their scenes and let you reorder them like clips in a movie or something. The best way to do this would be a plugin for Word or something but I am not sure if it is possible. The key would be allowing the addition of tags without having to write markup in the actual document. I suppose it could be stripped out later, but I would not want it here changing my page counts and stuff. Anyway, it seemed like a cool idea so I wrote it down and now have posted it.

Somewhere in there I had a dream where Johnguydude was the leader of a church that met in an old railroad station from the 1800's and he wore a bowler hat and suspenders. I don't know what part of the larger dream narrative it served, but I made sure to rememeber that little bit.

Finally, I have been addicted to reading Questionable Content since last monday. This is where the image above comes from. The first comics have sad art, but it gets way better every few hundred.

My eyes forever focused on the sanguine metal dawn

2008-04-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

19 fricking 98.

I've always known that the mirror never lies

2008-04-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

When I began this blog I really had intended to keep certain dark facinations of my out of my posts. Since I have already ruined that by mentioning Daikatana a few times before, here we go again.

Last night I had a dream where the 5th episode was released for Daikatana, but instead of being a viking themed area it was Babalyon from Titan's Quest with gardens, stone walls, and lots of water. All the weapons were these crazy golden versions of things from other episodes. I got to play it along with a bunch of other people, including Johnguydude and Rohen, in a place that looked like an actual level from the game. I remember being very worried that everyone had all the right data installed so the map rotation wouldn't crash them. It was pretty awesome, playing Daikatana DM in some awesome water temple thing with like 12 people. I think this was my minds April Fool's Day joke on me. Damn.

Today I intend to start a project beyond the scope of any of my previous efforts. Hopefully in a few days Ill have something to show you all.

Tell me what you want, and what you have betrayed

2008-03-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

I have added a section to the page with links to various bits of media I think are awesome. I realize now that I should break it up into movies, games and books. A task for the future. I really made it to say that Miller's Crossing was pretty awesome. In a few days I might not want it to be listed with my favorite films ever, but right now I am very satisfied with that movie.

In other news I watched Bottle Rocket and have determined that I can no longer tolerate Owen Wilson. Or maybe Wes Anderson. I am not sure, but I know I can't watch another movie where Owen Wilson runs around bitching and bossing everyone around all the time leading to ultimate failure. I really do like The Royal Tenenbaums though. Damn it.

Like a breeze blowing deep beneath my skin

2008-03-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Game Design Class With Jimson:

daplaya667: zelda is rpg
gravis31: no stats =  no RPG
daplaya667: but there's a role to be played
daplaya667: so it's a role playing game
daplaya667: ^^
gravis31: then every game is a RPG
gravis31: even pacman
daplaya667: yeah, pacman is a great rpg

Go read about Ednaswap now. The font is strange because I posted in Linux
and have no real fonts installed.

When we die, We go into the arms of those who remember us

2008-03-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about the relation of words to gaming since I my last post. Well not just gaming, really any creative effort. Our thoughts are organized by words, our ideas expressed in them, even if the expression never extends beyond our own internal monologue. This makes me wonder, can something be created which does not originate in language? What would a mind be like without words to order to stimulous? It seems to me that a in order to paint free of words you would have to paint images that I could not name perhaps.

I am not sure where I am going with this.

When I was a kid Fred would hold up a pencil or some other thing and ask me what it was. Of course, I would respond that it was a pencil and he would laugh and tell me that was just a name, a word, and a word is nothing more than an idenifier for a block of meaning. There are many people named Seth in the word, but I am different from all the others, as they are from me, though we have the same name. According to him the pencil was just an object that existed exactly as it was, to define it or name it only allowed us to approximate its meaning. Or something like that, I was a kid.

Once, I was on the freeway late at night and almost got hit by some crazy car in LA. Probably drunk. At the time "Inflatable" was playing by Bush on the radio and I remember thinking that it would be strange to die in the violent tumbult of two cars crashing into each other while such a sad, peaceful song played. I don't know why I remember that.

It seems this has all gone nowhere relevant to games. I tried, but got lost somewhere back there. Ill try again tomorrow maybe.

turn this all around behind us

2008-03-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

These are just some thoughts I scribbled in a notebook a few months ago. I was thinking about how one would define an interactive story and the various elements of such a narrative.

Fate is the natural flow of events, the way the future from if the player moves forward on the simple/easiest path through the story.
Facts are creator authored elements of the story.
Static facts are the past, before the player began interacting with the world.
Once a player begins a game they become the creator, adding Dynamic Facts to the truth of the story. The facts are dynamic not because they themselves change, but because they are defined by the dynamic actions of the player.
Static Facts are absolute and will be true in any players game world.
Dynamic Facts are the results of personal player choice.
The combination of these will define the narrative of a players experience.

Dream of the Day:

A game about learning language. Initially the player can't understand anything the characters are saying. Over time the player can understand more and more of what they are saying, while also understanding more of the story. This parallel developement culminates in some revelation. Here the narrative is not dynamic but the learning process forms the interaction.

