tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29026064180235845342024-03-05T00:33:28.720-07:00Edifice of Enterprise"Enterprise" as in the enterprise of game design. Honestly, I wanted to use the word "edifice" in the title and the most awesome alliteration accomplice I could find for it was "enterprise." In this blog I talk about making video games. It exists so that I can have a formal place to collect thoughts and document projects. I don't edit anything on here, so beware a deluge of writing errors.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-39503796634702319162013-09-17T08:20:00.000-07:002013-09-30T18:33:50.556-07:00This Blog is on the Brink of Death Thanks to the University and Hey Guys I am now on TwitterApparently college is hard. So I have had little time to work on game projects and even less time to write anything on this blog.<br />
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But here I am.<br />
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Here's a quick update kids. This blog will probably not see any activity for the foreseeable future. I would like to spend time writing about games, but at the current moment I need to focus on other things. I also have plans to eventually migrate to my own site where I have a better setup for displaying my ludography. So someday in a bad future this blog might actually be dead, lost forever to the ether that swallows up the deleted files of a server. However, I hope to make sure that day is, erm, postponed a bit.<br />
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Also, follow me on Twitter slaves. This statement assumes that people actually read this thing, but hey, I might catch someone through this appeal. I say some cool and some stupid things on there regularly and it's a good way to get a more immediate glimpse of the game development I am engaging in.<br />
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That is right here: <a href="https://twitter.com/JMRante">https://twitter.com/JMRante</a>JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-29285930509493761272013-07-23T10:38:00.002-07:002013-07-23T10:38:23.573-07:00How the Desire for Oneness in the Field of Game Design is MisguidedHere I want to present a quick thought born of my mind through the contemplation of this year's big budget story-driven titles (namely <i>Bioshock Infinite</i> and <i>The Last of Us</i>) and the effects I want my own story-driven project to exert on the industry. Much of the discussion surrounding the two games mentioned above involves players questioning whether or not the methods the games use pave a suitable path of progression forward or create an evolutionary dead end (such as what <i>Myst</i> and its contemporaries did). While some critics dismiss both games for only continuing the frustrating tradition of failing to integrate play and story, many have come to their defense because they feel that, in spite of the lack of ludo-narrative harmony, the games are able to convey an effective experience.<br />
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The universe is objectively defined, yet subjectively interpreted. This same relation can be applied to a video game. A video game's system is (generally) objectively defined, yet subjectively interpreted. I believe that the most important end result of a player engaging with a game is their own experience. It is the designer's job to create a clearly defined game that, when put through the many subjective lenses of their players, can still be generally interpreted to present the same engaging experience. Therefore, what truly matters in the end is not whether or not the game is designed according to proper tradition, theory, or protocol, but rather that a game is designed to deliver a good experience.<br />
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The beauty of the craft and its vast depth is that there exists a practical infinitude of ways to express human existence. <i>Super Mario 64</i>, <i>Knytt</i>, and <i>Morrowind</i> all, through different means, provide the player an experience of mystery and exploratory freedom. <i>Tetris</i>, <i>Flow</i>, and <i>Minecraft</i> all, through different means, provide the player an experience of spacial organization. <i>The Legend of Zelda</i>, <i>Final Fantasy</i>, and <i>Katamari Damacy</i> all, through different means, provide the player an experience of growth. Fundamentally different systems can provide the same message, though of course, with their own unique little subtleties.<br />
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Thus, in game design there truly are multiple ways to heaven, though each way has been given their own share of advantages and disadvantages. There is no One solution that once presented in the CITIZEN KANE OF VIDEO GAMES will then be implemented into all video games until eternity to fix the problem of presenting story, and more importantly, experience (in fact, story is a means to create experience). Such will be the case of the game systems I am currently creating for my own interactive fiction-ish project; they will only be one of many tools to bring about experiences.<br />
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I have no way with words; I know deep inside that which I wish to express yet with four paragraphs I feel I still have failed to express it clearly.<br />
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Perhaps I can say this; a game's FUNCTION is vastly more important than what a game IS, verb over noun, process over data.<br />
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<br />JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-85720997682694553392013-06-13T11:49:00.001-07:002013-06-13T11:49:51.539-07:00A Sloppy Overview for the Nature of the Solution to the Ludo-Narrative Problem that I Came Up With in the ShowerSince three exists as the perfect number, I have used it's dividing properties to segment the solution's overview into digestible parts:<br />
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<ol>
<li><b>Create a System to Govern Narrative </b></li>
<li><b>Blend the Narrative System and the Game System in a Meaningful Way</b></li>
<li><b>Define and Represent the Narrative System with Proper Writing and Audio-visuals</b></li>
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Each of these must come into being excellently and holistically in order for the problem to be solved in the game. Success in one area does not lead to a total solution. This means that a project would require the programmers, the designers, the writers, and the artists to all collaborate in contributing what they can to the whole. For most big studios, depending on how they are governed, this is probably a quite challenging route to take. It will probably take examples or archetypes of how this is done, provided by small developers, to give the bigger guys the template they need to all follow in order for big budget games to see leaps in solving the ludo-narrative problem. Or something, who knows.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-2313242611166720902013-06-03T12:06:00.001-07:002013-06-03T12:06:09.410-07:00Recovering from Severe Burnout, I Look Towards RevolutionI have spent the entire past month doing absolutely nothing. The previous semester of school and <i>Crawl </i>had simply killed me. Fair enough though, it is quite advantageous to intimately understand one's own limitations. So I can not regard the experience with regret.<br />
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It is time for some existential angst.<br />
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My priorities have shifted as a game developer. Originally, my intentions were more to use development not only as a art, but a vehicle for fame, wealth, and love. Such things as I imagine them are ultimately worthless, however. Furthermore, they do not come from just simply creating artwork. Rather, other factors usually play into the attainment of such desires. One must know the right people, play the economic systems in the right ways, interact with others using a right spirit, etc. Plenty of people have enjoyed my creations, and some have even been inspired by them, but this does not lead to what I wanted. For many years, I saw game development as a vehicle for my well-being.<br />