*Update* Also it seems there was a piece by Kieron Gillen about words in gaming over at Rock Paper Shotgun a long time ago that I missed. OK now I have had about enough of the computer for today.

someday you will ache like I ache

2008-03-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

I need to get these damn applications done soon. My letter of intent is only on the first draft, but I think it's a pretty good one:

Dear [Place of Higher Education],

I want to be the girl with the most cake.

Thanks,
Seth

Polly says her back hurts

2008-03-16T21:09:00.001-07:00

Whenever Kaiden's in the party all the dialogue options should be "What the hell is he doing here?'" -stryker116 on PA forums

So I am back to rant more about Mass Effect. Not a long rant, but it has to happen. I just rescued Liara in the first major mission on "Hardcore" difficulty and already already I am back on a path to fail the romance plotline. Goddamn you Bioware, why did you make Kaiden such a whinney bitch. Seriously, I think they wrote this game with the idea that there would never be a straight female Sheperd because no one would ever like that stupid guy. So again, to gain the EXP for that plot line my options are to sleep with an loser or les-out all over the place. This probably doesn't make much sense because I am trying to play the game as I write this, I am angry at it again but i can't stop playing.

Now open wide and say my name

2008-03-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

So my idea for the day is an online version of Sim City, where you start a town and connect to others peoples towns and stuff, all as a web based game. Things would be simple, Sim City 1 style. The town would be kept small and not grow as fast as Sim City because I want smaller details to be present, such as street names and stuff. This lets the player customize the city more, and I thought the idea up while dragging around google maps of San Diego and started trying to envision a city game built into the map system. Really, this is what I do with my days. The idea is not finished at all, but I wanted to record it here so I don't forget. Also, Jay suggested making it interface with a facebook application or something.

Also, Space Lord is the song of the day. It makes me want to play Duke3d and really whip the llama's ass.

Finally, I read the Daikatana Strategy guide today, I need a faster internet connection so I can play again.

So tell me about this "baby maker"

2008-03-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

The new Sam and Max game is excellent. ~~I am not quite done yet as I was at work until late yesterday, but I am really close.~~ I know I said "Night of the Raving Dead" was great and then feebly tried to explain how this was the case, but really, the newest episode is the best so far. The authenticity of the Sam and Max experience, along with the puzzles, has increased drastically over the course of this season. I now find myself mad that this season is shorter than the last by one episode. Hopefully they announce the Freelance Police will be back on the job next year, though I could understand if Telltale wanted to move on. Keeping to that episodic schedule must put them in a perpetual state of crunch.

Update: I added my own screenshot. Also, there are references to the drinking pigeons over Bosco's shop in Hit the Road, plus they worked in "baby needs" as well. Cheers to Telltale for adding in-jokes for us old-timers.

At last I can finally sing!

2008-03-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

I think this explains why Sega Superstars Tennis must be purchased. I promise to do more than post images in the near future.

half life wastes before it goes

2008-03-12T01:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight I miss Half-Life. A screen from my first map for a 3d game.

And any way you choose me, it won't be wrong

2008-03-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

I have just completed Mass Effect this morning and I have to say that the game was awesome. I have disliked almost all of the other Bioware games for various reasons, but Mass Effect refines the formula into something I truely enjoyed.

I can confirm that textures pop in a lot and your 360 DVD-Drive is going to be dancing for the duration of the game, but these issues are more the fault of Microsoft for using slow as hell media in a system designed for high definition content. I hope future versions on the 360 have a hard drive cache option or something. The pop-in doesn't really hurt the game at all, until the last few cutscenes where the textures just NEVER CAME. I think they should have caught that one. Really though, the game is awesome.
So awesome sometimes that I just keep playing, trying to get to what happens next. For the crime of becoming engrossed in the game, though, Bioware punishes you harshly. You see, even if you tell the game to AUTOSAVE, it chooses to checkpoint only when it damn well feels like it and not at every key part of a mission. This means that if you are on a roll and totally into the game, forgetting to exit to the damn menu to save your progess, you can sometimes have to play entire sections of the game over again. In my case, the game took about 16 hours to complete, but I played for probably closer to 18-19 hours to get to the end. To provide an example, there is a part a the very end where you trigger a cutscene and when the scene ends you are presented with a timed sequence, which I promptly failed on my first try. Now there was no warning I would be entering a cutscene, during which I could not save, nor that after I would be going into a timed sequence in which I could not save. In fact, I had not saved in quite a while. When I died there I had to go back probably 5-10 minutes in the game, watch the cutscene again and then complete the timed sequence. THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. The scene at the completion of the timed event was pretty awesome, but I was just sitting there thinking, thank god I don't have to do that again. They have created a damn fine game, with an fun story, but I would have been saved much cursing and anger if they just PUT IN SOME REAL CHECKPOINTS. They don't need to change the save system at all, being able to save at any time is great for the game, but fricking hell, make sure every objective/cutscene updates the autosave, at least when the user selects to have the game AUTOMATICALLY SAVE.
Also, the items you pick up are so often repeats and nothing special, there should be a "simple loot" mode where you can just get upgraded guns between missions and you don't have to manage 10 copies of the same mostly useless shield mods. For me at least, the loot system they have was just an annoying distraction from the important part of the game.
Finally, if you play this game, note that it does not have a tutorial. What is there basically says to use the cover system, which is mostly useless as you can just stand behind walls and sidestep, which makes things faster anyway. At least on normal. Read a guide online or something to learn how the who Biotics system and stats work.

Really, I complain, but it was great.

PS: I totally failed to sleep with anyone in the game, even the alien girl who most people have to fight off with a stick. This is must be indicitive of something.

PPS: I demand Tali is a romance option in ME2, logic be DAMNED! Tali and Wrex are the best.

Come in closer, oh my daughter

2008-03-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

So I fixed the issues people found with the last release and forced myself to do the last bit of art I needed to complete Jimson and the Jazz Crabs! What I present here should be the final release of the game with the current content. I really want to add in some sound and background music, but my basic attempts at Garage Band have failed so I want this out there before I get frustrated and put it back on the shelf for a few weeks. Of course, if someone finds a bug Ill fix and upload a revised copy. [Download]

PS: When I figure out the Mac OSX runtime and stuff, Ill add that in a new post. I hear it runs in Wine from Urban.

When I was in Riverhead...

2008-03-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

This isn't actually part of the game right now, but I just made it and am laughing so much I had to post it. I am fitting it in somewhere.

Look at me, still talking when there's science to do!

2008-03-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

Ok so this is the moment almost no one as been waiting for, an early test of Jimson and The Jazz Crabs! Here's to beating Duke Forever to public demo! Right now there is no intro to the game or background music/voice because those are not getting done until everything else is set in stone. What is there is a short little adventure game which can be beaten without too much trouble. I am putting this up here to mark the completion of a playable game. From here on out it should just be tweaking. With that in mind, if you actually play this please send me any bugs/typos that you run into. Right now it is Windows only, the final version should have working Linux/OS X versions as well. [Download]

PS. There was a lingering script bug at the end of the game. It just showed some extra dialog right before the credits, but that has been fixed in the new zip.

And you can tell, it's just as well

2008-03-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

So I have been doing some work on Jimson and the Jazz Crabs again.
Outside the Temple of Jazz
In the lair of Cooke, master cookie chef of the Elder Gods.
Hopefully I will have more to show tomorrow.

Come on, Dover! Move your bloomin' arse!

2008-02-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

So each day I try to come up with a basic game design idea before I truly begin the day. This normally results in me standing in the shower mumbling to myself and finally giving up because someone already made Thief, and it is the F------- GREATEST THING EVER.

Right…

Anyway, so today I had an idea that I actually like. I first began thinking about how the number of verbs you can use in controlling Gordon Freeman is less than the number you have with most action figures. Especially with ones with pull-strings and voice-boxes. This lead me to thinking about creating a decision tree for an entire level of Half-Life or something and declaring to the world that we can do better. I can see this is going to take a while so, in the interest of actually making a point, let’s fast-forward to the point where I start trying to make My Fair Lady into a video game.

Now at first I envisioned a game where the goal was to take a low level Eliza and upgrade her to a status where she can be passed off as a duchess as the ball. I am not sure if the time limit would be enforced, but there would be a series of activities she could perform at the players direction, leading to various mini-games that would result in a certain improvement. The feedback could be given to the player by taking her out on test runs to various tea parties and such. This makes it so the player has to look more deeply at the game to figure out their status, not just look at a stat screen and be like, today we need to grind this ability etc.

This game is all well and good but is basically is a pretty mini-game collection and I hate that crap. I just don’t know where the long run interest would come so I tried to move on, with the same idea of creating a game about social climbing in British society, but without the constraint of the My Fair Lady setting. I was now reminded of DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Now you may laugh, but I really like some parts of that game, and it is not because of the blasted boob physics. The core of DOA:XBV* is all about learning the various girls tastes and hobbies, thus allowing you to gift them items they will enjoy in order to win their favor. This will let you build a stronger team over time for the action part of the game. The gifting section is supported by other little mini-games which earn the player money to buy more extravagant gifts. Now in the case of DOA they give you all of the information about characters via the manual, but in my social climbing game you would deduce it from conversation with various characters and the surroundings of their homes.

Before I go too far let me flesh out the game a little more. You would begin the game by selecting a main character and their companion. It could be any mix of male/female and the relationship could be either they are family, friends or lovers. This would change the game a little as the experience of 2 young women trying to climb London’s social ladder would be different from, say, a young couple. You have a friend come along because I needed someone for you to practice dancing with and generally to provide advice and stuff. The main character could, of course, be new to London and staying at a rich relatives house, with the relative providing that role, but I thought letting the player set things up would be more fun.