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I am an idiot for approaching it that way; my current well-being is far beyond even marginally comfortable standards.<br />
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Pursuing a life in game development (amongst other, less honorable factors) has left me without a job and a thriving social life. Essentially, in some sense, this road has led me to the exact opposite of what I wanted. I could quit right now and conform my life to the world's normal path to attain such things.<br />
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I can't. I love the craft too much.<br />
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My desire now, at least on the most important level, is to focus on others in the best way I can. Focus on others by way of creating games. For awhile, I suffered depression since I felt no one understood or respected this pursuit. I felt like a drug dealer addicted to his own product. In some sense that might be true. But the irrefutable truth is this; an excellent game can bring excellent joy to a person's life. For this purpose, to deliver joy, meaning, and awe to humanity, I create games. This is a noble cause to dedicate one's life to.<br />
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Okay, enough with the ridiculous existential musing; I am going to play around with some thoughts I have had regarding the project I discussed before releasing <i>Crawl</i>.<br />
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Basically, I want to get "story" right in video games. I have done plenty of reading on the subject and have seen many previous attempts. This does not qualify me to complete the job, but it has motivated me to take a risk in attempting it.<br />
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My focus is on allowing the player to explore the characters and world with plot as a sort of dynamic onward pacing of the forward motion of that exploration. I want conversations and meaningful actions/decisions. I do not want quick time events. I want dynamic, not scripted, interactions, and yet I want authorial intent. I do not want role-playing. I want a system generic and powerful enough to be applied well to any literary or game genre; the solution applies as well to a science fiction shooter as it does to a romantic comedy. I do not want a nearly impenetrable ruleset that removes all meaning from decisions for a casual participant.<br />
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I am going to write the first prototype in Java using a text based interface. This will not be the final form of the story engine; it is simply a temporary interface to start playing around with the logic systems I have in mind. It will involve two characters, one assigned to the player, the other assigned to the game, and will pit them in a conversation. My current metric of success is surprise. If I myself, the creator, can be continually surprised by what lies within the probability space of the game rules, I will be satisfied with the depth. From there I will implement more characters, events, plotting, etc.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-3650959643071583972013-05-11T17:22:00.004-07:002013-05-11T17:22:59.636-07:00Introducing (And Releasing) "Crawl"; a First Person Adventure/Action RPG<i>Crawl</i> has occupied most of my development time for the entire past semester. It started as a basic project for a game design course, but I decided that the idea had enough potential to fully flesh it out. Whether or not that potential was indeed realized can be brought into question.<br />
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Each time I release a game I always say I am done with Game Maker, and this time, I am super duper serious about it. Really. I will be going out with a bang with this engine, pushing it to its limits in <i>Crawl</i> with complex three-dimensional environments and timing based battle systems. <br />
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Though I do have a lot to say about the development of this game, I do not currently have the will to say it; this project, amongst other circumstances, has sucked the life out of me and I would rather not dwell on the experience of its creation for while. Maybe someday in the distant future I will be able to force myself to manifest some sort of postmortem.<br />
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<i>Crawl </i>competes with <i>The Pac-Man </i>in scale. It contains 32 large, unique stages, has something like two dozen enemy types, boasts nine "verb" powers, and has a narrated (though awful) script. There quite a few secrets in there as well. The game itself is a first person adventure-action RPG game, if I had to describe it in classical terms. As the title foreshadows, the game takes inspiration from retro dungeon crawling games. However, though it shares the tile-based movement and perspective, <i>Crawl</i> is very much its own game. The final design might have turned out a bit too simplistic, since I tried to cut much of the crap that comes with the RPG genre.<br />
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My hope is that at least some people out there will be able to extract some enjoyment out of this. Going forward as a developer, I have a few options in front of me, all of which are looking pretty neat. First, I ordered an Oculus Rift devkit. It might be a while until it arrives, but I have always been super fascinated with virtual reality and I have plenty of ideas of what to do with it. Second, I am going to (for the fourth or fifth time) try to teach myself Blender and hop over on to Unity as my new engine of choice. Having learned much about 3D design from creating <i>Crawl</i>, I feel that I am now ready. Third, there might be a chance I get involved in a mod project of some sorts. I will see about that one. I chose not to take up an internship this summer break because I am a terrible, lazy person and I feel that I do not yet have the software engineering experience to get one. Hopefully these other projects will suffice to keep me from sliding down the slope of sloth.<br />
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By the way, here is the horribly recorded and cut trailer for <i>Crawl</i>:<br />
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<i>Crawl</i> Trailer: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVmBFCPL2M">WATCH CRAWL TRAILER!</a><br />
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Oh, and of course, the link that allows one to download the game.<br />
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<i>Crawl</i> Download: <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/games/crawl/downloads/crawl">DOWNLOAD CRAWL!</a>JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-73117992766791304452013-03-26T22:10:00.001-07:002013-03-26T22:10:35.821-07:00What is this? An update? An update that involves a new game?I believe I underestimated undergraduate work. When was the last time I even posted something on this blog? I could check, but I really don't have the time. This will be brief.<br />
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I made a new game. It is called <i>JBan</i>. This time, I used Java. It is <i>Sokoban</i> with a cool color scheme and an included level editor. Nothing horribly special; this is simply a school project I needed to finish in a time span of three days. For my first video game programmed in a real language, it is okay; it certainly works.<br />
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Get it here: <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/games/jban/downloads">http://www.indiedb.com/games/jban/downloads</a><br />
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Someday, perhaps when summer manifests, I will further elaborate on the far reaches I have been drenched in for the past several months game stuff wise. Things look bright; the last project I was talking about is on hold, but not dead, and in about a month from now something else pretty big will be released on this site.<br />
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Prepare.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-5597706850586732872012-11-03T11:33:00.001-07:002012-11-03T11:33:34.530-07:00What I Am Doing Is Not New In Theory; But In Practice, It Makes All The Difference In The World"Theory" is the wrong word to use, but I think it approaches the idea I am trying to convey. I am not proposing any radically different systems as part of my method of implementing character and narrative into a game. Instead, my intentions are to simply change the way designers think about the problem and how far they go to deal with it. Based upon my current thoughts regarding my solution to this, I see that I am taking an element that is rarely thought through and complicated, and extending it into something far more meaningful and sophisticated. I have already mentioned that there are games that do make considerable progress in portraying characters tied into the game itself, and even some of those games allow their pieces to change (though not by the characters development, but rather the player's whim of "free will").<br />
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I like to think of what I am developing as analogous to "RPG Elements." What does it mean when it is said that a game has RPG elements? It is a fairly new term and it says that a game uses a complex, dynamically changing and growing statistical/computational number system to determine the outcomes of certain moves. For the layperson, it means that the player levels up with experience and when they shoot things numbers come out of them. But in all honesty, RPG elements in this spirit have in many ways always existed in games. <i>The Legend of Zelda</i> does not count numbers or give the player experience points, but the code still defines enemies as having a certain amount of health, Link's sword as doing a certain amount of damage, and heart containers giving Link more and more power. <i>The Legend of Zelda</i> is has basic RPG elements and does not even know it. The same realizations can be had when observing the code of many shooters and action games.<br />
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Just as "RPG elements" can bring out a certain depth in a game's mechanics, what I would think of as "Character elements" can bring out a certain depth in a game's narrative. In that sense, what I propose is not new; it is an extrapolation of what already exists in the most simplest form. Because of this nature, it can be applied to pretty much any game imaginable. I believe that this quality makes this development far more useful and revolutionary than what would simply be a simulation engine for story-telling.<br />
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Hopefully I can develop better rhetorical devices to describe the ideas I am reaching at.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-12990161680359310852012-10-28T20:30:00.001-07:002012-10-28T20:30:26.572-07:00How to Write the Protagonist or Protagonists of a Narrative Focused Video GameDoes the player interact with an narrative heavy game by controlling the protagonist? Games in the past have had many different approaches to the idea of protagonist. In some, the player directly controls one character. In others, such as RTS games, the player commands larger groups of characters to accomplish different tasks. Role-Playing Games will often task the player with managing a small party of heroes. And in some games, the player doesn't control characters at all; tycoon games usually have a player manipulating a corporation that then interfaces with AI people. For a game with a focus on narrative and character, which method proves itself to be best?<div>
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The question goes even deeper than simply asking who the protagonist is; it makes the designer have to decide how much control is handed over to the player and of what kind. Does the player simply write the story, controlling the decisions and actions of all the characters, or do they only act as one causal agent? And if the player has reign over the main protagonist, how much room does that provide the designer to define the character at all? Does the designer create a doll house or a novel? Would creating a sandbox for role-playing truly create the best experience?</div>
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I have my doubts.</div>
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Frankly put, outside of total simulation I do not find the idea of handing over the entire character to the player appealing for narrative purposes. The best example of this happening in video games can be seen in western role-playing games. For instance, at the beginning of an Elder Scrolls game the player creates an entire character from scratch which is then dropped into the role of hero. While it <i>works </i>(even though most people went through Skyrim guiding one of the most contradictory characters one could possibly imagine, it was not so much an issue that it detracted from the overall experience), I would say that it fails to create the proper amount of drama and narrative magic to really be seen as a reasonable approach unless the player is of the minority who sticks to a strict regime of role-playing consistency. The writer will always be better than the player when it comes to creating characters that fit appropriately in the fiction.</div>
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So, if the writer holds the power to creating the protagonist, is the player left to having no agency and being filtered through a linear plot that takes little advantage of the properties games have to offer? Of course not!</div>
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This is a problem I want to solve. Does the player determine the decisions of the protagonist, or does the personality of the protagonist determine those decisions? Which answer conveys more <i>character</i>? A player given the goal of obtaining victory and optimizing their path towards such will not make dramatic decisions in these situations, especially since they are so disconnected from the emotion of the fictional situation. A character's personality will lead to that character making particular decisions that in turn affect the game. </div>
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Essentially, my answer is that the player does not enjoy themselves playing the the part of the character, but rather the character and the game are two separate entities, both dynamic and prone to change, and in constant influential relation to each other. Some titles have already started to explore this idea, but it needs to be developed further and stripped of the violence of current games.</div>
JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-73433825626172327762012-10-22T06:46:00.001-07:002012-10-22T06:46:15.852-07:00And Now Back to More Important Things: Why I Have Chosen the Web Browser As My Next PlatformI am not particularly fond of browser games. Granted, I spent a lot of time playing them in my youth, but as I grew older the less seriously I took them. There was just something about downloading an executable file; a game located directly on the hard-drive seemed to offer so many more possibilities than a web game. They looked better, they were less bug prone, and they allowed for modification. Today, though, it seems as if many of these shortcomings have largely been overcome in the browser game space.<br />
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The ways in which browser games are developed are many and varied. Flash, Unity, Java, HTML5, Javascript, and other tools all provide their own advantages and contribute to the variety of web games. For all of my previous projects I have used Game Maker as my primary development environment, a program that creates stand-alone executable files that must be downloaded. While it has served me well, I feel as if it limits the potential audience I could reach. Finding a link to a download, waiting for megabits to travel across a pipe, placing the .zip file somewhere on the hard-drive, and then extracting the game files presents quite a barrier. Anyone can open a web browser and direct themselves to a website, and with the Internet becoming increasingly faster, this process delivers no pain.<br />