Now you would start with an invitation to one tea party somewhere. This would be a very easy event and it would be here that you begin to make contacts. The process of making contacts goes something like: engage a character in conversation, find out about them, raise their favor meter until they invite you to visit them sometime. Then they would be added to the players list of contacts and when at home the player would have the option of sending them telegrams, gifts or inviting them to events. Initially the player would face sympathetic companions, but later characters would initially not favor the player and thus they would have to learn how to impress the hostile person through information gathered from other people via gossip. Parties could be arranged, with the player having to select where to have the event, who to invite (invite 2 people that hate each other would be a bad bad thing).

I am not sure if adding monetary concerns to the game would make it too complex, I really want to focus on social interactions in the game, but doing that all the time might be too much. Perhaps the player would receive an amount of money based on their overall favor level from friends, with the option to play cards or go to the races or something to potentially earn more. I would also like to add some factors dependent on sex to the game, so a female player would get different reactions from young men (potential suitors). You would have to have the option of getting married, but overall the game would be much like Pirates!, in that you would simply be racing to become as famous and popular as possible before you have to “retire”. When one game is complete the player could start again with the children of their last character. Actual time in the world probably couldn’t pass, so there would be an endless stream of people living in the early 1900’s I guess. Well, it is a game after all. No one would ever make this game, but I wish they would because Hellgate London is boring me to death right now.

*I just had to add that I might be the only one who played that game because they thought the favor manipulation system was fun, but it really was pretty awesome. The second game is horrible though, they upped the boobs to the point where you just can't ignore it and I refuse to play that crap.

Love, it's who you know

2008-02-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

Speaking of love in games, there is an awesome little demo that was shown at GDC for a game called Love. Rock Paper Shotgun has some impressions up, but, really, just look at the screen shots. I fully support any effort to create unqiue visuals in gaming. Creating renders which draw 3d worlds as if they were painted has been possible for some time, see NPRQuake for an example. Once I was talking with my mother about art and she mentioned that in school she was facinated with strange 3d shapes, as reflected by most of her pottery. This, of course, lead to me ranting about how within games we have very few restrictions on what games worlds are made of, and yet spend all this time making boring realisic visuals. I told her, imagine we took one of these pots and you could run around the surface solving a puzzle or exploring a small world (Think Super Mario Galaxy), and I think she actually thought that was pretty cool. Anyway, go look at the pretty pictures and join me in hoping this sees release and is awesome.

We walked arm in arm, But I didn't feel his touch

2008-02-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

So Maggie Greene has an article over at Kotaku about sex in games and the maturity of the industry. Practically everyone, inlcuding myself, is guilty of ranting about sex in games, the need for the industry to grow up, put a stop to the boobs, blah blah blah. If you are not up to date on the current discussions online the article has links to the most recent relevant rants before it takes off. She makes one point about halfway through that I like (not suprising as I have argued this as well), mainly that right now we are stuck with mostly linear stories in games, so why not steal from movies until technology expands the possibilites with interactive media. Truely interative stories are certianly the utopia we seek, but it is going to be a while before technology and design can support it. As she notes, the ultimate solution to the problem of sex in games is better storytelling, although if you follow Ken Levine you will argue that what we need is better narrative in games and leave the telling to the world. Kyle has probably already skimmed it so about half of my readership doesn't need this post, but I thought of the above image and decided it needed creation.

Fingernails that shine like justice...

2008-02-26T18:04:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Blow lists out 10 10 ways to think of game design over on gamasutra. I was just scanning over it and thought it at least interesting. Mostly bitching on the story elements of Half-Life 2 will get you linked here. [Link]

Time gets us all

2008-02-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

“I have poured the message of love and peace and happiness in Space Channel 5. These were the emotions and desires of this game.” -Tetsuya Mizuguchi

The quote above I pulled from a Grand Text Auto post and placed here simply because I love Space Channel 5. More games should be about awesome dancing and silly songs rather than evil daemons and such.

I have been trying to get things back in shape at home, but the slow internet has not been helping at all. I have some more GDC photos for the upload half of my connetion is doing better. Here are a few things I picked up a GDC. This is more of a reminder to myself so when I am not doing any of these things in I weak I will understand the depth of my failure.

The number one thing I learned from GDC is that in order to become a game developer the best thing you can do is make games. Other things can help, but at some point you have to make some games. Part of this is going to be sacrifice, you have to find something you want to do so much you can just dump everything else and dedicate the forseeable future to realizing that idea.

One thing I heard often at GDC was that completion was key. Basiscally, a finished crappy game is better than a half-done good game. This isn't exactly news to me, but hearing that from people who are doing the work I wish was I doing is a bit more motivating than the nagging little voice in my head that says it is NOT time to lay around all afternoon.

Another thing I observed is that completion can take time, lots of time. A small game project with 1-2 people could take a a year, but sometimes that is just what it takes. I have just been afraid to start on a project I know could take months, but seeing the results of others work makes me think such endevors are worth the commitment.