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Though I am not completely acquainted with the bounds of the technology yet, I also suspect that browser games are far easier to create as cross-platform. In the two times I competed in Ludum Dare, I often found players vehemently upset that they could not play my games on a non-Windows computer. Surely this is a valid complaint, and one that, when addressed, would benefit all parties involved.<br />
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Not only does using the web as my platform allow me to access a far larger audience, but it also pushes me out of my developer comfort zone. I cannot create games using Game Maker forever, and browser application development seems like a reasonable path to pursue.<br />
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There are other interesting possibilities in regards to making a browser game, but I will need to give them more thought before fleshing them out in text.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-43033348444576878582012-10-20T17:33:00.001-07:002012-10-20T17:33:36.684-07:00That Day Has Come: The Pac-Man Has Been Released!I decided over the weekend to pull this behemoth out of limbo and share it with the public. My consciousness can now rest.<br />
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All this and more awaits. <i>The Pac-Man</i> indulges itself as a tribute to both the original game and the variations of it made throughout the years. With 70+ unique stages across ten different worlds, <i>The Pac-Man</i> provides a challenging arcade-adventure experience filled with contrived and uncontrived surprises around every corner. With a new system for how ghost AI operates and a large amount of interesting game elements, this is Pac-Man unlike ever before: it is <i>The Pac-Man</i>.<br />
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Download the game now at the IndieDB page: <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-pac-man">The Pac-Man On IndieDB</a>JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-22376751055418148712012-10-16T12:36:00.002-07:002012-10-16T12:36:24.414-07:00Interesting Parallels Between Characters and EnvironmentsI have been taking rather extensive notes on my current thoughts regarding the project I have embarked on completing, but there is one idea that seems to stick out in poignancy that would like to write about here. That idea is the comparison between characters and environments.<br />
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Most video games today are extremely environment-centric. The game's content is broken up into spaces called "levels," or the game takes place in one large, cohesive space which is called an "open world." Game development teams have level designers and environmental artists; the level designer plays a major role in determining how the player interacts with the game while the environmental artist plays a major role in how the game reveals itself to the player. For pretty much any game of any genre (platformers, RPGs, point-and-click adventure, racing, first person shooter, real time strategy) the most essential mechanism of control and interaction intends to move the player through 2D or 3D spaces. This mechanism is so universal that controllers are built around it; analog sticks, d-pads, and arrow keys are all abstracted controls that are designed specifically to maneuver an object in geometric space. Players explore and interact with the environment.<br />
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I decided early on to not focus on a player interacting with a plot; it felt to aimless and if it were made to not be so the results would be odd and definitely not what I am currently looking for (though perhaps interesting to use in a game or two that justifies the idea). Rather, my attempts at subversion focus on characters; as Chris Crawford talked about games simply being about things, and if they wanted to evolve further emotional and narrative depth they would have to be about people. But what is to be done with characters? They are simplifications of people; all the meat and none of the fat. Looking at how games have handled characters in the past, chess plays the role archetype. In chess, there exist several unique types of pieces each with their own attributes. Each could be labeled by letter, number, color, or symbol and the player would have just as fine a time enjoying the possibilities to be found in the rule set. But instead, the traditions labels each piece with a character. The piece which takes the smallest steps, is most abundant, and whose loss is not to be cried over is given the character of the pawn. The most important piece on the board, that which if killed ends the game, and yet is not very powerful in its own right, is given the character of the king. And that most powerful and influential piece, second in importance to the king, is given the character of the queen. And so on. Good usage of characters in games shows a connection between characteristics and function.<br />
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But is this going far enough? Compelling, rounded characters are not static entities. They change and they grow. If a game connects character and function, and yet character changes, must not function change as well in proportional fashion? Maybe I am getting at something; maybe I am not.<br />
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If a game is to focus specifically on characters, what would it look like? Well, there are many games that seem to focus specifically on environments and I have already explained what that looks like. Players explore and interact with the environment as their primary action; I shudder to think how much time I have wasted in my lifetime commanding my avatar to walk forward and to watch them march on and on as the artificial hours of game time pass away. What if a player were to explore and interact with the <i>characters</i> as their primary action? What would that game look like? Would not that be a true "social" game?<br />
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How do humans explore environments? They use their limbs, in cooperation with physic laws, to maneuver through it. Is this the same way environments are explored in games? Of course not; homes are not filled with VR gerbil balls and full-body touch sensation suits or neuro-communicative computers; they are filled with game-pads, keyboards, and mice. The technology to build the <i>simulation</i> is either unreasonable for the average man to own or completely non-existent. Instead, technology allows for the creation of not simulation, but rather <i>abstraction</i>. When controlling a character in a video game, one experiences an abstraction of exploring a space. Developers have become extremely good at creating these abstractions and making them interesting to interact with.<br />
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The majority of work done in an attempt at improving the connection between game and narrative via interaction falls under its own weight; it has all favored simulation over abstraction. Of course though, simulation is far closer to actual human experience and thus is far easier to visualize. What about a game that allowed the player to explore and interact with characters through some sort of abstract mechanics?<br />
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To bring this idea into fruition; that is my goal.<br />
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(And dialogue wheels/trees are not the form of abstraction I am looking for).JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-69904996537033449592012-10-10T00:23:00.000-07:002012-10-10T00:23:03.952-07:00It Is Time To Get Serious And EmbarkDespite that I feel as if I am twelve years old still, I am an adult. At least, the law says so. In my youth I meandered about the immaterial possibilities of the future and now that I have arrived with the freedom, knowledge, and opportunities I had hoped for, it is time to start the process of manifesting those immaterial possibilities in the realm of physicality. This process starts tonight as I write this first post chronicling what will only be a very long trip. By the end I do not know what I will find, but that excites me.<br />
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There are too many unknowns to provide a comprehensive image of what I am talking about, but let me lay out the basics; I am going to make a game. Yes, this whole entire blog exists for me to write about my experiences in game development, so this might not seem to warrant such unique treatment. Here I will deliver an explanation. There are two forces that are driving the creation of what I am going to make. The first force is of the professional nature and roots itself in my desire to find a stable place in my career. It is quite clear to me already that attending college will not be enough on its own to truly provide me with the edge I am looking for, though it is certainly a great resource. I need experience and more importantly I need to prove that I am courageous and competent enough to do something of significance out of my own agency. This leads into the second force, which is of a personal nature. I am bored out of my mind and I have a great interest in seeing what I am capable of after spending my entire life watching mankind accomplish the incredible. Am I among them? Of course to some degree I am, but to what degree? The task I am about to go about completing will also bring a ton of improvement to me as an intellectual. The quality of the writing on this blog is a fine testament to how far I have to go. The final aspect of this personal driving force is, as if this blog post was not already under the pretension of angst already, existential. Why do I desire to be a game developer and is dedicating my life to the creation of mere games virtuous? I cannot explain my passion to others and they cannot understand it. I have already eliminated the guilt associated with being able to spend my time and energies creating games by simply dismissing it as fate, with which I feel I must fully appreciate out of humility.<br />
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I have developed four whole games, two of which are complete garbage, one of which is fun but brief, and an unreleased one which is the best thing I have worked on despite its usage of properties and ideas that are clearly not my own. Add onto this two dozen game modifications, a dozen stages created for a commercial indie game, and hundreds of scraped projects and ideas. This work comprises my current legacy, spanning the twelve years of my youth during which I taught myself the basics of game development. Well, I have arrived; I now know the basics. Congratulations to me, it is time to stop creating derivative genre games and to start work on a significant work. Cutting-edge work that has never been attempted before. I am only one man, but the craft is fresh and its frontier still primary uncharted.<br />
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The hour is late and my mind contains a soup of underdeveloped and unorganized conceptions in regards to this new project that I will need to have my dreams sort out, so I am going to reveal some of the other more solidified aspects of this, whatever it is. First, I expect this game to take at least four years to develop, but it will probably take more to maintain. Second, I am uncertain of how or if I am going to make a profit off of it. Third, I am going to make major usage of the influences from reading material on game development theory. Fourth, this game will be digital but of a new genre, one that is currently nonexistent as far as I am aware and has only loose similarities to what is already out there. Fifth, it will be family-friendly, comedic, and equally appealing to both sexes in content. Regardless of this, the intentions are not to water down the depth; this game will be as "casual" and as "hardcore" as a typical Nintendo game, by which I mean that it will find a balance between the two temperaments. Sixth, the Internet will be its platform. I personally have a distaste for browser-based game content, but I feel that if executed correctly it could really be brilliant. Also, this will greatly increase the potential audience size and allow for more accessible means for them to play. With so many games being created now by indies and hobbyist developers, no one has the time to download a .zip file or an .exe installer to get into a game. And finally, I am taking cues from the literature on interactive storytelling; I am not going to go as far as some others with the idea, but that might in fact be what works.<br />
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Hopefully that provides an idea of what this project is, for my horribly structured paragraphs have probably left behind a confused populace. I am recording the development of this project intimately; for its own sake and for the sake of it potentially turning into as a thesis topic. Of course posting everyday is unreasonable, so I will try to stick to a loose schedule of posting every five to seven days.<br />
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What is to come? I would sure like to know myself...<br />
<br />JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-13998500610514393562012-09-19T20:48:00.002-07:002012-09-19T20:48:49.673-07:00College (With the Help of Laziness) Has Prevented Me From Making Posts, But Here is My New Foray Into Disappointment Though, hey, let us be optimistic and say that this project will lead to absolutely no disappointment whatsoever! Anyways, I have been spending the past three days teaching myself how to do 3D in Game Maker and it has actually been a pretty awesome experience. This is what I have so far; generic Sokoban clone #528. But soon it should grow into something far more interesting than that...<br />
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I am going to try to collaborate with some of the other game developers at the university I am attending for this project. With what I am considering, it will probably need it!JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-48866754573095744302012-08-26T23:10:00.000-07:002012-08-26T23:10:09.120-07:00Richard Dawkins’ Magnificent Microcosm of Mechanically Mutational Evolution!This is the 4th game I have finished developing and the 3rd game I have released. Made for the Ludum Dare 24, it is a simpler take on <i>Tower of the Sorcerer</i> and <i>DROD RPG</i>. Here is an image of what it looks like:<br />
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More information and a download can be found on the Ludum Dare page: <a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=12095">http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=12095</a>JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-47293704115714684052012-08-21T17:57:00.001-07:002012-08-21T17:57:16.087-07:00The Pac-Man is Finished in a Very Particular Sense<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To prove this rather bold assertion, I have posted an image of the title screen. Now no more doubts can be held in the minds of the skeptical.<br />
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So what is it that I mean to say by "finished in a very particular sense"? Well, everything is done EXCEPT the soundtrack, which the musician I am working with is still in the process of developing. But besides that one missing element, the rest of the project rests in a state of unchanging completion. Overall, there had to some major cuts to the content, but with 73 unique stages in the final product I am quite happy with the final result. I think it is a good game, but I will still have to release it into the wild and receive the criticism of anonymous forces in order to have that feeling confirmed as some sort of reality.<br />
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This is the third video game I have finished development on, and it is the first one that was highly ambitious. The project took around four and a half months to complete. Along the way I have learned a great deal of lessons in development, and from here onward I now have a really solid foundation of understanding to work with.<br />