Taking these into mind, I hope to have Jimson and the Jazz Crabs updates ~soon, it depends on how good Hellgate London turns out to be. There just never is enough damn time!

happy birthday, here's your nerve gas

2008-02-24T10:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I posted our location in the line for the final Portal talk of GDC, but I did not relay the tragedy that befell John and me when we tried to enter. It seems Expo Passes were allowed to go in but not Student passes, so Jimson was able to go in and see the whole talk. Luckily Joystiq has notes from the whole talk up here. I was able to sneak in later in the session when they began taking questions from the audience. I was rather mad that I didn't get to see the whole talk, but while I was there Eric cited Destination:Void as an influence, which excited me a lot as that was one of my favorite books in middle school. Also he said Undying was cool, which it is. Also he worked on Psychonauts. Too bad most of the questions were stupid fan questions in the vein of the ones asked at a Comic-Con session and not really about the development of the game. I don't know when I will be home yet as I am waiting to arrange a ride out of Pismo Beach to San Diego, so I may be back with another post in a while.

Brainpower

2008-02-23T19:44:00.001-08:00

Well GDC is over and I am on my way back to San Diego via the 101. Currently I am in Pismo Beach waiting for Selena to come and pick me up tomorrow (hopefully). The TV has delivered TMNT 1 and now 2 through the power of cable, so I am rotting away on the couch.

The above photo is from Joystiq, they were showing how fricking long the to the Portal talk was at the end of the show. I was excited when I was able to find us sitting in the line, we are so famous!
Above you see Johnguydude illustrating the sense of power one can derive from the GDC show floor. I have a lot more to post later, but at the moment the Secret of the Ooze is taking priority.

GDC and Airports

2008-02-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

So I have been busy the last few days getting ready for attempted entry to GDC. Johnguydude and I will be hopefully going to the Expo on Friday with student passes. This is the end goal but before I can complete the game I have to defeat the mini-boss known as Airport Waiting. The flight delay gnomes have been at it again, moving my flight departure time back by a few hours. Hopefully all goes well and I will be back home and posting daily in a few days. If internet and energy permit, I will be posting some photos/notes from GDC friday night.

If I were a rich man [Jazz Crab Reviews Uncharted]

2008-02-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

Since my last attempt at a review was a failure, I decided to change formats a bit for this one.

By now most everyone who cares has played or read a review of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but I will warn you the review has some spoilers. [Link]

I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon

2008-02-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

I am working again today, but I had to make a note about El Scorcho being added to the Rock Band DLC next week. This is amazing news and fills me with such joy that I had to share. [Video Link]

Update: In my excitement I forgot to mention something almost as amazing, Garbage - Why Do You Love Me will also be released that day. EXCELLENT! [Video Link]

Sam & Max - Night of the Raving Dead Review (Draft)

2008-02-17T00:00:00.001-08:00

So I tried to write a review of the latest Sam & Max episode and found it way harder than I expected. I really don't recommend reading this, I post it here only to record my first attempts at a review piece. Ill try again with a different game and see if I can do better. Failure follows.

February brings yet another Sam & Max episode from Telltale Games. This is episode is the third to be released in Season 2, and the best game in the series to date. If you are not familiar with the new Sam & Max series you should probably look elsewhere as this review is an evaluation of the newest episode in relation to what has been released before. By now followers of the series know what to expect from Telltale, if you are new to world of Sam & Max I recommend trying Abe Lincoln Must Die!, which is both free and one of the better episodes from Season 1.

While the strengths and weaknesses of the series have been recounted all across the internet in other reviews, I want to note my feelings about the series in general as they color this review significantly. I am a big fan of Sam & Max Hit the Road and view that game as the definitive S&M experience. The original game had a grittier, more violent world, and (Perhaps mostly due to the 2d art) felt more like a comic book. I applaud what Telltale has done with the series, after all, they have proved both that episodic gaming is viable and adventure games can still be relevant, but their vision of the characters is certainly different from mine. I eagerly await the release of each episode, but will probably always prefer the classic, which leads me right back to this episodes opening.

The introduction to Night of the Raving Dead reminds me so much of the beginning to Hit the Road that I feel it must be intentional. An insane character ranting at their captives is hardly an original idea, but in this case it creates a slightly darker tone to the episode, which I have been longing for since the start of the series. The new locations do not have the overly bright/cheery look that filled the previous episodes. I do not know if it is the new locations décor or that events of the previous episodes have created a critical mass of chaos, but the world is finally beginning to feel as whacky and irreverent as Sam & Max should be. Of course it could simply be the lack of Soda Poppers and talking babies (a plague on Moai Better Blues).

The puzzles are about par for Season 2, meaning generally more complex than Season 1 but not a great deal harder. This results in a longer playtime than some of the earlier episodes, coming in around 4 hours for me. For the price I consider that a steal, many modern games clock in under 8 hours and have only a fraction of the unique content found here.

It is always the writing quality that keeps each episode interesting. The jokes in this game are less direct and more spread out over the whole adventure, which made them way more effective. Rarely have I actually laughed out loud in either of the seasons, but this time they got me a few times. Granted, humor is very subjective; Adventure Gamers felt this game to be one of the least funny. My experience was most certainly the opposite, as anyone in my house can tell you, I have been recounting events and lines from the game since I completed it. I personally appreciated the bits of gaming culture sprinkled into the game. For example, there are references to John Romero, saving with typewriter ribbon, and healing herbs. Compared to the soon-to-expire pop culture jokes that have shown up before, I think this is a good change. In the end this episode continues the trend of Telltale experimenting a bit while keeping the quality on a generally upward path. We can only hope the season continues with quality releases such as this.