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Once the game is released (the date of which is to be determined, since it is difficult to gauge how long the soundtrack is going to take to complete) I will write a post-mortem that goes into the details of what I have learned and what I tried to do with this game.<br />
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Hopefully, though no promises can be made, this is the first and the last game I will make that utilizes an intellectual property that is not my own.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-59215239130228140502012-07-24T15:30:00.001-07:002012-07-24T15:30:13.244-07:00In Regards to Writing, Fewer Words are Usually More Elegant and AccessibleBut the writer needs to draw the line clearly between what they can safely assume the reader already knows and what ideas they still need supplied to them to fully comprehend the point being given. I often encounter writing that fails to draw this line in the proper location, either providing too much information or leaving out some vital concept. I am certain that this blog post itself fails to draw the line properly as well, as any hastily and not-so-hastily scrambled together prose of mine does.<br />
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Unfortunately, the problem of drawing the line has no perfect solution, since the audience consists of differing individuals who will require different lines (based either upon their actual knowledge or their initial attention to the piece). Is it then reasonable to find out the average amount of information known and unknown to the general audience, and then base the positioning of the line upon that?<br />
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Probably.<br />
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I imagine this concept applies pretty well to video game tutorials, if I need to bring this thought back around to the subject matter of this blog.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-78779424374632255172012-07-13T21:52:00.000-07:002012-07-13T21:52:03.240-07:00...Or Within 24 Hours: "The Pac-Man" Trailer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AwSB_dyuWNY/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AwSB_dyuWNY?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AwSB_dyuWNY?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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Some magic moving picture thing that should inform you as to what <i>The Pac-Man</i> really is...JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-76804235297591838732012-07-12T16:21:00.000-07:002012-07-12T16:21:19.074-07:00The Best World Map of All TimeNope, just kidding, this world map is actually just "okay". It does better suit the game than the previous one I had installed. As I have mentioned previously, I scraped the original world map for a multitude of reasons of questionable validity. After 6 hours of wading through my ugly, messy code I was finally able to augment the system into what it is today. Many tears were involved. Now I have this as a result; it's better than the previous map. Probably. No, definitely.<br />
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Maybe there will be a trailer within the next 1000 hours. I do not want to make any wild promises though...JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-1994632091792164052012-07-10T15:52:00.002-07:002012-07-10T15:52:47.073-07:00Fasting Does Bring Revelation!After taking a break from playing video games for a while, it hit me that the less time I spend playing games the more I actually like the thought of them. This is probably common sense. A good analogy would be substance abuse. Wait, no, that would be a horrible analogy. A good analogy would be that of a man who loves some food, say, Greek gyros, and decides that because he loves that food it is all he is ever going to eat. But quickly he will get sick of the food; the sensations it brings will no longer be a treat, but rather they will be ordinary. Such is with the case for the man who dedicates too much time to one particular hobby.<br />
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Moderation in many things is key, it seems. Again, this common sense is far easier in theory.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-1824111274032350942012-07-08T15:32:00.000-07:002012-07-08T15:32:30.100-07:00Sometimes Murdering Children Gets to Me...Humans suck at quite a few things. They can eat food okay, standing is not too much of an issue for them, and their defecation can come along quite naturally. But when asked to design and then simulate a complex game structure in their minds, they will usually forget a variable here and there. Complete visions of what a finished product might be are great, but they should not be indivisible wholes. The vision of what a game is going to be must be malleable so that new discoveries in science and play testing can inform and improve upon the original concept. Sometimes these improvements are minor; usually, though, they are complete conceptual refurbishments.<br />
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The current game I am developing has recently undergone this phase. The systems are magically transformed from theory into software and I get to see every wrong guess on my behalf in regards to how the game plays. For instance, I originally envisioned a rather straightforward narrative commenting on the philosophical notions of hedonism. After all, its a fan game about Pac-Man, one of many selfish video game protagonists; the dude eats up pills and fruit and that is about it. But once I started to actualize the game's AI, I began to realize that the relationship between Pac-Man and the ghosts was far more important and interesting than his relationship with a bunch of poorly sprited dots (hey guys, the joke is that it is impossible to poorly sprite dots; well, kind of).<br />
<br />And with that realization, I decided to change the plot. But ultimately, at least for this title, because it is after all just a stupid fan game, this is a rather minor change. It means I need to redo the opening and closing and perhaps make the writing a tad bit less insufferably self-serious (because one can not take fan games seriously and still expect to be accepted by society). However, I did have to decide to make one big cut to the game, and unfortunately, that cut is going to hurt because not only was the concept one of the reasons I decided to make the game in the first place, but all of the content I am throwing out probably took about 40 hours to create.<br />
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I murdered the world map. Its blood stains my casual outer wear. It does make me look a little bit suspicious. Maybe I shouldn't go outside for a while. Or better yet I could put on a fresh set of clothing. No, but really, it is dead. That glorious icon I was going to use to venerate the famous world map from <em>Super Mario World</em> has become just another victim of iconoclasm. Why did I kill it? Well, first, it become quickly apparent to me that the multi-path layout of Super Mario World worked because the levels were large and explorable. It is pretty difficult to place hidden exits in stages that operate on a non-scrolling screen. Any other substitutes I could come up with to finding hidden exits (such as doing a bunch of esoteric rituals or beating the stage under a certain time) were just missing the point.<br />
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Second, certain ideas I had in place for different level themes would be impossible to link together on the same map without the result looking absolutely forced. This kept me away from using some of my better ideas and instead had me feeling as if I would have to settle for some really generic level themes. Maybe an actually artist could do it; I cannot.<br />
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Finally, I had made too much space for secret levels that would be devoid of meaningful content, would waste the players time, and most importantly, would waste even more of my own development time. I am an indie developer making crap that is put on the Internet for free; replay value is not my first priority. Everything I want the player to experience is to be discovered in the main set of stages, from beginning to end. Beating the game will not simply be a, "Yeah, the horribly written story is complete and you've only played 45% of the game, but it's all cool, if you want to leave now you can do so without feeling bad," moment, but a, "Sup, you beat this game. Seriously, wow, that was crazy impressive. You must be dead or something after that." The game's development should really start to come to close; I do not want to notice that it is December and I still have to create ten extra stages before I can start to wrap things up. A game is done when a game is done; most of the advice speaks against releasing too early, but in my case, I could potentially face the troubles of releasing too late. Look at <em>Duke Nukem Forever</em>. I don't want to be that.<br />
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Cutting out the current world map is cutting out content, but that content is fat, and a leaner game is almost always better. The replacement will actually be using most of the same code actually; instead of a large, <em>Super Mario World</em>-esque world map I have opted into creating a level selection system akin to the map from the Game Boy Color version of <em>Super Mario Bros</em>. I just realized I need to desperately stop taking inspiration from the Mario series (it's just too good).<br />
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So yeah, I killed a few of my kids. Huh.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-74328461730423965852012-07-06T11:18:00.002-07:002012-07-12T16:15:04.117-07:00Apparently This Blog is Old and An Update on My Cute Fan GameI decided to look through the archives to have a good laugh at the meager amount of content I put out now compared to back in the past when I zealously made sure that I posted something everyday. But instead of entertaining my present self with my past self's naive dutifulness, I realize that this blog is over a year old. And I missed its birthday by like three months. Oh no, what will I do. Maybe I will do something special for the 100th post for this thing. But maybe not, because of the whole "no one actually reads this blog" thing. Either way, online comic tropes will be employed.<br />
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Anyways, remember that one game I was making? The one where out of sheer laziness to develop my own fiction I decided to steal the Pac-Man mythos from Namco instead? Yeah, that is still happening, funnily enough. I have just finished world 7 out of 10 and I am really liking where things are going. The game gets quite difficult in these later stages, but I feel that if I don't challenge the player I am wasting their time. The ironic thing is that I usually prefer to play easier games. Once I have the main set of levels designed and finished I'll make a trailer for the game to show the world what good fan games look like. Awwwwwwwwwwww yeah.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-37481512765570202452012-07-06T11:01:00.002-07:002012-07-06T11:01:16.706-07:00ShootMania is Pretty CoolWhenever I get an invitation into a private beta for some game I feel like the swellest dude in existence. All of sudden I feel as if this means I am some how important in the industry; as if I am being contracted to make games better with my betterness.<br />
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And then reason and logic return after a brief 30 second hiatus of fantasy and remind me that, "Oh yeah, I am just one dude of thousands invited to the beta because I put my email in some database. Huh."<br />
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I read on NeoGAF that the beta keys for <i>ShootMania</i> were being sent out and I vaguely remembered signing up to give it a try. I checked my email, found my key, wallowed in irrationality for a brief time span, and then downloaded Nadeo's latest.<br />
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<i>TrackMania</i> is one of the greatest things ever. To say it is just some racing game with a track editor is to miss the brilliance of <i>TrackMania</i>. It is a very pure experience and its design is almost of the quality of a good sport. The tracks themselves do not function like race tracks, but are rather intricate obstacle courses that test the player's understanding of technical driving. Each track then turns into a time trial, with up to over a hundred players on a server racing through a track in a set amount of time trying to get the highest placement. While it seems to me that most racing games like to focus on the vehicles, <i>TrackMania</i> stands out by focusing on the tracks (everyone races through a track using the same car; this is a very simple, but quite literally perfect balance). And ultimately, at least personally, tracks are far more interesting and worthy of emphasis. And then you add on to this the easy to use, intuitive track editor, the multitude of community features, the custom server features, the competitive scene, and the globally and locally ranked offline experience. I need to stop talking about <i>TrackMania</i> before this whole article becomes about how great it is. <br />
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But what if you had the same thing, but it was like <i>Call of Duty</i>. No, wait, I meant <i>Quake</i> and <i>Unreal Tournament</i>. You know, what if it had guns? What if it was <i>TrackMania</i>, but cool?<br />
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Well, then the result would be the inevitable <i>ShootMania</i>. Let me be clear though; saying that <i>ShootMania</i> is <i>TrackMania</i> with guns is doing it a massive disservice. <i>ShootMania</i>, like <i>TrackMania </i>before it, is important not because it whores the values of Web 2.0 (which it does, and gloriously), but rather because it takes a genre of game and tries to purify it. Especially with the onslaught of online shooters with leveling systems, customized weapons and abilities, and free-to-play money making machines of shame, the FPS genre could really use a detox.<br />
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In <i>ShootMania</i>, as in <i>Trackmania</i>, every player is on equal standing. There is only one default attack players have at their disposal and they all have only two health points. The orbs players shoot are slower than bullets and are designed to be dodged. There is neither ammo (ammo regenerates) nor health (death's only prevention is to avoid damage) on the field. While these two elements can go a long way in defining the flow of a map, the maps I played in <i>ShootMania</i> seemed to do fine without them. <i>ShootMania</i> very quickly becomes about strafing to defend and aiming to attack. I do wonder whether or not the bare FPS mechanics have as much depth to them as the bare racing game mechanics.<br />
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But considering that there is some added complexity in the way of game modes, this consideration is probably not all too important. There is the average death match ordeal, which is exactly what you might expect. Then there is some sort of attack and defend mode, which basically functions like KOTH with two hills, one for each team. I did not play too much of this variation, but what I did try was okay, though I really do not have enough experience to judge it properly. Then finally I tried a map where the game mode involved players rushing to activate a central pole, which created a bubble of death that slowly closed in on the map, forcing the players to tighten up their spacial relations to each other. The last man standing at the end was to be proclaimed the winner.<br />