IOU

2008-02-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

So today I ended up working part of the day and am now watching Kyle beat Gabriel Knight. I might not have time to do the post I wanted for today so this is a place-holder saying I owe everyone a post at some later time.

UPDATE: While I am gone go read this interview with Warren Spector, because he is awesome and stuff.

He's a god now...

2008-02-13T10:12:00.001-08:00

Joystiq recently visited EA to take a look at Spore. While there they snapped some pictures of Will Wright's office and posted them for all to see. One of the pictures gives a nice look at the working space of westerns gamings most acclaimed designer. (Click to enlarge)
There is something very important hidden in the photo above, a detail Joystiq seems to have missed but is of great importance to our understanding of the game industry. Can't find it? Here is a hint.

That is right, Mr. Wright keeps old macs in his office. This is the the best explaination I have found so far for his unprecendented success. The raw bliss one can experience in proximity to such artifacts of computing divinity certainly has fueled his creative forces over the years.

As to specific models, I put forth that the tower is a 8100 or 8500. It is very hard to tell as they use the same case design. The other machine could be a 6100 but I do not see anything that could be a PowerPC logo under the floppy drive. This raises the possibility of a 660AVAs you can see here, the later model 660AV had a manual inject floopy drive with blug in the middle for the fingers rather than the straight lines of the auto inject floppys found on the earlier Centris 660av. The picture certainly looks to have a manual inject drive so Quarda 660av is a valid option. I like the idea of a PowerPC and 68k machine side by side, that way he has both architectures to run all the classic sim games!

I had some thoughts prepared for today, but this news is far too exciting for me to soil it with musings on the latest Sam & Max episode.

These White Lights Will Bend To Make Blue

2008-02-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

The richness of gaming as a medium has been restricted by the focus on realism. Sure there have been some strange games released this year, such a Space Giraffe, but in general games are confined to a pseudo-realistic world. From Halo to Supreme Commander, we see fictional worlds created that closely mirror our own, just with more aliens and crazy big lasers. While I agree that games need to make sense to the player, and understanding approximate models of the real world should be easy for us all, I think there is huge untapped potential here.

Digital imagery removes normal physical restrictions from the process of creation. In Maya we do not have to worry about gravity or strength of materials like film makers did before the advent of computer graphics. Most films have to deal with physical actors who must be placed within the digital scenes, limited what can effectively be done with the technology. Generally filming a whole movie on a green screen set results in poor acting and a lot of labor to match everything up (See Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). Look for this to become less of an issue over the next decade. The thing is, gaming doesn’t have these pesky physical actors to deal with, all of our characters are already 3d models. This, to me, means there should be no restrictions on the kind of worlds we create for games.

With the ability to represent almost anything on the screen, I am constantly let down when I find myself pushing crates around and breaking down wooden doors. I am not saying we should abandon all trappings of reality and create abstract art worlds, but to me it feels like we are spending all this time creating a virtual version of something we already experience every day. I want to see worlds and play mechanics which challenge our perceptions of what is possible and make us look on in awe. Rez and Shadow of the Colossus should have just been the beginning. We have a medium only limited by the imaginations of our designers and we choose to make endless parking garages and underground research facilities. We have gotten good at creating sensations of fear, power, and excitement in players; I think adding wonder to the mix would be a good next step.

Some links for the day:

The Arty Party – An article over on Gamasutra about why we shouldn’t worry if games are really art.

Night of the Raving Dead – The new Sam & Max episode is up on Gametap today, buy it from Telltale tomorrow.

Now it’s all bad education

2008-02-11T18:22:00.000-08:00

I have been looking at graduate schools for game design over the last month. My dream is to work on games which expand the media in some way. It isn't that I don't enjoy games like COD4 or Halo, just that I don't want to spend years of my life working on something which has essentially already been done. With that in mind I am seeking programs more focused on design rather than just giving you a MS in Computer Science with a gaming slant. This eliminates some of the more famous programs like Digipen and Guildhall, which mostly just level up programmers C++ skill. I am placing my current list here for my own review and the use of anyone on a similar quest.

Savannah College of Art and Design - Interactive Design and Gave Development (Link)
Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy - Offers several different tracks based on desired focus. (Link)
USC - Master of Fine Arts in Interactive Media (Link)
Flashpoint Academy - I don't know much yet, they are getting back to me (Link)

I know this was a weak post, I will try and get something more thoughtful for tomorrow.

Here is no why (Part 1)

2008-02-10T22:18:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get a good rant going on character development in games going all day, but things are just not working out. Part of the problem lies in the different role a consumer plays in experiencing a game rather than traditional character driven media. This is just an a bit of my notes from today that should be the first in a series of smaller thoughts on characters in games.