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<i>ShootMania</i> is pretty cool. It reminds me of SRB2 in regards to how it handles combat. Which is a very, very good thing. Everyone seems to complain about the interface in Nadeo games, and while I do not think it is as bad as the hyperbole on the Internet claims, it could use some more clarity and polish. Unfortunately, the launch menu for ManiaPlanet, where one makes the choice between <i>TrackMania 2</i> or <i>ShootMania</i>, is incredibly unwieldy. I played around with the editor and it is as functional and easy to use as it has always been. Visually I question whether or not the <i>TrackMania </i>art style is suited for a shooter, but I understand the pursuit for consistency. <i>ShootMania</i> is a great idea, which I hope sells well enough to be iterated upon. The industry is stupidly desperate for some freshness in its most popular genre, and <i>ShootMania</i> definitely delivers some fresh.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-69597292508413057442012-06-15T14:40:00.000-07:002012-06-15T14:40:21.326-07:00Another Post Containing Almost No Content Except for an Image!I have been working away on <i>The Pac-Man </i>and it has been going extremely well. I have yet to encounter the major development plagues I have chronicled in angsty form on this blog, at least not in a project threatening form. The game is pretty huge, and I am a bit crazy for letting it continue, but I have come so far that there is really no turning back. It helps that the game design itself has proven to be fun, unique, and deep.<br />
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So with all that said, I would say that the arbitarily chosen value describing the completion of the game is something like 40 percent done.<br />
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I am not interested in typing up large blocks of text today so I'll end with a highly outdated screenshot of the game's world map, which is severely inspired by Super Mario World.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3yIMZOl8CU5hRBDjv-bafVydFw8AV3q9tYJIsSr1O3kYtw07Ph_ZaS1s0_P-GV4zTHgXHT7M0QtV73XKjZXTatmrg-2HnBUBg4cQ7E0h8_-qe-xHoYgnMX8YDhgs4bSeKnSLfxY0ZF7Ug/s1600/screenshot101.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3yIMZOl8CU5hRBDjv-bafVydFw8AV3q9tYJIsSr1O3kYtw07Ph_ZaS1s0_P-GV4zTHgXHT7M0QtV73XKjZXTatmrg-2HnBUBg4cQ7E0h8_-qe-xHoYgnMX8YDhgs4bSeKnSLfxY0ZF7Ug/s400/screenshot101.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-89397754025693314422012-05-16T14:11:00.003-07:002012-05-16T14:11:52.948-07:00Full Circuit v1.1 is Out! (And now far easier)<i>Full Circuit</i>, my Ludum Dare 23 entry, was a polished but incredibly difficult take on Sokoban that introduced some elements relating to circuitry. I have added a checkpoint system in the latest version, that, while maybe cheaply produced, makes the game significantly less frustrating.<br />
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Check out version 1.1 at <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/games/full-circuit">http://www.indiedb.com/games/full-circuit</a>.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902606418023584534.post-33488881019981601922012-05-07T20:46:00.001-07:002012-05-07T20:46:20.572-07:00A Crusade Against the ArbitraryI have reached the point in the development of my Pac-Man clone where all of the fundamental game play and meta stuff is implemented and working just swell. Basically, from here I expect that I can just create a huge load of content, implementing additional mechanics as needed, and then, once the game is "playable" from beginning to end, and all of the major issues have been ironed out, I can proceed to add a thin, shiny layer of polish. This is basically the approach I applied to my previous two games, minus the polishing stage, which was substituted with me trying to make sure the first pass on each element was, well, good enough. Such is the case in hyper accelerated game development processes. However, will this work for a large project such as <i>The Pac-Man</i>? I am interested to see.<br />
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A problem of entering into the content creation stage is the delicious temptation of creating "cheap" experiences. Or, experiences that provide no growth for the player, present no new ideas, are usually quite "grindy" in an attempt to artificially extend the life of the game, and contain no opportunities for the player to enter to mystical flow state. How are these created?<br />
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Creating levels for Pac-Man at first might seem like an incredibly easy job. The designer needs to draw a maze, of whatever shape, and then add in pellets, power pellets, ghosts, and Pac-Man. After this, the work is done; congratulations, you just created a Pac-Man fan game with over +200 levels. Put that on the back of the box (shoddy website).<br />
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Except, the experience will be terrible.<br />
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In the original Pac-Man arcade game the player had to play through the same maze over and over, to the point that the layout of that is burned into the minds of millions under the fever. Shouldn't a large variety of maze setups provide a better, more surprising experience? In a sense, there is an element of surprise and anticipation of the next maze, but when each maze is essentially the same in nature, except arbitrarily rearranged, these positive attributes quickly fall it despair and death. Haha, alteration is great.<br />
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The original Pac-Man maze is <i>designed</i>. It is the perfect size to allow for just enough space between Pac-Man and the ghosts for tension but not frustration. Regarding the ghosts themselves, their artificial intelligence is very carefully designed to take full advantage of that maze, with different sections showing off multiple types of enemy behavior. The symmetry of the maze adds a sense of order and duality, and the placement of the four power pellets makes absolutely certain that they can not be abused. As I mentioned earlier, it is very iconic for an entire generation of gamers, and rightfully so.<br />
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Anyways, I have been having to avoid the urges to just simply draw a bunch of randomly conjured mazes, decorate them a bit, and call it good. The option seems so easy to embrace, but it is also ultimately unsatisfying. With the different way that I am handling the enemy AI in this project as opposed to the original it is cloning, each stage can be designed around the wills of a variety of enemies. The goal is to maintain that balance between creating a challenging, engaging experience, but not a frustrating or dull one, which arbitrary level design seems to always lead to.<br />
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One last note on arbitrary level design more generally applied to other games. In the past two years, thanks to the success of the indie title <i>Minecraft</i>, it seems that developers have become far more willing and inspired to implement procedurally generated content. There are obviously games that handle this concept better than others, but I think there is a very clear difference in the quality of the experience had in a procedurally generated level design compared to a human crafted level design. Just contrast the experiences had in the dungeons of the <i>Zelda </i>series to those of any game that procedurally creates dungeon. Yes, it is <i>Zelda</i>, but <i>Zelda</i> does design better than almost anything else on the market, and the reputation of the franchise is a testament to that (regardless of fan's feelings on some of the more recent entries, the games still have that designed quality). Even games like <i>Skyrim</i>, whose dungeons are not random generated, but abundant and extremely similar, face this problem. Once the player has entered one dungeon in Skyrim, they have basically seen them all; the only differences are in layout, element arrangement, and story notes that are more often than not completely meaningless or ineffective at providing a constant stream of interesting content.<br />
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Since this post is at the breaking point of dissolving into a rant, I will stop here.JMStarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03669674401476199127noreply@blogger.com0