One of the key elements of any worthwhile story is character development. In some form or another every story will have a protagonist and the growth they experience during the course of the narrative forms the value in the story. I may be showing my ignorance of plot construction here, but it seems to me this is the case for most traditional media. If a book or a movie leaves the consumer with a feeling of “going nowhere” at the end they will be dissatisfied. (Watch Marie Antoinette and you will understand.) On the other hand, most gamers do not expect character growth within games and so would not be disappointed by a game where the main characters are essentially static. What I am interested in is why we have these differing expectations and if they should be changed.

One issue games run into is simple general lack of character. Gordon Freeman has been through at lot, I have personally seen him fight through research labs overrun with monsters, alien home world and a dystopia, but no matter what challenge thrown at him he remains silent. Even as Alyx reaches out to him with obvious affection he does not respond. This total lack of character would be fatal in any other setting but in the context of Half-Life it is considered a brilliant design decision. By removing all character from Gordon we are allowed to fill his place, investing ourselves within the world. So perhaps one of the reasons we see such weak main characters in games is because they distract from the player immersion in the game world. As you might surmise from my little illustration above, I feel there are some issues with this approach.

This isn't enough to convince me we should expect as little as we do from gaming narratives. Next time I will look at some games with strong main characters that were still capable of immersing me.

Hello, I love you

2008-02-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

I generally hate reading really long posts, so I am going to try and keep mine shorter from now on.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about sex in games from all sides of the war. I won’t recount these events as you are probably familiar with the “report” on Fox News and the backlash which is still running through the tubes. Now I have to admit I have not played Mass Effect myself, but I have seen the scene around online and it goes no further than your standard PG-13 side boob type love scene found in almost every movie. And that is exactly the problem. It is almost a challenge to find a movie without at least some sexual undertones, but the second there is any mention of sex within a game the whole world explodes. This is not only keeping the adult market from making some amazing Wii porn games, but also holding back the development of games about human interaction.

As I mentioned last time, the actions a player is allowed to perform in modern games are limited to shooting, climbing on boxes and other such physical, violent actions. Obviously there are some exceptions, but we still have games about things and not about people. While this may be due in large part to the people making games (nerdy young men mostly) and technical limitations (see my last post), I think our societies attitudes also play a large role. Unless a game developer pushes violence to the point where it is gross (I am looking at you Manhunt 2), they can get away with pretty much anything. This is because we as a society seem ok with violence in media. As seen by the lack of upset over No More Heroes in the US, it is OK to slice hundreds of people half, spewing blood everywhere. Just, please, don’t sleep with the love interest you have been courting for a good part of the game.

This means that as long as games are limited to the traditional violent actions they will not be shunned by retailers and the mass media, making it safer to continue on our current path of basically non-stop “action movie” games. The problem is that people don’t just kill one another, but we do fall in love and we do have sex. In fact I would think we do a lot more rolling in the hay than mass murdering. I am not saying that humans spend all their time either copulating or killing, but try and find me a sitcom where there isn’t a sex episode. We aren’t going to get people games, our dramas and our chick flicks, until we can at least talk about sex in a game. First, though, I think the industry will have to prove it can portray women in a mature manner, but that is a topic for another time.

In your sad machines, you’ll forever stay

2008-02-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

I will frequently refer to Chris Crawford on this blog, so it is probably important I explain that before things go too far. A few years ago it occurred to me that most of the games I loved as a child were essentially books which you had to work to get to the next page. I fell in love with these games because of the well defined worlds and characters, the humor or wit of the writing, and the thrill of unlocking something new. Even after I knew all the answers I could still replay them over and over simply because I enjoyed being in the worlds depicted so much. I suppose examples would be good here, so I am talking specifically about 1990’s LucasArts adventure games as well as Gabriel Knight, Quest for Glory, and Thief (Only the story of Thief is linear, and it hurts me even imply it may be lacking somehow). Other games which I have noted others having similar experiences with are FF7 and Chrono Trigger. Games with higher levels of interactivity, such as Morrowind and (I had said GTA here but I just can’t bring myself to do it, explaining why will be the subject of a post soon.) I have found I never complete. Left unscripted, current games can only allow for a very small range of actions. Most of these involve killing things in various ways. More interesting interactions requires following a script as we cannot fully simulate things like character conflict without over simplification. The more involved the story, the characters, and setting, the more linear the game becomes until you reach a slide show with some rest stops in puzzle land.

Just as a note, here I am talking about interactivity related to the actual narrative. Creating deep levels of interactivity in gameplay and throwing in awesome cutscenes between levels which have no direct relation to the actions of the player does not count as having interactive narrative.

Now I have not gotten around to Mr. Crawford yet, but I wanted to lead up to how I came about reading some of his books. After this revelation about the linear nature of games I began to wonder about a game which held a truly interactive narrative, one where the player was inserted in as a character in what was essentially a virtual world. This, it seemed to me, should be the ultimate goal of gaming and I felt I had been very clever in figuring this out. Then I began to look around online for any research on such an interactive world and came across the idea of interactive storytelling. As anyone who has read a few articles on the subject knows, Chris Crawford comes up a lot. It seems my great idea had already occurred to him, somewhere around the time I was learning the letters of the Alphabet. I refer you now to Wikipedia for an overview of what he has done and some links to current projects. (Link)

He essentially looked at gaming in the late 80’s and predicted the industry would end up where it pretty much has, in an endless stream of games providing the same basic forms of interaction. I recommend reading over what he has to say to anyone interested in game design as he has been thinking about questions the general industry is just beginning to ask for over a decade. The problem, though, is there are few solid answers to these questions. As he has noted, games today are about things, and stories are about people. For us to create interactive stories we don’t need complex physics engines but personality engines. What holds us back here became apparent to me a few weeks into my first A.I. class in college; even our most complex A.I. systems today are really just nested if/else conditions. There are tricks to make the conditions more nature, the product of heuristics or multiple values, but this just makes a binary conditional seem less so to the user, it paints the tunnel on the rock on the train tracks, but a painting has no depth. The other challenge facing interactive storytelling is the lack of natural language parsers. Until we can speak to the characters and they can understand us, there cannot be a truly interactive story, at least in my opinion. People have been trying for sure, the best example I have found is Façade.

I think in the short term we must look to something between the raw action of Space Invaders and the golden dream of a true People Game. Portal proved to the industry that a game without proper guns and a focus on atmosphere could win the hearts of the gaming public. Now we need to move beyond the physical puzzles of Aperture Science start trying to create games about ideas and thought. I am liking my inside the girl’s mind game idea from yesterday right now, but if you want a older example, see Chris Crawford’s own game, Gossip. We have our violence machines, our physics machines; we need to create emotion machines, engines of ideas and feeling.

The Beginning of the Descent

2008-02-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

I frequently am overwhelmed by the possibilities of the world. In any one day, in any one place, there are so many things which could be done that I just end up doing nothing. Right here, I could be starting a blog about anything, writing anything, but I just don’t know what to do. What I have decided this will all be about is capturing ideas. Through every day I envision more exciting things than I have ever actually created in my life. Most of these images, ideas, and half-formed stories are soon forgotten. In most cases, this is probably a good thing, it would take quiet an ego to think all my idle musings were small nuggets of genius, but there are some that stay with me, some that have a slight power over me. I hope I will be able to capture some of these rogue dreams that plague me here in some concrete form for examination. First, I hope laying out my ideas for the perusal of others will help weed out the weaker ones and help me develop the stronger. Secondly, I simply need practice communicating my thoughts outside of my head. The power of the mind is such that in a few minutes I can see and experience things which would take years and thousands or millions of dollars to create for others. Even single images, single ideas I have, often seem impossible for me to show to others. This is something I have to overcome. Why? It is hard for me to say directly. There are a few products, creations, whatever you want to call them, which have had a great impact on me. These creations come to me uncalled for throughout the normal course of life and I am amazed at little bits of them. At some time I hope to explore more specifics here, but for the moment I provide you with this example because it is easy to embed in this post.

In every scene of that video I see a small little story, an image in someone’s mind and I just love it so much. I don’t even know what Yelena Yemchuk and Billy Corgan were thinking when they created each scene, other than a few shots of the band, but around each I have been able to create a whole world that captivates me. What I have decided to do is create something that has that gives someone else this feeling. Ultimately, this blog, and I hope my course of life, will be about reaching that goal.

So far I have not even mentioned games at all, but really this has all been about them and their impact on me. There are forms of other media which make me want to burst with awe, as evidenced by the video above, but by far games have entranced me the most. Well, to be more precise, the potential of games as a path to interactive works. Art has had the potential to be interactive forever. Elements of theatre are interactive; installation art can be interactive. These forms are all limited by physical constrains in time, energy, space, and basic Newtonian physics. An author or a painter is not limited by these things, but also creates a static work. The reader or viewer cannot interact with the work in any way but consumption. With the technology that powers games today we could create works in an environment with all the freedom of painting, but with the ability for the user to enter and explore the world created. There are many challenges, both technical and artistic, which must be overcome before we have fully established interactive digital art as a valid form of expression. Think back on the video above, specifically to the image of the girl kissing but looking away, where the camera pans out to show her limp hand hanging down. There is a story there, I do not know what, but if we could pan around them as they are frozen in time, zoom in so close we can enter into each characters thoughts, looking at a maze of connected ideas within their heads, perhaps we could discover why she feels as she does. What if initially their heads were filled with memories that did not form a full vision of how they came to that moment, and the player was to enter their thoughts, relive experiences, and draw the connections for themselves and the apathetic girl. Connecting the thoughts into one logical whole could be the game. What if the way the player interpreted the memories, and in turn made connections, changed the ending revelation the girl would have, thus creating their own take on the narrative with the narrative itself. What if this were some multi-user social networking system where users created memories and connections as a group, forming this girls life? Perhaps this last one as gone too far, but I hope by now I have at least shown there is something to be excited about here. This wasn’t meant to turn into an exploration of thought as a game mechanic, but it is just how I see things. Again, the possibilities of the world are overwhelming.